Casey Kasem American Top 40

[Tinka Cat]

   Does "Hot Blooded" ROCK or what!!!  Hearing it and "Lifes Been Good" back to back is way cool.  Listening to Sunday 3AM (CDT) broadcast on Super Hits KUUL 101.3 out of Moline, IL.  The stream hasn't messed up or stopped once. May be able to last until 6AM.  Gotta hear Casey do intro and outro on "Baker Street". 

hellyeah, it rawks... esp after the Commodores Fee Tines a Mady.

Foreigner always has a place in my heart, as Lou Gramm is from my hometown.

[mshray]

   Does "Hot Blooded" ROCK or what!!!  Hearing it and "Lifes Been Good" back to back is way cool.  Listening to Sunday 3AM (CDT) broadcast on Super Hits KUUL 101.3 out of Moline, IL.  The stream hasn't messed up or stopped once. May be able to last until 6AM.  Gotta hear Casey do intro and outro on "Baker Street". 

I listened to that station a good bit in the summer of '77, when I was 14 & working on my uncle's dairy farm in Coal Valley, small town in the same county.  Said farm was/is the Schroeder family homestead, in the process of being passed to the 4th generation.  Loads of Schroeders up in the Quad City area.  In fact the street address of the farm has actually changed officially from E. 92nd Street (still in '77) to Schroeder Road today.

ETA:  that was when Foreigner broke big with "Fee-yals Like the First Time", which I remember experiencing while riding shotgun on my uncle's tractor.  Same thing with Boston "Peace Of Mind" & Shaun Cassidy's "Da Doo Ron Ron".

[Gazoo]

Macca leads off at #40 with "I've Had Enough", telling Linda to stop yapping at him from the back seat. Too bad he couldn't get her to keep her mouth shut on stage.

And Casey precedes the Dave Mason "Will You Still Love Me Tom'ow" with a snippet of the Shirelles version, which he says was produced by... Phil Spector? That can't be right, can it?

Good catch - it was produced by Luther Dixon.

[RGMike]

Macca leads off at #40 with "I've Had Enough", telling Linda to stop yapping at him from the back seat. Too bad he couldn't get her to keep her mouth shut on stage.

And Casey precedes the Dave Mason "Will You Still Love Me Tom'ow" with a snippet of the Shirelles version, which he says was produced by... Phil Spector? That can't be right, can it?

Good catch - it was produced by Luther Dixon.

Hey, Shirelles, Ronettes, Chiffons -- they're all the same to Casey's interns.  It immediately reminded me of the girl-group "Greek chorus" in Little Shop of Horrors, 3 black women named Crystal, Ronnettte, and Chiffon. (And I remind you, you must rent LSOH soon.)

[RGMike]

This week Casey goes to July 19, 1975

http://www.oldies1033.com/pages/4816999.php?

lost gems from MJ, Freddy Fender, Jesser Colter, Tony Orlando & Dawn, Tony Camillo's Bazuka and -- oh my stars! -- Ray Stevens' fab cover of "Misty". And (TANC) I get to hear "Wildfire" after missing it the other day.

[Wayback]

This week Casey goes to July 19, 1975
http://www.oldies1033.com/pages/4816999.php?
lost gems from MJ, Freddy Fender, Jesser Colter, Tony Orlando & Dawn, Tony Camillo's Bazuka and -- oh my stars! -- Ray Stevens' fab cover of "Misty". And (TANC) I get to hear "Wildfire" after missing it the other day.

I was away last weekend for 4 days in NJ, surprise party for friends.  Was so busy I missed catching AT40, but look forward to revisiting summer '75 this weekend!  This list includes the "Extra" tracks:
http://www.whnn.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.whnn.com/Article.asp?id=583277&spid=

[Tinka Cat]

#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. 

[Tinka Cat]

Michael Jacksons "JUST A LITTLE BIT OF YOU” isn't that memorable.  No wonder it's NTM.   Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds are up next.  Isn't this a Dave Morey fave? 

[Tinka Cat]

Janis Ian's smash comeback "At Seventeen" is #33 here, but it eventually rose to #3 on pop charts (and #1 on Adult Contempo).  Casey said Janice was going to be part of his "Disappearing Acts" show he was working on until this song, which rose 6 spots this week.  Recall that her controversial "Society's Child" in 1967 put her on the map at the tender age of thirteen, but after that she wasn't close to charting, thanks mostly to a skittish industry. According to wikipedia: "Ian performed At Seventeen as a musical guest on the very first episode of Saturday Night Live on October 11, 1975."


after this Ringo Starr is in semi-novelty act mode (isn't he always?) with "IT’S ALL DOWN TO GOODNIGHT VIENNA' -- which is sorta NTM, but I'm into it.  fun.  "I took my baby to a party last night -- uh huh huh -- she look so good that it made me uptight.  uh huh huh."  Ringo, relax, you're a freaking BEATLE!  She ain't going anywhere!

[Tinka Cat]

BOSes to  “I’M NOT LISA” by Jessi Colter

VHM to "EVERY TIME YOU TOUCH ME (I GET HIGH)” by  Charlie Rich and  “WILDFIRE” by Michael Murphey

[Tinka Cat]

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.

[RGMike]

#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.

[RGMike]

If you'd told me in '75 that, 30 years hence, Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion" would be one of the most-played oldies on rock radio, I'd've slapped you the way Cher did Nick Cage in Moonstruck.  Ditto Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabummer" -- and here's their "S-S-Saturday Nite S-S-Special", which ain't.

But I do like the MJ, one of the lesser solo hits Motown included on the 3-LP Anthology, which I nearly wore out the grooves of, during my college radio tenure. It's a Holland-Dozier-Holland tune, with fab production by Brian Holland hisself.

[RGMike]

Janis Ian's smash comeback "At Seventeen" is #33 here, but it eventually rose to #3 on pop charts (and #1 on Adult Contempo).  Casey said Janice was going to be part of his "Disappearing Acts" show he was working on until this song, which rose 6 spots this week. 

I remember both those "Disappearing Acts" shows and wish they'd rerun one of 'em. When Casey played Ms. Ian on the first one (4th of July 1973) he pointed out that she was still writing songs and that Roberta Flack was about to release one as a single -- "Jesse", which peaked at #30 that fall.

In Oct of '74, I saw Billy Joel at Avery Fisher Hall in NYC (this was right after Streetlife Serenade came out), and Janis Ian was his opening act -- she did "At 17", first time any of us had heard it, and we all thought it was an impressive lyric. She also did her song "Stars" which would be recorded by Cher.

[RGMike]

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