This week we go back to '74. In between news updates on Patty Hearst and Watergate, the following is what was playing on many a radio at the time:
40 - "Let it Ride," Bachman-Turner Overdrive
39 - "Looking for a Love," Bobby Womack
38 - "Seasons in the Sun," Terry Jacks
37 - "Standing at the End of the Line," Lobo
36 - "Let's Get Married," Al Green
35 - "The Lord's Prayer," Sister Janet Mead
34 - "Keep on Singing," Helen Reddy
33 - "My Mistake (Was to Love You)," Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye
32 - "Hollywood Swinging," Kool and the Gang
31 - "If You Love Me (Let Me Know) - Olivia Newton-John
We start with Canadian content. Randy Bachman made his first chart dent after leaving the Guess Who with this rocker asking a lover whether or not his future transgressions would be forgiven. I suppose it's good to know what you can get away with in advance, but I'm not sure many people would be cool with it. Besides, you really don't know how you'll react to something until you have to, so it wouldn't be effective anyway. And then it's Terry Jacks and his hit that's as awful as it was massive. Who would ever willingly listen to this?
Then it's soul. R&B giant Bobby Womack had his biggest pop hit with this cover of a song that was originally performed by the Valentino's and was later the first Top 40 hit for the J. Geils Band. Apparently, the love he's looking for is one who will serve him breakfast in bed and do housework. Not exactly progressive, but I'll forgive it because the man can sing his ass off. Al Green returns with a song about giving up wild-oat sowing and longing to settle down. A few months after this record charted, Green refused to marry one of his girlfriends, citing the sound reasoning that she was already married. The woman responded by throwing a pan of hot grits at him while he was in the shower, causing severe burns. This incident would heavily influence his decision to become a minister. Miss Ross and Mr. Gaye are here with the second of the two hits from their duets album. This was the lesser hit, but for my money, the better of the two. And Kool and the Gang swing it SoCal style in this fantastic reminder of what a titanic funk outfit they were before they became a prolific but unspectauclar disco/soul band.
I'm just going to put Lobo by himself here, where he can't bother anyone. Actually, for him, this song about watching the girl of his dreams "entertain" other men while he waits patiently for his chance isn't too bad. But still, I think the world would be much better off if he were a one-hit wonder; that hit, of course, being "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo."
We finish this section with three Sheilas. Or, if you prefer, Australian women. Helen Reddy returns with a song about how necessity and a father's encouragement led her to musical success. For some reason, I was surprised to learn that this sont wasn't written by Mac Davis. ONJ was born in Britain, but because she was six when she emigrated, she counts. She had her biggest hit to date with this pleading country statement that "I can't wait another minute for a day without you in it. And then there's Sister Janet Mead, whose experiments with "rock masses" led to her being asked to record an uptempo version of "Our Father, who art in heaven...etc." And that's exactly what she did. And it was a massive worldwide hit. And now it finds itself the recipient of this week's Uneasy Rider award.
30 - "Be Thankful for What You Got," William DeVaughn
29 - "Mighty, Mighty," Earth, Wind and Fire
28 - "The Payback (Part 1) James Brown
27 - "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song," Jim Croce
26 - "Oh, My My," Ringo Starr
25 - "Come and Get Your Love," Redbone
24 - "I'm in Love," Aretha Franklin
23 - "Billy, Don't be a Hero," Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods
22 - "My Girl Bill," Jim Stafford
21 - "Hooked on a Feeling," Blue Swede
R&B is always a good place to start. William DeVaughn had his only pop hit with this song with a timeless message. Though judging by the lyrics, he's really hung up on the fact that he doesn't have a pimped-out Cadillac. This song is also notable for it's early use of the term "gangsta." Earth, Wind and Fire made their Top 40 debut with this funk piece that established them as players. They declare themselves "mighty people of the sun," and there's no reason to doubt them. The Godfather shows up again, promising funky revenge for a variety of trespasses against him. And you know he'll collect. And The Queen is in love, and she's quite happy about it. That's all the description you should need to want to seek this out.
Three white male solo singers are present in this section. Jim Croce had another of his posthumous hit singles with a ballad that covers much of the same ground as "Your Song." And not nearly as well, I'm afraid. Richard Starkey had another hit during his hot solo run with a song about how his doctor prescribes dancing for pretty much every ailment. Switch doctors, Ringo. And jokester Jim Stafford shows up with a loungey number that seems to indicate that his lady loves parents had motivations in naming their daughter as that guy who called his son Sue, but at the end, it's clear that he's just telling some guy named Bill to stay away from his woman. He could have cleared this up by adding a comma to the song title. I can't understand why he wouldn't have done that.
We end with three groups. Redbone had their greatest success with this nasally earworm that will get stuck in your head for hours upon exposure. Just a warning. Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods covered English group Paper Lace's hit about a boy who volunteers for the military and dies a hero, in spite of his fiance's explicit instructions to "keep your head low." This ruined Paper Lace's chance of charting in the U.S. with it, though they would manage to do so later singing about a certain Windy City evening. And Stockholm's Blue Swede decided that a B.J. Thomas hit would have been much, much better with the addition of horns and cavemen-like backing vocals. And doggone it, they were right.
Tomorrow: mean green, music to watch a teenage girl's head spin by, and the freshest sounds of 1902.
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