Rockin' Remnants
Rockin' Remnants is broadcast from WVBR-FM Ithaca. Check out our webpage, like us on Facebook, and tune in to 93.5 or stream the show every Saturday night from 6-9pm! (Or download the WVBR+ app now available for iOS and Android!)
Date: August 2, 2014
Host: John Simon
Feature: Early August 1970
Birthday Calendar
July 27 – Bobbie Gentry – age 70
July 31 – Gary Lewis – age 69
– Bob Welch (Fleetwood Mac) – born in 1945
August 1 – Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead) – born in 1942
Playlist
[songs in bold are from the spotlight date of DATE; yellow song titles are YouTube links; songs with * were requests; all chart information comes from the Billboard Top 100 (for chart dates before/during July 1958) or Billboard Hot 100 (for chart dates during/after Aug 1958) unless otherwise noted]
6-7pm
OPENING THEME: Good Old Rock ‘n’ Roll – Cat Mother & the All-Night Newsboys (1969, #29, produced by Jimi Hendrix)
Make it With You – Bread (in its second of three weeks at #2 this week, headed to #1, this was the chart debut for the popular '70s band fronted by writer/producer David Gates)
O-o-h Child – Five Stairsteps (down to #10 for two weeks after spending two weeks at #8 Pop - this Chicago-born family group recorded for Curtis Mayfield's Windy-C and Curtom labels before moving to Buddah. This would become the highest-charting hit of their career)
Yellow River - Christie (at #80 this week, headed to a peak of #23 for this Pop-rock trio from England)
(If You Let Me Make Love to You Then) Why Can't I Touch You - Ronnie Dyson (at #16 this week, headed to #8 - Ronnie Dyson was discovered in the cast of the Off-Broadway musical Hair. This was the beginning of his charting career as a smooth crossover soul singer.)
* Shining Star – Earth, Wind and Fire (5/75; #1 - dedicated to local high school student Paloma, who's headed for a year abroad. This was the band's only #1 on the Pop chart, but they'd reach the top of the R&B chart a total of eight times in the '70s and '80s)
* Ohio – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (peaking at #14 this week, this Neil Young song was written right after the Kent State massacre and rush-released to record stores, even while their Teach Your Children was just climbing the charts.)
Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) – Melanie (with the Edwin Hawkins Singers) - written about what she saw from the stage at Woodstock when tens of thousands of listeners lit candles as she began her night-time set, this record had peaked at #6. It was now down to #20 and falling.
Don't Play That Song (You Lied) – Aretha Franklin
(debuting on this date at #59, this re-make of the Ben E. King song would reach #11 on the Pop Chart and spend three weeks at #1 R&B.)
Border Song - Elton John (bubbling under this week. Next week it would reach #93, then #92, and then it was gone - but Elton John was just getting started. According to Billboard's researchers, he would go on to become the #1 artist of the '70s and the third most successful artist of the Rock era, just behind Elvis and The Beatles.)
* I Believe in Music – Gallery (8/72; #22 - written by Mac Davis)
* Give Me Just a Little More Time – Chairmen of the Board (1/70; #3 Pop - lead singer General Johnson had been with the Showmen for a decade. This was one of the first big hits for the new Invictus label founded by former Motown writers Holland, Dozier and Holland)
Snowbird – Anne Murray (at #45 this week, headed to #8 - this was the first nationally-charting record for the Canadian chanteuse)
Tighter, Tighter – Alive & Kicking (peaking at #7 this week - written and produced by Tommy James, who was recovering from a drug overdose and had decided to stop performing. The success of this single boosted his confidence and he would soon embark on a successful solo career.)
* Vehicle – Ides of March (their only Top 40 record had peaked at #2 in the spring of 1970 and was uncharacteristically "brassy" of them - they had been together since they were high school kids in the mid-west and only added horns in the late '60s.)
Uncle John's Band – Grateful Dead (bubbling under this week and headed to a peak of #69. Jerry Garcia passed away unexpectedly on August 9, 1995. This video was recorded shortly after the song first charted!)
Sentimental Lady - Fleetwood Mac (released as a single in the UK in August of '72, but flopped. Bob Welch would embark on a solo career and re-record this song five years later with help from Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham. The new version would reach #8 in late '77.)
Green Grass - Gary Lewis & the Playboys (5/66; #8 - their seventh consecutive - and final - Top Ten record!)
* The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face – Roberta Flack (written by Ewan McColl, this record began a six-week run at #1 in April of 1972 and went on to win Grammys for Record and Song of the Year.)
Didn't it Look So Easy – Stairsteps (2/71; #81 - the first single attributed to them as simply "The Stairsteps.")
* Cracklin' Rosie – Neil Diamond (this one would debut on August 22nd and reach #1 in mid-October of 1970 - the first of three #1 hits for this prolific songwriter. Meanwhile, his former label Bang Records had just re-released his 1966 hit Solitary Man, which was at #44 this week and headed to #21.)
A Song That Never Comes – Mama Cass (peaking on this date for the second week at #99. This song had been released two years earlier as a single by Cashman & West but didn't chart nationally. Mama Cass Elliot died on July 29, 1974 at the age of 32.)
Joanne - Michael Nesmith & First National Band (at #86 this week, headed to a peak of #21 for the band fronted by songwriter/guitarist and former Monkee Nesmith)
45 Corner: Mill Valley – Miss Abrams and the Strawberry Point School Third Grade Class (tonight we play a record that was lost to time. Last week it was at #92, this week at #91, next week at #90.....and then it was gone. Another Rockin' Remnants exclusive!)
Long, Long Time – Linda Ronstadt (bubbling under this week. Next week it would debut at #82 and eventually top out at #25. This is the 45 edit of the longer LP track.)
Green-Eyed Lady – Sugarloaf (another edited-down version that was bubbling under this week and would eventually spend two weeks at #3)
(They Long to Be) Close to You – Carpenters (this was the #1 record in the land on this date, in its third of four weeks at the top of the chart. Burt Bacharach had written it and offered it to Herb Alpert, but Alpert was afraid the lyrics weren't manly enough. Either way, Karen Carpenter nailed it!)
Signed, Sealed, Delivered – Stevie Wonder (peaking in its first of two weeks at #3 Pop, this record would spend a whopping six weeks at #1 on the R&B chart!)
It's a Shame – Spinners (co-written and produced by Stevie Wonder - who also played drums on the session - this record would be their highest-charting Motown hit: #14 Pop and #4 R&B)
* War – Edwin Starr (zooming up the chart and headed to a three-week run at #1 in late August of 1970)
What a Wonderful Thing – Fabulous Rhinestones (8/72; #78 - the only charting single for this Chicago-based trio featuring bassist Harvey Brooks and former Buckingham Martin Grebb)
Too Late to Turn Back Now - Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose (also from the Summer of '72, this record would spend two weeks in the #2 position on the Pop chart)
A Little Rain Must Fall - The Epic Splendor (12/67; #87 - this was the only charter for this Long Island-based band recording for the Hot Biscuit label)
A Groovy Situation – Gene Chandler (at #40 this week, headed to #12 Pop and #8 R&B, featuring a remarkable meandering bass line)
* The Rapper – The Jaggerz (this one had reached #2 in early 1970 and featured singer/horn player Donnie Iris)
45 Corner: Groovin' On the Sunshine/Sesame Street - Tokens (released on Buddah Records in July 1970, several months after the arrival of the ground-breaking PBS children's show. Sesame Street also spawned the hit record Rubber Duckie, headed to #16 later in the Fall.)
Which Way You Goin' Billy - Poppy Family (featuring Susan Jacks) (this Terry Jacks tune spent two weeks at #2 in the Spring of 1970)
* Long and Winding Road –Beatles (the group's twentieth and final #1 record was released a few weeks after their disbanding was announced. It had just dropped off the chart after two weeks at the top. Thank you and goodnight.)
Host Next Week (8/9/14): John Rudan with a dual spotlight: Songs of Goffin & King, and '70s Blue-eyed Soul records!
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