The Motown Top 250 Countdown (#195-191) & This Week's Statistics

Hello, my friends, old and new! I will begin the weekend's story with an important scene from a movie or two, or sometimes from an important TV show. Like today...

... Today we'll be dealing with a classic mini-series based on an era-defining play by Tony Kushner that actually feels like a prestige movie. You'd be hard-pressed to find a movie with so many luminaries on its cast and crew. Let's see: it was directed by Mike Nichols, an Oscar-winner for The Graduate and having four more Oscar nominations. The screenplay was written by the author himself, Tony Kushner, who has also had two Oscar nominations. It was scored by musician Thomas Newman, who has 14 Oscar nominations to his name, while the director of photography, Stephen Goldblatt, has also been an Oscar nominee. Production designer, Stuart Wurtzel, costume designer Ann Roth, and editor John Bloom have all won Oscars. As for the cast, I only need to mention their names: Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, James Cromwell, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeffrey Wright, Patrick Wilson, Justin Kirk, Ben Shenkman... The series even have the luxury to have actors of the stature of Michael Gambon and Simon Callow appear in uncredited, cameo roles. By the way, it's called Angels in America.

It's no surprise that when award season came around, it was winning left and right: the Emmy Awards, the SAG Awards, the Golden Globes, and everything in-between. All in all, it had 62 wins and 42 nominations. The American Film Institute named it TV Program of the Year and elaborated: Angels in America was born a masterpiece of the theater and lives on as a masterpiece of television. The imaginations of Tony Kushner and Mike Nichols explode and embrace as their collaboration expands the boundaries of the art form. This heroic achievement carries a message for the ages that is delivered by some of the greatest actors of our day.

One of the greatest scenes of the series involved the infamous real-life New York lawyer, McCarthy collaborator, and unofficial power broker, Roy Cohn... Who was also a closeted gay man, among those that give us a bad name. Anyway, Cohn's views on homosexuality are apparently shared by all those closeted gay men of power, be it politicians or clergymen, artists or businessmen. The scene where the baring of Cohn's ideology occurs is when Roy Cohn (Al Pacino, magnificent) is told by his doctor, Henry (James Cromwell), that he has AIDS. If it's hard for you to follow the dialogue, here's the main part:

HENRY: Roy, you have been seeing me since 1958. Apart from the facelifts, I have treated you for everything from syphilis…

ROY:  From a whore in Dallas.

HENRY: From syphilis to venereal warts. In your rectum. Which you may have gotten from a whore in Dallas. But it wasn’t a female whore.

(Pause.)

ROY:  So – say it!

HENRY: Roy Cohn, you are… You have had sex with men. Many, many times, Roy. And one of those men, or any number of them, has made you very sick. You have AIDS.

ROY:  AIDS. Your problem, Henry, is that you are hung up on words, on labels, that you believe they mean what they seem to mean. AIDS. Homosexual. Gay. Lesbian. You think these are names that tell you who someone sleeps with? They don’t tell you that.

HENRY: No?

ROY:  No. Like all labels, they tell you one thing, and one thing only: where does an individual so identified fit in the food chain, in the pecking order? Not ideology, or sexual taste, but something much simpler: clout. Not who I fuck or who fucks me, but who will pick up the phone when I call, who owes me favors. This is what a label refers to. Now to someone who does not understand this, homosexual is what I am because I have sex with men, but really this is wrong. Homosexuals are not men who sleep with other men.  Homosexuals are men who, in fifteen years of trying, cannot pass a pissant anti-discrimination bill through City Council. Homosexuals are men who know nobody and who nobody knows. Who have zero clout. Does this sound like me, Henry?

HENRY: No.

ROY:  No. I have clout. Lots. I can pick up this phone, I punch fifteen numbers, you know who’s on the other end in under five minutes, Henry?

HENRY: The President.

ROY:  Better, Henry. His wife.

HENRY: I’m impressed.

ROY:  I don’t want you to be impressed. I want you to understand. This is not sophistry. And this is not hypocrisy. This is reality. I have sex with men. But unlike nearly every other man of whom this is true, I bring the guy I’m screwing to the White House, and President Reagan smiles at us and shakes his hand, because, what I am is defined entirely by who I am. Roy Cohn is not a homosexual. Roy Cohn is a heterosexual man, Henry, who fucks around with guys.

HENRY: OK, Roy.

ROY:  And what is my diagnosis, Henry?

HENRY: (after slight hesitation) You have AIDS, Roy.

ROY:  No, Henry, no. AIDS is what homosexuals have. I have liver cancer.

Here's the scene:

The weekend is here, which means it's time for our countdown and our statistics: At #195 we find one of Motown's most successful acts, Diana Ross, with a hit single from 1979 called The Boss. It was a disco song written and produced by Ashford & Simpson, which peaked at #19 on the Hot 100, at #12 on the US R&B chart, and at #1 on the US Hot Dance chart. This is it:

The song was also a hit for The Braxtons in 1997:

At #194 is the man who wrote many of Motown's big hits and was also the label's vice-president: Smokey Robinson and his 1979 hit, Cruisin'. It was one of his biggest solo hits, peaking at #4 on both the US Hot 100 and the R&B chart. The song was co-written by Smokey and fellow Miracle, Marv Tarplin. Cruisin' was an even bigger hit in New Zealand, hitting #1. Reportedly, Smokey had a cold when he recorded the song. It doesn't show. Here it is:

D'Angelo covered the song in 1995. It was released as a single and made the R&B top 10, as well as the lower reaches of the Hot 100. This is it:

At #193 is a song called Walk Away Renée. It is a song written by Michael Brown, Bob Calilli, and Tony Sansone for the band the Left Banke, which was released as a single in July 1966. Steve Martin Caro is featured on lead vocals. It spent 13 weeks on the US charts, peaking at #5. Here it is:

I especially like another hit by the Left Banke, called Pretty Ballerina. I offer it as a bonus track:

Rolling Stone placed Walk Away Renée at number 220 in the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. However, the Left Banke wasn't a Motown act, so this is not the version in our countdown: the Four Tops was one of the top R&B vocal groups of the 60s and the 70s and it's their version that is at #193. They recorded the song in 1967 and also released it as a single. It made the top 5 in Canada, the UK, and Ireland. In the US it peaked at #14 on the Hot 100 and at #15 on the R&B chart. Here it is:

In 1993, Australian Rick Price released a cover of Walk Away Renée as a single. It peaked at #21 in Australia:

At #192 we find the Stevie Wonder composition, All in Love Is Fair. It was featured in one of his greatest albums, Innervisions(1973). The song was released as a single in Brazil in 1974. The song is a pop ballad with lyrics that describe the end of a relationship. Matthew Greenwald of AllMusic wrote that it was among Wonder's "finest ballad statements". This is it:

Nancy Wilson released a good cover version in 1974:

However, it was Barbra Streisand's version, included in her 1973 hit album, The Way We Were, which entered the US charts, even if it charted in the mid-60s of the Hot 100. It is a great version:

Finally for today, at #191, we find Needle In a Haystack, the first charting single (#45/US, 1964) by The Velvelettes. "Finding a good man, girls/Is like finding a needle in a haystack," sang the criminally underrated girl group, sassy as can be, telling a tale as old as time. It's a pity that, with various members leaving and rejoining, as family matters dictated, the group failed to capitalize on the original promise shown. They are now considered a cult group of sorts. Here is Needle In a Haystack:

In 1966, an Australian rock group called The Twilights released a good cover version of the song:

Now, let's continue with last week's statistics; my idea of publishing the top 600 hits in the US of the last 60 years according to Billboard in daily installments actually paid off: the weekly number of visits almost tripled, making this the best of the past 20 weeks. All the stories were equally visited.

As far as countries are concerned, Greece was the week's big winner, followed by the United States and Cyprus. France, the United Kingdom, and Italy had minor losses, while the other major players kept their percentages more or less stable.

Here are this week's Top 10 countries:

1. the United States

2. Greece

3. the United Kingdom

4. Cyprus

5. Canada

6. France

7. Germany

8. Australia

9. Russia

10. Spain

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Austria, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Bermuda, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, FYR Of Macedonia, Georgia, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Libya, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Sint Maarten, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Happy to have you all!

And here's the all-time Top 10:

1. the United States = 30.3%

2. France = 20.6%

3. the United Kingdom = 12.3%

4. Greece = 7.4%

5. Russia = 2.6%

6. Germany = 1.8%

7. Canada = 1.7%

8. Italy = 1.1%

9. Turkey = 0.86%

10. Cyprus = 0.83%

That's all for today, folks. Till the next one!