Here's the American Top 40 from today in 1978: Saturday, March 11. Maybe we can squeeze this in before sitting down for some intriguing first-round NCAA-tournament action on Channel 6 this afternoon.
Hello again, and welcome to American Top 40. I'm Casey Kasem, and this is our weekly countdown of the 40 most popular songs in the country. Well, falling out of the survey this week are Randy Newman, Player, Foreigner, Odyssey and Rod Stewart, and moving into the Top 40 are debut hits by Rod Stewart, Enchantment, England Dan and John Ford Coley, Van Halen (a new group) and ELO. Let's get it started right here ...
No. 40 is "It's You That I Need." This is peak Enchantment, a Detroit ballad group that ran out of steam in rap's 1980s rise. This song went to the top of the "Hot Soul Singles" chart in February 1978.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia: "In 2003, Enchantment released 'God Bless America,' in honor of troops fighting in Iraq. Proceeds from the single benefited the United Way. Jobie Thomas later left the group and has formed his own group known as Enchantment featuring Jobie Thomas."
I definitely watched the 1978 Illinoi High School Association Tournament on Channel 3.
ReplyDeleteFrom 1908 to 1971, the IHSA hosted a single tournament. In 1972, the tournament was divided into two divisions based on school size (A and AA). That two-class format continued until 2008.
ReplyDeleteIn 1978, Nashville beat Havana 54 to 38 to win the Class A Championship. Lockport (Central) beat Westchester (St. Joseph) 64 to 47 to win the Class AA Championship. I'm very confident I saw the Class A game, because I remember Nashville being in Illinois. But I don't remember watching the Class AA game -- which is a shame, because Westchester (St. Joseph) was led by Isiah Thomas.
ReplyDeleteIn the quarterfinals, Westchester (St. Joseph) played Chicago (Westinghouse), who was led by Mark Aguirre. St. Joseph won 63 to 60. Both Thomas and Aguirre made the all-tournament team.
ReplyDeleteWe always watched those tournament games on Channel 3, too. The season I most remember is the one when Jay Shidler was a senior. I can't remember if we already knew he was going to UK when we watched those games, but my mom and dad and I were just over the moon for Jay Shidler. It was actually pretty rare that we all three sparked to the same team or player, so that was a big deal.
ReplyDeleteI also remember the Brian Sloan season. I wasn't as much into that one, but Mom and Dad were nutso about Brian Sloan because his dad, Jerry, had played at Evansville. They acted like Brian Sloan was their own grandson.
ReplyDeleteNo. 39 is "We'll Never Have to Say Goodbye Again." I'm stunned to learn that this is the second-highest-charting England Dan and John Ford Coley hit in the United States. “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” went to No. 2 in 1976, and “Nights Are Forever Without You” went to No. 10 that same year. Then they got to No. 21 with “It’s Sad to Belong” and No. 23 with “Gone Too Far” in 1977. This is their first hit of 1978, and it’s going to get to No. 9. Can’t believe this song actually outperformed “Nights Are Forever."
ReplyDeleteNo. 38 is a new four-man outfit from Pasadena, California, and their cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me." There are a number of early recordings of Van Halen shows from the middle 1970s on YouTube, and I've scanned through several of them as they've come up in my daily searches through the years. It seems like all of them have featured "You Really Got Me," and, while it's not my cup of tea, I can totally see why it would've whipped me into an absolute frenzy if Rusty and some band of classmates played it at Kaleidoscope. I already know all of the words, and David Lee Roth is doing all kinds of decadent vocal stuff in the gaps of the verses, and the thing is pretty much a signature Eddie Van Halen guitar solo from beginning to end. Sixteen-year-old me would've screamed my lungs out for more, and, of course, millions of 16-year-olds did. Van Halen is going to become a very, very big deal for many, many years.
ReplyDeleteI used to occasionally tape these shows on a portable recover leaned against a stereo speaker in my room, and, when I did, I would stop the recording whenever a song ended and Casey started talking. Then I'd restart the recording as he wound down his intro to the next song. And so I'm still kind of trained to not listen to what Casey is actually saying and instead just listening for the crescendos and denouements of his spiels. He just said something about No. 37, "Running on Empty" by Jackson Browne, but I didn't catch what it was.
ReplyDeleteI will say that I always associate this song with CHiPs, which debuted in September 1977. I'm not sure why. Maybe it turned up in an episode.
Recorder, not recover.
DeleteNo. 36: "Thank You for Being a Friend," Andrew Gold. It has never been a favorite of mine, but, if we end up screwing around and destroying ourselves like a bunch of idiots, it'd be OK with me if a recording of this song ended up surviving for the aliens to decipher because I hope they know that sometimes we could really be sweet.
ReplyDeleteNo. 35: "Hot Legs," Rod Stewart. This was definitely my absolute favorite song for at least a few weeks when I was actually 9 years old in 1978.
ReplyDeleteNo. 34: "Lady Love," Lou Rawls. Perfect. Shimmering and perfect. There are several very high highlights in the Lou Rawls catalog.
ReplyDeleteNo. 33: “Before My Heart Finds Out," Gene Cotton. I don't remember this song.
ReplyDeleteSuper Wikipedia:
Cotton has been a resident of Leiper's Fork, Tennessee since the late 1970s. Between the late 1990s and mid 2000s, Cotton scaled back his career as a singer and songwriter and spent much of his savings on a legal battle against the construction of Interstate 840 which surrounds Nashville, which substantially delayed the completion of the route and led to a partial redesign of one section. ...
In 2001, Cotton lost a race for a seat in District 63 of the Tennessee House of Representatives, to Republican Glen Casada. Casada won 3,185 votes to Cotton's 1,554 in a special election in which only 13 percent of registered voters cast ballots. Both Casada and Cotton campaigned on strong opposition to proposals for a state income tax.
No. 32: "Sweet Talkin' Woman," Electric Light Orchestra. High debut of the week. ELO so holds up.
ReplyDeleteNo. 31, "Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me," Linda Ronstadt. This was my favorite of her songs until "Plow King."
ReplyDeleteNo. 30, "Flashlight," Parliament. Can't stop listening to that thing if you ever start. It's Twizzlers.
ReplyDeleteNo. 29, "Which Way Is Up?" Starguard. This is the theme song to a Richard Pryor movie. You would remember it.
ReplyDeleteCasey takes a reader question about the history of the national disco chart. Billboard started doing a disco survey in September 1976, and now it is based on reports from 20 cities. The first No. 1 on the disco chart was "You Should Be Dancing" by the Bee Gees.
ReplyDeleteNo. 28, "Goodbye Girl," David Gates. My wife is a bit of night owl, and I often go to sleep to some movie from the 1970s that's available for free from TCM on demand. I think I've seen (and enjoyed) the first 10 minutes of The Goodbye Girl with Marsha Mason and Richard Dreyfuss 10 times and have never finished it.
ReplyDeleteNow Casey's playing "If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago, a 1976 No. 1 hit in which Peter Cetera had a public coming out for the woowoowoo vocal accent thing that he has perfected by the time of "Next Time I Fall in Love" 10 years later or so. The latter is a go-to karaoke song for me.
ReplyDeleteNo. 27: "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," John Williams. I preferred Close Encounters of the Third Kind to Star Wars, and I preferred Peggy Sue Got Married to Back to the Future.
ReplyDeleteNo. 26: "We Are the Champions," Queen.
ReplyDeleteNo. 25: "Dust in the Wind," Kansas. It took me years and years to understand that there are guys who just love this song and that I'm not one of them. It's obviously great, but it's just not me. I had it on several cassette mixes even.
ReplyDeleteNo. 24: "Ebony Eyes," Bob Welch. I've always kind of liked this song, and it came up for me in my 1978 day by day a couple of weeks ago. I didn't know that Bob Welch was part of the early choppy Fleetwood Mac days, and then I was delighted to discover this up-tempo live performance of "Ebony Eyes" with Stevie Nicks taking the Juice Newton backup-vocals turn . I think it's outstanding, and it's an especially dynamite tambourine performance. They all seem so happy.
ReplyDeleteNo. 23: "Always and Forever," Heat Wave.
ReplyDeleteNo. 22: "Jack and Jill," Raydio. This is one of my 2025 breakout hits from 1978. Ray Parker Jr. really knows how to write a pop song.
ReplyDeleteNo. 21: "If I Can't Have You," Yvonne Elliman. This is one of the zillion eminently danceable hits from Saturday Night Fever.
ReplyDeleteNo. 20: "The Way You Do the Things You Do," Rita Coolidge. I decided not long after I got married that it's just best if I don't think too much or listen too much or say much of anything about Rita Coolidge.
ReplyDeleteNo. 19: "Our Love," Natalie Cole. I remember hearing this song as a kid, but I've liked it more upon rediscovery in this first quarter of fake 1978 than I did in real 1978. It's fun when that happens.
ReplyDeleteNo. 18: "What a Wonderful World," Art Garfunkel. He hosted the March 11, 1978, Saturday Night Live, which I watched and enjoyed yesterday.
ReplyDeleteHe also appeared on an episode earlier during the 1977-78 season. Charles Grodin was the host, and Paul Simon was the musical guest. Simon played "Slip Sliding Away," and then, later in the show, he was joined by Grodin, who was wearing a frizzy wig in the style of Garfunkel. They perform "Sounds of Silence," until Simon gets worn out with the skit: "Why are we doing this?" Once it becomes clear that Grodin doesn't he know the words to the song, Simon leaves the stage. But then Grodin stays on once he sees Simon is out of earshot to perform Garfunkel's incredible vocal on "Bridge Over Troubled Water"--until Garfunkel comes out of the studio audience and makes Grodin stop and give him the wig.
I found it all very clever. Saturday Night Live has really hit its stride by 1978 and in its third season. This is about the time I started watching as a kid, in order to keep up with Feather's references to it at school. It's a much better program than I was expecting.
No. 17: "Falling," Lenny LeBlanc. Wikipedia: "On the American Top 40 show of February 25, 1978, Casey Kasem reported that LeBlanc and Carr had been bumped from the ill-fated flight which killed some of the members of rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. The acts were touring together, and last-minute travel plan changes prevented the duo from boarding the plane after they had initially been offered seats."
ReplyDeleteNo. 16: "Happy Anniversary," Little River Band. Top 20-charting Little River Band singles in the United States:
ReplyDelete— “Help Is on Its Way,” 1976 (high-position 14)
— “Happy Anniversary,” 1978 (16)
— “Reminiscing,” 1978 (3)
— “Lady,” 1978 (10)
— “Lonesome Loser,” 1979 (6)
— “Cool Change,” 1979 (10)
— “The Night Owls,” 1981 (6)
— “Take It Easy on Me,” 1981 (10)
— “Man on Your Mind,” 1982 (14)
— “The Other Guy,” 1983 (11)
American Top 40 is heard in the 50 states and around the world every week on great radio stations like WJBD Salem, Illinois; WFDT Columbia City, Indiana; and NIRT Tehran, Iran. Well, now it's time for the Bee Gees ...
ReplyDeleteNo. 15: "How Deep Is Your Love?"
ReplyDeleteNo. 14: "Thunder Island," Jay Ferguson. This seems like a song that Jack Tripper on Three's Company would've really enjoyed. I doubt he would've gone out and bought the whole Thunder Island album, but I imagine he could find an 8-track K-tel collection with the song. I could totally imagine Jack Tripper enjoing this song in his car.
ReplyDeleteNo. 13: "What's Your Name?" Lynyrd Skynyrd.
ReplyDeleteNo. 12: "Name of the Game," ABBA.
No. 11: "Peg," Steely Dan.
I'm losing steam for this countdown. We're hitting the stage where I'm hearing songs that I hear any time I go in to a Kroger.
No. 10: "I Can't Smile Without You," Barry Manilow.
ReplyDeleteNo. 9: "Just the Way You Are," Billy Joel. Down from a peak of No. 3.
No. 8: "I Go Crazy," Paul Davis.
Yeah, I think I'm toast.
No. 7: "Dance Dance Dance," Chic.
ReplyDeleteNo. 6: "Stayin' Alive," Bee Gees.
No. 5: "Lay Down Sally," Eric Clapton.
No. 4: "Emotion," Samantha Sang
No. 3: "Sometimes When We Touch," Dan Hill.
"Night Fever" by the Bee Gees is No. 2, and "Love Is Thicker Than Water" by Andy Gibb is No. 1, and I'm glad that's over.
ReplyDeletePlenty of excitement on the afternoon of Saturday, March 11, 1978: Both UK and WKU came from 10 points down to win their first-round NCAA-tournament games. The Wildcats beat Florida State, 85-76, and the Hilltoppers beat Syracuse, 87-86, in overtime. Western was down by five with a minute to play in regulation but managed to extend the game, and then there was quite a hullabaloo in the last seconds of overtime--as a Syracuse basket was disallowed on a hotly disputed blocking foul against the Tops. Thank you, YouTube user "Youngguns42303" for posting this segment, this segment and this segment from the thrilling finish of NBC's broadcast from Knoxville, Tennessee.
ReplyDeleteUK is No. 1 in the country, but WKU opened the season 3-8 and finished third in the OVC regular season. The Tops advanced to the NCAA tournament by beating Austin Peay in overtime in the championship of the new OVC tournament at WKU's Diddle Arena. Now Western is 16-13, and up next is 25-4 Michigan State and its terrific freshman, Earvin "Magic" Johnson.
ReplyDelete