33 - "Maybe I'm a Fool," Eddie Money
32 - "Somewhere in the Night," Barry Manilow
31 - "I Was Made for Dancing," Leif Garrett
30 - "Music Box Dancer," Frank Mills
29 - "Song on the Radio," Al Stewart
28 - "Blue Morning, Blue Day," Foreigner
27 - "No Tell Lover," Chicago
26 - "Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet," Gonzalez
25 - "Stumblin' In," Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman
24 - "Forever in Blue Jeans," Neil Diamond
23 - "Crazy Love," Poco
Several shades of rock in this opening group. Eddie Money, the meat and potatoes rocker from a family of Irish-American cops leads off with a disco-sounding song that doesn't suit him nearly as well as earlier hits "Baby Hold On" and "Two Tickets to Paradise." Al Stewart, whose biggest success came with the enigmatic "Year of the Cat" and "Time Passages," had his third hit with a slightly more lyrically straightforward tune about a lady who reminds him of tunes he hears on his wireless. Foreigner are back singing about colors and times of day. Okay, Lou, I'll see things your way. Suzi Quatro was an American who had multiple hits in Britain, but her only U.S. hit was this mellow duet with the singer from Smokie (the band we encountered "Living Next Door to Alice" a while back). But to me and many of my generation, she'll always be Pinky Tuscadero's little sister Leather from Happy Days. And folk-rockers Poco, a band co-founded by Buffalo Springfield's Richie Furay and future Kenny Loggins sidekick Jim Messina, had their best known hit with "Crazy Love," even though by now, those two guys were long gone. Oh, and this was from an album whose cover was designed by Phil Hartman.
A big showing from the easy-listening squad as well. Barry Manilow returns with a song from our last visit to this period. Casey calls him something to effect of "the best thing to happen to romance since, well, Cupid." I like Barry and all, but I would dispute that. Then it's Frank Mills, the Canadian pianist who sweeps in to claim this week's Uneasy Rider Award with his tinkly instrumental than broke five years after its initial release. It was on the B-side of a new single, but an Ottawa DJ decided to play it instead of the A, and it became a hit there. Later, a Nashville TV producer heard it and decided to use it as the closing music for the nightly news, and that's how it began to spread in the U.S. Anyway, it sounds like it's title, and young Homer Simpson once used it as backing music for an ill-fated gymnastics routine. Chicago are back, making adultery sound much too mushy for my tastes. And Neil Diamond shows up to sing the praises of denim on a track from his You Don't Bring Me Flowers album. My parents acquired this LP, but I don't remember how.
What's left is disco. Teen sensation Leif Garrett is back with his biggest hit, professing his aptitude for dance. Having never seen him trip the light fantastic, I can't comment. And British funk group Gonzales had their only U.S. hit with a song written and co-produced by Gloria Jones, who is best known for two things: recording the original version of Soft Cell's 80s classic "Tainted Love," and being behind the wheel of the car that crashed and claimed the life of her boyfriend, T. Rex's Marc Bolan. Her story is much more interesting than this slice of boilerplate disco.
22 - "Knock on Wood," Amii Stewart
21 - "Big Shot," Billy Joel
20 - "I Just Fall in Love Again," Anne Murray19 - "Lady," The Little River Band
18 - "Dancin' Shoes," Nigel Olsson
17 - "The Gambler," Kenny Rogers
Amii Stewart had her only U.S. hit with this high-energy disco remake of Eddie Floyd's R&B classic. I remember loving this as a kid, and I also remember her seeing her perform this on TV in some bizarre outfit that I vaguely remember. Anyway, it's still fantastic.
Next is Billy Joel with a rockin' song about a rich young lady who rides in limousines and wears Halston, but embarrasses herself with the thing she does under the influence of alcohol and cocaine. I'm certain there were several women at the time hanging around Studio 54 who could have inspired this. In introducing this, Casey said Billy "looks like a boxer but sings like an angel." I suppose, Case.
Continuing with Casey's introductions, he presented Anne Murray's then-current hit by saying that she, smoked salmon, and the fact that the Vikings first landed in North America there are the three things Nova Scotia is most famous for. Nothing really remarkable about the song. I heard it a million times back then, and it's pleasant enough.
Australia's boring Little River Band are here singing about a woman who's "there on the dance floor making me want you somehow." I assume she'd have to be dancing to a song other than this to achieve that. In the battle of late 70's "Lady" songs, Styx wins, but that's hardly a ringing endorsement.
Nigel Olsson was the original drummer for Elton John's touring band, but he would leave Reg to start a solo career. His biggest period of success was now, and his second and biggest hit was here. He sounds a bit like Gary Wright, but this maudlin ballad is no "Dream Weaver," that's for sure.
Last in this bunch is good old Kenny R. and his ballad of that warm summer's eve on that train bound for nowhere. I've heard this song hundreds of times, and I still can't say that I know when to hold 'em or when to fold 'em. Am I missing something?
16 - "Every Time I Think of You," The Babys15 - "What You Won't Do for Love," Bobby Caldwell
14 - "Don't Cry Out Loud," Melissa Manchester
13 - "Got to Be Real," Cheryl Lynn
12 - "Lotta Love," Nicolette Larson
11 - "Le Freak," Chic
This section begins with the second and last hit for John Waite's first big band. It's very similar to "Isn't it Time," but there's a female voice that sings the hook on the choruses. I think I like "Isn't it Time" just slightly better, but both are nice pop-rock nuggets that provoke good memories of the era.
Then it's Bobby Caldwell and his only major U.S, hit, a catchy bit of jazzy soul that I think I remember. His record company felt they needed to hide the fact that Caldwell was white to get him on R&B radio, but this is so good I don't think it would have mattered. Apparently, he would go on to be big in Japan.
Melissa Manchester follows with her big diva ballad about circuses and stifling emotions. I remember some of her later, more uptempo material. "Pretty Girls" I liked, but "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" was terrible.
Then it's Cheryl Lynn, dercrying the artificial and lighting up the disco. It's good, I've covered it before, not much more to say.
In a similar vein, we have Nicolette Larson's main impression on pop culture, her Neil Young cover. I heard it a lot back then, and it was probably in the upper third of songs I liked at the time.
Ending this sextet are Chic, who probably have two of the five greatest disco songs of the era with "Good Times" and this one which I heard three weeks in a row recently due to CKOC glitches.
Let's go Top Tennin', now, everybody's learnin' how.
10 - "Sultans of Swing," Dire StraitsMark Knopfler was inspired to write his first hit, this song about an unsung jazz band, after hearing a group play to a deserted pub. Still my favorite song of theirs. Plus it wasn't banned by Canadian radio stations recently, unlike "Money for Nothing."
9 - "Y.M.C.A.," The Village People
And there they are again: the cop, the cowboy, the Indian, the construction worker, the biker, and the guy who was sometimes a soldier and others a sailor. Yes kids, there was a time when most people looked at the Village People and didn't immediately jump to conclusions about their sexuality. Under all the camp, there was genuine subversion. Then in the 80s, they tried a "New Romantic" look and sound. There's nothing subversive about failed trend-hopping. Fortunately for everyone, no one remembers that. Well, almost no one.
8 - "What a Fool Believes," The Doobie Brothers
Here it is, the song whose massive success cemented the fact that the Michael McDonald version of the Doobies was no longer a fun boogie-rock band, but instead, a slick, corporate MOR machine. McDonald wrote it with fellow unthreatening boy Kenny Loggins. But for all that, it's not a bad little song. It certainly doesn't inspire the intense rage in me that much of Jefferson Starship's 70s output does.
7 - "Shake Your Groove Thing," Peaches and Herb
The aptly named Herb Fame had some hits with the original "Peaches," Francine Barker, in the late 60s. Then he got out of the music business. But in the late 70s, he returned with a new Peaches, Linda Greene, and had some more hits, most notably "Reunited" and this disco classic that coins yet another name for the posterior regions. Apparently, Herb's still working, and he's on Peaches #6. I don't know about you, but if all the surviving ex-Peaches got together and toured, I'd go see them.
6 - "A Little More Love," Olivia Newton-John
ONJ is back with the song that was to her career what her outfit at the end of Grease was to the Sandy character. "Tell me about it, stud." Okay, I will. I found the country-folk stuff of the early years much sexier. This is a good song, but the persona seems put-on.
5 - "Heaven Knows," Donna Summer with Brooklyn Dreams
The return of this hit by disco's Grande Dame, on which she was assisted by the guy who wrote that Karate Kid song and his group. Apparently, Brooklyn Dreams also co-wrote "Bad Girls." That's a better song, possibly because this guy doesn't sing on it.
4 - "Fire," The Pointer Sisters
Anita, Ruth, and June, covering Bruce. Love it, even when there's no one around for me to accompany on mouth bass while she sings it and sings it damn well.
3 - "Tragedy," The Bee Gees
Of all the Gibbs' disco-era hits, this is probably third behind "Jive Talkin'" and "Nights on Broadway." Yes, I like it better than the Saturday Night Fever songs. It just has an urgency to it that I like. Almost an ominousness at some points. And Barry's falsetto is at its fullest flower, especially on that one extended high note near the end.
2 - "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy," Rod Stewart
As Tim Curry once sang on his shoulda-been-a-hit "I Do the Rock," "Rodney's feeling sexy." As I've said, this is less icky than "Tonight's the Night." But because of the 90s cover version by Revolting Cocks, I always end up thinking of "K-Y jelly" instead of "milk and coffee" when I hear the last verse. Damn you Al Jourgensen!
And 32 years ago, everyone in the United States was living their lives while the following song played in the background more often than any other:
1 - "I Will Survive," Gloria GaynorWe all know it. Many of us are sick of it. Myself, I resent this song because it overshadows Gloria's cover of "Never Can Say Goodbye," which is much better. Oh well, I guess if people have used it as an anthem to get over hard times, I can live with it. I just don't need to hear it ever again.
The two NotCasey Extras were songs #35 and #38 from this week: Eddie Rabbitt's title song to the Clint Eastwood movie Every Which Way But Loose, and Sister Sledge's first Top 40 hit "He's the Greatest Dancer." Casey played two #1s from early '73: Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" and Elton John's "Crocodile Rock." And there was a Long Distance Dedication from a woman named Laura to her first love David, with whom she fell in love during a high school trip to the province of Quebec. She asked Casey to play Gino Vanelli's "I Just Wanna Stop," because she hoped David would hear it wherever he was and think about "those nights in Montreal."
Another one next week, and I'll be listening and giving you something to kill a few minutes reading. It's good to have a purpose in life.
No comments:
Post a Comment