Don’s Top 10 For May 6, 1976
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“The Time Machine” is “coming alive” with the sounds of Thursday, May 6, 1976. Hear 'em on New Jersey 101.5 with me starting just after midnight late Saturday night.
“Show Me The Way” by Peter Frampton
(#8 last week) Oh my, ladies, Peter Frampton had such HAIR. Blond hair. Blond hair that you wanted to run your fingers through! Now he has none. But he's still good-looking. “Show Me The Way” was first released as a studio track on the 19745 album “Frampton” but did nothing.
“Get Up & Boogie (That's Right)” by Silver Convention
(#10 last week) Somehow, this one-hit wonder studio group managed to become a two-hit wonder. I guess it was all in the grooves….that's right! “Lead singer”, such as she was, Penny Mclean, had a big solo club hit, “Lady Bump”.
“Silly Love Songs” by Wings
(#14 last week) My former boss Banana Joe Montione had an experience the rest of us can only dream about. After his station, WFIL, had John Lennon helping out during a charity event in 1975, Lennon asked Joe if he could crash at his pad in Philadelphia! They established enough of a relationship that when Paul McCartney was telling John the list of cities he'd be performing the “Wings Over America” tour in 1976, when he got to Philly, John said, “Philly! you've got to get together with the Banana Man!” So Paul rang up Joe on the phone when he got to Philadelphia & invited him to dinner.
“Let Your Love Flow” by The Bellamy Brothers
(#6 last week) A song that hit the charts perfectly timed for mid-spring. It was written by Larry E. Williams, a former Neil Diamond roadie, who offered the song to Neil first, but was turned down. the Bellamy Brothers were surprised by the country radio airplay this received, but used it to their advantage, becoming country artists & scoring many hits in that format through the 70s & 80s.
“Boogie Fever” by The Sylvers
(#5 last week) The bass really makes this disco killer, so it's no surprise to learn it was played by the king of Motown bass, the great James Jamerson. He modeled it after “Day Tripper”.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen
(#3 last week) At the time this was the most expensive single ever made, surpassing “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys. It spent 9 weeks at #1 in the U.K., & then 5 more weeks at the top in 1991 following Freddie Mercury's death.
“Love Hangover” by Diana Ross
(#7 last week) It took awhile to convince Miss Ross to record a disco song. Like her fellow soul veteran Marvin Gaye, she initially resented the disco movement, but she finally relented. The producers actually installed a strobe light in the recording studio so she'd be in the “disco mindset”!
“Disco Lady” by Johnnie Taylor
(#2 last week) From the album “Eargasm”. The first single to be certified platinum (a new RIAA designation in 1976), this was also Taylor's first single for Columbia, after his longtime label Stax went bankrupt. Guest stars on the song, included members of Parliament-Funkadelic like Bootsy Collins & Bernie Worrell, & Dawn's Telma Hopkins.
“Right Back Where We Started From” by Maxine Nightingale
(#1 last week) A song recorded in Camden! Camden, England, that is. Yes, the songwriters intended it as an homage to Motown's Holland-Dozier-Holland. nightingale, who had been in the London production of “Hair” with one of the writers, was recruited to sing it, but had so little faith it's becoming a hit at first demanded that a phony artist name be used, & also wanted a one-time fee instead of royalties. She was convinced to take the royalties, a very good thing.
“Welcome Back” by John Sebastian
(#4 last week; 1st week at #1) Talk about a surprise “welcome back” to the charts! The lead singer of the 60s band the Lovin' Spoonful, last on the survey in 1968, with an addictively catchy TV theme song. The producer of a new ABC series called “Kotter” wanted a Spoonful-type vocal for the theme, & got one. They liked it so much, they changed the name of the show to “Welcome Back, Kotter” because of the song!
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