Timing is everything as we know. I think in regards to those three artists that made comebacks that they simply came out with the right songs at the right time. None of those songs would have worked after the time line they came out, and probably not much before either. I also think AM radio was as open to all kinds of music styles as it would ever be during that window.
I think that’s about right. I think Sedaka was perceived to have a lot of hits in the 70’s. I would think that too. The interesting thing about him though is if you look at the albums that came out, starting with Sedaka’s Back (which I like, and was basically a compilation of successful songs from the UK as he was mia in the US at the time until they started putting out songs from that album like Laughter In The Rain) all the way through his Elektra years (which produced some monumentally terrible albums) he didn’t have many big songs, more middling and your post supports that. Most of his albums didn’t even sell well after the first two in 1974-1976. Sedaka’s Back did pretty well, and it’s a good album. The Hungry Years did good...he had Elton’s support (another example of perfect timing) with Bad Blood (I don’t know why people thought it was so good but it was a big hit in the US). He was, imo, a better supplier of songs to other artists in that era.
He also wrote a third #1 (a 1975 one. which I will not name here, which another act recorded -- a cover of a song he had done about a year earlier). Re: no other top 10s in '70s - didn't his remake of "Breakin' Up Is Hard To Do" go Top 10 in 1976? I might have gotten that statement from Fred Bronson's book on the Billboard Book of #1 Hits (what I wrote today came from my memory of something I read a long time ago). I'll have to check that later, and if I did swipe that statement from there, see what he based it on.
Yes, you're right. That one was listed under the first version so I missed it. Still, I should have remembered.
I agree with everything you said. I think the statement about AM radio is spot-on. I particularly see this in retrospect, when looking back at that time from 40+ years out. Unfortunately, I don't have any memory of pop radio from before this time, so I can't make a mental comparison in that time direction. I suspect things were a little more fractured (soul here, pop here, etc.).
It should also be noted that the culture was in the throes of a nostalgia boom brought on by the success of American Graffiti and Happy Days for example. Anything 50s and early 60s was in again so I'm guessing popular artists of that era saw a chance to reinvigorate their faded careers. The Beach Boys, Sedaka, Anka, Frankie Valli with and without The 4 Seasons. Heck, even The Beatles got a Top 10 record in '76.
True...I recall first hearing them in late 1973/early 1974, the songs were "She's Gone" and "When the Morning Comes"-both of which I heard on FM, I never remember hearing them at all on AM radio at the time. I liked their soulful style and I can remember thinking "I hope these guys make it big...they're good!" But the style they had didn't seem to connect with the mainstream listeners at the time. I had almost forgotten about them when they exploded in popularity around 1976.
I agree with this also. However, it was nostalgic only for those who were around for the first go-around. For me personally, (thinking of the TV shows) it was "can't they think of anything original?". The pop artists who came back as performing entities, I will give them credit, with the possible exception of the Beach Boys, they all updated their sound.
Hall and Oates were from Philadelphia, and as my family was also in the area, I should ask them if they heard of Hall & Oates in 1974-75. I don't have any memory of them myself (before 1976), but that doesn't mean anything.
Was never a huge fan of his and then for some reason I took a chance on a vinyl reissue of his big comeback album that song is on (the Ocean Boulevard one...I sure butchered that one, eh? I forget the house number before Ocean) because it was about the only song of his I did like. And I’m glad I did. Great, fun album and I ended up liking Sheriff even more. Now I have a few more of his albums and enjoy his work. An interesting song for 1974 I would think...maybe even ahead of it’s time a bit. Very well produced, and I love the intro. Great sounding album, and song, by the way.
What a difference a decade makes in an artist's life and outlook. Back when he was with the Yardbirds he grew disenchanted with their turn to pop/rock from the Blues and left the group but then has a chart topper with a song quite removed from that genre anyway. I'm okay with this one but there are several other Clapton efforts I'd rather hear and it's frustrating that a better song like Layla just barely made the Top 10. Oh well, nobody said life is fair.
The first Number One single on RSO - one of many over the course of this decade. This was one of a few "cusp" releases on Atlantic and sublabels that went to #1 which had two catalogue numbers, changed in midstream after the July singles price increase (the first being Roberta Flack's "Feel Like Makin' Love," 45-3025 / 45-3203). Originally issued as SO-409, by the time it reached #1 it had been renumbered SO-500.
One of my earliest memories, music-wise, came when I was probably four (1976). A friend and I had heard "Lay Down Sally" on the radio numerous times and loved it, and one day his mother came home and announced she'd bought it (meaning the Slowhand album, but what she actually said was she'd bought "Lay Down Sally"). She played that track and only that track for us, which might be a good thing - I shudder to think what my mother would have said if I'd gone home singing "Next Time You See Her". In any event, Slowhand remains a favorite of mine to this day, but the rest of Clapton's RSO-era stuff, and especially "I Shot the Sheriff"...I can take or leave it at best. Never was a big fan of the original version of "Sheriff" either, but at least that had some authenticity. (I seem to recall reading Clapton once said he wondered if it were a true story and had the chance to ask Bob Marley, but he didn't seem to want to talk about it. Which makes sense.)
I Shot The Sheriff - great music and Clapton's rock arrangement gives the reggae tune solid legs. The lyrics? Pretty dang stupid.
As with Johnny Nash's "Stir It Up", I simply dig how Clapton had me groovin' to a Bob Marley song in grade school, years before I even knew what reggae was. Of course, the hit version of "I Capped The Constable" is decidely not reggae despite a few minor Jamaican seasonings. Slowhand reportedly disliked the riddim of the original, so it was set to the awesome swampy groove that we know and love. (Having Yvonne Elliman on backup doesn't hurt either). Kicking heroin and adopting a laid-back approach works wonders. "If I am guilty I will pay-pay-payyyyyy".
"I Shot the Sheriff" is on the 461 Ocean Boulevard album. I don't particularly like this version of the song--- whenever I think of Eric Clapton, I never think of this song. This song makes me think of Bob Marley. There are at least 4 songs on 461 Ocean Boulevard that I like better (those being "Motherless Children", "Please Be With Me". "Let It Grow", and "Mainline Florida"). For some longtime Clapton fans, including myself, this was the beginning of "the rest of his career" where he was trying to be less flashy, and my personal opinion is that his art suffered as a result. I still like a couple songs per album from here on out. But I know a few people who gave up on him after 1974.
No. But a lot of other stuff. Chaka joined the Rufus when she was 16-years old. They even had to get her mother's permission to join because of her age. She was the center of the band because of her voice and stage presence. She got special billing starting with third album. The damage happened when she and her then-husband were beaten up by drummer Andre Fisher in a bathroom of the recording studio. Fisher was violent. But, there are places on the web where you can read about all of it. Fisher was soon replaced by John Robinson. She left the band in 1978 to start a solo career. The only reason she did two more albums with Rufus afterward was to fulfill their contract, of which only one was commercially successful. Today, she and some of the band members are somewhat cordial, but the only one she is really close to is longtime member Tony Maiden.
"I Shot The Sheriff" was the first reggae-ish record I ever bought, and I didn't even know what reggae was. before then, there were only two other reggae records I knew and liked, and they were "Hold Me Tight" by Johnny Nash, and "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker & The Aces.
At this point, who wasn't? I knew an assistant conductor with the symphony who attempted to explain away bad behavior by stating they were "artists" and therefore high strung and "special". I called BS and told him where he could stick that.
