The AT40 Blog/December 15, 1973: When "Goodbye" was upset at the top by "Beautiful"

Elton John's newest single, released in the fall of 1973, was a sure-fire No. 1 hit. There was no doubt that the title song from his new album, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," was going to be his second chart-topper of the year, practically bookending the year after hitting the top in February with "Crocodile Rock."

When it debuted on the Hot 100 at No. 62 on October 27, 1973, there was no doubt he was off and flying. And one week later, the artist born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in Pinder, England on March 25, 1947 found immediate vacancy at the Top 40 Inn at No. 40 with that new song.

A week later to flex some chart muscle, "Goodbye" leaped 13 notches from No. 40 to No. 27, passing by a number of songs ahead of it on the climb the week before -- including a song that had jumped from No. 35 to No. 28 that same week, a new hit by a country artist who had debuted at No. 40 the week before John debuted at No. 40 with his new hit.

One week later, John's newest single -- a play on the famous yellow brick road from the 1939 movie The Wizard Of Oz, where in the end of John's two-verse song, the narrator wants to go back to a simpler time after realizing all the good things they got were at the expense of being treated like some pawn in the process, leaped up another 12 notches to No. 15.

Three weeks, No. 15 -- that's the telltale sign you are going to have a No. 1 hit.

One week later, the week of November 24, 1973, Thanksgiving weekend, when The Wizard Of Oz was a favorite movie shown that night on network television, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" stormed the Top 10 castle, leaping from No. 15 to No. 9.

Our "David" in this story was at No. 12 the same week, also moving up at a swift pace. More to come.

"Goodbye," which became John's third Top 10 hit in 1973 and fourth Top 40 hit overall, made another impressive climb the next week, from No. 9 to No. 3. After five weeks in the Top 40, it was looking like "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" was going to live up to the expectations as a No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. And as Karen and Richard Carpenter settled in for what was to be their second and last week at the top with "Top Of The Word," John was poised to hit the top the next week when his hit moved up another notch from No. 3 to No. 2 on December 8, 1973.

The crowning moment was inevitable when the rankings would come out the next week.

Except when the December 15, 1973 issue of Billboard came out, it showed one of the biggest upsets in Hot 100 history.

"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" was still lodged at the runners-up spot. And the Carpenters were no longer at No. 1, dropping to No. 3.

So who was the intruder that stole Elton Hercules John's thunder and lightning?

Turns out, a guy with the nickname "The Silver Fox" did him in at the end -- the "David" of our David & Goliath story.

A country star named Charlie Rich, who scored a pair of Top 40 pop hits in the 1960s with "Lonely Weekend" and "Mohair Sam," the latter a hit in 1965, had nailed down the No. 1 spot with his latest country crossover hit, "The Most Beautiful Girl," co-written by Billy Sherrill, Rory Michael Bourke and the man who originally recorded the song as "Hey Mister" in 1968, Norris "Norro" Wilson.

Rich, a Colt, Ark.-born singer with a baritone voice, had switched over to country music in 1967 when his pop career appeared to be fading. He had four country chart singles that missed the Top 40 before "Nice'n Easy" made it to No. 37 in 1970. "I Take It On Home" would be Rich's first Top 10 country hit, a No. 6 smash on that chart, in 1972.

Then came the song that broke Rich as a country music star, the legendary and sexy "Behind Closed Doors," one of country music's finest compositions. The Kenny O'Dell-penned tune hit No. 1 on the country chart the week of April 28, 1973, spending two weeks at the top. Epic Records green-lighted the song to be played on Top 40 pop radio and it proved to be a big hit there, peaking at No. 15 in the summer of '73.

That gave the record label the confidence to release "The Most Beautiful Girl," the next single from the "Behind Closed Doors" album simultaneously on the pop and country chart in the late summer of '73. It scorched up the country chart, hitting the top the week of November 24, 1973 and spending three weeks at No. 1 on that chart.

On the Hot 100, the song made significant moves before finally hitting the Top 40 on October 27, 1973, at No. 40 -- one week before "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" stormed the Top 40 at the same position. From its debut, "The Most Beautiful Girl" moved from No. 40 to No. 35 to No. 28 to No. 20 to No. 12 to No. 10 to No. 3 before leaping over Captain Fantastic himself to pull off a major chart upset.

It was the first No. 1 country crossover hit since Jeannie C. Riley hit the top of both pop and country charts with "Harper Valley P.T.A." in September 1968.

But it turns out that "The Most Beautiful Girl" had quite a bit of Goliath in it, too. It would spend two weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 before Jim Croce's posthumous release, "Time In A Bottle" jumped to No. 1. In Canada, the song had the same fate, hitting the top of the chart on both the pop and country charts. And in England, where music fans are diverse, the single was a smash hit, peaking at No. 2 in the spring of 1974. It also was a No. 2 hit in Ireland, No. 3 in the Netherlands and No. 5 in Denmark. And back in the U.S., it was also a No. 1 hit on the adult contemporary chart.

"The Most Beautiful Girl" was an international smash hit. And Rich would follow it up with seven more No. 1 country hits between 1974-78. He would have three more Top 40 crossover hits until 1975's "Everytime You Touch Me (I Get High)" that summer.

Then came the "infamous" night at the Country Music Awards ceremony on October 13, 1975 in front of a televised audience. Rich was to give out the biggest award of the night for "Entertainer Of The Year." Appearing intoxicated when he went up to give the honor, Rich saw the name of the winner, pulled out a ligher, lit the card on fire and announced the winner as "My dear friend, John Denver." The moment was considered a rebellious move against the biggest honor country music gave out to a "pop establishment" star who traipsed into country music.

Rich's career was never the same after that night. He continued to perform live and record albums and CDs right until his death on July 25, 1996, in his sleep from a pulmonary embolism in a Hammond, La. motel at the age of 63.

As for Elton John -- he did OK for himself, scoring at least one Top 40 hit between 1970-99, a consecutive streak of 30 years that will have a hard time ever being broken. It speaks of his staying power. He also scored No. 1 hits with "Bennie And The Jets," "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," "Philadelphia Freedom," "Island Girl," "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," "That's What Friends Are For" with Dionne & Friends, "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" with George Michael and "Candle In The Wind '97" in honor of the late Princess Diana.

Again, he would be OK.

Which speaks of what Charlie Rich and "The Most Beautiful Girl" did in stunning "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" on its "path" to the No. 1 spot, still a chart upset for the Hot 100 ages.

The AT40 Blog/December 17, 1983: America through John Cougar Mellencamp's eyes

One of the songs that has continued to be a hot bed of consternation for decades is John Cougar Mellencamp's Top 10 hit, "Pink Houses."

The roots of the song, though, had little to do with being political, according to Mellencamp.

Mellencamp was riding in a car in Indianapolis, heading home to Bloomington, Ind., from Indianapolis' airport. He stared out the car window on the overpass on I-65 and saw the inspiration -- an older African-American man sitting on the front porch of his small, pink house stroking his cat in his arms. Mellencamp said he waved at the man and the man waved back at him, all the while unassuming to the fact that this overpass was literally on his front yard!

Thus the genesis of "Pink Houses." What Mellencamp saw heading back from the airport is the basis of the first verse in which he describes what he sees and the older man "thinking he's got it so good." Then in the same verse, he sees a woman in the kitchen cleaning up the "evening slop." That black man turns to her and says he can remember when she could "stop a clock."

And thus began the chorus of contention among party lines alike for the next couple of generations: "Ain't that America, for you and me. Ain't that America, we're something to see, baby. Ain't that America, home of the free, yeah. Little pink houses for you and me."

The second verse of the song talks about a young man with "greasy hair, greasy smile" who believes he's found his "destination." Then he talks about when he was younger that older folks said "Boy, you're going to be president." But comes to the realization in the next line, "But just like everything else those ol' crazy dreams, just kinda came and went."

However, for as fine as Mellencamp was with the first two verses of "Pink Houses," he said he was never too thrilled with the third verse. In a 2014 interview he did with the Orlando Sentinel, Mellencamp said, "Now when I hear that song, all I can think is, 'Why didn't I do a better job on the third verse?' If I had written it today, the last verse would've had more meaning."

The verse goes: "Well there's people ... and more people. What do they know, know, know? Go to work in some high rise, and vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico. And there's winners, and there's losers. But that ain't no big deal. 'Cause the simple man, baby, pays the bills, the thrills, the pills that kill."

Whether he liked the last verse he crafted or not, Mellencamp's song about the dissolving of the American dream hit a chord with middle-class America. As the second release to his album "Uh-Huh," his first in which he was allowed to use his real last name after going by John Cougar on his first three albums, "Pink Houses" made its Hot 100 debut on December 10, 1983, at No. 45. The next week, "Pink Houses" jumped into the Top 40 at No. 32, the highest Top 40 debut of the week, and began its climb up the countdown. On January 21, 1984, "Pink Houses" leaped into the Top 20 from No. 22 to No. 13. Two weeks later, it was in the Top 10 at No. 10. The week of February 11, 1984, it jumped up from No. 10 to No. 8. That would be the last week of moving up the chart for "Pink Houses" would drop to No. 16 and eventually head off the countdown after 11 weeks.

During the summer of '84, Mellencamp was part of an MTV promotion of buying a house for a fan and his family to move into in Mellencamp's home state of Indiana. But according to Rolling Stone, there was one problem -- MTV purchased the house for $20,000 and it was immediately across the street from a toxic waste dump. Scrambling, MTV bought a new house for the promotion, painted it pink along with Mellencamp and other helpers like it intended with the first house and had the family who won the contest move in ... and that one was far away from the toxic waste site. The other house that was across the street from that site was still on the books for MTV until 1992 since the network couldn't get rid of it.

The promotion may have been a near disaster, and since its release, the song had its own misadventure. Like in other situations (most notably President Reagan's misinterpreting the meaning of Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The U.S.A."), "Pink Houses" was made into a patriotic song about this country, but was far from that in real life. And when politicians began to look to use the song for their campaigns, Mellencamp had to put his foot down. In 2008, Republican Presidential nominee John McCain used the song at his stops along his campaign. One problem, though -- Mellencamp is a proud progressive Democrat. His representatives contacted McCain's staffers and told them to stop using the song it. Then in another event, "Pink Houses" was used by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) at events opposing same-sex marriage. Again, being the progressive he is, Mellencamp asked his representatives to have NOM stop using the song and that they "find music from a source more in harmony with your views than Mr. Mellencamp in the future."

"Pink Houses" remains a lightning rod politically, specifically with those who disagree with Mellencamp over his views of Reagan's America in that time period. But there's no denying that "Pink Houses" is also one of Mellencamp's greatest songs and still a favorite when he does it in concert.

Like in many of Mellencamp's songs, he writes what he witnesses.

Even the black man with a black cat outside his pink house with "interstate running through his front yard."

The AT40 Blog/December 5, 1970: Beatles or not ... No Matter What

On the December 5, 1970 edition of American Top 40, Casey Kasem questioned the whereabouts of a British band with one of the hottest songs in America this particular week. He told his audience that they were investigating if the band was real or not.

After all, Casey had a point -- "No Matter What" was Badfinger's second Top 40 hit, their first being the Paul McCartney composition "Come And Get It." And even then, the song sounded an awful like the group's most famous Apple Records label mates, John, Paul, George and Ringo.

But no pictures were involved of this group called Badfinger. And when their latest single hit the Top 40, "No Matter What," all you saw of the single cover was a woman pointing out. She's not even doing it with the "bad finger."

Still, who were these guys from Liverpool? Was there a band called Badfinger, or was it coincidental that the guys in this band were never in the same room as the Fab Four? There was quite a bit of speculation over the identity of these guys.

Fact was, Badfinger was real.

The band formed in 1965 as The Iveys with Pete Ham on vocals, guitar and keyboards, David Jenkins on guitar and vocals, Ron Griffiths on bass guitar and vocals and Mike Gibbins on drums, percussion and vocals. With minimal success happening, Jenkins left the group an was replaced by Tom Evans in 1967.

Fate shined down on the band on a January night in 1968. With their manager, Bill Collins, securing them a gig at the famed Marquee Club in London, the band played in front of numerous fans and important people in music. It was there that Mal Evans, the Beatles' roadie and assistant, and Peter Asher of Peter & Gordon fame who was now the A&R head at newly formed Apple Records, went to see the band on invitation by Collins. Evans was so sold on the band being really big, he asked the band to submit demo tapes for each individual Beatle to listen to and give their approval or disapproval.

Turns out all four guys were more than satisfied with what they heard and on July 23, 1968, the Iveys were signed to Apple Records, the first act not named the Beatles to sign to the label. The band recorded "Maybe Tomorrow," which became a big smash in most European countries. But it only got to No. 67 in the U.S. and never charted in the UK. The band and Apple kept trying to push their way to success with little movement.

But McCartney was able to secure the band a song on the Peter Sellers-Ringo Starr movie The Magic Christian. It was "Come And Get It," and the song was going to be released -- but on one condition. The band had to agree to change their name from the Iveys to Badfinger, named after "Bad Finger Boogie," the original working title of the Lennon/McCartney song "With A Little Help From My Friends." The band agreed and on January 31, 1970, "Come And Get It" peaked at No. 4 in the UK, the band's breakthrough it. It was released in the U.S., where it peaked at No. 7 in April 1970.

By now, though, Griffiths had left the band to focus on his married life and being a new dad. In came Joey Molland to take over the duties as the band's guitarist. The band had recorded "Magic Christian Music," their debut album and now were back in the studios to do another album called "No Dice." The band spent over four months recording the album with producers Geoff Emerick and Evans. Most of the tracks on the album were written by either Ham or Evans, the latter having to switch from rhythm guitar to bass guitar with the addition of Molland.

Their first release from the album, which debuted in November, was "No Matter What," a driving piece of power pop with Ham on the lead vocals. The song hit the Top 40 the week of November 21, 1970, at No. 36. A week later, it moved up a very strong 12 notches to No. 24.

But nothing prepared the band or music fans for what happened next. The week of December 5, 1970, the song zoomed up 16 places from No. 24 to No. 8, giving them their second Top 10 hit. Strangely, though, it wasn't the biggest mover of the week -- the honor went to the Fifth Dimension's "One Last Bell To Answer," which started the week before at No. 25, one point behind Badfinger's song, and leaped 18 places to No. 7, one step ahead of Badfinger.

And yet, no one had seen a picture of Pete, Tom, Joey and Mike. The rumors began to fly that those four guys were secretly John, Paul, George and Ringo. And those conspiracy believers did have reason to believe that, too, since "No Matter What" also sounded like something the Fab Four did as Ham sounded quite a bit like McCartney.

Strangely, though, "No Matter What," which seemed to have "No. 1" written all over it after that 16-point climb, simply died at No. 8! After peaking there for two weeks at that position, the song dropped to No. 10 by the week of December 19, 1970 and spent two weeks in a row there before beginning to fall back the other way.

But the guys didn't suffer a bit by not going to No. 1 with their own hit. They had been asked to help George Harrison record his three-album epic "All Things Must Pass" in 1970, and the first release from that album, the double-sided "My Sweet Lord/Isn't It A Pity," featurng the acoustic guitar work of the band, went to No. 1 by Christmas week, the song debuting all the way up at No. 13 on December 5, 1970, and the smash that would keep "One Less Bell To Answer" at No. 2 and never reaching the top. They also played on the follow-up Top 10 hit song, "What Is Life?"

And in 1971, the band sang backing vocals on Ringo Starr's breakthrough Top 10 hit, "It Don't Come Easy" and played along in the sessions for John Lennon's album "Imagine," while helping out Harrison do the Bangladesh concert in August of that year.

Finally, the "mystery" of who these four guys were was solved when they released their third album in 1971, "Straight Up," and all four guys squeezed their way into the picture for the front cover.

They really did exist. But one thing that didn't exist was their money. Stan Polley, who signed on to manage the band on the American side of the Atlantic in late 1970, took $75,744 for his work with the band between late 1970 and Halloween 1971, the band took home together $24,370. Most of the American acts that were under Polley severed ties with him, but Badfinger, believe it or not, stayed. From "Straight Up," the band scored a pair of big hits: The Top 5 "Day After Day" and the Top 15 "Baby Blue."

In 1972, Polley, who was being looked at as a shady character with ties to the mafia, negotiated a deal with Warner Brothers Records for Badfinger, finally breaking free from the Beatles' umbrella of Apple Records, mainly because Apple was going belly-up by now. The deal  for Badfinger at Warner Brothers that the band was to release an album every six months for six albums up through 1975. For what he did to them in that time period between 1970-71, the band wanted to be paid up front.

So after the album "Ass" was finished and done in 1972 for Apple, the band began immediate work on their first album on Warner Brothers called "Badfinger." Chris Thomas produced the album and it was released in December 1973. It only hit No. 161 on the U.S. album chart, part of which was because the band was still in litigation with Apple Records over monies that were owed to them. The band and Thomas went back into the studio to record "Wish You Were Here" in April 1974. To most people, the album was a critical success.

But after seven weeks of release, the album was pulled out of record stores. Why? Because Polley had really messed this band up for good.

In early 1974, Polley had set up an escrow account from Warner Brothers' publishing arm for advanced funds for the band, depositing in $250,000. But part of the deal was for Polley to communicate what was going on with the account with both the band and with the record company and he never told either party where the account was available and Warner Publishing frowned upon it, even as they pressured Polley into details he never gave them. The band had not known that there were threats of litigation between the record company and their U.S. manager.

So the band began work on yet another album, the one that would be called "Head First." They worked hard and they worked fast to get it out. But by the time it was presented to Warner Brothers, they balked at it. The main reason they did so was because of the lawsuit they filed against Polley and the band, whose contracts were tied up tightly to what Polley was doing.

Suddenly, Badfinger was a band without an album to promote -- or a record company to help promote it. Molland left the band in December 1974 and for a short time, an angry Ham left the group, but was pressured into coming back because Warner Brothers wasn't promoting a Badfinger album or single without Ham there.

Without any money coming in, the group tried to figure out what to do with their careers, but because of the contract they signed with Polley and Warner Brothers, no one else could help them. On top of things, Ham had just bought a new house in Surrey and his girlfriend was expecting their first child.

Then rock bottom hit -- on April 23, 1975, Ham was informed on the phone that all the money that had been set up for the band in that escrow in the U.S. was now gone. Ham met Evans at the White Hart Pub in Surrey that night where Ham drank heavily, reportedly 10 whiskeys. Evans drove Ham home at 3 a.m. on the 24th of April and said his goodbye for the night.

By the morning, a grizzly sight had been found in the new home's garage as Ham had hung himself. Before his death, he left a suicide note: "(Girlfriend) Anne, I love you. (Her son) Blair, I love you. I will not be allowed to love and trust everybody. This is better. Pete. P.S. Stan Polley is a soulless bastard. I will take him with me." Ham was just three days short of his 28th birthday.

Badfinger was officially over. The band went its separate ways, and by 1977, both Evans and Molland were out of the music business. But late that year, the urge was there again and by early 1978, Badfinger was back. Molland and Evans were joined up by Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye and Badfinger took off again. A single, "Hold On," hit the Hot 100 and peaked at No. 56 in 1981.

But a rift once again evolved between Evans and Molland and both began to perform under "different" Badfingers, Evans recruiting two of his former mates in the band at the beginning, Gibbins and former guitarist Bob Jackson, while Molland formed his Badfinger with bass player-vocalist Larry Lee of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.

And old wounds seemed to open up in a major way on the night of November 18, 1983. Evans and Molland got into a heated argument over money Evans was receiving for the song "Without You," which he co-wrote with Ham in 1970 and had been a huge No. 1 hit in both the U.S. and U.K. for American singer Harry Nilsson in 1972. Molland claimed he, Gibbins and former manager Collins deserved a slice of that pie as well. Later that night, Evans -- still remembering the horrible times he had in the '70s with the lawsuits and the lack of money coming and still haunted by the sight of his pal and songwriting partner Ham hanging lifeless in his garage the morning after -- went out to his garden at his Richmond home and hung himself as well. He was 36.

Molland and Gibbins would connect to tour as Badfinger between 1984-89, but Gibbins gave it up for good and the band did as well in 1989. In 1990, fledgling Rhino Records released a "Best Of Badinger, Vol. 2," which featured songs from "Airwaves," their 1979 album and first without Ham, and "Head First," which was never allowed to see the light of day after the lawsuit filed by Warner Brothers.

Five years later in 1994 after Mariah Carey had a monster No. 2 smash with her rendition of "Without You," old wounds opened up again when at the ASCAP songwriting awards, it was Molland and Gibbins who collected the award for the song, angering the families of Ham and Evans, who co-wrote the song in the first place.

In 2000, the CD/album "Head First" was finally released, although it was in a rough mix put together in 1974 by Apple Records engineer Phil McDonald since Warner Brothers still refused to make the original master tapes available.

By 2013, the financial woes that haunted the band to two of its members committing suicide were finally taken care of. The main songwriter or writers received 32 percent of all the royalties for publishing and 25 percent of the royalties from ASCAP, which handled the Badfinger songs. The other band members -- living or passed on to their families handling the business -- along with former manager Collins, who died in 2002, shared the rest. Album royalties for the band were split 20 percent for each of the four members along with Collins.

But by 2013, the only living member of Badfinger's heyday was Molland, who now lives in Minnesota and whose most recent CD/album was his 2014 work "Return To Memphis." Gibbins passed away in his sleep from a brain aneurysm in his home in Oveido, Fla., on October 4, 2005, at the age of 56. As for the man who created the mess the band was in, Polley would pass away on July 20, 2009 at the age of 87.

And it was in 2013 that the band got its own spotlight when on the final episode of the the TV series Breaking Bad, it was Badfinger's 1972 No. 14 hit "Baby Blue" playing the show out.

In 1970, Badfinger was a curiosity. Did they really exist or was this the broken-up Beatles back together again secretly?
In the end, Badfinger was found to be its own entity -- and a lot of baggage to be sadly collected.