This Week's Top 10 Chart

This week we move forward ten years from last week's chart for a peek at June 29, 1974
To me this a sort of transition period. One note of interest is the presence of what many consider to be the first disco tune "Rock The Boat". Not a bad tune but as always, if one is good then let's make 10,000. Ah America, excess is thy name.

Code:

  1. Sundown.............................[B]Gordon Lightfoot[/B]
  2. Billy, Don't Be A Hero..............[B]Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods[/B]
  3. You Make Me Feel Brand New..........[B]The Stylistics[/B]
  4. Be Thankful For What You Got........[B]William DeVaughn[/B]
  5. If You Love Me (Let Me Know)........[B]Olivia Newton John[/B]
  6. Rock The Boat.......................[B]The Hues Corporation[/B]
  7. Hollywood Swinging..................[B]Kool & The Gang[/B]
  8. Band On The Run.....................[B]Paul McCartney & Wings[/B]
  9. Rock Your Baby......................[B]George McCrae[/B]
 10. Annie's Song........................[B]John Denver[/B]

 

Ah, now I'm getting all misty-eyed nostalgic. June, '74, just turned twelve. Off that list, I'd have to say that "Billy, Don't Be a Hero" was my favorite of the bunch... at that time of course.

And though that's far from my favorite Olivia Newton John song, it reminds me just how much I lusted after her at that age. She was mighty damn cute!

"Transitional period" indeed, Dave! You don't see a spread of styles like that on the charts these days.

With 25+ years perspective, I'd have to give the best/favorite song nod to "Rockthe Boat" or the McCartney.

Ray

 

My favorite tunes from this list are (in order) 'Band On The Run', 'You Make Me Feel Brand New' & "Rock The Boat'. These three songs bring back some great memories of the times whenever I hear them. I love the Macca tune but I actually would request the Stylistics song first. They were such a great band!

 

Very cool and diverse top 10 chart. "Be Thankful For What You Got" is still one of the coolest songs ever. One of my all time faves!!! The other nine songs aren't too shabby either!!!

 

Ah the 70's great music . What a time to be a teenager. Band On The Run is still in my favourite top 25 songs of all time.

 

The folk pop songs are trying to hold on....Soon to be stepped on buy the Disco Era!

 

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Perfect description of this chart.

 

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Thanks Bradley

 

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HUH??? The ONLY folk song on here is "Annie's Song" by John Denver. The only country tune is the Olivia Newton-John song.

The much maligned disco didn't dominate the charts until 1978, four whole years later!!!. Consult your chart books, folks! Also, disco was already in full swing in 1974. The rock crowd just didn't notice it.

Some of the songs here just can't be categorized! Example, "Sundown". Is it country? Is it folk? Is it blues? Is it all the above?

 

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Uh HUH? As far as I'm concerned the downfall started with the "Hustle" which debuted on 4/19/75, 8 months down the road, just around the corner.

 

Friends,

I was 23 when this chart was popular. I was married at that time and had just graduated from college and had just moved to Madison, Wisconsin from Macomb, Illinois where I attended school. I enjoyed this time period in music because Top 40 still had a great variety, unlike today.

I like every song on this chart except Annie's Song. I was never much of a John Denver fan. I consider Rock The Boat and Rock Your Baby to be early examples of Disco and great tracks. #1 through #9 are all great hits and songs I still enjoy listening to today.

Great chart!

Bob

 

June '74 -

I was 1 month away from my 18th birthday. Every inch of me was testoterone injected, high energy, fuel pumpin, where's the wimmin? Next month I would get the right to sit at the bar and have a beer (drinking age was 18 in NY back then), right after I signed up for my draft card. Uncle was lean and mean - standing out in front of a 5 piece band that pumped out Zeppelin, The Who and The Stones for anyone who would listen and pay.

Sometimes you look back and are able to appreciate what you couldn't the first time around..... but not this time. That list has 5 songs I have no use for, 2 songs I don't recall at all (Gordon Lightfoot, William DeVaughn) leaving only the Wings, Kool and Stylistics songs that I can groove to.

And that Stylistics song is kinda like the aural equivalent of a "chick-flick", if you know what I mean.

 

But is the homogenization of the current top ten a product of of how we keep score? I would think that a genuine top ten today would carry a variety of rap, country, teen pop, alt-rock, and even some bluegrass (O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU).

Does Billboard (or whoever's in charge of this chart) continue to segregate the top ten by some method? During a long road trip I listened to the American Top Forty for the first time in twenty-plus years, and I was incredulous that there was no country or rap, even though that's what fills the racks at WalMart. They can't pretend that teenagers don't buy rap along with their alt-rock, or adults country along with their soundtracks.

 

Ron,

More a product of how Radio is so segmented and the Record companies release music to to fit that segmentation. My girfriend's daughter is 13 and she listens to the local so-called Top 40 outlet and I get to hear the songs they play--a combination of Rap, Teen Pop, contemorary R & B and some Modern Rock/Alternative. Occasionally, I hear a song that draws my attention but, mostly however, one record in each catagory sounds like the next almost as if they use the same basic digital samples or backing tracks, especially the Teen Pop and contemporary R & B songs. Creatively, I hear more new sounds in the Rap tracks. Too my ears it sounds as if the music has a fit a tight formula or it will not get played.

A far cry from 60's, 70's or even 80's Top 40 playlists.

Bob

 

I don't think I've ever heard "Be Thankful For What You've Got" (?). What is it on today?

Ah, if only one had a time machine....Wait! A thread idea!

James

 

nashreed,

Try Then Vol. 1, a Varese Sarabande release that is readily available. A great track!

Bob

 

It's also on Rhino's "Smooth Grooves" Crusin' Classics.

It was one of the highlights of 1974. It's un uplifting song of which is sorely missing fromtoday's landscape.

 

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What???? The Hustle was a classic! No one I know connected it with the coming disco craze! Now I know you're gone!

 

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Grant
Yea a "Classic" Disco song! Do some home work! Geez! Research you might learn something. It had to start somewhere! and that somewhere was there doing the "Hustle" Did you ever hear of the "Manhattan Hustle".

 

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Let me clarify, Michael, Disco had been around since 1971. There is a song by Donnie Elbert (SP?) that was a cover if the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love go". It was disco. The next year, the O'Jays came out with "Love Train". No, the song doesn't hit you as disco, but strip away the vocal track and what do you have left? Songs from Philadelphia International records, Salsoul records, and songs from the Spinners were all early disco. We saw disco hits by Barry White in 1973. Recall the song "Armed And Extreamly Dangerous" by First Choice? Disco. The Hustle" showed up in 1975 along with stuff by KC & The Sunshine band. Disco was NOT just around the corner, we were already in it! But, disco didn't dominate the charts until the end of 1977, when Saturday Night fever came out. Then all hell broke loose! YOU do your homework!

Disco go it's start in Europe, and the disco people came to hate is of the european variety, which was based less on R&B and more on the melody backed with a steady syncopotated rhythm. West Germany was home of some of the earliest disco hits too. It's where we got Donna Summer and Silver Convention. We got producer Jaques Morales of the Village People from France. Let's not forget Latin America and it's strong influence. Italian producers played a bigger part near the end of the 70s. Van McCoy was far from the instigator of disco! But he did it well.

The reason so many people had a problem with disco was because they resented the fact that most of disco's constituents were black, latino, women, or gay. That didn't sit well with the WASP, beer-drinnking 18 year-old high on pot listening to "Rock & Roll All Nite" by Kiss.

 

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Grant,
Whatever it takes you have to prove yourself right. I will stick to my first statement. It started with the "Hustle"and I may add "Disco" was started by the gay community. Maybe you misunderstood my statement...It STARTED with the "HUSTLE", like when you plant a SEED and it GROWS into the full form of THE LATER DISCO you are referring to in 1977. I love to be educated, I always ask questions. It makes me a better educated person. We can't know everything. Although some people think they do.

 

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Well, I certainly hope you aren't trying to tell me I think I know more than I do.

It DIDN'T start with "The Hustle". It's probably just when it entered into your conciousness. I also doubt you followed much soul music in the early 70s or you wouldn't have made that ststement at all. You could learn new things by taking another listen to the soul music of the early 70s.

I can't say if disco was started by the gay community, but they were amongst the first to latch on to it, and most of the early DJs were gay. Does that make disco bad or wrong? NO!