November 22, 1975 Part One

Back to '75. Another week in my sweet spot. Nice.

40 - "Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in L.A.)," Glen Campbell
39 - "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)," Diana Ross
38 - "I Write the Songs," Barry Manilow
37 - "For the Love of You," The Isley Brothers
36 - "The Last Game of the Season (The Blind Man in the Bleachers)," David Geddes
35 - "Fox on the Run," Sweet
34 - "Love Rollercoaster," The Ohio Players
33 - "Brazil," The Ritchie Family
32 - "I'm on Fire," 5000 Volts
31 - "Something Better to Do," Olivia Newton-John

We'll start off by talking about the easy-listening squad. Glen Campbell follows up the #1 "Rhinestone Cowboy" with a sequel of sorts. This is the story of a good ol' boy who finds that even though he's reached the pinnacle of fame, there still, in the words of Glen's previous hit, "a load of compomisin'." Barry Manilow is here yet again, claiming that he is music, and he writes the songs. Ironically, he didn't write this one. Beach Boy Bruce Johnston did. And at long last, Olivia Newton-John makes her BGC debut. I had a crush on her voice as a child, years before I saw her in Grease. Unfortuntately, I don't remember "Something Better to Do" very well, and it's pretty trifling and throwaway. But I'm sure she'll be back again, and I can sing her praises more extensively.

R&B has three representatives here. Diana Ross would get her third solo charttopper with the theme from her film follow-up to Lady Sings the Blues. Motown head Berry Gordy directed Mahogany. I never knew that. The Isley Brothers slow things down from their usual funk workouts with the smooth, Al Green-sounding "For the Love of You." And the Ohio Players compare your love to a rollercoaster, and they want to ride. And they make it sound like fun, so I would advise you to let them.

There are a couple pure disco records here. The Ritchie Family's version of "Brazil," was in our last '75 chart, and I have no more to say about it. British group 5000 Volts offer the okay "I'm on Fire." It's fast, the female lead singer has a nice rasp to her voice, and there's a deep male voice that jumps in on the choruses. If I were rating this record on American Bandstand, I'd give it a 73.

Rock's one rep in this section is Sweet with the incredibly catchy glam rocker "Fox on the Run." For singalong fun, only "Little Willy" beats it.

Finally, we have David Geddes. You might remember on our last trip to this year, he had the teenage melodrama "Run Joey Run." Well, that song is "Don't Worry, Be Happy" compared to this tearjerker. Set in the quintessentially American realm of high school football, it tells the story of a blind man who sits in the bleachers for all of his local team's games, by the loudspeaker, because he wants to hear the P.A. announcer call his son's name. But his son is one of the scrubs who never gets in the game, so the man's dream goes unfulfilled. The last game of the season comes around, and...the blind man isn't there. The home team are losing and being decimated by injuries when halftime comes around. During the break, the man's son receives a phone call, and is late coming back out for the second half. The coach is mad at him, but the kid tells him he was just getting ready, because now is finally his time to play. He gets on the field, and his inspired play helps the team come back to win. Later, the coach asks him what made him play like that all of a sudden, to which the kid answers that it's because his blind father died, and because he's in heaven, he finally got a chance to see his son play. Wow. This is this week's clear winner of the Uneasy Rider Award. It's hardly the only story song that aims to tug at the listener's heartstrings, but, to paraphrase one Lisa Simpson, this one pumps you so full of sap you feel like you need to blow your nose with a pancake.

30 - "I Love Music," The O'Jays
29 - "Bad Blood," Neil Sedaka
28 - "Secret Love," Freddy Fender
27 - "Venus and Mars/Rock Show," Wings
26 - "Do it Any Way You Wanna," The People's Choice
25 - "Our Day Will Come," Frankie Valli
24 - "I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You," Leon Haywood
23 - "S.O.S." ABBA
22 - "Operator," The Manhattan Transfer
21 - "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," Willie Nelson

This time, R&B kicks us off, although in all three cases, it has a strong disco hint to it. But I don't think the O'Jays would mind, since in this song, they claim to love all kinds of music "as long as it's groovin'" And the O'Jays never fail to groove. The People's Choice song is another repeater, and it's still just by-the-numbers disco-funk. And Leon Haywood has something in mind for you. The title doesn't quite make that something clear, but lyrics about wanting to "slide down into your canyon" might help.

Three 60s survivors are here. Neil Sedaka scored the second #1 of his mid-70s comeback by getting a little help from Elton John on one of the many songs that specifically reminds me of childhood car rides, "Bad Blood." Paul McCartney's other band is here with a bombastic ode to the huge concerts The Beatles stopped doing in 1966. If there's an example of the kind of "rock" punk sprung up as a reaction to, you can't do much better than a song that actually opens with the line "Sitting in the stand of the sports arena." And Frankie Valli (without the Four Seasons) decided to to a disco version of Ruby and the Romantics 1963 classic "Our Day Will Come." I guess you can't blame him, because it did go to #11. Oh hell, I'll blame him anyway.

1975 was a banner year for country artists on the pop charts, and there are two examples here. Freddy Fender ended his comeback year by following two Top Tens with a Top 20 remake of an Oscar-winning 1953 Doris Day hit. "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" is an even older song, dating back to the 40s, but it didn't come to prominence until Willie Nelson recorded it for his breakthrough Red-Headed Stranger album. The headband, the duet with Julio Iglesias, and the legend of his funny-smelling tour bus would follow.

We end with a couple of two-man, two-woman vocal groups. ABBA return with one of their most famous numbers, a distress call in the midst of a dying relationship. And the jazzy Manhattan Transfer made their breakthrough with the gospelly "Operator." They want the title professional to "get Jesus on the line." Of course, nowadays He only reads texts.

Tomorrow: one of my favorite songs from this year, the one good song by a band I otherwise have nothing good to say about, and the rare and elusive "double Garfunkel."