Okay, we're going back a bit. I was one when this week's countdown originally aired, so the memories might not come as easy, and there are more completely unfamiliar songs. But I think I can still work this out. Here we go...
40 - "Honky Cat," Elton John
39 - "This World," The Staple Singers
38 - "Sweet Sensation/Where You Lead," Barbra Streisand
37 - "Run to Me," The Bee Gees
36 - "You're Still A Young Man," Tower of Power
35 - "Gone," Joey Heatherton
34 - "Pop That Thang," The Isley Brothers
33 - "Popcorn," Hot Butter
32 - "When You Say Love," Sonny and Cher
31 - "Lean On Me," Bill Withers
Okay, this isn't bad. Plenty of familiar names and sounds.
We'll start with artists who've appeared on one of the first two charts I covered. Sir Elton leads off by defiantly moving to the city to "quit those days and my redneck ways." Two spots later, Babs appears with an unconvincing attempt to prove herself an Aretha-style soul diva. Then it's the Bee Gees with one of their last hit ballads before they went to Miami and became a disco factory. Tower of Power are back, and I'm still not impressed. But the Isley Brothers redeem themselves for their future Swifffer atrocities with some solid funk. My thang indeed popped.
Two great names in soul are in this group. "This World," isn't as well-known as "I'll Take You There" or "Respect Yourself," but it's still well worth listening to. But I'm sure you've all heard "Lean on Me," at the very least in the form of the mid-80s cover version by Club Nouveau. But as familiar as it is, it's still affecting and powerful Bill Withers is, as the kids say, the shit.
There's a connection between songs 32 and 35. Sonny and Cher are in the former position with a song whose melody was ripped off from a Budweiser commercial. In 1975, the couple were split, and Cher had her own variety show. The summer replacement for her show was a show called Joey & Dad, and the "Joey" in the title was none other than Miss Heatherton, who was a talk-and-variety show regular for much of the sixties and seventies. And if you're as big a SCTV fan as I am, you'll know that she was the inspiration for Catherine O'Hara's Lola Heatherton character ("I want to BEAR YOUR CHILDREN! HAW HAW!"). I don't know if Joey did anything like that, but I did just learn that she starred in The Happy Hooker Goes To Washington.
Lastly, there's "Popcorn," a synthesizer instrumental that I'm sure sounded incredibly futuristic at the time, but now there are keyboards made for preschoolers that can produce more advanced sounds. But it's still fun, and I remember in my first few years of grade school we had a morning exercise program called the "Health Hustle," and this was one of the songs we performed it to.
30 - "Too Late to Turn Back Now," Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose
29 - "Small Beginnings," Flash
28 - "Go All The Way," The Raspberries
27 - "Power of Love," Joe Simon
26 - "How Do You Do?" Mouth and MacNeal
25 - "Baby, Let Me Take You In My Arms," The Detroit Emeralds
24 - "Beautiful Sunday," Daniel Boone
23 - "Black and White," Three Dog Night
22 - "Join Together," The Who
21 - "School's Out," Alice Cooper
Let me start with "Small Beginnings," I had never heard it, and I'd never heard of Flash. Now that I have...I wasn't missing anything.
Three Dog Night are here, singing about racial harmony. Nice enough to have on the radio in the background, but they've got better songs.
There are three soul songs in this group. The only one I'd heard of before was "It's Too Late To Turn Back Now," which is just all right. The other two were new to me, and they were okay too. One thing I am learning is that for a guy I was barely aware of, Joe Simon had a lot of hits.
I'm grouping songs 28, 26 and 24 together for no good reason. The Raspberries appear with a pop-rock classic that some found too sexually suggestive at the time, and which features Eric Carmen before he went all sappy. I'd never heard this Mouth and MacNeal song, but apparently they were a male/female Dutch duo, and the guy sounded a bit like Joe Cocker. As for Daniel Boone (shockingly not his real name), I really do remember hearing his sunny pop hit on the radio as a child, and thus, I like it more than I probably would otherwise.
And we'll end with spots 22 and 21, which is where this week's classic rock "Double Shot" appears, unlike the last two weeks when it's been at 20 and 19. The Who turn in an energetic post-Who's Next effort, and Alice Cooper concludes the first half of the 40 with the song that just seems to pop up on radios everywhere at the end of June for some reason. And yes, I think he did this one on The Muppet Show, too.
Tune in within the next 48 hours or so for Part Two, which inculdes many more artists who've been in the first two charts, the song that swiped the Uneasy Rider Award from "Popcorn," and one of my most-hated songs of this decade, if not all time.
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