Picking up where we left off.
20 - "Kung Fu Fighting," Carl Douglas
19 - "Best of My Love," The Eagles
18 - "Bungle in the Jungle," Jethro Tull
17 - "Get Dancin'," Disco Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes
16 - "Rock n' Roll (I Gave You All The Best Years of My Life)," Mac Davis
We start off with one-hit wonder Carl Douglas and his tribute to films that feature the likes of "funky Billy Chin and funky Sammy Chong" engaging in martial-arts combat. Douglas has claimed that he wrote the song under the combined influence of Kung Fu movies, the music of jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, and painkillers. Hey, whatever works.
Then it's the Eagles with another of their country-rock nuggets. Again, the Eagles are just all right with me. I won't shut off the radio when one of their songs comes on, but I don't have to idle in the driveway until it ends.
Two weeks, two Jethro Tull songs. And they only had two Top 40 hits, so hmmmmm. Anyway, these lyrics don't make a lot of sense, although I think I understand why he's a tiger when he wants love and a snake when he's disagreed with.
Monti Rock III (not his real name) was a high-profile hairdresser whose flamboyant personality landed him appearances on The Merv Griffin Show and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and eventually led to a career as a recording artist and performer. The highlight of this career was his leadership of Disco Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes, whose major claim to fame is this early disco hit. Lyrically, it's not much, with a lot of "doot-da, doot-da"s, and Rock's rapid-fire exhortations to boogie during the instrumental breaks. But a catchy, memorable artifact from the era nonetheless, which was later performed during a football halftime show by the clean-cut youth group Hooray for Everything.
Last in this group is Mac Davis, looking back on how rock influenced him and caused him to try and make a go of it himself, only to be eventually led back to country by a lady. I remember it, but I don't care.
15 - "Some Kind of Wonderful," Grand Funk
14 - "Pick up the Pieces," The Average White Band
13 - "Doctor's Orders," Carol Douglas
12 - "Only You," Ringo Starr
11 - "Fire," The Ohio Players
Grand Funk (no Railroad on this one, for some reason) were near the end of their run when they put out this cover of a song by the Soul Brothers Six. More decent, crowd-pleasing rawk.
Scotland's Average White Band made their biggest impression on the world with this (mostly) instrumental that I'm sure everyone recognizes the moment they hear it, even though they might not know what it's called. Simply one of the great grooves of all time.
Carol Douglas has an interesting background to say the least. Her mother was a jazz performer who may have inspired the Cab Calloway song "Minnie the Moocher." Sam Cooke was a cousin. And Carol herself went to a performing arts high school, where her classmates included Bernadette Peters and Patty Duke. Her one moment of her own was this disco hit, where she claims being without her lover is literally making her sick. Romance has a downside, apparently.
Ringo Starr is here covering a Platters classic. He doesn't quite sound like himself as he tries to take this one on, but he gives a brave attempt. So that makes three ex-Beatles on this week's chart. Will we complete the set?
Finally it's the Ohio Players with another hit slab of funk. This was later covered by Canadian hair-wavers Platinum Blonde. Ah, 80s CanCon, you've warped me so.
These ten are tops, Pops:
10 - "Never Can Say Goodbye," Gloria Gaynor
Before achieving immortality with the now-cliched declaration of defiance "I Will Survive," Gaynor made a great impression on me with this cover of a Jackson 5 hit. This was a favorite of mine back then, and it still is. I'll take it over that other song any day. And it also has the distinction of being the first ever #1 on Billboard's Disc0/Dance Music chart.
9 - "Morning Side of the Mountain," Donny and Marie Osmond
This cover of a Tommy Edwards hit from the 50s by the future variety show co-hosts sounded horribly old-fashioned even then. And creepy. Siblings singing as star-crossed lovers is just wrong.
8 - "One Man Woman/One Woman Man," Paul Anka and Odia Coates
Anka is back with "Having My Baby," duet partner Coates, and this time, she gets credit. I should hope so, since he's gone from worshipping her for carrying his child to being a cheating dog. And yet in the end, she takes him back. Sucker.
7 - "Junior's Farm," Paul McCartney and Wings
And there's you're Beatles reunion. This is chugging rock with nonsensical lyrics, which is fine with me. They can't all be "Yesterday."
6 - "Boogie On Reggae Woman," Stevie Wonder
More of Stevie's awesome electrofunk, although he's done much better. Not sure if this is the first song to hit the U.S. charts with the word "reggae" in the title, though I'd at least bet it was the first to get this high. Still, when I think "reggae" and "Stevie Wonder," I'll always think "Master Blaster (Jammin')" first.
5 - "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," Elton John
Yes, I admit it, I was first introduced to this Sgt. Pepper track by Sir Elton. And I probably still prefer it to the original, if I'm honest. But at least John Lennon sang backup on this version, so there is Beatle on it.
4 - "You're the First, the Last, My Everything," Barry White
Until later in life, this was the Barry White song I knew best. And it's not a bad calling card to have. It's got the smoothness of his bass voice, and the pleading desperation of his higher register. Still my favorite.
3 - "Laughter in the Rain," Neil Sedaka
The 50s and 60s hitmaker's 70s comeback broke through when he signed to Elton John's Rocket label and hit #1 with this tune about the joys of walking with a special someone while it's pouring. Pretty good, but for me, Neil is best when singing "Bad Blood." Or getting blown up real good by Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok.
2 - "Please Mr. Postman," The Carpenters
Covering a Marvelettes classic might not have seemed like the best artistic move for our old friends Karen and Richard, but you should never doubt Karen's ability to sell a song, no matter who did it before. Could have done without the Jamaican accent near the end, though.
And the number one single of 36 years ago this week was...
1 - "Mandy," Barry Manilow
Everybody knows that Barry wrote this, his first hit, about his dog, right? Well, wrong. And wrong. This song was a 1971 U.K. hit for its author, Scott English, and was originally entitled "Brandy." But when record executive Clive Davis suggested that Manilow record it, Barry decided to change the name to avoid confusion with the Looking Glass hit "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl" (a song that, you might remember, I deplore). He also slowed it down and turned it into a dramatic ballad, and the rest is history. There was a period where people laughed at it, but I feel time has restored people's appreciation of its power. As it should. Oh, and as for the dog story, that came from English's annoyed response to a reporter's questions about "Brandy"'s identity.
This week's NotCasey Extras were "Lovin' You" by Minnie Ripperton, pop music's original queen of the unnecessary showoff high note (sorry, Mariah); "Lady Marmalade," LaBelle's classic tale of New Orleans' prostitution; and a live version of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi."
The wheel spins again, and where we land, we will land next week.
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