Really bad week in Top 40 history

[johnbasalla]

I know I bought Al Martino's "Volare"/"You Belong To Me" at K-mart because the sleeve still has the price sticker on it.

 

[ixnay]

I bought the Al Martino record at K-Mart back then. It's a mild Disco version of the late 1950s international hit "Volare". The B-side is better, a very nice version of the early 1950s Pop chestnut "You Belong To Me", which Ringo Starr covered on his "Stop and Smell The Roses" around 1980. Speaking of Mr. Starr, I like "Snookeroo" ...
A typical just-for-fun Ringo tune.

Actually, per my 2003 Whitburn, Martino's "Volare" was from Christmastime 1975 (debuted 12/8/75, spent 4 weeks in "the survey", peaked at #33).

The Martino hit from the week in queston was "To the Door of the Sun (Alle Porto Del Sol)", debuting 12/8/75, peaking at #17.

I liked both (and I myself turned 14 in 1975). Haven't heard either since they were new. Would love to hear them again. And I have vague memories of hearing "Mary in the Morning" in 1967. Don't care much for "Spanish Eyes" though.

RIP, Signor Martino.

As for "Snookeroo", I've never heard it. It never made Starkey's 1975 greatest hits LP Blast From Your Past.

ixnay

Make that 2/8/75. I was up against my departure time for work and didn't proofread. :-[

ixnay

 

[ixnay]

As for "Snookeroo", I've never heard it. It never made Starkey's 1975 greatest hits LP Blast From Your Past.

Another Ringo b-side ("Early 1970") actually IS on that collection. I don't think that the actual title is ever heard in that one; it is a tribute from him to the other three Beatles. I seem to recall that it was the b-side of "It Don't Come Easy." Don't know why this particular b-side made it onto that hits collection, but the total playing time of that compilation is less than half an hour!

I had a copy of Blast From Your Past (whose jacket depicted a "vibrating" pic of Ringo). I also had copies of "IDCE"/"Early 1970" and "Photograph"/"Down and Out". "Photograph", of course, was from Starr's late 1973 LP Ringo; "Down and Out" was recorded during those same sessions but never appeared on a U.S. or U.K. LP (according to Wally Podrazik and Harry Castleman's All Together Now, a discography pcovering the Beatles' and ex-Beatles' releases from the 1961 Tony Sheridan/Bert Kaempfert sessions up through 1975. Wally and Harry later compiled an addendum, The Beatles Again?! which updated the discography through 1977).

ixnay

 

[willdav713]

I bought the Al Martino record at K-Mart back then. It's a mild Disco version of the late 1950s international hit "Volare". The B-side is better, a very nice version of the early 1950s Pop chestnut "You Belong To Me", which Ringo Starr covered on his "Stop and Smell The Roses" around 1980. Speaking of Mr. Starr, I like "Snookeroo" ...
A typical just-for-fun Ringo tune.

The K-Mart in the town where I grew up didn't even carry 45s back then. They didn't start stocking 45s until I had long since lost interest in 45s.

I think it was 1990 when K-Mart started to no longer carry LP's. And it wasn't until 1992 until they carried Type IV cassette tapes such as the Maxell MX (Blue and Silver) version. Target had a better selection of Blank Cassette tapes, plus Target pulled out earlier on the vinyl. Never saw a 45 Record at the K-mart during the 80's at the now a data center building on Austin Hwy in San Antonio.

 

[CatCall]

The #36 songs on the list from 3/15/75 was “Butter Boy” by Fanny. I thought I knew the hits from the mid 70’s but I have never heard of this one. Anyone have this on a 45?

 

[johnbasalla]

I have it on a '45'. The song was composed by June Millington, the vocalist and guitarist in Fanny. It's on Casablanca Records. It was the groups final and, curiously, biggest hit. It's a medium-upbeat Pop-Rock piece with a dash of aggressiveness in it.

 

[OldNumber7]

The #36 songs on the list from 3/15/75 was “Butter Boy” by Fanny. I thought I knew the hits from the mid 70’s but I have never heard of this one. Anyone have this on a 45?

Funny thing is, THAT got a lot of play on the stations I listened to as a kid, but not the records in the teens on the chart that I mentioned at the start of this entire thread. Butter Boy is a very cool record and would have broken bigger nationally if stations hadn't been afraid of the risque lyrics.

 

[deltas69]

Just listened to Butter Boy..have to say I much prefer Charity Ball...We play that..but never had heard of the Butter Boy..

 

[Captainfirst]

So help me, I have never ever heard of the group "Fanny" until I read the last three posts a few minutes ago. Thanks to the
wonder of modern technology, I just listened to the single version of "Charity Ball". Sounded pretty decent!

 

[TheFonz]

So help me, I have never ever heard of the group "Fanny" until I read the last three posts a few minutes ago. Thanks to the
wonder of modern technology, I just listened to the single version of "Charity Ball". Sounded pretty decent!

They did a nice Disco-type cover of the Bell Notes '50s song "I've had It".

 

[EdisonLite]

Back in '75, I heard "Up in a Puff of Smoke", "Butter Boy" and "Snookeroo" all the time on Boston radio. The first 2 are great - I know lots of people who love both songs. (I even like the Rubinoos cover of "Up in a Puff of Smoke".) "Snookeroo" is pretty good, though not one of Elton John's best compositions, and not one of Ringo's best singles. "To the Door to the Sun" is the only one I never heard on Boston radio back then - probably because it was too old fashioned/MOR sounding for the stations. I first heard it just a few years ago, listening to an old AT40 show on the radio. It's a pretty good song, too, though I probably wouldn't have liked it much as the 13-year old I was in 1975.

 

[ixnay]

"To the Door to the Sun" is the only one I never heard on Boston radio back then - probably because it was too old fashioned/MOR sounding for the stations. I first heard it just a few years ago, listening to an old AT40 show on the radio. It's a pretty good song, too,

Martino got a lot of play on the Philly stations, especially WIP. He was from Philly.

ixnay

 

[CTListener]

I remember hearing the Martino song on Syracuse radio in '75, though I don't think WOLF, the most youth-oriented of the city's stations at the time, was on it. For Martino, it was a pretty uptempo, contemporary-sounding effort. Radio was willing to give a good-sounding record a chance in the mid-'70s even if the artist was long in the tooth and hadn't had a significant Top 40 hit in a while -- witness the comebacks of Bobby Vinton (although I positively loathed "My Melody of Love"), Neil Sedaka and Lou Rawls.

 

[FRR]

If they didn't play it in Cincinnati in 1975, I didn't know it existed. Used to listen to AM in the 60's and tuned into WBZ, CKLW, WLS, WCFL, and sometimes WABC at night. By the mid 70's we all listened to FM so there wasn't much listening to tunes from far away ciities.

 

[Fastphilly]

If they didn't play it in Cincinnati in 1975, I didn't know it existed. Used to listen to AM in the 60's and tuned into WBZ, CKLW, WLS, WCFL, and sometimes WABC at night. By the mid 70's we all listened to FM so there wasn't much listening to tunes from far away ciities.

hmm, Top40 stations in most major markets were still at the top of their game (ratings wise) in the mid 70's. Unless you are referring to AOR radio?

1975 is one of my favorite year of the 70's for music. Lotsa one hit wonders and it seems every song that hit #1 that year was only for one or two weeks tops before conceding to another record.

 

[oldies76]

1975 is one of my favorite year of the 70's for music. Lotsa one hit wonders and it seems every song that hit #1 that year was only for one or two weeks tops before conceding to another record.

From 5/19/73 through 7/23/77, of the 139 songs that hit number one, 121 songs were #1 for one or two weeks! Crazy huh? Blame that on very fast turnover.

 

[CTListener]

1975 is one of my favorite year of the 70's for music. Lotsa one hit wonders and it seems every song that hit #1 that year was only for one or two weeks tops before conceding to another record.

From 5/19/73 through 7/23/77, of the 139 songs that hit number one, 121 songs were #1 for one or two weeks! Crazy huh? Blame that on very fast turnover.

One of my favorite songs from that period, "Then Came You," made it to No. 1 for one week and immediately plunged to, I believe, No. 15 or 16. I've never understood how that could happen to a No. 1 song.

 

[michael hagerty]

One of my favorite songs from that period, "Then Came You," made it to No. 1 for one week and immediately plunged to, I believe, No. 15 or 16. I've never understood how that could happen to a No. 1 song.

I would direct you back to the Billboard Hot 100 thread from a month or two ago. Basically, what it meant was that one week, there were enough wholesale orders that it beat the other records. The following week, those wholesale orders dropped like a rock. It means that the distributors and stores over-estimated the demand for the record and had too much stock. Since it took 10 days to two weeks to go from order to stock in the store in those days in a large chunk of the country, it probably really wasn't the biggest-selling retail record in any week.

 

[firepoint525]

1975 again this week (April 19th, I think) for those of you who have stations in your area that carry the retro AT40 countdown! For those of you who don't, there is always the online listening option!

One of my favorite songs from that period, "Then Came You," made it to No. 1 for one week and immediately plunged to, I believe, No. 15 or 16. I've never understood how that could happen to a No. 1 song.

Quite a few #1 records in 1974-1975 made long drops directly out of #1, but I believe that that one (still?) holds the record for the longest drop straight from #1.

But let's face it, the '70s weren't really good to Dionne Warwick. That was her only #1 hit (until "Friends" in '86), and even it was a duet with the Spinners. "Friends" was also a superstar grouping.

 

[firepoint525]

On that last 1975 retro AT40 last week, Casey Kasem played a sample of Ben E. King's original "Stand By Me" before going on to John Lennon's version, which was on the chart that week. It occurred to me that to the teenagers of 1975, Ben E. King's version was probably unheard of! And it also occurred to me that the "definitive" version of "Stand By Me" (or more precisely, the one that you best remember) probably depends on how old you are. I was 16 in 1980 when Urban Cowboy came out, so I was probably most familiar (at that time, anyway) with Mickey Gilley's version. I discovered John Lennon's version right after his death, and being a Beatles fan, that one remains my fave. I also remember a 1985 cover version by Maurice White (ex-Earth, Wind, and Fire), which got some limited airplay in 1985, and cracked the top 50 that year, but did little else. White was probably kicking himself when the movie Stand By Me came out the following year, and revived interest in the Ben E. King version, which I could not recall ever having heard until then. King's version probably remains the most popular version, largely on the strength of that movie.