Casey Kasem American Top 40

[RGMike]

BOS1 Major Harris's ode to premature ejaculation. Dude, if love won't let you wait, there's creams and ointments for that. Or at least think of baseball players.

VHM Tony O & Dawn, "Mornin' Beautiful", one of their nicest singles, and (sadly) their last trip to the Top 20.

Nicest surprise: Charlie Rich -- I haven't heard this one in many years, and I remember not thinking much of it in '75, but it's really lovely.

And after gushing about it earlier this week, how can I not give "Wildfire" BOS2? Superb use of imagery and symbolism.

[RGMike]

TC's right: the Top 20 is loaded with great stuff. BOS3 "Rhinestone Cowboy"

EJ gets outplayed by a dominating queen, to the surprise of absolutely no one.

Uber-BOS4 Ray Stevens, "Misty" -- another of my very favorite covers.  The idea of not just covering a song but re-inventing it was new to me at the time, and I found it breathtaking to hear a Johnny Mathis ballad fitted out with fiddles and banjos. Still thrilling.

And "Dy-no-Mite!" is silly but fun -- Didn't Jimmie Walker (or the writers of Good Times) threaten to sue?

[RGMike]

eh-eh-EH-vahbody's jive talkin' 'bout the good ol' days. I could listen to Gladys sing the phone book; that "The Way We Were" got as high as #11 -- 18 months after Babs' version hit #1 -- is a testament to Ms Knight's stellar pipes.

Barry's sweet Melissa arrives to sing "Midnight Blue" (from the LP Past Tense, har har). But BOS5 Gwen (Mrs. George) McCrae, "Rockin' Chair", one of the sexiest come-ons ever to hit the Top Ten.

[RGMike]

"no one gets me up there like you can
but you've got a nose like a toucan"

Frankie V gets his disco on -- swear to god! -- and "Who Loves You" wouldn't hit the Hot 100 for another month yet.

"so call me a one-woman lover
I can't even look at your mother"

Jeez, i feel like I've heard Casey answer this "has anyone ever knocked himself out of the #1 spot?" question at least 2 other times in the last year.

This has been quite a chart, and to make it more intense, the summer of '75 is quite sledgehammery for me; I spent 2 months at the infamous Connecticut School of Broadcasting and was suffering (and I *DO* mean suffering) my first unrequited same-sex crush. Pilot's "Magic" always brings that back to me.

VHM ONJ at her most appealing.

[Tinka Cat]

Uber-BOS4 Ray Stevens, "Misty" -- another of my very favorite covers.  The idea of not just covering a song but re-inventing it was new to me at the time, and I found it breathtaking to hear a Johnny Mathis ballad fitted out with fiddles and banjos. Still thrilling.

yes, I love that one.  Good call.  so many good ones here, and Rhinestone Cowboy should bring out the karaoke star in everyone, not that I would actually DO the karaoke. 

Seeing Billy Joel in 74 must've been very cool.  Do you still have the stub?

The Melissa Manchester was great, too.   Did not know she was Barry's beard.   The Gwen McRae song is very reminiscent of the refrain of hubby's George's Rock Your Baby, don't you think?  And I didn't realize BTO was using riffs from three of theor other songs in "Hey You."

[Gazoo]

#40 “COULD IT BE MAGIC” – Barry Manilow
Always liked this one, sweeping, anthemic, schmaltzy.

#39 “GET DOWN, GET DOWN (GET ON THE FLOOR)” – Joe Simon
don't really remember this one, even though Casey said I should: it went top 10 pop and number 1 soul.  Despite the title, he seems to be singing about Kung Fu Something or other, and sounds like he's got a piece of hamburger stuck in his throat.

The Manilow gets BOS from me.  (I'm finally listening now.)  The Joe Simon is NTM - I see from my Billboard book that it was his last Top 40 hit and - surprisingly to me - his sole Top 10.

[Gazoo]

Uber-BOS4 Ray Stevens, "Misty" -- another of my very favorite covers.  The idea of not just covering a song but re-inventing it was new to me at the time, and I found it breathtaking to hear a Johnny Mathis ballad fitted out with fiddles and banjos. Still thrilling.

yes, I love that one.  Good call.  so many good ones here, and Rhinestone Cowboy should bring out the karaoke star in everyone, not that I would actually DO the karaoke. 

I've done that at karaoke, in both SF and Arlington, VA.

[kahunaburger]

BOS1 Major Harris's ode to premature ejaculation. Dude, if love won't let you wait, there's creams and ointments for that. Or at least think of baseball players.

VHM Tony O & Dawn, "Mornin' Beautiful", one of their nicest singles, and (sadly) their last trip to the Top 20.

Nicest surprise: Charlie Rich -- I haven't heard this one in many years, and I remember not thinking much of it in '75, but it's really lovely.

And after gushing about it earlier this week, how can I not give "Wildfire" BOS2? Superb use of imagery and symbolism.

  "Everytime You Touch Me(I Get High)" is a great song.  Charlie Rich should have done jazz type singing his whole career.  It suited him.

[kahunaburger]

TC's right: the Top 20 is loaded with great stuff. BOS3 "Rhinestone Cowboy"

EJ gets outplayed by a dominating queen, to the surprise of absolutely no one.

Uber-BOS4 Ray Stevens, "Misty" -- another of my very favorite covers.  The idea of not just covering a song but re-inventing it was new to me at the time, and I found it breathtaking to hear a Johnny Mathis ballad fitted out with fiddles and banjos. Still thrilling.

And "Dy-no-Mite!" is silly but fun -- Didn't Jimmie Walker (or the writers of Good Times) threaten to sue?

   Great countdown this week.  The only cringe worthy song was "Disco Queen" by Hot Chocolate.  Total rip of Sly and The Family Stone.  The lower reaches of the countdown with Skynyrd's "Saturday Night Special" and Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion" rule.  Any countdown with "Please Mr. Please" "Midnight Blue" "Wildfire" "I'm Not Lisa" JT's "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" and "At Seventeen" gets a big thumbs up from me!!!

[kahunaburger]

The whole Top 20 w a few exceptions (James Taylor, maybe?) pretty much gets a VHM/BOS from me.  I think I was glued to my local pop stations in Rochester during this time (probably 950 AM WBBF or 1460 AM WAXC), so these songs are very familiar ... not that I actually had very good taste back then: one of the 45s I possessed was the silly "Dy-no-MITE!" by Bazuka (but I also bought EJ's Someone Saved My Life Tonight -- a song I still adore -- and  Jive Talkin').  I got them, like most kids did, from the Top 40 rack at Woolworth's which was just up the hill in "Suburban Plaza" (still there).  They re-arranged the records according to their chart position, and I think they were 98 cents.

  Agree bigtime on "Jive Talkin'" it was the number one song of 1975 on Omaha's WOW radio. They even had a live interview with Robin Gibb (it was about 10 minutes to 6am New Year's Day in the UK). Very addictive song, great intro.  Love it to this day.

[kahunaburger]

#40 “COULD IT BE MAGIC” – Barry Manilow
Always liked this one, sweeping, anthemic, schmaltzy.

#39 “GET DOWN, GET DOWN (GET ON THE FLOOR)” – Joe Simon
don't really remember this one, even though Casey said I should: it went top 10 pop and number 1 soul.  Despite the title, he seems to be singing about Kung Fu Something or other, and sounds like he's got a piece of hamburger stuck in his throat.

Freddie Fender is next w Wasted Days and Wasted Nights, which was too doo wop-y for my tastes.  Sort of a worm ear for me.  and the instrumental break sounds like someone is playing an electronic cat. 

Barry's "sweet Melissa" was named for Melissa Manchester; guess she was one of his favorite beards back in the day.

But don' be dissin' Joe Simon unless you've done the Kung-Fu Bump!  And the Fender is a personal fave. It's actually a remake of his own song from 1959 -- the orig version flopped after he was arrested for pot possession (he spent 3 years in prison!), and so he re-recorded it on his comeback LP in '75.

  Love "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights".  Freddie did a killer live version when he was in The Texas Tornadoes with Doug Sahm and Augie Myers.

[kahunaburger]

Hot Chocolate's "Disco Queen" is almost as bad as "Emma", but at least nobody dies in this one.

  About the only sour note in this weeks countdown.  They redeemed themselves later in the year with "You Sexy Thing".

[kahunaburger]

TC's right: the Top 20 is loaded with great stuff. BOS3 "Rhinestone Cowboy"

EJ gets outplayed by a dominating queen, to the surprise of absolutely no one.

Uber-BOS4 Ray Stevens, "Misty" -- another of my very favorite covers.  The idea of not just covering a song but re-inventing it was new to me at the time, and I found it breathtaking to hear a Johnny Mathis ballad fitted out with fiddles and banjos. Still thrilling.

And "Dy-no-Mite!" is silly but fun -- Didn't Jimmie Walker (or the writers of Good Times) threaten to sue?

   Great countdown this week.  The only cringe worthy song was "Disco Queen" by Hot Chocolate.  Total rip of Sly and The Family Stone.  The lower reaches of the countdown with Skynyrd's "Saturday Night Special" and Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion" rule.  Any countdown with "I'm Not In Love" "One of These Nights" "Please Mr. Please" "Midnight Blue" "Rhinestone Cowboy" "Wildfire" "I'm Not Lisa" JT's "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" and "At Seventeen" gets a big thumbs up from me!!!

[Wayback]

This weekend that Michigan station that usually does 70's is doing July 23, 1983:
http://www.whnn.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.whnn.com/Article.asp?id=583277&spid=

[RGMike]

This weekend that Michigan station that usually does 70's is doing July 23, 1983:
http://www.whnn.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.whnn.com/Article.asp?id=583277&spid=

too bad, because the '70s edition is a rare 1970 show:  July 25, 1970 -- only Casey's 3rd or 4th show ever! Note the difference in his voice.

http://www.oldies1033.com/pages/4854408.php

TANC: Ronnie Dyson at #26!