20 - "Saturday In The Park," Chicago
19 - "Sealed With A Kiss," Bobby Vinton
18 - "Where Is The Love?" Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway
17 - "Rock and Roll Part 2," Gary Glitter
16 - "Lookin' Through the Windows," The Jackson 5
Leading off is Chicago, with one of their biggest hits. It's just happy, happy music, but not in an annoying way. Can I dig it? Yes I can.
Next is Bobby Vinton, Mr. "Blue Velvet" himself, covering a song that a lot of people probably thought he'd already done ten years ago (that was the similar-sounding Brian Hyland). I hope in one of these countdowns we get to "My Melody of Love."
Then we have "Where Is The Love?" Not much to say, just two great voices laying down some sweet soul. Too bad the title now brings to mind the Black Eyed effing Peas.
And then it's "Rock and Roll Part 2." I think most of you know the story. It was a hit, then it was kind of forgotten, then it was revived in the 90s and played at pretty much every live sporting event in North America, then Gary Glitter was outed as a pedophile and the song was returned to obscurity. The song itself is an undeniable earworm, but now, it's a particularly slimy one.
This section concludes with a Jackson 5 song I'd never heard before. It was all right, but what was more interesting was looking it up and finding out that on the album of the same name, Michael and bros. recorded a version of Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes." That might be interesting to look up sometime.
15 - "Daddy, Don't You Walk So Fast," Wayne Newton
14 - "Back Stabbers," The O'Jays
13 - "The Guitar Man," Bread
12 - "Motorcycle Mama," Sailcat
11 - "The Happiest Girl In The Whole U.S.A.," Donna Fargo
This section starts with Mr. Vegas himself, with probably his second best known song after "Danke Schoen;" a tearjerker about a man who is prevented from leaving his wife by the pleas of his daughter. Cheesy, but it works.
Then it's the O'Jays with that great slice of Philly soul, "Back Stabbers." It's a helpful warning about the shadier characters in the world, plus you can dance to it. Can't ask for more than that.
Bread were pretty aptly named, for they certainly made some of the decade's whitest music. But at least "The Guitar Man," is more upbeat and less sappy than most of their other hits. I don't have this in my collection, but I do have Cake's pretty faithful cover version, so I'm covered.
And now we come to this week's Uneasy Rider Award winner for oddest song in this week's chart, Sailcat's "Motorcycle Mama." Here's the thing: Up until Sunday, I'd only heard a cover of this song by The Sugarcubes. Their version was sludgy rock that sounded to me the way a song called "Motorcycle Mama" should. Now I suspected that the 'Cubes take on the song wasn't completely faithful to the original (with Bjork and Einar Orn on vocals, how could it be?), but I didn't expect the Sailcat version to be this laid-back, pillowy-soft on the ears piece of MOR piffle. I was expecting "Born to Be Wild," but what I got was more like "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head." Now maybe my perspective made this song stranger to me than it is, but I don't know, the music and the subject matter just don't seem to jell. Judge for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QQhWSQV5P0
Rounding out the group is country singer Donna Fargo, who, as the title indicates, is lovin' life. Apparently, domestic bliss with her beloved is making this a "skippity-doo-dah day." And this is good. I remember this, but I have a more detailed memory of her other big hit, "Funny Face," which I may or may not share if and when that song appears on a future chart.
And we've arrived at the Top Ten:
10 - "Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me," Mac Davis
This song follows a common pop theme: the bad boy warning the innocent girl not to get too involved with him, because he's not looking for a long term relationship. What I remember about Mac Davis is that he had curly hair and was considered kind of a sex symbol. Oh, and he did a Muppet Show, and he sang this song to Miss Piggy, who was dressed as a mermaid. I never realized how much that show shaped my recollection of seventies music.
9 - "You Don't Mess Around With Jim," Jim Croce
This song tells basically the same story as Croce's hit from the next year, "Bad Bad Leroy Brown." It starts out by telling you what a badass this "Jim" is, then eventually tells the story about the day this guy got his ass kicked. Between the two of them, I'll take "Leroy." This was Croce's breakthrough, and who knows how many hits he'd have had if he hadn't died in a plane crash thirteen months later. He probably would have even done a Muppet Show.
8 - "Coconut," Harry Nilsson
Ah yes, this silly little ditty about limes and coconuts and bellyaches. Always brings a smile. And even though Harry never did The Muppet Show, they did once do a sketch on there to this song. You can't hide from the Muppets.
7 - "Goodbye to Love," The Carpenters
Can't shoehorn a Muppet reference into this one. Just Karen and her sad, beautiful voice. This song is notable for its uncharacteristically rockin' guitar solos.
6 - "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want To Be Right," Luther Ingram
Another song high in the pantheon of R&B adultery anthems. Though I must admit, due to periods of exposure to late-70s country radio, I'm more familiar with Barbara Mandrell's version.
5 - "Hold Your Head Up," Argent
Fist-pumping rock positivity from a band led by the former keyboardist of British Invasion stalwarts The Zombies ("She's Not There," "Time of the Season"). A deserved hit, but nothing earth-shattering.
4 - "I'm Still In Love With You," Al Green
For a guy who's a certified legend and had a ton of hits, I know very few Al Green songs, and this wasn't one of them. I don't know this for sure, but I get the idea that the good Reverend was an artist whose songs were frequently squeezed off of Canadian playlists by homegrown-content quotas. I definitely should familiarize myself more with him.
3 - "Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)," The Hollies
The Hollies were British, but this song is otherwise all-American. The narrator works undercover for the FBI, and he's setting up a raid on a Prohibition-era liquor joint when he meets the titular lady singer and protects her from being arrested with all the rest of the speakeasy's employees. Plus the band was apparently intentionally trying to sound like U.S. swamp rockers Creedence Clearwater Revival. Pop hits are created in the strangest ways sometimes.
2 - Alone Again (Naturally)," Gilbert O' Sullivan.
An incredibly depressing song that starts out with O'Sullivan contemplating suicide, and by the end, you still get the idea he's going to off himself. No "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast"-style happy endings for ol' Gil. And apparently this song was dropping to second place this week after four weeks at Number One, making it possibly the song of that summer. Jesus, I knew that 1972 wasn't exactly an easy time in America, but I didn't imagine that people actually wallowed in misery to that degree.
And the most popular song in the United States of America 38 years ago was...
1 - "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)" Looking Glass
Good Lord how I hate this song, and I'm not a guy who hates very many songs. There are songs I don't go out of my way to listen to, but it takes something special for me to actually hate a song. And whatever that is, this song's got it. Part of it is definitely the singer's terrible, nasally voice. Fingernails on chalkboard to these ears. And the song asks me to emotionally invest in the tale of this waitress who's heart was broken by a sailor who wouldn't settle down with her because his "his life, lover (and) lady is the sea," (interpret that how you will), but I can't, because she's just not very interesting. All it tells me is that sailors say she's "fine" and would make a good wife. That tells me nothing. You know what would help redeem this turd? First of all, add a verse that gives a little kick to Brandy's character. Say one night one of the sailors at her bar gets a little too aggressive in his advances, and say Brandy invites him to meet her under a pier after work. Then, while the guy's waiting for her, she sneaks up behind him and strangles him to death with the silver necklace her long-lost love gave her. Now I'm intrigued. Then what you do is, see, you kick annoying nasal guy out of the studio and introduce the rest of the band to their new singer, the decade's foremost chronicler of the lonely, damaged female...Helen Reddy! Gold, I tells ya! Anyway, as much as I despise this song, I must admit that I did actually find it poignant when Marge's sister Selma sang it on that one episode of The Simpsons (wow, I got my weekly Helen Reddy and Simpsons references in right under the wire!).
This week's AT40 Extras were a little different. There were two future hits introduced by Mr. NotCasey: Bill Withers' subline "Use Me" and Michael Jackson's "Ben" (to think, there were probably people at that time who thought that singing a tender ballad about a rat was the weirdest thing he'd ever do). But there was also an Extra introduced by Casey himself, from the original countdown. He played what at that time was the only Lennon/McCartney composition not performed by the Beatles to hit #1, Peter and Gordon's "A World Without Love."
So there's another glimpse into the past through the prism of pop. I'll be back next week. Join me, won't you?
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