The second half.
20 - "We Just Disagree," Dave Mason
19 - "Dusic," Brick
18 - "Do Ya Wanna Get Funky With Me," Peter Brown
17 - "You Make Lovin' Fun," Fleetwood Mac
16 - "Help is on Its Way," The Little River Band
We start with former Traffic member Dave Mason and his countryish ode to level-headed approaches to differences of opinion. Not a popular topic in song lyrics, but it somehow worked here.
Next are funksters Brick with "Dusic," which, near as I can figure, stands for "dance music." This is just your basic "get up and boogie" number. Fine, but nothing earth-shattering.
Disco footnote Peter Brown has a question for you, and for some reason, he's asking it in a rather angry tone. Or maybe he's just overcome with lust. Or possessed, because he does mention the devil a few times in this song. Whatever, I think this was played once on SCTV, so points for that.
Fleetwood Mac are here with one of the massive hits from Rumours. As I've said before, the Christine McVie hits were always my least favorites, but this is one of her better ones.
Ending this section are Australia's Little River Band with their first U.S. hit. Their bland pop/rock stylings let to a string of Top 40 records. I remember them, they were always on the radio for a four or five year period, then they went away and I didn't miss them. All I can say is that this one is much better than that "Reminiscing" song or the one where the guy says albatrosses and whales are his brothers.
15 - "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band," Meco
14 - "Brick House," The Commodores
13 - "That's Rock n' Roll," Shaun Cassidy
12 - "Just Remember I Love You," Firefall
11 - "Blue Bayou," Linda Ronstadt
Ah, Meco, we meet again. After his success with this, he would score three more Top 40 hits with discofications of music from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Wizard of Oz, and, yes, The Empire Strikes Back. But by the time he did Ewok Celebration, it was all over.
Next are The Commodores with another song that's become a cliche. But somehow, I can strip away all the cheesy contexts I've heard it in before and just give up to the funk. Ow! Mighty Migh-tay!
Shaun Cassidy is here again with his bland, teen idol take on 50s-style rock. Apparently, Eric Carmen wrote it. That man really lost all his cool after The Raspberries ended.
Firefall had their second-biggest hit with "Just Remember I Love You." Whoever the singer was singing this to probably didn't if all he did for her was write this boring-ass song.
Finally, Linda Ronstadt is back again, this time covering Roy Orbison. Obviously, she was never going to top the perpetually-sunglassed legend, but she did pretty well. She "made the song her own," as they say on Idol. Yeah, I watch that too.
Ici les Top Ten, mes amis...
10 - "We're All Alone," Rita Coolidge
Last time we visited this year, Rita was in the top ten covering Jackie Wilson. This time, she's back covering Boz Scaggs. I've never heard Boz's version, but it's gotta be better than this blandwich.
9 - "How Deep is Your Love," The Bee Gees
The first single from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack that would soon take over the airwaves and dance floors of the world. A bit surprising that they'd lead off with the ballad, but it worked, because it went to #1. It would have to wait a while to get there, though, as you'll learn later.
8 - "Heaven on the 7th Floor," Paul Nicholas
Basically, this is the disco precusor of Aerosmith's "Love in an Elevator," performed by British singer/actor Nicholas, who played Cousin Kevin in the movie version of Tommy and was the original Rum Tum Tugger in Cats. Now that's a career.
7 - "Baby, What a Big Surprise," Chicago
The band shows a little more spunk here than they did on "If You Leave Me Now," but still, they were well in bland ballad territory. No "Big Surprise" here.
6 - "I Feel Love," Donna Summer
The uberdiva of disco and producer Giorgio Moroder went electronic on this track that sounded to many like something out of the future at the time. Donna also stepped out of her vocal comfort zone by going with a falsetto. Can't deny it, it's one of her best.
5 - "Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue," Crystal Gayle
Ah yes, Crystal Gayle, Loretta Lynn's baby sister with the hair that went down to her heels. After a few coutry hits, she crossed over to pop with this jazzy ballad one imagines Patsy Cline would have recorded had she been around at the time. Of course, if you had a dirty mind, you might remove the "s" from "Eyes" and give the song a whole new meaning. But you're not that disgusting, are you?
4 - "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me," Barry White
Barry's last Top Ten. Very disco, but not quite up to some of his earlier hits. His voice just doesn't sound quite as smooth. Maybe it's just me.
3 - "Nobody Does it Better," Carly Simon
The then Mrs. James Taylor might not have been the most obvious choice to do a Bond theme, but she made it all the way to #2 with it, so it worked. Thom Yorke from Radiohead has said that this is the sexiest song ever written. With all due respect, Thom, no.
2 - "Boogie Nights," Heatwave
Last time we were in 1977, this led things off. This time, it almost closes the show. But in spite of its zeitgeist-friendly title, it fell short, partly because the top spot was in the process of being reserved exclusively for...
1 - "You Light Up My Life," Debby Boone
Pat's daughter's only Top 40 hit, the title song from a long-forgotten movie starring Didi "Frenchie" Conn, was in the fifth week of a then-record ten week run at the top. Debby, her dad, and country singer Red Foley (Pat's father-in-law) became the first three-generation dynasty of charttoppers. This song was playing when young couple Homer and Marge Simpson got engaged. Homer remarked that the guy Debby was singing about must be the happiest guy in the world. Marge said she thought that Debby was singing about God, to which Homer replied, "Oh, he's always happy. No wait, he's always mad." Anyway, this song is actually pretty good. Especially when performed by Patti Smith : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Agl4IvNnQPo
There were two NotCasey Extras: Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are," and Queen's "We Are the Champions." There were also a couple from Casey himself: "Mr. Bojangles," in honor of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's then-recent tour of the Soviet Union; and Freddy Fender's "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights," before which he once again told the story of how that song became a hit sixteen years after it was supposed to be.
Ah, another week done, and for once, I heard the whole countdown. I'm game for anything next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment