Don’s Top 10 From October 26, 1977

(#13 last week) This Brit had been in show biz as far back as 1960 when he came up with his only big U.S. hit, which benefitted from being on RSO Records, the Robert Stigwood label, when they could do no wrong.

(#6 last week) White's love of string sections came naturally, as he grew up listening to his mom's classic album collection. Barry was a true child prodigy. At the age of 12 (!), he played piano on the 1956 Jesse Belvin hit "Goodnight My Love". But i-between that and his musical stardom in the 1970s, White served a prison sentence for stealing $30,000 worth of tires.

(#7 last week) A song truly ahead of its time. The first disco hit to make use of synthesizers, as opposed to a string orchestra, it influenced dozens of artists who would make techno music.over the next 35 years. One of "Rolling Stone's" 500 Greatest Songs Of all Time (#418).

(#12 last week) It was not William King of the Commodores who wrote the lyrics, it was his wife, Shirley Hanna-King, who did while her husband slept. He had played the riff for her after coming home from the studio. For several years, it was only William credited as the writer (he brought the lyrics in the next day portraying himself as the writer), but eventually Mrs. King got co-credit. Interesting that a woman wrote a song about ladies who are...um...built.

(#5 last week) The group was formed in 1973 by Harry Wayne Casey (KC), a record store employee & part-timer at TK Records in Miami. See, you CAN move up! :-) This may be the group with the most-ever members: dozens, past & present, at last count.

(#8 last week) Written by Eric Carmen, this charted at the same time as Carmen's own song, "She Did It", far outstripping it on the charts. Carmen wasn't too upset, since this was certified gold. In fact, Carmen also wrote Cassidy's third hit, "Hey Deanie" (which also sold a million copies). Carmen's original version actually showed up in 1988 as the "B" side of his hit "Make Me Lose Control".

(#4 last week) How big was this disco smash? It was certified platinum, when that meant 2 million sold for a single. Written by the group's Rod Temperton, who later became of of music's most prolific songwriters, most notably with Michael Jackson ("Rock With You", "Thriller"), and also "Stomp!", "Baby Come To Me", "Sweet Freedom", "Give Me The Night" & many more.

(#3 last week) Written by a superstar duo, Marvin Hamlisch & Carole Bayer Sager, this was the first James Bond theme to not have the movie title be the song title, although the movie title, "The Spy Who Loved Me", are in the lyrics. It's actually Carly Simon's biggest single, although it didn't get to #1 like her earlier "You're So Vain" did..

(#2 last week) No, this wasn't IN the movie "Star Wars", it was "inspired" by it, & far outsold the actual soundtrack. The biggest-selling instrumental hit of the 70s, certified a platinum single by the RIAA, when that meant 2 million units sold. At the age of 17, Meco Monardo won a scholarship to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, which provided him with a solid classical and jazz music education. There, together with his two friends Chuck Mangione and Ron Carter, he started the Eastman School of Music.

(#1 last week; 2nd week at #1) The biggest national hit of the decade, there is very little middle ground: either you love this song or you hate it. Seems to be 50-50. Kasey Cisyk recorded it first for the soundtrack of the movie of the same name (Didi Conn lip-synched Cisyk's vocals in the movie), but several disputes with the song's composer, Joe Brooks, led to Brooks using Debby Boone for a separate release. Although it was written by Brooks as a love song, the devout Boone interpreted it as inspirational and proclaimed that it was instead God who "lit up her life."