Don’s Top 10 For August 12, 1978

(#3 last week) This is the first & only #1 song written by all four Gibb brothers. Took 'em only 10 minutes to come up with the chorus.

(#10 last week) After original member William Powell died of cancer in 1977 at the absurdly young age of 35, Sammy Strain of Little Anthony & The imperials was hired to replace him. This smash has a lot of that late 50s-early 60s-retro sound to it, so it's fitting.

(#8 last week) If you've wondered why sometimes this song seems slower, that's because the master tape was sped up slightly to raise the tempo to make it more radio-friendly for the single. This also resulted in raising the key by a half-tone. Some stations today (like us) play the single, while others (most) play the slower album version, mainly due to lack of detective work in finding the faster single version.

(#11 last week) The critics didn't like this California pop-rock group. Robert Christgau in the Village Voice said, ""hear David Jenkins sing 'once you get past the pain' fifty times in a day and the pain will be permanent". Ouch. Well, the public felt differently.

(#4 last week) Congrats to co-writer of this smash & one half of A Taste Of Honey, Janice Marie Johnson, who is of Stockbridge-Munsee-Mohican heritage according to her website's biography. She was inducted in the Native American Music Association Hall of Fame in 2008.

(#5 last week) At first, this was thought of as a novelty (the singles sales outstripped the radio airplay in '78), but it's turned into Manilow's most enduring hit! First featured in the movie "Foul Play" with Chevy Chase & Goldie Hawn.

(#7 last week) Sometimes, a songwriter only needs the simplest inspiration. Lionel Richie said he was inspired to write this song because of a comment his father made about his mother. His father said to his mother "I love you. I want you. I need you. Forever".

(#2 last week) Cover your eyes, disco haters. Mick Jagger & Ron Wood insist that "Miss You" wasn't conceived as a disco song, while Keith Richards said, "...'Miss You' was a damn good disco record; it was calculated to be one." Even though Richards is credited as co-writer, it apparently was co-written by Jagger with Billy Preston.

(#6 last week) Written by Barry Gibb. Did not know Peter Frampton was playing on this. They were both filming "Sgt. Pepper" at the time.

(#1 last week; 3rd week at #1) "Last Dance" was one of the first disco songs to also feature slow tempo parts: it starts off as a ballad; the full-length version on the film soundtrack also has a slow part in the middle. This part was edited out for the 7". The versions found on most greatest hits packages is either the original 7" edit (3:21) or the slightly longer and remixed version from the 1979 compilation "On The Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2" (4:56). "Last Dance" started a trend for Summer as some of her following hits also had a ballad-like intro before speeding up the tempo. Her other hits of this tempo format include "On the Radio"; "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)"; & "Dim All the Lights".