Sorry for the delay in finishing up this week. I got hit with the flu yesterday and wasn't in any condition to do this. I'm almost back to 100%, so I'm in good enough shape to run down the rest of this week's countdown.
20 - "You Belong to Me," Carly Simon
19 - "Baker Street," Gerry Rafferty
18 - "It's a Heartache," Bonnie Tyler
17 - "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," Billy Joel
16 - "Night Fever," The Bee Gees
The second half begins with Carly's follow-up to "Nobody Does it Better." No, it's not the 1952 pop standard ("See the pyramids along the Nile..."), but rather a disco-inflected plea for her beloved to leave his new lover. Sounds kind of like the Doobie Brothers sound of this era, and not in a good way.
Then it's ex-Stealers Wheelman Gerry Rafferty with his biggest hit, a gentle ballad about leaving the frustrations of an old life for a new beginning. It would go on to spend six weeks at #2, but never reached the top. I enjoy the guitar squeals, but the song is best known for its iconic saxophone solos. In fact, Lisa Simpson once celebrated getting a new horn by playing them.
Next is Welshwoman Bonnie Tyler, who developed her trademark rasp after surgery to remove vocal cord nodules. She feared that her singing career was over, but in fact, the voice change worked in her favor, and on her first major hit, you can hear why. Even as a child, the way she croaked out lines like "Standing in the cold rain, feeling like a clown." got to me. Love this one.
Billy Joel is here with a song that asks whether or not striving for the accoutrements of "the good life" is worth leaving behind one's roots. The song would seem to say "no." I'm not sure if Billy himself would agree, if he was honest.
This section ends with the Gibbs and one of their three #1s from that one John Travolta movie. They actually had four songs on that soundtrack, but for some reason "More Than a Woman," wasn't released as a single. It was, however, one of this week's NotCasey extras.
15 - "Love is Like Oxygen," Sweet
14 - "Baby Hold On," Eddie Money
13 - "Take a Chance on Me," ABBA
12 - "This Time I'm In it for Love," Player
11 - "Disco Inferno," The Trammps
This group begins with the last hit by British glam stars Sweet. It's another catchy rocker that declares that too much love will get you "too high" but "not enough and you're gonna die." Another one that always caught my ear at seven years old, and was the only Sweet song I recognized until I reached my late teens. I was missing a lot.
Then it's the former Edward Mahoney with his first hit, a straight pop-rocker in which he promises that he and his "baby" will triumph over any adversity the world places in front of them. In doing so, he borrows half of the chorus of the Doris Day classic "Que Sera, Sera." That song's composers naturally sued him, and Money paid damages to them in court. I can't believe how much of this sort of thing I've run across since I've started this.
Next are those prolific Swedes with their second-biggest American hit, in which the female singers proclaim to an unspecified prospect that if things don't work out with his current situation, they're "the first in line." Catchy from the word go, plus the backing vocals are incredibly effective.
For the longest time, I had assumed that Player were a one--hit wonder, that hit of course being "Baby Come Back." But apparently they had two more, and this one even reached the Top 10. I don't remember it, and as bland a ballad as it is, I'm not surprised. Oh, and one of the guys in this band went on to play a character called Ridge on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. Although given the rate at which soaps are dying off in the U.S., he might have to go back to music soon.
Rounding out this fivesome are The Trammps and their defining hit about a floor on which the dancing gets so out of control that it actually creates spontaneous combustion. It's not one of the best disco songs ever, but its certainly among the first few that come to mind when people think of the genre.
And down the stretch we come!
10 - "On Broadway," George Benson
The jazz guitarist had his biggest hit to date with this breezy live cover of a 1963 Drifters hit. Nothing special, but certainly much better than...
9 - "Count on Me," Jefferson Starship
Hate them hate them hate them. The only thing I can count on from these guys is that they will bring the bile up to my throat. Maybe if they hadn't kept the "Jefferson" they wouldn't bug me so much. But they did, so they do.
8 - "Imaginary Lover," The Atlanta Rhythm Section
Normally I'm not impressed with this, but after the horror of JS, this almost sounds kind of good. I hope the next song reminds me what good really sounds like.
7 - "If I Can't Have You," Yvonne Elliman
And it does! Yvonne, ripping up a Gibb-penned disco ballad epic. If I was 100% sure I was completely through with puking, I'd be dancing right now. But it's only 99, so I'll just torso-dance.
6 - "Feels So Good," Chuck Mangione
Presumably, this is the song the world's flugelhorn players use to prove to themselves how good they are. I wonder, just how many flugelhorn players are there? Can't be many, you'd think. I'm not looking it up, though.
5 - "The Closer I Get to You," Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway
Roberta and Donny, making beautiful music together and just missing topping the charts with a maturely sexy ballad. Too bad they didn't get the chance to do too many more of these. Surely they would have hit #1 eventually. At least I'd like to think so.
4 - "Shadow Dancing," Andy Gibb
The last and biggest of the other brother's three Number Ones. And the best. Again, I'm not a big fan, but this has a funky little instrumental bed, and Andy;s voice is in good form. I still think it's unfair that this had a lot to do with keeping "Baker Street" from #1, though.
3 - "You're the One that I Want," John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John
My mother didn't take me to see Grease until it was re-released in 1979, but I was very familiar with it long before. We had the soundtrack (on 8-track!), and even a paperback picture book that featured still photos of the scenes and cartoon bubbles for the dialogue. So even before I saw it for real, I was quite familiar with the moment when my beloved Olivia came out in the tight top and the leather pants and the heels and asked Danny Zuko to "Tell me about it, stud!" That, of course, was immediately followed by this song, in which they sing to each other about multiplying chills and shaping up. This is one of those songs that I feel so connected to that I can't objectively judge it, so let's move on.
2 - "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late," Johnny Mathis and Deneice Williams
Mathis, the 50s pop crooner known for hits like "Chances Are" and "Misty" made his return to the top 40 after a 15-year absence in a big way by going all the way to #1 with this regretful duet with former Stevie Wonder backup singer and future "Let's Hear it For the Boy" charttopper Williams. In spite of its success, though, this is probably only their second most famous duet behind the theme from Family Ties.
And sitting on the pop music throne this week was...
1 - "With a Little Luck," Wings
Macca's second big band was as inescapable as ever even this late in the decade, topping the American pops with this peppy, synth-driven lite-popper that for some reason aske the question "Can't you feel the town exploding?" Uh, no Paul, and with a little luck, I never will. Silly Beatle.
Besides "More Than a Woman," the NotCaseys were "Follow You, Follow Me" by Genesis and "Grease" by Frankie Valli.
Once again, apologies for the delay. I anticipate better things next week, in many ways.
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