Here's another WCOL chart from the summer of 1969. It's only two weeks after the first one I posted so there's not a lot of interesting chart info. It is notable that Zager and Evans' only hit, "In the Year 2525," in just its second week on the chart, is already in the top 10; it would hit #1 the very next week. It wasn't even on the national Billboard chart yet, though it would eventually hold the #1 spot on the Hot 100 for six weeks. One of my favorite songs of that summer, "Spinning Wheel" by Blood Sweat and Tears, is #10; when I bought that single, I brought it home, popped it on the stereo and played it like 10 times in a row. I bought "Black Pearl" by Sonny Charles the same day and also gave it multiple spins.
My first experience with understanding the difference between short (45 single) versions and long (album cut) versions of songs occurred with "Let Me" by Paul Revere and the Raiders. I bought the 45, then must have heard the longer version--sometimes WCOL would play album cuts after dark. I bought the album, Alias Pink Puzz, just to have that version. Listening now, I actually prefer the single--the main difference is that the LP version takes longer to fade out. Also on the chart: "Moonflight" by Vik Venus (not Vic as misprinted on the list), my first experience with the "break-in" song, in which a voice would interview someone and the answers would be short snatches of songs, in this case all songs that had been hits on Buddah Records. On this one, the interviewer is talking to astronauts (the moon landing would happen a month later). For example, the question, "How do like your food?" is answered "Yummy, yummy, yummy, I've got love in my tummy"--from a hit the previous year by the 1910 Fruitgum Company.
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