1979 Robert Palmer – Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)

1979 Robert Palmer – Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor) 

Robert Palmer grew up in Scarborough, England. By the time he was 21, Robert had performed in multiple bands, singing and playing rhythm guitar. He joined the jazz-rock fusion band Dada for a year, after which he and several other members formed the soul-rock band Vinegar Joe. That group released three albums, after which Robert started a solo career. He recorded three albums between 1974 and 1976.

After his third album failed to garner many sales, Robert moved to the Bahamas. As a result, his 1978 album, Double Fun, reflected a Caribbean sound. He released Every Kinda People as the first single from the album and it finally brought him onto the charts in the US. The record peaked at #16 on the Hot 100 in 1978.

He released four singles in 1979 that came from his next album. The most successful single was Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor). It reached #14 on the Hot 100 and topped the chart in Canada.

Robert continued to record albums and appear in concert, but he didn’t reach the top forty again in the next four years. In 1983, he performed at a Duran Duran’s charity concert and became friends with members of the group.

A year later, Robert formed the group The Power Station with two members of Duran Duran. Andy Taylor played guitar and John Taylor played bass and former Chic drummer Tony Thompson filled out the group. Their first two singles both reached the top ten on the Hot 100. Robert played in concert with the group only once, after which he left to work on a solo album. Michael Des Barres took over vocals for the group, but they never had another hit.

Several members from The Power Station helped Robert record his album. The first two singles from his album did not do well, but the third single (Addicted To Love) had a kick-butt video that helped it reach #1 on the Hot 100. A lot of hit singles followed in the wake of that breakthrough.

All the members of The Power Station except John reunited to record a second album and tour briefly in 1995.

Perhaps at least partially a result of his heavy smoking habit, Robert suffered a heart attack and died in 2003 at the relatively young age of 54.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Palmer_(singer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Palmer_discography

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1978 Le Blanc and Carr – Falling

1978 Le Blanc and Carr – Falling 

As a teenager, Lenny Le Blanc lived in the Daytona Beach area. He got a job washing dishes so he could save up to buy a bass guitar. Lenny played at dances and in clubs until he graduated and moved to Cincinnati in 1970.

Pete Carr was born in Daytona Beach and began playing guitar when he was 13 years old. He became friends with Duane and Gregg Allman. Pete preferred doing studio work to performing live and moved to Muscle Shoals, where he could focus on producing and engineering music.

When Eddie Hinton left his role as lead guitarist for the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Pete took over that job in 1971. He did studio work for most of the music recorded in Muscle Shoals in the early to mid-seventies.

Pete and Lenny had previously played together in a band (probably in the Daytona Beach area when they were both young) and Pete convinced Lenny to come to work at Muscle Shoals. Lenny began playing bass and singing background vocals for a series of Country singers and the Supremes and Roy Orbison.

Lenny released a solo album, after which Atlantic Records asked him to work with Pete in hopes of producing some hit records. They began working on a joint project.

The duo recorded an album and released the single Falling. The record first reached the charts in October 1977. They signed up to tour with Lynyrd Skynyrd later that year. They were bumped from the plane that carried tour members to a show, and that likely saved their lives. The plane crashed in Mississippi, and the tour ended.

Their record hung around in the Hot 100 for over six months and peaked at #13. While they may have worked together on other projects after that, they never again recorded as Le blanc and Carr.

Pete decided to return to studio work. He worked on singles and albums by Bob Seger, Barbra Streisand, Art Garfunkel, and many other artists.

Lenny became a born-again Christian and began recording Christian music. He had a series of top ten Christian singles in the eighties and the nineties and won a Dove Award for Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year in 2003.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_LeBlanc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Carr

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1977 Sanford-Townsend Band – Smoke From A Distant Fire

1977 Sanford-Townsend Band – Smoke From A Distant Fire 

Alabama musicians Ed Sanford and Johnny Townsend worked together in a local Tuscaloosa band in the sixties. They left the band and moved to the Los Angeles area, where they found work as session musicians.

The duo joined another band, Feather. The group reached #79 on the Hot 100 in 1970 with the single Friends. Three of the other members of the group wrote the song, but it did not lead to any lasting success.

The pair continued doing session work and even co-wrote a song with Kenny Loggins that was included in the last Loggins and Messina album in 1976. The pair then cut a demo with producer Jerry Wexler. That gained them a contract with Warner Brothers, and they formed a group and recorded an album in Muscle Shoals.

They released the album in 1976, but sales were scarce.

They then toured as a warm-up act for Fleetwood Mac in 1977 to support that group’s Rumors album, and that helped get the band noticed by a larger audience. 

Ed and Johnny had co-written Smoke From A Distant Fire with Steven Stewart and Warner Brothers finally released it as a single in 1977. 

In September, the record spent one week at #10 and then crept up to #9 for a week. After that, it dropped out of even the top twenty and two weeks later it was gone from the top forty. They never reached the Hot 100 again.

Their record company responded to the success of the single by renaming their first album Smoke From A Distant Fire and reissuing it. 

The band released an unsuccessful new album in each of the next two years, but sales diminished with each release. They then disbanded and simply went back to doing session work.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-sanford-townsend-band-mn0000780853/biography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford-Townsend_Band
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_from_a_Distant_Fire

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1976 Bay City Rollers – I Only Want To Be With You

1976 Bay City Rollers – I Only Want To Be With You 

While the US didn’t notice the Bay City Rollers until 1975, the group got its start in Scotland in 1964 as a trio of musicians between the ages of 14 and 18 named The Ambassadors. They added another member as their lead singer and played dance hall concerts. The group concentrated on covering American pop and Motown hit records.

Several years of working together (and numerous lineup changes) found the group with yet another name, The Rollers. Since they performed mostly American music, they wanted to change the name to sound more American. They threw a dart at a dartboard, and the result was Arkansas. They didn’t like that name too much, so they gave the dart a second chance. The dart homed in on Bay City, Michigan, and their name became the Bay City Rollers.

The group signed with Bell Records and recorded their first single. Keep On Dancing was a cover of a 1965 record by the Gentrys and it became a top ten hit in the UK in 1971 but didn’t chart anywhere else. It appears that at least producer Jonathan King sang the background vocals rather than members of the group. The Rollers later re-recorded the song on an album.

Three less successful singles followed, including the 1973 single, Saturday Night, which failed to chart at all.

The group finally hit its stride in 1974. The group scored four top ten records in the UK, leading to the growth of Rollermania and unwarranted comparisons to the Beatles.

Their single release of Bye, Bye Baby, their cover of the Four Seasons song, sat at number one in the UK for six weeks in 1975. You probably aren’t ready for how young they look in videos for their performances of that song!

Another #1 record and a #4 record followed in the UK.

By early 1976, their record company decided it was finally time to promote the group in the US. Oddly enough, they began by using a single that had previously failed in the UK: Saturday Night. Thanks to the endless promotion and a series of television appearances, the record hopped its way to the top of the Hot 100.

Money Honey reached the top ten in the US and #4 in the UK. The single after that, Rock And Roll Love Letter, only reached #28 in the US and failed to chart in the UK.

Dusty Springfield sang on several hit records with the group The Springfields in the early sixties. She released her first solo record, I Only Want To Be With You, when the group broke up in 1963.

The Bay City Rollers released their version in 1976. Coincidentally, each single peaked at #12 on the US Hot 100 and at #4 in the UK. It was to be the Bay City Roller’s last top ten record in the UK.

In the US, the group had one more top ten single and another release that only reached #24 in 1977. The group kept releasing singles through 1985 but never reached the UK or US charts again. Various groupings of former members have continued to tour on the oldies circuit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_City_Rollers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_City_Rollers_discography

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1975 John Denver – Sweet Surrender

1975 John Denver – Sweet Surrender 

Sometimes, when an artist has a long stretch of top hit records, radio often ignores the singles that only reach the middle of the Top Forty.

John Denver became a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio in 1965, replacing Chad. The group then appeared as The Mitchell Trio. While the group failed to reach the Hot 100 after Chad’s departure, they did record a song that John had originally written and recorded as a solo artist: Leaving On A Jet Plane. 

John left the trio and recorded a new version of the song for a solo album in 1969, but hopes for a hit got buried when it became a number one hit for Peter, Paul, and Mary. 

Two more solo albums and four singles followed in 1970, again, with little impact. 1970 brought a new album with the #2 single Take Me Home, Country Roads. Seven more singles followed in the next two years, but only Rocky Mountain High reached the top forty.

One of his chart-topping singles was Annie’s Song (“You fill up my senses”), which became his only single to chart in the UK…where it also reached the top of the chart.

John finally found his groove, and beginning with the song Sunshine on My Shoulders in late 1973, he released four singles that topped the Hot 100 and another that reached #5. 

In the middle of all that success, he also released Sweet Surrender, a single that stalled at #13 in 1975. Radio stations appear to have misplaced their copies of the record.

While John charted eight more top ten singles on the Adult Contemporary chart, his last three top forty singles on the pop chart finished their runs at 29, 36, and 32. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Denver
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Denver_discography#1960s_and_1970s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Surrender_(John_Denver_song)

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1974 Mocedades – Eres Tú

1974 Mocedades – Eres Tú 

From 1958 to 1989, only five singles with Spanish lyrics reached the Billboard Hot 100: two versions of La Bomba (by Ritchie Valens and Los Lobos), Guantanamera by the Sandpipers, Oye Cómo Va by Santana, and a record by Mocedades: Eres Tú.

A group of young Spanish musicians grew a band beginning in 1967. Several lineup changes occurred before the band signed with producer Juan Carlos Calderón in 1969. The Spanish word “mocedade” means “youth,” and the producer pluralized the word to give the group a new name. 

The group participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973, performing a song written and later produced by Juan. Their performance represented Spain in the competition, and Eres Tú won second place.

The single that followed the next year became a huge success. The record not only did well in Europe, but it also reached #9 on the Hot 100 in 1974.

While the group never reached the Hot 100 again, they continued to have continued success in Spain and Latin America.

Touch The Wind, a version of the song with English lyrics, was the B-side of the single, but radio simply ignored that side completely. Eydie Gorme reached #41 on the Adult Contemporary chart in late 1974 with her single that used English lyrics.

Johnny Rodriguez reached #25 on the US Country charts with a Tex-Mex cover of the song in 1977.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mocedades
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eres_t%C3%BA

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1973 Barbara Fairchild – The Teddy Bear Song

1973 Barbara Fairchild – The Teddy Bear Song 

Barbara Fairchild lived in Arkansas until she was 13 years old, already showing a talent for singing Country music. Her family moved to St. Louis, and Barbara soon had a regular job singing for a local television show. She began recording singles in 1965, but didn’t find her way to the charts with her first few record labels.

In 1969, Barbara auditioned for producer Billy Sherrill and signed a contract with Columbia Records. Her first two singles reached the Country chart, but her first top forty Country single didn’t arrive until the next year.

Don Earl and Nick Nixon wrote Barbara’s most successful single, The Teddy Bear Song, which Jerry Crutchfield produced. They released the single in 1972, and it reached the top of the Country chart early the next year. The record became big enough to cross over to many pop stations and reached #32 on the Hot 100 in June.

Videos weren’t really a thing back in 1973, but Barbara eventually released a video for the song…in 2012!

They nominated Barbara for the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Female, but the award went to Olivia Newton-John for Let Me Be There. That was probably a hint of things to come for Country Music radio.

Barbara’s next single, Kid Stuff, did nearly as well on the Country charts, where it peaked at #2. Unfortunately, it stalled at only #95 on the Hot 100, and that became her last appearance on the pop charts. 

She continued releasing top forty Country singles through 1977, after which her career faded there as well. She continued to appear on television and in concerts, often with her singer/songwriter husband, Roy Morris. Barbara later began to record Gospel music.

She and her husband now live in Branson, Missouri, and they still occasionally appear in shows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Fairchild
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Fairchild_discography

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1972 Jo Jo Gunne – Run, Run, Run

1972 Jo Jo Gunne – Run, Run, Run 

Jay Ferguson was born in Burbank and grew up primarily in the Los Angeles area. He began learning to play piano with classical lessons at age twelve, but his interests ran more towards the banjo by the time he was 16. Jay’s brother played the fiddle, and the two of them formed The Oat Hill Stump Straddlers, a bluegrass band. Jay went on to play in other bands, including Western Union and The Red Roosters.

The Red Roosters recruited a few more musicians and began playing jazz/rock fusion. They called their new band Spirits Rebellious but later shortened the name to Spirit. Barry Hansen (who later became Dr. Demento) produced a few demos for the group. The demos helped the band sign with producer Lou Adler. Jay wrote most of their material and usually sang the lead vocals. Their self-titled first album contained the single I Got a Line on You, which reached #25 on the Hot 100 in January 1969.

Spirit played at several concerts alongside Led Zeppelin. The song Taurus from Spirit’s first album contained an acoustic guitar line written by Randy California that sounds very familiar to anybody who has heard Stairway To Heaven. A lawsuit by Spirit seeking partial credit for Zeppelin’s song failed to prevail in court and an appeal failed to change that result.

In 1971, Jay and Mark Andes left Spirit and recruited Mark’s brother Matt and William “Curly” Smith to form the group Jo Jo Gunne. They took the group’s name from a 1958 song by Chuck Berry.

Once again, Jay wrote most of the band’s material and sang lead vocals. The single Run Run Run from their first album peaked at #27 in 1972. The group recorded four albums but never had another single that charted. They disbanded in 1974.

Jay then began working on a solo career. In 1975, he sang and played guitar on Joe Walsh’s live album, You Can’t Argue with a Sick Mind.

Jay recorded three solo albums in the next few years. He wrote and recorded the single Thunder Island, which reached #9 in 1978.

He had one other top forty single in 1979 when Shakedown Cruise snuck up to #31 on the HOt 100. If, like most people, you ignore that last single and consider Jay’s solo career to qualify as a one-hit-wonder, Jay became one of the few artists involved with three separate one-hit-wonders.

By 1982, Jay gave up working on albums and began working as a composer for soundtracks for films and television shows. He composed part of the music on The Terminator, composed the entire score to A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, and gave us the theme to the US version of The Office. He currently creates the soundtrack for NCIS: Los Angeles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Ferguson_(American_musician)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_(band)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder_Island_(song) 

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1971 Paul Humphrey And The Cool Aid Chemists – Cool Aid

1971 Paul Humphrey And The Cool Aid Chemists – Cool Aid 

Paul Humphrey grew up in Detroit. He began playing drums when he was eight years old. After graduating from high school, he served in the US Navy in the fifties and played with many jazz artists of the fifties. 

He left the service and worked full time as a session musician in New York City. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he continued doing session work.

In 1971, he formed the Cool Aid Chemists with Clarence MacDonald on keyboards, Bill Upchurch on bass, and David T. Walker on lead guitar. The band released the single Cool Aid from their first album. The record did well enough to get them booked on American Bandstand. It peaked at #29 on the Hot 100 and #14 on the R&B chart.

After they didn’t score any additional hits, the band broke up, and the members returned to session work.

Paul played on Marvin Gaye’s Lets Get It On album and worked on a wide variety of other recordings. He became the drummer for Lawrence Welk from 1976 to 1982 and continued doing session work through 2004.

Paul died in 2014.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Humphrey

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1970 Michael Parks – Long Lonesome Highway

1970 Michael Parks – Long Lonesome Highway 

Harry Samuel Parks grew up in California. He left school and worked menial jobs while a teenager, such as picking fruit and digging ditches, and later drove trucks and fought forest fires.

In his twenties, he began working in Hollywood as Michael Parks. He appeared in a handful of television shows before being cast as the lead actor in Then Came Bronson in 1969. The premise of the show was like Route 66, following Bronson as he travelled around the country, briefly affecting the lives of those he met.

Michael sang the theme song for the show, Long Lonesome Highway. The single peaked at #20 on the Hot 100 in 1970.

A handful of singles and a few albums followed, but none of his singles charted again.

Michael objected to the increase in violence that the showrunners wanted and admitted to becoming difficult to work with. NBC finally cancelled his show, and finding work became difficult for a few years.

After three years on his own, Michael again found steady work on as a guest star on various television shows and in movies made for television as well. Late in his career, he appeared in major films made by David Lynch, Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith, and Quentin Tarantino.

Michael died in 2017. He was 77 years old.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Parks

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