It’s actually called Girls. I would have never guessed. Seriously!
The Moments are up there among my favorite R&B crooner groups but I never heard of the Whatnauts until now.
Wait. . . they did Dance to the Music? I thought that was the . . . I dunno. . . The Isley Brothers or sumphin.
Wow, many replies…I thought this thread would do a death spiral.
@ Biggirl: Ah, right, I got song/artist backward. My bad :smack: But oh yeah, I absolutely remember “How Do You Do” and the Rhino series has it on Volume 8. Strange but infectious, a guilty pleasure. For those of you scratching your head:
Also on volume 8, a blast from the past that will perhaps dislodge it favorably: Motorcycle Mama by Sailcat:
@astorian: I’ll have to take your word for the chart positions. As others noted, “In a Broken Dream” was supposed to be huge in the UK, so maybe they just didn’t chart near me.
@eleanorigby: With both of us listening to WLS I would guess we know the same songs. I’d heard of a thing called “FM” but I’d never really tried it.
@JohnBckWLD: I have about a dozen of them. Half have a “smiley” on the disk kind of like our “skeptical” icon. Others have the “Sgt Peppers” style artwork from the sleeve (one color, but clear enough that you can tell). None have chart listings visible from the jewel case, though the liner notes mention it for some.
I’m going to have to disagree with some of the turd selections. I proclaim these worthy:
Love Grows/Edison Lighthouse
Melanie/Brand New Key (although Candles in the Rain and What Have They Done to my song, ma were better)
Henry Gross/Shannon
Andrew Gold/Lonely Boy
Not that I liked “Don’t give up on us” by David Soul, here’s a tidbit fer ya…he wasn’t an actor trying to make it as a singer. Just the opposite: he took an acting gig hoping to pay the bills till his singing career took off. Made it famous in Starsky and Hutch…made it infamous with the song.
@Ichbin: I am simply stunned at your list. The only one I don’t know is “Float On,” though I remember people talking about it. A couple of them were sort of “followups” that failed to generate what the smash hits did.
E.g. Capt & Tennille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together” was huge. “Angel Face,” not so much. 5th Dimension’s “One Less Bell” wasn’t nearly the big hit that others like “Wedding Bell Blues” or “Up, Up and Away” were. Some stations might have kept those on because people wanted more of that artist etc.
@Meurglys et al: Yes, Rod Stewart sang for Python Lee Jackson on that track, according to the liner notes.
OK, a few tunes I remember that others have said, “WTF?” to:
“Oh, Babe, What Would You Say?” by Hurricane Smith
(Posted elsewhere by Argent Towers): Ariel by Dean Friedman
“Tight Rope” by Leon Russell:
“Get Down” by Gilbert O’Sullivan (of Claire, Alone Again fame)
I’m working up an OP to start another thread to build the definitive list of Monster 1970s AM hits—the songs_you_couldn’t_get_away_from.
Believe it or not, the great Wilson Pickett did a version of the latter (Amazon sample).
I know most of these songs. Some of them I still like!
I was in love with Bobby Sherman. ::hangs head in shame:: (I turned 14 in 1972.)
Methinks someone is still in love with Mr. Sherman 
'Fess up, Dolores!
A few great songs I discovered after they were (probably) hits:
BW Stevenson/My Maria
Billy Preston & Syreeta/With You I’m Born Again
Sanford Townsend Band/Smoke from a Distant Fire
Michael Stanley Band/He Can’t Love You
Rock out, Dopers!
I was a child of the 70’s as well. From lobotomyboy63’s first list I don’t recognise anything past “Dead Skunk”. Everything else (so far) in this thread I remember hearing at some point, but only own
Run Run Run - Jo Jo Gunne
Black and White - Three Dog Night
Dance To The Music - Sly and the Family Stone (assuming this is the song Biggirl is referring to)
Tight Rope (and a whole lot more) by Brother Leon Russel
This is from some 6000 songs on my hard drive, at least 75% from the same era.
The one song nobody ever remembers when I play it for them is “Situation” by the Jeff Beck Group
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgrlR5vpQeA
I remember hearing this on the radio (had to be AM because we didn’t pick up any FM where I lived until later) a lot one summer, but nobody else seems to remember.
Another song I’ve never been able to find is one a friend was obsessed with. He’d crank it up and sing along any time it came on, but never found a copy to buy (very small town). The hook (and I think title) was the line “Back when my hair was short” and was by a band called Gunhill Road (I have tried to find it and this keeps coming up without sound files so I’m not sure if it’s the same song or not.)
Gah! I know just about all of these (except Float On).
Everybody always refers to We Build This City in bad song threads. I don’t know how I missed it, but I did.
A hah!
I knew if I thought about it for more than a second, I’d remember. But the edit window is too short for deep thoughts.
The sad part is, I have this and listen to it not rarely.
Just to hijack a little: Both Captain & Tennile songs were written by Neil Sedaka. I guess since C&T had a hit with “Love Will Keep Us Together,” they figured they’d go back to the well and do “Lonely Nights.” That, and they’re also big Sedaka fans. And why not? Sedaka is one of pop music’s great craftsmen.
As for the 5th Dimension, “Up, Up and Away” was written by Jimmy Webb, who also wrote “By the Time I Get To Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” and “MacArthur Park.” “One Less Bell To Answer” was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David
(“Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” “What’s New, Pussycat?”) In both C&T and the 5th Dimension’s cases, it looks as if the artist or A&R person was trying to follow up one hit from a “can’t miss” songwriter with another song from the same songwriter or another of a similar stature.
That’s my source, too!!!
Actually, if you have to guess you could do a lot worse than the Isley’s. I think the judges would have also accepted the Chamber Brothers or late period Temptations. 
And just because; Jimmy Webb is an Oklahoma boy, too*.
*I’m pretty sure. I’ve been wrong before.
I know all but the last two and I might remember them, if I heard them.
And this is one of my favs: “I’ve got a brand new pair of roller skates; you’ve got a brand new key…”
I am shocked at how many people do not know Float On. It was huge in NY. Well, amongst my peoples.
Hot Rod Lincoln is a song I came to know much later on, and is now a favorite.
Bill Kirchen was the lead guitarist, and he’s still around. Look him up on YouTube and you’ll find some good videos of him playing an extended version, complete with guitar “impressions” of other artists. Really cool to see him do it live - go see Bill if he comes to town.
You want the Bells? Here they are, with “Stay Awhile” on YouTube. 
Biggirl, it’s been far too long since we talked '70s music. I’m enjoying this thread–thanks, folks!
Every time I do the wayback here on the board, I am shocked at how shallowly R&B penetrated into the mainstream.
Here’s a pretty bad youtube of Float On.
And here is one of the all time great '70s slow dance grooves.
There was nary a basement party where couples weren’t slow dancing up against a wall to this.
ETA Hey, thanks Spoons
Thanks to the nine years I spent in radio during the 70s, I not only remember almost every song mentioned in this thread, but I remember them vividly.
Thanks a lot.
Oh, the memories!
Burning Bridges – I didn’t know the name of this until a recent “songs that make you cry” thread. I knew all the words, but thought it was just “the Kelly’s Heros Song”
Convoy – stupid song, but CW McCall’s “Wolf Creek Pass” really frosted my childish undies. The snow shed (the “tunnel” in the song) is on the wrong side of the pass, Pagosa Springs didn’t have a freakin “feed store” until years after the song was released, and even then it was on the wrong side of the road and past the curve – if one went straight instead of making the right hand curve in “downtown Pagosa Springs”, one would have crashed into the Dairy King’s mostly empty parking lot, after going twenty-some miles on mostly flat highway. (Guess where I grew up). I’m not a fan.
Billy Don’t be a Hero was my introduction to Air Guitar. I was 8, gimme a break. I assumed it was about the Civil War instead of Viet Nam, but, again, I was a kid, so who knows why I had that impression.
I know most of the rest of the songs mentioned, but my stories about those are even less interesting.
Re: Love Will Keep Us Together, yeah and they sang the “Sedaka is back” in the tag. I didn’t know he wrote “Lonely Nights,” but it goes to show everybody has an off day.
IOW, eleanorigby the fact that you do NOT remember is testament to the mind’s power to block out things. You know it; you just don’t WANT to know it 
Right, and Jimmy wrote “MacArthur Park” as well. I guess it was in the fine tradition of the days when writers wrote and singers sang.
And now, an extra dose of songs I don’t know as hits from the Rhino series (kunilou, you might want to look away):
Beautiful Sunday/Daniel Boone
Speak to the Sky/Rick Springfield
American City Suite/Cashman and West
Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo/Rick Derringer (I’ve heard it used in things since, but I recall no radio play at the time)
Star/Stealers Wheel
So You are a Star/Hudson Brothers
Up in a Puff of Smoke/Polly Brown
I remember that one! I couldn’t find any downloads, but it is available on this CD from Amazon.
Nope, there ARE fans of 70’s music here. Thanks for the thread, finally one that doesn’t send me scurrying to find the tunes, I’ve already got most of these 
.
Since someone else already posted what I was going to post, some trivia about the late (March 3, 2008) great Norman “Hurricane” Smith,
CMC +fnord!
Let me second the WABC Top 100 lists as the place to start, then head on over to the Super Seventies RockSite!