Don’s Top 10 From October 12, 1972

(#12 last week) The followup to "Lean On Me", this easy-groove smash was almost as big, certified gold. A pretty diverse set of artists have covered this over the years, including Mick Jagger, Aaron Neville, Fiona apple, Hootie & The Blowfish and Liza Minnelli. LIZA MINNELLI?

(#17 last week) The King swings! Both a comeback and a finale of sorts, as this was Elvis's last really huge hit record. A comeback because it was that classic Presley rockin' sound, as opposed to the more Memphis-horns sound on his previous bunch of hits. Even the words "a hunka hunka burnin' love" were very close to the title of his 1959 song "A Big Hunk O' Love".

(#3 last week) A perfect song for the cynical 70s, the narrator in "Back Stabbers" warns men about their male "friends" who smile to their faces, but are secretly planning to steal their wives or girlfriends. It was also inspired by an earlier hit in the same theme vein, "Smiling Faces Sometimes" by The Undisputed Truth, the chorus of which is incorporated into the end of the song. The O'Jays had been performing and charting with R&B tunes for years, but this was their crossover breakhrough. The hits kept coming through 1980.

(#4 last week) With lead singer Cuba Gooding Sr., father of the Oscar-winner for "Jerry Maguire", this R&B band was "shown the money" for this smash.

(#6 last week) Ah, the Raspberries. Cleveland rock band who would have been right at home in the music scene of....1965-66. Their sound was so mid 60s, it is amazing that they came up with any hits at all in 1972-73-74, but they did, charting 4 top 40 hits, including this first and biggest. They also would have done better, perhaps, in the later "new wave" era. Eric Carmen, of course, did go on to solo success, although more in the "adult pop" genre.

(#13 last week) A 1967 album cut (in the U.S.) becomes a 1972 hit single! Justin Hayward wrote it at age 19, & titled the song after a girlfriend gave him a gift of  satin bedsheets. The song itself was a tale of a yearning love from afar, which leads many aficionados to term it as a tale of unrequited love by Hayward. There are three different edits of the song available on single, but all of them leave out the end's poetry ("breathe deep the gathering gloom") heard only on the album "(Days Of Future Passed").

(#2 last week) There aren't too many hits more evocative than this one. Doesn't it immediately plant the imagery of the lyrics in your mind? I want to be in that park, now! Robert Lamm wrote it, sings lead and plays the distinctive piano, while Peter Cetera played bass & provided backing vocals. According to fellow Chicago member Walter Parazaider,  Lamm was inspired to write the song during the recording of "V" in New York on July 4, 1971:"Robert came back to the hotel from Central Park very excited after seeing the steel drum players, singers, dancers, and jugglers. I said, 'Man, it's time to put music to this!"

(#5 last week) You'd figure with all the appearances Davis made on TV during the 70s (including his own variety show), there'd be at least one of him singing his biggest hit. But no, nothing! I always thought the coolest part of this song was the instrumental intro.

(#9 last week) In retrospect, we should have wondered about the young man who chose to sing a love song about his pet rat (not HIS, of course, it was from the horror movie of the same name). But this may surprise you: the song was offered first to Donny Osmond!

(#1 last week; 3rd week at #1) Lead sung by Danny Hutton, this was a revamp of a folk song from the 50s, inspired by the Brown Vs. Board Of Education Supreme Court ruling desegregating public schools. It was first recorded by the great Pete Seeger. A couple of reggae bands recorded it in 1971, which is where Three Dog Night first heard it.