Don’s Top 10 From September 7, 1973

(#10 last week) Who knew? "Leroy Brown" was someone Jim met in New Jersey! He explained: "This is a song about a guy I was in the army with... It was at Fort Dix, in New Jersey, that I met this guy. He was not made to climb the tree of knowledge, as they say, but he was strong, so nobody'd ever told him what to do, and after about a week down there he said "Later for this" & decided to go home. So he went AWOL, which means to take your own vacation, & he did. But he made the mistake of coming back at the end of the month to get his paycheck. I don't know if you've ever seen handcuffs put on anybody, but it was SNAP and that was the end of it for a good friend of mine, who I wrote this tune about, named Leroy Brown".

(#8 last week) Very catchy, but the only hit song I can think of with lyrics telling a dog how to act. Was a #1 song in the U.K.

(#7 last week)This 1962 monster hit (pardon the pun) just wouldn't die, again grazing the chart in 1970, & once again here in 1973. Truly a timeless song that all generations love. Among the "Crypt-Kickers", legendary musician Leon Russell, and Gary Paxton, of "Alley Oop" fame.

(#3 last week) Won an Oscar for Best Song but McGovern did not sing it for the movie ("The Poseidon Adventure"). That was actress Carol Lynley, playing ship singer "Nonnie".

(#5 last week) The song that reunited Paul with the Beatles producer George Martin. The songwriters organization BMI awarded McCartney the "Million Air" award for more than 4 million plays of the song on U.S. radio. Hard to believe, but "Live and Let Die" was the first James Bond theme song to be nominated for an Academy Awards for Best Song (no "Goldfinger"?). It lost (to "The Way We Were").:

(#6 last week)Australian songstress Reddy was on a hot streak when she covered this Tanya Tucker country hit. Hard to imagine, but Barbra Streisand was offered this first, & wisely refused. Bette Midler DID record it, & came very close to releasing it as her first single, but Helen beat her by two days.

(#9 last week) This followup to the #1 smash "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree" was written by the same team who wrote that and "Knock Three Times", Irwin Levine & L. Russell Brown.

(#2 last week) After a very quiet (for her) almost two year period, Diana roared back with a spectacular one-two punch: an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for "Lady Sings The Blues" & this soon-to-be #1 smash.

(#4 last week) It was back to romantic for Gaye after his legendary 1981 "What's going IOn" album. Gaye had taken a lot of time off to work through his many personal problems, including the 1970 death of his frequent recording partner Tammi Terrell. He came back with this masterpiece of sexual desire.

(#1 last week; 3rd week at #1) Cover version of the U.K. original by Hot Chocolate (who hit big in the U.S. in 1976 with "You Sexy Thing"). This is mistakenly called "Louie Louie" by many people (it has nothing to do with the hit by The Kingsmen) because that's what the lyrics say. Speaking of the lyrics, the interracial love affair depicted in it wasn't as nearly as controversial as it would have been 4 or 5 years earlier (the Janis Ian hit "Society's Child" was banned many stations in 1967).