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

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.

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.

― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, January 13, 2021 10:38 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I ended up voting for Joe Tex, but "Lay Down" was a close second. I love how/that the drummer speeds way the fuck up throughout the song; it adds to the massiveness of the sound/song/sentiment. Drummers, sadly, don't do that anymore.

You can see the outline in the two lists of one of the stories from that moment, the big Richard Nader/American Graffiti/Happy Days/Sha Na Na nostalgia boom: Chuck Berry, Paul Anka (yes, it pains me to list them back-to-back), Bobby Vinton, "Monster Mash," "Chick-a-Boom" (somebody's idea of a Coasters imitation, I think), "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose" (most but not all of the nostalgia was centered around rock and roll), "Oh Babe, What Would You Say?" (ditto), " I'm Leaving It (All) Up To You," "Puppy Love," "Daddy's Home," "Mockingbird," "Rockin' Robin"...more than an outline, actually--it was everywhere, a lot of it terrible. Glam was the best manifestation.

totally. The Cruisin' compilations began in 1970 as well, and probably played a part.

Showaddywaddy were also huge on that bandwagon but never really made it in the US, I think.

I loved those comps. My dad had em

Showaddywaddy only sold any significant amount of records in the UK and Ireland. A very peculiar to the British Isles thing going on with them Darts and a handful of other ultra watered down rock n'roll acts. I embraced them wholeheartedly as a ten year old.

(xpost) Huge disconnect--they didn't chart a single Top 100 hit in the States or Canada (now and again, we took cues from the British charts). I think a have a song or two on compilations.

"Lay Down" is quite a track - never heard of it before today. I guess modern classic rock programmers think it's too hippie? Or her voice is too shrill? Wrong, but it's definitely less digestible than the Janis Joplin songs they play over and over.

Helen Reddy is an interesting case - she had a parade of hits but nowadays if the average person knows her at all it's for a single song, or more specifically the title of a single song.

The Wayne Newton #1 song is a snoozer.

xpost I'm guessing Sha Na Na, who you already mentioned, had already sort of saturated the market with a version that played better here.

Helen Reddy (RIP) almost perfectly epitomizes the kind of "variety show entertainer" category who belongs to this period, and who survived for a while on soft-rock/adult-contemporary/dentist's-office formats until just too much time had gone by. People who missed their biggest hits in later years could buy a Time-Life variety comp, and people who'd actually bought some of their albums, and missed them, could clean up on 10 or 12-track artist comps at Walmart or Target. Reddy was probably big enough to sustain the latter, whereas your Jim Staffords would have depended on the former. I think.

I had forgotten even Sha Na Na had a (syndicated) TV show that ran for four seasons.

After 20 years of telling students to never trust Wikipedia, that's always my first stop when checking something...Showaddywaddy's singles discography suggests their records weren't even released in North America; no column for North American releases. God, they were huge in the UK--although their heyday was actually the second half of the '70s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showaddywaddy#Discography

Tony Orlando & Dawn were maybe the definitive example of DC's variety-show entertainer.

Or as I thought of them as a kid overhearing the radio back-announcements, the trio of Tony, Orlando, and Don.

There is, of course, also “the Continent”.

Darts (who are late 70s) were very popular in the Netherlands as well, simultaneously with their UK chart success.
Showaddywaddy less consistently so, but they were big in Germany. “Under The Moon Of Love” was their (only) big continental hit (in 1976-77, most of their big hits are in the second half of the decade).
Mud, who were huge in the mid-70s, straddle glam and retro rock-n-roll, I guess.

Discogs backs up the fact Showaddywaddy never got released in North America. Nobody's loss.

Sorry for the derail, but I'm now obsessed with Showaddywaddy.

First charted single (hit #2): "Hey Rock and Roll."
Second charted single (only made it to #15): "Rock 'n Roll Lady."

(Band takes a time out and tries to figure out what went wrong.)

Third charted single: "Hey Mr. Christmas."

Helen Reddy was way smarter than that, though, Dr. C. I spent time with her comp a few years ago; the sharpness of the songcraft and performance impressed me. "Angie Baby" and "I Am Woman" may be Hollywood's idea of feminism, but it's Reddy's too, and she sold the idea to millions of Winston-smoking TV watchers..

x post. They were blundering about until 1976.

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

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.