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Top 100 Singles Of The 70's - 35-31

Top 100 Singles Of The 70's - According To Bradley
#35-31
Today we have a little bit of an excercise routine in store for you - you get to whistle, you get to dance all night long and that's just to try and get the music out of you - have you gotten any little clues about today's 5 singles? Good... either way, good.


#35 – Can’t Smile Without You – Barry Manilow
(Chris Arnold/ David Martin/ Geoff Morrow)
Arista single #305 US / #176 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 02/04/1978 #3 / UK 05/06/1978 #43
Don’t you laugh at me! All you have to do is hear the opening whistle on Barry’s “Can’t Smile Without You” and I dare you to turn it off. Well maybe you would still turn it off but I’m telling you, you would regret it. I always liked Barry just a little bit but when this song was used in the film Unconditional Love with Kathy Bates and Rupert Everett and even Barry showed up in the film, I was hooked all over again. It’s the perfect little pop song for the Manilow man, it’s silly sweet and so damn catchy you just can’t shake it.


#34 – If You Think You Know How To Love Me – Pat Benatar
(Nicky Chinn/Mike Chapman)
Chrysalis single #2373
Released September 1979 - Not charted
You didn’t really think I could forget about my Patti did you? Pat’s first album In The Heat Of The Night wasn’t released until October so her number of 70’s singles is of course pretty narrow. “If You Think You Know How To Love Me” was the first cross world single released from the album. A steamy and seductive mid tempo rock song, it had been a hit a few years before for the band Smokie. Pat’s version however is so much better. Not only is it Pat which just makes it 100% better than anything, but it is also a lot more rocking. Maybe not rocking in the sense of hard metal heaviness, but the guitar churning through out it and the cymbals banging on every third note of the chorus is a pretty intense listen. The best thing about the song is the atmosphere, you feel the lyrics as Pat punches through them and you see the imagery as if you’re there with the Benatar; “A reckless night in a nameless town/ and we moved out of sight with a silent sound/ a beach that wept with deserted waves/ that’s where we slept knowing we’d be safe…” and her point of defiance, “now you may think you can walk on the wild, wild side with me/ but there’s a lot I’ve learned and a lot that I’ve yet to see…” but she eventually takes down her guard long enough to give out the ultimate challenge, “If you think you know how to love me/ and you think you know what I need/ and if you really really want me to stay/ you’ve got to lead the way/ yes, if you think you know how to love me/ and you think you can stand by me/ and if you really, really want me to stay/ you’ve got to lead the way.” The single didn’t do anything chart wise but it was a seductive opener to what was to become the hottest rock chick of the 80’s.


#33 – I Was Made For Dancin’ – Leif Garrett
(Lloyd)
Scotti Bros single #403 US / #11202 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 11/11/1978 #10 / UK 01/20/1979 #4
One more little ditty I never expected to find on my list and definitely not scoring so high but here’s the gist kids, so sit back. When I decided to make this list I hit the internet and record stores high and low finding every 70’s song I knew but didn’t have. After a successful trip I found Leif Garrett’s “I Was Made For Dancin’” on a 70’s comp. I thought if anything at least that will be a nice jaunt through the cheesiness that was the 70’s version of American Idol. What I didn’t know is how good the song actually was going to be. Combining the ultimate in 70’s music, the pop and disco beats so prevelant, the song chugs along at a fast and furious pace with the greatest production this side of an early Benatar album, “You’ve got me rollin’ like a wheel on the road/ round and round with no place to go/ I’ve got to find out if you’re feeling it too/ It’s hard to tell so here’s what I do/ and everytime I want more/ I’ll take you out on the floor…” begins Leif’s transgression to the top 10.

The chorus is a highlight, “I Was Made For Dancin’/ ah ah ah all night long…” I love it. I mean there’s even a bass driven breakdown in the middle of it. After I finally had all the songs I knew had a shot at being in the top 100 I made three mp3 discs of over 300 songs and then highlighted which ones got me jamming along, as that list dwindled this song just kept staying on the list. Finally when I was down to the top 100 I highlighted again, and anything in ‘blue’ were the ones I really really liked. The songs in which I found myself singing along with, bopping to and turning up. By now you can guess that crazy ass lunatic formerly known as Leif Garrett really got me dancin’ ah ah ah all night long.




#32 – I’ve Got The Music In Me – Kiki Dee Band
(Boshnall)
Rocket single #40293 US/ #12 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 09/14/1974 #12 / UK 09/07/1974 #19
Poor Kiki, one of the biggest mysteries in the world of music, she is best known for the Elton John duet “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” which she made two years AFTER this single, but after that it seems she just disapperared from the face of the Earth. It’s really too bad as she had quite an incredible little voice. “I’ve Got The Music In Me” is one of those songs that always popped into my head, kind of like “I’ve got rhythm/I’ve got style…” just something that would pop in the noggin’ if someone was doing something a little off kilter like singing or dancing horridly. Then I got the Captain & Tennille DVD and Toni performed this song. I discovered two things, one the lyrics to “I’ve Got The Music In Me” were really cool and I hated Toni Tennille’s accent and attitude. So I decided to track this ditty down and what do you know, Kiki’s version kicks ass. Not only is it a rocking song full of guitars and horns and her scratchy voice, it’s also not as cheesy or over the top as I had thought it would be. As I had figured, the lyrics are great, and the arrangement is perfect. Beginning with just a guitar, Kiki kicks in, “Ain’t got no trouble in my life/ no foolish dreams to make me cry/ I’m never frightened/ I never worry/ You know I always get by…” Yes, I know the story of my life huh? Then the song turns up a notch, “I heat up/ I cool down/ If something gets in my way/ I go ‘round it/ Won’t let life get me down/ I’m gonna take it the way that I found it” and the chorus “I’ve got the music in me” which is just repeated over and over but it’s pretty great. The arrangement changes repeatedly through out the song with a fake psych out about the ending, where you think it’s over only for the song to get kicked up again. And that voice of hers on here is so great. She didn’t sound like this on “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” I can tell you that much. Of course, it’s always the verses that really do it for me and they are filled with the idea that she always knows things will work out as she has the music in her, which I love. Who frickin’ knew?


#31 – Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac
(Lindsay Buckingham)
Warner Bros single #8304 US / #16872 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 01/08/1977 #10 / UK 02/19/1977 #38
The 70’s version of Fleetwood Mac had the main songwriting duties shared by Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham. Of those three they seemed to all channel into their own personal ideals, Christine the hopeless romantic always writing songs of love and usually an upbeat message of some sort, Stevie, the eternal dreamer with her warped words of the occult and nuance, and Lindsay, the cynic, always the hot head waiting to unleash a lyrical hatred. I love him. I also love when I know what a song is really about and go back and hear the lyrics putting together the pieces of what was in the writer’s mind. The songs on Rumours are all about love being thrown away or breaking up and Lindsay’s are the most pissy, the highlight being the album track “The Chain”, but a very close follow up is one of the album’s first singles “Go Your Own Way.” A sort of attack on Stevie about their break up, “Loving you isn’t the right thing to do…” begins the lyric before the whirling Lindsay guitars pick up the pace and Mick’s chug a chug drum beats follow suit, “If I could I’d give you my world/ how can I/ when you won’t take it from me?” and by the chorus he’s telling her to go her own way. I wonder how strange it must feel to sing along with the man when you know he’s singing about how awful you are? I guess that’s called professionalism and Fleetwood Mac is most definitely a professional band. “Go Your Own Way” may be Lindsay’s slap back to Stevie but it’s a pop classic that still sounds good today and I bet even Stevie is so way past the whole thing.

Y'all come back as we begin our descent into the ultimate in the top singles of the 70's - and we have so much more to talk about cuz well, I've got the music in me and I simply must share it with you...

Labels: 70s, Barry Manilow, Fleetwood Mac, Kiki Dee, Leif Garrett, Pat Benatar, Retro songs

posted by swivek @ 8:11 AM