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Post by darnall42 on Jun 15, 2014 4:49:49 GMT -5
37: GEMINI DREAM – THE MOODY BLUES - Aggressive rocker from the guys who get a bad rap about being too mellow. I never get tired of hearing this song. A+ it is a excellent song but i would rate it as a B+ as the moodies were trying a liitle too hard to sound like ELO
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Post by slf on Jun 15, 2014 8:45:27 GMT -5
For week ending June 14, 1975
This was another fairly enjoyable summer with pretty great hit music accompanying it. My older teenage sisters' radio was alternating between two powerhouse Chicago Top 40 stations, WLS and WCFL (the reception was pretty good for being over 100 miles away from my hometown of Warsaw in NE Indiana.) In short, I associate most of the following songs with those memorable stations. (WCFL, unfortunately, would abandon Top 40 music by the following summer.)
40. Midnight Blue/Melissa Manchester--Pleasant, but not great ballad. Her only great song was "Looking Through The Eyes Of Love".
39. One Of These Nights/The Eagles--One of the better hits from an otherwise mediocre, overrated band.
38. I'm Not In Love/10CC--This has a very haunting, otherworldly atmospheric sound that was ahead of its time and very intriguing. I was also fixated by what the woman was whispering in the middle of the song. Years went by before I realized she was saying "Big boys don't cry".
37. Lizzie And The Rainman/Tanya Tucker--A very dynamic, well-made country pop record sung by a very talented woman. It should have been a much bigger pop hit.
36. Why Can't We Be Friends/War--Although far from a great song, it's a light, fairly amusing record made by a band that seems to be having a good time in the studio and not taking themselves too seriously.
35. T-R-O-U-B-L-E/Elvis Presley--It didn't do anything for me.
34. Swearin' To God/Frankie Valli--Although I'm somewhat put off by the song's brazen title, it's a beautifully produced, overlooked disco classic.
33. Judy Mae/Boomer Castleman--What?! A top 40 hit glorifying incest? Give me a break!
32. Dynomite/Bazuka--Although I was a huge fan of "Good Times" back in the day, and a fairly big fan of novelty records in general, I was inexplicably underwhelmed by this record.
31. Hey, You/Bachman Turner Overdrive--This is probably my favorite BTO song. I like the opening guitar riff and the way the chorus chugs along smoothly.
30. Baby, That's Backatcha/Smokey Robinson--The chorus was catchy and sprightly.
29. The Hustle/Van McCoy--Here we have it! The Greatest Disco Record Of All Time! A sparkling gem from beginning to the end! From the tension filled opening with the "ooo's" and "Do It's", to the crystal clear flute playing the main melody, to the tension build-up of the bridge, especially the massive conga drums, leading up to the command "Do The Hustle! Just think how many more masterpieces Van McCoy would have created had he not left us at such a young age. RIP,Mr McCoy. Thanks for the music!
28. Misty/Ray Stevens--It's amazing how a man known mainly for creating funny novelty songs can do such a fine job on straight love songs like this. And the country pop arrangement is nice, too.
27. The Way We Were/Try To Remember/Gladys Knight & The Pips--This is a nice soul ballad. I especially like the spoken intro. And Gladys really hit the nail on the head when she said "As bad as we think they are, these will be the good old days to our children".
26. Shakey Ground/The Temptations--It's so-so at best. It pales in comparison to "My Girl", "Get Ready", "You're My Everything", or even "Papa Was A Rolling Stone".
25. Remember What I Told You To Forget/Tavares--It was a nice, slow song, but not as good as "It Only Takes A Minute", or "Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel".
24. Attitude Dancing/Carly Simon-A catchy, energetic song that gets virtually no airplay today.
23. I Wanna Dance Wit' Choo/Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes--I love "Get Dancin'". (I even have it on my iPOD--Yes, I admit it!) This sounds similar, but like most follow-ups, not quite as good.
22. Listen What The Man Says/Paul McCartney & Wings--This is a punchy, catchy rocker that has grown on my over the years.
21. I'll Play For You/Seal & Crofts--A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I have grown to love this group and England Dan & John Ford Coley in recent years. This record is perfect case in point. I especially like the catchy, stacccato vocal delivery of the chorus, as well as the hand-clapping and the dixieland horns.
20. The Last Farewell/Roger Whitaker--This is a gorgeous, stirring MOR song with a memorable opening and fine vocals by Mr Whitaker. It's amazing how this co-existed in the Top 40 with Disco Tex, BTO, and Grand Funk.
19. Before The Next Teardrop Falls/Freddie Fender--A little too slow and boring for me.
18. How Long/Ace--Mildly interesting, but overplayed.
17. Magic/Pilot--One of the best songs in the countdown. It has a great guitar opening and a great vocal opening (The "ho-ho-ho" gimmick is a stroke of genius), and it has just a great melody.
16. Shining Star/Earth, Wind, & Fire--A mildly enjoyable funk classic, but some of their later songs were more deserving of going No. 1 than this release.
15.Bad Luck/Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes--I was not very familiar with this song before I heard it in the countdown, but I was very impressed, especially with the chorus. Another splendid Philadelphia International release.
14. Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me)/The Doobie Brothers--This peppy rocker is one of the Doobies' better songs. I think I remember hearing the Motown original by Kim Weston once and I seem to recall it being even better than this version.
13. Only Women/Alice Cooper--A very gut-wretching account of spousal abuse. I'm rather curious, though, as to why Mr Furnier decided to go soft in the latter half of the decade, after several years building a reputation of a hard shock-rocker.
12. Wildfire/Michael Murphy--Each slow, boring verse builds up to a enjoyably dramatic chorus.
11. Cut The Cake/Average White Band--I briefly stopped listening to the countdown to look something else up on the web when this song was on. Not because I hated this song, however I considered this song average enough (no pun intended) that I could live without hearing it.
10. Get Down, Get Down (Get On The Floor)/Joe Simon--A so-so soul song at best. It doesn't hold a candle to the glorious "Drowning In The Sea Of Love".
9. Philadelphia Freedom/Elton John--I loved this powerful, soulful song when it was a hit and still love it. It could almost be a patriotic anthem.
8. Thank God I'm A Country Boy/John Denver--It's an irresistibly fun sing-a-long song, but you got to admit some of the lyrics are rather trite. For example, I'm a "city folk" myself. (Indianapolis metro area) And while my Hyundai Sonata is a fine car, it's hardly a limousine. It's not even black.
7. Love Won't Let Me Wait/Major Harris--A rather pretty--and pretty steamy--love ballad.
6. I'm Not Lisa/Jessi Colter--And I'm not impressed.
5. Old Days/Chicago--The last great hit this illustrious horn rock ensemble had before they turned soft and squishy. The opening guitar riff comes off like a locomotive, and it has their best dramatic, delightfully repetitive ending since "Feelin' Stronger Every Day".
4. Bad Time/Grand Funk--A great rocker to jam to while cruising down the highway in my "limousine" (Ha Ha)
3. When Will I Be Loved/Linda Ronstadt--I can take it or leave it.
2. Love Will Keep Us Together/Captain & Tennille--There are very few songs that define a summer like this song defined the summer of '75. It was ALL over the radio; there was even a Spanish translation of the song that charted. (Heck, one of those aforementioned Chicago stations even played a version that spliced segments of both versions together. It was insanity.) In spite of all this wretched excess, I still loved the song then and still love it. I am especially still fixated by the "I will (ever)" call-and-response segments. Overall, it was as deserving of being the biggest hit of the year as about any other song of '75.
1. Sister Golden Hair/America--Somewhat beautiful song, but not quite as good as the groups earlier hits. It couldn't hang on to the No 1 position, as that Cap & Tennille juggernaut was about to take over for a whole month.
And my favorite song of the countdown (drum roll):
THE HUSTLE/VAN MCCOY (which would eventually spend a deserving week at No. 1)
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Post by friarboy on Jun 15, 2014 8:52:49 GMT -5
33. Judy Mae/Boomer Castleman--What?! A top 40 hit glorifying incest? Give me a break! To be totally fair to Boomer, I'm not sure this really meets that description- I mean it's not like it was his Mom, but... yeah. It's right up there with "Timothy" and cannibalism. Boomer, by the way, went on to found BNA records and sell it to BMG, for a tidy profit no doubt.
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Post by mga707 on Jun 15, 2014 8:56:23 GMT -5
Technically not incest, as temptress Judy Mae was ol' Boomer's stepmama after his real mama died (according to the lyrics). Kind of like how all of us suspected Greg and Marcia Brady were gettin' busy when Mike and Carol (and their annoying younger siblings) weren't around . Still, even an open-minded person like myself was a little creeped-out by this 'lust in the sticks' song !
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Post by mga707 on Jun 15, 2014 9:23:06 GMT -5
20. The Last Farewell/Roger Whitaker--This is a gorgeous, stirring MOR song with a memorable opening and fine vocals by Mr Whitaker. It's amazing how this co-existed in the Top 40 with Disco Tex, BTO, and Grand Funk. I'm not ashamed to admit it: I love this song! A former co-worker, now retired, and myself would break into full-voiced rendition of this song ("A ship lies rigged and ready in the har-baaaaa") at work, leading to looks of absolute puzzlement from everyone else as we were the only two who remembered it!
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Post by AmericanTop40 on Jun 15, 2014 10:57:25 GMT -5
33. Judy Mae/Boomer Castleman--What?! A top 40 hit glorifying incest? Give me a break! As others already pointed out, it's not incest. But I was surprised that someone else didn't mention this: There is no glorifying element to this song. The young man is now haunted for the rest of his life believing he might be responsible for the death of his father. I thought the song was tragic.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2014 16:01:43 GMT -5
Technically not incest, as temptress Judy Mae was ol' Boomer's stepmama after his real mama died (according to the lyrics). Kind of like how all of us suspected Greg and Marcia Brady were gettin' busy when Mike and Carol (and their annoying younger siblings) weren't around . Still, even an open-minded person like myself was a little creeped-out by this 'lust in the sticks' song ! It's actually more like the real life actors who played Greg (Barry Williams) and Carol (Florence Henderson) Brady that supposedly got it on as a rumor.
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Post by davewollenberg on Jun 15, 2014 18:55:20 GMT -5
Hervard (Chris), the group was Manhattan TRANSFER!
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Post by Hervard on Jun 15, 2014 21:17:53 GMT -5
Hervard (Chris), the group was Manhattan TRANSFER! Wups - can't believe I didn't catch that. That was how it was on the oldradioshows website. Not sure where they got "project" from, but whatever the case, I have amended my critique. Thanks for pointing that out
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Post by mga707 on Jun 15, 2014 21:28:09 GMT -5
Hervard (Chris), the group was Manhattan TRANSFER! Wups - can't believe I didn't catch that. That was how it was on the oldradioshows website. Not sure where they got "project" from, but whatever the case, I have amended my critique. Thanks for pointing that out Manhattan Project: Physicists, probably not good harmony singers. Manhattan Transfer: Good harmony singers, but certainly not physicists!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2014 22:34:20 GMT -5
37: GEMINI DREAM – THE MOODY BLUES - Aggressive rocker from the guys who get a bad rap about being too mellow. I never get tired of hearing this song. A+ it is a excellent song but i would rate it as a B+ as the moodies were trying a liitle too hard to sound like ELO I've read this in an album review before, they then said ELO's Time album from the very same year was trying to sound like The Moody Blues, anyway to me "Gemini Dream" does not sound that much like ELO and while it's alright, I prefer The Voice, also from Long Distance Voyager!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2014 22:40:10 GMT -5
Wups - can't believe I didn't catch that. That was how it was on the oldradioshows website. Not sure where they got "project" from, but whatever the case, I have amended my critique. Thanks for pointing that out Manhattan Project: Physicists, probably not good harmony singers. Manhattan Transfer: Good harmony singers, but certainly not physicists! Yeah and it just so happens that Casey Kasem brought up The Manhattan Project when he told the story about where The Oak Ridge Boys got their name from right before "Elvira" at #28!
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Post by jamie9012 on Jun 18, 2014 16:10:07 GMT -5
Greetings.
As I listened on Sunday to the American Top 40, I attempted to see it as a normal day. Of course the News of the passing of Casey Kasem was difficult. I was also disappointed because there was a problem with the Station that I had been listening to. As a result of this, I missed a significant amount of the Episode from 1981, and five songs from the Episode from 1975. I do not know how several of the Songs sound (eventally, I will get to hear them). However, I was happy with the Songs that I heard.
June 13, 1981
40. STRONGER THAN BEFORE- CAROLE BAYER SAGER- I seem to remember that this Song featured an R&B sound. 39. I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF- BILLY VERA AND THE BEATERS- I do not know how this Song sounds. In 1987, another song from them, called "At This Moment", was a big Hit. 38. SWEET BABY- STANLEY CLARKE AND GEORGE DUKE- Favorite! I am very sad that the radio Station had problem during the airing of this Episode! I really wanted to hear it. I located a Compact Disc with songs from George Duke, and "Sweet Baby" appears on it. In this song, a beautiful Guitar Solo is featured, and I have practiced it on my guitar. 37. GEMINI DREAM- THE MOODY BLUES- I do not know how this Song sounds. 36. SEVEN YEAR ACHE- ROSANNE CASH- I also do not know how this Song sounds. 35. TIME- THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT- I think that I heard, earlier this year, this song on the Episode featuring the top 100 Hits of 1981. 34. BOY FROM NEW YORK CITY- THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER- I heard this song last year. 33. I DON'T NEED YOU- KENNY ROGERS- I do not know how this one sounds. 32. SAY WHAT- JESSE WINCHESTER- It disappoints me when I see an Episode that features songs that I would like to hear, but cannot. R.I.P. Jesse Winchester. 31. FOOL IN LOVE WITH YOU- JIM PHOTOGLO- I like his last name! There is another song called "Show And Tell" from Al Wilson that reminds me of this song. 30. STILL RIGHT HERE IN MY HEART- The Pure Prairie League- I do not know how this Song sounds, however I do like their other Song, "Let Me Love You Tonight". 29. MODERN GIRL- Sheena Easton- Great! If only I had been able to hear it. In a way, her first Hits on the Billboard Charts, such as "Morning Train (9 to 5)", "Modern Girl", and "For Your Eyes Only", make me think of Madonna. Also, to me, they seem to be inspired by music from the 1960s. 28. ELVIRA- THE OAK RIDGE BOYS- I heard this song on the Episode from August 1, 1981. 27. THE THEME FROM "THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO" (BELIEVE IT OR NOT)- JOEY SCARBURY- Awesome! I love these Songs! 26. WINNING- SANTANA- I do not know how this Song sounds. 25. WATCHING THE WHEELS- JOHN LENNON- Of all of the Singles released from the Album "Double Fantasy" this is the one that does not seem familiar to me. It is possible that I have heard it, however. 24. HEARTS- MARTY BALIN- I like this song. 23. NOBODY WINS- ELTON JOHN- Another one that I do not know. However, I did hear his song "Chloe" on an Episode in 2012. Both of those songs appear on his album "The Fox". 22. ANGEL OF THE MORNING- JUICE NEWTON- A great song. 21. IS IT YOU- LEE RITENOUR- When I have a chance, I will listen to all of the Songs that I do not know. I am eager to hear this one. 20. JESSIE'S GIRL- RICK SPRINGFIELD- That is not a problem with this one. It is definitely a classic, and peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 19. THE WAITING- TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS- Great! 18. TOO MUCH TIME ON MY HANDS- STYX- I must become familiar with many of these songs. 17. YOU MAKE MY DREAMS- DARYL HALL AND JOHN OATES- This is one of my favorite songs from this Duo. 16. HOW 'BOUT US- CHAMPAIGN- A great song. This is the first one that I actually heard on this Episode. 15. WHAT ARE WE DOIN' IN LOVE- DOTTIE WEST (WITH KENNY ROGERS)- They did a brilliant job on this song. I was saddened to learn, a few weeks ago, of the passing of Dottie West in 1991. R.I.P. 14. THE ONE THAT YOU LOVE- AIR SUPPLY- On this song, Russell Hitchcock performs the lead vocals. It reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July of 1981. 13. I LOVE YOU- THE CLIMAX BLUES BAND- This is a beautiful song, in which a man sings of a woman who has made a positive effect on his life. Band member Derek Holt performed the lead vocals on this song. I was surprised to read that other members of this band did not like this song. 12. THIS LITTLE GIRL- GARY U.S. BONDS- Awesome and lively! I am not very familiar with his earlier songs. 11. JUST THE TWO OF US- GROVER WASHINGTON JR. (WITH BILL WITHERS)- This has always been a favorite song of mine! It peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. 10. SWEETHEART- FRANKE AND THE KNOCKOUTS- Daryl Hall and John Oates+ Foreigner+ Toto= Franke and the Knockouts (in my opinion). This was also one of my favorite songs on this countdown! 9. TAKE IT ON THE RUN- REO SPEEDWAGON- A well-known classic. This song can be heard often on the Radio. 8. AMERICA- NEIL DIAMOND- Great! 7. ALL THOSE YEARS AGO- GEORGE HARRISON- This was an excellent tribute to John Lennon, who died in December of 1980. If I remember right, before this song began, Casey Kasem told of a future Episode which would include big hits from the Beatles (they would include hits as a band and from their solo careers). 6. LIVING INSIDE MYSELF- GINO VANNELLI- I seem to recall thinking that this song sounded like it could have been released later in the 1980s. 5. A WOMAN NEEDS LOVE- RAY PARKER JR. AND RAYDIO- This song had an important message. 4. BEING WITH YOU- SMOKEY ROBINSON- Against the advice of his friends, he wishes to love a woman with a bad reputation. 3. SUKIYAKI- A TASTE OF HONEY- I agree with another Critique of this Episode that I do not seem to ever hear this song. I am more familiar with their big hit "Boogie Oogie Oogie". This was a remake of the Japanese Song (titled "Ue O Muite Aruko") performed by Kyu Sakamoto. It describes a man in tears as he recalls happier times. The English Lyrics were provided by Janice Marie Johnson. 2. MEDLEY- STARS ON 45- An awesome collection of big Hit songs! My favorites that I can remember are "Sugar Sugar" and "We Can Work It Out". 1. BETTE DAVIS EYES- Kim Carnes- This was a huge hit throughout the World. Not only did it reach #1 in the United States and Germany, however also in Australia, France, Italy, and other countries.
This Episode, I think, was filled with many songs that are difficult to encounter anywhere. It was very interesting for me. Many thanks for reading.
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Post by friarboy on Jun 18, 2014 18:54:25 GMT -5
26. WINNING- SANTANA- I do not know how this Song sounds.. "Winning" sounds like a generic tune from <insert name of early 80s soft rock band here> with a 30 second Santana guitar solo at the end.
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Post by mga707 on Jun 18, 2014 20:49:06 GMT -5
26. WINNING- SANTANA- I do not know how this Song sounds.. "Winning" sounds like a generic tune from <insert name of early 80s soft rock band here> with a 30 second Santana guitar solo at the end. Lead vocal by Alex Ligertwood. Also lead vocal on "Hold On", Santana's next top 40 single from 1982.
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