top 50 "lost" US hits of the early '70s

if that Paul Anka song gets a single vote, I will eat all of ILX

"live and let die" is a horrible song and every time i hear it on the radio today i'm shocked that it was ever a hit

― dyl, Wednesday, January 13, 2021 2:24 AM bookmarkflaglink

I hate it so much, I cannot believe anyone could ever like it. Just garbage

― Pere Legume (the table is the table), Wednesday, January 13, 2021 7:52 AM bookmarkflaglink

RONG

voted Ben, sweet song, sweet melody, nice arrangement.

I consider this era through early '76 as the lit-Winstons-and-thick-curtains variety show era of pop: the '60s reified as Dean Martin letting his sideburns go unruly.

This ... with the addition of peak Stevie Wonder.

Donny and Marie, Tony Orlando and Dawn, and Mac Davis all had their own TV variety shows.

Weirdest--good-weird, awful-weird, but songs that probably wouldn't have been hits at any other time ever (except maybe the post-Elvis/pre-Beatles lull that was swamped with novelties too): "Jungle Fever," "Chick-a-Boom," "Oh Babe, What Would You Say?" "Troglodyte," "I Gotcha," "Popcorn," "Timothy" (for subject matter more than the song itself), "Sylvia's Mother," the first two Jim Stafford songs, "How Do You Do?" Plus others.

Stevie Wonder, yes, but more generally black pop was brilliant during these years (not on these lists, happily--it all still gets played).

Left off Sonny and Cher obv. xp

I discovered Joe Simon just a few days ago. The Black crossover singles slap.

"Ain't Gonna Bump No More" is so, so delightfully mean.

I love The Temptations' Masterpiece as an album, but that's another song I don't think made my local top 40 at all.

Coincidentally, I reviewed some of these last night because they peaked at #11.

this list feels less "forgotten" to me because i have a ton of these songs in my personal playlist, but probably yeah all are completely vanished from the radio landscape etc. hard to believe "The Streak" is in that category, but probably so. lotta good or good-ish bubblegum margin stuff here - "chick-a-boom," "get down," "motorcycle mama" ...

"spiders and snakes" has a cool sound but a stupid sexist novelty theme. quietly, "don't expect me to be your friend" is incredibly unpleasant and ugly. my partner has a lifelong hatred of "Delta Dawn" owing to her mom singing it constantly and off-key. in turn, "sylvia's mother" was a minor running joke in my household after my dad kept pushing it as a totally incorrect Trivial Pursuit answer one time. i was about to say that "Timothy" is the "Him" of this list, but then i remembered that Rupert Holmes actually wrote and sang "Timothy!"

of the songs i know, "lay down (candles in the rain)" and "troglodyte" are probably the most impressive or substantial. voting "Lay Down" for the overwhelming sound of it --- a potentially good trip that feels like it could turn bad any second. truly bizarre as a hit song.

I appreciate “Troglodyte (Cave Man)” for the way Neneh Cherry sampled it in "Kisses on the Wind" but I can't listen to it.

"My Girl Stafford" is hilarious in its awfulness -- this shit worried straight guys in the early '70s, eh?

lol "My Girl Bill"

ok, it's blowing my mind that Murray Head, who I know from "One Night in Bangkok" also had a hit with a song from Jesus Christ Superstar.

I've linked to it before, but "Lay Down" has a sort-of video, too, also bizarre (Edwin Hawkins singers invisible).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlp3wmE4bbI

Comment #2 for slocki's sad YouTube thread:

"It was 1971, I was 31 years old, a low almost suicidal point in my life after I got out of the service. I drove up to Topanga Canyon above Malibu and stopped at the Corral. A young lady asked me to play this song on the jukebox. We chatted and in the end she changed my life. Strange but true. Joanne McDonald...here's to you where ever you are!"

These 70s lists have been kind of intriguing because I often feel like I know a lot of 70s music but I hardly know anything on these, although there are a lot of names and titles that I know from reading, while virtually everything on the "least lost" lists is as familiar as any music could be. (Even "Ben" - I know it was MJ's first solo #1, recorded when he was 13, and I've probably listened to it at some point, but I can't call it to mind now. "Rockin' Robin", otoh, was still ubiquitous when I was a kid, it seemed, although I'm not even sure it was because of his version.) The 80s lists were not nearly this stark, on either side. "Tubular Bells" is definitely my favourite of the ones I know, and probably of the ones I don't know, but I'll listen more before voting.

ok, it's blowing my mind that Murray Head, who I know from "One Night in Bangkok" also had a hit with a song from Jesus Christ Superstar.

― that's not my post, Wednesday, January 13, 2021 10:51 AM bookmarkflaglink

He was Judas on the original concept album recording

why the hell is Monster Mash on this list?

like, clearly it's a Halloween single and wasn't released in the 70s, it hasn't been "forgotten" even in terms of radio play. terrible example.

I appreciate “Troglodyte (Cave Man)” for the way Neneh Cherry sampled it in "Kisses on the Wind" but I can't listen to it.

― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, January 13, 2021 10:41 AM bookmarkflaglink

100% fair. it hasn't even aged well for me even between when i first discovered it circa 2006, and today.

I don't know how many know "Oh Babe, What Would You Say?" but it's not the easiest thing to describe. "I think it's supposed to sound like Rudy Vallee"--except I'm not even sure how many people knew who Rudy Vallee was in 1972.

genuinely tough choice between charles wright and dennis coffey.

why the hell is Monster Mash on this list?

It hit the Top 10 a second time in 1973. I wonder if there's some glitch in the methodology in which it doesn't get properly counted because it's never played in the context of being a '70s record, iow radio stations that play "The '70s" don't play it.

Robert De Niro: "Are you talking to me." (Only makes sense if you're watching right now.)

I will never tire of Troglodyte.

Popcorn, Masterpiece, Jungle Fever and Monster Mash are all all time but it's Scorpio with a bullet.

(xpost)...Wrong thread!

I don't know a lot of these, and I few of them ("Having My Baby," "Watching Scotty Grow," "Delta Dawn") I only really know by reputation, but I like "I Gotcha."

I apparently enjoy suffering by listening to all of the tunes in these threads I don't recognize by name, hoping to become the Proust of AM radio; "Peaceful" by Helen Reddy was the only one I had heard, and it's OK at least.
This era is just before my time, and the aura of most of this stuff probably already felt dusty to me as a kid. Tubular Bells was the first album I loved, but I would never listen to the single edit, so it's the Temptations (I've only heard the single edit of "Masterpiece").

We once went to a really bad wedding, in a shitty place, with shitty food and many shitty people, and certainly shitty music. No one was dancing or wanted to dance until at some point the DJ put on "Dancing Queen." Finally, people started dancing ... and then they stopped it and switched to the "Monster Mash," apparently the couple's "song."

I know maybe 8 of the songs at the top by title.

If that's their song, i am really curious what they listen to when fucking

Monster Mash is great, went for Popcorn.

In 1984, my junior-high music teacher surprised the class by saying that his parents would have forbidden "The Monster Mash" record in their house. Would a 2021 music class be shocked by a teacher telling a similar story about...Marilyn Manson, maybe?

Probably. It's amazing how quaint both his 90s output and his interviews/persona seem through today's lens.

"Monster Mash" was a novelty comedy song - was there any widespread controversy or panic about it even at the time, like there was with Marilyn Manson? My guess is that teacher grew up in an unusually restrictive household. I wouldn't find it surprising to hear about parents forbidding Black Sabbath in their house.

Having said that, even my mind is a little blown when I recall that a music school I worked at in 1999/00 had a policy that we could teach anything other than Marilyn Manson.

kids in my Spanish class used to say they couldn't watch his videos, they were soooooo scared.

all seemed a bit performative.

Yeah, I believe it was the "Monster Mash" rock beat rather than any occult fears...but that music school anecdote was exactly the sort of thing I was wondering about!

The BBC had banned the record from airplay in 1962 on the grounds that the song was "too morbid".[8]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo4tzrxyXsA

Ah, I didn't know that. Tbf, though, the BBC also banned "Walk Like an Egyptian".

xp

Did the BBC play any rock and roll in 1962?

they played field recordings of kids playing football in the alley

kicking a ball in the street iirc

Most "lost hits" just got kicked onto someone's roof and were torn apart by hawks

voting "Lay Down" for the overwhelming sound of it --- a potentially good trip that feels like it could turn bad any second. truly bizarre as a hit song.

Same, this is one of my favorite songs of all time. "We were so close there was no room/We bled inside each other's wounds" = chills down the spine

"Popcorn" and "Ben" also wonderful.

The Jimmy Castor Bunch - Troglodyte (Cave Man)
Frijid Pink - House Of The Rising Sun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNS42Na2mpc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t40INnb6DnY

These are both quite good. Going with "Troglodyte" because it's an original song rather than a cover and, you know, Bertha Butt.

I sort of fancied Showaddywaddy lead singer Dave Bartram:
https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/singer-dave-bartram-of-english-pop-group-showaddywaddy-16th-march-picture-id604552919

maybe MJ liked the looks of him to:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f6/c3/30/f6c33080e28a7d184c876d7923362cfb.jpg

I had NO idea who the hell Showaddywaddy were until I ranked Brit hits a few months ago, my god.

Helen Reddy's commercial descent was oddly abrupt. Her greatest hits LP (which is killer) stayed on the chart for almost the entirety of 1976 and went double platinum; but then after 1977 she never charted another album, though she kept producing them for a while.

more ILM threads than [enter your favourite artist]:

Showaddywaddy C/D

Say Something Interesting About Showaddywaddy

Best Songs On Showaddywaddy's Greatest Hits!

Option Votes
Hey Rock'n'roll 8
Under The Moon Of Love 5
Three Steps To heaven 3
Chain Gang 2
Trocadero 1
Heartbeat 1
Heavenly 1
Rock'n'roll Lady 1
Hey Mr Christmas 1
King Of The Jive 0
Sweet Music 0
Johnny Remember me 0

prize content!

Interesting to me to see Showaddywaddy's approximation of 50s garb (updated drape coat and brothel creepers) vs. Sha Na Na's Brylcreem and black leather jackets a la Fonzie.

Mud mixing things up:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/75/8b/0d/758b0d78a1c6b9fc5e1c8d12d298c0e3.jpg

and then there was the time Showaddywaddy supported Einsturzende Neubauten.....

There's a YouTube clip of Mud doing "Tiger Feet" on TOTP that's just wild.

By far the most fascinating Mud-related fact is of course that guitarist Rob Davis (the glammest of the bunch) would end up co-writing Kylie’s “Can't Get You Out of My Head” and “Come into My World” with Cathy Dennis. He also had a hand in Fragma’s “Toca's Miracle” and Spiller’s “Groovejet”!

waht

Yes! I've been reminded of this truth many times over the years, but it never ceases to amaze me. Low-key one of the most miraculous pop careers of all.

i had long thought Rob Davis had had a hand in the early KLF releases but am becoming increasingly convinced i have completely imagined this.

He did however definitely write several Saint Etienne songs.

and then there was the time Showaddywaddy supported Einsturzende Neubauten.....

I went into this thinking it would be some elaborate hoax, but apparently it's true.
There it is, 7 September 1987: http://www.fromthearchives.com/en/chronology1.html

I only know Showadaddy from one of those Hipgnosis album cover books, one of their records has an epic gatefold street scene thing going on

Showaddywaddy, whatever

x post Indeed! Stevo who ran their label at the time, Some Bizzare, was famed for coming up with mad ideas guaranteed to generate lots of press and all the music papers of the time of course lapped it up.

@ Alfred - No diss intended on Reddy! I also spent some time with her best-of a couple years back after my brother got obsessed with her for a minute. US #8 "Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady" is her stealth best earworm, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoaRbhlWji4

But she's absolutely perfect for this thread insofar as, post-"I Am Woman," she had five top ten hits, including two number ones, and I suspect none of them have been heard outside of Sirius specialty stations since, I don't know, the early 90s? She should be at least as well known as Captain & Tennille.

Wiki indicates that she transitioned more into a stage acting career, and she unsurprisingly did a ton of TV guest spots. There were abortive plans for her to have a sitcom in 1981, where she would star as a single mother living on Lake Tahoe. Maybe if Pete's Dragon had been better, or a bigger hit, she might have been more familiar to later generations as an on-screen presence... I bet should could have hosted a beloved 80s kids' musical program or something.

Rob Davis here at age 71 in the 2018 Xmas Celebrities edition of the BBC quiz show Pointless, along with other UK pop luminaries like Sonia and two-thirds of Bananarama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXYzbbOx82Y

(his segment starts at 17:50)

Great clip. He's very humble. Who is the Larry David lookalike behind him?

Roger McGough of The Scaffold, who had the 1968 UK Xmas number one with "Lily the Pink" (which is the reason he's on there).

Thanks. i sense i will get sucked into watching the whole thing.

Interesting to me to see Showaddywaddy's approximation of 50s garb (updated drape coat and brothel creepers) vs. Sha Na Na's Brylcreem and black leather jackets a la Fonzie.

There was a Teddy Boy revival in the 70s

Yeah, I love Crazy Cavan. That white suit above looks like disco Teddy Boy though.

Seven of the top 50 and four of the next 50 held prominent places in my heart when I was aged 3-7 playing my parents singles on their aging Technics turntable. Billy Don't Be a Hero, Chick-a-Boom, Playground In My Mind, Spiders and Snakes, Cowboy's Work, Monster Mash (which shouldn't count, but does), and The Streak, plus Which Way You Goin' Billy, The Way We Were, My Girl Bill, and that version of The Lord's Prayer were all in their collection. So were The Joker, Won't Get Fooled Again, and Rocket Man, but they didn't make the impact of the Sonny & Cher tune, for example, which got my vote because I didn't think anyone else would care for it.

re: "monster mash," the spin counts used for this feature were collected over a seven-day period, so obviously the fact that the table on the link shows zero spins for the song reflects that the data collection was done over a non-halloween week

weirdly, in addition to being reissued in 1973 and becoming a big hit again, it had apparently seen a reissue in 1970, but that time only went to #91

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP1bg1R5XQc

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Went for "Tubular Bells" but actually probably think of the album rather than the single.

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

I'm pretty certain I never heard the single edit of "Tubular Bells" on my local stations (Hey, Geir.) And I always thought "Ben" was kind of barfy even back then. Otherwise all the other multiple vote getters are ace.

4 Helen Reddy hits / 0 votes

a Reddy reappraisal should start about now

Words get in the way: top two are instrumentals, #3 is essentially an instrumental, and #4 is close.