EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

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

  1. John22

    John22 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northern Germany
  2. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
  3. Witchy Woman

    Witchy Woman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Third Coast, USA
    “Dancing Queen” sounds like disco to me, though. Not that this one song makes them a “disco act.”
     
  4. Witchy Woman

    Witchy Woman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Third Coast, USA
    It’s second only to “Some Days Are Diamonds” for me.
     
  5. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    It started in the school holidays here. Everyone at the bus stop was talking about it on the first day back.
     
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  6. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    David Cassidy was leaving The Partridge Family but it was up against Emergency and one of them was going to get axed. So Tiger Beat said fans should watch David's last season but fill in the ratings survey that they watched Emergency so Randy wouldn't lose his job. At least that's how I remember it.
     
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  7. John54

    John54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Burlington, ON
    Vince Van Patten has done commentary (along with Mike Sexton) on the World Poker Tour broadcasts since the beginning, in 2002 as I recall.

    He also was a professional tennis player for a few years, and once beat John McEnroe on the way to winning a tournament.
     
  8. alphanguy

    alphanguy Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    Very true, a 1974 episode of Mary Tyler Moore features Murray's 15 year old daughter going on a date with 19 year old Bruce Boxlietner.
     
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  9. alphanguy

    alphanguy Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    Next is "Feel Like Makin Love" by Roberta Flack, #1 from August 4 - August 10, 1974.

     
  10. Jrr

    Jrr Forum Resident

    Now that’s a surprise. A nice song, but I don’t hear a number one in that. Little I really like by her, but Killing Me Softly is an all time great imo, and she did a great album with Arif Mardin, I believe late 80’s-early 90’s called Set The Night To Music. I know she was well liked, just not really my kind of music I guess.
     
  11. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Adored Roberta Flack, and this is yet another gorgeous song. A little lighter than her prior #1's, but sophisticated, too. I wonder if the success of this cut paved the way for the "Quiet Storm" radio format, named after Smokey's '75 single.

     
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  12. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    :)

    This rocketed to #34 in the UK. A beautiful song with Roberta Flack's perfect vocal. Mind you, she could sing Agadoo and make it a thing of beauty.:D

    All these number ones is exhausting.. What on earth was happening in the States in 1974?:D
     
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  13. ronm

    ronm audiofreak

    Location:
    southern colo.
    Would have never known that this song was a #1.
     
  14. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    Her last #1 although she still managed some Top 10 hits for the next decade or two. I found the song kind of on the dull side. It certainly brought her Pop singles career to a slow trickle for nearly 4 years before hitting #2 in '78 with another Donny Hathaway duet - The Closer I Get To You. She ended up producing the album this came from but under the alias Rubina Flake.
     
  15. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    I wouldn't be surprised if Brian DePalma based some of the style Phantom of the Paradise (which came out in 1974) on videos like this. These guys could be the Juicy Fruits (his faux fifties style band) in another life.
     
  16. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Back again after a little sabbatical. :winkgrin:

    Anyway, here are a couple I missed:

    The Streak

    I certainly remember this song, and the bemused reaction of my parents to the streaking phenomenon, but for some reason I always think this one came out more around 1976. Perhaps the trend hadn't entirely died out by then, who knows?

    Anyway, we kids loved stupid stuff like this. I recall having an entire album of novelty hits which included this song and stuff like They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Haa. Lookit dat, lookit dat! was kind of a catch phrase with us for a time.

    Billy, Don't be a Hero

    This was another of the songs that my little brother really loved. His best friend was coincidentally named Billy, and so he got more than a little teasing because of this number.

    I know it's among the most hated songs of the era, but I think it's OK, a decent if unspectacular poppy number. In a way it's the anti-Green Berets; whereas that song celebrated a green beret hoping his son would follow in his footsteps (and die?), this song has the heroine pointedly reject Billy for sacrificing his life in a war. This was the tail end of the Vietnam War (technically over, but still ahead was the fall of Saigon), and a gung-ho song about war was probably not going to be a big seller in that era.
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2018
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  17. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Band on the Run

    All right! After a few years wandering around in the musical desert, Paul finally got it completely right! Interestingly, the production of this song and album seemed like it was fated to be a disaster. For some reason, he decided to record the album in Nigeria. Two of the band's members quit before he left, leaving just himself, Linda and Denny Laine to make the record. Then, he got mugged at knifepoint in Lagos, losing demo tapes he had made. He also made enemies of some local musicians, including Fela Kuti, who suspected he was there to swipe some of their sounds.

    It was a difficult effort, but the results were well worth it. It's my second favorite Wings album (Venus and Mars is my personal fave), although I didn't actually buy it until college for some reason. My favorite number is definitely Jet, which is soaring pop at its finest, but 1985 is also incredible in the way it builds up to that amazing climax. And it was really cool how he borrowed a little from his ex-partner Mr. Lennon with Let Me Roll It; John appreciated the sentiment and loved the track.

    Below: the iconic album cover with James Coburn standing out among the escapees

    [​IMG]

    The title song is classic McCartney. I personally believe the 'if we ever get out of here' line might have had extra resonance to him given the challenges of making the record. Only Paul could take three disparate parts like this, weld them together, and create magic like this (although another 1974 classic, Bohemian Rhapsody, is a great example of someone else pulling from Paul's bag of tricks to great effect).

    As I mentioned previously, my favorite part is when the song first breaks into the third part of the song. It's like emerging from a deep tunnel into the bright sunlight, perfectly capturing the theme of imprisonment and escape. The bit where Paul sings 'and the county juuuuuudge, who held a grudge...' is one of my favorite Paul moments of the 70s. Man do I love this song!

    Since we've already heard Band, here's the flip side, 1985 (technically, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five). Paul was really hitting on all cylinders with this one. I love his live versions of this from the seventies, but here's an unusual, unreleased video from 1974 featuring Paul vamping on piano early on, then doing karaoke with the actual recording later on (doing his best Cory-Wells-from-Three-Dog-Night impersonation). And he doesn't even have to put his cigarette down. It's all awesome!

     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2018
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  18. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    OK, that I didn't know. Interesting! (never heard of Paul Da Vinci, either. Man, I thought that guy was gonna bust a gut when he hit those high notes at the end of the clip they posted of him).
     
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  19. Archguy

    Archguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Richmond VA
    Their harmonies on "Where Is the Love" are pretty stunning.

    Rubina Flake...ha! Learn something new every day.
     
  20. Grant

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

    Really? Wow!

    Here in the U.S., Emergency ran until 1977, I think, while The Partridge Family went out of production in 1974, the same year Sherwood Schwartz pulled the plug on The Brady Bunch.
     
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  21. Grant

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

    Oh yeah! One of the softest, sweetest songs ever. It was produced by Roberta Flack under an alias "Rubina Flake".
     
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  22. Grant

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

    Are you serious? It was all over the radio. I was in Jr high by then, and it was played at every dance. The album stayed on the charts so long that she released another single from it one year later.
     
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  23. ronm

    ronm audiofreak

    Location:
    southern colo.
    Serious as a heart attack.Guess I wasn't listening to the radio much at this time.
     
  24. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    This was one of two Number Ones on Atlantic from this year to bear two catalogue numbers in the course of its chart life. Originally issued on 45-3025, by the time its chart run ended it had been renumbered 45-3203.

    It was also one of two Number Ones whereby there would be entirely different songs of the same or similar title by the rock group Bad Company. Natch', I prefer this smooth number by Ms. Flack over the one Bad Company did. The other record in question they did, may have affected the title of the other Number One which we'll be looking at some time from here.
     
  25. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I seem to remember reading, since we're referring to Emergency!, that Julie London (a Forum favorite who played Nurse Dixie McCall on the show) was glad for the success of the two "heart-throb" stars, Kevin Tighe and Randolph Mantooth, and they all remained in touch for years after the series ended.
     

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