Weren't "Lady Marmalade's" questionable lyrics in French? If so, maybe that's how it go through?
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Song you wondered how they they ever got played on Top 40 radio
- Thread starter secondchoice
- Start date
It translates to "Do you want to sleep with me tonight?"
I mean, two years after "Let's Get It On", to say nothing of Sylvia's "Pillow Talk"?
Not a factor. They could have sung that in English and not lost a station. But it also wouldn't have been the hook that "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi---ce soir" was.
It was the first song I ever heard that had the word "Valium" in the lyrics.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
FYI, I did some research when Westwood One announced its demise a few months ago, with the intent of marketing my format to the affected stations. While my count is possibly over or under by a small amount (it is difficult to always tell when a station runs a syndicated format), there were far less than 50 affiliates at the end ... not nearly enough for it to be worth for parent Cumulus to keep afloat.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Which I once front-announced as "a happy little song ... about someone DYING ..."
And maybe the last. I don't remember another.
What was funny was that in 1973, outside of that song, Valium was mostly known as being the tranquilizer of choice for middle-aged moms.
If the movie "The Sixth Sense" had come out 26 years earlier, I promise you I would have back-announced "Seasons in the Sun" with
"...I hear dead people."
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I probably would have as well, Mike.
I know that's true for me. However, that song I didn't care for, period.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I think we're all lucky you aren't a programmer. The last thing this business needs is someone who uses their own personal tastes to select music.
"That song" -- presuming we are still talking about "Angie Baby" by Helen Reddy -- has gotten relatively little airplay in the past decade or longer. I have to wonder myself how it got into any syndicated format of recent years.
Even Helen’s death didn’t spur a revival of interest in her music. She was a very nice lady, and talented, but most of the singles were lowest common denominator AM dreck, even by the standards of the era.
I keep thinking of that movie Airport 77? where she's dressed as a nun playing a guitar on a plane. There were a few of those movies, Airport '75 and '70.
She had a couple of other story songs besides "Angie Baby", such as "Delta Dawn" and "Ruby Red Dress".
There was also "Laurie (Strange Things Happen)" by Dickey Lee from 1965 (reaching #14 in the US). It was so overly schmaltzy, Dr. Demento used to give it airplay.
It was "Airport", "Airport 1975" and "Airport '77".
Helen was in "Airport 1975"--as you said, as a nun---opposite Linda Blair:
In 1980, Zucker-Abrams-Zucker turned that scene on its head for "AIRPLANE!", with the stewardess borrowing the guitar from a nun played by Maureen McGovern (who had a hit with a song from a different disaster movie, "The Morning After" from "The Poseidon Adventure", in 1973):
Maureen also got a brief scene on her own, attempting to serenade a passenger with food poisoning:
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
As Mike said ... with "19", without apostrophe.
And Maureen McGovern in Airplane! was perfect.
And before those happy little numbers, we had the death by drowning songs. "Endless Sleep" by Jody Reynolds and Pat Boone's "Moody River."
Back in the world of largely white pop and country, there were two fairly sure-fire paths to a hit: Make 'em cry (happy or sad tears---didn't matter) or make 'em dance.
Universal emotions.
Since this thread is about "songs you wonder how they ever got played", I'm surprised nobody has brought up... "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini." And in a similar vein, Daddy Dewdrop's "Chick A Boom" from 1971.
Since the Amish don't have electricity, they couldn't have had radios. Did anyone else think that was so racy as to "wonder how it ever got played"? It is literally about the most modest girl (by 1960s standards) on the planet:
She was afraid to come out of the locker
She was as nervous as she could be
She was afraid to come out of the locker
She was afraid that somebody would see
Two, three, four
Tell the people what she wore
It was an itsy, bitsy, teenie, weenie, yellow, polka dot bikini
That she wore for the first time today
An itsy, bitsy, teenie, weenie, yellow, polka dot bikini
So, in the locker, she wanted to stay
Two, three, four
Stick around we'll tell you more
(Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop-op-op-op-op-op-op)
She was afraid to come out in the open (bop-op-op-op)
And so a blanket around her she wore (bop-op-op-op)
She was afraid to come out in the open (bop-op-op-op)
And so she sat, bundled up on the shore (bop-op-op-op)
Two, three, four
Tell the people what she wore
It was an itsy, bitsy, teenie, weenie, yellow, polka dot bikini
That she wore for the first time today
An itsy, bitsy, teenie, weenie, yellow, polka dot bikini
So, in the blanket, she wanted to stay
Two, three, four
Stick around we'll tell you more
(Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop-op-op-op-op-op-op)
Now she's afraid to come out of the water (bop-op-op-op)
And I wonder what she's gonna do (bop-op-op-op)
Now she's afraid to come out of the water (bop-op-op-op)
And the poor little girl's turning blue (bop-op-op-op)
Two, three, four
Tell the people what she wore
It was an itsy, bitsy, teenie, weenie, yellow, polka dot bikini
That she wore for the first time today
An itsy, bitsy, teenie, weenie, yellow, polka dot bikini
So, in the water, she wanted to stay
From the locker to the blanket
From the blanket to the shore
From the shore to the water
Guess there isn't any more
Okay---now, I'm kinda with you on this one, because she starts the song in a black bikini, he finds the top half, he finds the bottom half and he finds her.
Now, she's gone through three doors, maybe one of them's a changing room and she's dressed.
But I was 15 and I said "Hey, she's naked!"
And since I was on the radio at the time, I played the heck out of it. Small rural town. Not a single complaint.