Music Meme

I thought Year of the Cat was the best album of my senior year, but what do I know? Its singles didn’t chart until the following year.

Photo source: Keith’s Best Music List

Since Friday’s Feast is still off line, I’m using this meme from Jo’s Blog. The rules are:

1. Retrieve a list of the 100 most popular songs for the year you graduated (from high shcool?) from Music Outfitters.
2. Blog your reaction to the songs.
• Bold the songs you like.
• Strike through the ones you hate.
• Underline your favorite(s).
• Do nothing to the ones you don’t remember (or don’t care about).

1. Silly Love Songs—Paul McCartney and Wings¹
2. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart—Elton John and Kiki Dee¹
3. Disco Lady—Johnnie Taylor
4. December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)—Four Seasons¹
5. Play That Funky Music—Wild Cherry¹
   This is one of those that show how tastes evolve. I hated this song at the time. Then then the radio station I worked for provided the music for a birthday party. They had a really bad PA, so I pulled the one my band used out of my van. It’s amazing how much better this song sounds with 800 watts of bi-amped sound.
6. Kiss and Say Goodbye—Manhattans¹
   I am familiar with three versions of this song: a long album version, a shorter 45 version with an interminable talk-over intro, and a 45 version without the voice over. I always preferred the album version with the voice-over cut.
7. Love Machine (Part 1)—The Miracles
   Absolutely useless.
8. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover—Paul Simon¹
9. Love Is Alive—Gary Wright¹
10. A Fifth of Beethoven—Walter Murphy and the Big apple Band¹
11. Sara Smile—Daryl Hall and John Oates¹
12. Afternoon Delight—Starland Vocal Band
13. I Write the Songs—Barry Manilow
    I always thought it was ironic that BM was billed as a songwriter extrodinaire, but he didn’t write most of his early hits. I think he did write this one. It may have been the first one he wrote that he charted with.
14. Fly, Robin, Fly—Silver Convention¹
    And I don’t know why
15. Love Hangover—Diana Ross¹
    I still have a copy of this one, even though I always thought it was drivel.
16. Get Closer—Seals and Crofts¹
17. More, More, More—Andrea True Connection¹
    Again, the longer version is much better, and the song only sounds good when played on really good equipment.
18. Bohemian Rhapsody—Queen¹
19. Misty Blue—Dorothy Moore
    This is a nice, forgettable blues song.
20. Boogie Fever—Sylvers
21. I’d Really Love to See You Tonight—England Dan and John Ford Coley¹
    You may know England Dan by the name he currently records under: Dan Seals.
22. You Sexy Thing—Hot Chocolate
    This is an absolute piece of tripe sung by a tone-deaf catfight, but it’s fun.
23. Love Hurts—Nazareth¹
    There are so many covers of this song, and I don’t know why.
24. Get Up and Boogie—Silver Convention
    The Silver Convention may have won an award as the most over-produced band of all time, at least until Smoke Rings in the Dark was released.
25. Take It to the Limit—Eagles¹
26. (Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty—K.C. and the Sunshine Band
    You can actually sing the words to every KC song to which ever one of his songs is playing. I’m ashamed to admit I’ve done it.
27. Sweet Love—Commodores
    I honestly don’t remember this one.
28. Right Back Where We Started From—Maxine Nightingale
29. Theme from S.W.A.T.—Rhythm Heritage
    Can you believe that instrumentals still charted in those days.
30. Love Rollercoaster—Ohio Players
    Another song that supports my claim that 90% of anything being played at any given time is crap.
31. You Should Be Dancing—Bee Gees
    Pass the barf bag please.
32. You’ll Never Find Antoher Love Like Mine—Lou Rawls¹
33. Golden Years—David Bowie¹
34. Moonlight Feels Right—Starbuck¹
    The vibes solo on this one is awesome.
35. Only Sixteen—Dr. Hook
    This one is actually fairly innocuous. It was just overplayed to the point where I still can’t stand to listen to it.
36. Let Your Love Flow—Bellamy Brothers
37. Dreamweaver—Gary Wright
38. Turn the Beat Around—Vicki Sue Robinson
    Another one a just don’t remember.
39. Lonely Night (Angel Face)—The Captain and Tennille¹
40. All By Myself—Eric Carmen
41. Love to Love You Baby—Donna Summer
    Can you say, “Whatever!”?
42. Deep Purple—Donny and Marie Osmond
    I always thought Marie was the only one in that family with any taste—and only when she could get away from the rest of that unseasoned porridge.
43. Theme from Mahogany—Diana Ross
    This was voted my class song. Can you believe it? Most of us still don’t know.
44. Sweet Thing—Rufus
    Not that bad, but not that good either.
45. That’s the Way I Like It—K.C. and the Sunshine Band
    Same song, different words.
46. A Little Bit More—Dr. Hook¹
47. Shannon—Henry Gross
    Don’t know that I’ve ever heard it.
48. If You Leave Me Now—Chicago
    Chicago’s most castrated sound ever. They made so much money from this one that it took Peter C. leaving the band to wimp on his own before they could return to real music.
49. Lowdown—Boz Scaggs¹
50. Show Me the Way—Peter Frampton
    Frampton needed the crowd noise to cover up how empty most of his songs were.
51. Dream On—Aerosmith¹
52. I Love Music (Pt. 1)—O’Jays
53. Say You Love Me—Fleetwood Mac
    Sorry. Did I doze off?
54. Times of Your Life—Paul Anka
    I think this one was supposed to be uplifting. I couldn’t tell.
55. Devil Woman—Cliff Richard¹
    Just fun.
56. Fooled around and Fell in Love—Elvin Bishop
    This was one of my favorites at the time, but neither the tune nor Bishop has weathered well.
57. Convoy—C.W. McCall¹
    I hated this one at the time. Later I hated it for different reasons. Now I think it’s kinda cute.
58. Welcome Back—John Sebastian
    Another TV show theme.
59. Sing a Song—Earth—Wind and Fire¹
    EWF had the tightest horn section in the business.
60. Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel—Tavares
    Trite through and through.
61. I’ll Be Good to You—Brothers Johnson
62. Shop Around—The Captain and Tennille¹
    This took a 60s classic and made it rock.
63. Saturday Night—Bay City Rollers¹
    I still remember my girl friend’s little sister singing along with this one: “S A T E R D A Y—Night!” Then there was the interview where the singer bragged that their guitar player had just learned a C chord and it would be featured on the new album. That may have been tongue-in-cheek. Maybe.
64. Island Girl—Elton John¹
    Elton proved again that white boys don’t get reggae.
65. Let’s Do It Again—Staple Singers¹
    One of the best soul songs ever. And one of the best soul singers.
66. Let ’Em In—Paul McCartney and Wings¹
    I never did understand why Sir Paul was too lazy to open the door himself.
67. Baby Face—Wing and a Prayer Fife and Drum Corps
68. This Masquerade—George Benson¹
    My favorite cover of this Leon Russell classic.
69. Evil Woman—Electric Light Orchestra¹
70. Wham Bam—Silver
71. I’m Easy—Keith Carradine
    Most actors shouldn’t sing.
72. Wake Up Everybody (Pt. 1)—Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes
73. Summer—War
74. Let Her in—John Travolta
    See 72.
75. Fox on the Run—Sweet
    A waste of vinyl.
76. Rhiannon—Fleetwood Mac¹
77. Got To Get You into My Life—Beatles¹
78. Fanny (Be Tender with My Love)—Bee Gees
    More in line with what the BGs could do well.
79. Getaway—Earth—Wind and Fire¹
80. She’s Gone—Daryl Hall and John Oates¹
    OK. This one sounded more like TSOP, but I still really like it.
81. Rock and Roll Music—Beach Boys¹
82. Still the One—Orleans¹
83. You’re My Best Friend—Queen
84. With Your Love—Jefferson Starship
    This one got a lot of airplay with the line, “I got my first taste of love when I went down on you.”
85. Slow Ride—Foghat¹
    The short version. The album version gets monotonous.
86. Who’d She Coo—Ohio Players
87. Walk Away from Love—David Ruffin
88. Baby—I Love Your Way—Peter Frampton
    Saccarine: sweet, but empty.
89. Young Hearts Run Free—Candi Staton
90. Breaking Up’s Hard To Do—Neil Sedaka¹
    Sedaka became the first artist ever to hit number 1 twice with the same song. The 70s version is musically more in tune with the lyrics than was the 50s version.
91. Money Honey—Bay City Rollers
92. Tear the Roof off the Sucker—Parliament
93. Junk Food Junkie—Larry Groce¹
    This one is a funny look at hypocrisy.
94. Tryin’ to Get the Feeling Again—Barry Manilow
    As if he ever had it to begin with.
95. Rock and Roll all Nite—Kiss
    It took about ten years for me to learn to like this song.
96. Disco Duck—Rick Dees
    Dees was a DJ, and this song was written to parody the crap he hated to play on the radio. Looks like it worked too well.
97. The Boys Are Back in Town—Thin Lizzy¹
98. Take the Money and Run—Steve Miller Band¹
99. Squeeze Box—The Who¹
100. Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in LA)—Glen Campbell¹

---

¹ Still in my collection