I remember at this time(72) listening to my older sisters oldies records.They were marketed as oldies records.Hell the songs were only ten years old some of them.
I guess I'm going by the stations in my area, which did play the full version, the DJ's relished the long version as they did Macarthur Park, because it afforded them a nice bathroom break.
So did Genesis in Visions of Angels, at 4:44: I am definitely not a fan of Helen Reddy's work, but on this point I'll say just cut her some slack.
I can take or leave American Pie, but I don't think it deserves to be anywhere near any of the "worst song ever" lists. It Dylan had written it the critics would be singing a different tune entirely. I prefer Vincent, Empty Chairs, etc. though. Actually what American Pie reminds me of mostly is dating for the first time in the spring of 1972 ... !
The song was on the album Interpretations. It is a collection containing Carpenters songs that were not written by Richard Carpenter. "Trying To Get The Feeling" was thought to have been lost (the final version was and the work lead is all that remained) but it was found and production completed. If you are interested in the album, here's a link to its Wikipedia page: Interpretations: A 25th Anniversary Celebration - Wikipedia The song was written for the Carpenters and this version features the original lyrics. Manilow's version has a majority of the lyrics rewritten and in his box set The Complete Collection...And Then Some it was mentioned that David Pomeranz (the song's writer) was still revising the song after Manilow had recorded it. By the way, my favorite Carpenters song is "I Need To Be In Love." I found "Love Me For What I Am" on the B-Side of the "Solitaire" single, played it, and rarely played the A-Side again. While "Solitaire" is a great performance, like with "Desperado," I'm not a fan of the song itself.
An okay song but one I think has been hurt by the entire legend that has come up around it. For me, it gets in the way of enjoying the song. However, the impact of the song is shown by "Weird Al" Yankovic choosing it to be one of his classic song parodies (a parody of a song that is not current but that everyone knows) as "The Saga Begins" (the entire story of Star Wars - Episode One - The Phantom Menace). I agree about Don McLean being a great song writer. I have the album Tapestry and I at least like every song on the album. I purchased it for the song "Castles In The Air" (one of my favorite McLean songs) and discovered that the version on Tapestry was a different version from the one I'd heard on the radio (which had a heavy percussion backing) and I liked the Tapestry version better. I thought the reason the song was split into two parts on the single is that one side of a 45 could not hold the entire song (I know there have been other songs that have been split on the single for the same reason). I don't know if it would have helped but they could have done the single at 33 1/33 to allow for more playing time. I thought it was a reference to The Rolling Stones (just like "Sergeants" refers to The Beatles).
They played the single version for about a month and then one day they played a version that didn't fade out and had the remaining verses (starting with Helter Skelter in a summer swelter) and since that day I've never heard radio play anything but the album version. I probably knew next to nothing about the history of rock and roll but I could work out what some of it meant (Byrds flew out of a fallout shelter. Eight miles high and falling fast ... seemed pretty obvious) Supposedly McLean wanted the sound to start in mono then change to widescreen stereo as it went on. The piano really pushes it alone and the writing gets better after the second verse.
American Pie is certainly ambitious, but after hearing it hundreds of times, I think it's more of a kitchen sink song - McLean tosses in references everywhere just for the sake of keeping the song going. A friend of mine was obsessed with the lyrics back in college (early 80's) and he went on and on about the meaning of each line. After about a month of this non-stop, I decided that the song had a superiority complex about it. How "good music" died along with Buddy Holly, and all the stuff that came after was junk you couldn't dance to. I can hardly stand the song now, partly because of McLean's supposed attitude (on my part) and partly because of burnout. I think McLean would do much better things; Vincent for example, is hauntingly beautiful and the album Homeless Brother makes some powerful statements.
The fantastic piano work on "American Pie" is by Paul Griffin, who also played on Blonde on Blonde and other sessions with the Jester.
You couldn't get away from this song during the late fall of 1971. I got sick of hearing it back then. As I kid, I had no idea what he was singing about, but I liked it.
It always gets played here. When it comes on everybody says they hate it but end up either singing along or trying to explain the lyric.
Now we're talking! "Let's Stay Together" is a stone classic, one that never gets old even after I've played it so many times I can (badly) mimic every single inflection Rev. Green makes. While the 45 version is fine, I always feel cheated when I hear it - the extended version is where it's at.
That extended version first appeared in the 80s. It was never on the album either. Every Billboard #1 R&B hit discussion thread I'll repost what I wrote on that thread a couple of days ago: It is December 31, but since I will be out celebrating new years tonight, i'm going to present the first #1 R&B single of 1972 now: Let's Stay Together - Al Green This song started out my 1972 right! It was the first week back at school after the Christmas break, and I came home to find my sister had beat me home. She had the afternoon off for a doctor's appointment, but afterward, she went to the PX and bought this single, and "Sugar Daddy" by The Jackson 5 together. We played these two songs repeatedly for two hours until mom got home from work. I really enjoyed the two songs. No, "Sugar Daddy" didn't hit #1, but it was new product from the group, and, it was a single that was included on their new Greatest Hits album. In fact, both of these songs are in mono. "Sugar Daddy" is a unique mono mix. But, back to Al Green... This was the first song I ever heard by him at the time. I was impressed. The singing, the phrasing, the soulful music, especially the Wurlitzer organ, and especially, the loud drums (producer Willie Mitchell's signature sound) amounted to soulful bliss. We would hear a lot more great stuff from Mr. Green for the next three years. This record also hit #1 the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, but first, they have to get through their first #1 of the year. Note to @W.B. The 45 in the clip above is the exact styrene pressing I have.