On a related note, when I was in college in the first time in the early 1980s, I went to a screening of a short-form documentary called “Men’s Lives” that was made in 1974. I saw many references to it over the years but was never able to find it anywhere, on any format, until last night. We’ve changed a lot in 50 years, and we haven’t changed either. 43 minutes in length; it appears to have been a film-school project that was mostly, if not entirely, filmed in Ohio.
This may not have been the greatest song ever but it was the first song I heard when I bought a car that had an FM-stereo radio. 10CC “I’m Not in Love” That breathy background singing had me hooked . If it was playing when I arrived,… I would just sit in my car and listen until it was over. The music would go from one side of the car to the other, then back -to-front! Amazing through the stereo
Great song! There are several, “The Making of…” videos of that tune and they’re just fascinating. It’s said Billy Joel nicked the back-up vocal technique for, “Just The Way You Are.”
I used to run into Lorraine Segato once in a while as she rented at the video store at which I worked. Very nice lady. I really liked that Parachute Club sing, and the original video is such a crazily evocative time capsule of early-80s Toronto. I think you can see my office building in the background of a few shots.
Cancon hits of yesteryear could fill this thread. There were plenty of acts that were played on the radio or MuchMusic or (showing my age) Samantha Taylor’s Video Hits simply because they were made north of the 49th, but have since largely vanished. There’s a song called “He’s The Man Who Would Be King” that I loved but I don’t remember who performed it and I haven’t heard it since 1988 or so. Sometimes one of those few-hit-wonder bands has an oddly long life: National Velvet only released a few albums to declining sales, but “Flesh Under Skin” and “68 Hours” from their first record still slay at the clubs here.
I remember hearing a radio spot from the 1970s where a guy is asking a little girl(?) if she knows what certain words mean, like “prejudice.”
50 years later, I’m listening to Casey Kasem’s “American Top 40” on Sirius, and out of nowhere, I hear that same exchange. Turns out it wasn’t a radio spot at all, but a song by a DJ named Tom Clay, which would peak at #8 on the Hot 100 in 1971.