Tag: Disco

Categories
1970s Blogging Movies Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1978

Hello again retro music fans. Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 20, 25, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 5TH Friday of the month, so it’s a special, as I go back 45 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday April 02ND 1978:

  1. “Night Fever” – Bee Gees
  2. “Stayin’ Alive” – Bee Gees
  3. “Lay Down Sally” – Eric Clapton
  4. “Can’t Smile Without You” – Barry Manilow
  5. “Emotion” – Samantha Sang

America was dancin’ the night away 45 years ago when I was not quite 11 years old as a 5TH grader in Lanham Maryland. My chart wasn’t born yet, but my hobby of following the Billboard Hot 100 at the New Carrollton Public Library and then counting down the Top 40 with Casey Kasem every Sunday was in full swing. (The Top 5 above is from that Hot 100.)

“Saturday Night Fever” was a runaway smash at the box office, and its Soundtrack album was MASSIVE – the biggest in history at the time. Samantha Sang’s “Emotion” is often mistaken as a “Saturday Night Fever” track, but it was not in the movie. It’s also mistaken as featuring Bee Gees in the background, but it’s just Barry Gibb. He wrote the song with his brother Robin.

Next #RetroFriday I’ll go back 15 years ago to the start of April 2008. It’s when #FF5 were #FD.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going retro with me !

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
History Life Music Nature Radio Sports Travel

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

In June of 1980 I became a teenager – 13-years-old. I successfully completed the 7TH grade at Robert Goddard Junior High School in Lanham Maryland, and I was also actively involved in the Boy Scouts. We used to go on regular hiking and camping trips up in the mountains along the Appalachian Trail in Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. I remember hiking through the small town of Harpers Ferry West Virginia on many occasions. It was one of the few portions of the trail that actually went right through the heart of a town. Although I don’t miss the hiking with heavy backpacks and rugged shoes I do miss the scenery. While we have a nice subtropical landscape here in America’s Riviera nothing can beat the beautiful views that I remember from high atop the A.T.

On the radio during that memorable time of my life was this funky jam. It’s often referred to as ‘Disco’s Last Dance’, as it wasn’t even released here in the States until January of 1980 – some six months after Disco allegedly died at a Chicago White Sox baseball game. It took another 5 months after that to reach # 1 on the U.S. pop chart where it stayed for the entire month of June of 1980.

Here’s Lipps Inc. with their unexpected and untimely # 1 Disco smash – a year after Disco died. Welcome to “Funkytown”. Population – You !

Categories
Blogging History Music

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

It’s time for the 35TH rockin’ edition of ‘The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party’ – one-half of the ‘Moldie-Oldie Music Weekends’ here on the big bellbottoms blog.

For about 19 months the ‘Friday Night Blogroll Review’ was the weekly tradition on here. That’s when I’d recap and link to my favourite blog posts of the week from all of my blogging friends. Unfortunately something happened along the way. The bloggers got lazy and gradually disappeared into oblivion. And then there were none (or one or two). It certainly wasn’t nearly enough to sustain a weekly blog post. But Fridays remained wildly popular on here. I had to take drastic action, so what was once a joke became a reality. I threatened some of my blogging friends that if they didn’t post a blog then I’d put on 1970s Disco music every Friday night. 35 editions later it’s a rousing SMASH !

This week on the ‘Disco Party’ I present to you one of the U.K.’s greatest Disco bands ever. They are Hot Chocolate, and this is their gold pop and Disco smash “Every 1’s A Winner”. Let’s kick it kids !

Categories
History Life Music News Radio

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

FLASHBACK with me to the Summer of 1978. It’s when Garfield made his debut in the comics section of daily newspapers everywhere. It’s when the world’s first test tube baby was born in England. It’s when Pope Paul VI died at the age of 80, and was succeeded by Pope John Paul I who died just a month later.

I turned 11-years-old on June 05TH 1978, and I successfully completed the 5TH grade at Magnolia Elementary School in Lanham Maryland. After all of these years it’s the 5TH grade that stands out above all of the rest as the most memorable of them all. It was memorable in a positive way – great teachers – great classes – great classmates. I really believe that the latter half of my grade school years (4TH, 5TH, and 6TH grades) were more influential and more valuable in molding my later adult life than the subsequent Junior High and Senior High school years. My writing skills today were conceived and developed during those latter grade school years.

On the radio during the Summer of 1978 Disco ruled, as it crossed-over in a big way from the big city nightclubs to mainstream pop, rock, and soul radio nationwide. The Bee Gees‘ younger brother Andy Gibb was only 20-years-old at the time, but he was one of the hottest solo acts in the world. Here’s his memorable Disco smash that spent most of June and all of July of 1978 at the very top of the national pop chart. It went on to become the # 1 song of the entire year here in the U.S. – as well as one of the biggest songs in American chart music history. Here’s “Shadow Dancing” on the ‘Disco Party’: