Finishing off another week.
20 - "Welcome Back," John Sebastian
19 - "All by Myself," Eric Carmen
18 - "Fooled Around and Fell in Love," Elvin Bishop
17 - "Deep Purple," Donny and Marie Osmond
16 - "Money Honey," The Bay City Rollers
The second half begins with ex-Lovin' Spoonful leader John Sebastian's return to the charts with the folky theme to the high school sitcom Welcome Back Kotter. This was just the beginning of a period where John Travolta vehicles would produce several big hits. Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Urban Cowboy. Not to mention Travolta's own Top Ten hit, "Let Her In," which perhaps we'll encounter somewhere down the line. The man sold records.
Next is that awful Eric Carmen song. I covered it before, so I'm going to leave it alone this week. It deserves isolation, and so does Eric for writing it.
Blues guitarist Elvin Bishop scored his only Top 40 hit with this sunny pop song. The vocals are provided by Mickey Thomas, who would go on to do the seemingly impossible: make Jefferson Starship even worse.
The second and third-youngest Osmond siblings return with this cover. At this point, their variety show had been airing for three months, and had become a hit. I remember it pretty well, considering. I think the Busby Berkeley-style skating numbers were my favorite part of the show. Don't ask me why.
Rounding out this bunch are the Bay City Rollers singing about filthy lucre, during a time when they were probably making more of it than they would at any other time. I'm sure they thought they'd be stars forever. Shockingly, they weren't.
15 - "There's a Kind of Hush," The Carpenters
14 - "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)" The Four Seasons
13 - "Sweet Thing," Rufus featuring Chaka Khan
12 - "Bohemian Rhapsody," Queen
11 - "Show Me the Way," Peter Frampton
This section starts with the Carpenters covering Herman's Hermits. I've sung their praises frequently here, but I'm not a fan of this one. The arrangement's limp, and Karen seems to be holding back. Perhaps they were aware that their time was passing. Personally, I liked hearing Lenny Leonard singing it to his bowling ball better.
Then it's Frankie V. and his group with a song that kinda sucks. I'm sure you know it, it's been here before, so let's move on.
Rufus are next with a great soul ballad that Chaka co-wrote for her then-husband. This was their second biggest hit. They're another group that I haven't been exposed to enough. Once I get around to Al Green, they're next.
Queen return with arguably their defining moment, the song that the respective bombasts of hard rock and classical opera couLd make beautiful music together. It was a true. "You got peanut butter in my chocolate!/You got chocolate in my peanut butter!" moment. There's a debate topic: Which is better: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or "Bohemian Rhapsody?" Feel free to discuss.
We close with the first solo hit by Peter Frampton, which helped move a shitload of copies of Frampton Comes Alive and helped popularize the "talk box." And his hair on the cover of that album may have been the male counterpart to Farrah Fawcett's do on that poster.
These are the ten who reigned above all others for seven glorious days. We remember them now, and thank them for their service:
10 - "Golden Years," David Bowie
Mr. Jones sounds a little bit like Bing Crosby on parts of this ("Come buh-buh-buh baby.") And later, the two would famously duet on "Little Drummer Boy" for Bing's final Christmas special. No wonder that pairing worked so well.
9 - "Sweet Love," The Commodores
The first Top Ten for a group who got their name by randomly picking a word out of a dictionary. Founding member William King once said "We almost became the Commodes!" And their career would have gone down the...no, I'm not going to make that joke. I'm embarrassed that I even thought of it. My face is flushed.
8 - "Only Sixteen," Dr. Hook
The now-Medicine Show-less ones do all right covering Sam Cooke, on second glance. It's better than when they went disco, anyway.
7 - "Boogie Fever," The Sylvers
This disco classic by nine Memphis siblings about the most fun-sounding disease since Rockin' Pneumonia went all the way to the top. I think I'm coming down with it as well. Turn around while I get something out of my system.
There, I think I'm good for the rest of the night.
6 - "Dream On," Aerosmith
The breakthrough power ballad by Boston's finest sleaze rockers. One of the great "go for it, no matter what" songs. But I must say, I'm liking Steven Tyler on Idol less every week. He's flashy, and he gets some laughs, but I don't think he's contributing much.
5 - "Right Back Where We Started From," Maxine Nightingale
This catchy disco stomper was the first and biggest of British soulstress Nightingale's two American hits. Definitely a childhood favorite, and it holds up extremely well. And that is her real name.
4 - "Let Your Love Flow," The Bellamy Brothers
The biggest hit for this country duo. I was going to call Casey out for referring to the brothers as "David and Howard," when I was sure that the second bro's name was Homer, but as the song says, "There's a reason." Howard was his middle name, and presumably the one he went by. Wimp. You're Homer. Stand by it. If you had committed to it, it would have become cool. Now it's a secret that people can dig up and laugh at.
3 - "Lonely Night (Angel Face)," The Captain and Tennille
Daryl and Toni back with their slightly less successful take on Sedaka. I liked it a little better this time. I detected a hint of xylophone in the background, which I quite enjoyed
2 - "Dream Weaver," Gary Wright
Mr. Wright is back, fantasizing about travelling to astral planes and leaving his earthly headaches behind. And yes, it still makes me think about making out in a van. And I've never even done that.
And the song that everybody was diggin' the most back then was...
1 - "Disco Lady," Johnnie Taylor
This isn't Johnnie's best or most interesting hit, but it was by far his biggest. To a somewhat understated disco groove, Taylor gives the titular female a series of instructions regarding what she should do with "it." I don't know about you, but if I were her, after a couple minutes of this, I'd be giving Johnnie some "it"-related suggestions of my own. I don't care if he did tell me I should be on Soul Train. My "it" is my own, dammit!
The NotCaseys were "Turn the Beat Around" by Vicki Sue Robinson, "Silly Love Songs" by Wings, and Diana Ross' disco debut "Love Hangover." And I forget why, but Casey played "All I Have to Do is Dream" by the Everly Brothers.
Uh oh, I think the boogie fever is starting to overcome me again, so farewell until next week.
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