The great seventies countdown week 8

"Yesterday, "  the host tells us, " the following message appeared at Cashbox.com:
Thank you for visiting Cashbox Magazine U.S.A. We are currently working on a new look and an updated Cashbox Magazine...  Check back with us soon to see the new website and thank you for the continued support.  Therefore, our sister program will perhaps be up and running soon... though, I am told, in a VASTLY different form.  However, we are not bound by such constraints, and the Countdown rolls on.  Please extinguish your cell phones, sit back, and enjoy... why? Because it's a no-smoking theatre, and you cannot extinguish your cigarettes if you do not have them!"

190- Get Ready, Rare Earth, #4, 1970.  The best non-live live song in history (beating out Louie Louie and Benny And The Jets).

189- Lonely Night (Angel Face), The Captain and Tennille, 1976, #3.  These two had a two year run were they could do no wrong.  Then they started releasing Toni's version of smaultz-pop and lost me.

188- Hold The Line, Toto, 1978, #5.  This song blasted like a rocket into the top ten, and brought with it a debut lp full of good songs and a band that had been "everybody's backing band" (notably Boz Scaggs') for years.

187- Guns Guns Guns, The Guess Who, 1972, #70.  Another of those 8-tracks-on-Snow-Lake songs.



186- Boy Blue, Electric Light Orchestra, 1975, non-charting.  From Eldorado, a great anti-war song.
"So my friends, who are gathered today/hear this clear, for I'll not further say/that no man shall cause me to pick up arms again..."
185- At Seventeen, Janis Ian, 1975, #3.  And it wasn't much better for the guys in that position, Janis.

184- Theme To Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To), Diana Ross, 1975, #1.  For me, the best thing she ever did.

183- I Don't Know How To Love Him, Yvonne Elliman, 1971, #28.  Most people preferred Helen Reddy's cover that climbed the charts at the same time (#13).  As you know by now, I'm not most people.  I'll take the original from Jesus Christ Superstar any day.

182- Edge Of The Universe, Bee Gees, 1977, #26.  The studio version was the b-side of Nights On Broadway, the charting single was from Here At Last... Live.  Blue Weaver on keyboards.



181- Weekend In New England, Barry Manilow, 1977, #10.  As I told on the last Time Machine, this was the first #1 when I started keeping my own top 10 35 years ago this month.

180- Lost Her In The Sun, John Stewart, 1979, #28.  I didn't know John died of a stroke in 2008.  Second single from the lp with maybe my all time favorite title- Bombs Away Dream Babies.  This was the imagery from hearing it as the sun set out my bedroom window, on a fading AM radio station.

179- How Do You Do, Mouth And McNeal, 1972, #8.  Maggie McNeal's real name?  Sjoukje van't Spijker.  There's a, er, mouthful.

178- Night Fever, Bee Gees, 1978, #1.  Always remember it was just climbing the charts when my alma mater, Heritage High School, was celebrating making the final four in Girls Basketball.  A couple hours of dancing and music in the cafetorium when we were supposed to be learning.

177- She's Gone, Hall And Oates, 1974 (#60) and 1976 (#7).  From one of the better albums you've never heard, Abandoned Luncheonette.  Long version far superior.

176- Dreamboat Annie, Heart, 1976, #42.  At 2:40, probably the shortest song on the countdown.  My all time best Heart song.



175- What Is Life, George Harrison, 1971, #10.  From All Things Must Pass, the best post-Beatles lp by any of the Fab Four.

174- Dancing In The Moonlight, King's Harvest, 1972, #13.  You are kidding me.  A song that played this much only hit 13?  The prototype early seventies song.

173- Slow Train Coming, Bob Dylan, 1979, non-charting.  From his first Christian lp, the powerful title track.

172- Please Mr. Postman, Carpenters, 1974, #1.  A great song in 1961 , a great song in 1974. And a great song now.

171- Loves Me Like A Rock, Paul Simon with the Dixie Hummingbirds, 1973, #2.  A real welcome song from Rhymin' Simon after the bitterness of Kodachrome and I Am A Rock and the like.

With the crowd settling down from the Gospel swaying, the lights come up a bit and the host ventures out.  "I'm glad you enjoyed the show, "  he says.  "Be sure to be here next week.  And now, one more song to fade out on..."



(Note:  I was going to have Lost Her In The Sun here, but all I could find was a really lousy live recording and some guy who thought we'd like to hear him sing over Stewart's music.  So I picked this, and there were three videos with just one unchanging picture and another with a couple of floating seahorses on a continuous loop.  Between earbud malfunctions, losing a page of songs, copying the WRONG page of songs, I'm not real surprised this happened today.)