Woops, we skipped a week of posting* (but never listening!) so here is August, 1975 for those who want to check it out before listening to the sounds of September…
*for very good reason, the wonderful Emily’s 40th birthday – happy birthday darling!
The Chart
Two weeks at the top for Glen Campbell and “Rhinestone Cowboy” before Bowie’s “Fame” takes the gold, then “Calypso / I’m Sorry” by John Denver rounds out the month.
- [new] “Ain’t No Way To Treat A Lady” – Helen Reddy
- “At Seventeen” – Janis Ian
- [new] “Bad Blood” – Neil Sedaka
- “Ballroom Blitz” – Sweet
- “Black Superman” – Johnny Wakelin
- [new] “Brazil” – Ritchie Family
- “Calypso / I’m Sorry” – John Denver
- “Could It Be Magic” – Barry Manilow
- “Daisy Jane” – America
- “Dance With Me” – Orleans
- “Fallin’ In Love” – “Hamilton Joe Frank & Reynolds”
- “Fame” – David Bowie
- “Feel Like Makin’ Love” – Bad Company
- “Feelings” – Morris Albert
- “Fight The Power” – Isley Brothers
- [new] “Games People Play” – Spinners
- [new] “Get Down Tonight” – K.C. & The Sunshine Band
- [new] “Gone At Last” – Paul Simon & Phoebe Snow
- “Holdin’ On To Yesterday” – Ambrosia
- [new] “How Long” – Pointer Sisters
- “How Sweet It Is” – James Taylor
- “I Believe There’s Nothing Stronger Than Our Love” – Paul Anka & Odia Coates
- [new] “I’m Sorry / Calypso” – John Denver
- [new] “It Only Takes A Minute” – Tavares
- “Jive Talkin’” – Bee Gees
- [new] “Lady Blue” – Leon Russell
- [new] “Miracles” – Jefferson Starship
- [new] “Mr. Jaws” – Dickie Goodman
- “One Of These Nights” – Eagles
- “Rhinestone Cowboy” – Glen Campbell
- [new] “Rocky” – Austin Roberts
- “Run Joey Run” – David Geddes
- “Solitaire” – Carpenters
- “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” – Elton John
- “That’s The Way Of The World” – Earth Wind & Fire
- “The Proud One” – Osmonds
- [new] “They Just Can’t Stop It” – Spinners
- “Third Rate Romance” – Amazing Rhythm Aces
- “Tush” – Zz Top
- “Wasted Days And Wasted Nights” – Freddy Fender
- [new] “Who Loves You” – Four Seasons
- “Why Can’t We Be Friends” – War
[new] = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
The Times
Classic game show The Price Is Right aired its first-ever late-night 60-minute episode on CBS. Hosted by Bob Barker, the daytime favorite expanded from its original half-hour format to test an expanded hour-long structure, officially introducing the iconic “Showcase Showdown” wheel. To qualify for the final Showcase, contestants were required to spin the massive, multi-colored wheel and score as close to $1.00 as possible without going over. The hour-long format proved so massively popular with viewers and advertisers alike that CBS permanently adopted the 60-minute runtime two months later. And decades later it gives us a great peek into the ’70s…
Cult cinema and midnight movie culture reached a sensational milestone on September 26, 1975, when The Rocky Horror Picture Show made its official US theatrical debut at the Westwood Theatre in Los Angeles. Adapted from Richard O’Brien’s hit British stage musical and starring Tim Curry in his star-making role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the musical comedy-horror film gleefully parodied B-movie science fiction and horror tropes. While initially met with lukewarm commercial business during its standard daytime runs, its transfer to late-night midnight screenings sparked an unprecedented global subculture complete with audience callback scripts, shadow casts, and prop-throwing, establishing the film as the ultimate, longest-running cult classic in cinema history.
Science fiction television received a high-budget, cinematic overhaul on September 4, 1975, when Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s live-action series Space: 1999 premiered on UK television, quickly followed by international syndication. Starring real-life husband and wife Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, the show centered on the personnel of Moonbase Alpha after a massive nuclear waste explosion knocks the Moon out of Earth’s orbit, sending them hurtling through deep space. Boasting g special effects designed by Brian Johnson—who would go on to win an Academy Award for Alien—along with sleek futuristic costume designs and detailed miniature spacecraft, Space: 1999 was the most expensive British television series ever produced at the time, setting a new visual benchmark for mid-70s sci-fi broadcasting. And becoming a personal childhood favourite of Thomas’!
The Take
The song that received most of the family chatter this week was so much as song as a piece of comedy, “Mr. Jaws” by Dickie Goodman. A parody of the 1975 summer blockbuster film Jaws, with Goodman interviewing the shark (whom he calls “Mr. Jaws”), as well as the film’s main characters, Brody, Hooper, and Quint.
Goodman makes full use of his practice of “break-in” music sampling, in which all of the interview answers are lyrics from popular songs from that year. He’s been in our charts with this technique since 1956 with “The Flying Saucer”.
I had thought the ability to do this commercially might have been due to it preceding sampling law, but apparently some licensing rights were involved. As originally, the songs were “sampled”; but when the record became a hit, the songs were replaced on later pressings by sound-alike recordings.
The infectious rhythm of the “betcha got a chick…” chorus in “How Long” by the Pointer Sisters got us actually singing along. A great live video here.
And an adorable moment when Sadie and I belted out the chorus to “Rhinestone Cowboy” by Glen Campbell and pointed at each other dramatically. Another great slice-of-the-70s video below:
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.