Top 100 Singles Of The 70's - 75-71
We are heading into the top 75 now and I just know you're teetering on the edge of your office chair wondering what I've got in store in for you... well never fear, here we go the countdown continues with numbers 75 through 71 of our Top 100 Singles Of The 70's - According to Bradley...
#75 – Sad Eyes – Robert John(Robert John)
EMI America single #8015 US / #101 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 05/19/1979 #1 / UK 10/20/1979 #31
I wonder whatever happened to Robert John, he came onto the scene with a hit cover version of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” in 1972 and then 7 years later showed up with this strangely evocative single that shot all the way up to #1. For some reason I guess I hadn’t really paid attention to the verses in “Sad Eyes” for all these years cause when I finally found a copy of it a few years ago I realized the song is being sung to the mistress who our hero is dumping cause his girlfriend or wife is back in town. We get the story in the first lines of the song, “Looks like it’s over/ you knew I couldn’t stay/ she’s coming home today…but its over oooh Sad Eyes/ turn the other way/ I don’t want to see you cry/ Sad Eyes/ you knew there’d come a day when we would have to say goodbye..” Now I’m not one to condone such blatant bastardism but hey at least he wrote the girl a song. Though I’m also surprised Robert John could hook up with two women, as he’s not exactly attractive. He kind of looks like a Midwest salesman with a wife and four kids at home, not your typical pop singer look. But even all these years later, I love his high pitched voice and his little shot of guilt and remorse as he can’t stand to see poor sad eyes cry as he packs up his shit and heads back to Illinois to his wife, four kids and salesman job at the paper company or maybe he just became Christopher Cross, oh whatever happened to him?
#74 – Boogie Woogie Dancin’ Shoes – Claudja Barry(Barry/Bjoerklund/Evers/Forsey/Korduletsch)
Chrysalis single #2313
Chart Debut: US Pop 04/14/1979 #56
For anyone who grew up in the early 80’s, K-Tel was a big part of your music life. The company did what that endless Now! That’s Music series does today, compiling tons of songs and putting them onto a reasonably priced collection. I had a ton of them, the hard rocking Hard 80 which featured Pat Benatar, Journey and Blondie, Soundwaves – an excellent collection including Pat again, KISS, Prince, The Beat – a collection of new waveness and a disco collection called Hot Nights, City Lights from 1979. On that album were a bunch of the classic disco singles of the era some of which end up on this list, and here is our very first entry from that album. “Boogie Woogie Dancin’ Shoes” was probably the least known song on that K-Tel collection but it was by far one of my favorites. A little bit “Knock On Wood”, a little bit Donna Summer, the main ingredient of the song was Claudja Barry’s made for disco smooth vox and the filtering disco back beat full of insane keyboard notes and a super cool bass line that matches perfectly with the theme of the day, getting dressed up and going out to the disco. “I’ve been workin’ all week saving my emotions/ for Saturday night when I use my potion/ to put on a face/ pretty clothes/ I’m dressed to kill/ the one night a week I feel free to obey my will…magic shoes and a diamond spangle/ I can hypnotize with mind by the way that I move/ when you see a thousand stars dancin’ round my shoes…” before the chorus kicks in with some uber cool back up boys “boogie oogie/ boogie woogie dancin’ shoes/ keep me dancin’ all night/ boogie oogie/ boogie woogie dancin’ shoes/ make me Queen for the night..” There is even a disco break down complete with synthesized handclaps and foot stomps and the boys singing alone “boogie oogie boogie woogie dancin’ shoes” and you know how much I love that. The song wasn’t a very big hit though I’m not sure why, but should you find it on some compilation definitely pick it up for that “once in a lifetime feeling that returns every week.”
#73 – The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan – Marianne Faithfull(Shel Silverstein)
Island single #6491 UK only
Chart Debut: UK 11/24/1979 #48
Screw Susan, Bree, Gabby and Lynette, those desperate housewives have nothing on Lucy Jordan. Next to the pill popping moms in the Stones’ “Mother’s Little Helper” I’d have to say Lucy is one of our first celebrated desperate housewives. But Lucy has nothing to celebrate in this classic mid tempo synth-athon from the genius that is Marianne Faithfull, who is in fact a bit of a desperate character of her own. After a much celebrated role in the 60’s as an angelic voiced sweet girl, our girl hooked up with the Stones, took drugs, raped and pillaged (just kidding) and seemed to come in and out of consciousness, ours and hers then in 1979 she re-emerged with a full blown cigarette hacked voice, some cool session players and an 8 track opus of pissiness, bitterness and swear words called Broken English. The punky new wave album wasn’t much of a hit but it captured anyone who got near enough to hear it. The single “The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan” written by sometime kiddy novelist Shel Silverstein is a perfect choice for the album in both subject matter and the reconstruction of new wave pop. Opening with simple synthesizers Marianne scratchingly comes in, “The morning sun touched gently on the eyes of Lucy Jordan/ in her white suburban bedroom/ in her white suburban town…” As our girl stays in bed under the covers, the chorus tells a little more of our little manic depressive mama, “At the age of 37 she realized she’d never ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair/ so she let the phone keep ringing/ as she sat there softly singing/ little nursery rhymes/ she’d memorized in Daddy’s easy chair.” As we venture further into the song, we learn even more of Lucy - “Her husband is off to work/ and the kids are off to school/ and there were so many ways/ for her to spend the day/ She could clean the house for hours/ or rearrange the flowers/ or run naked through the shady streets screaming all the waaay!!”– A bit heavy handed for a pop single perhaps but it’s just so good. By the end of the song it seems Lucy gets her wish but it’s at the ultimate price – her own life – “The evening sun touched gently on the eyes of Lucy Jordan/ on the rooftop where she’d climbed when all the laughter grew too loud/ she bowed and curtseyed to the man/ who reached and offered her his hand/ and led her down to the long white car that waited past the crowd..” and the final chorus, “at the age of 37 she knew she’d found forever/ as she rode along in Paris/ with the warm wind in her hair” and then the song just softly fades out and we are left with a brilliant foray into the world of Lucy and Marianne Faithfull.
#72 – Because The Night – Patti Smith Group(Patti Smith/Bruce Springsteen)
Arista single #318 US / #181 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 04/08/1978 #13 / UK 04/29/1978 #5
When I was a little kid I was going through my Uncle Randy’s albums and came upon Patti Smith Group’s Easter album. I was appalled at what I saw; there was Patti on the cover with her arm stretched over her head and her big hairy armpit in full view. I couldn’t believe it, I mean she was not Debbie Harry or Pat Benatar was she? But being the curious kid, I decided to give the record a spin anyway and though it didn’t get me suck me in as it would in later years, the single “Because The Night” did grab me and grab me good. The beginning keyboard keys and Patti’s low huskiness, “Take me now baby as I am/ hold me close/ try to understand/ desire is hunger as the fire I breathe/ love is a banquet on which we feed…” I had never heard such interesting lyrics. There was no pretense in it and it wasn’t fluff yet it sounded like a rock song, I didn’t understand it, and then the guitars and drums kick in, “Come on now / try and understand/ the way I feel when I’m in your hands/ take me hand / from under cover/ they can’t hurt you now/ can’t hurt you now/ can’t hurt you nooooooow….” And then zipping right into the chorus, “Because the night/ belongs to lovers/ because the night belongs to love/ because the night belongs to lovers/ because the night belongs to us…” Before the whole goes back to its initial pattern – blended all together with a huge guitar solo and Patti’s intense performance and we get a hard-hitting rock ballad. I noticed right away the song was co-written by Bruce Springsteen and thought that was perhaps the reason it had a more tangible sound than most of the album. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who felt that as the song became Patti’s biggest hit. I would eventually sing it on one of my home made albums I did when I was little so I was years ahead of Natalie Merchant covering the classic, though I guess she had a bigger hit with it than Bradley Benatar (as I went by at the time). None the less, the song was and still is a clever mesh of Patti’s independent punky nature and the more attainable top 40 rock, but should you think that hair covered pit led me off the trail of Patti, I’m more than happy to say as I grew up I grew to love the other songs in Patti’s catalog and her lack of a Lady Bic doesn’t bother me so much anymore.
#71 – Dream On – Aerosmith(Steven Tyler)
Columbia/CBS single #10278 US / CBS single #1898 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 01/10/1976 #6
Aerosmith certainly deserves kudos for longevity if nothing else, I mean 30 some years later and they are not only still performing and making music, they are actually getting hits, airplay and even make videos. Not bad for a bunch of old men. Of course they weren’t always old men, back in 1973 they launched their debut album and on the album was “Dream On.” The song didn’t catch on as they would hope but after the huge success of their 1975 Toys In The Attic album, Columbia re-released this single and they ended up with a top 10 hit. “Dream On” is for all intents and purposes a ballad, but it’s not the Diane Warren schlotz of “Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing,” instead it’s argued that it’s the first power ballad, combining mournful lyrics with hard rocking guitars and drums. Of course Aerosmith’s penchant for the blues-rock is still evident though not prevalent on the song. Starting with a whirling guitar and Steven Tyler’s groovy smoky vocals, “Everytime when I look in the mirror/ all these lines in my face getting clearer/ it past is gone….” Of course the lyrics are the tipping point for me, “I know what nobody knows/ where it comes and where it goes/ I know its everybody’s sin/ you’ve got to lose to learn to win…” but it’s the next verse and chorus that always gets me – “Half my life is in books written pages/ Live and learn from fools and from sages/ You know it’s true/ all the things come back to you… sing with me/ sing for the years/ sing for the laughter/ sing for the tears/ sing with me if it’s just for today/ maybe tomorrow the good lord will take you away…” and by the end of the song you finally get the title in the song – “Dream on/ dream on/ dream on / dream until your dream comes true…” and of course that Steven Tyler howl comes barging in like the rock and roll god many people, including my baby brother, think he is. Okay, I may think he has a bit of a rock god in him as well.
and now we are headed into even crazier territory - we've had some disco, some ballads, some new wave and some 'novelty' so what could be in store for next time? Well I'd say expect some disco, some new wave....
posted by swivek @ 11:10 AM
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