Rant #2,418: Everything Is Beautiful

No news to report on my family's coronavirus scare.

My wife has quarantined herself, my son and I don't have to, and we are still awaiting word.

It has gotten me to think about how workplaces are going to protect themselves from this scourge once we fully open up again.

I think we are going to have to take the track that professional sports have taken to clean up their own backyards of infestations of drugs and other substances.

Workplaces are going to have their employees take random coronavirus tests, unannounced, for a period of time. Doing this would circumvent any possibility of what happened in my wife's workplace, where one of her fellow co-workers used CDC guidance to return to work, although she might still be sick from having the virus.

If you are found sick from these tests, you go home, and stay home, for a certain period of time. And not until you feel better to return to work; not until you get a doctor's note or some other official document stating that you have recovered from the virus.

Period. No ifs, ands or buts. Allowing for those is permitting possible catastrophe. Look at my family's situation. My parents, both in their late 80s, live below us, and we have had contact with them. What happens if we test positive? It can be horrible for us, but it can be worse for them.

Happily, all of us--myself, my wife and my son, as well as my parents--feel fine, show no elements of the disease, and this gives us cause to think that we don't have the disease, but unlike his person who served as a Typhoid Mary for my wife's work, we will be sure when the doctor tells us that we are in the clear, and not a moment before/

Anyway, why harp on that when, as is customary during the last Friday of the month, se can safely and easily look back on where we were 50 years ago through the music that we so enjoy?

Let's forget about the coronavirus for a few minutes, and examine the top singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of May 30, 1970?

At the No. 10 sport is a former No. 1 single by the Beatles, "Let It Be." Not only was this another of their No. 1 hits on the American chart, but it was also the title of their controversial documentary film, showing the final days of the band and their famous rooftop concert.

At No. 9 was the biggest hit by a long-time band that changed their sound to fit what was hot in music at the time. "Vehicle" by the Ides of March was a complete change in tune by this band, which went from a garage sound to the jazz/rock vibe made popular by Blood, Sweat and Tears, and it paid off well.

Tyrone Davis' "Turn Back the Hands of Time" was at the No. 8 position. This was the biggest hit of the rhythm and blues singer's career, where he placed songs on the Hot 100 through the 1980s.

Joe Cocker and his "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" tour was about the hottest thing going back then, and his cover of the Box Tops' "The Letter" placed at the No. 7 song in the country 50 years ago. Cocker became something of a rock icon during this period, and was much later parodied by John Belushi on "Saturday Night Live."

Canada's the Poppy Family had the No. 6 song in the country this week 50 years ago with "Which Way You Goin' Billy?" The act was made up of then husband and wife Susan and Terry Jacks, the latter having his own solo smash with "Seasons in the Sun."

One of Creedence Clearwater Revival's biggest two-sided hits came in at No. 5 this week. "Up Around the Bend"/"Run Through the Jungle" continued the vibe for this West Coast act, making them popular on both the AM and FM bands.

Simon and Garfunkel continued to heat up the charts, this time with the No. 4 song in the country "Cecilia." More lighthearted than "Bridge Over Troubled Water," this tune is one of their great singalong songs.

The Moments, another long-standing rhythm and blues act, recorded their biggest hit with "Love On a Two-Way Street," which came in at No. 3 this week 50 years ago. This act spawned later hitmakers Ray, Goodman and Brown, who had hits into the 1980s.

At the No. 2 spot was the former No. 1 two-sided hit by Canada's Guess Who, "American Woman"/"No Sugar Tonight." The A side was a bit controversial, but still rose to the top spot on the Hot 100 before giving up that sport to the No. 1 song on this week's Hot 100 50 years ago--

"Everything is Beautiful" by Ray Stevens.

The perfect blend of religious pop, adult contemporary and "We Are the World" stylings, this Nashville-based singer, who put out some of the greatest novelty records of all time, also put out more serious fare, and this one was by far and away his biggest hit, staying at No. 1 for two weeks. He would go on to having many other novelty tune hits, but this song hit a chord with the record-buying public that still resonates to this day.

The highest debuting single of the week was another Motown bubblegum hit for the Jackson 5, "The Love You Save," which came into the chart at No. 45. The song, with another great hook as all the act's early records had, would eventually hit No. 1 in a few weeks, and even though it wasn't billed as a two-sided hit, its flip, "I Found That Girl," also received a large chunk of airplay.

The biggest moving single of the week, the 45 that moved up the most notches on the chart from the previous week to this week, was another Motown hit for the Temptations, "Ball of Confusion," which jumped 39 places, from No. 80 up to No. 41, in a single week. The song would reach No. 3 a few weeks later, and its actual title, which is never used, is "Ball of Confusion" (That's What the World Is Today)."

So there you have it, the top 10 singles this week 50 years ago in 1970s. Isn't it funny how some of those songs really resonate a half century later during this mess that we are going through?

"Everything is Beautiful ... in its own way ... ."

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