EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

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

  1. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Well, yes and no. She was definitely the greatest personality of the four, and she had an incredible voice. But most of their biggest chart hits featured Denny or all four of them as the "lead" vocal, and she wrote very little. Those are virtually all John's songs. Before the drugs took their toll he was one of the great pop songwriters.
     
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  2. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I think I might have figured out what happened. I'd accidentally added a couple of random compilation albums to the playlist without realizing it - I was just trying to add the single-versions of a couple of hits to the list - and I freaked out when I saw all of these random songs appearing on the playlist. In my defense, it was late and I'd been at it for an hour.

    Anyhow, I thought maybe the list was set to Collaborative, and some nitwit was adding random crap to it. So I toggled the Collaborative settings. My guess is that also impacted the sharing settings, rendering it Private instead of Public.

    It should be open for anyone to view and listen to now. I nearly had a heart attack earlier today listening to it on shuffle though, when John Denver's "I'm Sorry" cropped up. I can never remember that turkey made it to #1 (how???). I thought for sure I'd found more corruption on my playlist.

    Well, in a way I did.

    (Sorry. Not sorry. :biglaugh:)
     
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  3. Grant

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

    I blame it on mental illness and/or drug abuse.

    A LOT of people, men and women, have huge porn stashes.

    One thing many people forget is that MJ did not have a normal childhood. Hell, he didn't even have one.
     
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  4. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Naturally, here's what I'd have among my litany of 45's . . .
     
  5. alphanguy

    alphanguy Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    Yeah, but with the general public, they don't usually care who wrote the songs. And yes... Denny did lead many of their hits, he just had no stage presence as a front man, for whatever reason.
     
  6. Wild Horse

    Wild Horse Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Yeah, my point was if MJ was a pedophile, they wouldn't probably of found a huge stash of adult porn in his house. It would have more likely been a Gary Glitter situation.

    Gary Glitter | Wikiwand


    It also seems to put those asexual rumours about MJ to rest. And the porn they found implies he wasn't gay either.

    I don't know, maybe Tito kept his porn stash at Michael's house? :laugh:
     
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  7. Wild Horse

    Wild Horse Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    I always thought Michelle was the star of the group. Or, at least the focal point. John Phillips was obviously the leader.
     
  8. Grant

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

    I'm sure the main focus was always Cass.
     
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  9. Victor/Victrola

    Victor/Victrola Makng shure its write

    I'm not so sure I put an artist's work hand-in-hand with their personality. I mean, I love Aimee Mann's albums but I get the impression she could be an extremely difficult person, and not one I'd want to be around much. Elton John is the same way. The allegations surrounding John and MacKenzie are disturbing, to say the least, and blaming it on drugs is more of an excuse than a reason. However, I still love listening to the Mamas and the Papas stuff - the best multi-harmonic group of the 60s, if you ask me. And I agree that Cass was the one that the public focused on - whether it be because of her talent or her weight, she was the one that had the attention of the public and press, and the only one to have a decently successful solo career (even if it was tragically cut short).

    As far as M. Jackson goes, I also get the impression that - although he was definitely an unusual person - the sexual accusations were untrue and people were out to get a piece of the Michael Jackson fortune. However, I don't think he was an angel either, look at how he screwed Macca over.
     
  10. The Slug Man

    The Slug Man Forum Resident

    Location:
    North Carolina
    In other words, Michelle was the eye candy, but Cass did all the musical heavy lifting? ;)
     
  11. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Is Elton all that difficult, though? I know someone who toured with him back in the early '70s who said - as rock stars go - he was really easy to work with.

    :shrug:

    John was a massive, epic drug addict - heroin and then coke. You don't do as much as he did as many years as he did and come out the other end of that the same person you went in. I've had family members who were radically altered by years of drug abuse. The person they were was dead years before they actually died. So no, it's not an excuse. It's very much a reason. We aren't talking about someone who went on a year or two coke binge and then cleaned up. We're talking about hardcore drug use - heroin and coke - for the better part of a decade.
     
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  12. Grant

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

    But, shoot. He admitted what he did, and McKenzie has discussed it. So, it's not an allegation. It's a fact. You cannot blame what he did on drugs. To do that is a cop-out.
     
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  13. Jrr

    Jrr Forum Resident

    You know, I might be ridiculously naive and I respect those who disagree, but I for one feel terrible for what happened to him. I think he was a kid at heart and so he related to people exactly like that. Given that, of course he loved kids. He was kind to them and generous. And imo nothing more. All evidence supports this...he was very consistent in this and explained over and over why he was like that. Nothing was proved. I will never believe he built a theme park on his property just for opportunities to take advantage of kids. He loved being a kid. Of course he had kids around. His big mistake was being alone with them at times. But back then this wasn’t as big of a deal, and thinking like a kid he probably just didn’t see not having a security person in the background as necessary. Yes, I think he was probably naive in many ways given his mindset, and if you read stories by Walter Yetnikoff and others that knew him. And I believed his denials. Which I rarely do! We’ll never know for sure, but I think the last few years of his life were ruined because some people wanted his money. I appreciate his music, and what he left us.
     
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  14. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    Arguably he was a great writer after the drugs took their toll as well. He reportedly didn't remember writing "Me and My Uncle" at all, and was mystified as to where all these royalty checks were coming from after Judy Collins recorded it.
     
  15. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Well... true, but Phillips wrote most of their great songs, and he was basically the leader of the group, so I'd argue that he was at least just as essential as Cass.

    To some degree, they all were essential. You could argue against Michelle, but the one period where they tried to replace her, they quickly realized it didn't work and got her back into the group. I've seen photos of the Michelle-less group, but never so much as a single actual TV appearance.

    [​IMG]

    Below: they DID perform on TV together, but I have never seen this clip or any other. Does it still exist?

    [​IMG]

    And to amplify the other point, Phillips was not a great guy even in the sixties, and by the seventies became a drug casualty of epic proportions. But the accusations Mackenzie made happened later than that, and apparently she was an adult when things started, not a kid. Still gross and weird if true, but not the same thing as what they accused Jacko of.
     
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  16. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    I haven't read Papa John, but my recollection from reading about it is that he did admit being a hopeless drug addict, and even dragging his daughter down with him into that lifestyle (I can't recall; she probably was already a user, but he didn't help the matter by any means). But the sexual accusations all happened after he was dead and not around to defend himself.
     
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  17. AppleBonker

    AppleBonker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Meanwhile, back in the UK...

    Joy Division was a group that was literally formed after two of the members went to a Sex Pistols concert. Initially very 'mainline' punky, they soon developed a more intense post punk sound for which they became known.

    The song Transmission was their first single. It was initially recorded in 1978, but re-released in October, 1979. The lead singer, Ian Curtis, suffered from epilepsy and depression, sometimes even having seizures on stage. In May, 1980, on the eve of their first American tour, Curtis, whose epilepsy had become increasingly uncontrollable, hanged himself. The band reformed later as New Order and continued to be a force in the eighties.

    I saw this video once late at night on USA network's Night Flight and never forgot it. Decades later I tracked down the 'dance to the radio' song on YouTube.

     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2019
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  18. Hoover Factory

    Hoover Factory Old Dude Who Knows Things

    Location:
    Spokane, WA
    “Transmission” was an epic single...just brilliant.
     
  19. tmoore

    tmoore Forum Resident

    Location:
    Olney, MD
    I've been on vacation for a couple weeks, missed all the discussion starting with "My Sharona".

    The following are songs that I really liked at the time, and still do now (when I hear them, which is not often).

    Of the songs (and timeframe) we've covered since late August, when "My Sharona" went to the top,
    of the #1s, my favorites are "Sad Eyes" and "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough".

    Of the non-#1s, one all-time favorite of mine is "After the Love Has Gone" by Earth Wind and Fire.
    (I hesitate to say "the favorite" from that time because I haven't looked at an exhaustive list of songs from that time)

    I never liked "Rise", I was always a fan of the Herb Alpert TJB, and this was different from that. The later association with "General Hospital" also did not endear the song to me.
     
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  20. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Also peaking around this time was a song written by the writers of The Doobie Brothers' "What A Fool Believes" . . .

    And with the Doobies' Michael McDonald on backing vocals . . .

    It's interesting, Mr. McDonald backs Kenny Loggins on this, and Stevie Nicks was on his earlier "Whenever I Call You 'Friend'." Because both were ubiquitous on other people's records, one wonders why Mr. McDonald and Ms. Nicks were never heard on the same record.
     
  21. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    This would rip a hole in the spacetime continuum. Please don't even suggest such a thing.
     
  22. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Exactly.
     
  23. alphanguy

    alphanguy Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    Next we have "Babe" by Styx, #1 from December 2 - December 15, 1979.

     
  24. alphanguy

    alphanguy Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    Let me just say that I hate every Styx song. And it's entirely due to Dennis De Young and his high pitched, yelpy, strident vocals. Geddy Lee falls into the category as well. Just can't stand that vocal style. He never uses his breath to soften of modulate his vocals, and his phrasing is just non emotional and like a soldier marching to a snare drum.
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2019
  25. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I never got what the deal was with all of these helium-voiced white rock singers, especially on the proggy/hard rock side of the fence, in the mid-thru-late '70s. They were omnipresent for about 6 or 7 years, and then couldn't get arrested.

    I think "Babe" played about a dozen times on a small boombox during a school field trip we took up to Northern Arizona in 1981, so I always associate this one with the early '80s and not the '70s. It was very much a harbinger of what was to come on rock radio the next couple of years in the early, pre-MTV '80s. I wasn't big on ballads then and I'm not big on this one now, but the sound of it - those late-analog synths, the way the drums are mic'd and the guitar work - certainly takes me back to the time.
     

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