Casey Kasem American Top 40

[RGMike]

I never need to hear this Lee Michaels song again as long as I live. Do ya know whut ah mean?

VHM Honey Cone, wearin' a smile down the aisle 'cause he's da father of they chile! (see previous comment about "everything I know about black people I learned from pop songs")

[Gazoo]

I never need to hear this Lee Michaels song again as long as I live. Do ya know whut ah mean?

VHM Honey Cone, wearin' a smile down the aisle 'cause he's da father of they chile! (see previous comment about "everything I know about black people I learned from pop songs")

I can do without Springer episodes in song.

And it's between "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" and "Batdance" for "strangest #1 hit in pop history."

[RGMike]

props to some fine extras today: here's the Raiders' forgotten "Birds of a Feather", na na na na na na na na.

[RGMike]

Quite a grim first hour in 1982: ONJ's desperate-sounding "Heart Attack", Tane (Mrs Jonathan) Cain's generic "Holdin On", Glenn Frey, and -- gawd help us all -- a Kenny Loggins/Steve Perry duet. Just shoot me.  The highlight is actually Barry Manilow's Shakin' Stevens cover, "Oh Julie", which gets a VHM just because.

[RGMike]

Hour 2 starts promisingly with the Gap Band's "You Dropped a Bomb", which deserved better than its #31 peak. But soon we're back in forgettable early-'80s pop territory with Toto, Kim Carnes and Randy Meisner -- no wonder Top 40 radio was declared dead right around this time.

At least Juice Newton's Brenda Lee remake is palatable, if unnecessary.  But finally a couple of BOSes I can get behind: I'm astounded to see that Laura Branigan's "Gloria" was still in the Top 40 in September -- I associate it with the spring of '82 (I still remember hearing it on my car radio and assuming it was Donna Summer). And hooray for Ree-Ree's fab Luther V-produced "Jump To It".

Jeez, even Kool & the Gang's "Big Fun" is unmemorable.

I have to leave before Hour 3, but uber-BOS3-in absentia to Jermaine Jackson's collab with Devo, "Let Me Tickle Your Fancy" -- easily one of the biggest WTFs of the '80s, but a delight. I still have the 45.

[SFGuy]

From AT40 Fun and Games:

Casey '70s: October 7, 1972

http://www.charismusicgroup.com/Cue%20Sheets/10-07-72.pdf

Casey '80s: October 4, 1980

http://www.charismusicgroup.com/Cue%20Sheets/10-04-80.pdf

[RGMike]

From AT40 Fun and Games:

Casey '70s: October 7, 1972

http://www.charismusicgroup.com/Cue%20Sheets/10-07-72.pdf

Casey '80s: October 4, 1980

http://www.charismusicgroup.com/Cue%20Sheets/10-04-80.pdf

'72: any chart with my beloved "If I Could Reach You" *and* Chi Coltrane singing about a big dick is OK by me.

'80: "The Legend of Wooley Swamp"?? WTF?? (the cue sheet says it's Bob Seger; it's actually Charlie Daniels -- either way I have no recollection of it)

[SFGuy]

From AT40 Fun and Games:

Casey '70s: October 7, 1972

http://www.charismusicgroup.com/Cue%20Sheets/10-07-72.pdf

Casey '80s: October 4, 1980

http://www.charismusicgroup.com/Cue%20Sheets/10-04-80.pdf

'72: any chart with my beloved "If I Could Reach You" *and* Chi Coltrane singing about a big dick is OK by me.

'80: "The Legend of Wooley Swamp"?? WTF?? (the cue sheet says it's Bob Seger; it's actually Charlie Daniels -- either way I have no recollection of it)

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCZGNnaWcaY
Audio only: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pJJZCmJzmM

[Gazoo]

5 NTMs in that '72 set - not bad!  Won't get to listen until late Sunday night if at all, though, as I'm off to Oktoberfest in Maryland for the weekend.

[RGMike]

Psychic TANC of the week: Doug & the Slugs' "Too Bad" popped into my head the other day fo no particular reason -- and here it is on CKRU. Oh, Canada!

instant VHM the Spinners. Proxy of cairo Sam Neely, but Kristofferson shoulda sued over the "Bobby McGee" clone "Loving You Just Crossed My Mind".

I didn't remember Jerry Wallace's #1 country tune "If You Leave Me Tonite I'll Cry".

VHMs to Gallery covering Mac Davis' "I Believe in Music" and the forgotten BeeGees hit "Run To Me"

Another VHM Joe Simon's "Power of Love" and -- of course -- BOS the 5th Dimension's gorgeous "If I Could Reach You". Marilyn McCoo, ah LURVES you!  "See ya next time..."

And Ms Coltrane arrives to praise her man's really big, er, you know.

[RGMike]

Telegram (and VHM) fo' Mel & Tim!  They coulda been the black Hall & Oates. 

BOS2, Danny O'Keeffe; proxy of Gaz, Daniel Boone.

Ain't nuthin' goin' on but da RENT-uh! and another VHM for JB.

Why did Donny O cover "Why?"

[RGMike]

Rod the Mod is too cheap to make a long-distance call from Minnesota?  HM "Hard Luck Woman" "You Wear It Well"

BOS3 Rick Springfield, "Speak to the Sky". Banjos RULE!

[RGMike]

more VHMs: Neil D, "Play Me" and Hot Butter "Popcorn".

WOS "My Ding-a-Ling"

BOS4 3DN's finest hour, "Black & White"

[RGMike]

instant '80 BOS Stacey Lattisaw -- 13 years old at the time -- with the lovely "Let Me Be Your Angel". I thought of her as the black Rachel Sweet.

Aaaack! the unholy alliance of Kenny Rogers and Lionel Richie on "Lady". The adult-contempo takeover of Top 40 radio had begun in earnest.

NTM: Vince Gill-era Pure Prairie League with "I'm Almost Ready", an Eagles-ish rocker (think "Already Gone") that isn't too bad. VHM just because Gill went on to record some terrific stuff later.

Devo whips out their only (!) Top 40 single.

BOS2 Irene Cara's "Out Here On My Own", co-written by Lesley Gore and her brother. Easily my fave from Fame.

CDB's "Wooley Swamp" is a kinda-sorta "Devil Went Down" retread, but needless to say lightning did not strike twice.

WOS Supertramp's completely unnecessary live remake of "Dreamer"

[RGMike]

Stevie's jammina-jammina-jammina-jam-AWN.

NTM: the Larsen-Feiten Band (jinglemeisters extraordinaire) with "Who'll Be The Fool Tonite", yet another of the many second-rate Doobie clones of the period.

Willie's on the road again; Mick's on his fine ah-rahb chahhh-jahhh.

VHMs: "Someone That I Used to Love", one of Natalie Cole's nicer ballads; and Al Stewart's forgotten "Midnight Rocks"

proxy of cairo: Ambrosia, "You're the Only Woman"; more Doob-ishness from Amy (future Mrs Michael McDonald) Holland on "How Do I Survive?"; VHM Dionne W's other Manilow-produced hit, "No coke too strong", er, "No Night So Long".