I loved "Little Jeannie". It's a beautiful song and it sounds fantastic. Just love the acoustics of the thing. We're well into the era of peak hi-fi now in this thread, although surprisingly I don't think many of them made it to the top of the charts. Of course, radio played a huge role in what got to the top, and AM radio was still a force. Fidelity didn't matter as much to radio listeners, and it was on albums where hi-fi pop and rock really shined. Country, too - the stuff coming out of Nashville was about to score a huge fidelity upgrade. They reached at least parity with pop and rock recordings, and you could probably argue that by 1980 they were routinely surpassing them.
Yup! "Wrap Her Up" by Elton John with George Michael guesting. EJ has said many times of the years that Kiki is his favorite singer and it was cool to see him bring her back into his orbit a decade after their #1
I will check. It isn’t anything like the typical, and usually quite awful, UA vinyl. I just played it again last night. Very nice! I will get you matrix numbers.
Not just those - what's the diameter of the pressing ring? A Columbia should be 2.703125". Research Craft's was 2.875", All Disc's 2.75".
In your OWN post (#19872) you mentioned several EJ singles from 1976-1983 by name. There was an ensuing discussion which mentioned another such song -- which you acknowledge (post #19879). Another later post mentioned several late '80s hits. The song I mentioned, could start an entire thread, based on what it's about. For that reason, I only mentioned that I liked the song and did not say anything else. I was very careful about that. As far as the chart positioning (consecutive years with Top 40 hits) I mentioned -- I again did not mention any song titles. The point of my bringing it up was to counteract some other posts which said that EJ's salad days were over. I've been pretty good about not jumping ahead. I've even mentioned a few times about biting my tongue for that reason (I have also mentioned how difficult it is to talk about the future, especially new artists who are emerging). Yet others do it and don't get a mention. I wouldn't have mentioned the song I did if it hadn't been for YOUR post. And yet you flag me and no one else. I understand where you are coming from, but if you're going to be the policeman around here, please follow your own rules!! (keeping it clean here)
I remember Summer of 1976 both for the Bicentennial and for the Summer Olympics (the first ones I can clearly remember watching). That year, the Summer Olympics were in Montreal, which was only about three driving hours away from my house. I have never had a summer Olympics that close to my house again, even though we didn't drive up there and see anything. The big stars of that Games were Bruce Jenner (still a big star today as a Cardashian-adjacent celeb) and Nadia Comaneci, a Romanian gymnast who scored the first perfect 10 in Olympics history (I think she ended up with 7 in total!). I still remember how blown away the commentators were when the scoreboard showed '1.00'; it had not been designed to hold four digits. Nadia was so popular that she even generated a chart hit! Wide World of Sports used a bit of instrumental music from the movie Bless the Beasts and the Children to back up a montage of her Olympic highlights. The theme (called 'Cotton's Dream') had also been used as the credit music for the Young and the Restless soap opera. But it soon became associated with Nadia and, due to popular demand, was released as a single called 'Nadia's Theme (The Young and the Restless)'. It reached #8 on the Billboard charts by December of 1976, but I mention it here because this was the point in history when Nadia became a superstar. The song even won a Grammy in 1978 for Best Instrumental Arrangement!
I guess you were either in northern New York State or somewhere in northern New England? The first Olympics I remember watching were the 1972 Munich games, which were marred by the Israeli terrorist incident. I remember being a little afraid of both Olympics in 1976, for fear that would happen again. Also I believe I remember reading somewhere, that 1976 Summer Olympics were originally supposed to be in Denver, but they pulled out in part because of terrorism fears.
Let's just say with EJ, anything past his next #1 is jumping way too ahead. Borderline with the next #1's of which he was a part.
I guess I will unintentionally let you know what I think about his future #1s, when I tell you I forgot he had any future #1s. I still maintain I was talking about Top 40 hits, not #1s. (I was remembering something I read in Billboard when he broke the old record for consecutive years with a Top 40 hit). But I get the message.
I think you mean 1977. Anyway, to your post about Nadia's Theme, how many of you heard or even were aware of a single released by the Sounds Of Sunshine in 1974 that featured vocals to the Young & Restless theme? I have this single somewhere in my collection but it's not credited as Nadia's Theme like the uploads on Youtube show. How could it be when Nadia Comaneci skated to it two years later?
And if the Sounds Of Sunshine moniker sounds familiar, it could be because of their one actual Hot 100 appearance in 1971 when they charted at #39 with a song inspired by the movie Love Story:
Side 1: UALA648-A-3 C R C way down the line there is JS-7-XTAL Side 2: UALA648-B 3X C R C and further down JS-6-XTAL Is CRC by any chance Columbia Record Club? Would surely explain why it isn't the crappy vinyl UA is known for. If not, I wonder why it's so much better than the other UA's?
Wikipedia said 1978, which seemed weird to me, but I just copied their mistake (?) rather than do more research.
Yup, New Hampshire! Who knew at the time that it would be 8 years before the US would attend another Summer Olympics? I was out of high school by the time I saw the next one.
You were in a pretty area. Once I drove US 2 across from Bangor ME to its end (Rouses Pt. NY, which is at far NE end of NY state at Canadian line and about 30 miles south of Montreal). This took me across northern NH (near Mount Washington, and across northern Vermont [Montpelier and Burlington]). Another time I drove down US 3 from Canadian border. And a third time I drove all the way to the far northern end of Maine, and then over to St. Lawrence River (which is a short distance), and then down the St. Lawrence valley to Quebec City and then Montreal. I very much enjoyed each of these driving trips. All this before 9/11 made it much more of a hassle to enter Canada on driving trips. I've not crossed the international border by car since then. Anytime I go up there now it is on flights. I was wondering if you were near Lake Placid NY, or further to the east (since you didn't mention Lake Placid -- but to be fair --- you only mentioned Summer Olympics, not Winter -- and it also occurred to me that you may have left that area by 1980).
Perhaps the only #1 Stephen Stills was involved with (he played percussion on this one). Their first single on RSO under a new distribution agreement with Polydor. And they started out with a bang here. But don'tcha get the feelin' with this, that the lyrics came from the Bernie Taupin school of poesy?
I said this over in the Bee Gees single-by-single thread, and I'll repeat it here: It was at this point The Bee Gees became the preeminent disco act, displacing K.C. and any others as the reigning kings of the dance floor. Just a stomping great call to boogie, the "Vogue" of the 1970's. It's jazzy, funky, sweeping, just a kitchen sink of high drama crammed into a 4-minute-and-change package. Every element is top notch - that incredible bassline, the percussion, the synths, those horns, Barry's falsetto, all of it.
