(VANITY) TOURNAMENT OF CHART-TOPPERS ('70S) - ROUND 2

me | 1/21/18 | me

[the OlLine Rebel]

ROUND 2 of the greatest hits of the '70s begins!

Due date: Sunday, Jan 28 @6:00 pm (Eastern)

This Round takes the top 6 songs of each year of the '70s per BILLBOARD, and pairs them in brackets along with the best 4 #7s as voted in Round 1.

[fieldmarshaldj]

5 1975 “My Eyes Adored You” Frankie Valli

[Alberta's Child]

I hate the city and every one of its sports teams, but I have to go with "Philadelphia Freedom."

Great job, Rebel!

[bagster]

Not even close. One of Elton John's worst songs EVER vs. any Frankie Valli song, and this is one of his best....derp.

Mark me down for:

1975 “My Eyes Adored You” Frankie Valli

[bagster]

VOTER FRAUD...VOTER FRAUD.

THIS ELECTION IS RIGGED!!!!!!!

[bagster]

I’m voting for “My Eyes Adored You” because it reminds me of someone I once loved.

Awwwwwwwwww....

I knew I liked you for a reason, sweet lady.

:)

[bagster]

One result makes me sad. I remember the "Joy to the world" vote was a no brainer to me...I forget the other song...But "Joy to the World" is just a bad song, even though it was actually the very first song I used to listen to and know on my little transistor radio I used to listen to in bed nder my covers after bed time. Looking back, it totally sucks.

Also, I may have thought "It's Too Late" would have surely lost. Again I forget the other song...The rest looks good at a cursory glance.

One man's not humble opinion.

[Bodleian_Girl]

Well, I was in about the 5th grade then, but still. :-)

[the OlLine Rebel]

Joy to the World was vs. Indian Nation (Cherokee People). It was a landslide.

I like Joy but on the scale of 3DogNight songs, I actually don’t “adore” it that much. I love their other hits; Old-Fashioned Love Song and Mama Told me not to Come, etc. My son - the age you speak of - loves it now.

It’s Too Late also a landslide over Osmonds with “One Bad Apple”. I didn’t even know the Osmonds ever actually had a hit, much less top of the charts! Didn’t know this song so it’s one of the very few on this list I had to experience first for this.

[bagster]

“One Bad Apple”.

One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch girl
I don't care what they say,
I don't care...what they say..."

I actually thought that was a Jackson Five song at first...They are like different colors of the same stuff to me...

I actually loved Cherokee Nation so maybe that's why I was so shocked...Think about it. Some English fancy boys dressed up like Revolutionary war soldiers singing from an Indian perspective. Funny on its face then you blur your brain and think of the words..."They took the whole, Cherokee nation...put us on this a reservation..." Ha...too funny....Another one of those is Elton John "Indian Sunset" I love that one too. It's one of my best shower songs. I know all the words and do it better than Elton the swish.

Another English dude singing about the plight of the red man. I think Europeans have this fascination with Indians...probably cause of tobacco...haha.

Funny side note from "The Life of Bagster": One time I took an Elton John album cover into the barber shop and told the guy to give me this haircut. Ha. I'm so lucky I didn't turn out to be a homo. That was well before I knew about homos or that Elton John was one. He was on the down low in those days.

Am I being too chatty? I don't want to mess up your thread.

[bagster]

Haha...Still adorable no matter what grade. I got songs like that too. Can’t think of them right off, though.

[Bodleian_Girl]

Can remember the song, but not the boy. :-)

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

5 1975 “My Eyes Adored You” Frankie Valli

[bagster]

Haha, yea. That's how it usually goes.

Fish in the sea.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

#124. You know this election is rigged when they name “Midnight in Moscow” as the #1 rock song of Round 2.

[bagster]

Hahah...OMG the fix is in....RIGGED RIGGED!!

IMPEACH THE OIL LINE REBEL...and hes a mysoginist transphobe too...literally Hitler.

:)

[rhinohunter]

Philadelphia freedom

[Drumbo]

You are sooo right and your post is pure nostalgia! I met Tom and Chuck e. Weiss at the Carroliton/Clayborn street car stop in NOLA at Mardis Grass in Feb. 1976 - we shared a bottle of Mogen David on the way to the French Quarter and walked the length of Bourbon street like old friends. I was touring with the Navy Steel Band at the time (in town for 26 Parades including Bacchus which ended up in the Super Dome with 85,000 inebriated close friends on Fat Tuesday). I also worked pay gigs on Bourbon Street whenever I was in town (especially the 2 weeks leading up to Mardis Gras when musician's paydays exploded). Tom was working nights composing the Small Change album ensconced at Jazz City Studios near Canal Street and he'd show up at Café du Monde for Beignets and coffee like clockwork every morning at daybreak along with most of the Big Easy musicians in town. Sometimes Tom would arrive in style in a limo, and other times he'd hitch a ride hanging onto a city street-sweeper.

He had a decent budget because The Eagles had covered " Ole'55" from his first album and put him in the spotlight and Bette Midler was making a splash with "Shiver Me Timbers" so royalties and bookings were keeping him flush with cash and I think he spent most of it on his friends - who was anyone he happened to be talking to. He told me, "Somebody said you have you're whole life to write your first album and 6 months for the second, if you're lucky."

He took those New Orleans tapes to Hollywood (with Chuck e. and Ricki Lee Jones in tow) and re-did the songs direct to 2 track in July with Jim Hughart (who up to that time had played bass with Joe Pass, Duke Ellington, The Monkees, Edwin Starr, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Tim Buckley, Johnny Rivers, Herb Alpert & Ray Charles), Lew Tabackin (Cab Calloway, Clarke Terry, Mel Jones, Maynard Ferguson, Doc Severinsen's Tonight Show Orchestra and the Saturday Night Live Band with Paul Shaffer) and the legendary drummer Shelly Manne (whose brushwork on " Step Right Up" and solo on " Pasties & a G-String" is about as good as it gets this side of Steve Gadd). Producer Bones Howe hired Jerry Yester (The New Christy Minstrels, Modern Folk Quartet; The Lovin' Spoonful) to arrange, hire & conduct the strings which were added to the initial 4 piece 2 track and were (imho) on a level with George Martin's orchestration for The Beatles. I agree the album is a masterpiece to be sure and it's still stunning, every song is a joy and " Tom Traubert's Blues " is a classic (covered by Rod Stewart a few years later it went to #3 on the charts).

BTW, " Small Change " was a mostly true story that took place in an arcade/grill called the Bourbon Steam Boat, but he lifted the name "Small Change" from one of the despised kids who tap-danced in front of St. Louis Cathedral (working the crowds and leaching tips away from street musicians and distracting tourist from the artists around Jackson Square.) The 42nd Street and Nelson Hotel references are poetic license.

The song, " I wish I was in New Orleans" is a part of me and I'm a proud past of it. "Deal the cards, roll the dice, if it ain't that ol' Chuck e. Weiss and Clayborne Avenue, me and you and Sam Jones and All". Tom is an American storytelling treasure.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane FRiend.

---

[Drumbo]

“Philadelphia Freedom”

[Tax-chick]

5 1975 “My Eyes Adored You” Frankie Valli

[BlueLancer]

My Eyes Adored you - Frankie Valli