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Saturday, May 1, 2010

Step into my time machine

My new feature every weekend is going to be a look back at my favorite music. The era we are travelling to is 1975-6, where most of the songs that mean something to me originated. Four new songs had debuted this week in 1975, according to Cashbox magazine's charts of May 3, 1975. I hate to say it, but the only one of the three I actually remember was Hot Chocolate's "Emma". Coming in at 10 was Paul Anka on his mid-seventies comeback binge with, "I don't like to sleep alone." He should get a dog like me. The second debut was the Blackbyrds "Walking in rhythm" which I always thought was a much older song. Coming in from 15 to 8 was "How long(has this been going on)" by Ace. There used to be a disc jockey, I forget who, who always introede that song as by " England's Ace" as if they were the first band to ever be heard in Jolly Ol'. Very annoying. The last of the four debuts was "Shining Star" by Earth Wind and Fire, which was my niece's favorite song back in the day. She had a notebook that had "Shine a star " written in every square inch of the cover. Moving up a notch to 6 was Leo Sayer's first big hit, "Long tall glasses". Sammy John's "Chevy Van", the song that spurred a generation of new van owners, stalled at 5. Elton John slid down to 4 , shortly after a 2-week reign at 1, with "Philadelphia freedom". One of my favorites, probably would have been at my #1 this week if I had been keeping a chart back then (I started in January 1977), was the Ozark Mountain Daredevils' "Jackie Blue" at 3 and climbing. If only to lengthen this blog, we have BJ Thomas' "Somebody done somebody wrong song" slipping from its weeklong perch at 1 down to 2. And at #1, up from three, and from ten the week before, Tony Orlando and the ever-lovely Dawn with "He can't love you".

The fastest climber in the chart was Chicago's "Old Days", leaping 28 spots to land just outside the top 40 at 44. The highest debut, one that apparently sputtered afterwords, was "Sadie" by the Spinners. The chart debuts that week included the Doobies' "(Take me in your arms) Rock me", War's "Why can't we be friends" ( a song I remember singing all summer on the back of Troy's first mini-bike), and Gwen McRae's "(Let me be your) Rocking chair".
Index of Chris' favorite year- 19 of the top forty and 31 of the top 100 I have burned to CD.

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