American Top 40: The 70s - March 10, 2012
This week’s presentation - March 12, 1977
Droppers:
SAVE IT FOR A RAINY DAY - STEPHEN BISHOP (36) - This one was OK, but it wasn’t one of his best - sounds more like he’s singing “Seeve It For A Reeny Dee”. In other words, no big loss here.
HOT LINE - THE SYLVERS (33) - Good song, though I preferred “Boogie Fever”.
MOODY BLUE - ELVIS PRESLEY (31) - I’ll have to hop over to YouTube, since I’m not sure it I’ve ever heard this one before.
HARD LUCK WOMAN - KISS (21) - Good song - not sure whether I prefer this or Garth Brooks’ 1994 remake.
40: TRYING TO LOVE TWO - WILLIAM BELL (debut) - Pretty good song - your typical late-70s R&B slow jam.
39: AT MIDNIGHT (MY LOVE WILL LIFT YOU UP) - RUFUS (debut) - And this is your typical 70s dance music, but I actually thought this one wasn’t too bad.
38: CAR WASH - ROSE ROYCE (19) - Good song. Not sure if I’ve ever seen the movie from which this song is from.
37: DISCO LUCY - WILTON PLACE STREET BAND (debut) - Interesting disco-fied version of the “I Love Lucy” theme. I like it.
36: GLORIA - ENCHANTMENT (40) - Good song, but I preferred Laura Branigan’s song of the same title from 1982.
35: HOTEL CALIFORNIA - EAGLES (debut) - Great song! One of my all-time faves from the legendary band! They didn’t edit it down this week.
34: FREE - DENEICE WILLIAMS (37) - Good song, though not quite as good as “Let’s Hear It For The Boy”.
33: DO YA - ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA (38) - Good song, though I preferred their other 1977 songs.
32: SAM - OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN (32) - Of course, this song was really song #26, which they found out when Billboard called them and told them of the last minute changes. As for my opinion of the song - it’s pretty good, though I prefer a few others by her (not bad for a song that, at one time, was a “No. Just no” for me).
31: THE FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST - ROD STEWART (34) - Great song! Not sure if I prefer this or Sheryl Crow’s remake from 2004.
30: SOUTHERN NIGHTS - GLEN CAMPBELL (39) - Great song! One of his best!
29: RIGHT TIME OF THE NIGHT - JENNIFER WARNES (35) - Good song. I’ll bet this was a popular song at proms in the late-70s.
28: I WISH - STEVIE WONDER (17) - Good song, but not quite his best. This was supposed to be song #32, due to the last minute chart changes.
OPTIONAL EXTRA:
27: HERE COMES THOSE TEARS AGAIN - JACKSON BROWNE (30) - Great song! Very possibly my favorite song from him! I like this so much that I posted a link to this song on my Facebook page. I’ll have to listen to it again, because they totally butchered this song.
26: BITE YOUR LIP, GET UP AND DANCE - ELTON JOHN (28) - Good song - one of Elton’s lesser known Top 40 hits. This song would fall off AT40 the following week. And, of course, it was actually the #28 song on this week’s chart.
BTW, the oldradioshows website had their own mistake regarding two of these songs. “I Wish” was listed as heard on AT40, at #28, “Sam” was in the “correct” position, according to the updated Billboard chart, at #26. “Bite Your Lip”, however, was at #32, where it had been two weeks before and totally out of place from where it was on either version of the March 12 chart. Not sure what happened there. Anyway, back to the countdown...
25: LIVING NEXT DOOR TO ALICE - SMOKIE (25) - Great song! There was a remix version of this song in which a crowd in a bar shouted “ALICE?? WHO THE F— IS ALICE??” after Smokie sang “Alice” in the song.
24: CRACKERBOX PALACE - GEORGE HARRISON (26) - Great song! One of his best, and most underrated.
23: ENJOY YOURSELF - JACKSONS (16) - Meh, not my cup of tea...
22: LONG TIME - BOSTON (22) - Although I preferred the other two releases from their debut album, this is still a great one as well.
21: SO INTO YOU - ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION (29) - Great song! I like most of their Top 40 hits.
20: I'VE GOT LOVE ON MY MIND - NATALIE COLE (27) - Good song, though I prefer several others by her (mainly from the 80s and 90s).
19: SAY YOU'LL STAY UNTIL TOMORROW -TOM JONES (24) - Good song. Has sort of a rockabilly feel to it.
18: WEEKEND IN NEW ENGLAND - BARRY MANILOW (10) - Great song! As we all know, I like most of his Top 40 hits.
17: DON'T GIVE UP ON US - DAVID SOUL (23) - Good song, though somewhat cheesy.
16: CARRY ON WAYWARD SON - KANSAS (18) - Great song! I remember hearing this one quite a lot back in the spring of 1977.
15: MAYBE I'M AMAZED - WINGS (20) - Casey made a goof when intro-ing this song - said it was moving up five to #5. Anyway, this was a good song - I prefer the live version over the studio version, which radio also played occasionally.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: LIDO SHUFFLE - BOZ SCAGGS - Great song! It’s a pretty close race between this and “Heart Of Mine” for my favorite song by him.
14: NEW KID IN TOWN - EAGLES (2) - Wow, huge drop there!
13: THE THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE - 10CC (15) - Great song! This is another song that I remember getting tons of airplay in the spring of 1977.
At this point, Casey spoke of the last minute chart corrections. To re-iterate - Stevie Wonder was #32 instead of #28, Elton John held at #28 instead of moving up to #26, and Olivia Newton-John, rather than holding at #32, moved up to #26.
12: BOOGIE CHILD - BEE GEES (14) - Meh, not one of their best by any means.
11: DON'T LEAVE THIS WAY - THELMA HOUSTON (13) - Great song! I prefer the Communards’ remake from 1987. Unfortunately, we’ll never hear that on the old AT40 series, since the one week it charted happened to be a week that Charlie VanDyke sub-hosted for Casey.
10: GO YOUR OWN WAY - FLEETWOOD MAC (11) - Great song! Interesting story about the “bogus Fleetwood Mac”.
9: RICH GIRL - DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES (12) - Great song! They didn’t edit this song down despite the questionable word in the lyrics.
8: YEAR OF THE CAT - AL STEWART (8) - Great song! He’s another artist whose few Top 40 songs that I like.
7: TORN BETWEEN TWO LOVERS - MARY MacGREGOR (9) - No. Just no. And how the hell did it move back up this week? On the plus side, they edited the song down by cutting out the second verse. Didn’t have to grit my teeth for quite as long, lol!
6: DANCING QUEEN - ABBA (7) - Great song! This makes up for the snoozefest back at #7.
5: BLINDED BY THE LIGHT - MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND (5) - Great song! One of their best! They butchered this one pretty good
4: NIGHT MOVES - BOB SEGER (6) - Great song! I do, however, prefer “Mainstreet”. Hopefully, we’ll hear that on the next 1977 show (though, since that song was only on the chart for four weeks, the chances are somewhat slim - kinda depends on luck of the draw). They also butchered this song.
3: I LIKE DREAMIN' - KENNY NOLAN (4) - Interesting that this song actually came to him in a dream, like all of the songs that he wrote. This song’s OK, but it can get stuck in my mind sometimes and drive me nuts.
(At this point in the show, I realized that this show was featured in an AT40 Flashback in mid-March, 1991).
2: FLY LIKE AN EAGLE - STEVE MILLER BAND (3) - Great song! Casey mentioned the possibility of this song going to #1, but, unfortunately, it didn’t quite make it.
1: EVERGREEN (THEME FROM "A STAR IS BORN") - BARBRA STREISAND (1) - Great song! One of her all-time best and very deserving of the #1 spot!
Predictions for next week: Well, it looks as though next week’s show will be from 3/16/74. My back-up prediction is 3/20/76, since one of the clues given fits one of the songs on that show too. However, the posts on the 1970s show thread seem to imply that it will be 1974 next week.