CHART ATTACK! #48: 10/8/77
You see? You see? I told you I wasn’t gone forever! Well, if I’m going to make you wait a couple of weeks for a new Friday post, I might as well give you what you want and head back to the ’70s. (I hope to eventually make you regret this.) Let’s get right to attacking October 8, 1977!
10. I Just Want To Be Your Everything – Andy Gibb Amazon iTunes
9. Brick House – Commodores Amazon iTunes
8. Cold As Ice – Foreigner Amazon iTunes
7. Boogie Nights – Heatwave Amazon iTunes
6. Best Of My Love – Emotions Amazon iTunes
5. That’s Rock ‘N’ Roll – Shaun Cassidy Amazon iTunes
4. Nobody Does It Better – Carly Simon Amazon iTunes
3. You Light Up My Life – Debby Boone Amazon iTunes
2. Keep It Comin’ Love – KC & The Sunshine Band Amazon iTunes
1. Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band – Meco Amazon iTunes
10. I Just Want To Be Your Everything – Andy Gibb
I reiterate what I said previously: screw Andy Gibb. I mean, did this guy do anything without Barry’s help? This is a freaking Bee Gees song. Just like “Shadow Dancing,” “(Love Is) Thicker Than Water” and the rest of his nine hits to make the Top 40. Actually, that’s not completely fair; I think he had a hand in writing maybe two of them. But I still say screw Andy Gibb for using Barry’s songs to buy more cocaine. I’ve tried to think of at least one thing that Andy has over Barry, but all I could come up with is that I don’t think the Bee Gees ever appeared on a television special with ABBA and Olivia Newton-John.
[youtube]hhW68WE8F8s[/youtube]
Right? Aren’t you having a hard time figuring out whether it’s awful or awesome?
9. Brick House – Commodores
Now we’re talking! Yes! I don’t know what I can say about the awesomeness of “Brick House” – one of those songs that, for me, will never be overplayed – except that Songfacts has some interesting facts about the tune, including the one that’s included on a million hit songs: the “this was the last song written for the album, we swear we weren’t even going to put it on there” line. (Although if William King’s wife really did write the lyrics and leave them on his chest while he was sleeping, like some kind of Funk Santa Claus, that’s awesome.)
This song has been featured on a million soundtracks, and although my life was forever changed (and not for the better) when I heard the Muppets sing it during Muppets From Space, I think the most interesting use of the song would be the collaboration between Rob Zombie, Trina (?) and Lionel Richie on the soundtrack for Zombie’s House Of 1000 Corpses. Here it is. You’re welcome.
Rob Zombie, Lionel Richie and Trina – Brick House 2003 (download)
I can’t exactly figure out why Richie agreed to this (especially since he wasn’t the lead singer – or writer of the song), but it’s actually not that bad. I wouldn’t listen to it at work, though. Quite a few orgasm sounds. Aunt Mary, if you’re reading this, don’t download this song. There are orgasm sounds.
8. Cold As Ice – Foreigner
It’s hard to argue with early Foreigner, especially when their first album yielded kick-ass rock singles like this one, “Feels Like The First Time” and “Long, Long Way From Home.” They still had another 7 years of rocking before they fully grew breasts. Some people take longer to develop than others.
Here’s a great performance from 1981, back before Lou Gramm ate the other members of the band. I wish I could sing like this. Then I could be a rock star, instead of ripping on rock stars on some stupid website.
[youtube]KWDj_2QxdoQ[/youtube]
7. Boogie Nights – HeatwaveWow. I have never heard this song before. Ever. I don’t know how that happened. In fact, of the three Top 40 hits by Heatwave, the only one I know is “Always And Forever,” which didn’t do as well as “Boogie Nights” or “The Groove Line” (which I also had never heard before today). In any case, back to this song. I kind of love it. Funky, with a rock twist, with some great vocals all around. “Boogie Nights” was the group’s first single, and its highest charting.
The most interesting thing I can think to tell you about Heatwave right now is that Rod Temperton was one of the keyboardists. Rod either wrote or co-wrote a string of awesome songs for Michael Jackson, including “Rock With You,” “Thriller” and “Baby Be Mine” (one of the best off of Thriller, and totally underrated). Oh, he also had a hand in writing “Yah Mo Be There,” “Sweet Freedom,” and “Baby Come To Me,” which wasn’t McD but just as easily could have been McD. And here’s the most surprising thing about Rod Temperton.
WHITE!
6. Best Of My Love – Emotions (download)
Is it possible to hear this song without booty shaking? Especially that fantastic opening? Love this song. I especially loved its prominence in the opening scene of Boogie Nights. Emotions originally consisted of Hutchinson sisters Jeanette, Wanda and Sheila, and the group had a number of R&B hits (as well as a few minor Hot 100 hits) starting in the late ’60s. However, it wasn’t until they teamed up with Earth, Wind & Fire frontman Maurice White that their career took off: White co-wrote and produced “Best Of My Love,” which spent five weeks at the top of the charts. They never replicated their 1977 success, although they came close in their credited collaboration with EWF, “Boogie Wonderland,” in 1979. Jeanette eventually left the group, having had a baby with, um, Philip Bailey of EWF (cue “Easy Lover” joke), but another Hutchinson sister, Pamela, replaced her. Emotions are still around, performing occasionally, and I’m imagining they’re probably pretty pissed that these guys got their domain name.
You know who loves Emotions? Mariah Carey. Her song “Dreamlover” samples one of their early hits (“Blind Alley”) and you can hear “Best Of My Love” all over her appropriately-titled, um, “Emotions.”
5. That’s Rock ‘N’ Roll – Shaun Cassidy
Who the hell elected somebody from the Cassidy family to tell us anything about rock n’ roll? This is bullshit. I hate this song. Hate the drums, hate the cheesy piano, hate the Brady Bunch-esque backing vocals. Hate the fact that he stole this song and “Hey Deanie” from Eric Carmen and made them into hits, while poor Eric Carmen was sitting around without a hit until “Hungry Eyes.” I do like one thing about this song: it’s under three minutes long.
Screw Shaun Cassidy. Screw him and Andy Gibb. Long live Rod Temperton. Here’s a YouTube of the song if you haven’t heard it. Everybody scream!
[youtube]tbog0CxPWsE[/youtube]
4. Nobody Does It Better – Carly Simon
Of course, this was the theme song to the Bond flick The Spy That Loved Me, and was the first of the Bond songs to feature a different title than the movie. I have to admit that I’ve never seen the majority of the Bond movies (you don’t have to lecture me, Jessica does it all the time), so I’m pretty sure my first exposure to this song was via a commercial. (Hangs head.)
I imagine it was pretty uncool to like this song from, oh, about 1985 until 1995, when Radiohead covered it. I can’t be certain, but this very well may be the first time a rock band has covered anything by Marvin Hamlisch.
3. You Light Up My Life – Debby Boone
This song was everywhere for quite a few months. The week after this one, it reached #1, where it remained until Christmas Eve, when the Bee Gees (not Andy, screw that guy) took over. “You Light Up My Life” spent 10 weeks at the top, which at the time was quite a feat: only Elvis was in front of her, with an 11-week streak. The song won boatloads of awards: a Grammy and Oscar for Best Song (awarded to the song’s composer, Joseph Brooks), and a Best New Artist Grammy for Boone. The song was written for the movie of the same name, also directed by Brooks, which received horrible reviews. Thankfully for Boone, however, her version wasn’t featured in the movie. The movie version was sung by Kacey Cisyk. Poor Kacey. Her version peaked at #80 and was credited to “Original Cast.” She didn’t deserve that kind of treatment. Andy Gibb did, but not her.
What say you, Chart Attackers? Will anyone admit to liking this song? It wound up being the #1 song of the entire decade, but I have yet to hear anybody say anything positive about it. Even Brooks was a bit pissed about this version, seeing as Boone came out and told everyone that the “you” in the song was, for her, God. I was reading the Songfacts entry for this song, and came across this fantastic bit:
A man I know has been a DJ for about thirty years. He says that this is the one and only song that nobody ever requests. This song is like Nazism in Germany: It swept the country for a time, but afterward no one would ever admit to having anything to do with it.
Daaaaaamn. Harsh. And yet all I can do is wish I had written it first.
2. Keep It Comin’ Love – KC & The Sunshine Band
“I’m Your Boogie Man” is “Shake, Shake, Shake (Shake Your Booty)” is “Keep It Comin’ Love” is “Get Down Tonight” is…you get the point. In fact, the only popular KC song that sounds different than the others is “Please Don’t Go,” and as we pointed out back in December, that song sucks.
(That above paragraph is taken from Chart Attack! #32. I just blatantly copied what worked last time and decided to pass it off as something new. Seemed appropriate.)
1. Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band – Meco (download)
Okay, I’ll come clean: this is really the only reason I picked this chart for this week. And why the hell not? This song combines two of the biggest events of the year, other than the day of my birth: disco and Star Wars. Two great tastes that…well, maybe I shouldn’t finish that sentence.
Let’s talk about Meco for a bit, though, because I highly doubt we’ll be talking about him on here again. Born Dominic Monardo but nicknamed Meco by, I don’t know, people, grew up playing the trombone like his dear ol’ dad, but like all trombonists, felt the need to give the ol’ middle finger to the world and follow his own path. Like the path of disco. Meco had his first taste of success with his co-production of Gloria Gaynor’s “Never Can Say Goodbye,” co-produced by Tony Bongiovi. (Yes. Jon Bon Jovi is his second cousin. Moving on.) His life was changed when Star Wars was released. According to The MECO Fan Page, Meco “alledges (sic) to have seen it four times more on the second day and more through the weekend.” I include this quote because I love that even the MECO Fan Page thinks Meco is full of shit.
Meco had this great idea for a Star Wars disco medley, and although Neil Bogart at Casablanca Records originally told him to suck it, the Star Wars grosses $omehow per$uaded him to change hi$ mind. “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band” was released on the most awesomest album title ever, Star Wars And Other Galactic Funk.
While we’re on the subject of awesomeness, here’s a picture of Meco.
Kinda gives Hamlisch a run for his money, huh? All he needs is a weird lollipop on his lapel.
Anyway, “Star Wars/Cantina Theme” was a ridiculous success. Lounge lizards and unemployed dweebs couldn’t get enough of it. According to Wiki, and you should know right now that I am too lazy to fact-check this, the song is the biggest-selling instrumental single in the history of recorded music, as well as the only instrumental single ever to go platinum. How this beat out “Rise,” I’ll never know.
Meco went on to record disco versions of other scores, such as the themes from The Wizard Of Oz, Superman, and Star Trek. In 1982 he co-produced Kenny G’s debut solo album, and this is why Meco just beat out Andy Gibb for this week’s CHART ATTACK! D-Bag.
Enjoy this version of “Star Wars/Cantina Theme” (that’s an order, people!) and for you really crazy enthusiasts, I offer you the 12″ Disco Mix, clocking in at damn near sixteen minutes. It’s 14.5 MB, so everybody download one at a time. Thanks!
Meco – Star Wars/Cantina Theme (12″ Disco Mix) (download)
And that’ll do it for this week! Hey, thanks for sticking around. Slowing down the site a little bit allows me to spend more time on these songs. Jury’s still out on whether that’s a good thing. See you again soon for another edition of CHART ATTACK!
October 5th, 2007 at 7:02 am
Hey, Rod Temperton was more than just white, he was from Cleethorpes in the North of England, not exactly funk central.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleethorpes
Now that’s superwhite.
Awesome blog by the way, glad you’ve not totally disappeared.
October 5th, 2007 at 7:10 am
What was the last instrumental to hit the Top 10? Seemed routine in the 70s — this one, A Fifth of Beethoven, the occasional TV theme (SWAT!!). I might guess Miami Vice was the last one, but I’m sure I’m forgetting something.
October 5th, 2007 at 7:49 am
I’m sure I’m slaughtering the spelling of his name, but I’m pretty sure Chuck Mangione’s song went platinum (the flugelhorn hit).
Also, does the fact that the words “Gonna fly now” are sung on the Rocky theme keep that from being considered strictly an instrumental?
I’m guessing that “only instrumental that went platinum” fact is complete BS.
October 5th, 2007 at 8:25 am
Glad to see the chart attack is still alive. “Best Of My Love” is on my desert island top 5 singles.
October 5th, 2007 at 9:23 am
Re: You Light Up My Life.
Perhaps the most WTF?! straight-forward cover of a song EVER:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Agl4IvNnQPo
I’m not going to even say any more….just watch it.
October 5th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Oh…regarding Beau’s question.
the Miami Vice Theme went to Number 1 in the 80s.
“Axel F” was also a top 10 hit (#3).
And (shudder) Kenny G has had a top ten hit (gag) in both the 80s and 90s (bowels release).
October 5th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Oh….forgot one more: Lary & Adam from U2 had their Mission Impossible Theme cover hit the top 10 in 1996. But Kenny G’s (ugh) cover of “Old Lang Syne” is the most (sigh) recent, from 1999 (vomit burp).
October 5th, 2007 at 9:44 am
I figured that instrumental claim was a sketchy one. Thanks for correcting it.
Matthew – that YouTube link is incredible! INCREDIBLE!
October 5th, 2007 at 9:58 am
on the Shaun Cassidy front (if there is such a thing…), was everyone aware that he cut a new wave-ish lp in ’80 with help from Todd Rundgren?
It features weird, uncharacteristic renditions of established rock tracks.
check it out: http://digivinyltal.blogspot.com/2007/08/shaun-cassidy-1980-wasp.html (rapidshare, of course).
not even kidding.
October 5th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Do not hate on “Keep it Comin’ Love.” But if you must, keep delivering lines like “before Lou Gramm ate the other members of the band” and “Rod Temperton–White!”
Seems to me when the “Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk” album was originally released, it contained a 15-minute version of “Star Wars” on side one, and a long composition on side 2 broken into three segments, “Other,” “Galactic,” and “Funk.” C’mon, man, it’s an instrumental—you can name it anything you want.
October 5th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I’ll go this far in defending Boone’s version of “You Light Up My Life”: she sings it simply and well, and anything that’s wrong with the song is not her fault. She has enough confidence in her voice to not show off, and it carries the song.
As for Andy Gibb, well, he was a teenager, right? He may not have written his own songs, but they were still good (have you heard “Everlasting Love”? It’s the most underrated Brothers Gibb song, with a sublime vocal arrangement in the chorus), as opposed to Shaun Cassidy’s drek.
I love KC, but “Keep It Comin’ Love” is where the spark starts to run out, in my opinion.
October 5th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
My parents had the Meco album on vinyl!!! I totally remember that cover!
As for your Andy Gibb hatred, as far I am concerned all Gibb is good Gibb. I Just Wanna Be your everything was #1 on my birthday in August (Jason got Sir Duke, this is totally unfair).
Brilliant CA, I welcome its return.
October 5th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
I will cop to liking that Debbie Boone song.
I was seven when it was released. My sister had just turned four. She used to sing it. A lot. It was cute. That is all.
October 5th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
It’s not “House of 1000 Corpses”?
Fun fact: While at the Eastman School of Music, Meco formed a jazz trio with Ron Carter and…Chuck Mangione. I don’t know what falling out they had which led to this bitter professional rivalry.
October 5th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
You’re right, Richard. Whoops! Thanks!
October 5th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Mr. Depressing time! I have it on good authority that Lou Gramm’s heftiness is due to the medication he takes to prevent re-occurrence of his brain cancer. It bloats him, much like thyroid medication bloated up Jerry Lewis. Here’s hoping the medication doesn’t also turn Lou into a smug, out-of-touch, and slightly hate-filled douchebag… like Jerry Lewis. Sorry, Jerry’s Kids, but it’s true.
October 5th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Oh, dude. I can’t believe you made me look bad. I nominate you as the new Chart Attack! D-Bag.
October 5th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I agree the Patti Smith / “You Light Up my Life” video was incredible.
Too bad it ended too soon… did you see who the next guests on the show were that day? Count Chocula and Adam Rich. What a star-studded lineup!
October 5th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
“Shadow Dancing” was worth all the cocaine in the world.
October 5th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
But then, so was “Fanny (Be Tender With My Love).”
October 5th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Chart Attack D-Bag? :-( … I guess I should be used to it. I WAS the guy who just couldn’t stop picking on the Fogelberg, even after I found out Death’s tyrant hand nearly clasped him (cough, gasp). But, I just couldn’t bear to be the Chart Attack Resident Douche… If I said that McD would have totally rocked as Foreigner’s lead singer, would that alter my status?
October 5th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
“Be Tender With My Love” is actually called “Fanny”? “FANNY”? Yeesh. Does anyone truly believe in the possibility that, in this day and age, new parents could name their kid “Fanny” without, really totally hating kids deep down? I mean, Fanny? Might as well just name your baby daughter “Balloon Knot”.
October 5th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Another good one!!
I bought a lot of these records
First..Is that a picture of MECO or Charles Nelson Rieley.
Andy Gibb. I guess you had to be there..I purchased that record. I played the crap out of it, and 30 years later it still takes me back.
Heatwave..Boogie Nights..Hey no MTV then..Who knew …BOOOGIE NIGHTSS..Bawr Bawr bawr wow ( I’m trying to do the synth bass line)
Shawn Cassidy: again..I guess you had to be there. Watered down rock..when your 10 it’s just right..Too young for ZEP.. an alternative to Disco…geesh..Did you catch him shaking his ass in that vide….and why do all the backing bands in the 70’s have the nerdiest looking musicians…Did you catch Joey Bagodonuts from da Bronx on Sax..HAHA
Again…That picture of MECO is true awesomness.
Meco Star wars Album..Ok Everything in 1976 was saturated with the Bicentenial…god it started in the fall of 75 and rode out the year. Mid 77 till early 79 was a disco everything JOKE..Again..ya had to be there
October 5th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
You just heard “Boogie Nights” and “Groove Line” for the first time today??!?! Sir, today is the first day of the rest of your LIFE. They both fit the disco success criteria: completely danceable and they make you happy, with or without cocaine. I believe Judd Apatow has said that “Groove Line” is his favorite dance tune and he used it wisely in the last episode of “Freaks and Geeks.” I did not know Rod Temperton was/is white.
I own the original vinyl of “Star Wars/Galactic Funk.” My brother and I bought it when Star Wars came out and we played it so much that it sounds pretty thrashed now, but still worth a spin once in a while. This either makes me really cool or really old. I also own my mom’s “Disco Noel” album, which so totally invokes the birth of baby Jesus as set to synthesizers.
http://franklarosa.com/vinyl/Exhibit.jsp?AlbumID=36
Great post–thanks much.
October 6th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Hah ha ha ha! “Disco Noel” and “Salsoul’s Christmas Jollies”. I remember these playing on one of those fold-up record players down at the local Sears (back when they still had music and toy departments). I can speak of these with sentimentality today, but back then all I thought was, “Holy crap, this is awful”.
October 6th, 2007 at 8:48 am
How have I lived without hearing/seeing Radiohead cover Carly Simon? Or Patti Smith cover Debby Boone? Or Rob Zombie cover the Commodores?
You’ve enlightened me again, oh great one. Now go watch Goldfinger or something.
Rob
EightE1
October 6th, 2007 at 8:57 am
LOL! Another great CHART ATTACK, Jason!!!
You light up my life…snicker snicker snort. :D
:)Ross51
October 6th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
I don’t have any weird trivia or clever remarks to add like the other great comments here — just wanted to say that you’re a terrific writer, truly laugh-out-loud (OK, LOL), and I’ve been enjoying the hell out of your site since I first ran across it over the summer. Thanks for the effort you put into this!
Oh, and you’re totally right about “Baby Be Mine.” Overlooked greatness.
October 6th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
My best friend in college was an English major and had to read “Bleak House” for a class. Now I can’t listen to “Brick House” without remembering him singing “She’s a…Bleak..House..yeah!”
October 7th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
i agree with michael above—any gibb is good gibb to me, too. andy sounds just like his brothers, double the gibb pleasure for me.
also, thanks for the youtube w/radiohead playing the carly simon tune. that was great. thom yorke has an awesome voice.
one last thing–my brother and i choreographed a fight scene to the star wars/cantina theme, complete with empty paper towel rolls as light sabers. you don’t have to tell me we were dorks!
October 8th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Jason, I love ya, but OFF Andy Gibb! I’ll tell you two things Andy did that Barry never did. One, he was a sex symbol. And two, he co-hosted one-plus season of “Solid Gold” with Marilyn McCoo. And THREE, he introduced Devo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6lrZBYSAfE
Check out the brief glimpses of the Solid Gold Dancers doing the robot. Best. Show. Ever.
I don’t disagree that Andy never would have been anywhere without his brothers, but I, for one, have great respect for just about anyone who can make girls scream like Andy did. (Though, hypocritically, not for Shaun Cassidy. That just wasn’t right.)
I was working at my first real job, as a reporter/editor/one-man-show at a tiny afternoon newspaper in Virginia, in March 1988 when the newswires reported that Andy had died. I (very professionally) led the paper’s “world news” section with the story, and was shattered for days, if not hours.
1977 was a great year to be a 10-year-old listening to pop music.
October 8th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
[…] sounds like it could be from a 1980s Carla Bley album. “Feels So Good”, as was discussed in the comments at Jason Hare’s weblog recently, is one of the last instrumentals to hit number […]
October 8th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
POPDOSE?
Intrigued …
October 8th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
J, do you not know who Trina is? You’ll shudder when you hear her music – I think all of which comes with a parental advisory. It should also come with a can of Lysol.
Just to weigh in, KC and the Sunshine Band, no matter how identical their songs, were as sweet as Splenda. I adore Keep It Comin Love, even if it does have maybe 5-10 words in the whole song that aren’t “Keep” or “It” or “Comin” or “Love.”
Have you seen KC lately? Wow. He and David Lee Roth somehow seem so similar in their post-incredible-career choice of attire. Just my opinion, y’all, based upon memory – which can be faulty.
Glad Chart Attack! is back.
October 8th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
I’m sure we can all think of something else Andy Gibb did that Barry never did.
October 8th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Well, now you’re being rude to Victoria Principal, and we just can’t have that….
October 8th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Oh, and one late, final comment on this chart:
“Nobody Does it Better” is one of my favorite songs of all time.
And I’m neither a Simon or Hamilsch fan.
It’s just that damn good.
October 9th, 2007 at 5:00 am
Yep I totally remember that Bee Gees hit FANNY (Be Tender With My Love). Was in the Top 10 in January or February of 1976 (future CHART ATTACK! idea… can’t wait to see your take on FANNY, Jason!).
Let’s also not forget the all-girl band of the early 70s named FANNY… they cracked the Top 40 in the fall of 1971 with “Charity Ball” (which actually went Top Five on both WLS and Super CFL in Chicago that fall).
October 9th, 2007 at 5:04 am
Whoops… just checked Wiki… Fanny only got as high as #12 on Billboard (sigh).
October 9th, 2007 at 8:09 am
The Meco 45 was a favorite in my household with myself and my two older sisters; we all loved the R2D2 sound effect right before the Cantina Band section starts. I also loved the disco version he did for the Empire Strikes Back as well, which went top 20.
And it’s true-you pretty much never hear You Light Up My Life on oldies radio. Thank God. (bah dum bump)
October 9th, 2007 at 11:06 am
If only Debbie sang like this.
October 9th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Fanny’s song “All Mine,” produced by Todd Rundgren, is a gem. I only know about them because that song is featured on Rhino’s “An Elpee’s Worth of Productions,” devoted to the Runt’s production work in the ’70s and ’80s.
No one’s mentioned the David Arnold/Aimee Mann version of “Nobody Does It Better” yet? That’s the best version of the song that I’ve ever heard.
October 9th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Andy Gibb also guest-starred on “Punky Brewster” as himself, MC-ing a little-girl beauty contest. He sang “Thank Heaven For Little Girls” while wearing red leather pants. You could tell he was hurting for the coke money at that point and he died a few years after. Very sad all around. Andy, we will miss you and your Shadow Dancing (a quote stolen from the fanzine Ben is Dead).
October 10th, 2007 at 10:56 am
I have no problem with Andy Gibb. Sure, Barry helped him out a lot, but Barry helped out a lot of people in the ’70s.
October 10th, 2007 at 11:21 am
I love all the comments this week. And this was a great Chart Attack too.
Jason, I haven’t seen that many James Bond movies either. I don’t think I’ve seen a single Sean Connery entry all the way through, which I realize is blasphemy. My brother used to rent the Roger Moore entries all the time when I was younger, so I’m most familiar with those. I do have a soft spot for 1989’s “Licence to Kill,” the least successful Bond movie, for some reason. The world was not kind to you, Timothy Dalton. Some say the best Bond movie is “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” featuring one-hit Bond wonder George Lazenby.
I thought “The Groove Line” was “The Blue Line” for a long, long time. Now that I live in Chicago and the elevated-train system has a Blue Line, I’m very disappointed about the actual title of the song. Temperton wrote the synth-heavy score for 1986’s “Running Scared,” the movie that features “Sweet Freedom” and was shot in Chicago.
October 11th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
A couple of things:
1. That You Tube clip with Olivia/ABBA/Andy was the best musical TV moment I’ve never seen.
2. If you guys ever cover the Star Wars/Cantina Theme in one of your sets, can I play the lasers and light sabers? I promise to dress like Meco for the performance.
October 22nd, 2007 at 2:50 pm
RE: way late on this, but I have a story about the Star Wars/Cantina Theme.
I found the actual 12″ record in my older brother’s abandoned record collection and took with me back to college in 1998. It was an amazing novelty (picture angry 2am revelry after striking out at a party or bar) until I somehow managed to drop it on the ground and step on it/snap it in one fell swoop…I wouldn’t say “somehow”…i was pretty loaded.
Never again did I think I would recover that song.
thanks!
October 29th, 2007 at 4:01 am
Useless tidbit for the day: if you look really close at the end of the movie THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY, you can see the dj slipping a record into a “Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk” LP jacket.
November 10th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Actually there IS one other KC and the Sunshine Band song that was different sounding yet still pretty popular… BOOGIE SHOES. This tune with a nice funky groove wasn’t a huge Top 10 smash (it was originally the b-side of “Shake Your Booty”) but it got a bit of new life from being featured in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and was re-released as a single in the spring of 1978 (reaching #35 on the Billboard Hot 100) and still gets quite a bit of airplay on Saturday night retro dance party shows.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:48 am
Your post about Lou Gramm for 10-8-77. Yes, I agree Foreigner was very talented, and Lou Gramm was a great singer. However, I do have to say that he still is a great singer, and that comment you made about that he “ate the other band members” was pretty cheap. I mean, come on. Do you even have any idea what the guy has gone through? Do you? Probably not, because if you really knew, then as a human being, you would not be ripping on him. So I’ll tell you what he went through. In April of 1997, he underwent surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. The radiation and medications he’s taken as caused some weight gain. But I’m very happy to say that he’s lost a lot of that weight, and he’s lookin’ great now. So before you start ripping on people, why not take a look into their story?
July 15th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Wow, no one requested Debbie Boone’s You light up my life and it stayed at #1 for 10 weeks!
July 15th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
wow, you light up my life did not get that much requests and it stayed at #1 for 10 weeks!
November 27th, 2009 at 5:02 am
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