Super Hits of The 70s: Have A Nice Day, Vol. 3

I finally voted. For 'Montego Bay'. Because I figure it's good enough to get one vote.

Regretting my vote for 'Montego Bay' rn.

It has good percussion.

Unfortunately, it did presage the crop of excessive 'WHOOA-OHH-OHH-OHHHH'-ing slathered all over the pop songs and commercial jingles of today.

The strongest shit i give about this is that donna summer was just called donna summers, which is like calling pres grant “pres grants.”

― Hunt3r

i'm calling him "president grants" from now on

"Montego Bay" invented K-Tel World Music, so a meaningful vote.

Amos Moses

“In the Summertime” and it’s not even close. Michael Daddino says in that 1971 mixcloud thread that there was a lot of bad music released in 1971. I thought he was wrong until I heard this album and it turns out he’s right! The Melanie song is horrid! Thing is I’ve always been looking at 1971 through a rock lens (L.A. Woman, Sticky Fingers, Who’s Next, Maggot Brain). These Have a Nice Day comps are great because it’s giving me a whole side of the 70s that I never knew about. All I knew about Bobby Sherman came from that Simpsons episode where Marge admits she used to have a crush on him and Lisa makes fun of her.

Definitely in the summertime

A lot of bad music has been released every year ever, but the notion that '71 is a bad year for music is quite frankly insane. It only suffers in comparison to the couple of years that followed, which were some of the best years for music ever.

(Which is all kinda beside the point, as this comp mostly covers 1970.)

all in for Tommy James here.

These Have a Nice Day comps are great because it’s giving me a whole side of the 70s that I never knew about.

One thing that's surprised me so far is how few of these songs actually became genuine "oldies". I started seriously listening to Oldies radio in '96-7 when a lot of early '70s songs began getting added to playlists--that's definitely how I know "In The Summertime", which was jammed multiple times daily, and "Tighter, Tighter". But a lot of these seemingly missed the cut.

Much to my surprise, I'm going to have to vote for "Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)" - Melanie isn't generally my cup of tea but this is a belter. Bonus points for the 'industrial' video too. This just pips "In the Summertime" (I do not recognise the jurisdiction of that ILM kangaroo court). Hotlegs? OK a great groove but there's not much of a song here.

Of the tracks new to me, the stand outs were "Green-Eyed Lady" (need to listen to more Sugarloaf on this evidence) and "Montego Bay" (moog bass?). But I liked Brian Hyland singing Curtis too, oh and Jerry Reed but LOL at the empty seats in that supposedly sold out concert in the Scooby Doo clip.

A good volume all round. The 70s are still struggling to create an identity for itself at this point and the varied music reflects that.

Yeah, WTF is up with that Melanie vid? Because when I think "Lay Down", I think giant concrete pipe farm.

I love that Melanie video for how bizarre the disconnect is.

But a lot of these seemingly missed the cut.

Just the nature of radio in every era, no? There are so many amazing '50s songs that have vanished, even though they were moderate hits in their day. A big world gets narrowed to a small percentage of songs that never go away, and sometimes the weeding out seems rather arbitrary. And with K-Tel, you tend to be working at the margins anyway.

The 70s are still struggling to create an identity for itself at this point

Definitely the story of '70-71--there's still a hangover/vacuum from the Beatles break-up. For me, that identity starts to take shape around '72 with Led Zeppelin, Bowie (glam in general, maybe the first really new '70s thing), Stevie Wonder, Elton John, and Steely Dan. Then disco, then punk, etc.

I don't know if I would judge a year by the Have A Nice Day series, which by design is highlighting the more, um, macrame aspects of the charts.

I mean Tapestry came out in 1971, which is as clear a line as any in the 70s.

Tapestry was monumental, but I think of it still being very much a '60s album; the singer-songwriter moment ('70-'72, when they were crossing over for #1 pop hits), to me, kept the '60s going for a couple of extra years--Dylan lingering, basically. (The feminist significance of Tapestry, yes, you can say that's new...a self-penned album by a woman selling ungodly numbers of records.)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow...Three Brides, Three Bridesmaids. This was a packed volume. I went with "Tighter, Tighter" in the end.

I'm glad that "In the Summertime" has broken free of Harvey Weinstein.

“Have a drink, have a drive, go out and see what drunk driving fatalities look like, you irresponsible piece of shit.”

It's terrible how many drunk drivers have gotten off over the years with the Mungo Jerry defense.

"Mungo Jerry Only Pawn In Game Of Life..."

'71 was huge for, like, soul (what's going on), singer-songwriter (tapestry), british rock (hunky dory, who's next, the fourth zep album, master of reality, etc., etc.), but the biggest american rock albums of the year were by the doors, joplin, and hendrix. three guesses as to what they had in common.

ah missed this!

Would have voted for I Think I Love You or Tighter Tighter, but there’s a lot to love on this volume!

when i did the Bridesmaid polls i included second and third place finishes. so if you went by that for this one then it would be six. (FYI)

many xposts

I'll see about that, but remember this is a 25-Volume series, so with ties, it won't be feasible to include both on a 50 nom ballot.

good point. Just Can't Get Enough was 15 Volumes and that took 37 selections. you would probably have to run two.

I'd never heard of "Amos Moses" and "Green-Eyed Lady" before this poll. Seems like most of the American songs on these collections made no impression on this side of the Atlantic.

I wouldn't doubt it. Seems like it was much easier breaking Brit one-offs over here (see: the career of Tony Burrows) than vice-versa. Did Jerry Reed have any visibility across the pond prior to his movie career (and even then, was there an audience for his films over there)?

I hope all of the people who've just now been exposed to 'Green Eyed Lady' for the first time are non-Americans who've never heard a lick of classic pop radio. Otherwise I don't know how that's even possible.

But I'm jealous of you, whatever the circumstances!

Super Hits of The 70s: Have A Nice Day, Vol. 4

Did Jerry Reed have any visibility across the pond prior to his movie career (and even then, was there an audience for his films over there)?

What films? Also, Jerry Who?

in my house, yes

https://youtu.be/Ni8KBhnebwE

Get thee to a Smokey and the Bandit, Tom. It's a good time.

Jerry Reed seems like the funnest guy ever, imo.

Jerry Who? Jerry Lou

JER’REED

Ah, Wikipedia:

The song tells the story of a one-armed Cajun alligator hunter named Amos Moses, who was "named after a man of the cloth," son of Doc and Hanna Milsap, who lives "about 45 minutes southeast of Thibodaux, Louisiana" (which, at the rate of a mile per minute, would be near Galliano, Louisiana),