Carpenters, ‘We’ve Only Just Begun.’ Number One in NYC, November 10, 1970.

Looking back at the charts and music surveys of radio stations in the 1970s can make for fun, and sometimes surprising, reading. From time to time we’ll dive into these fascinating pop time capsules.

New York’s Top 40 radio station WABC collected “Weekly Surveys” in the Seventies which charted “the record sales of local record stores in New York City” and “are an accurate reflection of what songs were played each week…”

Let’s take a look at the Top 20 for the week of 11/10/70 – 47 years ago. We’ll listen to some of the more surprising entries below the chart.

WABC: NOVEMBER 10, 1970

1. “We’ve Only Just Begun” – The Carpenters (A&M)
2. “I’ll Be There” – The Jackson 5 (Motown)
3. “Indiana Wants Me” – R. Dean Taylor (Rare Earth)
4. “I Think I Love You” – The Partridge Family (Bell)
5. “Fire and Rain” – James Taylor (Warner Brothers)
6. “5-10-15-20 (25-30 Years of Love)” – The Presidents (Sussex)
7. “It Don’t Matter to Me” – Bread (Elektra)
8. “Lola” – The Kinks (Reprise)
9. “Green-Eyed Lady” – Sugarloaf (Liberty)
10. “Cracklin’ Rosie” – Neil Diamond (Uni)
11. “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” – Elvis Presley (RCA)
12. “Super Bad, Part 1 & Part 2” – James Brown (King)
13. “So Close” – Jake Holmes (Polydor)
14. “Candida” – Dawn (Bell)
15. “All Right Now” – Free (A&M)
16. “Montego Bay” – Bobby Bloom (L&R)
17. “Still Water (Love)” – The Four Tops (Motown)
18. “Look What They’ve Done to My Song Ma” – The New Seekers (Elektra)
19. “Somebody’s Been Sleeping” – 100 Proof (Aged in Soul) (Hot Wax)
20. “See Me, Feel Me” – The Who (Decca)

Right! Let’s listen to two tunes on the chart that I was mostly unfamiliar with before today. First, we have a excellent smoking soul number “5-10-15-20 (25-30 Years of Love)” by The Presidents. The song hit #11 on the US Hot 100.

After that, soft rocker “So Close” (US #49) by Jake Holmes. Who the heck is Jake Holmes? Turns out Holmes wrote Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused” and co-wrote the Dr. Pepper “Be A Pepper” jingle. Holy heck! The same person wrote those two songs? My mind is officially blown.

(Source: MusicRadio77.com)