Before we return to 1980, let's have a very quick look back at February 22, 1975. The Average White Band's "Pick Up the Pieces," was at #1, and below it, there are only three songs I haven't covered here yet. At #34 were the Jackson 5 with their final Top 40 for Motown, "I am Love." At #37 was the Manhattans' first pop hit, "Don't Take Your Love from Me." And the other one, which I've decided to spotlight, was...
39 - "Sally G," Paul McCartney and Wings
Originally the flip side of "Junior's Farm,", this song went on to chart on it's own, not just on Billboard's pop chart, but on the country chart as well. And no wonder. It's an authentic-sounding slice of C&W, with steel guitars and fiddles and everything, about a heartbreaking, guitar-strumming Nashville hottie. We never learn what the "G." stands for, but as Paul sings, "I know for sure it wasn't 'good.'" But the song definitely is, and I remember hearing it back in the day much more often than "Junior's Farm."
Okay, now back to 1980.
20 - "How Do I Make You," Linda Ronstadt
19 - "Too Hot," Kool and the Gang
18 - "September Morn," Neil Diamond
17 - "The Second Time Around," Shalamar
16 - "This Is It," Kenny Loggins
The second half kicks off with Linda Ronstadt's first 80s hit. And surprise, it's not a cover. It's an urgent cry of lust, with almost a punk flavor. I like it.
Kool and the Gang follow with the second Top Five of their career, a smooth bit of lite-funk about high school sweethearts who got married but now find their romance dying. Meh, better than "Cherish."
Next is Neil Diamond with a big ballad about a reunion with an old lover. A little loungey, even for Neil, but I don't mind.
Then it's Shalamar with their biggest hit. The group had an entirely different lineup than on their Top 40 debut, 1975's "Uptown Festival." This one included future solo star Jody Watley. Anyway, it's a straight-up disco track about how love isn't always the best the first time. Decent stuff, but nothing mind-blowing.
This section closes with Kenny Loggins trying to convince someone that he is "the One." "For once in your life, here's your miracle," he sings on a synth-drenched bit of MOR featuring backup vocals from Michael McDonald. But unlike the Nicolette Larson track, Mikey Mac's presence enhances instead of overwhelms. This might be my favorite non-soundtrack Kenny Loggins song.
15 - "Another Brick in the Wall Part II," Pink Floyd
14 - "An American Dream," The Dirt Band
13 - "Working My Way Back to You/Forgive Me Girl," The Spinners
12 - "Daydream Believer," Anne Murray
11 - "Romeo's Tune," Steve Forbert
This quintet is led off by Pink Floyd's biggest single by far: the iconic, disco-flavored rallying cry against educators who practice "thought control" and "dark sarcasm. The song is probably best remembered for the children's choir who sing the second verse, and of course, on the album, it's followed by the angry teacher shouting, "If ya don't eat yer meat, ya can't have any pudding!" One of the anchor tracks of what became "classic rock" radio.
Next are The Dirt Band with a song about a Southern boy who dreams of vacationing in Jamaica, even though he can't afford it. This kind of longing for the relaxed pace of island living is what current country star Kenny Chesney has built his career on. I haven't heard much of him, but I'm willing to bet that I like this song better than I would any of his.
Then it's The Spinners with a disco cover of a 1966 Four Seasons hit, paired in a medley with another song called "Forgive Me Girl." You all know I love The Spinners 70s hits, but this doesn't quite do it for me.
Anne Murray picked up her last U.S, pop Top Twenty with this faithful cover of a 1967 Monkees Number One about getting your happiness through imagination. Or something. Again, this is a case where I heard the cover first. But Davy J. > Annie M.
This group is rounded out by Mississippian Steve Forbert, who some critics gave the always-cumbersome mantle of "The New Dylan" in the wake of this catchy bit of folk-pop that borrows the name of one of Shakespeare's most famous characters. It's a song about a desperate need for love, and on the album it came from, he dedicated it to Florence Ballard, who was fired from The Supremes in 1967 and died of a heart attack nine years later. Forbert would continue to record in the three decades following this hit, but he never came close to this level of success again.
The Top Ten approacheth.
10 - "Sara," Fleetwood Mac
The Mac's second single from Tusk was apparently written by Stevie Nicks about Sara Recor, a friend of hers who fell in love with and married Mick Fleetwood shortly after Stevie had her own affair with him. But apparently, Stevie felt no bitterness toward Sara, and the song reflects that with lines like "Sara, you're the poet in my heart, never change." Ah, romance and Fleetwood Mac, always a complicated combo.
9 - "Coward of the County," Kenny Rogers
Kenny had his highest-charting hit to this point with this folky story-song about a boy who grows up being called "Yellow" by others in his hometown because he avoids physical confrontation. What they don't know is that the boy, Tommy, made a promise to his late, imprisoned father to avoid violence so he wouldn't end up like the older man. So Tommy grows up and marries a girl named Becky, and all is well until three local ne'er-do-well brothers break into his house while he's away and "take turns" with Becky. Tommy comes home and learns of the attack, then, conflicted, looks at his father's picture as if to ask him what to do. He then goes to the bar where the rapists are known to hang out, where one of them meets him in the middle of the room. Tommy turns away, and the brothers assume that "Yellow" is just going to walk away like he always does. But instead, he locks the door, and with "twenty years of crawlin'...bottled up inside him," he beats the living shit out of all three of them, then turns away and mutters an apology to his father, saying "Sometimes you have to fight when you're a man." Heavy stuff for the pop charts. Needless to say, I didn't really understand all this at the time, and I'm glad I didn't.
8 - "Desire," Andy Gibb
The Bee Gees' little bro had his last Top Ten with this song that The Bee Gees originally recorded, but later let Andy have it, and just subbed in Andy's lead vocal for Barry's. It's all right, but a little below Bee Gee level, with awkward lyrics like "You are the woman that I base my whole existence on." But it's definitely not Andy's worst hit.
7 - "On the Radio," Donna Summer
The last major hit of Donna's reign as the Disco Queen was this song about having a letter to the person you want to get back together with unintentionally fall into the hands of a DJ, who for some reason decides to read it on air. And even more preposterously, this actually results in the two lovers reuniting. Kind of like the Long Distance Dedications, but weirder. Good song though.
6 - "Longer," Dan Fogelberg
The MOR star's biggest hit is this goopfest about the length, depth and breadth of Danny's love. Just way too sugary for me.
5 - "Rock With You," Michael Jackson
MJ's third solo #1 was this piece of stone cold disco perfection. He's probably the most convincing in loverman mode that he ever would be, and Quincy Jones gets all the flourishes just right. I feel that beat, and I can ride the boogie.
4 - "Cruisin'," Smokey Robinson
Smokey's first solo Top Ten was this airy ballad in which he asks his lady to "let the music take your mind." "Being With You" would be a bigger hit for him in a year or so, but this is much better.
3 - "Yes, I'm Ready," Teri DeSario with K.C.
Miami singer DesSario wasn't quite cracking the Top 40 on her own, so she called up her old high school classmate Harry Casey, and they did a duet on a cover of a 1965 Barbara Mason hit. The result was this meh ballad. I've never heard Mason's version, but I'm sure it's way better. It has to be. After this, DeSario returned to obscurity, and I can't say that's any kind of injustice.
2 - "Do That to Me One More Time," The Captain and Tennille
Daryl and Toni went to #1 with their first Top 40 hit, and fittingly, they did the same with their last, this sultry Tennille-written bedroom ballad. And this week, it did double duty as a Long Distance dedication from a woman to her husband, whom she misses while she and her kids wait for him to finish his job and join them in their new hometown. Anyway, very good song, except for the fact that the solo sounds like it was played on a recorder. Recorders aren't sexy. At all.
And topping the charts during the eighth weekend of the 80s was...
1 - "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," Queen
Queen's first American #1 was this jaunty rockabilly number that Freddie Mercury wrote as a tribute to Elvis. It works both as an homage and on its own. The world was indeed ready, Freddie.
This week's NotCaseys were "Pilot of the Airwaves" by Charlie Dore, "Fire Lake" by Bob Seger, "And the Beat Goes On" by The Whispers, and "Sexy Eyes" by Dr. Hook. Casey opened the show with the Top 3 from last week (counting down, "Coward of the County," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," and "Do That to Me One More Time.") He also played three #1s from 1977: "Got to Give it Up (Part 1)" by Marvin Gaye, "Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky" by Bill Conti, and "Undercover Angel" by Alan O'Day. He also played The Beatles' "Hey Jude" after telling the story of how Paul McCartney wrote it while trying to cheer up John Lennon's son Julian in the midst of his parents' breakup. And there was one other LDD: A girl dedicated Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" to the people in her small hometown, who got together and helped pay for an expensive operation on her legs after she injured them in a car accident.
And there it is. And it shall be again, next week.
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