Bradley's Buzz

Top 100 Singles Of The 70's - 80-76

I'm sure both of you my trusty readers are wondering how I come up with such an awesome list as the Top 100 Singles of the 1970's, well let me tell you it isn't easy but there is a method to all the madness, so here is the criteria I go by:

1. The song had to have been released as an official single in either the US or the UK. That means anything that got heavy FM radio rotation but was only an album track doesn't qualify - "Stairway to Heaven" comes to mind to give you an example.
2. The single had to have been released between January 1, 1970 and December 31, 1979, which means even if a song hit its highest chart position in the early months of 1980 would still qualify as long as the single was actually released in December of 1979, there are at least two such examples that are on this list. I know some music websites of the 80's include 1979 as part of the 80's and though I see the idea behind that, the fact is 1979 is in reality still part of the 1970's, I mean you can't really argue that fact.
3. And finally, and of course the most important stipulation ever, I as in me, as in the Bradley in 'According to Bradley' have to love the song. So even if to you a song really spoke to you of the 70's or the song was a huge megahit that everyone in the world knows the song may not be anywhere on the list, and that's because I just don't love it enough to include it. And that's why I had to say bye bye Miss American Pie.

So now you know the main criteria in picking and choosing so let's move on to the next batch of singles shall we?

#80 - 76

#80 – Don’t Cry Out Loud – Melissa Manchester
(Paul Allen/Carole Bayer Sager)
Arista single #373 US / #226 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 11/18/1978 #10
I have always loved this ballad, Melissa Manchester is one of those late 70’s singers that never got the full recognition I think she deserved, or perhaps she got a lot of it in the beginning and then just washed away, though I know she is still recording, the last big thing I remember from her is 1982’s “You Should Hear How She Talks About You”, but prior to that she had a few hits in the 70’s but none that were as good as this, to me at least. For me it’s usually about the lyrics and though some may pass “Don’t Cry Out Loud” because it’s of that overblown string laden ballad variety, the lyrics are actually quite captivating, “Baby cried the day the circus came to town/ cause she didn’t want parades just passing by her/ so she painted on a smile and took up with some clown/ while she danced without a net upon the wire…”
I love the painted on a smile line as it is used in the guise of the circus theme but is obviously something deeper (yes I said deeper), perhaps I'm just easily smitten. The more famous chorus kicks in with Melsie M turning it up a few notches - “Don’t Cry Out Loud/ just keep it inside/ learn how to hide your feelings/ fly high and proud/ and if you should fall/ remember you almost had it all…” before going back to the circus theme kicks in again along with some crackle in the pure voice of Manshester, “Baby saw as they took the big top down/ they left her dreams among the litter/ and the different kind of love she thought she’d found/ there was nothing left but sawdust and some glitter…” I love it.

#79 – Dark Lady – Cher
(Johnny Durhill)
MCA single #40161 US / #101 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 01/19/1974 #1 / UK 02/16/1974 #36
Poor Cher didn’t even know she was offered the story song of “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia” (see #100) and apparently Sonny also turned down the equally cool “Delta Dawn” yet another story song that became a hit on the pop charts for Helen Reddy and a top country hit by my gal Tanya Tucker, but I guess it all worked out because Sonny did let a few story songs get to his one time beloved including this special little ditty that has all the elements of a good story song - a jilted lover, a little bit of magic, gun shots and death, yes, death must be in every good story song. Cher’s US #1 "Dark Lady" tells the story of our heroine heading to see a fortune teller who flips cards while laughing, lighting candles and generally dancing to her gypsy music til the clock strikes on the 12; as it turns out she tells Cher more about Cher than Cher knew herself. So it’s no surprise when the fortune lady tells our gal that her lover is cheating on her with someone close, she suggests Cher hits the highway and pretends she never saw our dark lady. As Cher returns home she remembers the fortune tellers perfume and how she smelt it once in her own rooooooom (do a slight horse neigh here for full effect) and the whole songs turns into double homicide as Cher hits the dark lady’s home where she is hugging and kissing on her man. Cher leaves them both dead on the floor and the Dark Lady will never turn her card up anymore. Don’t you just love these stories? For an extra dose of fun, Cher did what can only be called one of the very first videos when they did a whole cartoon version of the song on her Sonny & Cher Variety Show. It’s something to see as a cartoon Cher plays the Dark Lady and the heroine.

#78 – Proud Mary – Ike & Tina Turner
(John Fogerty)
Liberty single #56216 US / #15432 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 01/30/1971 #4
Tina Turner’s insane performance on “Proud Mary” would be enough to get this cover of Credence Clearwater Revival’s hit on the list, but when you add in the music provided by Ike and his boys, and the Ikettes and then put in the visual of that crazy ass dance they came up with well you have a huge piece of 1970’s fun. Starting out with a little guitar and Tina’s oh so sexy silky low register, “You know every now and then we think we might like to do something from us that’s nice and easy” and then Ike comes in singing low “looking for a job down in the city” and he continues and more importantly so does Tina – “there’s just one thing/ you see we nevah evah do nothing nice and easy / we always do it nice and rough/ we’re gonna take the beginning of this song and do it easy/ then we’re gonna do the finish/ rough / the way we do Proud Mary” and then Tina comes in singing “and we’re rolling/ rolling/ rolling on the river” after the first and second verse with Ike still singing back up and the girls chiming in, we get the nice and easy and then before you know it, the horns kick in and the girl starts her shimmy and the big sound of the charging bass line while Tina and her girls kick and bend, oh it’s something you see even when just listening to the song. Of course that’s where nice and easy is left far behind and the whole thing burns into an intensity not normally seen in pop music, but alas that was the Tina before she went all Adult Contemporary on us. At least she still has those legs.

#77 – Long Long Time – Linda Ronstadt
(Gary White)
Capitol single #2846 US / #15657 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 08/15/1970 #25
I admit that I really love Linda Ronstadt, well at least the 70’s and very early 80’s versions of Linda. That is as a performer, as a person she’s still a take charge cool chick that has my utmost respect, but as for her song choices well they just ain’t what they used to be. But back in 1970, our girl was just beginning to climb her way to the top of the rock and pop charts and culminate that So Cal sound that made her backing band The Eagles stars of their own. From one of her first albums Silk Purse comes this haunting little ballad that may not have the gusto of her later years covers of “It’s So Easy” but what it lacks in rock and roll, it more than makes up in a powerful vocal performance that wraps its voice around some of the most bittersweet vocals ever. “Caught in my fears/ blinking back the tears/ I can’t say you hurt me/ when you never let me near/ and I never drew/ one response from you/ all the while you fell over girls you never knew/ cause I’ve done everything I can to try and make you mine/ and I think it’s going to hurt me for a long long time…” The lyric and even the strings in the performance are just itching to be played as co-dependant or over the top but this is Ms. Ronstadt and such this ends up an aching, yearning, beautifully sung and performed masterpiece particularly the ending, “..Life’s full of flaws/ who knows the cause/ living in a memory of a love that never was/ cause I’ve done everything to try and change your mind/ and I think I’m gonna miss you a long long time/ and I’ve done everything I can/ to try and make you mine/ and I think I’m gonna love you for a long long time…” A few years ago I was making a Linda compilation and found this song, I knew the title but didn’t really remember the song but once I heard it, I couldn’t let it go and it’s still one of my all time Linda songs ever. For those who think all these 70’s are being thrown out for the new hip soundtracks of shows like The OC, I have to let you know that the super sleuth Veronica Mars used this song and this version in a scene where not only did it pertain to the actual scene, the characters actually talk about the heartbreak in the song, and it was only released 37 years ago.

#76 – Piano Man – Billy Joel
(Billy Joel)
Columbia/CBS single #45963 US / CBS single #3183 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 02/23/1974 #25
We find ourselves at yet another story that a singer needs to tell the world, only this time there isn’t any blood shed and in a strange little twist, it’s actually a true story. One of Billy’s first hits, “Piano Man” still holds up as one of his greatest songs. I love any kind of song or poem or novel that is so well written it actually puts you into the time, place and story itself. Billy plays himself reflecting on his surroundings, not in the past but right at the moment when he sits at the piano and begins entertaining the characters at the night club. The bartender, the vet, the waitress; all of them have roles, names and dreams that Billy reflects on. He hears endless chatter from the patrons while singing and dreaming of leaving himself. The whole thing doesn’t come off as cheesy as I would think it might all these years later. Perhaps because one of my dreams has always been to perform in a bar like this, and in Spokane, there was a woman who did just that at the Brass Rail gay bar – of course she was a bitch and Billy probably isn’t so much of a bitch so I like him and his song better than anything that dried up old hag ever played. Oh where was I? Oh yeah, Billy, Piano Man, great song.

and with that memory blitz I think it's time to call an end to yet another installment of our top 100 singles of the 70's until next time....

posted by swivek @ 9:01 AM