Grab any record chart from any August and up at the top, you’re guaranteed to find several dog-day anthems from whatever year you’ve chosen. Down toward the bottom, however, you’ll find songs that were new in the height of summer, but which scaled the charts in September and October. Since I’m all about autumn, those are the songs I’m drawn to, but I’ll try to maintain some sense of balance while we check out the survey from KUPD in Tempe, Arizona, dated August 12, 1974.
1. “Rock the Boat”/Hues Corporation. “Rock the Boat” is a pretty good three minutes in all, but the last 30 seconds of “Rock the Boat” is as glorious as Top 40 ever got. (The video, however, is another matter. At least the sound is good.)
11. “Wildwood Weed”/Jim Stafford. Oh, the stuff Jim Stafford got away with in 1974. “My Girl Bill” started off like the Top 40s’ first openly gay love song; then came “Wildwood Weed,” which is about backwoods marijuana farmers. Damn, I miss the ’70s.
21. “Eyes of Silver”/Doobie Brothers. The album What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits contains the Number-One single “Black Water,” which was, believe it or not, the third single from the album. “Another Park Another Sunday” barely squeaked into the Top 40, and “Eyes of Silver” missed it entirely. Beats me why, because both are prime examples of Tom Johnston-era Doobs, every bit as tasty as “Listen to the Music,” “Long Train Runnin’,” and “China Grove.”
25. “Rock Me Gently”/Andy Kim. In which the songwriter who was already a bubblegum immortal for co-writing “Sugar Sugar” and who scored a couple of superb bubblegum hits of his own achieves chart immortality with an eventual Number-One single.
30. “Free Man in Paris”/Joni Mitchell. Another gem from Court and Spark, in which record mogul (and Mitchell’s onetime agent) David Geffen has a good time on vacation. There’s lots of big talent on the record besides Joni: Tom Scott on flute, Jose Feliciano on guitar, Graham Nash and David Crosby on vocals. It wasn’t a particularly big hit (#22 in Billboard, late in September), but it sounded great on the radio then, and it still does. Or it would, if anybody would play it.
“Wildwood Weed”/Jim Stafford (buy it here)
“Free Man in Paris”/Joni Mitchell (buy it here)
Filed under: Record Charts, Tracks
KUPD-AM is now KDUS “The Fan AM 1060.” It’s FM counterpart still sports the KUPD call letters and plays active rock.
Dave Pratt was the long-time morning man at 98 KUPD before he morphed into a country jock at KMLE Country 108. How does THAT happen?
Like you, Autumn is very evocative for me. With September just around the corner, I’ve been thinking I shall have to put a playlist together for the journeys to and from work as the mornings stay sunny but get a little fresher and the nights start to draw in. I’m thinking: Amoureuse – Kiki Dee, Couldn’t get it right – Climax Blues Band, Backfield in motion – Mel and Tim… Rock the boat and Rock me gently could be there, we didn’t get any of those Doobie Brothers singles over here in the UK. Free man in Paris is more a part of Court and Spark for me and I didn’t buy that till ‘76 when the money from a summer job allowed me free reign in HMV! Jim Stafford: never heard of this one! My girl Bill – yes, and I picked that up on one of your Rhino compilations when I was in New York a few years ago… but I’m after Spiders and snakes! If you could see your way to posting that… I’d be very grateful!
If jb doesn’t mind, I can help you out with Spiders & Snakes, Phil.
Go for it, Willie. Not much time for me to blog this week, I’m afraid.
Reading the survey pulled up some powerful images of finishing out the summer at the A&W and getting ready for my junior year in high school. Only 2 years before Platteville! Your title is what really caught my eye and memory. I immediately thought of an old roommate now gone on. Bless you for struggling to keep the human touch in radio.