parlando

seventies survival, update four

Posted on July 17th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Songs, 70s Survival.

[I am listening to the top 1000 singles of the 1970s (as determined by Billboard) on shuffle play on my mp3 player, and gradually weeding out the songs I don't want to hear anymore.]

Jud Strunk, Daisy a Day
I don't remember hearing this before. Strunk was a Laugh-In regular, and died in a plane crash in 1977. "Daisy a Day" is one of those toothless, cheerful novelty songs that had their last hurrah in the mid-70s. I let it come up a second time, out of duty.

Paul McCartney & Wings, Helen Wheels
The most forgettable song on Band on the Run.

Charley Pride, Kiss an Angel Goodbye
Nice sentiment, dull song. "And the answer is in this song that I always sing" is the sound of a songwriter yawning (Ben Peters -- best known for writing "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" -- who wrote twelve number one country hits and won a Grammy for this one).

Kenny Rogers, The Gambler
It would be a lot more helpful if you would tell me when I ought to hold 'em and when I ought to fold 'em, you addlepated old-timer.

Apollo 100, Joy
I had forgotten this thing existed. "A Fifth of Beethoven" I can enjoy for its exuberant corniness and the chutzpah of inserting an original disco bridge into the tune; "Joy" is just straightforwardly, cheesily awful. I believe it's a genuine one-hit wonder (as opposed to a VH-1 one-hit wonder).

Mary MacGregor, Torn Between Two Lovers
A polyamorous lament. Jason Hare and his readers were astonished at the gall of the narrator in asking her lover to stay even though she acknowledged she was "breaking all the rules". I think it's a welcome twist to the usual predictable pop-song narrative, but I still don't want to hear the song anymore. Cowritten by Peter Yarrow, though not presumably about Paul and Mary.

Diana Ross, Ain't No Mountain High Enough
Ashford and Simpson were great melodicists but uninspired lyricists, and the melodramatic spoken vocals here don't do the lyrics any favors. Historically overshadowed by the Gaye/Terrell original, though Ross's was a much bigger hit.

Elvis Presley, The Wonder of You
I have a weakness for songs in 6/8, and the increasingly emphatic choral vocals during the guitar break and at the climax are good for a couple laughs. According to Wikipedia, "The song has been adopted by English Football team Port Vale F.C. who run out to the song at the start of their home matches. The song is also sung by the club's fans throughout their matches." O-kay.

Donna Fargo, Funny Face
Near the top of the list of forbidden rhymes: "leave me" and "believe me". Fargo's near-lisping of her s's is an annoying affectation. The verses are so perfunctory that they're clearly only there as a skeleton upon which to hang the long, luxurious chorus.. You don't hear much about Donna Fargo today -- she was born Yvonne Vaughn, should've kept the name -- but she was a major country star in the 70s, even had her own TV show for a season, and wrote most of her own hits, including this one.

Alice Cooper, You and Me
Cooper's descent into schmaltz was surprisingly successful for a while; this is one of at least three adult contemporary hits he had after making his mark as a schlock-rocker. None of them are awful musically, though one expects this kind of thing more from Kenny Nolan. Cooper's a pretty bad sensitive singer, though, and he trips over his cliches into bathos with every other line: "I wanna take you to heaven; that would make my day complete" is the silliest by a hair. The vocal melodic jump into the chorus is reasonably pretty, and the details of the piano and the lead guitar are nice in several places. The song fades on the verse, which is also nice. The break for the strings, though, is nauseating.

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