August 26, 1972 Part Two

Okay, here's the second half:


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?

August 26, 1972 Part One

Okay, we're going back a bit. I was one when this week's countdown originally aired, so the memories might not come as easy, and there are more completely unfamiliar songs. But I think I can still work this out. Here we go...


40 - "Honky Cat," Elton John
39 - "This World," The Staple Singers
38 - "Sweet Sensation/Where You Lead," Barbra Streisand
37 - "Run to Me," The Bee Gees
36 - "You're Still A Young Man," Tower of Power
35 - "Gone," Joey Heatherton
34 - "Pop That Thang," The Isley Brothers
33 - "Popcorn," Hot Butter
32 - "When You Say Love," Sonny and Cher
31 - "Lean On Me," Bill Withers


Okay, this isn't bad. Plenty of familiar names and sounds.


We'll start with artists who've appeared on one of the first two charts I covered. Sir Elton leads off by defiantly moving to the city to "quit those days and my redneck ways." Two spots later, Babs appears with an unconvincing attempt to prove herself an Aretha-style soul diva. Then it's the Bee Gees with one of their last hit ballads before they went to Miami and became a disco factory. Tower of Power are back, and I'm still not impressed. But the Isley Brothers redeem themselves for their future Swifffer atrocities with some solid funk. My thang indeed popped.

Two great names in soul are in this group. "This World," isn't as well-known as "I'll Take You There" or "Respect Yourself," but it's still well worth listening to. But I'm sure you've all heard "Lean on Me," at the very least in the form of the mid-80s cover version by Club Nouveau. But as familiar as it is, it's still affecting and powerful Bill Withers is, as the kids say, the shit.

There's a connection between songs 32 and 35. Sonny and Cher are in the former position with a song whose melody was ripped off from a Budweiser commercial. In 1975, the couple were split, and Cher had her own variety show. The summer replacement for her show was a show called Joey & Dad, and the "Joey" in the title was none other than Miss Heatherton, who was a talk-and-variety show regular for much of the sixties and seventies. And if you're as big a SCTV fan as I am, you'll know that she was the inspiration for Catherine O'Hara's Lola Heatherton character ("I want to BEAR YOUR CHILDREN! HAW HAW!"). I don't know if Joey did anything like that, but I did just learn that she starred in The Happy Hooker Goes To Washington.

Lastly, there's "Popcorn," a synthesizer instrumental that I'm sure sounded incredibly futuristic at the time, but now there are keyboards made for preschoolers that can produce more advanced sounds. But it's still fun, and I remember in my first few years of grade school we had a morning exercise program called the "Health Hustle," and this was one of the songs we performed it to.

30 - "Too Late to Turn Back Now," Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose
29 - "Small Beginnings," Flash
28 - "Go All The Way," The Raspberries
27 - "Power of Love," Joe Simon
26 - "How Do You Do?" Mouth and MacNeal
25 - "Baby, Let Me Take You In My Arms," The Detroit Emeralds
24 - "Beautiful Sunday," Daniel Boone
23 - "Black and White," Three Dog Night
22 - "Join Together," The Who
21 - "School's Out," Alice Cooper

Let me start with "Small Beginnings," I had never heard it, and I'd never heard of Flash. Now that I have...I wasn't missing anything.

Three Dog Night are here, singing about racial harmony. Nice enough to have on the radio in the background, but they've got better songs.

There are three soul songs in this group. The only one I'd heard of before was "It's Too Late To Turn Back Now," which is just all right. The other two were new to me, and they were okay too. One thing I am learning is that for a guy I was barely aware of, Joe Simon had a lot of hits.

I'm grouping songs 28, 26 and 24 together for no good reason. The Raspberries appear with a pop-rock classic that some found too sexually suggestive at the time, and which features Eric Carmen before he went all sappy. I'd never heard this Mouth and MacNeal song, but apparently they were a male/female Dutch duo, and the guy sounded a bit like Joe Cocker. As for Daniel Boone (shockingly not his real name), I really do remember hearing his sunny pop hit on the radio as a child, and thus, I like it more than I probably would otherwise.

And we'll end with spots 22 and 21, which is where this week's classic rock "Double Shot" appears, unlike the last two weeks when it's been at 20 and 19. The Who turn in an energetic post-Who's Next effort, and Alice Cooper concludes the first half of the 40 with the song that just seems to pop up on radios everywhere at the end of June for some reason. And yes, I think he did this one on The Muppet Show, too.

Tune in within the next 48 hours or so for Part Two, which inculdes many more artists who've been in the first two charts, the song that swiped the Uneasy Rider Award from "Popcorn," and one of my most-hated songs of this decade, if not all time.

August 27, 1977 Part Two

Before I run down the second half of this countdown, I must tell you that I was nearly thwarted in my mission to bring you this chart in its entirety. After #18 came Casey's special tribute to the then-recently-deceased Elvis Presley (which I'll go into later), and then commercials. Coming back from the break, I was ready for the countdown to continue when I hear the next song; War's "Gypsy Man," which you'll recall was on last week's chart from four years earlier. That whole block from last week's countdown played until the top of the hour, when the 1977 chart resumed...at Number 13. So I missed four songs. Fortunately, after some digging, I found a PDF of the playlist for this episode on the website of a Saginaw, Michigan radio station, so I was able to fill in the blanks. Three of those four songs I'm reasonably familiar with, so all in all, I think I'll manage pretty well.

So now, back to the countdown...

20 - "Cold As Ice," Foreigner

19 - "Black Betty," Ram Jam

18 - "Telephone Man," Meri Wilson
17 - "How Much Love" Leo Sayer
16 - "Star Wars (Main Title)" John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra




For the second week in a row, classic rock holds down spots 20 and 19. First there's Foreigner with one of their iconic hits. That piano-pounding opening is unmistakeable, and Lou Gramm has the perfect voice for this genre. Then, it's one-hit wonders Ram Jam with their raucous cover of Leadbelly's "Black Betty." It's fun, dumb southern rock cheese (although the band wasn't southern), and the band's name may or may not have inspired the name of Randy Robinson's finishing move in the movie The Wrestler.


Up next is "Telephone Man," which gets this week's "Uneasy Rider Award" for oddest song on this week's chart. I'm not sure if I remember hearing this at the time, but it certainly stands out now. Under a jazzy bed of bass, organ and finger snaps, Wilson, in a breathy, girlish voice that goes back and forth between Californian and Southern accents for some reason, sings ostensibly about moving into a new apartment and having a guy come in and install a phone. But a close listen to the lyric and the delivery seems to imply that it may not have been a telephone that this guy was putting in for her, wink wink. Basically, it's the female version of Chuck Berry's "My Ding-a-Ling," only half as long.


Okay, now we start on the songs I missed. I remember Leo Sayer. White British guy with an Afro, wore suspenders, often sang in falsetto, hosted a Muppet Show. But I'm drawing a blank on this particular song, "How Much Love." Had it been "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" or "When I Need You," I would have been good to go, but this one, sorry, I got nothin'.


Lastly in this group, there's the second appearance of the Star Wars theme. This one's the original, though. I don't remember it getting radio play, but I guess it did, because it eventually got to the top ten. I'm pretty sure I hadn't seen the movie yet at this time. I don't think I saw it until it was re-released the next year (that's what they did with blockbuster movies before home video, premium cable, and pay-per-view, kids).


15 - "Give A Little Bit," Supertramp
14 - "Smoke From A Distant Fire," The Sanford-Townsend Band
13 - "Telephone Line," Electric Light Orchestra
12 - "Barracuda," Heart
11 - "I'm In You," Peter Frampton


This fivesome begins with Supertramp's biggest hit before they rocketed into the stratosphere with Breakfast In America. It's too earnest for my tastes. I'm more of a "Bloody Well Right" kind of guy.


I kind of remember "Smoke From A Distant Fire," but I thought it was by Pablo Cruise or Orleans or someone like that. Nah, just another 70s one-hit wonder.


Okay, now we're back to what I actually heard last night with "Telephone Line." EL fucking O, man. They were another constant of my youthful radio listening. "Evil Woman" was probably my favorite then, though I've grown to really love "Mr. Blue Sky." This one's all right too, and the phone sound effects are a nice touch.


Heart are next. I love "Barracuda." I have a soft spot for women singing hard rock, and I could make a case that this is the greatest female-fronted hard rock song ever. If they had broken up in say, 1979, I'd remember them a lot more fondly. Instead, I had to endure their schlocky, overproduced 80s incarnation that culminated in that ghastly song about the woman who gets some random guy to knock her up because her husband shoots blanks. Oh well, I'll just crank "Barracuda" up louder to get that out of my head.


Finally, we get the title track from Peter Frampton's first album after the monster-selling, talk-box-popularizing Frampton Comes Alive. It's a decent piano ballad, and it was a pretty big hit, but the album didn't come close to the previous record's sales, and then it was all downhill. And to top it off, years later, Sonic Youth stole watermelon from his cooler (and there's you're obligatory Simpsons reference for the week.).


And now, the Top Ten...


10 - "Strawberry Letter 23," The Brothers Johnson
A pop-funk classic with semi-psychedelic lyrics about hearing kisses and cherry clouds. I like it, though I still wonder why the song's called "Strawberry Letter 23," when the lyrics only mention "Strawberry Letter 22."


9 - "Don't Stop," Fleetwood Mac
Bill Clinton's future campaign song, from a band that, unlike him, most definitely inhaled. It's bouncy and positive. I'm sure six-year-old me loved it, oblivious to the coke-fuelled relationship drama that created it and the rest of the Rumours album.


8 - "Float On," The Floaters
It would be easy to describe this as "floaty," so I will. It's an R&B ballad where each of the four Floaters takes a verse and sings their name, star sign, and what they like in a woman. The pop single as personal ad.


7- "Just A Song Before I Go," Crosby Stills and Nash
Glossy, state of the art MOR from the 60s survivors. Not a surprise that Young wasn't involved. "Ohio," it's not.


6 - "Whatcha Gonna Do?" Pablo Cruise.
Pablo Cruise were one of those bands that were always on the radio, but you could never imagine anyone being sufficiently moved to actually buy one of their records, let alone see them live. It's background music. When I try to play it back in my head, it always morphs into "Whatcha Gonna Do When I'm Gone" by the Canadian band Chilliwack.


5 - "Handy Man," James Taylor
In 1975, James Taylor decided to try applying his dry, folk voice to an R&B classic. The result, "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You), was a huge hit, so he decided to try it again two years later. only this time, he went even drier and folkier. The result: an even bigger hit. Meh, whatever works, I guess.


4 - "Easy," The Commodores
This was definitely the first impression Lionel Richie and company made on me, and it was a good one. Smooth, catchy, just great. I like that Faith No More covered it pretty much straight up. They knew enough not to fuck with perfection.


3 - "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher," Rita Coolidge
Hmm..according to Wikipedia, Rita Coolidge was involved with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash in the early 70s, and some say her leaving one for the other helped break up CSNY. Wow, that's much more interesting than this limp Jackie Wilson cover.


2 - "I Just Want To Be Your Everything," Andy Gibb
Andy Gibb. That's one example of an act being really huge but the songs not standing the test of time at all. I listen to this, and to "Shadow Dancing," which was #1 on a 1978 chart that was on a few weeks ago, and I honestly don't see anything about them that would appeal to anyone. I'm sorry. He wasn't bad as the host of Solid Gold (remember that?) and it's incredibly sad that he died at 30, but his music came with an expiry date.


And the number one song in the U.S.A thirty-two years ago was...


1 - "Best Of My Love," The Emotions
A disco classic, produced by a guy from Earth Wind and Fire. I'm sure it's filling a dance floor somewhere in the world even today. This song actually had a back and forth battle with "I Just Want To Be Your Everything." for the top spot for two months. But in terms of staying power, no contest.


This week's "AT40 Extras," were the Commodores' mighty, mighty "Brick House," and a couple of soft rock sleepers, Paul Davis' "I Go Crazy" and "Just Remember I Love You" by Firefall. And as I mentioned earlier, Casey took time out from the chart to pay tribute to Elvis, who had died just weeks earlier. He reflected on Elvis' impact on music and pop culture in general, then he played his favorite Elvis track, a live-in-Vegas version of "Suspicious Minds." For some reason, Casey felt he needed to apologize for this choice: "It's an 'up' sound," he said, "but that's the way I'd like to remember Elvis."


So thus ends Week Two of this little adventure. I'm still into it, so I'll be back next week. Keep grounded and reaching.

August 27, 1977 Part One

Okay, this week might be better as far as provoking memories. It's the summer I was 6 and about to start Grade 1. And we're in the heart of the disco era. This shapes up to be a fun one. So here we go...


40 - "Boogie Nights," Heatwave
39 - "Nobody Does It Better," Carly Simon
38 - "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band," Meco
37 - "My Heart Belongs To Me," Barbra Streisand
36 - "Hard Rock Cafe," Carole King
35 - "It Was Almost Like A Song," Ronnie Milsap
34 - "So You Win Again," Hot Chocolate
33 - "You Made Me Believe In Magic," The Bay City Rollers
32 - "Slide," Slave
31 - "Undercover Angel," Alan O'Day


Yeah, quite a few of these tunes are hard-wired into my brain, for better or worse.


We'll start with three songs that have connections to the 1973 chart I reviewed last week. First, there's "Nobody Does It Better." Last week Paul McCartney's Bond theme was second the top, this week Carly Simon's is second from the bottom. Then there's Carole King, who was not who I expected to be the first artist from the last chart to reappear here, with "Hard Rock Cafe," a song that for some reason she decided should sound a lot like "La Bamba." And finally, there's Hot Chocolate, whose "Brother Louie," was last week's #1 for the American band Stories (A correction: Hot Chocolate's "Brother Louie" did not go to number one in Britain. Their only U.K. charttopper was, it so happens, the song here, "So You Win Again.")


Disco, of course, is present and correct in this group, starting right off the bat with "Boogie Nights," a song which for some reason was saved for the second volume of the soundtrack of a certain late-90s Mark Wahlberg movie. Two spots later, there's Meco's discofied version of the "Star Wars" theme, which, given its combination of two such dominant phemomena, would go all the way to the top. And this quarter's last four entries all have the disco sound to some degree; the Hot Chocolate; "You Made Me Believe In Magic," one of the last gasps of success for Scotland's bubblegum heroes, the Bay City Rollers; Slave's "Slide," more funk than straight-up disco, but I'm sure many a Hustle was done to its strains; and Alan O'Day's not-as-sexy-as-it-thinks-it-is, "Undercover Angel." I must admit that the latter was one of my favorite songs at the time of it's popularity. I think I liked the "I said WHOA!/She said "Ooh-ooh-ooh-wee." part best. My taste has always been questionable.


The other two songs in this group are "My Heart Belongs To Me," a big Barbra Streisand ballad in the "The Way We Were"/"Evergreen" vein, and "It Was Almost Like A Song," a tender love song by blind country singer Ronnie Milsap.


30 - "That's Rock n' Roll," Shaun Cassidy
29 - "Don't Worry Baby," B.J. Thomas
28 - "Edge of the Universe," Bee Gees
27 - "Christine Sixteen," Kiss
26 - "You're My World," Helen Reddy
25 - "You and Me," Alice Cooper
24 - "Keep It Comin' Love," KC and the Sunshine Band
23 - "Do Ya Wanna Make Love?" Peter McCann
22 - "Swayin' To The Music (Slow Dancing)," Johnny Rivers
21 - "On and On," Stephen Bishop

This quarter is dominated by the middle of the road. B.J. Thomas sucks everything interesting out of a Beach Boys classic. Helen Reddy's back, but this cover of a sixties hit by Cilla Black is no "Angie Baby" (yes, I'm going to mention that song every time she comes up until the song itself shows up and I can celebrate its awesomeness. And if she hadn't been on this chart, I would have mentioned it anyway, because it was written by Alan "Undercover Angel" O'Day). Peter McCann asks an important question, Johnny Rivers' causes narcolepsy and makes one long to hear "Secret Agent Man," and Stephen Bishop warns us all about thieving, heartbreaking Jamaican women.

Two heavily made-up rock acts appear here. Kiss, with reality TV and branded condoms and caskets still far in the future, turn in a nice rocker in "Christine Sixteen." But Alice Cooper was only reaching the charts with ballads at this point, and his entry here is a sweet ode to someone to whom he can come home from a long day and just watch TV and eat popcorn with. Not exactly what one expects from the man who used to decapitate himself onstage nightly, but then again, Frank Sinatra apparently sang this once at the Hollywood Bowl, and that probably was never going to happen to, say, "Dead Babies." Oh yes, and Alice did this on that Muppet Show episode I mentioned last week. I wonder if there will always be so many week-to-week connections like this.

There are two acts known for disco in this group, but only one actually brings the dancing shoes. Harry Casey and his Miami-based hit machine kept the booties shaking with "Keep It Comin' Love." As for the Bee Gees, this wasn't one of their more memorable moments. "Edge of the Universe," was a forgettable track that was the only single off of a live album. But to say that bigger things were right around the corner would be an understatement.

I'll end my discussion of this section with the beginning: "That's Rock n' Roll," a faux-retro rocker by the teen idol du jour, Shaun Cassidy. I don't remember which of the Hardy Boys he played, and I refuse to look it up. David was the better singer anyway.

Okay, there's the first half of the chart. Tune in tomorrow (probably) when I cover the second half of the countdown, which proved to be more of a challenge than I'd imagined.

August 25, 1973 Part Two

Okay, the wait is over. Here's my take on the second half of this week's chart.

20 -"Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting," Elton John

19 - "We're An American Band," Grand Funk Railroad

18 - "Gypsy Man," War

17 -"Are You Man Enough?" The Four Tops

16 - "Loves Me Like A Rock," Paul Simon



The Top 20 kicks off with two staples of many a classic rock station's playlist. First, there's the future Sir Elton, who at this point in time may have been the dominant artist in all of pop music, with his buzzsaw ode to drinking and brawling. It's followed by Grand Funk Railroad's timeless document of rock n' roll road debauchery. I don't know about you, but I can't think of Grand Funk Railroad without hearing Homer Simpson in my head describing, "the wild, shirless lyrics of Mark Farner, the bong-rattling bass of Mel Schacher," and last but not least, "the competent drum work of Don Brewer."



Up next is War's "Gypsy Man," which is all right, but one listen makes clear why it isn't remembered as well as "Low Rider" or "Why Can't We Be Friends."



Next is a post-Motown Four Tops hit. "Are You Man Enough?" can't quite compete with the best of their 60s output, but it's still a fun, swaggering number. Before introducing the song, Casey tells us that if he were a singer, he'd want a voice that was a cross between lead Top Levi Stubbs' and Frank Sinatra's, with a little Neil Diamond thrown in. Thanks for sharing, Casey!



Rounding out this group is the gospel inflected "Loves Me Like A Rock." I believe my first memory of this song was hearing Paul Simon perform it with Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem on The Muppet Show. Which was cool, but nowhere near as mind-blowingly awesome as, say, the Alice Cooper episode.



15 - "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)," Al Green

14 - "If You Want Me To Stay," Sly and the Family Stone

13 - "Monster Mash," Bobby "Boris" Pickett

12 - "I Believe In You (You Believe In Me)," Johnnie Taylor

11 - "Feelin' Stronger Every Day," Chicago




We kick off with the one and only Reverend Green. I'm ashamed to admit that before Sunday night, I'd only heard UB40's version of this. Needless to say, this blows that out of the water.


Then there's Sly and The Family Stone's last big hit before things went south for the band and Sly himself. They were a groundbreaking group in so many ways, and it's good that their last impression with many casual music fans stands up with some of their best work.


I know what you're thinking, "Didn't 'Monster Mash' come out in the early 60s?" I did too, and we're all right, it did. 1962 to be precise. But apparently, it was re-released in 1973, and here it is. Why they didn't put it out closer to, you know, Halloween, I can't say.


To be honest, the Johnnie Taylor song didn't make much of an impression on me, as I was out of the room for much of it. I do know he was a big artist on the influential Stax label, and he later had his biggest hit with a song called "Disco Lady." So there's some pertinent info.


And at the end of this portion of the chart, there's Chicago, back when they were known for upbeat, horn-drenched tunes instead of the sappy ballads of their later years. This song is just okay for the most part, but at the end, it kicks in and sounds to these ears like a pretty fun party.


And now, ladies and gentlemen, the Top Ten:


10 - "Bad Bad Leroy Brown," Jim Croce
Everyone knows this tale of the "baddest man in the whole damn town." I definitely remember Jim Croce's raspy voice on this coming out of various radios in my first few years of existence. What I didn't know was that although the story is fictional, Croce was inspired to write it by an actual Leroy Brown, who was briefly his Army roommate. According to Casey, this made it the second song with a real person's name in the title to hit #1 on the Billboard chart, after "The Ballad of Davy Crockett."


9 - "Uneasy Rider," Charlie Daniels
This one I'd never heard before, but I'm glad I have now. First of all, yes, this is "The Devil Went Down To Georgia," Charlie Daniels. In this song, which is similar in tempo and delivery to Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue," the narrator, a pot-smoking hippie, gets a flat tire on his peace sign-bedecked car in Mississippi, and while he waits for it to get fixed, he goes into a bar populated by people who don't approve of his appearance and opinions. Facing a beating, he points at one of his would-be attackers and accuses him of being an undercover spy who sympathizes with lefties and communists. While the accused defends himself to his peers, the narrator escapes, jumps into his now-repaired car, and chases the enraged locals around the parking lot before fleeing. It's a very funny song, but very much of its time. And of Charlie's, for years later, when his political views swung to the right, he recorded a different version of this song set in a gay bar.


8 - "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose?" - Dawn featuring Tony Orlando
Ah, Tony Orlando and Dawn. Remember their variety show? I do. This is probably the most musically interesting of their hits, a ragtime-style tale of a man looking for his lost love whom he fears has fallen into the disreputable profession of dancing while wearing nothing but "rings on her fingers and bells on her toes." Awesome.


7 -"Get Down," Gilbert O' Sullivan
Easily the most successful musician named after two operetta composers. Apparently, he's no longer suicidal like he was in "Alone Again (Naturally)." Now, he's angry at an ex-lover. Or a dog. Or something.


6 - "Delta Dawn," Helen Reddy
Helen is right up there with The Carpenters on my list of 70s MOR acts I'm not ashamed to admit to liking. She was an easy-listening subversive. Obviously, there was "I Am Woman," but the reason I love her so is the trio of psychosexual melodramas that I affectionately refer to as "The Crazy Lady Trilogy." It started with this, the story of a 41-year-old woman who wanders around her Tennessee town every day wearing the same clothes and carrying a suitcase, waiting for a "handsome brown-haired man" who never comes to take her to his "mansion in the sky." This was followed by the similarly-themed "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)", and then, best of all, "Angie Baby," the unparallelled magnificence of which I will detail when and if it appears on a future chart.


5 - "The Morning After," Maureen McGovern
Aka "The song from The Poseidon Adventure." It won the Best Song Oscar, but that was before it became a radio hit. A record executive decided to put out a single version to cash in on the movie's success, but instead of using the singer from the movie, he hired McGovern, an aspiring singer who was then working as a secretary, to record it. And the rest is history.


4 - "Let's Get It On," Marvin Gaye.
This song has unfortunately devolved into cliche shorthand for "someone's about to/wants to have sex," to the point where those opening guitar squeals make me cringe. No question it's great, but pop culture has just wrung the enjoyment out of it for me.


3 - "Touch Me In The Morning," Diana Ross
A big, dramatic production, typical of Miss Ross' immediate post-Supremes output. You can almost hear the ego. Not that this is a bad thing per se. She was never meant to be part of a group, and it's a miracle she shared the spotlight as long as she did. The history of the modern pop diva, it could be argued, starts with her.


2 - "Live And Let Die," Wings
Like many children of the seventies (I assume/hope), it was several years before I grasped the fact that Paul McCartney was in a band before this one. Wings were a radio constant throughout my single-digit childhood, and while some of their output from this time is hard to defend (though I will not be moved from my love of "Silly Love Songs" or "Let 'em In"), this song isn't. It's arguably the best Bond theme ever, though I have "A View To A Kill" by Duran Duran right there with it. My taste sucks. I admit it.


And the most popular song in the United States of America for the week ending August 25, 1973 was...



1 - "Brother Louie," Stories
I must admit, although I was familiar with this song, I never imagined it was actually a Number 1 single. I guess the combination of the controversial topic of interracial romance and a Rod Stewart soundalike singer hit the Summer of '73 sweet spot. I also didn't know that it was a cover of a British Number 1 from earlier in the year by the band Hot Chocolate (best known on this side of the Atlantic for "You Sexy Thing"). My, this has been a learning experience.

Well, that's the countdown. I should also mention that three times during the show, a non-Casey voice introduced "AT40 Extras." These were songs that weren't in the Top 40 yet but were about to be. This week featured Cher's "Half-Breed," (which like "Brother Louie" would eventually top the chart. '73 was a good year for songs about victims of racism.) the Allman Brothers' Band's now-extremely-familiar "Ramblin' Man," and "Keep on Truckin'" by former Temptation Eddie Kendricks.

Well, there it is, my first run-through of a decades-old music ranking. I think it went well enough that I'll try it again. Hopefully I'll be able to post earlier in the week. If you enjoyed this, I'll see you then.

Introduction/August 25, 1973 Part One

Hi, I'm Bobby Glovehead, and welcome to my exciting new project.

I recently discovered that a local radio station was playing reruns of Casey Kasem's American Top 40 from the 1970s every Sunday night. This captured my attention for two reasons. First, the music of this decade was the soundtrack of my first eight years and ten months of existence, and many of its songs are associated in my mind with car rides, family gatherings, mornings before school, etc., etc. Secondly, in the summer of 1980, I started listening to Casey's coast-to-coast countdown of the biggest hits in the USA every week. Why? Probably a mixture of things; a fascination with lists and rankings, hearing a few songs that didn't get to Canada (where I live) because of homegrown content quotas, general nerdiness, and of course, the smooth, strangely familiar voice of Casey himself (It was a few years before I figured out that the same guy who counted down the hits every week was also the voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo and Robin on Super Friends).

So I've been listening for the last few weeks, and now I've gotten the bright idea that I should do weekly recaps of the show while sharing my thoughts about the songs and the artists and the memories they invoke in me, along with interesting tidbits I look up, as well as my general thoughts about 70s music, countdowns and charts, and Casey Kasem himself. I'm not sure who I think the audience for this would be, but I'm never really sure of anything, so why would that stop me?

So here goes. This one's a little late, so forgive me. I'm breaking it up into two parts, which is probably going to be standard operating practice.

On with the countdown...

4o - "Future Shock," Curtis Mayfield

39 - "So Very Hard to Go," Tower of Power

38 - "There It Is," Tyrone Davis

37 - "Natural High," Bloodstone

36 - "Behind Closed Doors," Charlie Rich

35 - "My Maria," B.W. Stevenson

34 - "Theme from 'Cleopatra Jones,'" Joe Simon and the Main Streeters

33 - "Nobody Wants You When You're Down and Out," Bobby Womack

32 - "Why Me?" Kris Kristofferson

31 - "The Hurt," Cat Stevens

Interesting. I had expected this chart to contain a lot of middle-of-the-road stuff, but this first quarter is dominated by soul and R&B, with country riding shotgun.

On the soul front, there's two legendary voices in Mayfield and Womack, bringing there usual brilliance. I'd never heard of Tyrone Davis and Bloodstone before, and neither of their songs here compelled me to dig further into their catalogues. I'd also never heard the theme from the blaxploitation flick Cleopatra Jones. It's quite good, although unlike similar odes to Shaft and Superfly, this one's less about the title subject's badassness than the singer's infatuation with her. As for Tower of Power, I don't have much to say, except that I can't think of them without being reminded of a former bass player of theirs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Conte

As for the country, you've got "Behind Closed Doors," a sensual classic from the man known as the Silver Fox; Kristofferson's anguished prayer for redemption, and the much-lesser-known Stevenson's biggest hit, featuring a chorus in which he practically yodels the name of his titular object of desire.

There is one representative of the decade's easy-listening brigade, but this particular Cat Stevens song is quite uptempo and R&B-influenced. "Moonshadow" it ain't. So that leaves this quarter of the chart surprisingly MOR-free. Where's John Denver when you need him?

30 - "Believe In Humanity," Carole King

29 - "I Was Checkin' Out, She Was Checkin' In," Don Covay

28 - "Shambala," Three Dog Night

27 - "That Lady, Parts 1 and 2," The Isley Brothers

26 - "Yesterday Once More," The Carpenters

25 - "Young Love," Donny Osmond

24 - "Diamond Girl," Seals and Crofts

23 - "Smoke on the Water," Deep Purple

22 - "How Can I Tell Her?" Lobo

21 - "Angel," Aretha Franklin

Ah, here we go. Carole King, Seals and Crofts, Lobo, and those eternal titans of dentist office waiting rooms everywhere, Karen and Richard Carpenter.

Seriously, though, the first three I mentioned didn't do much for me. This is a boring, hippy-dippy post-Tapestry King track. Lobo (who was apparently one guy, not a group) only matters to me when he's singing about a dog named Boo. And Seals and Crofts...ugh. However, I am unapologetic about digging the Carpenters. Karen is on my list of what I call "phone book singers," and they usually chose songs like this one that she could really hit out of the park and sell. It's not my favorite of theirs, though. That honor goes to their fantastically out-of-character cover of Klaatu's "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft."

R&B makes its presence felt again in this batch with three songs. Another legend shows up in the form of Aretha's gorgeous ballad "Angel." The Isley Brothers are no less legendary, but their contribution to this week's chart loses many points for its current ubiquity in Swiffer commercials, particularly a very disturbing one which implies impending sexual intercourse between a mop and a pink bowling ball. And then there's a hidden gem in Don Covay's "I Was Checkin' Out, She Was Checkin' In." I'd never heard it before, but now I rank it right up there with "Me and Mrs. Jones" in the annals of R&B adultery ballads. And perhaps it should get extra points, because in it, both Mrs. and Mr. Jones have things going on.

Classic rock makes its first appearance with "Smoke on the Water." We all know the riff, and most people also know that the lyric was inspired by a fire at a Swiss casino where Deep Purple were recording. I have nothing to add.

Then there's Donny Osmond, the Justin Bieber of his day (perhaps not, but if menitoning that nane gets one extra page view, I'll stand by the comparison. This is a cover of an old country song, and Donny's voice is starting to change, so it's no surprise that this wasn't one of his bigger hits.

Finally, there's Three Dog Night. To me, they were the forerunners to a band like Matchbox Twenty, in that they were a hugely successful "rock" group, but I have trouble finding one instance in their popular catalogue (and I have no intention of digging into either band's deep tracks, sorry) where they actually "rocked" by any stretch of the imagination. However, I must admit that 3DN (as I'm sure they would be frequently referred to if they were new today) had several catchy hits, and some of them put money into the pockets of songwriters like Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman. So those guys are all right by me. I'll gladly take "Shambala" over anything by Rob Thomas and his bland, I mean band, no, wait, I had it right the first time.

And on that note, I'll end Part One. If you liked this, or just want to know what happens in the second half of the chart, be back here sometime tomorrow for the conclusion. And to quote the man himself, "Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars."