Great AM pop tunes

But we can also remember that 1976 was when the Police actually became a band, and Thin Lizzy had a hit with "The Boys are Back in Town", Ted Nugent released his album that had "Stranglehold", and Heart was becoming a super-power. I for one, am not embarrassed about what I listened to. It is kinda' strange that certain songs no longer hold my attention anymore, but most do. The 70s were basically my childhood. I certainly don't wish to be part of somebody else's childhood.

Not to nit pick, but just to clarify, the Police came out in 1978.

70's rock left us with a lot of good stuff. 70's pop can be forgotten.
 
Oh man, now you're hitting too close to home! (With Play That Funky Music, not Muskrat Love!) LOL

I actually saw Wild Cherry live back in the day! I still like that song, and we play it, too. Goes over great, every time!

Please be gentle with comments about my taste, now. The heart wants what the heart wants! (Illegal smiley)

That is a song I could do without.

Although growing up with radio and no MTV at the time, I always thought the song was very racist. It wasn't until a wikipedia and such came out that I saw a picture of the band, and realized, oh, it's more of a parody/humor song. Haha...
 
Oh, I'm not really embarrassed. It's all in good fun. Personally, I had a great time in the seventies and really enjoyed it, including a lot of the music. Even pop!
 
Not to nit pick, but just to clarify, the Police came out in 1978.

70's rock left us with a lot of good stuff. 70's pop can be forgotten.
Exactly...not being there, it at least seems seems that way.

R&B from that era (Earth Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, Kool and the Gang etc) was also great. Then you had all those really good horn bands, and of course the iconic rock groups, alongside undiluted fusion /the Miles albums like Jack Johnson, On the Corner, the Dregs, Weather Report, Return to Forever/ Zappa in his prime, and even a kind of big band jazz revival with guys like Buddy Rich and Maynard Ferguson reigning in American band geek groupies. It certainly appears to have been one of the most fertile periods ever for non classical music.

Still, people from that time have to admit that their pop music was probably worse than any other generation's before or since.
 
Not to nit pick, but just to clarify, the Police came out in 1978.

70's rock left us with a lot of good stuff. 70's pop can be forgotten.

Hmm. My fanboy book on The Police states 1976 was the first time Stewart pulled Henri Padovani and Sting together for the first time. Wikipiedia says 1977. I admit it, I was a fanboy. I suppose I'll re-state it and say "during the later 70s" then. How's that?

Actually, I'm still a fanboy. I got that guys' snare drum!
 
Of course, lest we forget, the 70's was when Animal came into his own as a drummer so there were moments of brilliance too :)
 
Exactly...not being there, it at least seems seems that way.

R&B from that era (Earth Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, Kool and the Gang etc) was also great. Then you had all those really good horn bands, and of course the iconic rock groups, alongside undiluted fusion /the Miles albums like Jack Johnson, On the Corner, the Dregs, Weather Report, Return to Forever/ Zappa in his prime, and even a kind of big band jazz revival with guys like Buddy Rich and Maynard Ferguson reigning in American band geek groupies. It certainly appears to have been one of the most fertile periods ever for non classical music.

Still, people from that time have to admit that their pop music was probably worse than any other generation's before or since.

I was born in 1970, so I was there, but too young to really have a grasp on what was going on.

I never really got the horn bands, because from what I recall, Earth, Wind and Fire and Kool & the Gang were on the pop stations with Donna Summer, Andy Gibb, the Bee Gees, and the as-mentioned song "Play That Funky Music". So it all sort of blended together from my young perspective.

It wasn't until years and years later that I started reading in MD about guys who were into the horn bands, and that other people really distinguished that stuff from the disco and pop of the same era. But in my head, it's still the same, because that's how it was presented at the time.

But hey, if you really want to get into 70's cheese, anyone remember watching the Sonny & Cher show? Or Donnie and Marie? I doubt I could sit through an episode now. Back back then, there was no MTV, no outlet for music videos. If you wanted to see music and had to be in bed by 9, there wasn't much else you could do.

At least not until several years later when "The Kids are Alright" got shown on TV.
 
My PC has been down for a couple of days ... sorry that my loose terminology seemed to create a bit of ruckus. DED, as usual, put it nicely - generic pop. I've always enjoyed pop, even when I deluded myself that I was above such fluff and trivia.

I guess it's similar to saying that if I was to pick my favourite cuisine it would be Indian, followed by Thai, but my love of chocolate and Ice Cream remains. Abe mentioned Shocking Blue's Venus - my favourite track from my first ever album - 20 Dynamic Hits :)

I've covered Play that Funky Music before and always loved it for no good reason - it just appealed instantly; I think of it in the same way as My Sharona. Goofy, trite and infectious. Some of those 80s queer tunes were pretty cool too, like Tainted Love and Relax. Another 80s number that got me was Blinded Me With Science.

As for the 60s, does anyone remember They're Coming to Take Me Away? lol
 
But hey, if you really want to get into 70's cheese, anyone remember watching the Sonny & Cher show? Or Donnie and Marie? I doubt I could sit through an episode now. Back back then, there was no MTV, no outlet for music videos. If you wanted to see music and had to be in bed by 9, there wasn't much else you could do.

At least not until several years later when "The Kids are Alright" got shown on TV.

I'm with you on the variety shows, and not only Sonny and Cher, everyone had a variety show, Kenny Rogers, Glen Campbell, Bobby Darin, The Carpenters, Dean Martin, Carol Burnette. I think even Helen Reddy had one. I used to watch Hee Haw with Roy Clark.

The group I loved back in those days was Seals and Crofts. They did a short CA tour back in the '90s when I lived in CA. But of course, didn't find that out until I read it on the internet fifteen years too late.

One of the legacies of the 1970s was the popularizing of the story song. One of my favorites was Harry Chapin's Taxi. But there were so many great ones, Jerry Jeff Walker's Mr Bojangles covered by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Janis Ian Seventeen or her earlier Society's Child, Don McClean's American Pie. I used to sing that song in a band years ago.

In the 1970s, you could write a sad song or a story song, and it would chart. You don't hear that in pop music any more. Often the most beautiful songs are the sad ones because they ring true; every one has sad moments. People are all about positive thinking and not being so negative, not being melancholy. The greatest songs usually are melancholy because in the

as far as They're Coming to Take me Away, I had a really bad nightmare about that song when I was a wee boy, so bad I still remember it.
 
Oh yeah, Seals and Crofts. Summer Breeze is a great tune. One of those relatively sophisticated numbers that slips through the net, like Baker Street and some of those early "big band" numbers like Spinning Wheel and Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is
 
Oh yeah, Seals and Crofts. Summer Breeze is a great tune. One of those relatively sophisticated numbers that slips through the net, like Baker Street and some of those early "big band" numbers like Spinning Wheel and Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is

Another fun fact that nobody needs to know except someone who spends too much time researching this crap on the internet, is that Gerry Rafferty's first band was Stealer's Wheel, who of course had a hit with Gerry's, "Stuck in the Middle with You." I thought you may enjoy that one. We'll add to the pile, Fooled Around and Fell in Love, Sara Smile, She's Gone, I Keep Forgettin', Sweet Freedom, I'm Every Woman, Ain't Nobody, Waterfalls, Bittersweet Symphony, 100 Years, Cable Car. Lots of great pop out there. I almost forgot, Just the Two of Us, Smooth Jazz baby.
 
Another fun fact that nobody needs to know except someone who spends too much time researching this crap on the internet, is that Gerry Rafferty's first band was Stealer's Wheel, who of course had a hit with Gerry's, "Stuck in the Middle with You." I thought you may enjoy that one. We'll add to the pile, Fooled Around and Fell in Love, Sara Smile, She's Gone, I Keep Forgettin', Sweet Freedom, I'm Every Woman, Ain't Nobody, Waterfalls, Bittersweet Symphony, 100 Years, Cable Car. Lots of great pop out there. I almost forgot, Just the Two of Us, Smooth Jazz baby.

Yep, I was right into Stuck in the Middle with You too ... Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am ... :)

Talking of jokers, I loved Steve Miller's The Joker too. A real oldie, one that often appears on the worst songs of all time that I LOVED - Macarthur's Park ... someone left the cake out in the rain, and I don't think that I can take it, because it took so long to bake it, and I'll never have that recipe again - OH NOOOOOOO (cue Darth Vader).

Monster arrangement, right up there with Classical Gas.

Ken, I haven't heard those other ones, apart from Two of Us and Bittersweet Symphony - great melody and vibe, that one. Must be the different play lists. Not sure how much old Oz pop you guys have heard.

This Jeff St John track had a classic hook that caught up us Antipodeans back in the day, Teach Me How to Fly. Funny ending to the mimed guitar solo too :)

Another one that worked for us, Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIWrZfDT5IQ

And we can't forget some good ole Aussie camp ... I remember being confused when I first saw this as a sheltered teen - lol. I couldn't match the campy look and the rugged voice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUFeKIaVFP8

We had such a great scene here for a while but now it's shrivelled to a tenth of its size :(
 
Many people thought Stealer's Wheel was Steely Dan and I would wonder if they were formed to ride the Dan's coattails.

Macarthur Park was written by Jimmy Webb who wrote hits for Glen Campbell including By the Time I Get to Pheonix and the classic Witchita Lineman, which everyone did for a while. He also wrote the Worst that Could Happen for The Brooklyn Bridge. He wrote this gem, The Moon's a Harsh Mistress. he is a master of the aaa form

Another song that many have done including Joe Cocker, Linda Ronstant and now Celtic Women. I first heard it from Judy Collins on her album, Judith, back in 1975. It's kind of strange that so many women do it because it is about a man who loses love. But maybe there is another take that I am missing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd4uilLYt1U&playnext=1&list=PL72467BB8E9751232

Another song that I like was Looking Glass's Brandy, which the RHCP covered on their last European tour. No one knew the tune, or got the joke, because it never charted in Europe. I've never heard of those Aussie bands. Some of it is very post-Woodstock. Jeff St. John in a wheel chair, and is that a chick on drums or is it the drummer from Angel?

I can't believe that you never heard some of those tunes, Hall and Oates, Michael McDonald, Chaka Khan, they had to chart in Oz. Here's another one everyone did, by Eugene McDaniels, Compared to What with Les Mccann & Eddie Harris.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzvlivbptXk
 
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass anyone?
 
I think it basically comes down to all of those guilty pleasure pop songs that we all claim to hate but when we're alone and it comes on the radio, you turn it up and sing and dance along with it. :)

C'mon...honestly tell me you don't sing along with Barry Manilow's Mandy and when you hear it on the store Muzak.
 
I'm with you on the variety shows, and not only Sonny and Cher, everyone had a variety show, Kenny Rogers, Glen Campbell, Bobby Darin, The Carpenters, Dean Martin, Carol Burnette. I think even Helen Reddy had one. I used to watch Hee Haw with Roy Clark.
.

I can't say I recall any of those other shows.

I just remember being 4 or 5 and watching Sonny & Cher and Donnie & Marie.

Sonny and Cher was a bit darker, and harder to get into. Of course, at the time, I had no idea they were going through a divorce, I just picked up on the negative vibe.

Donnie & Marie was more bubble gum, easier for a 5 year old to digest.

Oh yeah, Seals and Crofts. Summer Breeze is a great tune.

I prefer the Type O Negative version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0o5GauFG1Ql

Many people thought Stealer's Wheel was Steely Dan and I would wonder if they were formed to ride the Dan's coattails.

For the longest time I thought "stuck in the Middle With You" was a Dylan tune.
Until one day it was used in a commercial to sell cookies, and I thought, "Wait a sec, Dylan wouldn't sell a song to sell cookie.."

C'mon...honestly tell me you don't sing along with Barry Manilow's Mandy and when you hear it on the store Muzak.

No. I wouldn't know a Barry Manilow song if it bit me.
 
Many people thought Stealer's Wheel was Steely Dan and I would wonder if they were formed to ride the Dan's coattails.

Macarthur Park was written by Jimmy Webb who wrote hits for Glen Campbell including By the Time I Get to Pheonix and the classic Witchita Lineman

He wrote that too? Witchita Lineman is one of my guilty pleasures ... "is still on the liiiiiiiiiiiiine" gets me every time.


I've never heard of those Aussie bands. Some of it is very post-Woodstock. Jeff St. John in a wheel chair, and is that a chick on drums or is it the drummer from Angel?

Nah, just a long-haired bloke :) I have tons of Oz rock in my collection. I used to go out and see bands all the time. It was awesome here for a while.


I can't believe that you never heard some of those tunes, Hall and Oates, Michael McDonald, Chaka Khan, they had to chart in Oz. Here's another one everyone did, by Eugene McDaniels, Compared to What with Les Mccann & Eddie Harris.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzvlivbptXk

I must have missed 'em. Hall and Oates and Chaka Khan had hits here later on. I don't remember Michael McDonald solo having a hit here. He might have done, but I don't remember it.


Larry, three words for you - Baby Elephant Walk :) Awesome! (oops, that's four words)

Grunter - no! lol. I never "got" 50s RnR.

Mary - yes ... but I was more into Copacobana :)

DED, "Sonny and Cher was a bit darker" lol - you're skating close to an oxymoron there. I guess I Got You, Babe could be spun as a cautionary tale about ownership within relationships ...

I am negatively inclined towards the O-Negative version.

Gerry Rafferty sings too well - that's the clue.

Judging by the amount of underwear allegedly thrown on stage I'd say a lot of (older) women would like Barry Manilow to bite them :)
 
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