RIP Helen Reddy

I'll still enjoy the song.

 

We have watched a lot of 1977 Pete's Dragon around here and I always thought she looked excellent in that movie.

 

My wife was born 12 years after me, in 1988. Every Saturday is a ritual for me to listen to Casey Kasem's Top 40 on the 70s on 7. We both will marvel at the songs that made the Top 40 in the early 70s ... Rubber Ducky, The Lord's Prayer, Desiderata ...

Then there was "The Americans" by Gordon Sinclair. I cannot believe the current GOP has not co-opted that again in this current climate.

I contend that 1980/1981 was the pinnacle of strange times on the top 40 chart. You could have Ronnie Milsap, Donna Summer, AC/DC, Anne Murray and Wall of Voodoo all in a row. It's also why I will religiously listen to the Top 40 Countdown on the 80s on 8 when those years are highlighted (and 1982, for that matter).

 

An '80s classic!

 

Heard an AT40 episode with the worst top 40 song ever. "Teddy Bear" was awful, cringey and creepy. My nephew and I laughed about it for days. It was No. 40 for one week in August 1976.

It's about a "crippled boy" whose trucker father was killed in a crash. Lyrics include:

Why, I guess every driver for miles around had caught Teddy Bear's call
And that little crippled boy was having a ball
For as fast as one driver would carry him in
Another would carry him to his truck and take off again

Well, you better believe I took my turn at riding Teddy Bear
And then I carried him back in and put him down in his chair
And buddy if I never live to see happiness again
I want you to know I saw it that day, in the face of that little man

It replaced Queen's "You're my Best Fiend" in the countdown.

 

Nothing ... NOTHING ... will ever top Muskrat Love as the worst song in the history of AT40.

 

"My Ding-A-Ling" was before your time?

 

"Signs" = "It's A Small World." Cringe.

 

My favorite bit of music trivia ever is that “Dominique” by the Singing Nun is the song that kept “Louie Louie” from reaching No. 1 in 1963.

 

"Playground In My Mind" or "Daddy, Don't You Walk So Fast" would have to be on the Mount Rushmore of WTF, 1970s?

 

Red Sovine had a string of those terrible CB Radio tear-jerkers on the country charts, like "Phantom 309." And yes, they were horrible even then.

You want an oddity from that era that definitely couldn't get made now, check out Rod Hart's "C.B. Savage."

 

Lest we forget ... or maybe we should forget.