Smokie and Hot Chocolate were big in Germany in the 70s when I was a kid, they both had strings of hits and were always on the TV and radio. The oldies station I always listen to in the car (WDR4) still plays both bands frequently.
thx for correct spelling of Smokie … and the US perspective: I recall “who the fuck is Alice?”
Also, just for the record, ABBA was huge here in the U.S., but like a lot of the other bands we’re talking about, if you look at which of their songs get any airplay today (on oldies / 1970s stations, for the most part), it’s just a relative handful.
And even the “oldies” format, if you can still find a station that features it, has often moved on past the '70s; they’re playing songs from the '80s, and even early '90s, now.
Just for the record, I’m sure you know that: that was not part of the original Smokie version of “Living Next Door To Alice”, but added in a “party” cover by another band (can’t remember the name, it was a Dutch band), I think around the early nineties.
ETA: I just remembered the band name: Hermes House Band. Terrible band…
Anyone else here, for a split second, think the reference was to Smokey Robinson? Good thing over 20-years experience here taught me to just read on, lol.
Very few of these Country crossover hits get played on the Pop/Rock channels.
Southern Nights - Glen Campbell
You’re Only Lonely - J.D. Souther
Today’s WTF song could be off topic if you only remember the ad. But when I was very young, there was an off-color compellation song on a 45 (like Stars on 45, if anyone remembers THAT) in which this ditty figured prominently. The snippet of the Good and Plenty song was followed up by a woman singing Donna Summer-ly ‘Charlie says he likes my good and plenty’ and a man gruffly and suggestively saying, ‘Cuz it’s finger lickin’ good. It’s finger lickin’ goooooood’. It was all the rage in my Bronx neighborhood way back in the early '70s where we really did have impromptu street parties when people would turn the speakers in their living rooms toward the street.
Once upon a time there was an engineer
Choo Choo Charlie was his name, I hear
He had an engine and he sure had fun
He used Good and Plenty Candy to make his train run.
Heh, and the mention of Choo Choo Charlie reminded me of this song and band I had forgotten. Choo Choo Charlie is the store manager in this one.
I haven’t heard this recently:
Ah yup.
Also, speaking of ABBA, this is normally not my kind of movie but I actually lilked this a lot:
I’m not even sure this got much airplay when it came out. Haven’t heard it since… except when I played my copy
That happened to me years ago when I first heard the song on the radio. The DJ said, “Here’s Smokie” and when the vocal of the music began, my first thought was, “That doesn’t sound like Smokey Robinson.”
example is “Captain of Her Heart”. What a great song with unusual chord changes.
Ha, i would have never remembered that song had you not posted.
I would have been a baby when it was released. I remember my brothers and i thinking it was a song about The Captain of the Park.
I wouldn’t include ABBA at all in the conversation, at least in the US. ABBA still gets plenty of play, in my experience, and their early-90s Greatest Hits collection Gold led to a bit of a renaissance of their work. Hell, my 10- and 8-year-old kids know and listen to ABBA and it has nothing to do with me. They’ve also gone, at least in my observation, from a band that you might count as a “guilty pleasure” to a band you are unabashedly proud of listening to. And rightfully so. They made some great pop music. It’s certainly not perceived as “uncool” to namecheck ABBA.
I remember playing that song on the radio when it was current. I haven’t heard it since. It was quite different and catchy. They were from Switzerland. The duo’s name was “Double,” but it was pronounced “DOO-blay.” Go figure.
I like this cover, really demonstrates what a great song it is.
lol, these are half my playlist. I mean, I just heard this…
After this one popped up:
And I legitimately cannot tell you how much I loved this one when I was 10…
… and, wow, I wonder whatever happened to Syreeta?
I could go on, but I think I’m going to close this post out with some Jr. Walker and the All Stars:
I have a playlist with songs that seem to fit here. In the next 15 or songs it has:
Just Between You and Me - April Wine
Sukiaki - A Taste of Honey
Beach Baby - First Class
Stuck in the Middle With You - Stealers Wheel
Popcorn - Hot Butter (mentioned here)
So Very Hard to Go - Tower of Power
Fox on the Run - Sweet
@JohnT Even Steven Bishop’s most famous song doesn’t get played much. At least I never hear it.
Very similar to Dan Hill’s Sometimes When We Touch:
Appreciate a 70s guy who said “Fuck it. It’s my only song that anyone remembers, let’s do a real video for it.”