Greatest Hit!
Sometimes a song comes along at exactly the right time, and it just can’t be stopped from becoming a hit. Occasionally, these are actually good songs, but usually they’re thrown together to latch on to the latest fad on TV or in the news.
When you have a good song and perfect timing, you get Carl Douglas.
I’ll be the first to admit that this song is really silly. That’s part of its charm. It’s so seventies!
Written by Jamaican singer Carl Douglas in 1974, “Kung Fu Fighting” became an international hit, topping both the U.K. and American charts. It has been covered by wide selection of artists and has been used in movies and television shows for decades.
Why? Well, because it’s so much fun. It’s got a really great hook to it and how can you beat the “hoo!” and “hah!” in the chorus?
Musically, this is a perfect example of disco music in 1974, and when you add the subject matter, the Kung Fu television series having become a hit a year or two before as well as Bruce Lee and ”chopsocky” movies, and you have created musical gold.
Carl Douglas never really had another hit but has been remained active in the entertainment industry.
“Kung Fu Fighting” was listed as #100 on VH-1’s 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders, but in this case the one hit wonder lable may not really apply. Carl’s song has been a hit over and over again, just not by him.
Here’s my favorite cover version.
Any song that can become a hit in Finnish has got to have something going for it.
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Earworm! ‘Pretty Ballerina’
This is so much more than an earworm:
Left Banke’s second-biggest hit — after, of course, “Walk Away Renee” — is also one of the loveliest songs of the late ’60s. Beautiful melody, and Steve Martin’s vocal, with measured and elegant falsetto, is a short course in how to convey complex mixed emotions in a simple pop song.
And a listen to “Pretty Ballerina” also, of course, virtually guarantees that one will spend at least a few hours quietly singing, “Was I surprised? No, not at all” to oneself. Nothing so bad about that.
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A Song for Sunday
Bringing the weekend officially to a close is my Sunday song choice.
Big things happen on Sundays and a very big song completes my selections for songs about weekdays.
“Sunday, Bloody Sunday” from 1983’s War album became one of their breakout songs, (along with “New Years Day”), in the U.S. receiving major MTV and radio play. It reached number seven in America but was never released as a single in the U.K. due to it’s political message.
Opening with Larry Mullen Jr’s basic drum beat shortly followed by The Edge’s guitar the song immediately gets your attention. Bono’s vocal runs before the start of the verse finish setting the mood. This song is important and it knows it.
The urgency and power of the vocals puts “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” over the top. Long a concert favorite for U2 it still gets s very emotional responce even though few in the audiance really know much about the subject matter.
I’ll leave that to what is on display in the video.
A striking and powerful song.
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Sunday Will Never Be The Same
And we finish up the week of songs about weekdays with this one from 1967, “Sunday Will Never Be the Same,” one of the most cheerful-sounding songs of disappointed love you’re ever likely to come across.
Spanky and Our Gang’s hits (this was the only time they reached the top 10) were part of a run of female-fronted records at around that time, and they’re obviously under the influence of both the Mamas and the Papas and the 5th Dimension, but Our Gang tend to be called a folk rock group, rather than pop.
Really, I’m not hearing it — a female vocal doesn’t make you folkies, and they are far too much of a studio creation for that. Elaine “Spanky” McFarlane’s good voice is reverbed to a fare-thee-well on this record, and the harmonies are obviously much enhanced and, per the video, nothing that could be reproduced live.
Still, it really is all about the lead vocals — I believe the obligatory term is “soaring” — and, aside from a bit of pitch wobbliness on the low end and that silly reverb, this is quite nicely done. And I’d rather hear a good singer miss here and there than a mediocre (or worse) singer slicked up and pitch-corrected anyway.
And what’s she singing? “Sunny afternoons that make me/Feel so warm inside/Have turned as cold and grey as ashes/As I feel the embers die.”
Apparently this was originally intended to be played as a ballad — no kidding — but whatever optimistic soul produced “Sunday” made a good choice, swirling strings aside (and is that a harpsichord?). The sound is close to joyous, and the contrast makes the dumped-and-depressed lyrics seem a lot deeper and more interesting than they are on the page.
This is a fine, Sunday-sounding record to end the Week of the Week. (And how can anyone not be made happy by the drummer’s hat?)
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Can I get a horn section with that?
In rock music there is not much call for horn sections. It’s one of those things, either you need them or not. The Who toyed with horns from time to time but that was easy as bass player John Entwistle played horns. Kind of an “in house” thing.
Most bands would stay away from horns just from a musical perspective. A notable exception to that is Pink Floyd, there is usually a saxophone hiding somewhere with Floyd.
So if you are going to play rock and have horns, you may as well go for it.
Chicago certainly did.
“Saturday in the Park” from the 1972 release Chicago V reached number 3 on the charts and was used by the band as their opener for many years. It’s still a radio favorite today.
The blending of jazz, pop, rock with a bit of progressive rock thrown in from time to time has lead to one of the most successful bands in music history selling over 120 million albums.
This is such a cool song. It’s all but impossible to not love it. Robert Lamm’s sweet lead vocal, (thanks Ruby for the heads up! My bad…), joined by Peter Cetera on the chorus and call backs work together well. Adding the horn section fills up this little corner of the world as they tell about a summer afternoon in the park with all the characters one might expect to find there, the children, the ice cream man and a guy playing guitar.
Some nice imagery here.
“Saturday in the Park” is one of those songs that will never go away and for once, that’s a good thing.
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Elton Rocks! (Or Attempts To Rock)
And it looks like I’ll be first up today (actually, no — simulpost!) as we continue our full week of weekday tunes, with a song from Elton John in his prime (if not a prime Elton John song), “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.”
I quite like this silly song, which is — or so I have always assumed — intended as a joke. Bernie Taupin always had a sense of humor, and he must’ve been amused by positioning pasty, earnest Elton as a hard-partying working class lout. (“I’ll sink a little drink and shout out, ‘She’s with me!’” Sure, Elton, sure.) It’s such an entertaining notion that I can’t really dislike this song, unpersuasive though it is.
The biggest problem is that, though he gives it a good try, Elton’s voice is just not suited to heavier music. Though he can be an expressive singer at times, his voice is very light, and he is utterly incapable of singing loudly. And “Saturday” sits mostly on the mid- to high side of his narrow range; if he’d gone after it in a lower key, it might’ve had more energy to it. As it is, he’s reduced to a sort of grainy shout on the chorus, so the producer seems to have just shoved him back in the mix and hoped for the best.
Though Elton by this time was working with a crew of first-rate session players, they don’t seem at home in this territory either. There’s no lead guitar line at all — it’s all rhythm, and it sounds as light as Elton’s voice. The bass meanders pleasantly but meaninglessly, failing to anchor a song that desperately needs it, and, while you can’t have an Elton John song without a piano, it adds nothing to this one. The only persuasive performance here is from Nigel Olsson, playing machine gun drums and trying vainly to pull it all back to earth.
Still, taken for what it is, “Saturday” is a lot of fun. There’s just something so cheerful in the notion of Elton John as a don’t-give-a-damn street tough. It’s so entertaining that this has been a favorite in his live shows for the last 30-some years.
(Many other bands have been tempted to take a stab at “Saturday” over the decades, with varying degrees of success. And here’s how it should’ve been sung. Whatever you think of Nickelback — and what I think is not much — Chad Kroeger is a very good rock singer, if occasionally overwrought, and he takes this dopey little tune and almost makes you believe it. And yes, I am aware that the Who covered it, too. Nickelback does it better.)
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Sa-Sa-Sa-Sa-Saturday
After a long week of some great songs I think I am going to take a brief detour into the sugary abyss of 70’s pop music.
All week we have been giving you what we think are some of the best “day” songs. Well, for part one of today’s adventures how about one of the worst ones?
1973 a little known Scottish band recorded what would become their biggest hit. It barely missed the charts in Great Britain but would be resurrected two years later in America by Clive Davis the then new head of Arista Records.
I can feel the bubblegum on my shoes as I listen to this stuff.
This is one of those rare songs that leaves me simply wondering why? It starts out well with the guitar lead climbing up and down the scale as ‘S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y” is belted out. The vocal is solid but after that it runs out of steam. The carnival keyboard in the back of the mix is just silly and the “sa-sa-sa-sa” bit always makes me think something has gone wrong with my speakers. Who’s idea was that?
I know times were different in 1973 when Bobby Sherman, Leif Garrett, Donny Osmond and David Cassidy ruled the pages of Tiger Beat, although by the time “Saturday Night”was released they were fading a bit. Were the Bay City Rollers an adequate replacement for those major teen idols?
History would say that they were not. They never really had another hit in the U.S. although they stayed in the game for many years to follow in several different incarnations finally becoming just, The Rollers. Actually it’s kind of sad if you find out much more about them. Years tied up in legal battles with constant personnel changes and more.
Perhaps there is a bit of a curse here. When “Saturday Night” was a blow out hit, the comment was made that they would be bigger than The Beatles. Ten years later, another Scottish band would make the same claim. Remember Big County and their hit, “In A Big Country?” Great song. Big Country ended poorly as well.
Some things are better left unsaid.
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Vote! Friday On Everyone’s Mind
And wrapping up the working week (for most people), it’s the Easybeats, with “Friday on My Mind.”
These dudes were Australian way back in 1967, long before rockin’ Australians became commonplace, and this song is a sort of oddball mix of British Invasion pop and early psychedelia. (It’s also pretty obvious the songwriters had a couple of Who records in their collection.)
The lyrics are nothing extraordinary (does anybody ever rhyme “city”with a word other than “pretty”?), just a frustrated guy who’s tired of “working for the rich man” and is waiting impatiently for the weekend and the chance to get out and spend some bread with his outtasight girl. But it’s a pretty good record just the same, with a lot of energy and a bit of an angry edge to it. (And if it’s less sophisticated, its a little easier on the brain than Pete’s Friday choice.)
This was the one and only U.S. hit for these good-looking Aussies, but they had quite a few hits in their homeland. And “Friday on My Mind” co-writer George Young’s little brothers had a hit or two of their own.
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Final… Friday
Here we are at Friday. The end of most folk’s work week. Not mine of course as there are things to be listened to and commented upon and my guy in NASCAR is doing rather well right now so…
I thought I would get away from the dark and slow songs for today and run right off into a dark and fast song just to keep things a bit more even. Monday was so long ago now, I miss the Bangles.
Alright, here we go. How about a song from a band named after a “marital aid” from a novel? I don’t think I will go any further with that, I’ll just let the name stand for itself.
Steely Dan
In 1975 Steely Dan released their fourth album, Katy Lied.
As is often the case with a Steely Dan song, not all is what it appears to be. I have read over and over again about how this song is about the 1929 stock market crash. Well, it may be in a small way but the fact that the 1929 crash was on a Thursday should give you pause. Steely Dan uses imagery in this case to tell a much more complex and serious story.
Armageddon. The End Days.
There is a very religious element to this song. It’s not as apparent in the first verse, just lightly suggested.
“I’ll stand down by the door/ and catch the grey men when they dive from the fourteenth floor.”
I take this to be the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse and in the lines following, he’s decided to evade his part in all this.
He’s got a bit of a new plan, ignore it and hope for the best. “Gonna strike all the big red words from my little black book.”
The “Red Words” in a little black book should be familiar to anyone who has read a King James Bible.
The third verse has the strongest imagery and meaning.
“I’m gonna dig myself a hole/ Gonna lay down in it ’til I satisfy my soul/ Gonna let the world pass by me/ The Archbishop’s gonna sanctify me
And if he don’t come across/ I’m gonna let it roll”
Heavy stuff here. I have heard this described as relating to Good Friday and the Resurrection. I’m not convinced. I think it relates much more with The Book of Revelations keeping with what was started in the first verse. The reign of Satan and the final return of the Messiah and just hoping to wait it out.
Steely Dan was composed of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker and a selection of the best musicians you could find in popular music of the day. Fagen and Becker were known as rigid perfectionists and therefor the quality of players on any Steely Dan recording is going to be as good as it gets. The subject matter of the songs is always interesting and as “Black Friday” shows, can be quite puzzling but always entertaining.
This is a song with layers and trying to figure it out is fun but not very productive if you know much about Fagen and Becker. Even if I am right with all my speculation here, they would say I’m wrong.
I wouldn’t expect anything less from such major dudes.
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Vote! Thursday’s Such A Crazy Lazy Day
And as we move toward the end of the working part of the week, a pause for this sweet, sad, bluesy tune from Harry Nilsson: “Thursday (Here’s Why I Did Not Go to Work Today).”
I actually wasn’t familiar with this song from 1976’s Sandman album until I embarked on a search for a Thursday song — they are not quite as thin on the ground as Wednesday songs, but it’s not a day that works up a lot of enthusiasm. As illustrated here: “It’s just that Thursday’s twice as long as it should be.” (He’s quite right about that.)
Though it’s a downbeat song, it still has a bit of the humor Nilsson was known for:
Monday is a blues day
That goes for Tuesday
Wednesday’s just the middle of the week
Friday’s just another payday
The weekend’s just another heyday
But Thursday’s surreptitiously unique
“Surreptitiously unique” — how can you not love that? It’s just voice and piano, a restrained bass and brushes, and it sets a lights-are-low, jazz club mood that’s a disarming mismatch with the discouraged working-stiff lyrics.
Many will hear this and think of Randy Newman, and indeed they were rough contemporaries, though Nilsson was recording a few years earlier. And he was a much better singer — warm, smooth, expressive, and able to handle bouncy pop (“Me and My Arrow,” “Gotta Get Up”) , ballads like “Thursday,” or novelty tunes (“Lime in the Coconut”).
Nilsson, an American artist who died in 1994, doesn’t seem to be much remembered by American audiences, and that’s kind of a shame. He had some very big hits (“Everybody’s Talkin’ at Me” and the glorious “Without You” are probably the best known) without ever seeming to really catch on as a pop star here — but other musicians adored him, and he was one of the most admired and emulated artists of his day.
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