Casey Kasem American Top 40

[Tinka Cat]

ED&JFC: they're not talkin' 'bout the linen!

i love that one! 


I'm not talkin' 'bout the linen!
.. and I don't want to change your blinds...

[kahunaburger]

   Does anybody really believe that Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight" was inspired by the items on the menu at Clydes restraunt in Washington DC?

[kahunaburger]

   I agree that the worst song on this week's countdown is Red Sovine's "Teddy Bear'.  Really God awful and painful to listen to 33 years latter.  Lady Flash's "Street Singing" Keith Carradine's "I'm Easy" and Silver's "Wham Bam" deserved to be bigger hits than they were. Not a bum song in the top ten (or top twenty for that matter). My fav in the countdown is Elton John and Kiki Dee at number one with "Don't Go Breaking My Heart".  It was Elton's sixth and final number one song of the seventies.  The perfect radio song.  Loved the story about Elton John's $5,000 Monopoly set.  What would the value of it be in 2009 dollars?

[RGMike]

   Does anybody really believe that Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight" was inspired by the items on the menu at Clydes restraunt in Washington DC?

did they also have "Mother & Child Reunion" on that menu?    Casey's known for taking his "family firendly" reputation seriously; he also avoided the truth in stories about how the Doobie Bros got their name, and about Bette Midler's gig at the Continental Baths.

[Tinka Cat]

   Does anybody really believe that Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight" was inspired by the items on the menu at Clydes restraunt in Washington DC?

did they also have "Mother & Child Reunion" on that menu?    Casey's known for taking his "family firendly" reputation seriously; he also avoided the truth in stories about how the Doobie Bros got their name, and about Bette Midler's gig at the Continental Baths.

it's always amusing to hear him come up w these things.  (I'm sure off the air he's had some ponderous things to say about the real origins...)

about Mother and Child Reunion: I was curious, so I looked it up on wikipedia. Is this the origin that's you're speaking of?

The title of the song has its origin in a chicken-and-egg dish called "Mother and Child Reunion" that Paul Simon saw on a Chinese restaurant's menu.  But the song was written for a dog of Simon's that was run over and killed.

[RGMike]

ED&JFC: they're not talkin' 'bout the linen!

i love that one! 


I'm not talkin' 'bout the linen!
.. and I don't want to change your blinds...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRFZUB3NzGs

[RGMike]

meant to post this the other day, from a letter to the Chron on Sunday about Ben Fong-Torres article on "AT40":

One rather interesting thing not mentioned in the column is that some stations air reruns of "American Top 40" from the 1970s and 1980s. Just two or three years ago, many of these shows were considered lost, and Clear Channel (the rights holder) did not have any copies of the shows. These shows only resurfaced thanks to collectors who had many of the old record albums of the shows that were originally distributed to radio stations (such albums were supposed to be destroyed after the shows had aired) and the effort of Charis Music Group, which has undertaken restoration efforts on these shows to bring them back to the airwaves.

And iirc, the very early shows were sent to radio stations on reel-to-reel tapes! That, and the fact that AT40 had few affiliates the first year, may explain why we have heard so few 1970 shows.

[Wayback]

This weekend (8/29-30) Casey70's is from Sept 6, 1975
http://www.wbbgfm.com/pages/pp_caseykasem.html
#40 “GIVE IT WHAT YOU GOT” – B.T. Express
#39 “TWO FINE PEOPLE” – Cat Stevens
#38 “BRAZIL” – The Ritchie Family
#37 “PLEASE MR. PLEASE” – Olivia Newton-John
#36 “HELP ME RHONDA” – Johnny Rivers
#35 “GONE AT LAST” – Paul Simon & Phoebe Snow
#34 “GAMES PEOPLE PLAY” – The Spinners
#33 “ROCKY” – Austin Roberts
#32 “LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER” – The Captain & Tennille
#31 “IT ONLY TAKES A MINUTE” – Tavares
#30 “WHY CAN’T WE BE FRIENDS?” – War
#29 “HOW LONG (BETCHA’ GOT A CHICK ON THE SIDE)” – The Pointer Sisters
#28 “AIN’T NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY” – Helen Reddy
#27 “THE PROUD ONE” – The Osmonds
AT40 EXTRA: "WHO LOVES YOU" - The Four Seasons
#26 “FEELINGS” – Morris Albert
#25 “DANCE WITH ME” – Orleans
#24 “DAISY JANE” – America
#23 “I BELIEVE THERE’S NOTHING STRONGER THAN OUR LOVE” – Paul Anka & Odia Coates
#22 “BLACK SUPERMAN/ MUHAMMAD ALI” – Johnny Wakelin & The Kinshasa Band
#21 “SOLITAIRE” – The Carpenters
#20 “TUSH” – ZZ Top
#19 “RUN JOEY RUN” – David Geddes
#18 “SOMEONE SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT” – Elton John
#17 “HOLDIN’ ON TO YESTERDAY” – Ambrosia
#16 “THIRD RATE ROMANCE” – Amazing Rhythm Aces
#15 “I’M SORRY” – John Denver
#14 “BALLROOM BLITZ” – Sweet
AT40 EXTRA: "MIRACLES" - Jefferson Starship
#13 “THAT’S THE WAY OF THE WORLD” – Earth, Wind, & Fire
#12 “FEEL LIKE MAKIN’ LOVE” – Bad Company
#11 “WASTED DAYS AND WASTED NIGHTS” – Freddy Fender
#10 “ONE OF THESE NIGHTS” – The Eagles
#9 “COULD IT BE MAGIC” – Barry Manilow
#8 “FIGHT THE POWER PT. 1” – The Isley Brothers
#7 “FAME” – David Bowie
#6 “JIVE TALKIN’” – The Bee Gees
#5 “HOW SWEET IT IS (TO BE LOVED BY YOU)” – James Taylor
#4 “AT SEVENTEEN” – Janis Ian
#3 “GET DOWN TONIGHT” – K.C & The Sunshine Band
AT40 EXTRA: "I"M NOT IN LOVE" - 10cc
#2 “FALLIN’ IN LOVE” – Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds
#1 “RHINESTONE COWBOY” – Glen Campbell

[RGMike]

This weekend (8/29-30) Casey70's is from Sept 6, 1975

Pre-emptive WOS to Austin Roberts' horrendous "Rocky" -- even worse than "Run Joey Run", which we'll also hear. But great stuff nonetheless: The Pointers, Ms Reddy (we seem to hear her in almost every chart between '72 and '77, and she rarely disappoints), the Osmonds doing a lovely Frankie Valli cover (seriously -- one of their finest moments), the Carpenters covering Wacky Sedaky, America keeping the oven warm, and the Amazing Rhythm Aces. All this and "Black Superman" too!

But this is odd: beginning this past week, the "Extras", which have been traditionally been songs that are on their way *up* the chart, are now including songs that have just dropped out of the 40 (like this week's "I'm Not In Love"). WTF?

[Gazoo]

Great "Casey" stuff this week: his whatever-happened-to feature on Tiny Tim, and a listener question on OHWs who peaked at #40 with their only hit ("kinda like landing on the moon and then not being able to get the door to your rocket ship open", sez Casey). Amongst the 8 (!) artists who did that are Ashton, Gardner & Dyke ("Resurrection Shuffle") and personal fave GunHill Road ("Back When My Hair Was Short").

I'd love to know the rest, if you remember any of them.  I'm sorry I missed this countdown.  Yay for the JS on "With Your Love," but BOS to the Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang.  (Although, if they were going to use nonsense syllables anyway, why not "Shing-a-Ling" to at least rhyme with "thing"?)

[RGMike]

BOS to the Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang.  (Although, if they were going to use nonsense syllables anyway, why not "Shing-a-Ling" to at least rhyme with "thing"?)

dude, "lang" rhymes with "thang"!

[Gazoo]

Yay! "Miracles," which would hit the Top 40 a week later, is an extra this week.  (Albeit the single edit, unsurprisingly.)

[Wayback]

Yay! "Miracles," which would hit the Top 40 a week later, is an extra this week.  (Albeit the single edit, unsurprisingly.)

[RGMike]

BT Express' "Give It What You Got", in the leadoff slot, is as generic a slice of '70s funk as I've ever heard. But here's the Cat Man to kiss your breast. Not unless you wash yer beard first, Yusuf.  And he's followed by the Ritchie Family with "Brazil", one of those disco-ized '40s tunes so popular in the early days of disco -- those middle-aged queens on Fire Island ate this stuff up with a (coke) spoon.

[RGMike]

Now we know I loves me some Johnny Rivers, but "Help Me Rhonda" is perhaps the least-necessary of his bi-annual remakes, as we used to call his hits in the '70s.

Casey jumps the gun and refers to Simon & Snow's "Gone At Last" as "a smash!" -- he'll be humbled in a few weeks when it stalls out at #23.  I'd still love to hear the Simon & Midler version that Bette's label put the kibosh on.