Keep Reaching for the Stars: American Top 40, 50 years ago

My first day living in the South, I heard Patches on the radio for the first time. It blew my mind because it was so oddly depressing. My mind further was destroyed when I learned it was the same guy who did Strokin’.

 

You must not own a Peloton.
In my case, though, being able to sing (or at least recognize) contemporary songs doesn’t mean you like them!

 

When this top 40 came out, music was more of a shared experience. Fewer options to hear it. Radio stations tried to encompass so much and I think it led to people have more eclectic tastes. Kind of miss that.

 

AT40 is quite a nice reflection of our changing times. Whereas outlets were more limited, it was a more shared broader music spectrum.

Nowadays, most people have a multitude of platforms, radio/sat/Spotify/iTumes, and the. Specific stratas within each.

Bummer that with more choices in all things, we as a country have become less unified.

 

I thought everyone heard "Dueling Banjos" during their first day in the South.

 

The big difference, I think, is that back then, music was made by actual musicians who could write songs and play instruments. I say that as someone who doesn't have a musical bone in his body.

 

There's a lot to that. Also ... if you liked someone else's track, one did a cover as opposed to "sampling." IMO, sampling shows a lack of original thought, laziness and is typically a lack of one's own talent.

Or ... you get Ashford and Simpson to make some adjustments to a hit and do one of your own, like Diana Ross. Of course, that had Motown/Hitsville USA's fingerprints all over it. Funnier still, Berry Gordy didn't like it at all at first.

Then again, Gordy was also against Marvin Gaye's album "What's Going On." Thank goodness he didn't eschew that one.

 

Caught the end of the show today: Casey’s notes on CCR was the band has purchased a boat and Diesel engine and donated them to the Occupation of Alcatraz group. His line started with “some bands play benefit concerts, this group goes farther.”

 

OCT. 10, 1970

TW LW TITLE –•– Artist (Label)-Weeks on Chart (Peak To Date)

1 4 CRACKLIN’ ROSIE –•– Neil Diamond (Uni)-8 (1 week at #1) (1)
2 6 I’LL BE THERE –•– Jackson 5 (Motown)-4 (2)
3 3 CANDIDA –•– Dawn (Bell)-12 (3)
4 1 AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH –•– Diana Ross (Motown)-10 (1)
5 10 ALL RIGHT NOW –•– Free (A&M)-9 (5)
6 5 JULIE, DO YA LOVE ME –•– Bobby Sherman (Metromedia)-11 (5)
7 2 LOOKIN’ OUT MY BACK DOOR / LONG AS I CAN SEE THE LIGHT –•– Creedence Clearwater Revival (Fantasy)-10 (2)
8 16 GREEN-EYED LADY –•– Sugarloaf (Liberty)-9 (8)
9 18 WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN –•– The Carpenters (A&M)-5 (9)
10 7 (I Know) I’M LOSING YOU –•– Rare Earth (Rare Earth)-11 (7)

11 8 SNOWBIRD –•– Anne Murray (Capitol)-13 (8)
12 9 WAR –•– Edwin Starr (Gordy)-14 (1)
13 28 LOLA –•– The Kinks (Reprise)-7 (13)
14 14 EXPRESS YOURSELF –•– Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band (Warner Brothers)-9 (14)
15 15 IT’S A SHAME –•– The Spinners (V.I.P.)-12 (15)
16 11 PATCHES –•– Clarence Carter (Atlantic)-13 (4)
17 30 FIRE AND RAIN –•– James Taylor (Warner Brothers)-5 (17)
18 24 OUT IN THE COUNTRY –•– Three Dog Night (Dunhill)-7 (18)
19 20 STILL WATER (Love) –•– The Four Tops (Motown)-7 (19)
20 25 LOOK WHAT THEY’VE DONE TO MY SONG MA –•– The New Seekers (Elektra)-6 (20)

21 21 JOANNE –•– Michael Nesmith and the First National Band (RCA)-10 (21)

The wool-cap wearing member of the Pre-Fab Four, Mike Nesmith wrote a one-hit wonder in 1964 -- before Monkee mania -- that was originally recorded as a bluegrass song before the Stone Poneys (featuring a young Linda Ronstadt) gave it a different sound and released "Different Drum." In addition to being the heir of the Liquid Paper fortune -- his mother invented it -- Nesmith's contribution as a pioneer of the country-rock sound came with the First National Band. They also just missed the top 40 with "Silver Moon." I honestly always thought this was either David Gates or Harry Nilsson all these years.

22 23 INDIANA WANTS ME –•– R. Dean Taylor (Rare Earth)-6 (22)
23 12 GROOVY SITUATION –•– Gene Chandler (Mercury)-14 (12)
24 32 IT’S ONLY MAKE BELIEVE –•– Glen Campbell (Capitol)-6 (24)
25 26 LONG LONG TIME –•– Linda Ronstadt (Capitol)-9 (25)
26 17 25 OR 6 TO 4 –•– Chicago (Columbia)-12 (4)
27 27 CLOSER TO HOME –•– Grand Funk Railroad (Capitol)-9 (27)
28 13 DON’T PLAY THAT SONG (You Lied) –•– Aretha Franklin with the Dixie Flyers (Atlantic)-10 (11)
29 34 EL CONDOR PASA –•– Simon and Garfunkel (Columbia)-5 (29)
30 33 THAT’S WHERE I WENT WRONG –•– The Poppy Family Featuring Susan Jacks (London)-10 (30)

31 37 SOMEBODY’S BEEN SLEEPING –•– 100 Proof (Aged In Soul) (Hot Wax)-6 (31)
32 29 RUBBER DUCKIE –•– Ernie (Jim Henson) (Columbia)-9 (16)
33 19 I (Who Have Nothing) –•– Tom Jones (Parrot)-8 (14)
34 22 NEANDERTHAL MAN –•– Hotlegs (Capitol)-8 (22)
35 47 OUR HOUSE –•– Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (Atlantic)-4 (35)
36 53 IT DON’T MATTER TO ME –•– Bread (Elektra)-3 (36)
37 62 LUCRETIA MAC EVIL –•– Blood, Sweat and Tears (Columbia)-2 (37)
38 39 DO WHAT YOU WANNA DO –•– Five Flights Up (T-A)-8 (38)
39 43 DEEPER AND DEEPER –•– Freda Payne (Invictus)-5 (39)
40 40 STAND BY YOUR MAN –•– Candi Staton (Fame)-7 (40)

THIS WEEK’S DROPS

57 31 (They Long To Be) CLOSE TO YOU –•– The Carpenters (A&M)-17 (1)
61 36 SPILL THE WINE –•– Eric Burdon and War (MGM)-21 (3)

POWER PLAYS

41 52 GOD, LOVE, AND ROCK AND ROLL –•– Teegarden and Van Winkle (Westbound)-4 (41)
42 42 I STAND ACCUSED –•– Isaac Hayes (Enterprise)-7 (42)
43 70 UGENA ZA ULIMWENGU (Unite the World) –•– The Temptations (Gordy)-2 (43)
44 41 SOLITARY MAN –•– Neil Diamond (Bang)-24 (21)
45 50 AS THE YEARS GO BY –•– Mashmakhan (Epic)-8 (45)
46 57 GYPSY WOMAN –•– Brian Hyland (Uni)-6 (46)
47 65 MONTEGO BAY –•– Bobby Bloom (MGM / L&R)-5 (47)
48 44 IF I DIDN’T CARE –•– The Moments (Stang)-8 (44)
49 49 WE CAN MAKE MUSIC –•– Tommy Roe (ABC)-5 (49)
50 51 YELLOW RIVER –•– Christie (Epic)-13 (50)

NEW THIS WEEK

62 — CRY ME A RIVER –•– Joe Cocker (A&M)-1 (62)
75 — I THINK I LOVE YOU –•– The Partridge Family (Starring Shirley Jones and Featuring David Cassidy) (Bell)-1 (75)
84 — LET’S WORK TOGETHER –•– Canned Heat (Liberty)-1 (84)
85 — TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE –•– The Friends Of Distinction (RCA)-1 (85)
86 — AMERICA / STANDING (Medley) / BECAUSE I LOVE YOU –•– The Five Stairsteps (Buddah)-1 (86)
90 — DREAMS –•– Buddy Miles (Mercury)-1 (90)
92 — UP ON THE ROOF –•– Laura Nyro (Columbia)-1 (92)
95 — FATHER COME ON HOME –•– Pacific Gas and Electric (Columbia)-1 (95)
96 — TIME TO KILL –•– The Band (Capitol)-1 (96)
99 — I’M BETTER OFF WITHOUT YOU –•– The Main Ingredient (RCA)-1 (99)
100 — LISTEN HERE –•– Brian Auger and the Trinity (RCA)-1 (100)

 

Frank Stallone clocked in at No. 24 on the Billboard's Hot 100 on Oct. 22, 1983.

Taco at No. 35.

Debarge at No. 70.

It's a reasonably healthy culture that makes room for those individuals on the same chart.

 

Looking at that another way ...

Taco's "Puttin on the Ritz" is right up there with Starship's "We Built This City" as worst song of the 1980s.

Frank Stallone would be in another bracket in that contest, perhaps with Eddie Murphy and Don Johnson.

 

Some of posterity's greatest minds will ruminate on that. Falco or Europe: Which one was more aggressively bad?

Patrick Swayze's "She's Like the Wind" - yea or nay?
(No. 3 on Billboard Hot 100 in 1988 anno domini)