The Daily Dose/August 17, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy

Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience…

DON’T LOOK BACK: Though our idea of new music is still the second Boston album, we were intrigued to find out this week that the song Old Town Road by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus  – about as unlikely a combination as KISS and Dan Hill – are currently in their 19th week at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, a record. This begs the rather boring question: 

Is this the biggest song of all-time? 

It depends on who you ask. 

Warm, Personal, Remembrance: We recall listening to Casey Kasem on American Top 40 do year-end countdowns and his staff had their own method: each song got points for each week on the chart: a point for being at #100, two for being at #99 and 100 for being at #1 and so on. Songs were ranked based on the points they earned. This resulted in some songs that did not hit #1 ranking higher than some songs that did hit #1. 

Dry, Technical Matter: A good example of this is Why Me by Kris Kristopherson, which was AT40’s second biggest song of 1973 despite peaking at #16. I took 21 weeks to reach the Top 40, 32 weeks to reach #16 and spent 38 weeks on the chart. It was ranked higher than 26 other #1 songs. 

Get Your Official Daily Dose Policy Right Here: This is completely whack. For our money, any #1 song outranks a song that didn’t hit the top, and you sort out the #1 songs by how many weeks each spent at #1. 

Fly In The Ointment: Except in one case. There is a chart anomaly that trumps most weeks at #1: most times at #1

Now, we’re not talking about a song that hits #1, drops to #2 and then returns to #1. This happens often enough so it no longer has any statistical significance. We’re talking about a song that goes to #1, drops off the Hot 100 entirely, then reappears and returns to #1. 

Get Out Your Record Book: It’s happened once: Chuck Berry’s The Twist went to #1 in both 1960 and 1962, for a total of three weeks. This gets our vote. 19 weeks at #1 is tough to ignore, but you go to #1 twice with the same song, everyone else is fighting for the runner-up spot.

Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: The Sparrows attend the fair. Today’s Diary. 

In the auditorium, there was a lot of judging going on, none of it of stuff from the gardens at The Shire because The Wife couldn’t be bothered to enter anything…After talking smack about entering rhubarb, kale and maybe the onions, nothing got entered…Too bad, too, because we could have cleaned up on the ribbons because there appeared to be a lot fewer entries than in the past and I overheard some blaming the late frosts we had…In fact, there were so few entries you probably could have entered some weeds and gotten at least a 2nd Premium ribbon…The Wife, tho, got some expert instruction on rhubarb – there will be changes in the criteria next year – and she also wants to enter some flowers in 2020. 

It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.

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On This Date
In 1970 – Man’s first successful mission to another planet, Venera 7, is launched by the Soviet Union, on its way to Venus. It would arrive in December and though the parachute failed and the spacecraft crash-landed on the surface it was still able to send back data that confirmed Venera 7 landed on solid ground, the Venusian atmosphere was 97 percent carbon dioxide and the surface temperature was 887 degrees Fahrenheit. It was Man’s first transmission from another planet. 

In 1894 – Jack Wadsworth of the Louisville Colonels establishes a new major league record for most hits allowed in a game, giving up 28 hits in a 29-4 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. Wadsworth would finish the season 4-18 with a 7.60 ERA for the Colonels, who finished the year in last place in the National League with a 36-94 record. Wadsworth, – the only Wadsworth ever to play in the major leagues – would finish his big league career the following season with a career mark of 6-38, with a 6.85 ERA. The record still stands. 

In 2019 – Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus are at #1 on both Billboard’s Hot 100 and soul chart – now known as the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart – for the 19th consecutive week with Old Town Road. The 19 weeks is the longest any song has spent at #1 on either chart, breaking the soul chart record of 18 weeks and the Hot 100 record of 16 weeks. The song also peaked at #50 on Billboard’s country chart before the magazine withdrew it. It is the first #1 song on either chart for both acts, and Cyrus joins the Everly Brothers and Elvis as the only acts to have #1 songs on Billboard’s pop, country and soul charts.

Quotebook
You can deal with your problems by the time-tried method of shutting up and letting them pass.
Garrison Keillor
Love Me

Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Jim Tobin of the Boston Braves is the only other major league pitcher to hit three home runs in a game, doing so in 1942. 

Today’s Stumper
What was the first American mission to land on Venus? – Answer next time!

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The Daily Dose/August 15, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy

Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience…

STAND BY FOR DRY, TECHNICAL MATTER: As anyone from long-time readers to newcomers can tell, we enjoy history here at The Daily Dose. On a philosophical level, knowing history is important because only by knowing the past can we avoid blowing it again, but mainly because tidbits and factoids like this have always thrilled us no end. 

FunFact: So a couple of entries in today’s On This Date segment should surprise no one at all. 

Here’s The Pitch…Dry Technical Matter: The first entry of note is the middle one, Guy Hecker of the Louisville Colonels going 6-for-7 with seven runs scored, three home runs and 15 total bases in an 1886 game, numbers which either set or tied assorted records. 

More Dry, Technical Matter: We came across these records the old fashioned way, while scouring our major league record book years ago. We started noticing Hecker’s name, notable because we hadn’t heard of him, and then we noted his records happened on the same date and that he was a pitcher. We did further research – this was in the day before Mr Internet could tell you anything you want to know in a few seconds – and we have always found Hecker’s performance fascinating. For our money, in terms of records set it’s the single greatest day any major league batter has had. A similar day today would require a player, probably not a pitcher, to have seven hits, four of them home runs, score eight runs and have 20 total bases. 

THIS IS CASEY, COUNTING DOWN THE DRY, TECHNICAL MATTER: Today’s usual music entry yielded our latest piece of useless information: there is a new record holder for most weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, the Record of Records, by some definitions – but not all – the Biggest Song of All-Time: Old Town Road, by Lil Nas X, who spent one week at #1 as the only credited artist, while a remix with Billy Ray Cyrus is finishing up it’s 17th week at #1, giving it 18 total weeks – all consecutive – at #1. 

Oh Jesus H.: Some, including us here at The Daily Dose, use a different measure, ranking Chubby Checker’s The Twist the biggest song of the Rock Era because it is the only song to go to #1 in separate chart runs. This is a (boring) debate for another time. 

Can We Get Back To Our Dry, Technical Matter?: We came across the new record while doing some research on today’s entry, Endless Love by Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross, which began it’s nine week run at #1 38 years ago today, which doesn’t make us feel old, we don’t know about you. 

Please Pass The Dry, Technical Matter: Some research showed this song broke the record for most weeks at #1 by a duet, which had been four weeks by The Everly Brothers’ Wake Up Little Susie in 1957. We were curious as to whether or not this was still the record so we did some more research. It’s not.  The record had actually been broken several times but the exciting news was the current record holder for biggest duet is Old Town Road. 

God, We Love Our Dry, Technical Matter: 18 weeks – the new Hot 100 comes out on the 17th – is a long time, though it should be noted downloads and streaming has significantly changed how songs are ranked: of the 37 songs in Hot 100 history that have spent at least ten weeks at #1, 24 hit #1 this century while another spent time at the top in both 1999 and 2000.   

If Dry Technical Matter Is Inevitable…: We haven’t completed our research on the matter, but so far as the most weeks ever spent at #1 on any Billboard chart we’ve been able to find out is 108 weeks. It was on Billboard’s Classical Albums chart, by the album Switched On Bach by Wendy Carlo, then known as Walter Carlos. 

Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow gives Q some advice. Today’s Diary. 

I was obliged to emphasize to Q one of the basic lessons of working hotels: do not date guests. 

Ever…Under any circumstances…Nothing good will come of it. 

This was an issue tonight because Q’s labors had him running late and he wanted to get to the bar because a female guest wanted to buy him a drink and some pizza…Q reported she had flirted with him when she checked in…I was firm:  

Do not date guests…Ever. 

Q asked if I’d had problems with this and I said no because I’ve never dated guests…Not that the opportunity never presented itself…It has and does…Especially to the pretty girls that work front desks…In fact, earlier this week when I relieved Devani a guy was at the desk talking her up…This never happens when I relieve Mark, tho.

It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.

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On This Date
In 1977 – A radio telescope in Ohio picks up an unexplained radio signal, now known to History as the Wow! Signal, after notes made on the printout of the reading. A complete examination of the technical details of the signal is, thankfully, beyond the scope of this column, but it had what us humans expected an alien signal to sound like and came from the general area of the constellation Sagittarius. While a variety of theories about the signal’s origin have been advanced – including it being an alien transmission or an Earth transmission that got bounced off some space debris – the exact source has not been determined and all attempts to find it again have failed. 

In 1886 – Guy Hecker, a pitcher for the Louisville Colonels of the then-major American Association establishes or ties several major league batting records in a 22-5 win over the St Louis Browns in the second game of a doubleheader. Hecker established new major league records with seven runs scored and 15 total bases, and tied existing major league marks with three home runs, and six hits. The severn runs scored still stands and all remain records for pitchers. Hecker was the winning pitcher, too, going the distance and giving up four hits. Hecker would win the AA batting title that year with a .341 mark and remains the only pitcher to win a major league batting title and the only player to win both a batting title and an ERA title.

In 1981 – Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross are at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of nine consecutive weeks with Endless Love. It was Ritchie’s first of five #1s as a solo act and Ross’ sixth and final #1 as a solo act. The following week the song would begin a seven week run at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart, was Billboard’ second biggest song of the year and ranked 18th on Billboard’s 60th anniversary chart in 2018. At the time, it was the biggest duet on a Billboard pop chart, eclipsing the four week record of Wake Up Little Susie by the Everly Brothers in 1957. That record was broken earlier this year when Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus spent their tenth week at #1 with Old Town Road, a mark that is now in its 18th week making Old Town Road the song with the most weeks at #1 ever on the Billboard Hot 100. 

Quotebook
One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been.
Sophocles

Answer To The Last Trivia Question
The other act besides Hank Snow to spend at least 20 weeks at #1 on a Billboard singles chart with two songs is Florida Georgia Line, who spent 24 weeks at #1 on the country chart with Cruise and 50 weeks at #1, also on the country chart and along with Bebe Rexha, with Meant to Be. 

Today’s Stumper
Who is the only other major league pitcher to hit three home runs in a game? – Answer next time!

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