1972/1973/1974/1975/1976 Billboard Top 100

[JonUrban]

Hi Jon! ......... find the hits that offend me the most are the syrupy and obvious ones, with 1968's "Honey" almost a perfect (as it were) template of the kind. Why people buy into bathetic muck like that is beyond me; I mean, everyone can appreciate the occasional sob story, but when you ladle it on so thick to the point of choking--that is, the words AND the music are transparently fraudulent--that's when I'm ready to go skeet shooting. 1972's worst major hits were, of course, Wayne Newton's "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" (even for him it was beyond the pale); Gilbert O'Sullivan well meaning but self-pitying "Alone Again (Naturally)"; Sammy Davis' absolutely appalling "The Candy Man" (from a film my wife likes and I've never gotten into); and Michael Jackson's "Ben," an actual love song to a rodent! Not that adoring your pet's a bad thing, but from an atrocious film came what has to be MJ's worst recording from anywhere. But then this was the year that, after so many great, legendary hits, Chuck Berry returned with one last biggie, and it had to be something on the low level of "My Ding-A-Ling." Sheesh!......

ED

I could not agree more. And one that ALWAYS made me puke - "Sylvia's Mother"....How could that song come from the same group that did the terrific novelty song "Cover of the Rolling Stone".

 

[EMB]

Dr. Hook didn't amount to much anyway, given their later track record with Capitol. Thing about "Sylvia's Mother" (and its equally bathetic followup, "Carry Me, Carrie") is that they were written by humorist Shel Silverstein, who wrote Johnny Cash's big 1969 hit "A Boy Named Sue." Given that, at the time I assumed there was a joke (or something) to the approach, but maybe not. "The Cover of "Rolling Stone" (also written by Shel) was a pretty solid record and, yes, they did get on the cover in 1973 as a result.

According to Billboard, the biggest hit of '72 was Robert Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," which was actually from her 1969 debut album, FIRST TAKE (in longer form). I knew people who hated it, but I had that album and thought it was all very cool, very enchanting (and Ron Carter's bass work, so simple and perfect, was reminiscent of Richard Davis' on Van Morrison's 1968 ASTRAL WEEKS). The song is heard in the otherwise dubious (though not unentertaining) stalker film PLAY MISTY FOR ME, notable for having Clint Eastwood in it as a Carmel CA jazz DJ (very fitting, since Clint not only lived in the area but was and remains an ardent jazz fan; this would not be the least time he'd slip a favorite into one of his movies).

Ed got most of them, but there are a few more 1972 omissions:

15 "My Ding-a-Ling" Chuck Berry ['London Sessions' Chess/GRT Q8]
35 "Back Stabbers" The O'Jays [Live version on 'Live In London' PIR Q8/LP from 1974]
61 "Day Dreaming" Aretha Franklin ['Best Of Aretha' Atlantic Q8/QR/LP 1973 & Rhino Handmade 'Quadio' DVD-V 2010]
80 "Troglodyte (Cave Man)" The Jimmy Castor Bunch

You're right on three, but "Back Stabbers" doesn't count, since the hit was the original studio version, never issued in quad.

ED

 

[seilerbird]

I sure love Sylvia's Mother. Great tune. But how can My Ding a Ling be in quad when it was only released in a pathetic stereo derived from a mono tape?

 

[EMB]

There are a few boldface inclusions that are more 'it was released on a quad album' rather than being 'true quad'. Fortunately, faux quad was few and far between relative to all the releases back then.

ED