[MPIPM 2/???] 1970 2nd Quarter Ranked
Nov. 4th, 2020 05:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
damontAfter a considerably longer than expected break between post 1 and this one, because reasons, the My Past In Popular Music series returns with the next ranking. With the previously posted ground rules in mind, let's look at the 2nd quarter of 1970: Billboard's weeks ending April 4th through June 27th, 13 weeks total. As I did last time, I'm looking at somewhere between the top 20 and 30, wherever the biggest gap in the ranking points happens to be. For this quarter, that obvious gap was between numbers 23 and 24, so the top 23 it is! (NOTE: Within a tier, the songs are listed in no particular order.)
Which Way You Goin' Billy? -- The Poppy Family
In all honesty, this almost got put in the Bad tier. This strikes me as a weak song, and the voice of Susan Jacks is only okay; likewise the rest of the band and the production. Not nearly strong enough to overcome the shortcomings of the song. I wasn't a fan of it at the time, and it hasn't aged particularly well. This might slip down a tier when it's time for the year-end list. I don't see how this became a Number 2 hit, but then I look at some of the songs that actually reached Number One over the years and am reminded of just how much worse than this the American public's lapses in taste can be.
For the Love of Him -- Bobbi Martin
This country-pop song was on the saccharine side even in 1970: by which I mean it sounds not just overly sweet, but a bit artificially so. Not that other country and country-pop songs weren't just as sugary back then. There's plenty of examples. But this one, by having been a big enough crossover hit, gets a bit more scrutiny... and WOW these lyrics have aged badly. I originally placed it in the Decent tier, but the song just kept getting less and less decent to my half-century-later ears with repeated listens So it got dropped to this tier.
Get Ready -- Rare Earth
Rare Earth was the first ROCK group signed to the Motown group. Motown even started a new label for rock groups, named after this band. A lot of Rare Earth's sings were rock arrangements of Motown classics, including this old Temptations hit. It was certainly popular (#8 on the Billboard year-end 100) but the production seems a little too ragged, so it didn't quite make it to the Good tier.
Everything Is Beautiful -- Ray Stevens
Country music's equivalent of "Weird Al" Yankovic, Ray Stevens took a break from comedic records to record this inspirational tune, which soft-sells its anti-racist message. People ate it up; it spent two weeks at Number One on the Hot 100 in May and June and ended up at #12 on the year-end list. I've heard this song get bad reviews elsewhere recently but I have to respect it, at least enough to call it decent.
Cecilia -- Simon & Garfunkel
Paul Simon initially thought this would be the biggest single off S&G's final album, not having any idea just how colossal a hit "Bridge Over Troubled Water" would be. Honestly, I'm glad this wasn't the last single off the album, as this isn't how I'd want to go out. The composition itself is fine, but the instrumentation -- especially the intro -- just doesn't seem to come together well enough to make the recording any better than Decent.
Turn Back the Hands of Time -- Tyrone Davis
If you have regrets over dumping your ex, this is the song for you. Passable R&B groove, and Davis is okay but not great with the vocals.
Spirit in the Sky -- Norman Greenbaum
This was kind of an iconic song for its time, and it's still a great tune with classic production. The lyrics... let's say they were a bit confusing to me as a child and then more than a bit problematic as I grew up. Getting into why would take way too long here. Ask me by comment or PM if you want to know. Suffice to say the lyrics got this song dropped a tier.
The Letter -- Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker has a VERY distinctive style, yes he does. And most of the time he can really make it work. This arrangement of The Box Tops' number-one hit from only three years before isn't one of the best, however. The verses are fine and Joe delivers them excellently, but the bridge just falls flat, which puts this song in the "coulda been a contender" category.
Hitchin' a Ride -- Vanity Fare
This British band was a "two-hit wonder" in the USA and Canada, with this the bigger of the two hits in both countries. It's got a great hook, and the harmonies are nearly as good a the hook. The bridge messes with the song's flow, however, and if you actually listen to the lyrics, the protagonist seems to come across as... one whose impetuosity overrides his smarts. I tend to just ignore most of the words.
Come Saturday Morning -- The Sandpipers
Appearing in the late-1969 movie The Sterile Cuckoo, this easy-listening male-vocal=group ballad has some charm. Odd fact: it was on the Hot 100 when the year began, dropped off the charts for two months, then came back and ended up as a Top 20 hit (and on the year-end list). Odd fact: the official YouTube track sounds strangely better on my laptop's small speakers than it does on my headphones. So maybe this was especially well-suited to AM radio? :-)
Little Green Bag -- George Baker Selection
The only song on this quarter's list not to make the year-end 100, it didn't quite peak in the Top 20. It's a upbeat soul-pop number that's maybe a little repetitive, and the retromodulation at the end seems forced and unnecessary. Still, the backing track fits the song well and the vocals are mostly good; a pleasant listen.
Something's Burning -- Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
Like most of the later First Edition songs, this has a country-folk-pop sound, with a gospel-influenced prechorus. The sound is excellent. The lyrics are pretty unmemorable, and the repetitiveness keeps it in the Decent Tier. Still a solid offering that's mostly forgotten now.
American Woman -- The Guess Who
1970 would turn out to be the biggest year for this band, but also the most tumultuous. This song has great instrumentation, performance, and production. While Burton Cummings' vocals are definitely spot-on in their tone, the lyrics he's singing are overly repetitive, and they keep this song in the lower reaches of the Good Tier. If you ask me, their best song of the year was *mostly* an album track, and it will appear as an Honorable Mention on my year-end Best List.
Let It Be -- The Beatles
The last UK single release (and second-last US single) from the Fab Four until the 1976 revival of interest in the band. The base track had been recorded in January 1969 -- and the majority of the B-side "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" had been recorded in 1967! This is a solid "late-period" Beatles song for all that the band had little time to get it (and the entire Get Back / Let It Be album) up to speed.
Love on a Two-Way Street -- The Moments
This soft R&B/soul group had a long history of hits on the R&B and Soul charts from the late 1960s into the 1980s -- though from late 1978 on, the group was known as Ray, Goodman, & Brown. This was one of their two songs that made it big on the Hot 100. It's a classic example of the "middle of the road" (MOR) subgenre of R&B as it existed in 1970, and shares many elements in common with the "Philly soul" sound that would become increasingly dominant in the R&B/Soul music charts in the next few years.
Reflections of My Life -- Marmalade
Until starting the research for this project, I had NO IDEA AT ALL what this song was... but it turned out I knew it! For some reason no radio DJ had ever announced the title or artist of this song, and I was one of MANY people (judging from what I've seen online) that though this was a Bee Gees song. And it sounds EXACTLY like this era of the Bee Gees -- e.g. "If Only I Had My Mind On Something Else", "Lonely Days" -- but it's actually from the Scottish group (The) Marmalade, which I'd known better for their cover of The Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da". It is perhaps the best example of this type of pop ballad, even if the Bee Gees had better chart success with this sort of tune.
ABC -- The Jackson 5
The second of four Number One hits for the group in 1970. The sound is basically the same as its predecessor single, and this would continue into subsequent 45s. Some of the best upbeat music of the year.
Make Me Smile -- Chicago
Okay, disclaimer here: In this specific review I am ONLY considering the actual "single edit" as released on 45 by Columbia. The jazz-rock band, originally called The Big Thing and then The Chicago Transit Authority, had shortened the name to just Chicago for their second album after getting legal flak from the government agency of the same name. Their first album (under the CTA name) had produced no major hit singles, so this was their breakthrough into the Top 40. (Which would then prompt Columbia to later re-release songs from the first album, which did hit the Top 40 the second time around.) This particular single edit was one of many available to radio stations ever since 1970, but the quest for pop radio friendliness led Columbia to edit out much of what makes this song truly great, leaving this record in the Good Tier and leaving my further explanations for the year-end Best List.
Vehicle -- The Ides of March
Speaking of jazz-rock with great horns, The Ides Of March followed Chicago and Blood, Sweat, & Tears into the Top 10... but they didn't have the strong songs to keep it up and became another one-hit wonder. Still, despite the somewhat questionable lyrics, the sound is GREAT. Check out this video of a 15-year-old girl playing trombone with the band -- Jim Peterik's intro is only faux-incredulous as this whole thing had been prearranged during the soundcheck before the concert.
Up Around the Bend / Run Through The Jungle -- Creedence Clearwater Revival
CCR hits the Top 5 again with another double-A-side. The sound is "standard CCR" and the production is typically excellent. "Up Around The Bend" is a bit unusual for the time in its level of optimism. "Run Through The Jungle" would end up as the focal point of a landmark lawsuit against John Fogerty years later (which he WON).
Woodstock -- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Perhaps the best known of the myriad covers of this Joni Mitchell classic. While Joni's original was very, um, Joni (contemplative, a bit mystical), CSNY play it in a much more celebratory fashion, more so than most other artists who covered this song.
Love or Let Me Be Lonely -- The Friends of Distinction
This Los Angeles-based R&B/Pop vocal group may have been overshadowed a bit by The 5th Dimension (also from LA), though the two styles weren't as similar as my comparison might make it sound. The latter managed to get stronger songs from noted composers of the day, while "Love Or Let Me Be Lonely" would turn out to be this group's last Top 40 hit. It was nevertheless a staple of pop radio (and later Adult Contemporary) for years, and deservedly so.
Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) -- John Ono Lennon (With The Plastic Ono Band)
Lennon was very much into making recordings very quickly in 1969 and early 1970 (e.g. "The Ballad of John and Yoko" was completed, start to finish, in seven hours, and "Give Peace A Chance" was essentially done in under two hours) and this was another example. The results were irregular, but this was one of the good ones. This record also marks the beginning of Lennon's production relationship with Phil Spector; John proved to be one of the very few artists who could keep Spector from going overboard... occasionally.
Overall, the second quarter continues the general theme of "the upper-middle of the bell curve and not much else". Cheers? Jeers? Disagreements? Put 'em down in the comments. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more about 1970.
TERRIBLE TIER -- empty!
BAD TIER -- empty!?
MEH TIER -- 2 songs
Which Way You Goin' Billy? -- The Poppy Family
In all honesty, this almost got put in the Bad tier. This strikes me as a weak song, and the voice of Susan Jacks is only okay; likewise the rest of the band and the production. Not nearly strong enough to overcome the shortcomings of the song. I wasn't a fan of it at the time, and it hasn't aged particularly well. This might slip down a tier when it's time for the year-end list. I don't see how this became a Number 2 hit, but then I look at some of the songs that actually reached Number One over the years and am reminded of just how much worse than this the American public's lapses in taste can be.
For the Love of Him -- Bobbi Martin
This country-pop song was on the saccharine side even in 1970: by which I mean it sounds not just overly sweet, but a bit artificially so. Not that other country and country-pop songs weren't just as sugary back then. There's plenty of examples. But this one, by having been a big enough crossover hit, gets a bit more scrutiny... and WOW these lyrics have aged badly. I originally placed it in the Decent tier, but the song just kept getting less and less decent to my half-century-later ears with repeated listens So it got dropped to this tier.
DECENT TIER -- 10 songs
Get Ready -- Rare Earth
Rare Earth was the first ROCK group signed to the Motown group. Motown even started a new label for rock groups, named after this band. A lot of Rare Earth's sings were rock arrangements of Motown classics, including this old Temptations hit. It was certainly popular (#8 on the Billboard year-end 100) but the production seems a little too ragged, so it didn't quite make it to the Good tier.
Everything Is Beautiful -- Ray Stevens
Country music's equivalent of "Weird Al" Yankovic, Ray Stevens took a break from comedic records to record this inspirational tune, which soft-sells its anti-racist message. People ate it up; it spent two weeks at Number One on the Hot 100 in May and June and ended up at #12 on the year-end list. I've heard this song get bad reviews elsewhere recently but I have to respect it, at least enough to call it decent.
Cecilia -- Simon & Garfunkel
Paul Simon initially thought this would be the biggest single off S&G's final album, not having any idea just how colossal a hit "Bridge Over Troubled Water" would be. Honestly, I'm glad this wasn't the last single off the album, as this isn't how I'd want to go out. The composition itself is fine, but the instrumentation -- especially the intro -- just doesn't seem to come together well enough to make the recording any better than Decent.
Turn Back the Hands of Time -- Tyrone Davis
If you have regrets over dumping your ex, this is the song for you. Passable R&B groove, and Davis is okay but not great with the vocals.
Spirit in the Sky -- Norman Greenbaum
This was kind of an iconic song for its time, and it's still a great tune with classic production. The lyrics... let's say they were a bit confusing to me as a child and then more than a bit problematic as I grew up. Getting into why would take way too long here. Ask me by comment or PM if you want to know. Suffice to say the lyrics got this song dropped a tier.
The Letter -- Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker has a VERY distinctive style, yes he does. And most of the time he can really make it work. This arrangement of The Box Tops' number-one hit from only three years before isn't one of the best, however. The verses are fine and Joe delivers them excellently, but the bridge just falls flat, which puts this song in the "coulda been a contender" category.
Hitchin' a Ride -- Vanity Fare
This British band was a "two-hit wonder" in the USA and Canada, with this the bigger of the two hits in both countries. It's got a great hook, and the harmonies are nearly as good a the hook. The bridge messes with the song's flow, however, and if you actually listen to the lyrics, the protagonist seems to come across as... one whose impetuosity overrides his smarts. I tend to just ignore most of the words.
Come Saturday Morning -- The Sandpipers
Appearing in the late-1969 movie The Sterile Cuckoo, this easy-listening male-vocal=group ballad has some charm. Odd fact: it was on the Hot 100 when the year began, dropped off the charts for two months, then came back and ended up as a Top 20 hit (and on the year-end list). Odd fact: the official YouTube track sounds strangely better on my laptop's small speakers than it does on my headphones. So maybe this was especially well-suited to AM radio? :-)
Little Green Bag -- George Baker Selection
The only song on this quarter's list not to make the year-end 100, it didn't quite peak in the Top 20. It's a upbeat soul-pop number that's maybe a little repetitive, and the retromodulation at the end seems forced and unnecessary. Still, the backing track fits the song well and the vocals are mostly good; a pleasant listen.
Something's Burning -- Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
Like most of the later First Edition songs, this has a country-folk-pop sound, with a gospel-influenced prechorus. The sound is excellent. The lyrics are pretty unmemorable, and the repetitiveness keeps it in the Decent Tier. Still a solid offering that's mostly forgotten now.
GOOD TIER -- 11 songs
American Woman -- The Guess Who
1970 would turn out to be the biggest year for this band, but also the most tumultuous. This song has great instrumentation, performance, and production. While Burton Cummings' vocals are definitely spot-on in their tone, the lyrics he's singing are overly repetitive, and they keep this song in the lower reaches of the Good Tier. If you ask me, their best song of the year was *mostly* an album track, and it will appear as an Honorable Mention on my year-end Best List.
Let It Be -- The Beatles
The last UK single release (and second-last US single) from the Fab Four until the 1976 revival of interest in the band. The base track had been recorded in January 1969 -- and the majority of the B-side "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" had been recorded in 1967! This is a solid "late-period" Beatles song for all that the band had little time to get it (and the entire Get Back / Let It Be album) up to speed.
Love on a Two-Way Street -- The Moments
This soft R&B/soul group had a long history of hits on the R&B and Soul charts from the late 1960s into the 1980s -- though from late 1978 on, the group was known as Ray, Goodman, & Brown. This was one of their two songs that made it big on the Hot 100. It's a classic example of the "middle of the road" (MOR) subgenre of R&B as it existed in 1970, and shares many elements in common with the "Philly soul" sound that would become increasingly dominant in the R&B/Soul music charts in the next few years.
Reflections of My Life -- Marmalade
Until starting the research for this project, I had NO IDEA AT ALL what this song was... but it turned out I knew it! For some reason no radio DJ had ever announced the title or artist of this song, and I was one of MANY people (judging from what I've seen online) that though this was a Bee Gees song. And it sounds EXACTLY like this era of the Bee Gees -- e.g. "If Only I Had My Mind On Something Else", "Lonely Days" -- but it's actually from the Scottish group (The) Marmalade, which I'd known better for their cover of The Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da". It is perhaps the best example of this type of pop ballad, even if the Bee Gees had better chart success with this sort of tune.
ABC -- The Jackson 5
The second of four Number One hits for the group in 1970. The sound is basically the same as its predecessor single, and this would continue into subsequent 45s. Some of the best upbeat music of the year.
Make Me Smile -- Chicago
Okay, disclaimer here: In this specific review I am ONLY considering the actual "single edit" as released on 45 by Columbia. The jazz-rock band, originally called The Big Thing and then The Chicago Transit Authority, had shortened the name to just Chicago for their second album after getting legal flak from the government agency of the same name. Their first album (under the CTA name) had produced no major hit singles, so this was their breakthrough into the Top 40. (Which would then prompt Columbia to later re-release songs from the first album, which did hit the Top 40 the second time around.) This particular single edit was one of many available to radio stations ever since 1970, but the quest for pop radio friendliness led Columbia to edit out much of what makes this song truly great, leaving this record in the Good Tier and leaving my further explanations for the year-end Best List.
Vehicle -- The Ides of March
Speaking of jazz-rock with great horns, The Ides Of March followed Chicago and Blood, Sweat, & Tears into the Top 10... but they didn't have the strong songs to keep it up and became another one-hit wonder. Still, despite the somewhat questionable lyrics, the sound is GREAT. Check out this video of a 15-year-old girl playing trombone with the band -- Jim Peterik's intro is only faux-incredulous as this whole thing had been prearranged during the soundcheck before the concert.
Up Around the Bend / Run Through The Jungle -- Creedence Clearwater Revival
CCR hits the Top 5 again with another double-A-side. The sound is "standard CCR" and the production is typically excellent. "Up Around The Bend" is a bit unusual for the time in its level of optimism. "Run Through The Jungle" would end up as the focal point of a landmark lawsuit against John Fogerty years later (which he WON).
Woodstock -- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Perhaps the best known of the myriad covers of this Joni Mitchell classic. While Joni's original was very, um, Joni (contemplative, a bit mystical), CSNY play it in a much more celebratory fashion, more so than most other artists who covered this song.
Love or Let Me Be Lonely -- The Friends of Distinction
This Los Angeles-based R&B/Pop vocal group may have been overshadowed a bit by The 5th Dimension (also from LA), though the two styles weren't as similar as my comparison might make it sound. The latter managed to get stronger songs from noted composers of the day, while "Love Or Let Me Be Lonely" would turn out to be this group's last Top 40 hit. It was nevertheless a staple of pop radio (and later Adult Contemporary) for years, and deservedly so.
Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) -- John Ono Lennon (With The Plastic Ono Band)
Lennon was very much into making recordings very quickly in 1969 and early 1970 (e.g. "The Ballad of John and Yoko" was completed, start to finish, in seven hours, and "Give Peace A Chance" was essentially done in under two hours) and this was another example. The results were irregular, but this was one of the good ones. This record also marks the beginning of Lennon's production relationship with Phil Spector; John proved to be one of the very few artists who could keep Spector from going overboard... occasionally.
EXCELLENT TIER -- empty!
Overall, the second quarter continues the general theme of "the upper-middle of the bell curve and not much else". Cheers? Jeers? Disagreements? Put 'em down in the comments. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more about 1970.
