Redartz: Hello everyone; climb aboard for another excursion back to the Bronze Age! Today our trusty transport is destined for Saturday January 21, 1978. Those of us living in the US midwest don't realize it yet, but a historic blizzard is just a few days away. We would enjoy a snow break of a full week! But for today, the weather is yet clear, and your humble host (still in high school at this time) is a big follower of pop culture. Not the least of which is the Billboard pop music chart, which tells us that the top song today is:
"Baby Come Back" by Player
Rounding out the top 5:
2. Bee Gees- "How Deep is Your Love"
3. Dolly Parton- "Here You Come Again"
4. Rod Stewart- "You're in My Heart"
5. Randy Newman- "Short People"
Not a huge fan of "Baby Come Back", but it's ok. I am more impressed by the number two song; the Bee Gees have recently dropped out of the top spot. The brothers Gibb and their record label. RSO, have been red hot lately (I may be the only kid in school who doesn't own "Saturday Night Fever"), and they aren't done yet. And I hear that in the UK, they are listening to Wings doing a song called "Mull of Kintyre". Stateside, we have never heard of this one...
As this is Saturday, we should certainly check out some of the Saturday morning cartoon offerings today. This ad shows the CBS programming. Meanwhile, ABC gives us "Super Friends" and "Scooby's All-Star Laugh-a-Lympics". NBC has "Archie and Sabrina", "Muhammad Ali", and "Thundarr the Barbarian". I still never miss "Bugs Bunny", and am enjoying "Thundarr" quite a bit.
While watching a few cartoons and enjoying our bowl of "Lucky Charms", we take a glance at the TV guide to see what's on tonight. We see;
US Television schedule:ABC: "What's Happening!", "Operation Petticoat", "The Love Boat", "Fantasy Island"
CBS: "Bob Newhart Show", "Tony Randall Show", "The Jeffersons", "Maude", "Kojak"
NBC: "The Bionic Woman", "NBC Saturday Night at the Movies"
BBC1: "Saturday Night at the Movies: Trapeze", "Les Dawson Show", "Starsky and Hutch"
BBC2: "The Book Programme", "Film International- The Desert of the Tatars", "M*A*S*H"
I have to admit to watching the 'guilty pleasures' of "Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island". The latter, on the strength of Ricardo Montalban, and of course Herve Villachaize ("da plaaane, da plaaane!). Those two back-to-back are a trivia fiend's pleasure: they give a haven to every character actor, costar and veteran in show business!
Finally, let's take a look at a few of the comics on the stand today. Still 35 cents, but I think DC has the right idea with those big dollar comics...
I make a point to grab Amazing Spider-Man and Avengers (man, that book is good). Also like Showcase with Power Girl. I neglect to pick up that "Batman Family" with it's excellent cover, and soon regret my lapse.
Alas, the 21st. Century calls. Time to bid farewell to the late 70's in all their funky splendor. I have to go get my wife to sing her version of the "Love Boat" theme. So tune in again next time for another ride on the Retro!
24 comments:
Yep, on January 21st 1978 "Mull Of Kintyre/Girls' School" by Wings was in its' 8th week as the UK #1 with one more week to go (it was a double A-side but Mull Of Kintyre was the hit). The single became the best-selling song of the '70s in the UK. In America it was released as Girls' School with Mull Of Kintyre as the B-side because Paul McCartney didn't think a song about his Scottish farm would appeal to Americans...but in Australia Mull Of Kintyre was also a massive #1 hit. And nice to hear a mention of Les Dawson who was famous for his deadpan humour and especially his mother-in-law jokes such as "I know my mother-in-law is coming to visit because the mice are throwing themselves on the traps" or "My mother-in-law's favorite record is a collection of Hitler's speeches" - I thought he was hilarious but my father couldn't stand him for some reason. And winter 1978 was cold and snowy here too - we had to wear a uniform to school and the girls had to wear skirts but our headmaster (principal) announced that the girls could wear trousers because it was so cold. They were delighted but the weather turned mild so it was unnecessary - winter '79 was also cold and snowy but the subject of girls wearing trousers to school was never mentioned again.
The Bee Gees "how deep is your love" quote is probably the best song in one of the very best of the 1970s.
"Girls school "is a bawdy, awesome dirty pleasure.
Yoyo
As aggressive as McCartney became and still is about protecting his Copyrights it's always been ironic to me that he had to share credit for Mull of Kintyre with Denny Laine. Laine had some good interviews about working with Paul and Wings. Saw Paul a few years ago with my son in Milwaukee... simply wonderful!
You know what is funny... if I am flipping through stations and I come across "Love Boat," I leave it on for a few minutes. It is hypnotic in its utter 70s goofiness. Its unbelievable it aired as long as it did.
"Mull of Kintyre" definitely wasn't played here much - but I really like it. My favorite Wings tune though is still "Jet." May have to turn that up today.
I was 14 and in the ninth grade. I didn't own Saturday Night Fever soundtrack just yet, but I enjoyed hearing all of those songs on the radio. Seems like on the Midnight Special, they actually ran an early video of McCartney and the Missus with Denny Laine singing Mull of Kyntyre across a lovely pasture. A few years later, when I bought Wings Greatest, one of the big selling points was that it had Mull of Kyntyre and McCartney's "Disco" excursion "Don't Say Good Night" on it.....first time on album anywhere!
Man, The Bee Gees were in the zone there for a few years, weren't they? While a lot of the disco-era music sounds pretty dated now, all of their songs from that period still hold up well.
One of the things I do remember is that we finally started getting all of the channels on TV. We'd had rabbit ears for a long time, but finally cable was available and we were finally able to see ABC shows. I had been hearing about Super Friends for years, but wasn't able to see it unless we were visiting overnight with other family.
The comics vendor in my town stopped vending comics in mid '77, so I missed out on a lot of great stuff for about a year or so, other than a few I was able to subscribe to. I missed out on nearly the entire second run of Showcase and a good two years of Dollar Comics (they'd gone from 64 to 48 pages by then) and Power Man/Iron Fist, which became a favorite when I finally did get on board.
1978 was a year when I was probably deepest into my Archie/Disney ducks phase of comics reading, so that I only rarely and sporadically got superhero comics. Of those you have pictured, I did pick up the issues of Avengers, Firestorm and Showcase (with Power Girl), but only as back issues about 2 years later. The Power Man & Iron Fist book I finally read quite recently, in the Epic reprint volume.
Among the Saturday morning cartoon offerings, I especially never missed the Filmation Tarzan and Batman features. As for prime-time TV, yes, Love Boat and Fantasy Island were frequently watched in our household, but I recall even more that What's Happening was a show I almost never missed, mainly because my older brother really liked it. Interesting to see that the Jeffersons was on Saturday nights at that point. Once it was rescheduled to Sunday nights, my parents never missed it - they loved that show for some reason.
Oh-hohohoho--- that blizzard in the mid-west that winter! Yep, our little town in Michigan was closed down for a week as well. It was days before we saw snowplows in our sub-division-- and one of the earliest ones got STUCK a couple of streets over, buried in the continuing storm, and was left there for weeks.
Snowdrifts on the back porch connected coming down from the roof to the rising one from the ground. . . (I totally love a blizzard!)
I believe this was the year that my child-hood and adolescent television fixation finally let go almost completely. Love Boat and Fantasy Island rather drove me away, and I'm pretty sure Three's Company (the biggest offender by far) was on at this time as well, yes? Plus, although the Hulk was such a big television hit, I was so disappointed with the portrayal of the character that it continued to sour me to television across the board. Well-- plus busy with extra-curriculars, girls existed (I would've been 17), more interested in my Beatles phase & pop music, and comics were starting to take more time & attention. . .
Wings Greatest was the first time I ever heard the oft-mentioned Mull of Kintyre as well! And then I was, like, really? It's just sort of an ear-wormy, sappy, sentimental anthem to the Scottish countryside-- not a grabber by any measure. Hunh.
"Short People"-- nice bit of work on Randy Newman's part!
HB
Jonathan Lethem has a paragraph about "Mull of Kintyre" in his amazing Star Wars-viewing themed essay "13, 1977, 21" from The Disappointment Artist (which I teach every year).
HB, your "ear-wormy, sappy, sentimental" description was mid 70's McCartney to a tee. :) Everything after At the Speed of Sound fell into that category for me. I started to lose interest after "With a Little Luck," and I kind of think he did, too. Seems like after Lennon's death, he got his mojo back for a bit, but if he'd never done anything else after 1970, his place in music was secure.
I think it's called aging. 40 year olds generally aren't writing songs like 18 year olds. McCartney, Stevie Wonder, et al. Me thinks one's mind set and inspiration changes with marriage, children, and drop in testosterone levels. That's life.
Hmmm, well I was not quite six in January of '78, so I wasn't into music yet and I don't remember much of what was on TV (though I'm sure I watched Bionic Woman and Starsky and Hutch). I'm not sure which comics I was reading back then, but I may have had some of those Spidey issues with the two Green Goblins and Silvermane.
Charlie Horse 47, also a Kajillion dollars in the bank, too. :)
You got that right Graham! I heard he got the Beatle copyrights back now from Michael Jackson 's estate???
First off, a massive thank you for the UK listings, really thoughtful.
I wasn't reading comics in 1978, an unexplained gap between early childhood and pre-adolescence. But man, I love the catching up process.
Baby Come Back - I never heard that song before today. File firmly under FM radio!
Mull of Kintyre was tedious, and also the first song I learnt to play on guitar. That's how musically simple it is, folks.
Record snow fall up in Wisconsin.., 8-10 ft or something...? Moving out to our newly-built lake home, it was quite cool to see that much snow.
Loved this era of music. 'Mull of Kintyre' was co-wrote with Denny, but Paul ultimately paid out a lot to Denny in order to have his co-writing name removed. Kinda cheeky maneuver, but ol' Paul likes having all his profits coming to him. It's a great song, released in the face of all the punk rock, feeding Paul's reputation to make the simplest of songs Number #1 hits, like 'Hello Goodbye'.
And imagine, the 'Star Wars Holiday Special' was barely 30 days old.
Enjoying NBC's Quark on Friday nights. A favorite of mine, but still wondering why it couldn't have been far more funnier with Buck Henry and all the talented ensemble.
Colin B, "Baby Come Back" is one of those songs that had so much air time that when it pops up on XM's 70's channel now my first reaction is an unconscious, "ugh. . . this song again?".
And I'll put in a word on Paul McCartney's behalf and say that I really enjoyed WINGS OVER AMERICA (live); BACK TO THE EGG; and TUG OF WAR (possibly one of my favorite McCartney albums). And then. . . yeesh. . . FLAMING PIE is good to have on in the background, though it can be tedious. And 2013's NEW isn't bad, although rather over-hyped. But. . the man will record anything he comes up with, and he recycles EVERYTHING that registered as popular at one time. He has all the humility of General Custer in LITTLE BIG MAN. ("This. . . is a McCARTNEY song!!!")
The other songs in the top 5 there? Boy, "You're In My Heart" could play two or three times an hour on WLS, as could "How Deep Is Your Love?". Dolly Parton's song, which I liked at the time, wasn't rotated as heavily-- probably because it was a crossover hit? And "Short People" didn't get nearly enough reps-- and, if any of you fellow-oldsters recall, that may have been because there was a very stupid, pseudo-controversy about the fact that its lyrics were so offensive to. . . short people. COMPLETELY missing the fact that that element of social commentary/satire was the whole flippin' POINT of the song--- (Editorials, ranting parents,etc, etc)
HB
HB you still in Chicago land?
Thanks for riding along today everyone!
Edo- funny, it always seemed that "Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" were paired, you watched one then the other, but not just one...
HB- yes, that blizzard was like a vacation treat for a kid! I'll never forget leaving the house that first morning and seeing my car buried over the hood. And like you, Beatles were in heavy rotation on my turntable at the time. Aaaand, you're right about "Short People". There was some laughable controversy about it. Ah, if folks would simply listen to the lyrics before flipping out.
Dr.O- not familiar with the book you mentiin, but it sounds engaging! Wish I was in your class...
Colin Bray- you're quite welcome, glad to include our pals across the pond ( thank heavens for Google!).
David_b- "Quark", loads of laughs. Richard Benjamin and all, loved Ficus...
Humanbelly, I remember that winter very well. We were still on a farm, at that point.
My brother and I amused ourselves by digging tunnels in the snow, leading to a tiny cave. It was deep enough that you could do that! Of course, we were pretty small back then.
I also remember that Short People controversy...something on T.V., protesters burning the guy's records. Pretty dumb! I was short back then and I wasn't offended!
That's a great song!
M.P.
Like Colin Bray, I'd never heard Baby Come Back before today but I did know about the song because I'd owned a book about Billboard hits written by Joel Whitburn (in the book he claimed that the Beatles'songs would be "the classical music of future centuries"...hmmm, really ?). But I listened to the YouTube clip because in 1968 there was a UK #1 called Baby Come Back by The Equals and I was curious if Player were singing a new version of that song....no, it was different song. The Equals' lead singer was Eddy Grant who had '80s hits like I Don't Wanna Dance, Electric Avenue and the terrific Gimme Hope Jo'anna about South Africa. I don't remember the Short People controversy at the time but I've heard plenty about it - Randy Newman was speaking about it on BBC radio not that long ago. I don't think I know Dolly Parton's Here You Come Again either - her most famous British hit was "Jolene" from 1976.
CH47-- Nope, 'fraid not. As I mentioned to my wife this evening, we've been living in Maryland for more years of our lives than anywhere else. We're, like, naturalized Marylanders.
HB
Although I was a teenager in the late '70s I don't have any nostalgia for the pop culture of the time. Bad MOR music, bad TV... although it's before my time, the '60s were so much better with the most awesome bands and music ever and great TV like Lost In Space, Star Trek, Batman, etc. Oh, and the COMICS were way better too!
I was in 8th grade then. In the thrall of comics at the newsstand! A quick peek at Mike's Amazing World confirms that I bought most of DC's super-hero offerings that month. Th Blizzard of '78 is still legendary here in Massachusetts. Cars had to be abandoned on city streets and major highways. Somehow I was able to deliver the Boston Globe each morning! (I've repressed a lot of my newspaper-delivery memories.) This is the era where pop songs and comics are linked inextricably for me. For many years now, I've noticed that some songs will automatically trigger a response which makes me think of that song as one of my "comic book songs." When one comes on the radio, I start thinking about 35 cent comics like Freedom Fighters, Spider-Woman, and Action Comics, and Giant sized Batman Family! Most any top-40 tune from circa 77-78 will do it!
Colin Jones- thanks for the info about The Equals. I really enjoyed Eddy Grant, but wasn't familiar with the group.
Ward Hill Terry- your comments on music and comics are rather prescient! Look for a discussion on that very topic in the near future...
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