July 1970 -- part 2 -- Casey looking for his groove

SiriusXM 70's on 7 traditionally plays the inaugural broadcast of American Top 40 on July 4th weekend, which is nice, but it means that the next 7 or 8 shows from 1970 never get played since they try to spread out the weekly countdown replays by year.  This year, they changed, playing the inaugural show as a "extra" show on the Thursday before, leaving them free this week to play the overall 3rd episode of AT 40.

In this countdown, it was more clear that Casey hadn't found his groove in a few ways.  First obvious one was that when he previewed that an artist was coming up who clearly loved songs about states.  But when John Phillips' "Mississippi" came up, he mentioned that he'd hit #1 previously with "California Dreamin'" when he was with the Mamas and the Papas, but he did not explicitly repeat the state reference.  In later years, his previews always explicitly connected.

Then, before playing "Mississippi Queen" he informed the audience that besides singers and musicians, he'd occasionally talk about a record's producers as well (which he certainly did in years to come).  Unfortunately, and uncharacteristically, he came across as apologetic, including a couple of stammering "um"s which I'd never heard before!

I also smiled when he made reference to the personal life of Mark Lindsey, particularly his valuable hub caps.  By as early at 1972, that would've been very odd.  If a record was expensive, maybe... but not the wealth, children, or marriages of artists...unless that child or spouse was also a recording artist.

As for songs, the Delfonics debuted and peaked this week with their only hit of the AT40 era.  It was also the last weeks for John Phillips, White Plains, and Crabby Appleton tying all four as the first artists to disappear from AT40.  The Beatles also depart next week with their last regular release, but they appeared later in re-releases, medleys, and solo Beatle songs having the other members add their parts....and countless special countdowns, long-distance dedications, and retrospectives of #1s.