I'm back early! Well, by recent standards. Although there has been quite a lot of death in the musical realm in my relatively brief absence. So I'm going to open with RIPs for Natalie Cole, Lemmy Kilmister, Glenn Frey, and of course, the chameleonic genius that is David Bowie. They all impacted the music world greatly, and all will be missed
So anyway, what I'm doing now is, I'm picking a year at random and looking at the chart around the same time that I'm writing, and if I like it, I'll cover it. So I tried 1979, thought it looked interesting, and here we go.
40 - "The ELO EP," - Electric Light Orchestra
We start with our first introduction to the British chart quirk of allowing extended play mini-albums on the singles chart. This one by Jeff Lynne and co. contatined two songs that were already big hits on both sides of the Atlantic ("Strange Magic" and "Evil Woman"), a track that had broken them in the U.S. but hadn't hit at home ("Can't Get it Out of My Head."), and one song that had only been a hit in Britain, "Ma-Ma-Ma Belle," a threatening-sounding lust-rocker which I enjoyed. Although I'm not sure how it relates to the phone company.
39 - "Dance (Disco Heat)," Sylvester
The first U.K. and U.S. Top 40 for the L.A disco icon. Fun, but dated. "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real") holds up much better.
38 - "Instant Replay," Dan Hartman
The ex-Edgar Winter sideman who wrote and sang the smash "Free Ride" had a hit on his own by hitting the dance floor. Good for what it is. But the sad thing is that he makes back to back artists on this chart who died from AIDS-related illnesses. The consequences of the bacchanal that was the 70s were just around the corner.
37 - "B-A-B-Y," Rachel Sweet
From Akron, Ohio, Sweet was singing in commercials at age 6, opening for Bill Cosby in Las Vegas at 12 (a more dangerous-seeming gig in hindsight than it was at the time), and then, at 16, going to England to sign with the up-and-coming independent label Stiff Records, for which she recorded this bubblegummy cover of a 1966 Carla Thomas hit. She sounds girlish and lightweight, and it's not surprising that this didn't climb much higher. After two albums, she returned home and scored her only American hit duetting with Rex Smith on a cover of the oft-remade "Everlasting Love." Then she gave up on pop, dabbled in movie and TV music and acting, and eventually found success behind the scenes as a television writer and producer.
36 - "Could it Be Magic," Barry Manilow
Barry's riff on Chopin charted in the U.S. two years after it was recorded, then had to wait three more years to hit in Britain. It's a song I want to like for the drama of the performance, but some of the lyrics are just distracting. "High up where the stallion meets the sun." Huh?
35 - "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," The Shadows
Created in 1958 to back up Cliff Richard, these guys had a long and prosperous career of their own as an instrumental group, racking up twenty U.K. Top 40s and five #1s between 1960 and 1980. Their last Top Five was this somnambulant take on the signature song from Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita. After hearing it once, I certainly plan on keeping my distance from it in the future.
34 - "Cool Meditation," Third World
While its influence had been felt on multiple Top 40 hits there, genuine Jamaican reggae had yet to break through on mainstream U.S. radio. In Britain, however, it was a different story, largely due to the U.K`s significant West Indian population. Bob Marley led the way, but these Kingstonians (whose membership included the brother of a former Jamaican deputy prime minister) were right behind him. Their second hit here was this laid back groove about getting away from the city to go somewhere quiet to "get your head together" as was the style at the time. Like this a lot, and was charmed by the harmonica solo. I don't think I'd ever heard that instrument in a reggae song before
33 - "Theme from Superman," The London Symphony Orchestra
This was around the time the first major superhero was selling out cinemas in the first major superhero blockbuster, so it's not surprising that its John Williams-composed and conducted opening theme got some attention. I use to confuse this with Williams' Star Wars theme, but I can now easily tell them apart, and I like this better. As for old Supe, I saw the first three films as a kid, wisely sat out IV, didn't bother with Returns, but really liked Man of Steel. Don't know about the upcoming Batman teamup though. Ben Affleck as the Dark Knight? We shall see.
32 - "You Needed Me," Anne Murray
Annie M.'s best known hit was #1 in the U.S., but only got this high here. I agree with the Brits.
31 - "Take That to the Bank," Shalamar
The funk-pop group's first hit after it's lineup was completely overhauled was fiduciary fidelity metaphor. "My interest is strong," "Good insurance you have found in me," and "Our contract can't be torn apart that easily" are among the promises made. It's decent, but I get why it only hit here and not in America. But I also don't get how they had three times as many Top 40s in Britain as they did at home.
30 - "Mirrors," Sally Oldfield
The older sister of Mike "Tubular Bells" Oldfield, this Irishwoman's only major hit is a swirly folk tune about singing and dancing and love. Reminds me of a less interesting Kate Bush.\
29 - "My Life," Billy Joel
Owning his own existence gave Bill his biggest British hit to date. Still can't hear this without thinking about Tom Hanks in a dress.
28 - "Christmas in Smurfland," Father Abraham and the Smurfs
Sometime in the late 70s, my parents came home from a fair and brought me and my brother buttons that had a weird little blue guy on them and the caption "Do you smurf?" This was my first introduction to the creations of Belgian cartoonist Peyo that would go on to be a lucrative phenomenon on television, movies, and merchandise. Around the time I discovered them, they were already a musical sensation in Europe, thanks to Pierre "Father Abraham" Kartner, a Dutch musician who performed in a suit, a bowler hat, and a long grey mustache and beard. "The Smurf Song" was an international charttopper in 1977, and among its follow-ups was this holiday number where he and a smurf (depicted with a sped-up voice a la The Chipmunks), sang about all the typical Christmas things, including bells announcing the birth of Jesus. Abraham's heavily accented voice makes the proceedings sound more ominous than they should, but that's just one of the reasons this is the clear winner of this chart's Uneasy Rider.
27 - "Car 67," Driver 67
A one-off collaboration between British producer Paul Phillips and American musician Pete Zorn, this is a reggaeish number about a taxi driver who is being sent by his dispatcher to pick up a woman at "83 Royal Gardens." The driver refuses, eventually revealing that this is the address of the girlfriend he had just broken up with the night before. It's catchy, and I feel like it could have done well on the other side of the Atlantic if it had been pushed enough.
26 - "In the Bush," Musique
The disco era produced a number of songs that could be considered bordering on audio pornography. "Love to Love You Baby" and "More, More, More" immediately spring to mind. But those are on the mild end of softcore compared to this lascivious track, masterminded by New York producer Patrick Adams, which featured singers getting more and more...exicted with every word of the bridge, and then giving us the immortal, unmisinterpretable chorus "Push, push, in the bush!" The song was considered too hot for many U.S. radio stations, limiting its success to the nation's discos. It fared somewhat better in the U.K. mainstream, making it to #16. For me, it's joyless, mechanical porn on wax. More dirty than sexy.
25 - "Doctor Who," Mankind
This British group had they're only hit by following Meco's "disco version of a sci-fi theme" template and applying it to the signature music of the long-running British saga of a time-traveller. It's a cool theme, I admit, but I've never gotten into the good Doctor in any of his incarnations. Though I do find Alex Kingston quite attractive, she's not enough to pique my curiosity.
24 - "Rama Lama Ding Dong," Rocky Sharpe and the Replays
While 50s musical revivalism in the States during this decade was for the most part limited to movies and TV shows that fetishized the old songs and recordings, contemporary-sounding covers, and Sha Na Na, in Britain there were artists who built substantial careers by aping both the songs and the style of the dawn of the rock era. Among these were Showaddywaddy, Shakin' Stevens, and this band led by a singer born Robert Podsiadly. Their first hit was this cover of a 1958 song by The Edsels about loving a girl with an unusual name. Inessential. That's all I can say.
23 - "Tommy Gun," The Clash
In the U.S., punk was attracting attention and curiosity but very little mainstream success. In Britain, it was a regular visitor to the singles charts, and the genre's most prominent band was already on Top 40 single number five with this blast of rock about the attraction and futility of terrorism. The conclusion: the attention brought to a cause isn't worth the damage done. I can't say they were "the only band that mattered" at the time, but they probably were the one that mattered the most.
22 - "Just the Way You Are," Barry White
Although he was done for the decade in the U.S. when it came to the Top 40, Barry managed to eke out one more here with a Billy Joel cover. He adds a spoken word intro and his usual silky delivery. Both are clear improvements.
21 - "Raining in My Heart," Leo Sayer
Leo kept up his hit string at home with a bland MOR cover of Buddy Holly's gorgeous loneliness ballad. It makes me feel like...nothing.
In Part Two: more disco, another Christmas leftover, and a song with "a beat" in more ways than one.
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