4x Life

One month in pop history, every week.

It’s April, 1973

Written by

Thomas Scovell

in

And we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming! I’m planning on trying to get these out every Monday to start the week, as we normally listen to the playlist over the weekend. Let’s see how it goes as we turn our ears back to April, 1973…

Songs of the month

  • “Ain’t No Woman” – Four Tops
  • “Also Sprach Zarathustra” – Deodato
  • [new] “Always” – Luther Ingram
  • [new] “Am I Black Enough For You” – Billy Paul
  • [new] “And I Love You So” – Perry Como
  • “Aubrey” – Bread
  • [new] “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” – Jim Croce
  • “Break Up To Make Up” – Stylistics
  • “Call Me” – Al Green
  • “Could It Be I’m Falling In Love” – Spinners
  • “Cover Of Rolling Stone” – Dr. Hook And The Medicine Show
  • [new] “Daddy Could Swear – I Declare” – Gladys Knight And The Pips
  • [new] “Daisy A Day” – Jud Strunk
  • [new] “Dancing To Your Music” – Archie Bell And The Drells
  • “Danny’s Song” – Anne Murray
  • “Dead Skunk” – Loudon Wainwright Iii
  • [new] “Drift Away” – Dobie Gray
  • “Duelling Banjos” – Eric Weissberg And Steve Mandell
  • [new] “Everything’s Been Changed” – 5Th Dimension
  • [new] “Fencewalk” – Mandrill
  • [new] “Frankenstein” – Edgar Winter Group
  • [new] “Funky Worm” – Ohio Players
  • [new] “Give Your Baby A Standing Ovation” – Dells
  • “Hummingbird” – Seals And Crofts
  • [new] “I Like You” – Donovan
  • [new] “I’m A Stranger Here” – Five Man Electrical Band
  • [new] “I’ve Been Watchin’ You” – South Side Movement
  • [new] “Isn’t It About Time” – Stephen Stills And Manassas
  • [new] “It’s Hard To Stop” – Betty Wright
  • “Killing Me Softly With His Song” – Roberta Flack
  • “Last Song” – Edward Bear
  • [new] “Last Tango In Paris” – Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass
  • “Little Willy” – Sweet
  • [new] “Long Train Runnin’” – Doobie Brothers
  • “Love Train” – O’jays
  • “Masterpiece” – Temptations
  • [new] “Natural High” – Bloodstone
  • “Neither One Of Us” – Gladys Knight And The Pips
  • [new] “Nobody Wins” – Brenda Lee
  • [new] “One Man Band” – Ronnie Dyson
  • [new] “One Of A Kind” – Spinners
  • [new] “Only In Your Heart” – America
  • [new] “Only Love” – Bill Quateman
  • [new] “Out Of The Question” – Gilbert O’sullivan
  • “Peaceful” – Helen Reddy
  • [new] “People Are Changin’” – Timmy Thomas
  • [new] “Pillow Talk” – Sylvia
  • [new] “Reeling In The Years” – Steely Dan
  • [new] “Roll Over Beethoven” – Electric Light Orchestra
  • “Sing” – Carpenters
  • “Space Oddity” – David Bowie
  • “Stir It Up” – Johnny Nash
  • [new] “Stuck In The Middle With You” – Stealers Wheel
  • “The Cisco Kid” – War
  • [new] “The First Cut Is The Deepest” – Keith Hampshire
  • [new] “The Lord Knows I’m Drinking” – Cal Smith
  • [new] “The Night The Lights Went Our In Georgia” – Vicki Lawrence
  • “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia” – Vicki Lawrence
  • “The Twelfth Of Never” – Donny Osmond
  • “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree” – Dawn
  • [new] “Walk On The Wild Side” – Lou Reed
  • [new] “Why Me” – Kris Kristofferson
  • [new] “Wildflower” – Skylark
  • [new] “Without You In My Life” – Tyrone Davis
  • [new] “Woman From Tokyo” – Deep Purple
  • “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” – Stevie Wonder
  • [new] “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” – Rolling Stones

[new] = New to the chart this week.

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.

This month in history

On the 3rd the first handheld cellular phone call was made by Martin Cooper in New York City, at a press conference held by the Motorola company to unveil its new “DYNA T-A-C radio-telephone” and announce its commitment to spend up to five million dollars to install transmission towers throughout the city. Cooper’s call was made possible by the installation of temporary towers on two buildings on Fifth Avenue.

And on the 8th Pablo Picasso, renowned as “the greatest artist of his time and a giant in the history of painting” died of heart failure at his home in France at Mougins in the Alpes-Maritimes département. Picasso and his wife Jacqueline Roque Picasso had been entertaining friends for dinner the previous night, and the artist went to his in-home studio to work on another painting before retiring in the early morning hours for sleep.

On the 18th the science fiction film Soylent Green, set in the then-future year of 2022, premiered in the United States. Starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors and (in his final film role) Edward G. Robinson, the dystopian detective film was set in an overpopulated world, where the city of New York by itself had population of 40 million people and food, energy and housing were in short supply. Critics were unfavorable, with one saying “You still don’t have much of a movie,” and “As usual [Director Richard Fleischer] proves himself adept at subverting potentially meaningful material by shamelessly exploiting it”, while another wrote “The script is starved for lack of wit or intelligence.” Despite this, the film would cement itself in pop-culture history

What’d Sadie think?

It’s two weeks at the top for “The Night The Lights Went Our In Georgia” by Vicki Lawrence and then the same for “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree” by Dawn – showing an appetite for long song names!

A lot of classics hit the chart this week. Not the most well know, but a really influential pioneer is the Funky Worm. The ARP Pro-solist, early synthesizer, used it in was a major sound in ’90s Hiphop in particular. Whosampled.com lists no fewer than 300 songs sampling the tune alone!

Loved ’em

A great crop of songs this week. Most notably Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” which is notable for its fairly clear, queer themes, for its time. On release, RCA provided radio stations with a version of the song in which the reference to oral sex was omitted and the line “colored girls” was changed to “and the girls”. However, most radio stations continued to play the original, uncensored version.

  • “Walk On The Wild Side” – Lou Reed
  • “Drift Away” – Dobie Gray
  • “Long Train Runnin’” – Doobie Brothers
  • “Reeling In The Years” – Steely Dan
  • “Stuck In The Middle With You” – Stealers Wheel
  • “The First Cut Is The Deepest” – Keith Hampshire
  • “Why Me” – Kris Kristofferson
  • “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” – Rolling Stones

Liked ’em

  • “Always” – Luther Ingram
  • “Am I Black Enough For You” – Billy Paul
  • “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” – Jim Croce
  • “Daddy Could Swear – I Declare” – Gladys Knight And The Pips
  • “Daisy A Day” – Jud Strunk
  • “Dancing To Your Music” – Archie Bell And The Drells
  • “Everything’s Been Changed” – 5Th Dimension
  • “Fencewalk” – Mandrill
  • “Frankenstein” – Edgar Winter Group
  • “Give Your Baby A Standing Ovation” – Dells
  • “I’ve Been Watchin’ You” – South Side Movement
  • “Isn’t It About Time” – Stephen Stills And Manassas
  • “It’s Hard To Stop” – Betty Wright
  • “Last Tango In Paris” – Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass
  • “Natural High” – Bloodstone
  • “Nobody Wins” – Brenda Lee
  • “One Man Band” – Ronnie Dyson
  • “One Of A Kind” – Spinners
  • “Only In Your Heart” – America
  • “Only Love” – Bill Quateman
  • “Out Of The Question” – Gilbert O’sullivan
  • “People Are Changin’” – Timmy Thomas
  • “Pillow Talk” – Sylvia
  • “Roll Over Beethoven” – Electric Light Orchestra
  • “Wildflower” – Skylark
  • “Without You In My Life” – Tyrone Davis
  • “Woman From Tokyo” – Deep Purple

Leave ’em

  • “And I Love You So” – Perry Como
  • “I Like You” – Donovan
  • “The Lord Knows I’m Drinking” – Cal Smith

Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.

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