Next Phase, New Wave

     Musically, high school was an odd time.  First of all, there weren’t a whole lot of Springsteen fans at the Prep, so I was on my own there.  Second, quite a few of my friends were more into classic rock than I had been during it’s heyday in the 1970’s.  Third, there were kids in my circle that were into music that was pretty deep underground. Then there was the radio.  In 1977, my call sign WIBG went disco so that sent me scrambling for something else.  I made the switch to FM and never looked back.  My first stop, at least for the next few years was WiFi 92.  Wifi was a top forty radio, but with a decided FM spin.  Not too heavy on the disco, but I remember hearing some great new music here.  During the summer months, I used to take my stereo speakers and point them out my window while I was working in the back yard.  There was also WPST (Trenton) at 97.5 and WSTW (Wilmington) at 93.7, but I would be listening to these later on.

  Popular music from 1978 – 1979 was mostly stagnant.  Sure there were bright spots but some of the biggest hits of that time were stale sounding even back then, like Eddie Money’s Baby Hold On to Me or  Toto’s Hold the Line.  The best stuff was coming from the left of the dial – Obscure new bands and a fresh batch of one-hit wonders were bubbling out of the seedy clubs of NYC like CBGB and the Ritz, and from college towns across the country.  Across the pond, you might have thought London was set to burn down any minute with the likes of the Clash and the Sex Pistols ripping it up.  Back home, the Philly scene was just a year or two from really taking off.


     New Wave really started back in 1977.  Now, I know I might be pissing off a few purists out there, but I’m combining New Wave (Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Joe Jackson, Talking Heads) Punk (Clash, Ramones) and what I’d call Resurgent Power Pop (J Giels, Cheap Trick, Shoes) all under the “New Wave” umbrella.  Just check out the albums released in 1977:

• My Aim is True – Elvis Costello Debut
• This album featured Alison, Mystery Dance and (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes.  Watching the Detectives was also released as a single around this time.  The Attractions didn’t backup Elvis on his first album, though.  Those duties fell to an unknown band out of the San Francisco area called Clover.  Clover would go on to become Huey Lewis and the News.
• Rocket to Russia – Ramones
• Sheena is a Punk Rocker, Teenage Lobotomy and Rockaway Beach.  
• Talking Heads 77 – Talking Heads 
• Psycho Killer!
• The Clash – The Clash Debut
• Never Mind the Bullocks – Sex Pistols
• Lust for Life – Iggy Pop

The New Wave kept gaining traction in 1978 with these releases:

• Outlandos d’Amour - The Police Debut
• Can’t Stand Losing You!
• More Songs about Buildings and Food - Talking Heads 
• The Talking heads laid claim to their cover of Take Me to the River.  I couldn’t believe this wasn’t an original when I first heard it.  
• Excitable Boy - Warren Zevon
• This album still serves me well, over 30 years later.  Lawyers Guns and  Money is a great bar band staple, while Excitable Boy and Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner are great songs to sing along with in the car. Werewolves of London seem the be the song that gets played the most  from this album.  In 1987 I was in San Francisco, when I happened to notice a Trader Vic’s.  I immediately went in and had myself a Pina Colada.  I know it wasn’t the one in London, but it was good enough for me.  Now all I have to do is Stand on a Corner in Winslow Arizona!
• Easter - Patti Smith  
• Because the Night was a ferocious song, originally written by Springsteen and tweaked by Smith, enough to get her songwriter credits.  This remains one of my favorites from that time.  “Love is an angel disguised as lust” is  one of the song’s best lines.  This hit the charts in a big way, too.
• Road to Ruin - Ramones 
• I Wanna Be Sedated just about defined the Ramones, to me.
• Generation X - Billy Idol hits the scene! And watch out what you say about him!

  The worst part about this was that I didn’t even know this music existed at the time!  It wasn’t until late 1978 when the radio would start catching up to what was happing in a rather vibrant counter-culture scene. Even then, the Billboard charts don’t even begin to do justice to the impact this music was having.  1977 was the start of a fantastic musical arc that would stretch out for a decade, until it came to a screeching, fatal halt one cold November morning in 1987.  People talk about the 80’s and maybe you picture the “Wedding Singer” or “Miami Vice” version of the 80’s but to me, the eighties really started around 1978 and 1979. When I first heard Peace Love and Understanding, and Is She Really Going Out with Him? and Cruel to be Kind and Best Friend’s Girl and on an on – It was like someone breathed some fresh air into music again.  

1979 - New Wave Hits its Stride


     This is the music I love and identify with.  Maybe it was timing and synchronicity.  Being in the right place at the right time, but the music was simply wonderful.  Whether it was the nerd-quirky insight of Elvis Costello, or the pure pop from Nick Lowe, New Wave music was fresh, smart, sarcastic and insightful.  The early days of New Wave are even reminiscent of the birth of Rock and Roll - Bands and fans looking for something new, looking to rebel against the entrenched musical culture of the times went out and created something new for themselves.  The music had a Do-It-Yourself feel.  Bands would release singles in between album releases, pumping out the music as fast as they could.  It seemed like most of the New Wave practitioners hailed form the UK, setting the stage for a new British Invasion.  I don’t know what was going on culturally across the pond, but it was fertile breeding crowd for new music.  However, in the States, the clarion call for New Wave would be signaled by a slick looking band with a rocking raunchy hit.

  The Knack were something else for the time.  My Sharona had an opening riff something that was instantly recognizable.  It somehow combined a wicked bluesy turn with a modern Power Pop crunch. Oddly, the song featured a lengthy guitar solo, which was definitely not typical of the New Wave or Punk, but feel of the song overall was just right.  Then there were the lyrics - holy cow - I think the censors were working over time with this one, but I don’t think I ever heard a lyrically edited version of this song.  Never gonna stop, Get it Up,  and Running down the length of my thigh...  Pretty bawdy stuff for radio.  And back then it was common for bands to hit the day time TV talk show circuit - John Davidson or Mike Douglas had bands on all the time.  The Knack must have been making everybody sweat!  Who cares? I loved it.  The follow up single from Get the Knack was just as good.  Good Girls Don’t really was about every adolescent teenage boy’s dream.  That song was a staple for me and my buddy Dave, when we started hitting the Open Mike circuit in the late 80’s.  My Sharona stayed at number 1 for a few weeks, amidst a sea of dance music and let the world know that something else was coming and would not be denied.  The Dinosaurs were dying (and in some cases, literally as well as figuratively) and a new breed was ready to take over.   

Doug Fieger recently passed earlier this year away at 57, but My Sharona’s legacy lives on, if only to remembered as the song that provided the break-through hit for a young accordion player named Weird Al Yankovic. Weird Al’s delicious parody, My Bologna, would mark the beginning of a wonderful, multi-generation spanning career.

There were two other singles that hit number one that year that fell into the New Wave camp.  Blondie’s Heart of Glass marked the start of a strong career for this band that made their marks in the clubs of NYC.  Heart of Glass, though was a cheeky take on relationships and lyrically was a fit for what New Wave was selling - and the Debby Harry fronted band was odd enough not to fall into any established musical genre, but the overly produced Heart of Glass was still a bit too close to Disco for my tastes.  

The other number one was a one-hit wonder from the alphabetically monikered “M”.  The song was Popmusik.  This was one of my favorites from that time.  I was thrilled to find this still available on iTunes a few months ago.  It’s a quirky, bright Brit-pop tune that also featured a programmed drum track and layered keyboards. 

New York London Paris Munich Everybody talk about Popmusik!

Coupled with the release of Gary Numan’s Cars, both songs showed that audiences were ready to embrace synth-pop under the big umbrella of the New Wave.  Cars  was a cool song for the time.  Numan’s nasally vocals matched with the synth driven music was great ear candy.  Lyrically dystopian and dripping with alienation, the song was far moodier than the bright Popmusik and helped to open the door for bands like Ultravox, Soft Cell, OMD and others.

There’s a lot more music from 1979, so I’ll have to cover more in the next entry.




Next:  1979, One Song at a Time!

Look at The Person on Your Left...

     Bishop Eustace Prep sat on RT 70 in Pennsauken, NJ right by the Cooper River.  It was a small prep school with a good reputation for both academics and sports.  There were about 160 kids in my graduating class, about half the size of other Catholic schools in the area like Holy Cross (where my wife went) or Camden Catholic (where my three siblings went).  So much great literature and film has been dedicated to the high school experience, I’m not sure how much insight I can add.  But if you want to learn more about High School life, in general, I suggest you check out the excellent documentary Fast Times at Ridgemont High. So let’s lay the groundwork, shall we?

First of all, the main players for the next 4 years:

Don “The Master of Disaster” – Best friend and partner in crime  

Janet – A Beatles fanatic 

DeCosmo – Biggest Led Zeppelin Fan ever.

Baxter – In tune with new music and hater of all things Zeppelin

Dolan – Friend and classic rock music nut.  Drive a 69 Charger.

Anne – Socialite.  Anne hosted the best parties and ran the social scene.

Sean – Guitar player, songwriter, sometime boyfriend of Anne

Romasco – The Underground music source

Buzz Henry – Knew who Bootsy Collins was

Toal – The mystic: authority on The Dead, Tolkien, Zen 

Limanni – Guitar player and musical partner

Ken – Fantastic artist and avid reader.  Had great Halloween parties

        Fr Angleo (RIP) – Cigar chomping Principal and Don Corleone incarnation

Of course these little fragmentary sentence bites don’t begin to describe how great it was to know these people and the wonderful influence they had on my life.  But it was high school and although it wasn’t always wonderful, it would all be memorable. 

The cool and scary thing about high school is how instantaneously my world expanded.  In grade school, all my friends were a bike ride away.  At the Prep, the universe expanded like the big bang.  My friends were from Medford Lakes, Deptford, Runnemede, and yes even Pennsauken and I would spend a lot more time on the phone talking to everyone, until I finally had my license.  There were only a handful of kids from my grade school that went to Eustace.  The others went to Camden Catholic or to Pennsauken HS and I would never see most of them again.  Even at the Prep, friends would come and go.  With a high price tag, the pressure was on to keep up the grades.  From that first day, I doubt there’s anyone who doesn’t remember Father Angelo’s “Prep Talk”:

“Look at the person on your left, look to your right.  Look at the person in front of you and behind you.  By the end of this year, one of you will be gone.”  Oh yeah – those were happy times.

With so few friends around, how do you connect with new people?  Through popular culture of course!  Music, books and movies provide fertile ground for discovering about people, what thy like and don’t like and maybe a little insight into who they are.  I met one of my best friends, Ken, thanks to Tolkien.  Early in freshman year, He saw I was reading The Lord of the Rings and struck up a conversation with me.  Other friendships were a matter of classroom geography.  Randy sat next to me in homeroom and he was from Deptford and I believe that lead to meeting my friend Don and a whole Deptford contingent.  

One, of my earliest memories of the Prep, apart from the less-than-subtle opening day threat, was the first dance.  A Freshman only mixer in the cafeteria, the event was heavy on the dance tunes, of course.  But I think it was they first time I ever heard Funky Town.

The End is In Sight

Funky Town was a nameless, faceless, paint by numbers hit capitalizing on a popular genre.  Was it any wonder that the disco backlash couldn’t be far behind?  The end of disco loomed on the horizon like a blazing fireball exploding in the heartland. But before it did, it would take down some of the biggest names in rock’s pantheon.  It seemed like everyone wanted to get in on the act.  The Rolling Stones release Some Girls in 1978.  Blech.  I never cared for Miss You and I was more of a Beatles fan anyway.   Kiss’ foray in to disco, I Was Made for Loving You, tried to bring a harder edge to disco, but that wasn’t working either and it started Kiss on a downward spiral that would take them years to recover from.  

I think ELO’s Discovery (Disco? Very!) in 1979 was a big disappointment for me, although it does include a few of my favorite ELO SO songs, like Last Train to London, Confusion and Midnight Blue - but Shine A Little Love is as pure a dance tune as you’re going to find.  I’m sure Jeff Lynne would like everyone to forget the dreadful movie Xanadu - But thanks to my Blog, now everyone can remember that they wrote some of the songs about a magical night club that, in the end, turned out to be a Roller Disco.  The movie put a taint on one of my favorite bands - an uncharacteristic misstep for the savvy Jeff Lynne.

It’s no surprise that Barry Manilow would latch on tot disco to score one of his biggest hits ever with Copacabana - but even Bruce Springsteen couldn’t escape the fever unscathed.  He penned Protection for Donna Summer.  But the worst and I mean WORST offender was Rod Stewart.  I hated Do Ya think I’m Sexy so much that flames would shoot out of the side of my ears whenever that song came on.  I think it was # 1 on the charts for 2 months.  

One of my clearest memories from this time was an ongoing argument with Dolan about whether or not Pink Floyd’s Another Brink in the Wall was a disco song or not.  He insisted that the drum beat was pure disco.  I argued in the negative, but I don’t think we ever resolved that one.  Even the fledgling New Wave Movement took its hits. Blondie’s Heart of Glass was their break through hit, but the original version was more of a Ska/Reggae number before the record producer’s got a hold of it.

But in July 1979 there was a sweet revenge when The Chicago White Sox promoted Disco Demolition Night between games.  The ill-thought out stunt had fans bringing their disco albums to the stadium to be tossed onto a pile in centerfield, where there would be detonated with a charge of explosive.  Well, the explosion tore hole in the outfield, the vinyl shrapnel flew every where and the soon to be drunk fans were tossing their razor-edged discs all over the stadium.  The White Sox ended up forfeiting the game, which I believe is the last time a game had to be forfeited in the American League.  And out of those ashes, A phoenix was ready to rise....

Power Pop Returns!

But there was one song and one album that kicked it all off.  Live at Budokan was released in October 1978.  The version of Surrender off of this album hit me like a wall of sound.  I think I remember doing a double take and thinking “Whoa! What was that?!”  I immediately got the album, too.  Cheap Trick was more popular in Japan than they were in the US and this album wasn’t originally intended distribution in the US.  I had never even heard of Budokan! Somehow, bootleg copies made their way to the US and hit college radio stations and the record company ended releasing a US version and Cheap Trick became a household name! The second side of this album was on my turntable for a long time:

Ain’t That a Shame kicked it off with a rumbling Bun E Carlos drum lead-in that always had me playing some serious air drums.  I Want You to Want Me, was next.  You could hear the Japanese kids screaming in the background, nearly drowning out the band, like when the Beatles played Shea Stadium. I still crank up this song whenever it comes on the radio, especially when Rick Nielsen bends those strings on the main riff.  Surrender was next, a crunchy, totally catchy, subtly political and entirely angsty power pop anthem for a new generation of disaffected youth!  I loved the Kiss reference, too!

When I woke up mom and dad

Were rolling on the couch

Rolling numbers, rock and rolling

Got my Kiss records out!

Besides Cheap Trick, there were two other landmark songs that marked the changing tide in the Fall of 1978.  First was a one-hit wonder from Canada. – Okay, I know that doesn’t really narrow it down for you, but there was no mistaking this high voiced sensation from the great white north.  Nick Gilder (did you think I meant someone else??) brought a little glam and androgyny to his 1978 # 1 hit Hot Child in the City.  Hot Child, was a song that, even though it made it # 1, no one really admitted to liking.  Between subject matter – teenage runaways and prostitution and Nick’s gender-bending delivery, this was a song that you generally didn’t want your parents to catch you listening to.  

On the other hand, My Best Friend’s Girl, from the Car’s self-titled debut was as radio friendly as New Wave got in 1978.  Elliot Easton’s guitar work was both reminiscent of rock-a-billy twangers like Eddie Cochrane and still modern enough to fit the times.  Rick Ocasek’s quirky voice gave the band a great original sound that helped them find a niche that would keep them on the charts for nearly the next 10 years.  The debut also had the great power pop hit Just What I Needed and was a more typically sounding Cars song.  

Novelty Act or the Real Deal?

Okay, one last mention from 1978.  Now that I was in high school, I got to do all kinds of grown up stuff.  Like staying up late and watching Saturday Night Live!  There were great skits back then, especially the Mr. Bill sketches.  “Oh No! It’s Sluggo!!”  A sketch that spilled over into the main stream in a big way was the alter egos created by Belushi and Ackroyd as The Blues Brothers.  I remember when they crossed the SNL stage, dressed in black suits, Ray Bans and pork pie hats, and launched into a great cover of Sam and Dave’s Soul Man.  To me, Belushi & Ackroyd really became Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues, soul brothers on a mission to save the Blues from being swept aside by the soulless tide of “preprogrammed electronic Disco”.  The duo hit the road for a tour and brought along some of the giants of the Blues and soul era.  And here’s the key to their success, apart from the driven personality of John Belushi – their band was the real deal.  Guitarist Steve Cropper was part of the blues outfit Book T and the MGs who scored with Green Onions and Hip Hug Her.  He also wrote songs like In the Midnight Hour and (Sitting on) the Dock of the Bay.  He defined the Soul style of guitar playing.  The bass player, Donald “Duck” Dunn, was also part of Booker T and the MGs and layed the soul groove down for a generation’s worth of music.  Booker T also served as the house band for Stax Records which produced unforgettable soul music through most of the 60s.  When these guys joined the Blues Brothers, they weren’t just part of a novelty cover band – They were playing the music they created and reintroducing it to a new generation of fans, like me.  

When I first heard Soul Man on the radio – It opened up whole new world for me.  At first I didn’t realize that this was a cover song, a remake. I just wasn’t familiar with soul music from the 1960s.  But when I got the album, I immediately wanted to know more about the performers and the songs.  Belushi did a good job given a shout out to the original performers, like Delbert McClenton, Junior Wells or King Floyd (which I misheard as Pink Floyd!)  and the band members.  Briefcase Full of Blues was an important album for me, because it changed the way I approached music.  I took more of an interest in the sources and influences of music and who was playing it.  I've enjoyed introducing this album to my kids (Rubber Biscuit, anyone?)  It was one of my favorites remains so to this day. 

Next: Next Phase, New Wave

Odds and Ends: 1970 - 1978

     Over the course of recounting the music I remembered from my youth, I knew I couldn’t touch on everything. If I did it would sort of all run together like the old hit Life is a Rock (But the Radio rolled Me) by Reunion. However, before I venture off into the high school years, I wanted to look back over the big acts, one-hit wonders and other favorites from the 1970s that I didn't have time to mention before. Since I’ve been writing these blog entries, I’ve been stirring up my memory, kinda like poking a hornet’s nest with a stick. Some of the memories were better left in the vault, but they’re on the loose now.

 

The Champ

 

Paul McCartney.  HE hit the 1970’s still rolling after his success with that other group he was with and pounded out hit after hit throughout the decade (12 Top 100 hits). Okay, by the time he got to Let ‘em In I think he was just dialing it in. If you ever have the chance, you should ask my wife what she thinks about that song, and be prepared for an earful.

 

Someone’s knocking on the door, someone’s ringing the bell

Do me a favor, open the door and let’em in

 

It’s a wonder Lennon didn’t take him out back and kick the crap out of him. We still got the great Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Band on the Run, Jet and Junior’s Farm. Sure there were syrupy ballads, but Sir Paul could do no wrong during the decade. His ex band mates added another 8 songs to the top 100, most of them by Ringo Starr.

 

 

The Big Players

 

     I went to the Billboard top 100 hits for each year from 1970 through 1978 and took a look at who had the most hits during that time. Elton John and the Carpenters each racked up 11 top 100 hits during that time period. There was hardly a time when Elton John wasn’t on the radio, with his first hit charting in 1972 and the latest in 1977. If you add in his duet with Kiki Dee, Don’t Go Breaking my Heart, in 1976, that gets hit total up to 12. Somewhere in there he also managed to star in The Who’s rock opera Tommy as the Pinball Wizard in 1975. Between David Bowie and Elton John, they pretty much defined glam rock in the 70’s. John’s career after the seventies is a story of re-invention and well timed nostalgia, and he still is a big draw on the concert circuit, most recently teaming up with Billy Joel.

 

     The Carpenters, on the other hand, were about as far from glam rock as you could get. They were AM radio mainstays from 1970 to 1975, when personal problems and the pressures of fame would start to take their toll. Fortunately, Barry Manilow, whose career was taking off just when the Carpenter’s was declining, would continue to push the envelope on overproduced harmless, vanilla music, reaching the top 100 8 times from 1975 to 1978. The music of both acts still haunts us today, but is especially annoying at Christmas, when selections from the Carpenter’s Christmas album are played every hour from Thanksgiving to Christmas. And just for everyone’s information – “Christmassing” isn’t a real word.

 

     Another chart topper that I remember from back then was the kid prodigy out of Motown, and I don’t mean Michael Jackson. Stevie Wonder first turned Motown on its head, infusing the label with a fresh breath of funk and serious musical chops, then took over the charts on his own. Like Elton John, Stevie was on the charts for just about the entire decade, even stretching out into the eighties, where his career took an unfortunately mellow turn. I can still remember times I heard If You Really Love Me, You Are the Sunshine of My Life, Living For the City and Sir Duke on the radio. I still dig Superstition, but I can’t believe the same person was also responsible for I Just called to Say I Love You

 

 

Chicago’s hits from the early 1970’s were a big part of my memories of the Golden Age of AM Radio, especially Saturday in the Park and Does Anybody Know What Time It Is? They hit the top 100 8 times until 1976 when their music fell a bit out of step with the times. I think KC and the Sunshine Band were what Chicago could have been if Chicago were wholly and entirely evil, instead of just mostly evil. (I’m talking to you Peter Cetera!). Chicago would reinvent itself a few years later and hit it big in the mid 80’s, but Peter Cetera would leave the band and neither would be the same again. Oh yeah, and they had a really cool logo. You know, bands just don’t have cool logos any more. Chicago, Boston, ELO…These guys took the time to craft something that would look good on a 12x12 Album cover. Now all you get is a 1x1 thumbnail on iTunes. It’s a lost art! Bah!

 

     And let’s don’t forget the women! Helen Reddy, Olivia Newton John, and Carly Simon made their presence known with hits like Delta Dawn, Have you Never Been Mellow, and the classic You’re So Vain – which I still love. Between them they hit the top 100 20 times throughout the decade. Only Helen Reddy would fade out as the 80’s came along. And heck, I’ll throw James Taylor in with this bunch for good measure, since he spent half the decade shacked up with Carly Simon anyway.

 

    And how about that country cross-over, John Denver? He parlayed the songwriting success of Leaving on a Jet Plane (a hit for Peter Paul & Mary in 1969) into a string of hits for himself that included Take me Home, Country Roads and Thank God I’m a Country Boy! He peaked out around 1975, made a Christmas special with the Muppets and took a star turn in the movie Oh, God! Which I thought wasn’t too bad.

 

     In the later half of the 70’s Philly boys Hall & Oates started making their presence known and would become consistent hit makers for the better part of the next 10 years. Rich Girl, which charted in 1977 was, until then, the highest charting song with the word bitch in it. I always thought the rhyme of rich & bitch was a little gratuitous, but it was a big deal bag in 1977. Hey, If Starland Vocal band can sing about nookie, a coupla Philly guys can toss around a few choice words with no problem!

 

 

The Biggest One Hit Wonders!

 

The 1970s was chock full of one-hit wonders the likes of which wouldn’t be seen again until the 1980s. For this list, I only picked the hits that cracked the top 20, but it still gives you a pretty good flavor for the decade.

 

 

1973 Billy Paul Me And Mrs Jones 

• We had a thing going on! Decent RnB tune, but I remember finding an old reel to reel tape recorder in my brother’s room one day. I played the tape and found myself listening to my brother Glenn totally spoofing of Billy Paul’s “Mee-e-e-e-e and Mrs MRS Jooooones. I still laugh about that to his day.  

1973 Clint Holmes Playground In My Mind

• And most people think it should have stayed there! In my mind, I always pair this one with Melanie’s Brand New Key 

1973 Dobie Gray Drift Away 

• Great tune! 

1973 Stories Brother Louie

• I picked this one up on a Buddha Records boxed set that had a lot of other great tunes on it. This one had a nasty groove working on it. 

1973 Vicki Lawrence The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia 

• I loved this song about a jilted lover, her revenge and the execution of an innocent man! A great story song that flips around Johnny Cash’ romanticized “Long Black Veil”. It’s dated now, but it was great fun, back then.

1974 Blue Swede Hooked On A Feeling 

• Gaboo Gaboo Gaboo Gotcha Gaboo! 

1974 David Essex Rock On 

• How this still gets played is beyond me, but in my mind, the Phrase “Rock On” became one with the 1970s, right up there with “Keep on Trucking”. The production on this was eerily minimal but still had a kind of raw power. The strength of this song as a 70s icon was reinforced almost 30 years later when Cheryl Crow released her sunny hit “Soak up the Sun” which ends with the great line:
• I, I’m gonna soak up the Sun 
• I’ve got my 45s on, so I can Rock On

 

1974 Love Unlimited Orchestra Love's Theme

•  Written by Barry White!

 1974 Maria Muldaur Midnight At The Oasis

•  Meh

1974 MFSB TSOP  

1974 Terry Jacks Seasons In The Sun 

• We had joy, and we had fun, while we sang about death!

1975 Carl Douglas Kung Fu Fighting 

• A great Golden AM classic!

1975 Janis Ian At Seventeen  

• A Proto-emo ballad

1975 Minnie Riperton Lovin' You 

• Sorry Minnie, but you sounded like a leaky balloon squeaking out the notes on this one. 

1976 Andrea True Connection More, More, More 

• Another Buddha release! 

1976 Four Seasons December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night) 

• Obviously the Jersey Boys, with Frankie Valli had a great career, but on this one Frankie took a back seat to the rest of the band and the result was one of their best songs ever. Great bass line on this one, too.  

1976 Manhattans Kiss And Say Goodbye  
1976 Starland Vocal Band Afternoon Delight 

• Dear God  

1976 Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band A Fifth Of Beethoven

1976 Wild Cherry Play That Funky Music

1977 Alan O'Day Undercover Angel  

• She said What? I said woo-wheee! When this song hit the charts, it was the first time that I realized a song I liked was totally derided by the critics. I think this made everyone’s end of the year worst songs list. I liked it, so I took it personally that other people hated it. It took me years to realize it, but it really was a crappy song. 

1977 Emotions Best Of My Love

1977 Hot Angel In Your Arms 

• Saucy tale of lover’s revenge! 

1977 Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville 

• Jimmy Buffett is more than a singer, songwriter and musician. He’s an Industry! But for all the success he’s had, this bar band staple was his only song to hit the charts.  

1977 Mary MacGregor Torn Between Two Lovers

1977 Peter McCann Do You Wanna Make Love  

• In my Chevy Van! 

1977 Thelma Houston Don't Leave Me This Way

• Not bad for a disco song! 

1978 A Taste Of Honey Boogie Oogie Oogie 

• A decent groove, but otherwise a totally unnecessary song 

1978 Chic Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah) 

• Nile Rogers was part of this band and he would go on to produce some great pop acts in the 80’s. Chic had serious musical chops, they just wasted them on disco. 

1978 Debby Boone You Light Up My Life 

• I’ve already shared my feelings on this one. 

1978 Exile Kiss You All Over 

• I remember working in the parts department at my dad’s car dealership when Tony, the Parts Manager commented on this one, “Kiss you All Over? Who the hell wants to do that?!?” 

1978 Paul Davis I Go Crazy
1978 Samantha Sang Emotion 

• Penned by the Bee Gees, cause they didn’t want to hog up all the sappy disco ballads to themselves. (Hate to admit it but I did have this album.) 

1978 Yvonne Elliman If I Can't Have You 

• Yvonne came to light in the rock opera Jesus Chris Superstar as Mary Magdalene, but she tore it up with this better than average disco stomper. She had such a great voice, it’s a shame she didn’t have a better career.

Some More of My Favs.

 

    I need to give a last shout out the rest of the great (and maybe not so great) songs that were part of the soundtrack of my childhood. If I forgot any, leave a comment for your favorites from those years! Next stop is high school, a new group of friends and another lifetime of memories!

 

 

1970 Band Of Gold Freda Payne
1970 O-o-h Child Five Stairsteps
1970 Spirit In The Sky Norman Greenbaum
1970 Venus Shocking Blue
1971 Treat Her Like A Lady Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose
1971 Gypsy, Tramps And Thieves Cher
1971 Don't Pull Your Love Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds
1971 It Don't Come Easy Ringo Starr
1972 Lean On Me Bill Withers
1972 Brandy (You're A Fine Girl) Looking Glass
1972 Go All The Way Raspberries
1972 Too Late To Turn Back Now Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose
1972 Day Atter Day Badfinger
1972 Doctor My Eyes Jackson Browne
1973 Half Breed Cher
1973 Loves Me Like A Rock Paul Simon
1973 Stuck In The Middle With You Stealers Wheel
1973 Shambala Three Dog Night
1973 Dancing In The Moonlight King Harvest
1973 Your Mama Don't Dance Loggins & Messina
1973 My Maria BW Stevenson
1973 Kodachrome Paul Simon
1973 Ramblin' Man Allman Brothers
1973 It Never Rains In Southern California Albert Hammond
1974 Come And Get Your Love Redbone
1974 Billy Don't Be A Hero Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods
1974 Sundown Gordon Lightfoot
1974 Rock Me Gently Andy Kim
1974 Rock The Boat Hues Corporation
1974 Smokin' In The Boys Room Brownsville Station
1974 The Night Chicago Died Paper Lace
1974 Rikki Don't Lose That Number Steely Dan
1974 Taking Care Of Business Bachman-Turner Overdrive
1974 Radar Love Golden Earring
1974 Beach Baby First Class
1975 Magic Pilot
1975 How Long Ace
1975 Some Kind Of Wonderful Grand Funk
1975 Killer Queen Queen
1975 You Aint Seen Nothin' Yet Bachman-Turner Overdrive
1976 Let Your Love Flow Bellamy Brothers
1976 Dreamweaver Gary Wright
1976 Convoy CW McCall
1976 Saturday Night Bay City Rollers
1976 Fox On The Run Sweet
1977 Swayin' To The Music (Slow Dancin') Johnny Rivers
1977 Lonely Boy Andrew Gold
1977 Smoke From A Distant Fire Sanford Townsend Band
1977 Lido Shuffle Boz Scaggs
1978 Baker Street Gerry Rafferty
1978 Love Will Find A Way Pablo Cruise
1978 Thunder Island Jay Ferguson
1978 Peg Steely Dan
1978 Because The Night Patti Smith

Next:  Take a Look at the Person on Your Left...