For the last couple of months, as I've been devoting this thing to the 90s and beyond, I have been lax in covering songs from the weekly re-airs of 70s and 80s shows. I had always planned on coming back to them at some point, and now, that time has arrived. My friend and unofficial consultant Jimmy Delach has compiled a list of songs from those shows that I haven't covered in the past, and to my surprise, there's over 100 of them between the two decades. So let's start this game of catch-up by starting right at the beginning of the seventies.
9/19/1970
38 - "Everything's Tuesday," The Chairmen Of The Board
These Detroit soulsters, best known for "Give Me Just a Little More Time," managed three other Top 40 hits, including this sunny hit about a girl named after a day of the week. I know Tuesday Weld, but have there been any others?
10/16/1971
36 -"You've Got To Crawl (Before You Walk)," The 8th Day
Here's the story. In 1970, the group 100 Proof (Aged in Soul) had a hit with the song "Somebody's Been Sleeping." Around the same time, however, radio stations were playing another of the band's songs, "She's Not Just Another Woman." But their label didn't want to hurt the current single's sales by putting out another 100 Proof song, so they decided to release it and credit it to the nonexistent "8th Day." It was a hit, so the label decided to put out another 100 Proof song under the 8th Day name, this song about a woman wanting a man to supplicate himself before she takes him back. He does, of course. After this, the label formed an actual 8th Day band, but they didn't do as well as they did before they actually existed.
37 - "Women's Love Rights," Laura Lee
This Chicago singer had her only pop Top 40 with this R&B declaration of female sexual liberation. "Love who you wanna," she sings, "'cause a man is sure gonna." This is the soundtrack of the nightmares of Todd Akin and his ilk.
40 - "Long Ago And Far Away," James Taylor
Sweet Baby James picked up his fourth Top 40 hit with another slice of the melancholy folk that made him an unlikely superstar. Pleasant enough, but not anything I'd consider essential.
10/13/1973
38 - "Let Me In," The Osmonds
This just seems like a typical, Donny-sung pop ballad with slightly dated production. However, the object of the song's plea probably isn't a woman, but rather a higher power, as this single was taken from the group's Mormon-themed concept album The Plan. It didn't sell well, and won few converts. It might be on Mitt Romney's iPod, though.
39 - "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne," The Looking Glass
The only other hit by the band who gave the world the terrible "Brandy, You're a Fine Girl," was this bit of lite funk-pop about a young couple trying to make it in the cold cruel world. A thousand times better than "Brandy," but only because that song sucks so badly. And I still can't stand the singer's voice.
10/30/1976
36 - "Nice 'n Naasty," Salsoul Orchestra
The second and final pop hit by the house band of the Salsoul label is fairly decent disco-funk over which female backup singers tell you how nasty you are. I don't know what the extra "a" was for, though.
38 - "Anything You Want," John Valenti
This Chicagoan sounds a bit like a white Stevie Wonder on this disco mediocrity. He deserved a better showcase. Decent guitar solo, though.
40 - "Give It Up (Turn It Loose)," Tyrone Davis
From Chicago via Mississippi and Michigan, Davis was a frequent presence on the R&B charts for a period of twenty years, and he scored two pop Top Fives with 1968's "Can I Change My Mind" and 1970's "Turn Back the Hands of Time," His last pop hit was this cool bit of funky soul that advises men to treat their women better or let them find someone else who can. Smooth stuff from a pro.
10/7/1978
18 - "Back In The U.S.A.," Linda Ronstadt
Lady Linda had another of her cover hits with this faithful version of Chuck Berry's 1959 celebration of what he misses about his homeland when he goes overseas (tall buildings, highways, hamburgers, jukeboxes). Pure exuberance.
19 - "She's Always A Woman," Billy Joel
The fourth hit from Billy's breakthrough LP The Stranger was this ode to an enigmatic, unattainable woman. Although if "she'll carelessly cut you and laugh while you're bleedin'," then perhaps she isn't worth attaining, Bill.
22 - "Who Are You," The Who
Thanks to CSI, this is probably the band's most famous song. It was inspired in part by an incident in which a policeman recognized an inebriated Townshend wandering around London and told him that he wouldn't be arrested for public drunkenness as long as he went straight home. No word on if the officer then made some kind of quip that was immediately followed by "wahwahwahwahDUM DUM, DUH-DUM!"
23 - "Come Together," Aerosmith
The Boston boys' last hit of the 70s was this Beatles cover they contributed to the disastrous Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band movie. Steven Tyler knows how to deliver nonsensical lyrics, so of course he was right at home on this one.
25 - "Talking In Your Sleep,"Crystal Gayle
The epic-haired country queen picked up her second pop hit with this song about how her lover has vocal sex dreams about someone while he sleeps beside her. He doesn't mention names, however, so theoretically he could be dreaming about her. But this is country music, so who am I kidding?
28 - "5-7-0-5," City Boy
The lone American hit by this Birmingham, England band was this rocker about being unable to reach a lover by telephone. Decent, in a Sweet kind of way. Also, it was one of the first hit singles produced by one Robert John "Mutt" Lange. I'm sure he didn't imagine then his future would involve AC/DC, Billy Ocean, Shania Twain, and Lady Gaga, to name just a few.
29 - "Josie," Steely Dan
The jazz-rockers accumulated another hit with this ode to the homecoming of a lady, the occasion of which will cause them to, among other things "rev up the motor scooters" and "shine up the battle apple." Maybe these are the things she needs when she "prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire," I don't know. Only the Dan know, and God bless 'em for that.
30 - "It's A Laugh," Daryl Hall & John Oates
One of the superduo's hits during that period between "Rich Girl" and "Kiss on My List" when just cracking the Top 20 was an accomplishment for them. Pleasant enough pop-rock about the breakup of a seemingly perfect couple. Decent, but hardly some lost classic.
33 - "Almost Like Being In Love," Michael Johnson
The Coloradan's follow up to his biggest hit "Bluer Than Blue" was this slick cover of a song from the 1947 Loerner and Loewe musical Brigadoon. This is not a tune that was written to be given the late-70s MOR treatment. Not just unnecessary, but aggressively unnecessary.
35 - "I Will Still Love You," Stonebolt
I'm sure most Canadians who listened to pop radio in the late 1970s would recognize this ballad about loving someone forever no matter what, but very few, myself included, would be able to say who did it without looking it up. Turns out it was the only hit by this Vancouver band whose singer sounds like a male Anne Murray. For the record, if I had been cornered by someone and made to guess, I would have probably said April Wine, or maybe Prism.
36 - "Devoted To You," Carly Simon & James Taylor
The second and last duet hit by this married couple was a cover of a 1958 Everly Brothers hit. Their love, however, did not grow through the years, and they got divorced in 1983. Meh, they had a good run.
37 - "Heartbreaker," Dolly Parton
Dolly's second pop hit was this piano-driven ballad about a lover's betrayal. She portrays the hurt brilliantly, to the point where you almost want to hung the guy down and beat the crap out of him until he agrees to be "just a little more kind" to her.
38 - "Took The Last Train," David Gates
The second of three solo hits by the former Bread man is a jazzy, uptempo pop song about a one-night stand in St. Tropez. Not the gig kind, the sexy kind. It's good hearing him happy instead of his usualy whiny sap.
In Part Two: girls, dreams and animals.
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