Don’s Top 10 for February 19, 1975

(#23 last week) Another one of those hits that started as a "B" side, in this case, to "Another Park, Another Sunday". It was never intended to be a hit, but radio discovered it (what a concept!) & forced the band to release it.

(#7 last week) Sedaka-Tandler connection, sort of: Neil & my mom, Joan, both attended Lincoln High School in Brooklyn (Neil was two years younger). Mom said Neil was VERY into his music, as you could imagine. He was part of the Tokens then, who would later go on to record "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Among the many stellar musicians on Neil's comeback hit were Danny Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel & David Foster.

(#8 last week) Contrary to popular belief, Carol Douglas was not married to CARL Douglas of "Kung Fu Fighting" fame a few weeks earlier. This was originally a hit in the U.K. for a woman named "Sunny" formerly of the Brotherhood Of Man (1970's "United We Stand"). Douglas's version was produced by Meco ("Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band"), but because of legal reasons his name was not on the record. It went on to sell 900,000 singles; 300,000 in the New York/New Jersey area alone.

(#11 last week) One of two songs in this week's top 10 written by Bob Crewe & Kenny Nolan. Crewe is one of the greatest producers & writers in pop music history, most notably with the 4 Seasons ("Rag Doll", "Let's Hang On", etc.), but many other enduring classics as well. Nolan would make the top 10 as an artist two years later with "I Like Dreamin".

(#4 last week) This was first called "Brandy" (originally performed by Scott English) but because of confusion with the Looking Glass hit of the same name, it was changed. It was also uptempo, but Clive Davis, in his genius, heard it as a ballad.

(#5 last week) It was Bonnie Bramlett (Delaney & Bonnie) who came up with the ironic name for that group of Scottish funksters. Success was bittersweet; just before this climbed the charts, one of the founding members, Robbie McIntosh, died of a drug overdose at party in Hollywood.

(#3 last week) "My Eyes Adored You" was actually a 4 Seasons song at first, but when Motown refused to release it, Bob Crewe, Bob Gaudio & Valli bought the master back for $4000 & sold it to new label Private Stock, so sure were they of it's success. They were right. One of the biggest comebacks ever was on the way.

(#1 last week) After a single week at the top, this remake of a 1963 song by Betty Everett drops to 3. Took a long time for lovely Linda to achieve superstardom, but this song opened the floodgates.

(#9 last week) Funny, but of the group most associated with the 70s California country-rock sound, not one were from the Golden State. Glenn Frey was from Detroit; Don Henley from Texas. "Best Of My Love" kept the group's easy going earlier sound going, but they preferred to head towards a harder rock sound.

(#2 last week; 1st week at #1) There were three unrelated songs all called "Fire" that were all big hits--this was the biggest of them. Can you name the other two artists? Well, there was 1968's "Fire" by one-hit wonders The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown (remember how that wild record started? "I am the God of hellfire! And I give you-FIRE!"). And in 1979, a cover version of Bruce Springsteen's "Fire" by The Pointer Sisters became the record that reignited their careers. The Ohio Players weren't newbies when their "Fire" hit the top--they had been together since the early 60s. They provided backing help on "I Found A Girl" by the Falcons with Wilson Pickett in 1962.