EVERY Billboard #1 rhythm & blues hit discussion thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by tomstockman, Mar 4, 2016.

  1. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I know. I'm just saying, I was listening to the Top 40 countdown every week during this period, so I'm surprised I have no memory of this song.
     
  2. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I have plenty memory of this number. Which shows you what type radio I was listening to in this period.
     
    Grant likes this.
  3. Grant

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

    At this point, I was back listening to exclusively Black radio and watching Soul Train.
     
  4. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I veered between there and Top 40.
     
  5. Grant

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

    Yeah. I still heard some big-time pop/rock hits, but I was moving toward an exclusive R&B diet for the next two years. So, unfortunately, i'll still be participating on the other Billboard threads.:)
     
  6. Grant

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

    Here is where I get to say I really like the long version of Ashford & Simpson's "Nobody Knows".
     
  7. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Now, as we patiently await the unveiling of the first R&B #1 of 1980, let's examine the year-end Top 50, now, shall we? (As always, those that missed #1 will be highlighted by a link to YouTube, and what peak position it reached.)
    1. "Good Times" by Chic
    2. "Ring My Bell" by Anita Ward
    3. "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson
    4. "Bustin' Loose Part I" by Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers
    5. "Le Freak" by Chic
    6. "Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)" by Parliament
    7. "Reunited" by Peaches & Herb
    8. "I Got My Mind Made Up (You Can Get It Girl)" by Instant Funk
    9. "I'm Every Woman" by Chaka Khan
    10. "Disco Nights (Rock-Freak)"[FONT=Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif] [/FONT]by GQ
    11. "One Nation Under A Groove (Part 1)" by Funkadelic
    12. "Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)" by The Jacksons (peak position #3)
    13. "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" by McFadden & Whitehead
    14. "Turn Off The Lights" by Teddy Pendergrass (peak position #2)
    15. "Got To Be Real" by Cheryl Lynn
    16. "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer
    17. "What Cha Gonna Do With My Lovin' " by Stephanie Mills (peak position #8)
    18. "Why Leave Us Alone" by Five Special (peak position #15)
    19. "Do You Wanna Go Party" by KC And The Sunshine Band (peak position #8)
    20. "You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else" by The Jones Girls (peak position #5)
    21. "I Don't Know If It's Right" by Evelyn "Champagne" King (peak position #7) (issued in two versions, this was the second)
    22. "Chase Me" by Con Funk Shun (peak position #4)
    23. "I'm A Sucker For Your Love" by Teena Marie (peak position #8)
    24. "What You Won't Do For Love" by Bobby Caldwell (peak position #6)
    25. "Get Down" by Gene Chandler (peak position #3)
    26. "Shake Your Groove Thing" by Peaches & Herb (peak position #4)
    27. "It's All The Way Live (Part 1)" by Lakeside (peak position #4)
    28. "Livin' It Up (Friday Night)" by Bell & James (peak position #7)
    29. "Never Had A Love Like This Before" by Tavares (peak position #5)
    30. "The Boss" by Diana Ross (peak position #12)
    31. "I Wanna Be With You (Part I)" by The Isley Brothers
    32. "Hot Number" by Foxy (peak position #4)
    33. "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire
    34. "In The Mood" by Tyrone Davis (peak position #6)
    35. "I'll Never Love This Way Again" by Dionne Warwick (peak position #18)
    36. "Feel That You're Feelin' " by Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly (peak position #7)
    37. "I Don't Want Nobody Else (To Dance With You)" by Narada Michael Walden (peak position #9)
    38. "It Must Be Love" by Alton McClain & Destiny (peak position #10)
    39. "I Just Want To Be" by Cameo (peak position #3)
    40. "Firecracker" by Mass Production (peak position #4)
    41. "After The Love Has Gone" by Earth, Wind & Fire (peak position #2)
    42. "Memory Lane" by Minnie Riperton (peak position #16)
    43. "Oh Honey" by Delegation (peak position #12)
    44. "I'm So Into You" by Peabo Bryson (peak position #2)
    45. "He's The Greatest Dancer" by Sister Sledge
    46. "You Can't Change That" by Raydio (peak position #3)
    47. "Love Ballad" by George Benson (peak position #3)
    48. "Shake" by The Gap Band (peak position #4)
    49. "Found A Cure" by Ashford & Simpson (peak position #2)
    50. "Now That We Found Love" by Third World (peak position #9)

    The Mass Production record, I may've heard once or twice "at the time." Alas, its melody would be stolen - er, sampled for a hip-hop track a decade therefrom we will examine when we get there.

    Meanwhile, I am familiar with the name Alton McClain & Destiny - they did "Best of Both Worlds" V/O promos heard on WLIB 1190 - but I don't really recall #38 in this chart.

    Everybody else, have at it on those that "missed" the top spot . . .
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2019
    SITKOL'76 and leshafunk like this.
  8. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Amazing that "Ring My Bell" was such a monster on the R&B charts.
     
  9. leshafunk

    leshafunk Forum Resident

    Location:
    Moscow, Russia
    I have Masterjam album - it's good - and I did not consider that hit as a standout track on the album. Less Chaka sounds better to me.
     
  10. Grant

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

    "Memory Lane" - Minnie Riperton

    This came from the last album she did before she passed away from cancer. The album isn't an R&B album but is pop, just like her first album. But, it's very good.
     
  11. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    And it was marketed as pop, evidently; Capitol's labels for that 45 had the purple background and silver print associated with pop and C&W product since 1978 (when they brought back the "dome" logo), as opposed to the R&B red background and black print.
    [​IMG]
    By contrast, here's how the Peabo Bryson single looked:
    [​IMG]
     
    pudgym likes this.
  12. Grant

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

    By 1981, Capitol abandoned the red labels for R&B music. That must be after Larkin Arnold left the company.
     
  13. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Actually, Capitol still maintained red for a little bit for R&B music after Arnold left; by 1979 he was with Arista Records for a spell. Quite a few R&B entries on Arista in this period (including GQ's "Disco Nights" and Phyllis Hyman's "You Know How To Love Me" - but not Raydio's, interestingly enough) carried Arnold's name as "Executive Producer" - a harbinger of later R&B releases on CBS labels after he moved there.
     
  14. Grant

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

    Oh yeah, that's right. D'uh! But, Capitol did abandoned having a two-tiered color scheme for R&B and pop/rock titles. Perhaps they dissolved their R&B department.
     
  15. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    About ending the "two-tiered" label color scheme: Ultimately. By the end of 1980 (this would appear to be the last, as you could see even with that release they alternated, and later pressings' color scheme went "pop/rock/C&W" as here). But it started before Arnold came to Capitol (I saw it as early as 1973, on an early Tavares 45 and some other release I'd have to check that's in my collection) and continued a bit after he left. If they still had an R&B department by '80-'81, it would appear whoever ran it didn't have Arnold's particular attitude.
     
  16. Grant

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

    In the early 70s, the major record labels set up R&B departments in response to the 1969 Harvard Report that was published at the turn of the decade. That report critiqued the industry's role in Black music. The labels mostly followed the suggestions, but some of what they did had disastrous effects. One was that when they set up the departments, R&B records were not adequately, or no longer serviced to pop radio or retailers. The other was that they got a lower budget and were segregated. At Atlantic Records, many of the R&B artists complained that once these departments were established that they were reduced to second-class citizens to the rock bands like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. Established artists like Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett had a hard time getting their music played on pop radio. This makes perfect sense because you do see the correlation between the time the company went corporate to when these artists stopped having major top 10 or #1 records.

    Another negative result that occurred is that when the report suggested that the majors invest in artists with regional or local popularity in the "Black" community, what some of the majors actually did was buy up small labels, eventually transfer to the major label imprints, and then pressure the artists to produce pop music. We saw that consequence in the late 7os with the disco fad. CBS records was largely responsible for that.

    But, on the radio side, there were stations that would play or reject records based on the label alone. This is why Motown created the Rare Earth label. They knew that rock stations would reject a Motown record on sight. The same went for Black music stations. Most were hesitant to play a record from the ABC/Dunhill label which is why it was controversial for The Four Tops to get signed at the time.

    At retail level, Black records were ignored by traditional retailers like Sears. That isn't to say that the records didn't get sold there, but some labels, like Stax, had a hard time selling their music in some places, and this even impacted the band Big Star, who were on a Stax subsidiary label Ardent.

    But, anyway, that is some background on why Capitol established different colored labels. As we enter the 80s, we will see where independent labels were still around for R&B music, but many had distribution deals with the majors and were eventually absorbed by them. Some labels had lucrative relationships like Philadelphia International and T-Neck did with CBS. But, the Stax deal with them was disastrous. Solar/Constellation was in constant litigation with their distributors Elektra and RCA, and MCA, respectively.Hot Wax/Invictus labels, kept separate deals Buddah and Capitol.
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2019
    pudgym and Lance LaSalle like this.
  17. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    As I thought, the 'red' Capitol label was more in league with that background you'd given, than with Larkin Arnold himself - it was already in place when he landed there and remained for a year or two after he left.

    This background may also explain why, after leaving King for Polydor in 1971, James Brown couldn't get arrested in the Top 10 pop charts.
     
  18. Reggie Sears

    Reggie Sears Int’l Recording Artist, Mix Engineer and Producer

    Grant,
    that horn part comes from Clarence Reid's (who used the name Blowfly) 1969 song "Nobody But You, Babe." So, James Brown copped Clarence/Blowfly's horn part.
     
    Grant likes this.
  19. Grant

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

    Well, the quality of his work started to suffer after 1971. He did have one hit with Fred Wesley and the J.B.s called "Doin' It To Death, and one major hit "The Payback Pt. 1" in 1974. A minor disco hit in 1976 and that's it.

    He still had a contract with King/Starday while also signed to Polydor. In fact, a lot of Black artists and record labels had dual distribution deals. We know George Clinton and Dick Griffey did this. They may have done this so that if they had problems with one major label, they could use another.
     
  20. Grant

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

    Yeah, I know, and it was kind of unusual for JB to cop others.
     
    Reggie Sears likes this.
  21. leshafunk

    leshafunk Forum Resident

    Location:
    Moscow, Russia
    Looking at that year-end Top 50 for 1979 reminded me that Bell & James were a good example of faking the funk.
     
    Grant likes this.
  22. Grant

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

    It's probably about time to begin the 80s.

    I thought there would be a huge break from the pop chart in '70, but it turns out there was a lot of crossover anyway. 1980 will be different. Glancing ahead, I only see about three songs with a #1 crossover from the Billboard Pop chart. So, hopefully, the 80s will bring in some new (hopefully positive) pundits.
     
  23. Grant

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

    Any further comments on 1979 before We move on the the new decade?

    Yes, i'm trying to get this to a brand new page so the 80s starts at or near the top.
     
  24. leshafunk

    leshafunk Forum Resident

    Location:
    Moscow, Russia
    This thread is dedicated to hit singles, yet I'd like to mention my favorite R&B album from 1979.

    ...and the winner is...
    (drum roll)

    [​IMG]

    (one of my favorite CDs costed me a fortune back in the days)
     
  25. Wild Horse

    Wild Horse Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    I Wanna Be Your Lover

    Well, it's a start.

    But far short of the greatness to come in the 80s.

    He's still finding himself.


    Do You Love What You Feel

    S'okay, I guess.

    I prefer Chaka & Rufus on "Tell Me Something Good", "You Got The Love" and "Sweet Thing". I love all three of those songs.

    Funk/soul Rufus > disco Rufus

    I wasn't a big fan of "Once You Get Started" either. Chaka sounds a little shrieky on the disco-ish songs. She's much sexier on the three I listed above.
     

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