EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by alphanguy, Jan 29, 2016.

  1. tmoore

    tmoore Forum Resident

    Location:
    Olney, MD
    Bill Haley was doing rock and roll revival shows before "American Pie" -- also, my copy of (LP) Oldies But Goodies Vol. 11 shows a picture of Chuck Berry at some oldies show on July 31, 1971 on the rear cover -- and (as may have been mentioned before), the incident at a rock and roll revival show that drove Rick Nelson to write "Garden Party". All of these happened before "American Pie" was out.

    I do hear "American Pie" occasionally on my local radio stations. As I am not always thinking about those times, the song gives a nice refresher history lesson when I do hear it.

    WRT to the lyric "no angel born in hell could break that satanic spell" -- I always thought it was specifically talking about the Rolling Stones in Altamont -- and nothing else (not Morrison, or Diamond) -- specifically because of the Hell's Angels reference, and also the vague reference to "Sympathy For the Devil". In addition, "jack flash sat on a candlestick" part also makes me think of the Rolling Stones (via "Jumpin' Jack Flash").
     
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  2. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Lou Reed? At a Woodstock retrospective? Seems like an odd fit!
     
  3. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Well, we got through Ballad of the Green Berets and Eve of Destruction without too much bloodshed, so hopefully we can handle anything else that comes our way!
     
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  4. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    For me, complimenting the crack Hi house band (including drummer and song co-writer Al Jackson, ex Booker T. & The M.G.'s) and backing singers that aided Mr. Green on this, his only pop chart-topper, has always been the label typesetting from CBS Pitman:
    [​IMG]
    And for me, this mix and edit does it all.
     
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  5. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    Yup. It blew me away the first time I heard it and it kept going.
     
  6. tmoore

    tmoore Forum Resident

    Location:
    Olney, MD
    Yes - I thought so also. Although, I don't think it was really a "retrospective" per se; more like an anniversary concert at the original site which happened to have some acts that played at the original. Many songs were played that dated from later.

    At the time, I thought this 1998 gig was attractive to Reed since it was relatively close to NYC. I never did find out more about that. It was my first time seeing him. I had heavily gotten into him about five years previous to that.

    To me, Townshend was also an interesting choice, since he doesn't seem to have fond memories of the original concert (I believe someone gave him LSD without his knowledge). I may be mistaken, but didn't he write "Won't Get Fooled Again" as somewhat of a response to the hippie movement? He did play that song that day which I found to be completely ironic.

    And of course, Mitchell didn't make it to the original concert because she stayed in NYC so she'd make her TV appointment on The Dick Cavett Show.
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2018
  7. CliffL

    CliffL Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sacramento CA USA
    This song exploded right out of the gate...it had been out about two days and I decided to buy a copy (with picture sleeve). What sold me on it was how unusual it was...a long complex story song. Right away it got massive airplay and I got a bit tired of it pretty quickly, although I still think it is a very good song. But the radio saturation it got and the polarization it inspires tends to get in the way of appreciating it as a work of art.
     
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  8. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    See, people in other parts of the country talk about polarization or censoring of hit songs, but I just didn't get that in my part of the country. I don't know why.

    I never knew "American Pie" was controversial until the internet age.
     
  9. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    Catch up for American Pie. I got this single not knowing anything about it along with several others a couple of weeks before radio started playing it. A favorite record store had put out a large display of promo copies of various records for a dime apiece which was unusual in and of itself for them. I was drawn to AP because of it's iconic picture sleeve and figured a dime wouldn't kill me, probably one of the best bargains I ever got. Like most everyone else, I loved the song and enjoyed dissecting the lyrics with friends for weeks. I find the slow passage that bookends the tune to be a neat effect that gives it an added air of importance even if it interrupts the flow of the song like some have pointed out. I also agree with others who prefer Vincent as well as Dreidel, Wonderful Baby, If We Try and even his cover of Crying in the 80s. By the way, some other 45s I got in that batch were For A Day Like Today by Suzie Jane Hokum (the name attracted me), I Won't Call You Back by a then unknown Kim Carnes and Beautiful People/When There's No Love Left by The New Seekers. All in all, a very good record score that day!

     
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  10. CliffL

    CliffL Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sacramento CA USA
    My whole family loved Al Green, especially my mom and one of my brothers. I was thrilled when "Let's Stay Together" went to number one. Interestingly enough, I was already familiar with his producer Willie Mitchell (and Hi Records) because my parents had let me have their copy of Mitchell's hit "Soul Serenade" (backed with "Mercy Mercy Mercy" which was also very good.)

     
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  11. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    The reason I figured American Pie was the controversial song OP was referring to was the passage about The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost as well as the veiled references to the Stones and Satan, fire, etc. :shrug:
     
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  12. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    Great song, but what I find most notable about the label is that it hadn't changed at all since the mid-60s. There weren't too many other labels at the time of which you could say that.
     
  13. Victor/Victrola

    Victor/Victrola Makng shure its write

    Let's Stay Together is such a great song. It's funky, soulful, and recorded beautifully. And the message - true love lasts forever, no matter what comes - is universal.
     
  14. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I dunno. For labels that stayed the same from 1966-1972, there's Motown, Columbia (which was all over the place in the early 70s), A&M, Atlantic 45, Roulette, Epic, Deram, ABC, Brunswick, Chess, and Soul.
     
  15. tmoore

    tmoore Forum Resident

    Location:
    Olney, MD
    ABC changed from ABC-Paramount to ABC in 1966, then for one year it had a round white logo with "abc" inside. It didn't add the "spectrum box" around the round white logo until 1967 (the round white logo got smaller at this point).

    Did Decca change? I remember seeing a new Decca logo on album covers in the early '70s (logo looked like a vinyl record surrounded by a square box, with "decca" underneath); however, the Decca 45s I have from the early '70s (all by the Who) have the same colorbar label that I saw on 1967-1968 singles (save the Who's "See Me Feel Me" one, which I think was a custom label for that 45). I know Decca ceased to exist in early 1973 (but that's after 1972). Kapp and Uni also ceased to exist at the same time as Decca -- I don't think they changed in the 1966-1972 timeframe either.

    Did Columbia change or stay the same? The prior post seems to want it both ways. I thought that (ultimately) it did permanently change after all of the back-and-forth changes in the early '70s.
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2018
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  16. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Fifties nostalgia was fast coming. In Britain, the glam rock movement was gaining steam, and there was a layer of warped fifties nostalgia in a lot of that stuff. I never think of American Pie as fifties nostalgia, as it's really more about the sixties and how crappy they were vs. the fifties IMO.
     
  17. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    True, although she did write the song Woodstock, which might qualify her for a spot!
     
  18. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Brand New Key

    I said a lot about Melanie when I wrote about Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) about a month ago, so I don't really have too much to add.

    To me, Melanie having her biggest hit with Brand New Key is kind of like the Beatles if they had had their biggest hit with Yellow Submarine. Wackiness is a part of her repertoire (as it definitely is with the Beatles), but Submarine is still a fairly unrepresentative number for them, and so too Key for Melanie.

    In some ways, I feel like this song ruined her career, at least as a major act. I'm a big Melanie fan, so for me I can never quite forgive this song, even though taken for what it is, it's perfectly OK. The lyrics are kind of cute, and as far as #1 songs from 1972 based on silly double entendres, I find it more successful than the one we'll get to shortly!

    [​IMG]

    Melanie always had a strange career, to be honest. Her first big hit was Bobo's Party, which was #1 in France in 1968 for NINE WEEKS. That's Hey Jude level of success. Now, that's a fine song, but I was astonished to find out it was even a hit, let alone a monster. It didn't even make the Greatest Hits album I have for Melanie.

    [​IMG]

    A little known fact: Melanie was on the final episode of the Ed Sullivan show in mid-1971. She played her cover of Ruby Tuesday on that show. This is another one of her popular numbers I don't really like, although I never much liked the Stones version either. I far prefer the song she did on her first appearance in 1970, Peace Will Come (According to Plan). Ed arranged for her to sing surrounded by fans instead of alone on a stage, and I think it produced a really wonderful effect. Melanie says that Ed really liked her, and I think you can tell that's true from the end of this clip:

     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2018
  19. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Not quite true. I have a copy of Tommy Roe's "Sweet Pea" with the boxed ABC logo from 1966.
     
  20. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    LOL. My vote is for Neil Diamond. I can just picture Neil cackling, flames behind him as he sings Crackling Rosie with a satanic echo in his voice.

    I used to hear the song occasionally on the radio with the first and second verses, and the final two, and the other part cut right out. I've never heard a version that just fades halfway through.
     
  21. CliffL

    CliffL Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sacramento CA USA
    Great post on Melanie, Applebonker...I also like her music, but I'm not exactly a huge fan of "Brand New Key" (heard it a bit too much back in the day!) You and several other people have mentioned "Peace Will Come (According To Plan) and that's one I really like also...I remember hearing it in San Francisco in 1970 in a hippie head shop (I was 14 at the time, my two younger brothers were with me.)

    I saw her on television several times in the early 70s, but never saw the Ed Sullivan clip (at least I don't remember it). I also like her song "Beautiful People" and "Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma" (I recall Ray Charles did a pretty popular cover of that one). She is really a unique talent. I have the Best Of CD that Robert Fripp mastered, and really enjoy it.
     
  22. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    You. Beat. Me. To. It. As far as American Pie goes, you can't beat the above version, simply the greatest cover of the seventies. If the day the music died had not already happened, this would have killed it for sure!
     
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  23. Witchy Woman

    Witchy Woman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Third Coast, USA
    I love ‘Let’s Stay Together’; it one of my favorite 70s songs. Of course I was still pretty young when it was released. Tina Turner’s cover in 1984 gave me a whole new appreciation for it.
     
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  24. zebop

    zebop Well Known Stranger


    Such a gorgeous record. I got tired of it for years but I got the single and I heard it again. There's probably many Al Green songs I like better than this but nothing is "Let's tay Together" it's just an amazing song.
     
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  25. John54

    John54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Burlington, ON
    Listening to Let's Stay Together as I type this. Once again, a decent song that's not really up my alley so I don't love it or anything. But there's nothing wrong with it that I can hear, so I understand the acclaim for it.
     

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