“Hi, I’m Larry, and I’m a Libra.Mmmmm…Take my hand…”
When I was a little kid, I often heard this song on the Classic Hits station that my dad used to play. I always assumed that he was literally singing about a big white bird (I pictured a huge parrot) that the singer and the object of the song kept as a pet, and which the singer’s unrequited love interest was literally taking with her when she moved out of his house.
I know all of these and I still remember the words. My excuse is having older sisters.
In 1974, I got my first “portable cassette recorder.” By “portable” I mean it was about the size of two standard bricks, weighed nearly as much, and recorded about as well.
I know this because in 1974, I tried taping the entirety of the “Big 89 Countdown” on WLS which, IIRC, would always culminate with the #1 song at midnight, ringing in the New Year. Somehow, those fine recordings have been lost.
My advanced recording technique involved positioning the condenser mic near the speaker of a Zenith “home stereo” all-in-one unit. Anyhoo, looking at the WABC entry for 1974…
#88-Hello It’s Me/Todd Rundgren. Gee, I’d have thought that was earlier than '74 but ok. If that’s #88, it musta been a helluva year for music!
Uh, what’s this?
#62-Kung Fu Fighting/Carl Douglas?!
#53-Spiders and Snakes/Jim Stafford?!
#16-You’re Having My Baby/Paul Anka?!*
#9-The Streak?!
Atheist dopers could make an excellent argument from this. And btw I found on another site info that said “Hello It’s Me” hit #5 in Nov of 1973, so I checked WABC’s listings for that 1973: it only ranked at #76. Behind Pillow Talk/Sylvia @ #33, Delta Dawn @ #26, and yes—Tie A Yellow Ribbon @ #2. Only “Killing Me Softly With His Song” was able to avert a complete tragedy.
*When people are a little too TMI with PDA etc., others say, “Get a room!” With regard to this song, I say, “Get a hospital!”
[quote=“JohnBckWLD, post:9, topic:463084”]
With few exceptions, that collection does itself proud by bringing forward the best of the worst of the 70s pop era. There’s probably not a track on it that wasn’t played to death on AM pop radio.
I dunno if Rhino had subsequent re-releases of the collection, but the original SHotS: HAND lists the highest Billboard Pop Chart position for each song on the back of the CD cases.
In my opinion, it’s a great car-wreck collection. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and forces the listener to see how much punishemnt they can endure prior to clicking the next |>> track button. Some of the stinkiest turds:
I like way too many of these songs. Add in really enjoying many of the other songs mentioned in this thread, and I now have something to contribute to the Doper Confessions thread. :o
It’s good being old. Now get offa my lawn.
Just posted this link a couple of days ago in a different thread: Back When My Hair was Short by Gunhill Road. This was their only U.S. top 40 hit, and it peaked at #40. I remember Kasey Kasem on American Top 40 saying that was like landing on the moon and then being unable to get the door open.
“Float On” was indeed a huge hit in 1977, in the top 5 for weeks and weeks, and I don’t know how it escaped me, as the rest of WABC’s hits from a that time are pretty familiar:
- I Just Want to Be Your Everything - Andy Gibb
- (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher - Rita Coolidge
- Float On - The Floaters
- Best of My Love - The Emotions
- Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band - Meco
- Don’t Stop - Fleetwood Mac
- Handy Man - James Taylor
- Strawberry Letter #23 - The Brothers Johnson
- Keep It Comin’ Love - KC & the Sunshine Band
- Easy - The Commodores
- Telephone Line - The Electric Light Orchestra
- Star Wars (Main Title) - The London Symphony Orchestra
- I Feel Love - Donna Summer –
- Barracuda - Heart
I can only guess that as a 11-year-old suburban white kid my use for slow jams was limited. I will maintain that I wasn’t partially responsible for putting two versions of the Star Wars theme on the charts – I didn’t buy 'em, though I guess I was the demographic. I didn; tbuy any of these 45s, actually, but 3 of these songs have claimed turf on my iPod: “Telephone Line,” “Strawberry Letter #23” and, oddly, the Rita Coolidge.
On the other hand, August 6, 1974 :
- Annie’s Song - John Denver 3 weeks #1
- The Night Chicago Died - Paper Lace
- Rock Your Baby - George McCrae
- Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me - Elton John
- Sideshow - Blue Magic
- Feel Like Makin’ Love - Roberta Flack
- Rock the Boat - The Hues Corporation
- The Air That I Breathe - The Hollies
- Waterloo - ABBA
- Rock and Roll Heaven - The Righteous Brothers
- Rikki Don’t Lose That Number - Steely Dan
- Tell Me Something Good - Rufus
- (You’re) Having My Baby - Paul Anka
- Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe - Barry White
- Please Come to Boston - Dave Loggins
- Takin’ Care of Business - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
A chart topped by the unbearable John Denver, and that includes unconquerable monuments to Seventies cheese as “Please Come to Boston” and “Having My Baby.” But: “Rock Your Baby”! “Rock the Boat”! Rufus! Barry White! Possibly the weirdest ABBA song! Steely Dan! And no obscurities! I must have been listening to the radio a lot at this point.
Yes, that’s it! Thank you for posting the link. Took me back a few years, that did.
I can’t believe it never occured to me to look on youtube. :smack:
I was looking for this too and came acroos this forum whilst searching ! Anyway, I’ve found it - it’s called: “Morning Glory” by Mac Gayden.
Just to explain how I came across it, I heard it on an old recording of a radio show in 1976 and I was referring to a line the presenter said after this track. In order to explain to someone where the quote was I needed to identify the song just before he said it.
Here’s the directions to what I’m talking about:
**Regarding the post below from Monday 21st June about the quote, “Big Boss Hot Sauce” - as I stated on my previous post I first heard Mike Baker (Denny Tewson) on Beacon Radio 303 in 1976 and on the opening show on the station, which he presented (12th April 1976) he actually said after a record, “I play that for the Big Boss with the hot sauce this morning”.
You can hear it by going to: http://www.beacon303-memories.co.uk/ Go to jingles and programmes and click on First Programme-Mike Baker, then click on the forward arrow to hear the second hour and he says it after the first track “Morning Glory” by Mac Gayden.
I realised after I posted the above reply that Ivan Astikov was banned from this forum a few weeks ago !
Nevermind. Whatever he’s done wrong, I hope he at least gets the reply to the question he asked on 11th September 2008.
Unfortunately, the said programme has just been removed from the Beacon 303 website to make room for jingles. I’m sure it’ll be put back up sometime in the near future though.
People have sung that to me before (my name is Julie) but that’s the first time I’ve actually heard it otherwise.
So yeah, the audio of Mike Baker referring to “the big boss with the hot sauce” is back up on the Beacon Radio Memories website.
Go to: **http://www.beacon-radio-memories.co.uk ** then click on “jingles, ads and programmes”, then scroll down to “Beacon Programmes” and click on “Beacon’s first programme Pt2” and the audio is at the 6 minute mark.
Unfortunately, Mike Baker died a week ago on 23rd December 2013.