Tag: Top 40

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1970s Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1976

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, 25, 30, 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 October 31ST 1976:

  1. “If You Leave Me Now” – Chicago
  2. “Disco Duck” – Rick Dees & His Cast Of Idiots
  3. “Rock’n Me” – Steve Miller Band
  4. “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald” – Gordon Lightfoot
  5. “A Fifth Of Beethoven” – Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band

There it is – the surprise # 1 smash on the Billboard Hot 100 from 45 years ago. It spent a month at # 2 after its single week at # 1. It was also a Top 10 smash all across Europe and “down-under” in Australia and New Zealand.

When I was a teenager during the early-1980s I wanted to be a Top 40 deejay when I grew up. I wanted to be like Casey Kasem and Rick Dees, or even Dick Clark. I also wanted to be a Meteorologist. Then I figured that I could be a radio deejay who gave weather updates 3 or 4 times per hour. Neither one of those childhood dreams came true; although, as a blogger here I am in the weekly hit music chart business, and I occasionally write about the weather. So there’s that. #LivingTheDream

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 15 years ago to November 2006.

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) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
1970s Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1976

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, 25, 30, 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 August 01ST 1976:

  1. “Kiss And Say Goodbye” – The Manhattans
  2. “Love Is Alive” – Gary Wright
  3. “Moonlight Feels Right” – Starbuck
  4. “Afternoon Delight” – Starland Vocal Band
  5. “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” – Elton John & Kiki Dee

2 of the songs above are actually in heavy rotation on my iPod Shuffles that play at my desk at my workplace, and that would be “Love Is Alive” and “Afternoon Delight”. I like “Moonlight Feels Right” a lot, and I’ve just added it to my iTunes Wish List to purchase in a few days. (YES – I actually buy singles online legally.)

If you go to the moonlightfeelsright web site you can play the Starbuck song in its entirety. #Moonlight #FeelsRight #MarimbaSolo

Incidentally the # 6 hit that week – “Get Closer” from Seals & Crofts – is also in heavy rotation.

I remember all of these great songs playing on the radio back in the day during the patriotic Summer of 1976. I was a 9-year-old getting ready to enter the 4TH grade at Magnolia Elementary School (“The Pride Of P.G.”) in my neighborhood in Lanham Maryland. I listened to all the hits all the time on WPGC – “AM & FM Morningside”. Back then it was the Washington D.C. area’s # 1 Top 40 radio station.

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 15 years ago to August 2006.

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) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1971

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, 25, 30, 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 50 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday May 02ND 1971:

  1. “Joy To The World” – Three Dog Night
  2. “Put Your Hand In The Hand” – Ocean
  3. “Never Can Say Goodbye” – Jackson 5
  4. “What’s Going On” – Marvin Gaye
  5. “I Am … I Said” – Neil Diamond

That’s obviously not my Top 5 chart from exactly 50 years ago. That’s the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 from back then. Casey Kasem (my childhood idol) counted down the hits from coast to coast on the new “American Top 40” weekly radio show, and he counted down those hits towards the end of his broadcast on that first Sunday of May of 1971.

Casey-Kasem-American-Top-40-Print-Ad

“Joy To The World” was the greatest Three Dog Night song ever, and one of the greatest songs of all-time as far as I’m concerned. It’s in heavy rotation on my iPod Shuffles that play at my desk at my workplace. It’s garnered almost 900 plays over the past 10½ years. Some people think that it was their breakthrough smash, but it was actually their 9TH Top 40 hit.

Ocean’s “Put Your Hand In The Hand” is actually a new favorite for me. I bought the single in 2012, and it’s garnered over 725 plays since then. There’s an outdoor church that meets every Sunday morning in Cambier Park over in downtown Naples Florida. One Sunday on one of my occasional visits (while on vacation) the Praise & Worship band performed that song on stage, and I realized that it was a Christian song. I may have bought the single when I returned home from Naples.

And what can I say about one of my favorite singers of all-time – Neil Diamond ?  “I Am … I Said” is also in heavy rotation, and it’s one of his greatest songs ever. I’ve got 5 Neil Diamond songs currently in heavy or active rotation, and I’m getting ready to add to my Neil Diamond singles collection. His music playing on the car radio provides some of the earliest memories of my childhood in Greenbelt, Lanham, Seabrook, Glenn Dale, and Bowie in Prince Georges County Maryland.

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 15 years ago to May 2006 – where there’s an Angel at # 1.

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) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1971

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, 25, 30, 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 50 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday January 31ST 1971:

  1. “Knock Three Times” – Dawn
  2. “My Sweet Lord” – George Harrison
  3. “Lonely Days” – Bee Gees
  4. “One Less Bell To Answer” – The 5TH Dimension
  5. “Rose Garden” – Lynn Anderson

That’s obviously not my Top 5 chart from exactly 50 years ago. That’s the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 from back then. Casey Kasem counted down the hits from coast to coast on the new “American Top 40” weekly radio show, and he counted down those hits towards the end of his broadcast on that Sunday in 1971.

I was 3½-years-old back then. That was a year or two before I got my own radio to play with and listen to, but I do remember hearing all of those songs on the radio when they were hits. I lived with my Mom and Dad in a cozy apartment in Greenbelt Maryland at the time. They were in their mid-to-late-20s.

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 15 years ago to February 2006.

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) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries