Finally, I get my wish. I remember '76. The U.S. Bicentennial, Nadia Comeneci, Rocky, I have palpable memories of these things happening around me. And I know radios were frequently on around me. This should be fun.
40 - "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart," Elton John and Kiki Dee
39 - "You Don't Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show)," Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr.
38 - "Say You Love Me," Fleetwood Mac
37 - "With Your Love," Jefferson Starship
36 - "Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang," Silver
35 - "Tonight's The Night (Gonna Be Alright)," Rod Stewart
34 - "Get The Funk Out Ma Face," The Brothers Johnson
33 - "Getaway," Earth Wind and Fire
32 - "You Are My Starship," Norman Connors featuring Michael Henderson
31 - "A Dose of Rock n' Roll," Ringo Starr
Man, a lot of easy-listening here, interrupted near the end by a couple welcome blasts of funk.
Three massive hits by 70s powerhouses are in this batch. After a long run which saw them hit #1, Elton John and protegee Kiki Dee squeezed out one more week with this karaoke perennial that would Elton would later do again with RuPaul. Also on the way down was Fleetwood Mac's third single from the eponymous album that set the table for Rumours. The Christne McVie hits never did anything for me, but I do like "Songbird." Meanwhile, entering the chart on the way to the top was Rod the Bod with a slinky seduction jam. Clearly, he wasn't the innocent kid led astray by Maggie May anymore. And on this one, his then-girlfriend actually did contribute (Britt Ekland breathed a few French phrases near the end).
Three artists in the midst of the second acts of their careers pop up here. Marilyn McCoo and husband Billy Davis, Jr had broken away from the 5th Dimension, and "You Don't Have To Be A Star," would validate the decision by going right to number one. Jefferson Starship are back again, and good lord how I still resent the fact that they kept enough of their old name that dreck like "With Your Love," is associated with "White Rabbit. And while "A Dose of Rock n' Roll" is a pretty limp exit to Richard Starkey's 70s hitmaking days, when you look back, Ringo didn't do too badly for himself in the years immediately post-Beatles. Sure, his solo career is a distant fourth behind the rest of the lads, but if you offered most artists a four-year run including seven Top Ten singles and two #1s, I think most would take that.
Two one-hit wonders are in the mix. There's nothing that notable about Silver or their song, but the cover of the album was one of many designed during this period by a guy named Phil Hartman. You might remember him from such TV shows as Saturday Night Live and NewsRadio. Oh, and he frequently did voice work on some little cartoon show about yellow people before he died. Meanwhile, Norman Connors played drums and Michael Henderson sang on a song that was indeed spacey in both lyric and sound. The best way I can describe it is as the R&B equivalent of Gary Wright's "Dream Weaver."
Finally, there's the stuff that broke up this snoozefest. The Brothers Johnson got a little naughty with their song title here, but they back it up by grooving and grooving hard. And Earth Wind and Fire prove that even though disco was on the rise, good old funk could still move asses like nothing else.
30 - "This One's For You," Barry Manilow
29 - "Did You Boogie (With Your Baby)," Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids
28 - "A Little Bit More," Dr. Hook
27 - "The Rubberband Man," The Spinners
26 - "Do You Feel Like We Do," Peter Frampton
25 - "The Best Disco In Town," The Ritchie Family
24 - "I'd Really Love To See You Tonight," England Dan and John Ford Coley
23 - "Just to Be Close to You," The Commodores
22 - "You Are The Woman," Firefall
21 - "More Than A Feeling," Boston
Easy listening doesn't dominate this group, but still, it has four representatives. Barry Manilow had another hit covering ground that had already been handled better by Elton John's "Your Song" and Leon Russell's oft-covered "A Song For You" (The Carpenters did that one, which I mention because for once, they're not on the chart). Dr. Hook had dropped the "and the Medicine Show" tag they'd had when they had hits with "Sylvia's Mother" and "The Cover of the Rolling Stone," and they'd also dropped their scraggly sound to become a slightly more credible Seals and Crofst on "A Little Bit More." Later, they'd go disco. England Dan and John Ford Coley had a huge hit with this polite musical pickup line, then they'd go on to have a few more hits that I can't for the life of me remember. And Firefall suck, which is a shame, because you thnk they could have done better with two former members of the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Two songs tap into our longing for the familiar. Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids tapped into the same 50s nostalgia vein mined by Happy Days and American Graffiti (the latter of which they appeared in). Their only hit replicates a square version of early rock, but at least they try by using the word "boogie" as a sex euphemism. And the unrelated Ritchie Family try to give you the atmosphere of the title establishment by performing snippets of hits by the Four Tops and the O'Jays, as well as the theme from Soul Train.
A pair of soul vocal groups are here. The Spinners offer the loosey-goosey "The Rubberband Man." Back in the day I loved this song, both the original and the version Lynda Carter performed on The Muppet Show. And on "Just to Be Close to You," Lionel Richie's vocals are grittier and more intense than they were on later ballads like "Easy" and "Three Times a Lady." I enjoyed hearing that side of him.
This half ends with some rock. Peter Frampton and his talk-box got "Do You Feel Like We Do" on the pop charts and Frampton Comes Alive into millions of homes. Maybe the lack of that gimmick on subsequent studio albums contributed to his downfall. And Boston's run as less-than-prolific giants of generic rock began here with "More Than a Feeling." If the main riff from that song gets stuck in your head for the next few hours, I apologize in advance.
That (hopefully) wraps up the first half. Tomorrow: a soap opera theme, another radio-station glitch that may not have been a mistake at all, and songs #3 and #2 duke it out for the honor of being this week's Uneasy Rider.
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