Howdy, everybody! I tend to stick to the ’80s when writing CHART ATTACK!, as they’re the years I remember best. But this week, I decided to pull up something from the early ’70s and see what I could find. I came across a pretty solid chart with some great rock, pop, country and R&B … and Gordon Lightfoot. Enjoy as we take a look back the charts exactly 38 years ago today: February 27, 1971!
10. Me and Bobby McGee — Janis Joplin Amazon iTunes
9. Mr. Bojangles — Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Amazon iTunes
8. Amos Moses — Jerry Reed Amazon iTunes
7. Sweet Mary — Wadsworth Mansion Amazon iTunes
6. I Hear You Knocking — Dave Edmunds Amazon Amazon mp3
5. If You Could Read My Mind — Gordon Lightfoot Amazon iTunes
4. Rose Garden — Lynn Anderson Amazon iTunes
3. Knock Three Times — Dawn Amazon iTunes
2. Mama’s Pearl — The Jackson 5 Amazon iTunes
1. One Bad Apple — The Osmonds Amazon iTunes
10. Me and Bobby McGee — Janis Joplin
The first of four covers on this week’s Top 10, “Me and Bobby McGee” was written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, and found success by two other artists before Joplin: Roger Miller, whose version reached #12 on the country charts, and Gordon Lightfoot (also on this week’s Attack), who hit #1 on the Canadian country charts. At least five other artists recorded their own versions before Joplin, including Kenny Rogers & The First Edition and Bill Haley & His Comets, but clearly hers is the version most remember best. It was recorded only shortly before her death, and when it topped the charts, it became only the second posthumous #1 on the Hot 100 — the first being Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.”
So who is Bobby McGee, anyway? According to Kristofferson, the title came from Foster, who knew a secretary named Bobby McKee. Kristofferson just misheard him.
9. Mr. Bojangles — Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
The problem with me not being around in 1971 is that I can’t always be like, “I remember when this song was a hit.” All I can do is occasionally add some personal thoughts, like “Bojangles” is the thing we’d say to each other in college as we tried to hit each other in the nuts. And that really has nothing to do with the song. Except I suppose if we had a teacher showing us how to do it, he’d be Mr. Bojangles. (By the way, this is what happens when you’re Managing Editor at Popdose. Nobody else reads your stuff before you publish it. Otherwise this last paragraph would be long gone.)
But what I can tell you is that contrary to popular belief, “Mr. Bojangles” isn’t about Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. Rather, it’s about an old homeless man that singer and songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker met while in jail in New Orleans. The man told Walker about the various trials and tribulations in his life, and when someone called him “Bojangles,” and hit him in the nuts asked him to do a dance for the other inmates in the cell, he obliged. Walker claims that Mr. Bojangles is “a composite. He’s a little bit of several people I met for only moments of a passing life. He’s all those I met once and will never see again and will never forget.”
None of this explains, of course, how the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band managed to reach #9 — their only top ten hit — with the song, higher than any other performer who’s covered it.
One of the most astounding things about art, and especially music, is the way a self-centered thought or experience contained in a medium can ignite a chain reaction of independent yet similar thought, ironically turning the originator’s selfishness into a wide-spread and no-longer singular experience. It is this ability to tap into a well of personal history that makes something like Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” a respected work, though it still gets dubbed a guilty pleasure more often than it deserves.