I sent you a PM. Forgot to include in it, if you're being So exacting with the thread rules, how come it's okay for you to post a Vicki Sue Robinson song that never went to Billboard #1?
We discuss songs in chronological order, or if an act is having their first or last #1 hit on the chart we might mention some earlier or later non-#1's. Or if a #1 hit we're talking about reminds us of another hit or kicked of a string of similar-sounding hits we might discuss its impact on the genre as a whole and discuss those songs. Sometimes while talking about a #1 we bring up other hits on the charts at the same time, especially hits we think are better, or are similar, or maybe the last big hit for a particular act who'd been a chart topper earlier, stuff like that. But we don't just randomly bring up hits from a decade later, especially #1 hits, completely out of the blue.
Thanks very much for your input, too. Which would have been a nice, informative, if convoluted, reply if not for the last sarcastic sentence, where you couldn't resist in joining in with beating me down. And, you, too, felt it imperative to do so publicly on post rather than a PM. Even if members are mean, at least they've got each others' backs - interesting how you treat a newcomer. I've been polite-No worries.
And it's not just chronological or sequential, this process: it is also linear. To jump ahead I consider very much non-linear.
We can do that as long as the song isn't in the future. We discussed this in the PM, so it's all sorted out. No worries!
We are now into 1977, and the first new R&B #1 single for the years is: Darlin' Darlin' Baby (Sweet, Tender Love) - O'Jays Week ending January 8, 1977 1 wk I didn't hear this until a couple of years after the fact when I got one of their greatest hits albums. It's a nice, sweet ballad, and reflective of the lyrical turn PIR made in the late 70s. Black music was no longer about protest and songs for the people. It was all about dancin' and romancin'.
Wasn't it also one of the last with William Powell, prior to his death and his being replaced by Sammy Strain (ex Little Anthony & The Imperials)?
Yes indeed. He died of cancer later in the year. He was not on their final #1 which we will get to in a year. The O'Jays would have only two more #1 R&B singles left in their career.
I don't think I ever heard "Darlin Darlin" when it was on the charts, or in the years since. I also don't think I missed much. JcS
The only way I heard it was on a greatest hits album and once or twice on Soul Train. It's what I call "atmospheric" music. It sits comfortably in the background but nothing about it stands out. Unless an artist was into disco (which was no longer about sticking with its R&B base) or funk, romance music was where R&B was in 1977. BTW, I think i'll play some O'jays music now.
I know I prefer the 10-15 years before '77 to what followed. I don't think I own anything by the O'Jays. I may have picked up a comp when Sam Goodys was selling out their stock around 2005, but I bought about 50 albums during that buying binge, and even to this day, haven't unwrapped all of them!
Never heard this one. It's not on my O'Jays comp, either. No great loss, although I kind of like the break. That's different, which I always appreciate in a hit single.
If I had a sawbuck for every cd I still have unopened, well I still wouldn't have what I spent on it. As far as the O'Jays song goes, this is the first time I'm hearing it.
I'm pretty much "let me hear it on YouTube/Spotify" kind of guy these days. But I suspect those can sate my curiosity. JcS
I don't think I ever considered just how massive an enduring a force The O'Jays were on the R&B charts through the 1970's. They're bigger here than The Spinners and Tempts. Wow. Good song too.
Those two groups aren't done yet, either! I think a problem is that several posters are judging the R&B chart against the pop chart.
And there's the thing. I hadn't heard it, though I've been familiar with the title, but it had to have some significance to have warranted an appearance in all these comps (the fact that it topped these charts is proof o' the puddin'). That in and of itself ain't too shabby.
Exactly. But as to your point of those conflating these charts with the "pops," I'm seeing something similar on my country #1's threads, where in this period you have half the people who comment who hadn't heard half of what topped those charts - and most of which didn't even yield crickets on the pops, for every Glen or Dolly or Kenny.
That's why I can't comment on your thread until we get to those major Kenny, Dolly, and Crystal crossover hits. Well, maybe I can comment if another B.J. Thomas hit goes to #1 there. BTW, something in me says I should abandon the #1 format and start a new thread expanding it to the Billboard Top 10 R&B.
I'd say, as to your first part, you are wise, grasshopper. But if you've looked at the links, you'll see in the early '50's we're getting to the "interesting" part. I may not have much traffic compared to this, but on the plus side there's no "jumping ahead" which you (and I) dread big-time. As to your starting a Top 10 R&B thread, I'd say keep it distinctive from this. Wikipedia, after all, has lists of what went to #1 and then lists of those that lurked in the Top 10.
