Rant #2,404: Love Theme From Romeo and Juliet is Bad Moon Rising as we Get Back but Too Busy Thinking About My Baby as the One

Good morning to those who are reading the blog in the morning, good afternoon to those reading this blog in the afternoon, and good evening to those who are reading this blog in the evening.

I want to cover all the bases and be inclusive today, because baseball comes to Merry Olde England this weekend, and I want to make sure that I get everybody acknowledged on both sides of the Atlantic.

Heck, the record shows that plenty of people in Europe read this blog, and I just want to make sure that they are counted.

Let's Go Yankees! The Red Sox are the home team in England this weekend, but my heart has always been with the team from the Bronx. And they are as hot as a pistol now, and hopefully, that situation will continue in England.

Anyway, this has little to do with what I am talking about today, but here is my segueway. Get ready--

Fifty years ago, back in 1969, who would have even thought that a Major League Baseball game would be played in Europe? Heck, we were mesmerized by the fact that in just a few weeks, man was going to set foot on the moon. That was enough to swallow way back when.

But what were we listening to on the radio back then, and I am talking about on the AM band, which was still a vital cog in our music listening 50 years ago.

Top 40 was stil hot, and what were the top songs that were shaping our lives 50 years ago, exactly half century ago, on June 28, 1969?

Let's take a peek. And I am going to be doing this differently this time around. I will count down the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart from 10 to 1, to make it even more interesting than it already is.

So, let's go--

Coming in at No. 10 for the week was the vocal version of "Grazing In the Grass" by the Friends of Distinction. Although this act was not as successful as its sister act the 5th Dimension, they did have numerous hits, and this might be the most remembered one of all of them.

At No. 9 was "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker and the Aces, the first ska record to hit the top 10 in America. It was such a different sounding record that it showed that even Top 40 could be a bellwether of new sounds.

Coming in at No. 8 was "Good Morning Starshine," another pop hit from the "Hair" Broadway show, that was warbled by Oliver. The show produced a number of hit singles done by popular artists, including those by the Cowsills and Three Dog Night.

Elvis Presley remained a vital artist in the late 1960s, and he had a slew of "message" songs that hit the tone of the time. One of his best was "In the Ghetto," which hit No. 7 this week.

Blood, Sweat and Tears was one of the hottest bands in the country 50 years ago, and "Spinning Wheel" was the sixth most popular song on the chart this week. Again, AM Top 40 was expanding its playlists back then, and this pop/rock/jazz outfit fit that bill perfectly.

Looking at the Top 5, the aforementioned Three Dog Night would begin their incredible run of hits with "One," which hit No. 5 this week. The song was written by one of the hottest songwriters of the day, Harry Nilsson.

Marvin Gaye had one of his many hits this week, with "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" coming in at No. 4. Gaye would soon go more conscious of himself and his environment with his music, so this song represented one of his last Motown hits that wasn't a "message" record.

What would a Top 40 chart in the 1960s be without the Beatles? Well, we did not get to know this week, as "Get Back" fell to No. 3 from its No. 1 perch of the week before.

Creedence Clearwater Revival brought "swamp rock" to the Top 40, and "Bad Moon Rising" was the second most popular song in the country this week. Even with all of their hits, the band would never have a No. 1 single on the Billboard charts.

And at No. 1 was ...

Henry Mancini with "Love Theme From Romeo and Juliet," which would occupy the top spot for two weeks. Franco Zefferelli's interpretation of Shakespeare's classic tragedy was one of the hottest movies of the time, stretching the story to then more modern sensibilities, including the use of nudity in the film, so this single and its accompanying LP were big sellers during this period.

The highest debuting record on the chart was a classic, Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline," which came in at No. 59. The song--written by Diamond, a New Yorker but somehow appropriated by the Red Sox nation as a battle song, as it is written about native daughter Caroline Kennedy--was one of Diamond's biggest hits, rising to No. 4 in a few weeks' time.

The biggest mover on the singles chart--the song that moved up the most places on the chart from one week to another--was another classic, "In the Year 2525" by one-hit wonder Zager and Evans. This tune would eventually top the chart for six weeks during the summer of 1969, and then the act was pretty much never heard from again, having just one "Bubbling Under" single afterward and that was it.

So there you have it, the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 from exactly 50 years ago.

Lots of great stuff on that chart, and I am sure that you probably remember each and every one of these tunes from way back when.

Speak to you again on Monday. Have a great weekend.

And "Cherri-O" as baseball comes to us from the "mother country" this weekend.