If you were one of those who bought Albert Hammond's 1972 LP It Never Rains In Southern California, you know his version of The Air That I Breathe. If not.....
For me, "The Air That I Breathe" is the blueprint that Barry Manilow used over and over in his ballads that built to a huge chorus. And then Barry took it to the extreme.
Now we have "Your'e Having My Baby" by Paul Anka and Odia Coates, #1 from August 18 - September 7, 1974.
...For an interruption, has the OP of the attempted " Every BILLBOARD #1 LP, 1964 on " line given up? (Actually, 'twas the SECOND '64 numero uno 12-inch platter on, but anyway.) I hopenot.
YHMB. Why do I get the feeling there's about to be an avalanche of negative comments for this one? I didn't loathe it at the time but don't care if I ever hear it again.
This is soooo bad. Notwithstanding the rather sexist slant of the lyrics (although I'm sure Paul is sincere), the song is just so maudlin in both tune and words.
You think you have hit rock bottom and then something takes it’s place. I hate the way Odia sings, the lyrics...I don’t even know what to say. The music and production is okay. But I have to admit I didn’t have an issue with it as a kid, but everyone around me sure did. So how did it stay so many weeks at numero? Shame on the adults! They are supposed to protect the children! Maybe we can rush to the next song? Please? Gonna get uglier. I can’t wait to see who’s the first brave soul to say they really like it....lol.
Well, maybe not. I’ll bet you something worse will come up. I’m wondering if a song I’m thinking of that came out iaround ‘76 made it...will have to check as it was a huge hit but worse than this and everyone is going to agree. And there is one more that will test one’s patience....wonder how many can guess...YLUML
The Night Chicago Died Back in the bad old days... So now we've hit the third 'notorious' #1 song of 1974. And my favorite. I like Seasons of the Sun, and Billy is all right, but this is the one I really like. Well do I recall hearing this one repeatedly on the radio back in those halcyon days. And 'we talk about it still', to nick a phrase from the song. I think people particularly pick on these three songs because of their poppy nature. It's true that they don't have an ounce of funk between 'em, but that never stopped me from liking a song before. Interestingly, in one form or another, all three deal with death, so perhaps they are not as lightweight as people would like to paint them? But whether The Night Chicago Died is deep or not, it's fun and well made. I wasn't kidding when I said I preferred this song to anything the Eagles ever did. Sure, I suppose the Eagles are better song writers (maybe), but Paper Lace stuck their landing on their one attempt and moved on. There are worse things that can be said about someone. (OK, I guess they actually had two attempts, but it was sort of out of their hands that Bo Donaldson swiped Billy from them. They got the better end of that bargain, I think). The funniest story about this song, of course, is the notion Paper Lace had that they were going to get Mayor Daley of Chicago to throw them a party when the song took off. Yeah, he's itching to celebrate a song talking about 'the bad old days' of gangsters and the Saint Valentine's Day massacre. At least, I think that's the incident they're singing about; the song strays so far from the historical truth of that event that they might as well have made it up from whole cloth. About 100 cops were dead? Yeah, no; the real St. Valentine's Day Massacre was strictly a battle between two gangs; the cops were not involved. Below: Some Like It Hot starts when Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis accidentally witness a mob hit in Chicago that evokes the St. Valentine's Day massacre, and are forced to dress as women to escape the mob. So what do I like about the song? It's a heck of an earworm for starters. I like the old timey sound it evokes, the guys sing well, and the story is well told. Love the HO! lines in the back as they sing the 'man named Al Capone' bit. Lyrics like 'in the land of the dollar bill' are interesting because they show the foreign origin of the song (no American would ever refer to the US that way). The writers of course had never been to Chicago, choosing to build the ditty on the legends of the twenties as communicated through gangster films and pulp novels. It's also cool that the song is framed as the memories of someone who grew up under the shadow of the event, but was not part of it himself. Gives it an interesting perspective. It might also help to explain the historical inaccuracies: a kid thinking back on a scary time from his childhood might get details wrong. 'Bout 100 cops were dead! Yeah, that's what I 'member that guy in the street said. It was the East Side of town!' Etc. (Of course, the narrator might have been a young adult during the Night, it's hard to tell, but I'm guessing we're not hearing a song from 50 years later meant to be the narration of a senior citizen, so I'll go with the 'kid' angle). Chicago in the 20s: My favorite part is when he sings: 'and there was no sound at all/but the clock up on the wall' (tick tick tick tick) Nicely produced moment of drama. Then the door busts open wide and....daddy kissed my mama's face. Whew, I was worried it was Capone's goons and that there was about to be a gun battle right there in the kitchen. I think it can be safely said that they don't write 'em like that anymore. And I for one wish they sometimes did!
Well if that doesn’t show you what good production can do in comparison (The Hollies) I guess nothing will! Not absolutely terrible though. I sure wish I could find a decent copy of that album for that little Raining In California diddy. Somebody on eBay wanted stupid money for it. Made him a fair offer for more than he will ever sell it for and he declined, opting to just keep relisting it repeatedly.
This was a hit in the UK, but not a #1. There was a thread on here about the song a while ago, and I was surprised how much hate it generates. For me, it was 'OK' in 1974 and remains so 44 years later. I can see why people would both love and hate it, but I can't summon up the energy for either.
The lyrics to this song were very contreversial in '74. In 2018 I can't imagine how much worse it would've been. Social media would've ended him pronto.
Boooooo!!!!! I don't have any objections to the lyrics. I don't care about the controversy either way. The song just sounds so damned corny!
Alright! (Y)HMB is finally #1! I'm so excited because now I can bring up the fact that one of my favorite songs of the year debuts at #90 during the last week that Paul Anka ruled the top of the chart. Yes, as Grant correctly predicted, it's RCA recording artist Reunion with "Live Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)" Upon hearing this track, I rushed to the record store and bought the 45. I must have listened to it hundreds of times trying to catch all the references (which I still fail to do to this day). This was probably the first single I obsessed over since the first time I heard Good Vibrations. Funny though, I must have played the b-side more than once or twice but I have zero recollection of it. Just about everyone I knew hated the song with a passion including my other family members, whom I'm sure were simply sick of hearing me play the 45 over and over. I didn't care then, and I don't care now. This song is brilliant! Others may disagree, but LIAR(BTRRM) was influential to artists as diverse as Billy Joel (We Didn't Start The Fire) and REM (It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)). The Paul Anka track is pure garbage.
Also this week, another favorite is hitting its peak at #43. Lobo's version of "Rings" which is a song that I think should be much more popular than it is. Maybe the lyrics are too personal to the people who wrote it, or the people they wrote it for, which limits its appeal. But I have liked every version of Rings that I've heard. Here's Lobo's"
Had this one for eons. Amazingly, this was produced by Rick Hall who'd once handled the likes of Wilson Pickett and Clarence Carter - and went from them to the likes of early teenybopper Osmonds and Mac Davis. I've always enjoyed this number though, lyrics and all. The label variant I have is this: It should be noted that Mr. Anka and another late 1950's/early '60's Top 40 mainstay (who would have his own #1 comeback hit, later in this year - other than that I'll not say a word), for the most part in the history of New York station WCBS-FM's Top 500, only had their big hits from that period in music history represented in various changing positions every two years they had a new edition. In Mr. Anka's case, this number and another - "Times Of Your Life," a.k.a. the Kodak jingle, from the next year - were the only ones of his from his '70's comeback to have made any Top 500, and in only one edition that I know of - 1979. (Do any 'CBS-FM Top 500 experts have any word of which, if any, of Paul's '70's run of hits were in the 1975 and 1977 editions?) By this point, Mr. Anka, as a songwriter, was essentially an employee of Gordon Mills, Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck (talk about a trifecta!), as Paul had sold his music publishing interests of the time (including Spanka Music) to Mills' MAM (Management Agency & Music) about 1970 (right around the point Tom recorded "She's A Lady"). The "John Harris" credited as arranger was actually Johnny Harris who arranged quite a few of Mr. Jones' late '60's records. After this contract ran out, Mr. Anka started again with another publisher, Paulanne Music (named after him and his then-wife). You would've absolutely loathed the period in music from 1939 to pre-rock and roll 1955 if you were around then, from what I could read. I mean, there was what some would call "maudlin dreck" in those years ("It's Been A Long, Long Time," "Forever And Ever" and "Little Things Mean A Lot") as well as the most insipid novelties ("Three Little Fishies" or "The Hut-Sut Song," anyone?) - the type that practically begged for rock and roll to be invented. I can't possibly conceive how this one could be any worse than those I mentioned from "back then" and more.
Between Mr. Hammond and The Hollies, Phil Everly (in the immediate period following his breakup with brother Don) did his own recording of "The Air That I Breathe." The producer of Phil's version was Duane Eddy - who, back in "Rebel 'Rouser" days, had worked with Lee Hazlewood, which may explain why Lee was miscredited as co-writer on early pressings of the Hollies version as I'd shown the label of.
I guess if we're going to be slagging these mid 70's number ones this thread is going to get awfully tedious. So I will continue to chime in, like a voice in the wilderness it seems, to defend and cheer on songs like TNCD. I'm a sucker for catchy choruses and inelegant songwriting, so kill me.
Do I ever? The longer version was on the 1978 Ronco compilation album Funny Bone Favorites, alongside such numbers as "The Thing" by Phil Harris, "May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" by "Little Jimmy Dickens," "Dinner With Drac'" by John Zacherle (whose surname on the label was inexplicably misspelled "Zachdile"), "Alley-Oop" by the Hollywood Argyles, "Ahab The Arab" by Ray Stevens, and even Debbie Reynolds and Carleton Carpenter's rendition of "Aba Daba Honeymoon." Apparently, the early fade on 45's was done by cutting engineers at Sterling Sound "live," meaning it wasn't part of the fadeout on the tape they were transferring to lacquer discs. Another hit on RCA around this period was a comeback by The Tymes (of "So Much In Love" fame) with a number that many around here would insist with a straight face was disco, "You Little Trustmaker" (peaking at #12):
