Casey Kasem American Top 40

[Gazoo]

OMFG!  At #35, Buckner & Garcia's "Pac-Man Fever"!

[Gazoo]

Another for the Alisons list: Rick Springfield, "Love Is Alright Tonight" (from Working Class Dog).

ETA: Oops, that was the commercial-break track.

[RGMike]

OMFG!  At #35, Buckner & Garcia's "Pac-Man Fever"!

This chart has it all... just like Bogie & Bacall!  I'll def check it out tomorrow morning, just for Ms Flack's "Making Love" (title song from the film), Ray Parker's "Other Woman", Manilow's 4 Seasons cover, and H&O's "Did it in a Minute". But there's some SERIOUSLY bad cheeze here: "Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk", Stars on 45 Part 3 (aaaaack!), Asia, and (gulp) Charlene.

But appropriately for Derby Weekend: Fogelberg's "Run For the Roses"

[Gazoo]

Whoa: I had forgotten that Magnum, P.I. was a charting theme.  Mike Post really caught the year as it sounded to my ears.

[Gazoo]

Amusing to get Dan Fogelberg's "Run for the Roses" on the day of the Kentucky Derby.

[RGMike]

Amusing to get Dan Fogelberg's "Run for the Roses" on the day of the Kentucky Derby.

Derby JINX!!!

And how sad about the runner-up (the filly) having to be euthanized right after the race.  RIP Eight Belles. She was supposedly Hillary's favorite in the race -- an omen?

[RGMike]

I still think "My Girl Bill" is pretty clever, and it was a lot more striking on Top 40 radio in '74 than it seems now.  But this Billy Paul tune -- wow. Another overlooked Gamble & Huff gem.

Albert Hammond's "I'm a Train" seems a bit sillier than I remember it, but a fine production nonetheless. And Ree-Ree's cover of Bobby Womack's "I'm in Love" (orig a hit for Wilson Pickett) is simply sublime -- has anyone else had so many superb medium-sized hits?  "yes ah ram, yes ah RAM!"

[RGMike]

Casey's a sucker for Sami Jo's "Tell Me a Lie."  And so am I.

Lovely. You really need to explore more Classic Country; that's the sort of well-written, matter-of-fact handling of adultery that was an everyday thing in Nashville from the '60s thru the early '90s, when songwriting was truly a craft. 

[RGMike]

Talk about different ways of finding god: JB on his birthday with "Payback"; and Sister Janet Mead with her "Lord's Prayer".  All this and "todo da bien Chevrolet" too!

[RGMike]

Oy -- as if the shamelessly treacly lyric to Helen Reddy's "Keep on Singing" isn't bad enuf, it steals its melody from BJ Thomas' "RockNRoll Lullabye". 

[RGMike]

ah, the days when superb MOR-pop was not a crime: Carpenters with another Paul Williams gem, followed by Mr Denver's "Sunshine".

But oh, Marvin -- bringing out the best in Diana (and vice-versa) on mah-mah-mah Mistake!

[RGMike]

Casey tells the how-3DN-got-their-name story yet again. And then the boys give Gaz a reason to like Leo Sayer with "The Show Must Go On".

And it's followed by the truly wondrous "Tubular Bells", which took a while to chart, considering that The Exorcist opened at Xmas.

[RGMike]

Don't. Look. ETHELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!

[RGMike]

OMFG!  At #35, Buckner & Garcia's "Pac-Man Fever"!

This chart has it all... just like Bogie & Bacall!  I'll def check it out tomorrow morning, just for Ms Flack's "Making Love" (title song from the film), Ray Parker's "Other Woman", Manilow's 4 Seasons cover, and H&O's "Did it in a Minute". But there's some SERIOUSLY bad cheeze here: "Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk", Stars on 45 Part 3 (aaaaack!), Asia, and (gulp) Charlene.

But appropriately for Derby Weekend: Fogelberg's "Run For the Roses"

Mick don't need the aggravation, he's a lazy slob... he hang FIE-ah!

Not only has this countdown been a delight, but I'm impressed by the range of within-the-orig-show "extras" that aren't Long Dist Deds. Both sides of a double-sided CCR hit from '69, and (OMG!) Freddy Fender's "Wasted Days & Wasted Nights". (Imagine Seacrest, or whoever hosts the current incarnation, playing a twangy country crossover hit from a decade ago in the midst of all the current hip-hop and alt-pop).

And jeez, Asia's "Heat of the Moment" was the highest-debuting song by a "new" act since America's "Horse w/No Name" 10 years earlier!

[RGMike]

Ray Parker, Jr grabs his, er, git-tar... and plays with it all night long. Watch out, Ray, you'll go blind.  A terrific forgotten hit -- his solo career should've been a lot more than just "Ghostbusters".

And it's followed by one of the Great Moments in Corporate Shamelessness: "The Beatles Movie Medley". Stunningly pedestrian. I considered it a small triumph of taste when this failed to make the Top Ten.