One Chart Dig: December 4, 1971

I got up well before my scheduled time this morning, as the Texas Gal had to head into work at an ungodly hour, and I do like to see her off. (I’m the lunch-packer, making sure she has enough nutrients and goodies to get through the day.) There are days – there were a few last week – when I crawl back to bed after shooing her out the door, but most of the time, I turn from the door as she drives off, make myself some breakfast and then head to the study to see what damage I can do.

So early this morning, I took a look at the Billboard Hot 100 from December 4, 1971, forty-one years ago today. I was heading into the final three weeks of my awful first quarter of college (a disaster I’ve discussed several times before) and hanging around with some guys from the college dorms as well as with Rick from across the street. (It was sometime around that time that Rob decamped to Colorado for maybe two years, interrupting our 1971-72 table-top hockey season and leaving Rick and me to finish up during the spring of 1973.)

Anyway, I dug into the lower reaches of the Hot 100 from this date in 1971 and found a tune at No. 82 that I thought I’d throw onto the table this morning. (There will likely be more later this week.) I don’t recall hearing the Isley Brothers’ take on Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lady” during the latter days of 1971; I caught up with the track a couple of years ago when I happened upon the anthology How Many Roads – Black America Sings Bob Dylan, which was released in the U.K.

The single went to No. 71 on the pop chart and No. 29 on the R&B chart. A ten-minute version of the track showed up on the Isleys’ 1971 album Givin’ It Back.

Tags: Isley Brothers