EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

I'm only just now jumping into this thread for the first time. My H, JF & R (D) observations:

1. We played the hell out of "Don't Pull Your Love" at the 500-watt daytimer AM Top 40 station where I worked during the summer of 1971. It was our quintessential "first song out of the top-of-the-hour ID" number. Maybe it's just because I was at the station eight hours a day, even when I wasn't on the air, but in my mind it was a bigger hit and remains a better-known song than "Fallin' in Love."
2. Nevertheless, I like "Fallin' in Love" too. Both are supremely well-crafted pop songs.
   
3. I also like "Winners and Losers," though I've discovered that no one else in the online music trivia group I play with regularly has any memory of it. This surprises me, because there are some really hard-core dudes and dudettes in this group. But I seem to be the only one.
4. You're the first person I've ever seen mention "Annabella." I have a soft spot for that song because I had been at that Top 40 station during the summer between my sophomore and junior year at college. I returned in the fall to the dormitory carrier-current radio station that I practically slept at with a promo copy of "Annabella." So although it stiffed everywhere else, it got a lot of airplay within the walls of our dormitory!

 

Yeah, that's not surprising since, as you stated, it stiffed (#46). Does anyone else here remember it?

 

I don't remember this one at all, but on listening to it I like it more than their two big hits! It sounds a bit like some of B.J. Thomas's American Studios songs.

 

Meh...it’s okay. Surprised that it reached Number 1. But, there are far worst Number 1 songs over the next few years...

 

Yep I do...got a nm 45 of it

 

I have to fess up, for the longest time I thought these guys were a quartet and wondered why Joe and Frank used their first names while Hamilton and Reynolds used their surnames.

Joe Frank is one guy but actually did drop his surname, which is Carollo. (Hamilton, Carollo and Reynolds indeed isn't as catchy a group name).

I didn't know Tommy Reynolds had actually been out of the group since 1972. He left to become a minister, something that seems to be a trend among our recent acts.

 

The version you uploaded isn't the original remake though, but the R & B version.

 

Catching up: "Jive Talkin'" was one I liked at the time, but didn't buy the single. It wasn't until a few years later that I saw the album on sale at the college bookstore and picked it up for a reasonable price. I still like it today.

"Fallin' In Love" was exactly what I was doing (see previous notes on "Love Will Keep Us Together" and "One Of These Nights" to understand what was going on with my love life at the time). However, until it came up on this thread, I couldn't have told you it was from this part of '75--or that it hit number 1. I guess I thought it was a year earlier. It's one that is welcomed when I hear it on the oldies station, but nothing I would bother to buy.

JcS

 

I’m really surprised this was #1. It’s a nice enough easy listening type song but I had to click on the video to recognize it. “Don’t Pull Your Love” is more memorable. The group itself doesn’t ring a bell, probably due to the dullish name.

 

Yeah I think after "Tragedy" people were like okay that's enough of that

 

I could post a clip featuring his falsetto but it would make your ears bleed.

 

No, I don't recall hearing it, but what a great treat.
Great song which should've charted much higher, perhaps Top 20.

Don't Pull Your Love does sound like a No. 1.

Fallin' in Love got a lot of airplay in my area when it was a hit.
It's a great ballad.

 

I never liked those acrylic drums.

 

On the way to topping out at #14 is another Country flavored tune that I never really took a shine to - Third Rate Romance by the Amazing Rhythm Aces. Why bring it up then, you might ask? Because I always thought Margaritaville took it's inspiration from it.

 

Unlikely, as Jimmy Buffett has claimed to have written "Margaritaville" in 1974, although he didn't record it until 1977.
But "Third Rate Romance" does bear some similarity to this Buffett rarity:

 

They both recorded for ABC Records, that there's no doubt . . .

 

"Third Rate Romance" is a hoot. This time period is probably the only one where it could've become a decent sized pop hit.

A country(ish) song with a Caribbean flavor was still a novelty back then, unlike this century with seemingly every "cowboy" act having at least one in their repertoire.

 

The Osmond's are back for their last Top 40 hurrah as a group with a Frankie Valli remake suffering from a circa 1971 production style.

 

This is the longest stretch of songs that I've had to look up on YT to hear for the first time. It's made participating in the thread fairly difficult. 90% of what topped the charts in '75 I apparently had no clue about.

 

Anyone know what’s up with the editing on that song (one I do like)? Has anyone noticed that when the chorus comes in, it is obviously a different take, at least on my Osmonds compilation on CD. The treble is noticably brighter and you can hear the edit...very poorly done. Still, a good song imo.

 

Useless Trivia: There is a version by Elvis Costello - recorded in 1975 as part of the “Flip City Demos” (Flip City was the name of the band Costello fronted at the time). It’s quite good.

 

I'm not really privy to the background or who wrote what when but Jesse Winchester recorded his version in '74 and it sounds pretty similar to the ARA version, so it could still be in the realm of possibility. Or just a coincidence?

 

I totally notice it. It's like whoever edited it found a different chorus take he liked, punched it up and poorly spliced it in.

 

Buffett recorded several songs Winchester wrote, so it makes sense that they would share influences.