Today’s post also falls under our month long celebration of Black History month and our typical Friday Flipside feature. On this auspicious occasion, I have picked one of Raleigh County, West Virginia’s native sons – Bill Withers who was born in the coal mining community of Slab Fork, WV and was later reared in nearby Beckley, WV. I've made my home in this same city since 1981 when I came here as the evening jock on WCIR-FM.
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| The author (third from the right) with Bill Withers (fourth from the right) as he receives his honorary doctorate from MSU President Dr. Charles H. Polk. Bob Kiss, WV Speaker of the House, is in the background. |
I had a chance to meet Bill in 2002 when my employer, Mountain State University, presented him with an honorary doctorate in recognition of his many accomplishments in the music business. I actually had the privilege to sing one of my compositions in his presence. Being one of the coauthors of the school’s alma mater, I was asked to sing it this same year that it debuted. I was accompanied by a string quartet. I am sure that my singing absolutely made no impression on Mr. Withers.
Today’s Friday Flipside feature is the “B” of his debut single, “Ain’t No Sunshine” – “I know, I know, I know, I know, I know . . .” The flip, entitled “Harlem,” received some airplay but obviously not as much as the “A” side which charted in 1971 at #6 on the R&B chart, #3 on the Hot 100, and #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart. This is not too bad for a debut single from a then unknown artist who didn’t have enough faith in the music industry to immediately quit his day job. This and other hits as well as royalties from the many covers of those hits made financial stability for Bill a reality. He has done very well in that regard.
RBTG’s 800th Post Retrospect
Like I had reported with every other 100th post anniversary, I took a look backward on how we are doing visitor wise. I began this blog on September 26, 2009, but did not start monitoring the visits until October 16, 2009. Currently, we have 41 declared followers of the blog – up from 32 in September 2011. There are many others who have visited frequently without declaring themselves as followers. The statistics are listed below:| Variable | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Unique Visitors | 49,768 |
| Times Visited | 55,821 |
| Number of Pages Viewed | 83,413 |
| People Visiting 200+ Times | 1001 |
| People Visiting 101-200 Times | 479 |
| People Visiting 51-100 Times | 285 |
| People Visiting 26-50 Times | 217 |
| Number of Visitor Countries Represented | 150 |
| Percentage of Visitors Referred from Search Engines | 63.68% |
| Percentage of Visitors Referred from Other Sites | 26.62% |
| Percentage of Visitors via Direct Access | 9.71% |
The Top Ten Charts
As one would find in music trade magazines, I have prepared some Top Ten Charts for "Reading between the Grooves."The Top Ten Visitor Countries
Since the 700th post on September 26, 2011, the number of visitor countries increased from 142 to 150. Japan was displaced by Spain in the Top 10 countries.Since picking up 8 new countries, we are two away from having all of South America – French Guiana and Surinam are not yet represented. About half of the Caribbean remains unrepresented. As far as Europe, we are missing visitors from the Norwegian territory of Svalbard and Jan Mayen, the British Crown dependency of Sark, and the Principality of Andorra.
The following areas were gained in Asia: Brunei, Uzbekistan, and Yemen. Missing Asian countries include North Korea, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Timor-Leste. Africa is underrepresented by about half of its countries.
| Rank | Country | Visits |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 27,999 |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 4,762 |
| 3 | Canada | 3,011 |
| 4 | Germany | 2,318 |
| 5 | France | 1,467 |
| 6 | Italy | 1,246 |
| 7 | Australia | 1,240 |
| 8 | Brazil | 1,222 |
| 9 | The Netherlands | 908 |
| 10 | Spain | 788 |
The Top Ten Pages via Direct Access
While most people (3,709) have visited the home page for “Reading Between the Grooves,” others enter distinct pages through page specific links and via search engine returns. Two new pages joined the list – Kittyhawk and the Chapman Stick® and Pink Floyd “Cymbaline.” This particular chart is slow moving as it is cumulative – newer features on this site will have to be really popular to catch up to the total direct accesses of these ten songs.The Top Days by Total Visits
This chart represents the days that encountered the most visits and the content that was featured on those particular days. Only four were on the list at the 700th post. The remaining six numbers were new.The top two cuts are anomalies as they represent two days that had intensive viewing of the entire blog by two new visitors. These two individuals spent a great deal of time on the blog and looked at hundreds of pages during one single weekend.
| Rank | Day | Date | Associated Content | Visits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SAT | 16 JUL 2011 | Nektar – Let it Grow | 625 |
| 2 | SUN | 17 JUL 2011 | Liberty ‘N Justice & Robert Fleischman – The Lord’s Prayer | 271 |
| 3 | SAT | 28 JAN 2012 | Steely Dan: My Old School | 267 |
| 4 | WED | 26 OCT 2011 | John Zacherle: Dinner With Drac | 264 |
| 5 | MON | 23 JAN 2012 | Outkast vs Queen: Hey...We Will Rock you...Ya | 262 |
| 6 | THU | 12 JAN 2012 | The Boxer Rebellion: Caught by the Light | 242 |
| 7 | THU | 19 JAN 2012 | honeyhoney: Little Toy Gun | 235 |
| 8 | TUE | 31 JAN 2012 | Turn to Stone Two-fer from Joe Walsh | 229 |
| 9 | SAT | 14 JAN 2012 | Uriah Heep: Stealin’ | 227 |
| 10 | SAT | 17 SEP 2011 | Emerson, Lake, & Palmer – Still . . . You Turn Me On | 223 |
The Top Days by New Visitors
This chart represents the days that encountered the most visits by first time visitors and the content that was featured on those particular days. All but two of these songs are new to this chart and eight are not older than 100 posts.| Rank | Day | Date | Associated Content | New Visitors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | THU | 19 JAN 2012 | honeyhoney: Little Toy Gun | 164 |
| 2 | SAT | 14 JAN 2012 | Uriah Heep: Stealin’ | 157 |
| 3 | WED | 2 NOV 2011 | Outlaws: (Ghost) Riders in the Sky (hold over content from October 31) | 157 |
| 4 | TUE | 6 FEB 2012 | Theolonious Monk: Blue Monk | 156 |
| 5 | SAT | 28 JAN 2012 | Steely Dan: My Old School | 155 |
| 6 | WED | 8 FEB 2012 | The Ikettes: I'm Blue (The Gong-Gong Song) | 154 |
| 7 | SUN | 5 FEB 2012 | The Campbell Brothers: The Judgment | 151 |
| 8 | SAT | 7 JAN 2012 | Bachman-Turner Overdrive: Blue Collar | 150 |
| 9 | MON | 2 JAN 2012 | Joe Walsh: Life of Illusion | 148 |
| 10 | THU | 12 JAN 2012 | Boxer Rebellion: Caught by the Light | 148 |
As always, I want to take this time to thank all of you for your support of this site and the encouragement to keep going forward. Thanks again for Reading between the Grooves.
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