EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

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

  1. Grant

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

    In case you forgot, this is a thread about chart singles. We are now in year 1973, where singles and radio were very important.

    Let me add one more thing: both Carly and Joni are alive and active, as far as I know. They don't care a damn bit about who was more successful, popular, or accomplished. If either get wind of this thread, i'm sure they will get a big chuckle out of it. And, James Taylor? Love him! I have a lot of his music, too. He's released an outstanding body of work.
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2018
  2. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Dude, you're talking commercial success in the '70s. None of the rest of us are focusing on that, and even there, it's a wash. Simon did great on the singles charts, but on the album charts Mitchell and Simon both had 4 top 10 albums during the decade, but Mitchell managed an additional Top 20 placement and 3 Top 30 albums. Simon got to 29, 30 and 30 with her other entries.

    But we aren't even talking about that. We're talking influence, and Geffen nailed it when he focused his promotional energies on Mitchell, because she's legend. I adore Carly, but somebody call me when Lorde or Lana Del Rey does a cover mimicking the one for No Secrets...
     
  3. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Yes, but I'm explaining why Geffen shot more promo money Mitchell's way - he knew what he had there. Mitchell has gone on to become a perennial seller - as someone who runs a record store just told you - while apart from a couple of hits on oldies radio Simon has been largely forgotten.

    Which is too bad, because I'd certainly rather hear considerably more from Carly Simon and considerably less from Nicki Minaj. :biglaugh:
     
  4. Grant

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

    Where's that facepalm image?:rolleyes:

    And, i'm explaining to you why Geffen helped Mitchell more. She needed it.

    I'm done with this. I laid out the FACTS quite well in my long post above which you probably didn't even read because you would find out how wrong you are.
     
  5. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Actually, at the point "You're So Vain" came out, Mitchell had been far more successful on the album charts than Simon had, with a #22 entry and a #16 and a #9, v.s. Simon's two #30 entries.

    You shoulda spent more time looking at the FACTS.
     
  6. Grant

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

    You should start looking at the facts. Carly sold more SINGLES. If you want to talk about albums, there should be a Billboard #1 album thread somewhere. I'm sure you'll ignore the FACTS there, too.

    Is there a reason you keep ignoring the issue of SINGLES? And, I already pointed out that Carly has had more top 10 albums, and a #1 album, where Joni has had fewer albums up there, and NO #1 albums.
     
  7. John54

    John54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Burlington, ON
    You mean Free Man in Paris, no?
     
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  8. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
    Somehow I managed to watch EVERY episode haha
     
  9. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    I love Carly Simon's 70s music from That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be thru her Boys In The Trees album in the late 70s and various songs in the 80s. I loved her when it was cool to like her music and when it wasn't. I don't feel the need to defend or justify that love and neither should anyone else. However, nobody and I mean nobody puts Joni in the corner!
     
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  10. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Funny, though, there is such a thing out there as a scarfet. It's some kind of hat for women. Wonder, though, if who dreamed it up was influenced by that "mis-hearing." But Carly's vocabulary also explains the "gavotte" line, evidently.

    As for Ms. Simon's pedigree: Up to the No Secrets album and everything from it including this, it should be noted that her initial music publisher was called "Quackenbush Music." One of those in her father's circle of friends was Groucho Marx of The Marx Brothers (and, later, host of You Bet Your Life on radio and TV). Though Quackenbush is a valid surname, keep in mind that in one of the Marxes' movies (A Day At The Races), Groucho played a character named Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush.
     
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  11. Grant

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

    That's a good way of walking around the fact that Mr. Geffen is...:laugh: Without looking at the official lyric sheet, the wording could go either way.

    Exactly!

    Yup! Definitely more to Carly Simon than a couple of "forgotten" songs.:laugh: I also respect that she never used her father's status to promote herself.

    No one is doing that. But, judging from Joni's chart histories, she clearly appeals to a different audience than Carly.
     
  12. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I had not intended it that way, but now that you mention it . . . :rolleyes:

    True. But at the same time, she was no "noob" to the "bid'ness" when she came out blazing as a solo artist in 1971. Back in '64, she and sister Lucy, recording as 'The Simon Sisters', had a minor hit on Kapp with "Wynken, Blynken And Nod." (Their adaptation of which was covered by a folk group called The Big Three which featured at that time a certain Cass Elliot - given how she was covered several posts up.) In this year, to cash in on Carly's success, Columbia's "Children's Record Library" imprint reissued a series of recordings made in 1968 under the title The Simon Sisters Sing For Children.

    Ex-actly! Ms. Mitchell, it seems, was more for the "albums" market, her big hit of a year from this notwithstanding. Ms. Simon's work, when you get right down to it, was more (in a terminology used to over- these days) "radio-friendly."
     
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  13. Grant

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

    It wasn't mean to be a negative comment.

    I do notice that some apparent album fans posting in this thread, and that may be where some disagreement is coming from. Sunspot keep bringing up albums and this is a singles thread. Singles and radio mattered a lot in 1973. Hell, it's now 2018, and singles still matter!
     
  14. bare trees

    bare trees Senior Member


    I was an infant at the time.
     
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  15. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Yeah, I see where you're coming from - more of the observational school.

    Makes it all the more tragic that the thread started on Number One LP's has been essentially put in hibernation at 1956. I'm sure if it were kept up, and we got to this point in time, they'd be discussing Ms. Mitchell 'til the cows come home . . .
     
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  16. Grant

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

    As I resurrected the Every Billboard #1 R&B thread, someone could do the same for that album thread, too.

    All this mess about Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell goes back to the claim that was made yesterday about how Carly Simon is forgotten. That has been debunked. On top of that, we haven't even gotten to Ms. Mitchell's #1 single yet. We have more than a year left to go.

    And, many may see Simon as a singles artist, but I pointed out earlier that she had at least for top 10 albums. This reminds me of a claim someone made on another music forum a couple of weeks ago. They said that The Brothers Johnson only had a year of success and then went away. Since two of us pointed out how wrong he was, we haven't heard from the guy since.
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2018
  17. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

    Since we're on the subject of Carly Simon, I was pleased to meet her in the latter part of the 70s when she dropped by our radio station in Philly, WMGK. All day, we'd been promoting the fact that she'd be in to talk to our afternoon DJ on his 2p-6p show. Each hour ticked by and no Carly. Finally, she appeared after some delays in the 6 o'clock hour, so the evening guy got to do the on-air interview. I hung around that day with my camera and got to take a couple of pictures, this being the best of them. You can see the studio clock reading 6:15!

    [​IMG]
     
  18. macca728

    macca728 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Rotterdam, Holland
    Joni Mitchell never had a nr 1 single, only in the AC list.
     
  19. Dougd

    Dougd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fla.
    True.
    Joni Mitchell's biggest hit, Help Me, got to No. 6 in 1974.
    But it sure sounded like a No. 1 (like many songs which peaked in the Top 10).

    She's like many, much like Dan Fogelberg's Longer hit No. 1 on the AC chart, No. 2 on the Hot 100 chart (in 1980).
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2018
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  20. Dougd

    Dougd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fla.
    Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell were very big in the 70s.
    Who'd have thought the discussion of both would come to blows?
     
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  21. wino14

    wino14 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Edenton, NC
    Agreed. Carly did have more hits chartwise but no one can underestimate Joni's influence on other female singers. I absolutely love them both
     
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  22. alphanguy

    alphanguy Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    I can say when it actually WAS the 70's, I knew who Both were... Joni was akin to Joan Baez in my mind, greatly respected, with a couple hits.... but Carly seemed like a bigger deal to me at the time.
     
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  23. Dougd

    Dougd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fla.
    What as great photo.
    Such stunning beauty...
     
  24. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    They have them on YouTube. Here's one. I used to watch Match Game all the time after school with my mom and brother, but this would have been more in the 1977-78 timeframe.

     
  25. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Or Melanie. Hear me ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!!!
     

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