EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by alphanguy, Jan 29, 2016.

  1. SITKOL'76

    SITKOL'76 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colombia, SC
    Last #1 hit of 1972, best #1 hit of 1972. A+ song from start to finish.
     
    Mylene likes this.
  2. SITKOL'76

    SITKOL'76 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colombia, SC
    And it was knocked off the top spot by a Carly Simon tune, which in turn was knocked off the top spot by Stevie Wonder. The charts were all over the place musically at this time.
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2018
    Hey Vinyl Man and sunspot42 like this.
  3. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    We have reached the end of '72, haven't we?

    Best #1: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"

    Worst: "My Ding-a-Ling" (sorry, Chuck)

    Most surprising: "The Candy Man"

    Most embarrassing 45+ years later (besides "My Ding-a-Ling"): "Baby, Don't Get Hooked On Me"

    Most drama: "Without You"

    Most discussed (at the time): "American Pie"

    Best Neil Young impersonation: "A Horse With No Name"

    Best actual Neil Young #1: "Heart Of Gold"

    Most-dated (in a quaint way): "Brand New Key"

    Most-dated (in a horrific way): "Ben"

    The one that vanished the furthest down the memory hole: "Baby, Don't Get Hooked On Me"

    The one that best points the way toward the future: "Me & Mrs. Jones"

    This last one is kind of tough actually, but while musically "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" to some degree points toward the dance-centric future of the '70s, it was also something of a message song, and those began dying out by the middle of the decade. Whereas "Me & Mrs. Jones" is all about bumpin' uglies, and there were a lot of songs about that in the disco era.

    It's also got a slow groove that predates the Smokey-inspired Quiet Storm to come on the R&B charts.

    Reggae heavily influenced several hits this year too ("I'll Take You There", "I Can See Clearly Now"), and while that got bigger in Europe going forward, it didn't really in America, so I can't say those pointed the way to the future.

    America's Neil Young-light sound was certainly dominant thru the middle of the decade (see also Bread), but was fading in importance after that, and anyhow we'd had singer/songwriters charting already the previous two years. So I can't really see them pointing the way toward the future.

    Definitely a transitional year on the charts. Is there another year where R&B is both so dominant and also represents the bleeding edge of pop advancement? Because a lot of the non-R&B cuts this year sound like '60s leftovers, novelty tunes, old showtunes, or not particularly challenging singer/songwriter material.
     
  4. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I think "I Am Woman" is the better record, but both pale in comparison to some of her later hits, which we will be discussing in a couple of months. But, radio played the hell out of it, and I got sick of hearing it for that reason.

    Yet, another in a looooooooong line of cheatin' songs. It's done in the style of music I grew up with by the likes of Nancy Wilson and Lou Rawls. I loved it immediately, and liked that there was nothing else like it on the radio or the pop and soul charts at the time. And, again, Philadelphia International Records hit it out of the pallpark with this one. The label would see at least four years of wild success. Unfortunately, Billy Paul's success didn't last as long. We'll get to that.

    There are two versions of the 45 out there. One 45 is the same as the album version, the one I have and have only ever seen, and there's an edited version that I understand was played on the east coast.
     
  5. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Yup. The rest of the 70s!:pineapple:
     
    CliffL likes this.
  6. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Meanwhile over on the country chart, every other song dealt with that topic.
     
  7. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Now there's the irony - a song considered an anthem of the Women's Lib movement, replaced by (of all things) a cheating song. (One that, in theme, seemed to be Gamble/Huff's riff on Luther Ingram's "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want To Be Right" from earlier in the year.) Someone must've had some kind of sense of humor to have that procession on the charts.

    Commercial pressings had two edits - the full 4:42 version, and a shorter version (that cut out the second verse) that timed at 3:37 (but the stocks still listed the 4:42 time). The short version is below:

    It should be noted that many contract pressings by other plants of this were made. One plant was the soon-to-be-doomed American Record Pressing plant in Owosso, MI, prior to the fire mentioned in connection with the look at The Temptations' #1 "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone." (I have such a copy, with 'ARP' stamped in the deadwax.) Evidently pressed before the fire. Another relatively common pressing was by Shelley Products, and yet another by the PRC plant in Richmond, IN.
     
  8. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    Exactly the way I felt about it.
     
  9. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    And strangely, both edits were released commercially (the B side was the same, though - his cover of Elton John's "Your Song"). I have a vinyl CSM pressing (gold label) with the short 3:37 edit. That was the one on mono/stereo promos (albeit with the mono time listed as 3:41 - imagine).
     
    Grant likes this.
  10. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    "If You Don't Know Me By Now" was issued as a single (ZS7 3520) on Sept. 11, 1972 - just two days before "Me And Mrs. Jones" (ZS7 3521) which came out Sept. 13. The former had Pitman label fonts only on pressings from that plant (and contract pressings by Shelley Products); the latter, used Pitman typesetting at all three of Columbia's plants.

    It should also be noted that "If You Don't Know Me By Now's" B side was "Let Me Into Your World" - originally recorded three years before by the O'Jays on their first LP collaboration with Gamble/Huff, The O'Jays In Philadelphia (originally on the Neptune label, reissued on Philadelphia International in 1973). What's more, the Melvin/Blue Notes version uses the same exact instrumental backing as the O'Jays' recording. Recycling instrumental tracks for different artists' versions was a common practice on the Brunswick label (of Jackie Wilson / Chi-Lites fame) during Carl Davis' run as A&R head, but not as much elsewhere.
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  11. Victor/Victrola

    Victor/Victrola Makng shure its write

    I think Billy Paul did a great job at performing Me & Mrs. Jones, but the record overall is just so d-r-a-m-a-t-i-c that I lost interest in it rather quickly. On the other hand, it was a giant hit to close out the year, so I give it respect for that. I haven't heard it in probably 10 years or more.
     
    AppleBonker and Dougd like this.
  12. bare trees

    bare trees Senior Member

    It's r&b but there's a jazzy vibe to it as well. I first heard this in the mid 80s on Finkleman's 45's, a radio show that ran on CBC radio.
     
  13. Craigman1959

    Craigman1959 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Alabama, USA
    I used to DJ at a cafe that became an oldies club at night. I played this song quite a bit. Good slow song....and I knew there must be some dancers who could relate to the lyrics.
     
  14. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    Billy was a seasoned nightclub performer by this time so his vocal on M&MJ naturally has a bit of that vibe.

    His Wikipedia page is surprisingly thorough - he was actually in the same Army unit with Elvis and Gary Crosby.
     
    Grant and sunspot42 like this.
  15. pickwick33

    pickwick33 Forum Resident

    From 1973, this was one of the rare rock albums on Columbia to list the song titles on the cover.[​IMG]
     
    pablo fanques and Grant like this.
  16. pickwick33

    pickwick33 Forum Resident

    Blues and folk? More like plenty of soul and country songs tackled this issue. And several of them crossed over pop, long before "Me & Mrs. Jones." Clarence Carter's "Steal Away" from 1968 comes to mind, but there must be others.
     
    Grant likes this.
  17. pickwick33

    pickwick33 Forum Resident

    Motown and especially Scepter did it too.
     
  18. Dougd

    Dougd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fla.
    It should also be noted how The Eagles' Take It To The Limit (which would become a giant hit later) borrows heavily from the opening of If You Don't Know Me By Now.

     
    Endicott, sunspot42 and Black Thumb like this.
  19. CliffL

    CliffL Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sacramento CA USA
    Cheating songs are a mainstay of many genres of music. "Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town" is a good example. I'm sure there's a thread or two on these types of songs on the forum...or there should be!
     
    Grant likes this.
  20. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    You have a point...

    Yeah, but did they kind of celebrate it? I'd say not often.
     
  21. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

    Put me in the category of those who disliked "Me And Mrs. Jones" when it was played endlessly back in late 72. Nowadays, when I hear it, I get goosebumps. Go figure!
     
    lightbulb likes this.
  22. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    There have been other cases in the 70s where a single saw two or more commercial releases with different lengths/versions. We'll get to them...
     
  23. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Oh, yeah they did! A lot of them were joke titles, too, right along with the drinkin' songs.
     
  24. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Some of which formed the basis for a George Carlin routine about such songs on one of his later specials.
     
  25. pickwick33

    pickwick33 Forum Resident

    Not quite the same as using a backing track outright.
     

Share This Page

molar-endocrine