Billboard Hot 100 October 30, 1971 - Post A Comment

Wow! I vaguely remember this! I kinda like it.

 

Great summary, as always, Tim.

Though he never reached the Billboard Hot 100 again, Freddie was huge on the country charts in the early- to mid-70s following his unexpected success with "Easy Loving" — with five more consecutive #1 hits and many more that made the Top 1o.

You've probably heard me tell this story before on this board, but for those in this thread that may not be aware of the loyalty and passion of country music audiences…

It helps first to know that Freddie was a big man. Not fat, but quite tall and big-boned, very stocky. Despite this, he really made his mark because his physical appearance contrasted so dramatically with his soft-spoken personality and the gentleness of his style.

I was DJ-ing at a country station during Freddie's run of hits, and emceed a live show he was a part of. After introducing him from the stage, I went back out into the auditorium and found a seat toward the back, a row behind and a few seats to the left of four ladies, who were probably in their 40s or so, I'd guess.

Freddie finished one of his songs, and then launched into another of his big hits. The moment he sang the first few notes of it, all four of the ladies simultaneously whipped out their handkerchiefs and started bawling.

It's still one of the most telling displays of music's immediate emotional effect on an audience I've ever seen.

 

always preferred this response to the "this has to be a sick joke" Desiderata....

 

Lovin' Her Was Easier(Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again) - Kris Kristofferson

Not a fan of Country music in general but in the early 70s, there was a spate of easy listening country tunes that attracted my ears and Easy Lovin' was one of them alongside For The Good Times, Goodtime Charlie's Got The Blues, Snowbird, Rose Garden and a handful of Charlie Rich songs. Then there's Kris Kristofferson. If you weren't one to pay attention to a song's writer, you'd never know just how many stone cold classic country songs of the era he penned. For The Good Times, Help Me Make It Through The Night, Me & Bobby McGee, Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down, Why Me Lord and this one, his first Top 40 hit. Now this is what talent looks like.

 

not quite the same topic of Superstar for the Carpenters after Jesus Christ Superstar rolled through prior to this chart...

even the Canadian acts are recognized in this chart

for $1,000,000 i couldn't even begin to hum or sing or picture anything mentally about Yo-Yo, which hit #1 in my 'hood

 

When I was a sophomore in high school, one of my teachers was getting married,
and he asked a few of us who played guitar to help out with the wedding. One of
the songs that was a part of the ceremony was Wedding Song.

That memory doesn't come to mind very often, as this oldie seems to have been
lost to the sands of time!

 

At Motown Records in the late '60s, Babbitt's thick, fluid bass lines drove the groove on
songs by the Temptations - Ball of Confusion, Stevie Wonder - Signed Sealed Delivered
I'm Yours, Rare Earth - Losing You, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles - The Tears of a
Clown and many others.

Like his fellow members of Motown's renowned Funk Brothers studio band, he often
moonlighted for other Detroit labels and studios, including United Sound and Golden
World, performing on tunes such as the Capitols' Cool Jerk, the Parliaments' I Wanna
Testify, and Freda Payne's Band of Gold.

Babbitt, a Pittsburgh native who moved to Detroit as a teenager in the late '50s, got his
start on the Detroit music scene playing clubs with the popular local band the Royaltones.
His signature bass line came in '71, a stellar solo on the pioneering funk-rock song Scorpio
with Dennis Coffey, himself a former Royaltone and Funk Brother.

"Bob had that big, fat sound," Coffey said today. "The highlight of his career, in my mind, was
that solo. It set a bass standard. You didn't hear bass solos on records, let alone a hit record.
Guys were freaking out trying to duplicate it. That was the benchmark for a bass player: You
had to be able to play that Scorpio solo.'"

Check out these four minutes of pioneering funk rock, remembering that nothing succeeds
like Sussex!




Dennis Coffey




Bob Babbitt

 

It's cracking! Group is from Michigan, but the song was recorded in Toronto.

Shout out for more CanCon! Haha!

Here are the guys, back in the day:

 

"The former lead singer of Smith" (Baby It's You)

Well you learn something new every day! Wow!



(Bonus Osmonds coverage!)

 

Plus, a smattering of French, so Fran-Can-Con!

 

I agree! I came for the classic Soul, but I am learning about so much more!

 

I get what you're saying. He produced and arranged this one, but still had the
Funk Brothers as his backing band. The best of both worlds, you could say,
with the Soul of Stevie in full flow. From 1967 to 1980 he was... untouchable.
Written by Stevie and his ex-wife Syreeta Wright in 1971. According to Stevie,
he wrote this song in the Manhattan apartment of the genius singer/songwriter
Laura Nyro. The synth bass is a dead giveaway he played basic rhythm tracks
himself; it sounds like an upright (outta sight!) bass during the quiet parts, and,
that's Syreeta on backing vocals.

 

I'm here for the CanCon too!

 

I liked Its A Cryin' Shame so much that I sprung for the album. This ballad quickly became another favorite. Too bad she never got bigger in her career.

Gayle McCormick - Gonna Be Alright Now

 

I did not realize Thin Line Between by Pretenders was a cover. Great song, and title.

 

Pinay power! WeaklyPedia says:

Fanny was an American rock band, active in the early 1970s. They were one of the first all-female
rock groups to achieve critical and commercial success, including two Billboard Hot 100 top 40
singles. The group was founded by guitarist June Millington and her sister, bassist Jean, who had
been playing music together since they moved from the Philippines to California in the early 1960s.
After playing through several variations of the band, they attracted the interest of producer Richard
Perry who signed them to Reprise Records in 1969 as Fanny. The band recorded four albums together
before June Millington. Following a final album, Fanny disbanded in 1975. The group has continued
to attract critical acclaim for rejecting typical girl group styles and expectations of women in the rock
industry generally, and emphasizing their musical skills. Later groups such as the Go-Go's, the Bangles
and the Runaways cited Fanny as a key influence.

Charity Ball is killer as was their other big hit, Butterboy!

 

And I completely forgot it was produced by Richard Perry, one of my favorite producers throughout the 70s.

 

Same here!

The Wikipedia quote suggests that it was Perry who came up with their cheeky name.
I always assumed that they had named themselves, in something of a self-empowering
move. If Perry was the source, however, I am kinda disappointed, as it comes off rather
sexist. Can't argue with their talent, or their wonderful "musicianly" sound!

Click for a wonderful article about how they charmed David Bowie:

The Revolutionary '70s Girl Group That Swept Bowie off His Feet



Here's an excerpt:

They were cool as cucumbers under pressure, and went on to tour with the
Kinks, Deep Purple, Humble Pie and others. They collaborated with Barbra
Streisand, Todd Rundgren, and Tiny Tim, and recorded their third studio
album with none other than Beatles’ engineer Geoff Emerick! Their tracks
weren’t soft crooners, but anthems meant to make some “hard rock noise,”
as Jean put it.

 

Thank you both, very much for solving a fifty-year-old mystery for me!





I had always thought they were going for something/someone more like this:

 

I used to go to bed with a transistor radio about the time this was a hit, and I have absolutely NO memory of ever hearing it.

 

And that scene from Boogie Nights (literally) pounds the point home.....

 

Damn, I like this one a lot, too! And at the 26 second mark, I thought she was
gonna lurch into Rainy Days and Mondays, but then she took a hairpin turn!

You know who else her voice reminds me of? Chi Coltrane:

 

Wild Night - Van Morrison

As classic as we now regard VM's 70s heyday, it's a puzzle as to why only Domino managed to crack the Top 10. This R&B-styled romper seemed to be a slam dunk when I heard it blasting out of the radio in '71 but it stalled at a just okay #28. Hell, even Blue Money did better! But really, those horns! That bass! The symbols! I mean, COME ON!

 

Do you ever pair songs in your memory? Sometimes it's just that they came out
at the same time. But other times... I don't know why!

So, since about forever years, this song by Lee Michaels has been linked in my
mind with Lay A Little Lovin on Me by Robin McNamara. No clue why.

Maybe there's a new thread topic here: Name two songs that you remember
as a pair! But, I'd go and ruin it by insisting that members try and explain
why the two are paired, so it won't just be another one of those nugatory
exercises in list generation.

But here's Robin, about a year prior to Lee's arrival, fresh off of his run in Hair,
and kinda losing his way at the end!