The Top 100 Hits of 1968
Chuck Leonard rocks his way through New Years Eve 1968 and rings in the
brand new year of 1969. Chuck's very personable style comes through on this aircheck along
with his smooth, up-tempo radio personality (courtesy Henry Cotterill).
One of the songs Chuck plays on this aircheck is Richard Harris'
"MacArthur Park". In his book "Rocking America", legendary WABC
Program Director Rick Sklar tells the story of how WABC was responsible for making this
record into a huge hit. This is a classic example of the popularity and power of WABC in
those days.
Rick wrote:
Our first April WABC weekly music meeting began like many
others. Disc jockeys Ron Lundy and Dan Ingram, a production assistant, our music
librarian, my secretary, and I gathered in my office.
On this particular day we had an ABC dub under
consideration. I glanced at the handwritten label. The reason why ABC had been afraid to
start pressing the discs in quantity was obvious. At a time when most records ran two and
a half or three minutes, this daring effort ran seven minutes.
I put "MacArthur Park" on the turntable, cued it
up, and hit the start button. We sat back and listened. This record was not only long, it
was different.
The lyrics were full of poetic imagery. The composition was
broken into contrasting movements like a miniature symphony. A second melody line was
introduced for a lengthy instrumental portion of the record. As it played, a silence fell
over the meeting. Because the door was open, secretaries passing by stopped, slipped into
the room, and sat down on the floor entranced. By the end of the song, there were half a
dozen extra people at the music meeting. No one wanted to leave. They wanted to hear it
again. I played the song once more. Some of the young women began to sing along with it.
The music had reached some special place in all of them. I decided to add "MacArthur
Park" to the WABC playlist.
After the meeting ended, my telephone lines were jammed
with the usual deluge of calls from record companies and music publishers eager for the
results of our deliberations. When I told ABC's local promotion director, Mickey Wallach
the news, he panicked.
He asked that we at least give them a week to get the
record out to the stores on a rush basis, and I agreed.
The following Tuesday, "MacArthur Park" was
played on WABC. Within five weeks, by mid May, it had sold over a half million copies and
was headed for the top of the charts. Virtually every other Top Forty station in the
country had added it.
The power of Musicradio WABC. Awesome.
Mp3
Real Audio
The
Musicradio WABC Top 100 of 1968
Courtesy of the WABC Musicradio 77
Internet Web Site
www.musicradio77.com
- 1 "Hey
Jude"...........................................The Beatles
- 2 "Young
Girl".........................................Gary Puckett and the Union Gap
- 3 "People Got to Be
Free"..............................The Rascals
- 4 "Mrs.
Robinson"......................................Simon and Garfunkel
- 5 "Love is
Blue".......................................Paul Mauriat
- 6 "Beautiful
Morning"..................................The Rascals
- 7 "Those Were the
Days"................................Mary Hopkin
- 8 "MacArthur
Park".....................................Richard Harris
- 9 "This Guy's in Love With
You"........................Herb Alpert
- 10 "Simon
Says"........................................The 1910 Fruitgum Company
- 11
"Honey".............................................Bobby Goldsboro
- 12 "Cry Like a
Baby"...................................The Box Tops
- 13 "Born to Be
Wild"...................................Steppenwolf
- 14 "Love
Child"........................................Diana Ross and the Supremes
- 15 "Tighten
Up"........................................Archie Bell and the Drells
- 16 "Stoned Soul
Picnic"................................The Fifth Dimension
- 17 "Green
Tambourine"..................................The Lemon Pipers
- 18 "Judy in Disguise (with
Glasses)"...................John Fred and his Playboy Band
- 19 "Lady
Willpower"....................................Gary Puckett and the Union Gap
- 20 "Harper Valley
P.T.A."..............................Jeannie C. Riley
- 21 "Lady
Madonna"......................................The Beatles
- 22 "Hello I Love
You"..................................The Doors
- 23 "Light My
Fire".....................................Jose Feliciano
- 24
"Valleri"...........................................The Monkees
- 25 "Turn Around, Look at
Me"...........................The Vogues
- 26 "Woman,
Woman"......................................The Union Gap
- 27 "Jumpin' Jack
Flash"................................The Rolling Stones
- 28 "Hurdy Gurdy
Man"...................................Donovan
- 29 "Little Green
Apples"...............................O. C. Smith
- 30 "Midnight
Confessions"..............................The Grass Roots
- 31 "Mony
Mony".........................................Tommy James and the Shondells
- 32 "Bend Me, Shape
Me".................................The American Breed
- 33 "Reach Out of the
Darkness".........................Friend and Lover
- 34 "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the
Bay"..................Otis Redding
- 35
"Spooky"............................................The Classics IV
- 36 "Sunshine of Your
Love".............................Cream
- 37 "Yummy Yummy
Yummy".................................The Ohio Express
- 38
"Hush"..............................................Deep Purple
- 39 "Angel of the
Morning"..............................Merrilee Rush
- 40 "Theme from Valley of the
Dolls"....................Dionne Warwick
- 41 "Magic Carpet
Ride".................................Steppenwolf
- 42 "1-2-3 Red
Light"...................................The 1910 Fruitgum Company
- 43 "I've Gotta Get a Message to
You"...................The Bee Gees
- 44 "Baby, Now That I've Found
You".....................The Foundations
- 45 "Hello,
Goodbye"....................................The Beatles
- 46 "Since You've Been
Gone"............................Aretha Franklin
- 47
"Fire"..............................................The Crazy World of Arthur
Brown
- 48 "The
Horse".........................................Cliff Nobles and Company
- 49 "The Good, The Bad and the
Ugly"....................Hugo Montenegro
- 50 "Classical
Gas".....................................Mason Williams
- 51 "Chain of
Fools"....................................Aretha Franklin
- 52 "Daydream
Believer".................................The Monkees
- 53 "I Heard it Through the
Grapevine"..................Gladys Knight and the Pips
- 54 "The Mighty
Quinn"..................................Manfred Mann
- 55 I Wish It Would
Rain"...............................The Temptations
- 56
"Elenore"...........................................The Turtles
- 57 "Nobody But
Me".....................................The Human Beinz
- 58 "Cowboys to
Girls"..................................The Intruders
- 59 "White
Room"........................................Cream
- 60 "Love Is All
Around"................................The Troggs
- 61 "Just Dropped
In"...................................The First Edition
- 62 "Dance to the
Music"................................Sly and the Family Stone
- 63 "The
Unicorn".......................................The Irish Rovers
- 64 "The Look of
Love"..................................Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66
- 65 "The Fool on the
Hill"..............................Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66
- 66 "Who's Making
Love".................................Johnny Taylor
- 67 "Grazing in the
Grass"..............................Hugh Masekela
- 68 "Chewy
Chewy".......................................The Ohio Express
- 69 "For Once in My
Life"...............................Stevie Wonder
- 70 "Abraham, Martin and
John"..........................Dion
- 71 "The Ballad of Bonnie and
Clyde"....................Georgie Fame
- 72 "Dream a Little Dream of
Me"........................Mama Cass
- 73 "I Second That
Emotion".............................Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
- 74 "Different
Drum"....................................The Stone Poneys
- 75
"Stormy"............................................The Classics IV
- 76 "The Time Has Come
Today"...........................The Chambers Brothers
- 77
"Think".............................................Aretha Franklin
- 78 "Over
You"..........................................Gary Puckett and the Union Gap
- 79 "Do You Know the Way to San
Jose"...................Dionne Warwick
- 80
"Delilah"...........................................Tom Jones
- 81 "My Baby Must Be a
Magician"........................The Marvelettes
- 82 "Girl
Watcher"......................................The O'Kaysions
- 83 "Both Sides
Now"....................................Judy Collins
- 84 "Summertime
Blues"..................................Blue Cheer
- 85 "My Special
Angel"..................................The Vogues
- 86 "You're All I Need to Get
By".......................Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
- 87 "I Love How You Love
Me"............................Bobby Vinton
- 88
"Playboy"...........................................Gene and Debbie
- 89 "La La Means I Love
You"............................The Delfonics
- 90 "Nothing Like The Real
Thing".......................Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
- 91 "We’re a
Winner"....................................The Impressions
- 92 "Hold Me
Tight".....................................Johnny Nash
- 93 "Indian
Lake".......................................The Cowsills
- 94 "Will You Still Love Me
Tomorrow"...................The Four Seasons
- 95 "Pictures of Matchstick
Men"........................The Status Quo
- 96
"Susan".............................................The Buckinghams
- 97 "Court of
Love".....................................The Unifics
- 98 "Goin' Out of My Head/Can't Take My Eyes Off
You"...The Lettermen
- 99 "Wichita
Lineman"...................................Glen Campbell
- 100 "Do It
Again"......................................The Beach Boys
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