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The Weekly One Hit Wonder


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I did too, but that ain't them...

Either senility has set in...or I always confused that song as being done by them

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you know, I was actually going to mention how much the vocals sound like Blood Sweat and Tears. I assumed for years that it was.

The vocalist of BS&T that you're speaking of is David Clayton Thomas, who was on board for their greatest commercial recordings, although I prefer the first BS&T album, with Al Kooper, and even the unheralded New Blood album, featuring Jerry Fisher.

Here's a nice summary of Blood, Sweat & Tears' history:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&a...0ifpxqw5ldde~T1

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Vehicle is a great tune. I remember it from back in the day and believe it or not I never confused it for a Blood, Sweat and Tears tune. (The local station would always name the artist and track title before or after each song was played making it impossible to not know. :lol: )

I have 2 or 3 of their albums on a hard drive around here somewhere........

Great info on Jim Peterik. I never knew any of that stuff. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I also forgot to mention, Peterik also cowrote "Music for Dummies", or "Guitar for Dummies, or something like that. Hey, it was last week, how am I supposed to remember?

Anyway, I have been thinking about it for a week, and I am stuck on what to post next. Too many to choose from.

somebody pick a year.

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I know, I know. I've been getting crushed at work.

I have it about halfway done. Hopefully, Friday. Sorry, folks!.

Oh, and by the way, I checked, and I already did 1974, so I moved over one year to 1973.

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Let's see...what was going on in 1973? Let's take a look.

In the theaters, wow! What a great year for pictures. The Exorcist scared the heck out of everybody, and Deliverance scared everybody, too, but for different reasons. Roger Moore did ok in Live and Let Die, Ryan & Tatum schemed their through Paper Moon.

Enter the Dragon (holla!)

Some really good soundtracks, too:

Jesus Christ Superstar

American Graffiti

Lady Sings the Blues

The Sting

Brando said "get the butter"

On tv, the biggest event of the year was Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii, seen by over 1 billion peole worldwide. In 1973. Long Live the King.

"James Paul McCartney" airs, Sir Paul's first tv special. George Jefferson made his debut on All In The Family, and Schoolhouse Rocks!!! debuts. The Six Million Dollar Man showed up, and I never missed an episode.

Steve Austin...astronaut. A man barely alive. We can rebuild him. Make him better than he was before. Better. Stronger. Faster.

(how sad is it I know the introduction to that show right off the top of my head?)

Kojak loved you, baby. Jed Clampett became Barnaby Jones, and stayed Barnaby for the next 17 years. (I did not know that).

Trekkies got the first animated series that year.

In music, we lost a great storyteller when Jim Croce was killed in a plane crash at the age of 24.

Paul McCartney was fined 240 bucks for growing the green outside his Scottish farm

Mick is denied a visa to get into the Orient because of drug busts 4 years earlier

Dead bassist Phil Lesh is busted for possesion.

Hmmm...I see a trend.

David Bowie retires his Ziggy Stardust persona.

debut albums:

KISS

Aerosmith

Bob Marley and the Wailers

The New York Dolls

Springsteen

Queen

Skynyrd

Not a bad list. I own them all but Marley (don't care for it) and the NY Dolls (never saw what the big deal was)

But I digress.

Getting back to the music, there were some great albums put out that year, besides the freshman efforts listed above.

Pink Floyd released, quite possibly, the perfect album, Dark Side of the Moon

Alice Cooper released Billion Dollar Babies (which, btw, I got him to autograph for me last year. I don't know if I posted the pic I have of he and I or not.)

the Coop also released Muscle of Love.

Remember the good old days, when a band realeased more than one album every five years?

On the charts, Billy Preston wanted to know, Will it go round in circles?, Cher was at her sultry best singing Half Breed, Eddie Kendricks kept on truckin'.Also on the charts were the usual suspects...Elton John, Grand Funk Railroad, The Carpenters, all the big names controlled the top of the charts, with each artist spending time at #1.

An interesting thing I found out about the Beatles while researching this post: all 4 charted top ten singles in 1973, with 3 of the 4 hitting number one, and the 4th topping out at #10. I'll leave it at that, in case anyone wants to look it up. Heehee.

And in early February, topping out at # 10:

King Harvest ~ Dancin' In The Moonlight

I really enjoy this song. Like most one hit wonders, it's poppy. Not to be confused with Thin Lizzy's song with the same name, a lot of people know this song by heart, but couldn't tell you who does it.

Formed in New York City, USA around 1972. The band comprised three keyboardists, Ron Altback, Sherman Kelly and Davy "Doc" Robinson, plus Ed Tuleja (guitar), Tony Cahill (bass), Rod Novak (saxophone) and David Montgomery (drums). All had been involved previously with other bands and done session work. In 1972, they signed to the small Perception label. Their first single was Altback's "Dancing In The Moonlight", a soulful pop song that he and Robinson had performed with their earlier band, Boffalongo.

"A Little Bit Like Magic", charted, reaching number 91 in 1973, but wasn't even close to the success of Dancin'. The original line-up recorded one album titled after the hit single, which failed to break into the Top 100. They made other singles, but by the mid-70s had disbanded.

kingha1.jpg

Dancin' In The Moonlight

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I was only 9. Mt whole life revolved around baseball and fishing.

Fortunately for me, my mom has always loved music, and I was always exposed to whatever was out at the time. Music was always a big part part of my life. Matter of fact, I know more Motown than any middle aged white suburban male has a right to. LOL.

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Ok, as promised, I am going to expand from the 70's, and step into 1980.

It seems the songs I've chosen so far have been a little hit or miss as to whether or not people have heard them, so I'm going to play it safe and choose one I'm fairly certain everyone knows.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. First, let's take a step back...holy cow!...27 years!! (there is no way 1980 was that long ago)

At the theaters, the big money makers were sequals, Superman II and The Empire Strikes Back.

Dolly Parton wore that yellow sweater in 9 to 5, Ordinary People won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, Sissy Spacek won Best actress for a great turn as Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter. DeNiro was Best Actor in Raging Bull. (Joe Pesci shoulda won Best Supporing Actor!!)

Other films:

Friday-The-13th--C11790671.jpgcaddyshack.jpgshining.jpg

Queen did an ok soundtrack for Flash Gordon.

On the idiot box, everyone wondered who shot JR, Dave Letterman debuts, and bombs, on daytime tv. Two years later, he'd hit his stride on late night tv. Eddie Murphy joins SNL. Bosom Buddies premiers, introducing the world to Tom Hanks. Another Tom (Selleck) debuts in Magnum P.I. (those shorts still freak me out)

Now, moving on to music (which why we're all here anyway), three of the biggest names in rock, John Lennon, Bon Scott and John Bonham passed away. Their deaths are still felt to this day.

Born in 1980:

R.E.M

The Violent Femmes

Metallica

Depeche Mode

There were some really good albums released in 1980.

Back in Black ~ AC/DC

British Steel ~ Judas Priest

Heaven and Hell ~ Black Sabbath(without Ozzy)

Blizzard of Ozz ~ Ozzy Osbourne (without Black sabbath)

Permanent Waves ~ Rush

Iron Maiden ~ Iron Maiden (I was on board from the start with these guys. F*CKING, MAIDEN, MAN!!!)

The Game ~ Queen

Ace of Spades ~ Motorhead

Wow, what a great year to be 16 and have long hair. :thumbsup:

Other releases:

Boy ~ U2 (their debut, way before Bono cultivated his Messiah persona)

Departure ~ Journey

Empty Glass ~ Pete Townshend

Head Games ~ Foreigner

The River ~ Springsteen

Zenyatta Mondatta ~ The Police

on the charts, hanging around at the top were Pink Floyd's anti-establishment anthem, Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2, Blondie's Call Me, (from American Gigilo), Olivia Newton John's Magic, Kenny Rogers crossed over with Coward of the County, Lipps Inc took us all to Funkytown (man I hated that song),

but, a little lower down the charts, topping out at number 36, (number 2 in the UK), we had

The Vapors ~ Turning Japanese

This is a true one hit wonder, in every sense of the word. They were only around from 1979 to 1981.

the-best-of-the-vapors.jpg

The band members, David Fenton (songwriter, guitarist and vocalist), Howard Smith (drummer), Edward Bazalgette (lead guitar) and Steve Smith (bass guitarist and vocals), were sort of an early new wave type band, or a residual leftover of the punk movement. Hard to say. They only released two albums New Clear Days ( get it? Nuclear Days...get it?), and Magnets.

By 1981, they had disbanded. Fenton 'retired' from the band to delve into the legal aspects of the music industry, effectively ending their short run.

The song

The video

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The line "I want a doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well" still gives me the creeps.

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