"Nobody bothers me...nobody bothers me!" (I lived in Greensboro NC from 1977-83 and for some reason we picked up Channel 20 also). "The Hustle" was one of the first songs I remember hearing on the radio in '75-ish. I would have been 3 but it seems like everywhere you went (the pool, etc) the radio was playing that song. My parents loved it and they were not "disco" people.
It had amazingly broad appeal. I think old timers were happy that actual dancing - like from their youth - was suddenly back in style.
And as Disco makes itself at home on the charts, this Pop band began their chart life with a style that was just a little bit different from their peak years in the early 80s. I quite liked Ambrosia and since I was in my early 20s and really getting into prog/art rock, found this band to be edgy but still pop enough to make it all palatable and not too much of a slog to get through. I'm guessing Alan Parsons, the engineer on the record must have been influential as this hews close to what he would do on his own records beginning with Tales Of Mystery & Imagination in '76 which also featured members of the band. Their first two albums are very good.
Paul was extremely close in terms of # of hit singles... had he released Maybe I'm Amazed as a single in 1970, a sure multiweek #1 hit he would have topped Elton.
McCartney and Elton were neck and neck in the 70s but Elton got more attention. Maybe in Macca's case, it was taken for granted that he was a hitmaker supreme while Elton was the new kid on the chart block so he got the focus. He also involved himself in other hit records whereas M pretty much steered the Wings ship. His wild onstage persona probably didn't hurt either although I'm certain the gay whispers ultimately caused some backlash as it usually does. This is anecdotal but an acquaintance once told me (in the 80s) that although he once loved Elton, when he found out about the gay stuff, he hated him. I told him that was idiotic and dropped him as a friend. No loss.
Always loved this one, but I didn't hear it too much on the radio back then, and the single version apparently still does not exist in digital form, as far as I know.
Yes, I don't get that either. Elton was "my" act. The Beatles were not. They were my siblings act (all of my siblings). To me, McCartney and the other solo Beatles always have that Beatles aura around them, like it or not. The fact that my musical memory only goes back to about mid-1970 probably explains this. Note that the Beatles were broken up by then, while Elton was just getting started ("Your Song" was a single late in the year). Don't get me wrong -- I love the Beatles and a lot of solo McCartney too, but I've never tried to compare McCartney to Elton.
My musical memory goes all the way back to 1963, but there's no comparison as far as i'm concerned. I like them both, but they were on different musical planes. Paul McCartney started earlier, but it seems Elton John became somewhat of a musical statesman before Paul did. Paul made much more of an effort to get top 40 hits, too.
Why is that strange? They were easily the 2 biggest acts of the mid-70s, with overlapping pop/rock styles.
I'm not comparing them at all. Have no stake in this as I like both. Just responding to posts that either seem to be pushing that or mistakenly think I am.
Beautiful song. Great freshman effort for a great group which had only a handful (3-4 ?) big Top 40 hits: Holding Onto Yesterday, How Much I Feel, The Biggest Part of Me, and You're the Only Woman.
I have that first LP and have been a long time fan of the FM hit "Nice, Nice, Very Nice". Great stuff!
Loved this song and album. I wasn't much of an Eagle fan till this came out. Big Elton fan here. GYBR was great. I missed the whole Beatlemania they were broke up before I got into music.
"One Of These Nights" - the title cut to a really solid album from an increasingly-dark Eagles - demonstrates how the disco groove was even seeping into hybrid country/rock in '75. Ironically, you get a lot of something else on this track - falsetto - that's more strongly associated with an act about to crop up in this thread for the first time in a few months. "One Of These Nights" was the perfect song for nighttime cruising thru the darkened suburban streets on the edge of Phoenix, zipping along at 45 miles per hour with lights off in the distance and fields and scattered fresh developments gliding by. It was probably better when playing off of a good 8-track though, or via a strong FM signal, and not some tinny AM crap. We're now well into the era of peak high-fidelity, and this track is a great example of it. It works on lower-fi media, but really becomes an experience on a good stereo.
Don't have the 45 on me, and my memory's a bit hazy, but didn't they shave a bit off the intro so the long guitar notes open it instead of just the bass, rhythm guitar and drums?
Take a page from Witchay Woman, add a light disco beat, a little rock guitar and voila! Instant hit. I agree this is a good album, this is a great song and the best part is there is more to come. I don't even think they made any radical changes to their sound, they just did it better.
I didn't get into the Eagles until that first Greatest Hits album was released and after purchasing Hotel California, went through their back catalog. I discovered how great albums like "Desperado" and "On The Border" were. I'm not fond of "One Of These Nights" (the album) very much and consider it their worst release up to that point. "The Long Run" easily out-worsts it, as do any of the post-break-up and post-break-up-reunion albums, but I've never been enthralled by either One Of These Nights (the album) or One Of These Nights (the single). As @Manapua said, the single is basically a re-write of Witchy Woman, which is a far superior song, IMO. I won't go into the other singles from the LP in detail, but neither of them ring my chimes much. They both seem to drag on and on. I do like Journey of the Sorcerer a little but only the part that was used as the theme to "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy".
Another track on the same-titled album - the third single from it, much later in the year (I won't say more than that at this time) - was also known for a falsetto at the end - and would contribute, down the road, to the ouster of said member who'd sung lead on it from the group.
