Started from the Bottom: Week of 7/26/1969

Like most music enthusiasts, I love the Billboard charts - and like most music writers, I am constantly trying to think of different ways to look at and talk about pop music. In that spirit, I present a regular feature called Started from the Bottom, where I take a look at a random Hot 100 chart's lowest 10 entries. Are they classic hits on the way down? Future favorites just starting their run? Forgotten fun that never reached the highest heights? Come and take a look with me!

Hot 100 date: July 26, 1969

At the top: Perhaps in the midst of a bad case of moon fever, the country's top tune is still the wacky futurist-folk tune "In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)" by Zager & Evans. The previous chart-topper, Henry Mancini's adaptation of Nino Rota's "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet," is holding the rear of the Top 10. Other personal favorites in the mix include a George Harrison-penned Beatles single, Three Dog Night putting some shine on the early work of Harry Nilsson and the first song I sang to my youngest daughter.

100. Steve Greenberg, "Big Bruce" (chart debut)

If you're at all curious into my process on Started from the Bottom, I usually pick charts off instinct. For instance, back in February, I wanted to do a Leap Day chart and realized one of them was close to the explosion of Beatlemania. This one was definitely inspired by curiosity as to what might've been going on when we landed on the moon. Will there be a thesis? Right off the bat, I'm guessing no!

"Big Bruce" is ostensibly a parody of "Big Bad John," a chart-topping, talking-country yarn written and performed by future sausage king Jimmy Dean. Three big things set "Big Bruce" apart from its source material. First: for whatever reason, it came out nearly eight years after the original reached its peak. Second: there are two distinct versions of the song with slightly altered lyrics, thanks to a threatened lawsuit from the publisher of "Big Bad John." (Here's the revision. I'm not sure which of them charted.) Third, and perhaps most striking: as you'll notice, either set of lyrics recast "Big Bruce" as a mincing gay hairdresser. Is it a sly subversion of masculinity or one weird queer joke? I'll leave that to you to decide. "Big Bruce" only got as high as No. 97, and that was it for Steve Greenberg (who, best I can tell, is not the record industry guy who founded S-Curve Records.)

99. Little Anthony and The Imperials, "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" (chart debut)

I'll be honest with you: I did not realize Little Anthony and The Imperials were the ones who sang the No. 4 classic "Tears on My Pillow" more than a decade earlier, nor did I realize they were an act of color. (The name sounds like white Italian guys to me. I'm sorry!) The song sounds delightfully out of place, out of time: stirring strings and close harmonies anchored by a more-of-its-era guitar chank-and-wah. Having not disturbed the upper reaches of the Hot 100 since 1964 and 1965's back-to-back Top 10s "Going Out of My Head" and "Hurt So Bad" (later a smash for Linda Ronstadt), "Out of Sight" was a modest No. 52 single, part of a string of low-charting platters for their newest label home United Artists.

98. The Meters, "Ease Back" (chart debut)

The follow-up to the New Orleans combo's biggest hit, "Cissy Strut," this is a fine mix of classy soul and gritty funk that you'd come to expect from one of the best, most defining bands of their particular lane. It only topped out at No. 61 on the big board, but was a Top 20 R&B chart hit.

97. B.J. Thomas, "Pass the Apple Eve" (chart peak)

Even with hits like "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and "Hooked on a Feeling" under his belt, the charged "Pass the Apple Eve" just misses the mark to these ears; the sweeping Chips Moman production is wonderful, but Thomas' higher register, while convincing, seems out of place for him. No matter: within a year he'd release two of his biggest hits - the chart-toppers "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" and "I Just Can't Help Believing" - and would enjoy Top 10s into the late '70s.

96. Johnny Mathis, "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" (chart debut/peak)

So popular was Nino Rota's score to the Franco Zeffrelli adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, that there were versions on either end of the Hot 100 this week: Henry Mancini's instrumental adaptation was at the top, and this sterling lyrical version by the indomitable crooner Johnny Mathis, stayed firm four spots from the absolute bottom. At this point, Mathis was hardly the chart draw he was in the pre-rock era, but would score a No. 1 nearly a decade later with the Deniece Williams duet "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late"; his honeyed timbre is a genuine favorite, and at nearly 90, he's still at it.

95. Joe Tex, "That's the Way" (current chart peak)

Positioned by some as Texas' answer to James Brown, Joe Tex had far fewer enduring hits than the Godfather - and this Southern-fried, laid-back instructive on how to treat a woman right isn't anything to these ears that other Atlantic artists didn't do better. This only would climb another spot higher, but Tex had another smash coming to him with 1972's "I Gotcha" - his all-time biggest-charting single.

94. The Friends of Distinction, "Let Yourself Go" (chart debut)

Having hit pure pop bliss earlier in the year when singer Harry Elston set lyrics to Hugh Masekela's instrumental "Grazing in the Grass" and earned a fast-paced No. 3 hit, "Let Yourself Go" was a slightly slower but just as sumptuous track with horns, winds and strings aplenty. It only peaked at No. 62, but that was rather impressive, considering it wasn't even a single, serving instead as the B-side to "Going in Circles," the group's first post-"Grazing" 45.

93. Mark Lindsay, "First View from Grand Terrace" (chart debut)

Far better known as the lead singer of Paul Revere & The Raiders, Mark Lindsay's first foray into solo pop was this simple ballad penned by the inimitable Jimmy Webb. It only went to No. 81 on the Hot 100, and you'll no doubt notice from the YouTube thumbnail that there were a lot more well-known covers on Lindsay's solo debut, from The Beatles to Bacharach & David, John Denver and Kris Kristofferson. The title track to the album, "Arizona," was written by "Under the Boardwalk" co-writer Kenny Young and actually cracked the Top 10.

92. Duke Baxter, "Everybody Knows Matilda" (chart debut)

Well, certainly not. A neat pre-chorus and some cool piano and strings, but there's not much to this silly, forgotten song about almost hooking up with a girl until her boyfriend finds you out. Even Duke Baxter's identity is a matter of debate! Nonetheless, it actually climbed all the way to No. 52 on the charts.

91. The Archies, "Sugar, Sugar" (chart debut)

Now: I knew almost none of the previous nine songs, so I'd hedge a bet you didn't either. "Would there be anything I do know?" you thought. "Something to tether me to the pop life I know and love?" Well, lucky you!

"Sugar, Sugar" was the single biggest song of 1969: from here, it would soar all the way to No. 1 for a month and stay in the Top 10 for three months. Only 10 singles spent that much time there in the whole decade! It is basically the signature bubblegum pop song, far more famous than the accomplished folks who sang for this group of literal cartoons. (This included singer Ron Dante, later a collaborator of Barry Manilow, and backing vocalists Toni Wine (who co-wrote The Mindbenders'/Phil Collins' "A Groovy Kind of Love") and Andy Kim, who co-wrote the song with Jeff Barry.) It probably got stuck in your head when you hit play; it sure did in mine! So it's safe to say you heard it here first. (OK, well, not first ever, just first on this particular chunk of Billboard Hot 100.)