And now for the second half. But once again, I must provide a disclaimer. Just like during the 1977 countdown I covered, the radio station I was listening to played a block from the previous week's show at the end of the second hour, so I didn't hear song 18 through 15. Since this has happened before, I get the feeling that the station does this when there's a song in the group they don't want to play. Fortunately, I was able to look them up, and just as fortunately, they're all songs I know moderately to very well. So I'll be able to cover them all as intelligently as I do the rest of the songs. So here goes...
20 - "Fernando," ABBA
19 - "Nadia's Theme," Barry DeVorzon and Perry Botkin, Jr.
18 - "Muskrat Love," The Captain and Tennille
17 - "Beth," Kiss
16- "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," Blue Oyster Cult
We start off with another 70s hit machine making their BGC debut, the Swedish quartet that spawned Mamma Mia! In their first big hit, they compared falling in love to Napoleon's surrender at Waterloo. Here, they also go back into war history, as the song is sung from the point of view of a veteran of the 1910 Mexican Revolution reminiscing about combat with an old comrade. I don't think they try to make any comparisons to romance, though.
Next is the song that by this time had been the theme to The Young and the Restless for three years. But it wasn't the popularity of the soap that finally got it on the radio; rather, it was its use by ABC Sports to accompany footage of Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci at the Montreal Olympics that prompted a title change and the pressing of 45s. And Victor Newman has vowed revenge ever since (was he on the show then? I've never really watched it, but I know that guy's bad news).
The first of the ones I missed belongs to Toni Tennille and Daryl Dragon (why the hell did he feel the need to use a nickname with a real name that awesome?) It's a shame, really, because it would have had a real shot at the Uneasy Rider Award. It wouldn't have been a shoo-in, as you'll see when I reveal the winner, but come on. It's about muskrats! In love! Going on dates! Getting married! It even provides a euphemistic yet still evocative implication of muskrat sex! And there are even simulated muskrat chatters! But no, I'm not going to give the award to a song I didn't get to hear. It's paying for the sins of others, which isn't exactly fair, but hey, that's life.
Next are Kiss with a song the band didn't even play on. It's just drummer Peter "the Cat" Criss backed by piano and strings, singing about how he can't come home to his lady because he and his bandmates "just can't find the sound." I guess that's why they called in the orchestra. Poor Pete. He co-wrote and sang the band's biggest hit, which the rest of them got credit for even though they didn't do a damn thing on it, and yet he was, is, and always will be the least-loved member of the band's original lineup.
Rounding out this quintet are Blue Oyster Cult. "(Don't Fear) the Reaper" seems like the most likely reason for their section getting bumped by CKOC. what with its dark subject matter and those eeeeeeevil umlauts in their name. This song is now most closely associated with that Christopher Walken Saturday Night Live sketch in which he keeps demanding "more cowbell!" But I think more of its use of in the opening sequence of the miniseries of Stephen King's The Stand.
15 - "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," Gordon Lightfoot
14 - "Devil Woman," Cliff Richard
13 - "Magic Man," Heart
12 - "I Only Wanna Be With You," The Bay City Rollers
11 - "That'll Be the Day," Linda Ronstadt
We start with a Canadian folk legend and his epic ballad about a 1975 shipwreck on Lake Superior that killed all 29 men aboard. Apparently, new information from earlier this year that the wreck wasn't caused by crew error had caused him to change a line when he now performs it live. Good old Gord cares more about accuracy than some jounalists.
Okay, now we're back to what I heard last night. Cliff Richard was one of the first British rock stars, and over two decades, he had racked up dozens of hits in the UK. But he had only dented the U.S. chart a couple of times until he finally made the Top Ten with this state-of-the-art dance rocker about shady ladies and black cats. I often get it mixed up with ELO's "Evil Woman." I like the ELO song better overall, but I must admit I thought that stuttering guitar note in the middle of this one that sounds a bit like a heart monitor was pretty cool.
Ann and Nancy Wilson's band had their first Top Ten with this slinky rocker about a younger girl who just can't stay away from a seductive older man and his "magic hands" no matter how much her mama cries to her over the phone. Not quite "Barracuda," but I definitely liked this at five, and I still do.
Scotland's bubblegum heroes show up with a trifling cover of the Dusty Springfield classic. When Samantha Fox's version is better than yours, you know you sucked. And does anybody else remember that the Bay City Rollers had a Saturday morning show on NBC? I don't remember whether or not there was a cartoon aspect to it or it was just live-action. But I'm sure it sucked too. They should have quit after "Saturday Night." I did like that one.
We end this section with another cover, Linda Rondstadt's take on Buddy Holly. She did much better by the Everly Brothers with "When Will I Be Loved," both musically and on the charts. Just eight days until her old boyfriend finds out if he's going back to the governor's mansion in Sacramento.
Now the top ten...
10 - "Rock 'n Me," The Steve Miller Band
Ah, Steve Miller. He was all over the soundtrack to my childhood. I probably liked "Take the Money and Run" best, but this at least provided me with some early education in American city names. Phoenix, Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, L.A.
9 -"Love So Right," The Bee Gees
The Brothers Gibb went back to balladry in the midst of their disco makeover, and proved they could still do the slow thing by taking this to the Top Ten. It's kind of in between the folkie love of "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" and the more R&B-influenced romanticism of "How Deep is Your Love."
8 - "She's Gone," Daryl Hall and John Oates
This song was first released in 1974, but only hit #60. But two years later, they had a hit on a different record label with "Sara Smile," so their old label gave this another shot, and it paid off. This is the better of the two to me, but only "Rich Girl" is on my playlist.
7 - "Shake Your Booty," KC and the Sunshine Band
The song that popularized yet another synonym for the human hindquarters. Harry and the boys probably did a lot of the work to make disco safe for Middle America, from their happy-sounding name to their upbeat, poppy hits that were suggestive but not dangerously so. They may not have been great, but you've got to give them credit for finding a formula that worked.
6 - "Play That Funky Music," Wild Cherry
Wild Cherry's only hit reflected pop music overall, as it told of a "white boy" rocker who was eventually persuaded to "lay down the boogie." For some reason, it always reminds me of being in a launddromat in Welland with my parents. Vanilla Ice used the hook from this song for his first single, but radio stations ended up being enamored with the flip side, and that became his big smash. You know the one I'm talking about, and if you don't, well, word to your mother!
5 - "Still the One," Orleans
A big hit that would go on to be used as a slogan for ABC and in car commercials. Not much more to say.
4 - "Lowdown," Boz Scaggs
First of all, let us all agree that "Boz Scaggs" is a cool-ass name. And this white boy could play that funky music. Yes, this was very disco, complete with flute, but it was also gritty, soulful and cool.
3 - "A Fifth of Beethoven," Walter Murphy.
A disco version of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony that went all the way to the top, and later appeared on the Satruday Night Fever soundtrack, performed by a man who would later do a lot of the music for Family Guy. In a lot of weeks, the combination of classical music and dance floor decadence would take the Uneasy Rider Award, but this week, it loses out to...
2 - "Disco Duck," Rick Dees and his Cast of Idiots
Rick Dees was a popular DJ in Memphis when he recorded this novelty record about a shy guy who morphs into a suave, boogieing waterfowl who sounds a lot like Donald Duck. The song somehow became an international #1 smash, and Dees eventually moved to L.A. When the radio station he was at there lost the rights to American Top 40, Rick started his own nationally syndicated countdown show, Rick Dees' Weekly Top 40. Little did Casey know that while he was documenting the rise of Dees and his silly little hit, he was witnessing the birth of a future competitor in the chart show game.
And the song of all songs 35 years ago was...
1 - "If You Leave Me Now," Chicago
After years of having big but not chart-topping hits with lightweight-but-fun jazz pop, they went all sappy and were rewarded with their first #1. And that would be the direction they would follow for much of the rest of their career. Because we encouraged them then, we only have ourselves to blame for "You're the Inspiration."
The Extras this week were "Stand Tall," the biggest post-Guess Who hit for Burton Cummings; Leo Sayer's falsetto disco "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing;" and Rose Royce's smash theme from the movie Car Wash.
There's another week in the books. I now know where to look to find out what the chart will be a few days in advance, so now I can prepare myself. It's not up yet, but I'm hoping for maybe 1974.
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