All posts tagged 1973

Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree by Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando (Bell, 1973)

todtayrrtoot45

Tony Orlando & Dawn. You say the name and it just reeks of avocado shag and Love’s Baby Soft. But what always struck me was the fact that this anonymous studio concoction, whose members weren’t even fully formed until after their first few hits, became such a visual presence and representation of the 70s. In fact Tony Orlando & Dawn wasn’t even used until after seven Top 40 hits and two #1 song were racked up, including their biggest, Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree. They actually had as many hits with their iconic name than without. I don’t think Tony Orlando minds at all because without this weird run of luck, he would have just been a guy who had a Top 20 hit called Bless You, way back in 1961.

All of this was luck and timing, for the artists, writers, producers, anyone who made a living off of this record. The history before this song hit #1 for 4 weeks in 1973 is amazing, but it’s impact afterwards is truly astonishing. It propelled the group in having 7 more Top 40 hits, 3 of them Top 10s, one of which hit #1 (He Don’t Love You). It gave America a visual to match the songs when they were given their own variety show, which ran from 1974-1976. Tony had his own theatre in Branson called the Yellow Ribbon Theatre and while some may roll their eyes at it, it nevertheless kept Tony performing through the 90s & 00s. You may even recognize Telma Hopkins, one half of Dawn, as Steve Urkel’s Aunt Rachel or from the other various TV roles she landed from the 80s’ Bosom Buddies & Gimme A Break to the current version of Are We There Yet.

The song itself may have brought on the 20’s/40’s revival of musical styles, which the group expanded on with their next album, Dawn’s New Ragtime Follies (see, still clinging to the Dawn name, even after a mega-smash). It’s the kinda song you’d imagine you’d hear in Shakey’s Pizza or during a carousel ride. The Great Gatsby movie was only a year away and platform shoes, a 40’s throwback, were becoming more mainstream fashion. When you hear that organ and banjo intro, you either want to dance the Lindy or jam metal rods in your ears. What are you gonna do? Irvin Levine & L. Russell Brown wrote a catchy tune. And they had already had some Dawn hits, Knock Three Times & Candida. Irvin also co-wrote This Diamond Ring with Al Kooper, a hit with Gary & the Playboys in 1965.

The meaning and origin of the lyrics have taken on a life of their own. Supposedly inspired by a true story from a New York Post article about a convict riding a bus home from prison awaiting a yellow handkerchief on his arrival, this was also been widely disputed. In fact the songwriters were sued by the author of that newspaper story until they proved that they got the idea from additional sources in the military. The significance of a yellow ribbon has its origins date back to the Civil War. A woman would wear a yellow ribbon in her hair in honor of husband or ‘sweetheart’ who’d be off to war. In this song, a guy is getting released from a 3-year prison stint. He writes his lover ahead of time to let her know and ask if she still wants him. Rather than await an answer, he asks her to tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree. I’ll assume she knows which one. That’s pretty much the song. And during a time of military strife in Vietnam, I wonder how many soldiers coming home, facing the scorn of many for their duty served, heard the song and asked the same request. It’s a simple of song of redemption and forgiveness, such by a guy who only 3 years before used an alias on a song which hit the Top 10, because he was afraid of what folks might think.

Hearing this song as a kid appealed to me because of it’s childlike musicality and it’s sing-song nature, even though the lyrics are better fully understood by adults. But the part near the end which slows down and the whole damn bus is cheering cause the guy can’t believe that not only did he get one yellow ribbon, he got 99 more….damn that still gets me. I have no idea why. But if gets a hardened soul like me, it makes sense why it got 2 million others that year. And why the yellow ribbon symbol was used during the Iran Hostage crisis, during the Gulf War and for suicide awareness as well as a symbol used around the world.

Oh I forgot the best part. Tony was about to give up the music business after the hits starting drying up in 1972. But he decided to give it one final try with a song he wasn’t that thrilled about recording – a song which 40 years later continues to have a global impact.

2 Comments
by adrianqiana on October 23, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged , ,

Posted by adrianqiana on October 23, 2013

https://70spop.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/tie-a-yellow-ribbon-round-the-old-oak-tree-by-dawn-featuring-tony-orlando-bell-1973/

Back When My Hair Was Short by Gunhill Road (Kama Sutra, 1973)

grbwmhws45

Every time I took the 5 train up to Bronx, I would stare at large map on the wall of the subway, following the green line to a stop that I would never travel up to: Gun Hill Road. It was a long stretch of road that went from Van Cortland Park to the Hutchinson Parkway. I wondered if the band of the same name had lived there, grew up there, formed the band and struggled there. But I found out many years later that the Westchester, NY band named themselves after the stop and had nothing else to do with that thoroughfare except passing it on the IRT trains they rode in the late 60s.

This version was from their 3rd and final LP which itself was a re-recording of a track from their 2nd LP, produced by the groovy cat from the First Edition, Kenny Rogers, back when his hair was long and his fingers weren’t greasy from roasted chickens. The original lyrics had lots of drug references, including selling weed to kids, and tripping on acid. Talking about being a hippie freak whacked out on drugs, all the while doling out the love, but having short hair was just another way of saying that ‘it ain’t about what grows out of your head, but what grows out of your heart, man.’ A hippie? With short hair? How can that be…harumph, harumph….

They cleaned up the track and made it sound like a guy who has grown up and is reminiscing about life as a teenager and wouldn’t you know it, it hit #40 in June of 1973. Aw shucks, Richie.

But that would be it for the trio who disappeared with no new recordings or whereabouts. Maybe they’re riding the 5 train into work down to the financial district, writing a new tune called Back When I Had Some Hair…..

1 Comment
by adrianqiana on January 10, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged ,

Posted by adrianqiana on January 10, 2013

https://70spop.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/back-when-my-hair-was-short-by-gunhill-road-kama-sutra-1973/

Also Sprach Zarathustra by Deodato (CTI, 1973)

If you’re gonna record a cover song, why bother with another Motown or Beatles retread? That was the thinking of Brazilian arranger, Eumir Deodato. He went all the back to the late 1890’s with a reworking of Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathrustra. As groundbreaking as the record may seem, Deodato had the benefit of Tom Parker testing the audience for classical remakes, when Apollo 100 took a Joy into the Top 5 the year before. And Also had the benefit of being recently reintroduced into the mainstream via Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi epic, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Nevertheless the public ate it up and the song rolled up to #2 in March 1973, held off only by Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly With His Song. [Wow, we sure were into drama back then…] It was the biggest hit for Creed Taylor CTI label, a jazz label that would delve further into fusion as the decade rolled on. Jazz crossover to the pop charts was getting very close to extinction in the 70s, unless you could get real funky, like the Crusaders or Chuck Mangione. Even George Benson, the ultimate 70s jazz crossover star and former CTI label mate, would have to smooth out his sound and lean heavily on the R&B side in order to get having hits.

Strauss, on the other hand, had passed away almost 30 years before this hit. Also was a tone poem which written and first performed in 1896, immediately becoming a cultural favorite in Germany. Deodato’s version, as well as Kubrick, only reworks the first part called Sunrise. As the pop charts became increasingly rules by soul songs, the timing was right for this Rhodes-fueled piece of jazz funk. Plus Grandma could be OK with young kids listening to it, believing that they were getting a piece of culture by listening to classical music, no matter the form. The 45 was 5 minutes long, an eternity for tightly programmed AM station playlists. I recommend the full 9 minute album version, which actually is only 20 minutes less than Strauss’ performance.

It also laid out a blueprint for future disco songs by Walter Murphy [A Fifth of Beethoven] as well as the jam-laden Saturday Night Fielder. [I always got him & Colonel Sanders mixed up as a kid.]

Deodato was a one hit wonder on the pop charts, but has hit the pop charts as arranger & producer, including with current artist such as Bjork and k.d. Lang. His biggest success was when Kool & the Gang abandoned the funk, hired a permanent lead singer and asked Eumir to producer their LPs starting in 1979, making the band one of the biggest forces in the Top 40 in the early to mid 80s.

Leave a comment
by adrianqiana on October 21, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged ,

Posted by adrianqiana on October 21, 2012

https://70spop.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/also-sprach-zarathustra-by-deodato-cti-1973/

Half Breed by Cher (MCA, 1973)

I like Cher – as an actress. I think she adds her a very lonely and dark element to most of her characters aided by her thin nose and sometimes long gaunt face. There’s something about her presence on film that can be engaging. Her music on the other hand makes me laugh uncontrollably, esp her solo work in the 70s. I’d like to think that there was a deeper, Dadaist meaning behind some of those songs, but I highly doubt it.

Sonny & Cher kicked off a pretty good career in music, with Cher (and even Sonny) having a solo career at the same time. But by 1968 both acts couldn’t get a hit to save their lives. Seemed like they ran their depressing hippie image into the ground. Then the duo turned to TV after CBS exec Fred Silverman caught their act and thought it would be a great variety show. And it was. The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour was awesome. And it reminded the world that this couple was happening and entertaining. It also gave steady jobs to Steve Martin & Terri Garr on their way to stardom (even the Unknown Comic, who was one of my faves as a kid and a recurring Halloween costume) Who could forget Sonny & Cher’s faces on those lamplights in the background? Far out, man.

This was the perfect vehicle to relaunch their music careers. But obviously this went to their (mostly Sonny’s) head to the point that their decision-making processes were all over the place. Who would have thought that Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves would be a hit? I have no words – but I will another time. This was also the time that Cher really started to over sing with that Banshee warble as if she was always on stage. Cher got away with it. For some reason we bought it. And Sonny began viewing Cher like a long dark dollar sign in a Bob Mackie dress.

So he began requesting ‘better’ material for Cher (should have done that in the first place). When producer Snuff Garrett gave them a demo of the Bobby Russell-penned, The Night The Lights When Out in Georgia, Sonny had a conniption. ‘What kind of crap is this?’ Sonny cried. ‘You’re gonna piss off everyone in the South? We want people to like Cher!’. ‘Screw you midget’ replied Snuff and he quit as their producer. Meanwhile The Night… went on to be a #1 hit for Bobby’s wife, Vicki Lawrence. (Between you & me, I think Cher’s voice would have overshadowed the song and taken away from its mystique. It needed a demo-like reading which it got from Vicki)

Unbeknownst to either party Al Capps & Mary Dean were finishing up a song they had specifically written for Cher and were getting to give it to Snuff Garrett. Snuff heard the song and loved it and said he would pass it on. But as he wasn’t working with Cher or Sonny anymore, he had a problem.

This is proof that God exists. He tried to keep Cher & Snuff from working together, knowing what the disastrous end result would be. But then God turned around, shifted his focus to OPEC…and this happened…

Who bought this record? Why? Please tell me.

3 Comments
by adrianqiana on July 13, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged ,

Posted by adrianqiana on July 13, 2012

https://70spop.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/half-breed-by-cher-mca-1973/

My Maria by B.W. Stevenson (RCA, 1973)

Imagine ol’ B.W.’s luck. He records a song that he swears is a sure-fire hit, releases it and it makes the Hot 100. Then some hot shot L.A. band comes along with a slicker version and sashays up to #3 while stomping the life out of B.W.’s 45. The band was Three Dog Night and the song was Shambala. B.W. was so pissed he called up the write of Shambala and said, ‘Write me another Shambala and make it quick. Shee-it, I’ll even help you out to speed the process along.‘

The songwriter, Daniel Moore and B.W. sat down and wrote My Maria that while not exactly an entire rip-off, was similar enough to fool the public that A.) Three Dog Night had a new hit or B.) that they had misheard the chorus and they were singing Ma-ree-eeee–eeee–eee-ee-ya and not ah-wa-ooh-yee-ooh-yee-yee-ya. Either way, B.W. took his shambala’d Maria into the Top 10 only 3 months after Three Dog Night was there.

Ol B.W. never made it back to the Top 40, most likely because Three Dog Night didn’t have many more songs to ripoff. But his legend lives on in two ways. First after he died in 1988, a bar in Dallas, Texas names Poor David’s Pub has held a songwriting competition in his honor that exists to this day. And the #1 Country song of the year in 1996 was Brooks & Dunn’s version of that burst of spite.

By the way, there’s a lot of debate over what the B.W. stands for. Some say it’s Big Winner or Blooming Wonder or even Barry White. Actually no one says of that. It stood for Buck Wheat, ok? O-tay!

2 Comments
by adrianqiana on April 19, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged ,

Posted by adrianqiana on April 19, 2012

https://70spop.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/my-maria-by-b-w-stevenson-rca-1973/

Hocus Pocus by Focus (Sire, 1973)

How can you not get amped listening to this song? How many Dusters exceeded the speed limit when this popped up on the radio? How did it take FIFA almost 40 years to include it on a soccer ad? [Probably wanted to avoid the eventual riot.] I mean, how can you go wrong with huge power chords followed by mini drum solos with in between breaks that include yodeling, whistling, a flute solo and an accordion solo? That’s about the only thing that gives it away that we’re dealing with a band from the Netherlands. They might as well have recorded the sound of a windmill shooshing or a leaky dike.

I would be very surprised if that flute solo from Thijs van Leer didn’t inspire Will Ferrell’s performance in Anchorman during the nightclub scene. It sounds crazy and menacing and ridiculous, almost demonic. Maybe it was too over the top for The Exorcist soundtrack, but it wasn’t too far off.

Trying to find the origin of this single is another matter, one of many contradicting tales and various record labels. In fact it’s hard to figure out which version we were even listening to. Was this Hocus Pocus I or II? I think it was II, but released in the US as simply Hocus Pocus. To say there was nothing like it on the radio was an understatement.

The most consistent version of the son’s origin comes from guitarist Jan Akkerman, who said they just created it as a joke, kinda making fun of a lot serious progressive rock bands. [A joke… where have we heard that before?] Laugh, laugh, laugh, it did, all the way up into the Top 10 in the Summer of 1973. Maybe it was so popular because DJs loved saying, “Here’s Hocus Pocus by Focus. It’s so loud, it woke us.”

Leave a comment
by adrianqiana on February 21, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged ,

Posted by adrianqiana on February 21, 2012

https://70spop.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/hocus-pocus-by-focus-sire-1973/

Photograph by Ringo Starr (Apple, 1973)

John, Paul & George breathed a sigh of relief and voiced their praise when Ringo’s It Don’t Come Easy hit the Top 10 in early 1971. His success put the other 3 guys at ease about their solo careers. Not because they thought Ringo sucked, but because he was as seasoned a songwriter as the other 3. Plus they knew he would need help, since he only play the drums, where the other 3 played any number of instruments.

So when Ringo was recording his follow-up album to Beaucoup of Blues, he enlisted the help of all three Beatles who worked separately on a different tracks. (All 4 do not appear together on any track on the album) George’s influence seemed to shine through the most, especially on Ringo’s 1st #1 hit, Photograph. It’s almost as if George asked Ringo to sing lead on a cut from one of his albums. Ringo concentrated on singing and shared drum duty with Jim Keltner. And although, he shares co-writing credit on this tune, he acknowledges that George was just being nice and that maybe he suggested a few things, but this was pretty much a George Harrison track. Just as you can feel Paul’s’ goofiness via a kazoo solo on You’re Sixteen, George’s 12 string & vocals are stamped on Photograph.

That’s why it’s my favorite Ringo 45. Photograph was the closest we were ever gonna get to a Beatles collaboration. And if you disqualify All Those Years Ago, the John Lennon elegy written by George and featuring the 3 remaining members, it’s the only quality one we would hear.
It’s very different than any others in the Richard Starkey catalogue. He seemed to either favor covers or silly sounding songs and that can really only take you so far.

Leave a comment
by adrianqiana on January 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged ,

Posted by adrianqiana on January 17, 2012

https://70spop.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/photograph-by-ringo-starr-apple-1973/

Behind Closed Doors by Charlie Rich (Epic, 1973)

People love it when I sing Charlie Rich at karaoke. And 4 whiskeys in I always oblige. My go to number: Behind Closed Doors, the song that took Charlie from a struggling rockabilly artist to the Countrypolitan life and the Billboard Top 20. And he did this in his 40s, garnering the nickname he’d have for the rest of his life: the Silver Fox. Of course, I can’t do this Kenny O’Dell-penned tune justice like Charlie. Mostly because it’s hard to play those jazzy country licks on the piano with a drink in my hand. And karaoke doesn’t require it. But if it did, I still never capture that easygoing vocal that won a couple of Grammys as well as the CMA single & song of the year back in 1973. Oh, Charlie was the man and all it took was one song, 13 years after his first Top 40 hit, Lonely Weekends.

Many Rich fans thought they’d be losing good ol’ Arkansas Charlie to the city life of Nashville. Yes, that was a concern. Could he keep his old fans and expand his base to get new ones. I think the fact that he sold 2 million copies of this single and it ranks as the #9 country single of all time, based on Country Music Television’s, 100 Greatest Country songs of All Time should settle that. But it’s the performance that truly matters.

When the record drops and those three chords are played high up on the piano, every couple in the honky-tonk, at a wedding or a prom rushed onto the dance floor, so that they could stare into each other eyes in time for when Charlie sings:

My baby makes me proud, Lord don’t she make me proud

And what makes Charlie proud is that his lady keeps it cool, plays her cards close to the chest, especially when she’s around other folks. She’s always a lady, but just one times a lady. [Lionel Richie gets the women that are three times.] Cause people like to talk trash, and she doesn’t give them anything to talk about. But when the lights go off and doors are closed, she’s a super freak. She lets her down and reminds Charlie of his manhood. And there’s where he stops, cause he’s a gentlemen. Many people have speculated, few have wondered, but no one really knows what goes on behind closed doors. I know when Congress closes their doors, it feels like their having sex with me.

Leave a comment
by adrianqiana on December 9, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged ,

Posted by adrianqiana on December 9, 2011

https://70spop.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/behind-closed-doors-by-charlie-rich-epic-1973/

Stuck In The Middle With You by Stealers Wheel (A&M, 1973)

Never has a joke made someone so rich. Stuck In the Middle With You was conceived as a Dylan parody of sorts, by Joe Egan & Gerry Rafferty. But the tune is so catchy and it’s sung so straightforward, no one got the joke. Instead it sold over million copies and hit the Top 10 in 1973. It also would have haunted Gerry for his entire life, had it been his only hit. (Instead Baker Street make him rich & depressed.)

Gerry does a great Dylan interpretation, especially when he sing lines like, fall off my chaaair. You can almost visualize Bob’s sneer as he would strain for those high notes. And how did anyone miss the clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right line as Dylanesque? Rafferty & Egan may have just ripped Dylan off and when the song became a big hit, covered their tracks by saying it was a joke.

Lyrically I can’t tell if it’s a song about a drunk that’s wondering how he’ll get down the stairs or if it’s a guy who’s hanging out with his newly successful but insufferable friend. Maybe he’s playing a raucous game of Mahjong. Either way I don’t think Dylan wrote anything this good in the 70s. Hey put down that knife…I’m entitled to my opinion.

4 Comments
by adrianqiana on October 28, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged , ,

Posted by adrianqiana on October 28, 2011

https://70spop.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/stuck-in-the-middle-with-you-by-stealers-wheel-1973/

Wildflower by Skylark (Capitol, 1973)

Skylark was a Canadian band that benefited from a Canadian law and a Victoria police officer to have a Top 10 hit in the US. It was also the first taste of success for future songwriter/producer, David Foster, who played keyboards int the band. David had a friend who was a cop named David Richardson. He had written a poem about his girlfriend and passed it along to the band. Guitarist Doug Edwards wrote some music to the tenders lyrics and Skylark recorded it for their debut LP in 1972.

Another track, What Would I Do Without You, was released as the first single from their album, but it flopped. But Skylark has the Canadian law on their side. In 1971 the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission made it a requirement for radio & TV broadcasters to play a certain percentage of Canadian produced entertainment. At AM radio station, CKLW, program director Roaslie Trombley decided to satisfy this requirement by playing this song constantly for 3 months when no one else was which made Capitol think about releasing it across the fence in Detroit. And from there it spread across the country like wildflower…see, AM radio used to have the power!

In the wrong hands this song could’ve sounded like a sad Hallmark card. But singer Donny Gerard wraps his soulful voice, slinking around and through the words like an acrobat, wringing every bit of emotion that Dave the Policeman felt when writing those lyrics. Many folks have covered this song, but no one comes close to Donny’s delivery. One unintended lyrical faux-pas: after a sympathetic plea to understand the hard life this woman has, he refers to her as his ‘one possession’ – can’t imagine that went over well with the Feminist movement.

Plus if you have it in you, it’s a great song to wow the crowds at your local karaoke haunt.

1 Comment
by adrianqiana on October 7, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged ,

Posted by adrianqiana on October 7, 2011

https://70spop.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/wildflower-by-skylark-capitol-1973/

« Older Posts