Bad, Bad Leroy Brown: Jim Croce
Bad, Bad Leroy Brown by Jim Croce is a song written by American folk rock singer Jim Croce. Released as part of his 1973 album Life and Times, the song was a Number One pop hit for him, spending two weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1973. Billboard ranked it as the No. 2 song for 1973.
Croce was nominated for two 1973 Grammy awards in the Pop Male Vocalist and Record of the Year categories for “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”. It was his last number-one single before his death on September 20.
The song’s title character is a tall man from the South Side of Chicago whose size, attitude, and tendency to carry weapons have given him a fearsome reputation. He is said to dress in fancy clothes and wear diamond rings, and to own a custom Lincoln Continental and a Cadillac Eldorado, implying he has a lot of money. One day in a bar he makes a pass at a pretty, married woman named Doris, whose jealous husband proceeds to beat Leroy brutally in the ensuing fight, which Leroy loses badly.
The story of a widely feared man being bested in a fight is similar to that of Croce’s earlier song “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim.”
Croce’s inspiration for the song was a friend he met in his brief time in the US Army:
I met him at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. We were in lineman (telephone) school together. He stayed there about a week, and one evening he turned around and said he was really fed up and tired. He went AWOL, and then came back at the end of the month to get his paycheck. They put handcuffs on him and took him away. Just to listen to him talk and see how ‘bad’ he was, I knew someday I was gonna write a song about him.
He told a variation of this story on The Helen Reddy Show in July 1973:
This is a song about a guy I was in the army with… It was at Fort Dix, in New Jersey, that I met this guy. He was not made to climb the tree of knowledge, as they say, but he was strong, so nobody’d ever told him what to do, and after about a week down there he said “Later for this” and decided to go home. So he went AWOL—which means to take your own vacation—and he did. But he made the mistake of coming back at the end of the month to get his paycheck. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen handcuffs put on anybody, but it was SNAP and that was the end of it for a good friend of mine, who I wrote this tune about, named Leroy Brown.
Croce explained the chorus reference to Leroy Brown being “meaner than a junkyard dog”:
Yeah, I spent about a year and a half driving those $29 cars, so I drove around a lot looking for a universal joint for a ’57 Chevy panel truck or a transmission for a ’51 Dodge. I got to know many junkyards well, and they all have those dogs in them. They all have either an axle tied around their necks or an old lawnmower to keep ’em at least slowed down a bit, so you have a decent chance of getting away from them.
Love Train: The O’Jays
Love Train by The O’Jaysis a hit single by The O’Jays, written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Released in 1972, it reached number one on both the R&B Singles and the Billboard Hot 100, in February and March 1973 respectively, number 9 on the UK Singles Chart and was certified gold by the RIAA.
It was The O’Jays’ first and only number-one record on the U.S. pop chart. “Love Train” entered the Hot 100’s top 40 on 27 January 1973, the same day that the Paris Peace Accords were signed. The song’s lyrics of unity mention a number of countries, including England, Russia, China, Egypt and Israel, as well as the continent of Africa.
Recorded at Philadelphia’s Sigma Sound Studios, the house band MFSB provided the backing. Besides its release as a single, “Love Train” was the last song on The O’Jays’ album Back Stabbers. The O’Jays’ “Love Train was a 2006 inductee into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Photograph: Ringo Starr
Photograph by Ringo Starris a song by English musician Ringo Starr that was released as the lead single from his 1973 album Ringo. Starr co-wrote the song with George Harrison, his former bandmate from the Beatles. Although the two of them collaborated on other compositions, it is the only song officially credited to the pair. A signature tune for Starr as a solo artist, “Photograph” became an international hit, topping singles charts in the United States, Canada and Australia, and receiving gold disc certification for US sales of 1 million. Music critics have similarly received the song favourably; Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic considers it to be “among the very best post-Beatles songs by any of the Fab Four”.
The lyrics are a reflection on lost love, whereby a photograph is the only reminder of the protagonists’ shared past. Starr and Harrison began writing the song in the South of France in 1971, during a period when Starr was focused on developing his acting career. They first recorded “Photograph” late the following year, along with the single’s B-side, “Down and Out”, during sessions for Harrison’s Living in the Material World album (1973). The officially released version was recorded in Los Angeles with producer Richard Perry, and it incorporates aspects of Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound through the presence of multiple drums and acoustic guitars, as well as an orchestra and a choir. Aside from Starr and Harrison, the musicians on the recording include Nicky Hopkins, Bobby Keys, Jim Keltner, and Spector’s musical arranger, Jack Nitzsche. Starr made a promotional film for the single, shot at his and wife Maureen Starkey’s home, Tittenhurst Park.
“Photograph” has appeared on Starr’s compilation albums Blast from Your Past (1975) and Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr (2007), and live versions have featured on releases recorded with his All-Starr Band and with the Roundheads. In November 2002, a year after Harrison’s death, Starr sang “Photograph” at the Concert for George – a performance that was an emotional highpoint of the event
Half Breed: Cher
Half Breed by Chers is a 1973 song recorded by American singer-actress Cher with instrumental backing by L.A. sessions musicians from the Wrecking Crew. Recorded on May 21, 1973 at Larrabee Sound in Los Angeles, it entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 89 on August 4, 1973, and on October 6, 1973, it became Cher’s second US solo number 1 hit. The single was certified Gold in the US for the sales of over 1 million copies.
t was the first international release from Cher’s album Half-Breed. It was meant to be sold to the American market. It tells the story of a young woman who is half white and half Cherokee and describes the troubles faced by the main character. The song offers a scenario in which whites often called her “Indian squaw” and Native Americans never accepted her as one of their own, telling her that she was “white by law”.
In 1973, “Half-Breed” topped the United States Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, becoming Cher’s second solo and third overall number 1 hit, and second Gold certified solo single for the sales of over 1,000,000 copies. It was a number 1 hit in Canada and New Zealand, and a Top 10 hit in Australia and Norway respectively.
Bennie and the Jets: Elton John
Bennie and the Jets by Elton Johnis a song composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. The song first appeared on the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album in 1973. “Bennie and the Jets” has been one of John’s most popular songs and was performed during John’s appearance at Live Aid. The track is spelled Benny on the sleeve of the single and in the track listing of the album, but Bennie on the album vinyl disc label.
“Bennie and the Jets” was featured on side one of the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album, and Elton John was set against releasing it as a single, believing it would fail. CKLW in Windsor, Ontario, began heavy airplay of the song and it became the #1 song in the Detroit market. This attention caused other American and Canadian Top 40 stations to add it to their playlists as well and as a result, the song peaked at #1 on the US singles chart in 1974. In the US, it was certified Gold on 8 April 1974 and Platinum on 13 September 1995 by the RIAA, and had sold 2.8 million copies by August 1976.
“Bennie and the Jets” was also John’s first Top 40 hit on what at the time was called the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart, where it peaked at #15, the highest position out of the three of his singles which reached that chart. The acceptance of “Bennie” on R&B radio helped land John, a huge soul music fan, a guest appearance on the 17 May 1975 edition of Soul Train, where he played “Bennie and the Jets” and “Philadelphia Freedom”. In Canada, it held the #1 spot on the RPM national singles chart for two weeks (13–20 April), becoming his first #1 single of 1974 and his fourth overall.
Band on the Run: Paul McCartney/Wings
Band on the Run by Paul McCartney/WingsIs the title song of Paul McCartney and Wings’ 1973 album Band on the Run. The song was released as a single in 1974, following the success of “Jet”, and became an international chart success.
The song topped the charts in the United States, also reaching number 3 in the United Kingdom. The single sold over one million copies in 1974 in America. It has since become one of the band’s most famous songs.
A medley of three distinct musical passages that vary in style from folk rock to funk, “Band on the Run” is one of McCartney’s longest singles at 5:09. The song was partly inspired by a comment that George Harrison had made during a meeting of the Beatles’ Apple record label. The song-wide theme is one of freedom and escape, and its creation coincided with Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr having parted with manager Allen Klein in March 1973, leading to improved relations between McCartney and his fellow ex-Beatles. The original demos for this and other tracks on Band on the Run were stolen shortly after Wings arrived in Lagos, Nigeria, to begin recording the album. With the band reduced to a trio consisting of McCartney, his wife Linda, and Denny Laine, “Band on the Run” was recorded at EMI’s Lagos studio and completed at AIR Studios in London.
Sunshine on My Shoulders: John Denver
Sunshine on My Shoulders by John Denver is a song recorded and co-written by American singer-songwriter John Denver. It was originally released as an album track on 1971’s Poems, Prayers & Promises and later, as a single in 1973.
It went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. in early 1974.
Denver described how he wrote “Sunshine on My Shoulders”: “I wrote the song in Minnesota at the time I call ‘late winter, early spring’. It was a dreary day, gray and slushy. The snow was melting and it was too cold to go outside and have fun, but God, you’re ready for spring. You want to get outdoors again and you’re waiting for that sun to shine, and you remember how sometimes just the sun itself can make you feel good. And in that very melancholy frame of mind I wrote ‘Sunshine on My Shoulders’.”
The album version features an extra verse, not heard on the Singles charts, due to the song’s length. In addition to Denver’s wondering on if he had a day and a song. In the second verse, It mentions Denver’s wondering if he had a tale, and a wish. The song ends with the words “ALMOST ALWAYS”, being held on until the song’s end.
It was originally the B-side of one of his earlier songs, “I’d Rather Be a Cowboy”. As the Vietnam War came to an end, the song took on a new significance and began to receive airplay on adult contemporary radio stations. It entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 90 on January 26, 1974 and moved into the number one spot nine weeks later, remaining at #1 for one week. The song also topped the adult contemporary chart for two weeks in 1974. Billboard ranked it as the No. 18 song for 1974.
Love Will Keep Us Together: Captain and Tennille
Love Will Keep Us Together by Captain and Tennilleis a song written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. It was first recorded by Sedaka himself in 1973 and was released as a single in France. American pop duo Captain & Tennille covered the song in 1975, with instrumental backing by L.A. session musicians from the Wrecking Crew and had a worldwide hit with their version.
“Love Will Keep Us Together” was the title cut and lead single of Captain & Tennille’s debut album, although “Captain” Daryl Dragon originally hoped that honor would go to the duo’s rendition of “I Write the Songs”. The single rose to number 1 on both the Billboard Easy Listening chart and the Billboard pop chart, staying atop the latter for four weeks starting June 21, 1975. It also hit the top of the 1975 year-end chart. In the US it was the best-selling single of 1975. “Love Will Keep Us Together” became a gold record and also won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in February 1976.
Dragon and Tennille acknowledged Sedaka’s authorship — as well as his mid-1970s comeback — by working the phrase “Sedaka is back” into the song’s fadeout, where the applause from the studio musicians can be heard. Their version would earn Sedaka and Greenfield a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year. Twenty years later in 1995, the duo would re-record the song for their Twenty Years of Romance CD.
Rhinestone Cowboy: Glen Campbell
Rhinestone Cowboy by Glen Campbell is a song written by Larry Weiss and most famously recorded by American country music singer Glen Campbell. The song enjoyed huge popularity with both country and pop audiences when it was released in 1975.
Weiss wrote and recorded “Rhinestone Cowboy” in 1974, and it appeared on his 20th Century Records album Black and Blue Suite. It did not, however, have much of a commercial impact as a single. In late 1974, Campbell heard the song on the radio, and during a tour of Australia, decided to learn the song.
Soon after his return to the United States, Campbell went to Al Coury’s office at Capitol Records, where he was approached about “a great new song” — “Rhinestone Cowboy”.
Several music writers noted that Campbell identified with the subject matter of “Rhinestone Cowboy” — survival and making it, particularly when the chips are down — very strongly. As Steven Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic put it, the song is about a veteran artist “who’s aware that he’s more than paid his dues during his career … but is still surviving, and someday, he’ll shine just like a rhinestone cowboy.
Released in May 1975, “Rhinestone Cowboy” immediately caught on with both country and pop audiences. The song spent that summer climbing both the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Billboard Hot 100 charts before peaking at number one by season’s end – three nonconsecutive weeks on the country chart, two weeks on the Hot 100. Billboard ranked it as the number-two for 1975. It also went topped the charts in Canada and several other countries.
During the week of September 13 — the week the song returned to number one on the Billboard country chart, after having been nudged out for a week by “Feelins'” by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn — “Rhinestone Cowboy” topped both the country and Hot 100 charts simultaneously. This was the first time a song had accomplished the feat since November 1961, when “Big Bad John” by Jimmy Dean did so.
“Rhinestone Cowboy” was one of six songs released in 1975 that topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Singles charts. The other songs were “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” by Freddy Fender, “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” by B. J. Thomas, “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” and “I’m Sorry”/”Calypso,” both by John Denver, and “Convoy” by C. W. McCall.
The song was also the sole Glen Campbell track in a promotional-only compilation album issued by Capitol records titled The Greatest Music Ever Sold (Capitol SPRO-8511/8512), that was distributed to record stores during the 1976 holiday season as part of Capitol’s “Greatest Music Ever Sold” campaign, which promoted 15 “Best Of” albums released by the record label.
After Glen Campbell died in August 2017, “Rhinestone Cowboy” charted in Country Digital Song chart at No. 12. The song has sold a total of 368,000 downloads in the digital era in the United States as of August 2017.
Fame: David Bowie
Fame by David Bowie is a song recorded by David Bowie, initially released in 1975. Written by Bowie, Carlos Alomar and John Lennon, it was a hit in North America, becoming Bowie’s first number 1 single in the Canadian Singles Chart as well as the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The song was one of the more successful singles of the year, ranking at number 7 on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100. It was less successful in Europe, reaching number 17 in the UK Singles Chart.
With the Young Americans sessions mostly concluded by late 1974, the material was delayed while Bowie extricated himself from his contract with manager Tony Defries. During this time, he was staying in New York City, where he met John Lennon. The pair jammed together, leading to a one-day session at Electric Lady Studios in January 1975. There, Carlos Alomar had developed a guitar riff for Bowie’s cover of “Footstompin'” by the Flairs, which Bowie thought was “a waste” to give to a cover. Lennon, who was in the studio with them, sang “aim” over the riff, which Bowie turned into “Fame” and he thereafter wrote the rest of the lyrics to the song.
Lennon’s voice is heard interjecting the falsetto “Fame” throughout the song.
“Fame” became Bowie’s biggest hit to that point in the US. It was his first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as his first to break the top 10, but would only reach number 17 in the UK Singles Chart.
Bowie would later claim that he had “absolutely no idea” that the song would do so well as a single, saying “I wouldn’t know how to pick a single if it hit me in the face
Saturday Night: Bay City Rollers
Saturday Night by Bay City Rollers is a song recorded by the Scottish pop rock band Bay City Rollers. It was written and produced by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. The tune is an upbeat pop rock number with a memorable hook: the word “Saturday” spelled out in a rhythmic chant.
The original version of the song was recorded and released in the UK in 1973, but did not hit the charts. The original version was sung by Nobby Clark. At the end of 1975, Saturday Night was released In America and it hit the no. 1 spot in January 1976. It was the first Billboard #1 of the US Bicentennial year. The song had been re-recorded for the Rollers’ 1974 UK album Rollin’ with lead vocals by Les McKeown, Nobby’s replacement. The single also reached number one on the RPM Canadian Singles Chart listing on 10 January 1976. This is the band’s sole No. 1 hit in the United States.
Theme from SWAT: Rhythm Heritage
Theme from SWAT by Rhythm Heritage is an instrumental song written by Barry De Vorzon and performed by American funk group Rhythm Heritage, released on their debut album Disco-Fied.
It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the United States on the chart date of February 28, 1976.
As the title implies, it was the opening theme music for the 1970s American television series S.W.A.T., though it is a noticeably different recording from the actual TV theme version, which was performed not by Rhythm Heritage, but by Barry De Vorzon’s own orchestra with arrangement by Dominik Hauser.
The theme song was also referenced by characters in the 2003 motion picture of the same name, who mouth the notes during a party to celebrate their successful completion of the training course. De Vorzon’s original was eventually released on the LP Nadia’s Theme on Arista records.
Stayin’ Alive: The Bee Gees
Stayin’ Alive by The Bee Gees is a disco song written and performed by the Bee Gees from the Saturday Night Fever motion picture soundtrack. The song was released on 13 December 1977 as the second single from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The band co-produced the song with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. It is one of the Bee Gees’ signature songs. In 2004, “Stayin’ Alive” was placed at number 189 on the list of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2004, it ranked No. 9 on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. In a UK television poll on ITV in December 2011 it was voted fifth in “The Nation’s Favourite Bee Gees Song”.
On its release, “Stayin’ Alive” climbed the charts to hit the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of 4 February 1978, remaining there for four weeks. In the process, it became one of the band’s most recognisable tunes, in part because of its place at the beginning of Saturday Night Fever. In the US, it would become the second of six consecutive number-one singles, tying the record with the Beatles for most consecutive number ones in the US at the time.
Billie Jean: Michael Jackson
A song by American singer Michael Jackson, released in January 1983 as the second single from his sixth album Thriller (1982). It was written and composed by Jackson and produced by Quincy Jones and Jackson. “Billie Jean” was one of the best-selling singles of 1983, was the biggest-selling single for Jackson as a solo artist, and remains one of the best-selling singles worldwide. It helped propel Thriller to the status of best-selling album of all time. In the United States, the song stayed at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks. It also reached number one in the United Kingdom and several other European countries, and reached the top-ten in many other countries. The song was awarded numerous honors, including two Grammy Awards and an American Music Award. “Billie Jean” also remains a critical favorite; in 2004 Rolling Stone magazine placed it at number 58 on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
The song is about a woman, Billie Jean, who had spent a night of passion with the narrator and now claims that the narrator is the father of her newborn son; he insists that “the kid is not my son”, although the song leaves open the possibility that he is indeed the father. Jackson stated that the song was based on girls who had made the same claim about his older brothers, when he toured with them as part of The Jackson 5. However, some have theorized that the song is based on Jackson’s own experience with a crazed fan.
The song’s spare, bass-driven arrangement helped to pioneer what one critic called “sleek, post-soul pop music”. It also introduced a more paranoid lyrical style for Jackson, which would became a trademark of his later music. The choreography and costume that Jackson adopted for performances of “Billie Jean” would become widely admired and imitated. He premiered them on the TV special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, which aired in May 1983; his performance of “Billie Jean” won great acclaim, and was nominated for an Emmy Award. That performance introduced a number of elements which would become indelibly associated with Jackson, including the moonwalk dance move and wearing a single white sequined glove.
The song’s music video, directed by Steve Barron, played a large role in the early history of the cable channel MTV. It was the first video by a black artist to be aired on MTV in heavy rotation. Also, the video, along with the two other videos produced for Thriller, helped to cement the channel’s cultural importance, by making a well-crafted music video considered to be an integral part of the marketing of any pop single.