I should probably get this out of the way right up front. I am about to write about 10 songs. At one point, they were all very popular, and I don’t like any of them. But you might. That’s OK. I’m not saying you are wrong. That will merely suggest we have different tastes. That’s all.
What I am going to try and argue is not that these are bad songs. I’m going to argue that these ten songs, taken together, form something of a black hole in the evolution of pop music. What makes it interesting to me is that these were the top ten songs on Billboard the week of April 19, 1975.
I was at peak pop music age at the time, smack dab in the middle of my teens. I’ll caution any young people reading this, should you ever get stuck with me in between sets at some show, I will probably engage you in one of my favorite pastimes.
I’ll start asking if you have heard of a bunch of random songs from some bygone era. It’s probably annoying to you, but it helps me figure out what songs have stood the test of time, and which ones have faded into obscurity.
The blandest week in pop music
And that’s kind of what is going on here. If you’re old like me, you will recognize some of these songs, though perhaps not all of them. If you are younger, I suspect there’s a decent chance none of these will ring a bell. Maybe your dad loved one of them and used to sing it in the car, but barring something like that, I think these songs have largely vanished from the popular conscience.
That doesn't mean they are bad songs. Plenty of great tunes are little-known today. I happen to think all ten of these songs range from mediocre to wretched, but as I said at the outset, I know there are people who genuinely like/love a couple of them.
I just mean that these songs didn’t really move popular music forward. They had negligible impact on anything that was to follow.
By the mid-1970s, rock and roll was already getting old. We know that because as early as 1972, Elton could “remember when rock was young” in “Crocodile Rock.” (Elton will be showing up a little bit later in this article.)
Rock had been a strong presence on the Billboard charts in the previous decade, but those days were past. Disco was beginning to take over but it wasn’t a dominant force yet. So in the middle of the decade, you get a hodgepodge of songs and styles vying for the ears of America.
Counting down, from ten to one, here were the most popular songs in America, one week in the middle of spring, 50 years ago.
10. “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” by Freddy Fender
I suppose it’s good to get this one out of the way first because of all the songs I will discuss, this one least fits my thesis. I was never a fan of Freddy Fender’s falsetto but there’s no denying his significance on a brand of Latin-tinged music. Both as a solo artist in the ‘70s and as part of the Texas Tornados a few decades later, Fender was crucial in the development of Tex-Mex rock & roll. I’ll just offer two reasons why this particular song, despite its popularity, doesn’t matter all that much.
First, it’s not nearly as good as Fender's other huge hit from the era, “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights.” Second, despite its popularity, its actual impact would not be felt for many, many years. At the time, Freddy Fender was a bit of a cul de sac, ensconced within country music the same way Charley Pride was the only black country star.
9. “Emma” by Hot Chocolate
Hot Chocolate’s “You Sexy Thing” was a much more influential hit in 1975 than “Emma,” even though you could make the case that “Emma” is a superior song. The problem with “Emma” comes more from a disconnect between the song and the producer.
Mickie Most was a huge hitmaker in the UK dating back to the psychedelic ‘60s. He was hitting big with glam by the mid-‘70s, but this song is much more of a heartfelt, serious piece about broken dreams and suicide. Its glossy pulse was simply incongruous. It did catch a brief wave but didn’t really open new territory for the band.
8. “What Am I Gonna Do With You” by Barry White
Barry White can divide listeners in many ways. Some love him. Others find his brand of seduction bordering on camp. You can also debate whether he was a harbinger of disco or a museum piece, looking backwards to Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff’s Philly soul of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s.
Whether you love him or laugh at him, “What Am I Gonna Do With You” remains a bit of an outlier in the White string of hits. It’s a bit boppier, its groove a little more upbeat. As such, it doesn’t really register as much as the syrupy languor of a signature hit like “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe” or the sexy funk of “Never Never Gonna Give Ya Up.”
7. “Chevy Van” by Sammy Johns
I’ve been going to great lengths to say that the songs mentioned thus far are not necessarily bad songs. I won’t do the same here. This is jangle folk at its worst. And it’s made even more outrageous by the lyrical exhortation to “get some sleep and dream of rock and roll.”
Is it insignificant? I suppose when Kris Kristofferson wrote “Me and Bobby McGee” in the late ‘60s, he set a pretty high bar for this type of song. Sammy Johns manages to drag the entire genre down a notch or two with “Chevy Van.” I guess that’s a certain type of significance.
6. “Supernatural Thing -Part 1” by Ben E. King
Here’s the thing. Ben E. King, singer of such iconic hits as “Stand By Me,” “This Magic Moment,” “Save the Last Dance for Me, “Spanish Freakin’ Harlem” (“Freakin’” is my own addition) … probably shouldn’t have done a slow jam disco song called “Supernatural Thing.”
King is such a good singer that he does a decent job, but the fact remains that this adds nothing to King’s legacy, and with Stevie Wonder going much farther with songs like this at the time, this one fades rather quickly.
5. “He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You)” by Tony Orlando & Dawn
Tony Orlando, whether performing as the unnamed singer in Dawn, as the featured singer in Dawn featuring Tony Orlando, or as the proper headliner in Tony Orlando & Dawn, had a string of professionally produced, catchy and eminently forgettable pop hits in the early ‘70s. “Knock Three Times” and “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree” were harmless number ones.
“He Don’t Love You…” would be his third and final number one, but it is far more off-putting than those first two. If you first listen to Jerry Butler’s masterful original rendition (titled “He Will Break Your Heart” upon release in 1960), and then give Orlando’s cover a spin, it’s as if you can hear Muzak being birthed. I suppose, contrary to my thesis, that makes the song significant. But trust me… it isn’t.
4. “No No Song/snookeroo” by Ringo Starr
Ringo was the first ex-Beatle to have major chart success, which was a fairly awesome occurrence in the early ‘70s. Ringo’s throwback covers of songs like “You’re Sixteen” and “Only You” were kind of sweet, and his originals, often co-written with former bandmates, were solid pop rock entries.
The “No No Song” was neither. It was just a slice of novelty silliness built on the winking use of weed, whiskey and coke in the recording industry. Novelty songs rarely leave a mark.
3. “Lovin’ You” by Minnie Riperton
Riperton was among the most naturally-gifted jazz singers of her era, whose career was cut tragically short by her cancer-caused death a few years after this one huge hit. The beginning of this song, co-written by the singer and produced by Stevie Wonder, is really lovely.
Then she begins exercising her five-octave range and it overwhelms the beauty of the song. It’s really only the final minute of the song which involves her vocal gymnastics, and the whistle register that she employs only appears two times. Yet it became what the song was known for, which in turn made it into something of a novelty. As I just said, novelties may or may not be good. They rarely have any outside impact.
2. “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” by B.J. Thomas
Thomas was the definitive forgettable, middle-of-the-road, country pop singer of the 1970s. He had non-threatening good looks and a voice to match. Thomas had stumbled into the Bacharach/David composition “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid a few years earlier. He followed it up with a series of songs that weren’t nearly as sophisticated, and this one was as pleasantly mundane as they come.
Considering that the world of countrypolitan pop was in the process of being dismantled by the emergence of outlaw country, this song stood as hopelessly old fashioned almost before the ink was dry on the record label.
1. “Philadelphia Freedom” by Elton John
OK, I began with an outlier, and I guess you could say I am ending on a bit of one too. But I don’t think so. This has nothing to do with the fact that I personally dislike this song. I know many people do in fact like it. It’s catchy and upbeat enough. Its connection to tennis star Billie Jean King gives it a good back story.
But to me, this marks the beginning of the end of Elton John as a major artist – at least in the 1970s. He had been massive in the early part of the decade, dominating the top of the albums and singles charts. “Philadelphia Freedom” was the fourth of his six number ones, but as it turned out, those big hits weren’t really what he would be remembered for.
The album tracks – the more intricate and intimate character portraits he created with Bernie Taupin were Elton’s gift to music fans. “Philadelphia Freedom,” whether you like it or not, was leading to the mindless pop of “Island Girl” and “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” the two number ones that succeeded it.
So there you have it. It’s of note that just a couple weeks later, some pretty good songs like the Ozark Mountain Daredevils “Jackie Blue” and Earth, Wing & Fire’s “Shining Star” would climb into the top ten, so the era wasn’t completely barren. But it was close.