40 - "Last Kiss," Wednesday
39 - "Sunshine on My Shoulders," John Denver
38 - "I Like to Live the Love," B.B. King
37 - "Trying to Hold On to My Woman," Lamont Dozier
36 - "My Sweet Lady," Cliff DeYoung
35 - "Come and Get Your Love," Redbone
34 - "Eres Tu," Mocedades
33 - "The Americans," Gordon Sinclair
32 - "Abra-Ca-Dabra," The DeFranco Family
31 - "Can This Be Real," Natural Four
We kick off with mild stuff. Canada's Wednesday scored their only U.S, hit with this cover of the car-crash tragedy that was originally a hit for J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers and would be revived in 1999 by Pearl Jam. John Denver appears again with his song about how much he loves solar rays, one of several songs here that also appeared on the 1974 year-end show I covered a few weeks ago. Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love" also falls into that category. Cliff DeYoung, a young actor/singer who, to my knowledge, is not related to Styx singer Dennis DeYoung, is here with a John Denver-written ballad from a TV-movie called Sunshine about a woman dying of cancer. Apparently, at this time, TV-movies could be used as platforms to sell records. And Spain's Mocedades reached the Top Ten with "Eres Tu" ("You Are..."), a nice, female-fronted love song performed in their native language.
Once again, I've found a connection between two acts in the same countdown section that you wouldn't imagine could have anything in common. Riley B. King. who would take the stage name "Blues Boy" and then just shorten it to B.B.. had a handful of Top 40 hits, the last was this this buoyant celebration of affection. What could this legengary blues guitarist have to do with Canadian bubblegummers the DeFranco Family, who show up this week with their second hit, a bouncy number about the magic of love? Well, it turns out, the DeFrancos performed their last show to date as a group in 1999 at a Los Angeles nightclub owned by a certain main with a guitar named Lucille. Love these crazy coincidences.
A couple more R&B nuggets her. Lamont Dozier, who wrote a truckload of Motown hits with the Holland brothers, Eddie and Brian, finally hit the charts as a singer himself with a lush, pleading ballad about a man trying to give up his wild ways so his lover won't leave him. And the Natural Four had one hit, it's here, and it's not much.
Finally, there's "The Americans," a pop-chart oddity if there ever was one, which made Canadian journalist and broadcaster Gordon Sinclair the second-oldest person ever to hit the pop chart (after comedian Moms Mabley, who was 75 when she hit with a version of "Abraham, Martin and John"). It's a recording of an editorial Sinclair read on Toronto radio station CFRB on June 5, 1973. In it, he notes that the American dollar was losing its value on world markets, the American Red Cross had run out of money because of flooding on the Mississippi River and a rash of deadly tornadoes, and many commentators in other countries seemed to be taking pleasure at the Americans' misfortunes. Sinclair vigorously rallies to the defense of his neighbors to the South, recalling all the times the United States had come to the aid of many of those same countries, praising U.S. innovation in the field of aerospace, and stating confidently that America will return to glory. This editorial was later printed in U.S. News and World Report, and became such a sensation that a single was released featuring Sinclair's reading backed by "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." I bet you're expecting me to bestow this record with this week's Uneasy Rider Award, but I'm not. How could that be? You'll see.
30 - "Mockingbird," Carly Simon and James Taylor
29 - "The Most Beautiful Girl," Charlie Rich
28 - "Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up," Barry White27 - "Baby Come Close," Smokey Robinson
26 - "Time in a Bottle," Jim Croce
25 - "Jim Dandy," Black Oak Arkansas
24 - "Sexy Mama," The Moments
23 - "Living for the City," Stevie Wonder
22 - "Smokin' in the Boys' Room," Brownsville Station
21 - "Dark Lady," Cher
Another abundance of MOR. The first couple of early-70s folk-rock, Carly Simon and James Taylor, show up with a cover of an R&B take on the classic lullaby originally done by Inez and Charlie Foxx, who were either married (if you believe Casey) or brother and sister (according to Wikipedia). Anyway, this is way better than what James did to "How Sweet It Is" and "Handyman." Marge Simpson once tried to initiate an impromptu duet on this with her husband, but Homer wasn't in the mood. Country star Charlie Rich returns with that song about the really hot chick who left him. Jim Croce's back with his posthumous #1, yet another example of a song becoming a hit because of a cancer-themed TV-movie. And Cher is here again, killing her man and the fortune-teller he cheated on her with. That really is a great song. I think of it any time I'm playing online poker and I'm dealt a queen and a three.
Soul? But of course. Barry White is back with his second Top Ten, a midtempo love jam in which he declares "quittin' just ain't my schtick." That last word isn't exactly something you'd expect in a Barry White song, but damn if it doesn't sound just right coming out of that voice. Smokey Robinson takes it nice and slow on his first solo hit, but he wouldn't really make that much impact on the pop charts until late in the decade with "Cruisin'." The Moments, who would later change their name to Ray, Goodman and Brown, had a hit about an attractive lady whose "love gates" they'd like to open. This would be shortly followed by a "love explosion." Whatever could they be talking about? Finally, it's Stevie Wonder, strutting funkily and telling it like it is in the gritty urban jungle for people who didn't have all the advantages or connections. I wish Casey could've played the long version, with Stevie pretending to be a judge passing sentence. But regardless, an amazing, amazing song.
We close with rock. Southerners Black Oak Arkansas, who were named after their hometown, had their only pop hit with this raucous cover of a LaVern Baker song about a guy whose sort of a combination Casanova/Superman. And Brownsville Station also had but one Top 40 single, but it's this wonderful celebration of teenagers escaping their teachers and girlfriends to enjoy the simple pleasures of lighting up among the sinks and urinals. Yes, I heard Motley Crue's version first. And yes, this is better
Tomorrow: #20's connection with #21, the Uneasy Rider...and TWINS!
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