Soft Rock-Easy Listening Pt 1

Soft Rock-Easy Listening is a subgenre of rock music with a more commercial and less offensive sound. Originating in the early 1970s in southern California, the style smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. Soft rock dominated radio throughout the 1970s and eventually metamorphosed into the synthesized music of adult contemporary in the 1980s

Hard rock had been established as a mainstream genre by 1968. From the end of the 1960s, it became common to divide mainstream rock music into soft and hard rock, with both emerging as major radio formats in the US. By the early 1970s, softer songs by the Carpenters, Anne Murray, John Denver, Barry Manilow, and even Streisand, began to be played more often on “Top 40” radio and others were added to the mix on many AC stations. Also, some of these stations even played softer songs by Elvis Presley, Linda Ronstadt, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, and other rock-based artists. Major artists of that time included Barbra Streisand, Carole King, Cat Stevens, James Taylor and Bread.

The Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts became more similar again toward the end of the 1960s and into the early and mid-1970s, when the texture of much of the music played on Top 40 radio once more began to soften. The adult contemporary format began evolving into the sound that later defined it, with rock-oriented acts as Chicago, the Eagles and Elton John becoming associated with the format. The Carpenters’ hit version of “(They Long to Be) Close to You” was released in the summer of 1970, followed by Bread’s “Make It with You”, both early examples of a softer sound that was coming to dominate the charts.

Soft rock reached its commercial peak in the mid-to-late 1970s with acts such as Toto, England Dan & John Ford Coley, Air Supply, Seals and Crofts, America and the reformed Fleetwood Mac, whose Rumours (1977) was the best-selling album of the decade.

By 1977, some radio stations, notably New York’s WTFM and NBC-owned WYNY, had switched to an all-soft rock format.

In the mid-to-late 1970s, prominent soft rock acts included Billy Joel, Elton John, Chicago, Toto, Boz Scaggs, Michael McDonald, England Dan & John Ford Coley, Paul Davis, Air Supply, Seals and Crofts, Captain & Tennille, America, and Fleetwood Mac. By the 1980s, tastes had changed and radio formats reflected this change, including musical artists such as Journey.

In the early 1980s, the radio format evolved into what came to be known as “adult contemporary” or “adult album alternative”, a format that has less overt rock bias than its forebear radio categorization.

Although dance-oriented, electronic pop and ballad-oriented rock dominated the 1980s, soft rock songs still enjoyed a mild success thanks to Sheena Easton, Amy Grant, Lionel Richie, Christopher Cross, Dan Hill, Leo Sayer, Billy Ocean, Julio Iglesias, Bertie Higgins and Tommy Page.[16] No song spent more than six weeks at #1 on this chart during the 1980s, with nine songs accomplishing that feat. Two of these were by Lionel Richie, “You Are” in 1983 and “Hello” in 1984, which also reached #1 on the Hot 100.

America is a rock band, formed in England in 1970 by multi-instrumentalists Dewey Bunnell, Dan Peek, and Gerry Beckley. The trio first met as sons of U.S. Air Force personnel stationed in London, where they began performing live.

America achieved significant popularity in the 1970s, and was famous for the trio’s close vocal harmonies and light acoustic folk rock sound. This popularity was confirmed by a string of hit albums and singles, many of which found airplay on pop/soft rock stations.

The band came together shortly after the members’ graduation from high school, and a record deal with Warner Bros. Records followed. Their debut 1971 self-titled album America, produced the transatlantic hits “A Horse with No Name” and “I Need You”; Homecoming (1972) produced the single “Ventura Highway”; and Hat Trick (1973), a modest success on the charts which fared poorly in sales, produced one minor hit song “Muskrat Love”.

1974’s Holiday featured the hits “Tin Man” and “Lonely People”; and 1975’s Hearts generated the number one single “Sister Golden Hair” alongside “Daisy Jane”. History: America’s Greatest Hits, a compilation of hit singles, was released the same year and was certified multi-platinum in the United States and Australia. Peek left the group in 1977 and their commercial fortunes declined, despite a brief return to the top in 1982 with the single “You Can Do Magic”.

The Association is an American pop band from California in the folk rock or soft rock genre.

During the 1960s, they had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts (including “Windy”, “Cherish”, “Never My Love” and “Along Comes Mary”) and were the lead-off band at 1967’s Monterey Pop Festival.

Bee Gees were a pop music group formed in 1958. Their line-up consisted of brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their decades of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success; as a popular music act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as prominent performers of the disco music era in the late 1970s.

The group sang recognizable three-part tight harmonies; Robin’s clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry’s R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the late 1970s and 1980s. The Bee Gees wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists.

Born on the Isle of Man to English parents, the Gibb brothers lived in Chorlton, Manchester, England, until the late 1950s where they formed the Rattlesnakes. The family then moved to Redcliffe, in Queensland, Australia, and then to Cribb Island. After achieving their first chart success in Australia as the Bee Gees with “Spicks and Specks” (their 12th single), they returned to the UK in January 1967 where producer Robert Stigwood began promoting them to a worldwide audience.

The Bee Gees have sold more than 220 million records worldwide, making them one of the world’s best-selling music artists of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997;[3] the presenter of the award to “Britain’s first family of harmony” was Brian Wilson, historical leader of the Beach Boys, a “family act” also featuring three harmonizing brothers. The Bee Gees’ Hall of Fame citation says “Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees.”

Following Maurice’s sudden death in January 2003 at the age of 53, Barry and Robin retired the group’s name after 45 years of activity. In 2009 Robin announced that he and Barry had agreed that the Bee Gees would re-form and perform again.[6] Robin died in May 2012 at the age of 62, after a prolonged struggle with cancer and other health problems, leaving Barry as the only surviving member of the group’s final (and best known) line up

Bread was an American soft rock band from Los Angeles, California. They placed 13 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart between 1970 and 1977 and were an example of what later was labeled as soft rock.

The band consisted of David Gates (vocals, bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, violin, viola, percussion), Jimmy Griffin (vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion) and Robb Royer (bass guitar, guitar, flute, keyboards, percussion, recorder, backing vocals). Jim Gordon (Drums, percussion, piano), Mike Botts (drums, percussion) replaced Royer when he joined in the summer of 1969 and Larry Knechtel (keyboards, bass guitar, guitar, harmonica) replaced Royer in 1971.

Before forming Bread, Gates had worked with Royer’s previous band, The Pleasure Fair, producing and arranging the band’s 1967 album, The Pleasure Fair. Royer then introduced Gates to his songwriting partner, Griffin, and the trio joined together in 1968 and signed with Elektra Records in January 1969, after choosing the name “Bread” in late 1968, supposedly after getting stuck in traffic behind a Wonder Bread truck. The group’s first single, “Dismal Day”, was released in June 1969 but did not chart. Their debut album, Bread, was released in September 1969 and peaked at No. 127 on the Billboard 200. Songwriting on the album was split evenly between Gates and the team of Griffin-Royer. Jim Gordon, a session musician, accompanied the band on drums for the album.

On July 25, 1969 Bread appeared in concert for the very first time, with Gordon on drums, at the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood, opening for the Flying Burrito Brothers. But when Gordon’s schedule conflicted and he proved unavailable for future outings, they quickly brought in Mike Botts as their permanent drummer. Botts, who Gates had previously worked with in Botts’s group The Travelers 3 as a producer, appeared on their second album, On the Waters (released in July 1970 and peaking at No. 12 on the Billboard 200). This time their efforts quickly established Bread as a major act with the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Make It with You” in 1970. “Make It with You” would be Bread’s only No. 1 on the Hot 100.

For their next single, they released a re-recorded version of “It Don’t Matter To Me”, a Gates song from their first album. This single was a hit as well, reaching No. 10. Bread began touring and recording their third album, titled Manna (March 1971), which peaked at #21 and included “Let Your Love Go” (which preceded the album’s release and made No. 28) and the Top 5 hit single, “If”. As with the first album, songwriting credits were split evenly between Gates and Griffin-Royer.

Royer, after conflicts with Gates, left the group in the summer of 1971 after three albums, although he would continue to write with Griffin, and was replaced by Larry Knechtel, a leading Los Angeles session musician who had played piano on Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” single in 1970.
In January 1972 Bread released Baby I’m-a Want You, their most successful album, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. The title song was established as a hit in late 1971 before the album was released, also hitting No. 3. Follow-up singles “Everything I Own” and “Diary” also went Top 20.

The next album, Guitar Man, was released ten months later and went to No. 18. The album produced three Top 20 singles, “The Guitar Man” (#11), “Sweet Surrender” (#15), and “Aubrey” (#15), with the first two going to No. 1 on Billboard’s adult contemporary chart.

Glen Campbell is an American rock and country music singer, guitarist, songwriter, television host and occasional actor. He is best known for a series of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting a music and comedy variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television from January 1969 through June 1972.

During his 50 years in show business, Campbell has released more than 70 albums. He has sold 45 million records and accumulated 12 RIAA Gold albums, four Platinum albums and one Double-platinum album. He has placed a total of 80 different songs on either the Billboard Country Chart, Billboard Hot 100, or the Adult Contemporary Chart, of which 29 made the top 10 and of which nine reached number one on at least one of those charts. Campbell’s hits include his recordings of John Hartford’s “Gentle on My Mind”; Jimmy Webb’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, “Wichita Lineman”, and “Galveston”; Larry Weiss’s “Rhinestone Cowboy”; and Allen Toussaint’s “Southern Nights”.

Campbell made history in 1967 by winning four Grammys total, in the country and pop categories.[2] For “Gentle on My Mind”, he received two awards in country and western, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” did the same in pop. Three of his early hits later won Grammy Hall of Fame Awards (2000, 2004, 2008), while Campbell himself won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He owns trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and took the CMA’s top award as 1968 Entertainer of the Year. John Wayne picked Campbell to play alongside him in the film True Grit, which gave Campbell a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. Campbell sang the title song which was nominated for an Academy Award.

The Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter.

Producing a distinctively soft musical style, they became one of the best-selling music artists of all time. During their 14-year career, The Carpenters recorded 11 albums, 31 singles, five television specials, and a short-lived television series. Their career ended in 1983 by Karen’s death from heart failure brought on by complications of anorexia. Extensive news coverage surrounding the circumstances of her death increased public awareness of eating disorders.

The duo’s brand of melodic pop produced a record-breaking run of hit recordings on the American Top 40 and Adult Contemporary charts, and they became leading sellers in the soft rock, easy listening and adult contemporary genres. The Carpenters had three No. 1 singles and five No. 2 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and fifteen No. 1 hits on the Adult Contemporary chart. In addition, they had twelve top 10 singles. To date, The Carpenters’ album and single sales total more than 100 million units.

Chad and Jeremy Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde met while attending the Central School of Speech and Drama. Chad taught Jeremy how to play the guitar. By 1962, they performed together as a folk duo and formed a band called The Jerks, which Chad described as “the world’s screwiest rock and roll group.”

The duo’s first single, 1963’s “Yesterday’s Gone”, for the Ember Records label, which was arranged by John Barry, was their only UK hit.However, Chad & Jeremy’s strings-backed sound held a greater appeal in the United States, where World Artists Records released their mid-1960s strain of commercial folk music. As the duo recorded this, they developed their trademark style of singing: “whispering.” “[John Barry] told us…we sounded like a locker room full of football players…in the end in desperation he said: ‘Whisper it’, so we kind of backed off a bit and so that sort of slightly sotto voce sound came about”.

Their second single, and biggest American hit, “A Summer Song”, hit No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 17–24 October 1964. Follow-ups included a cover version of “Willow Weep for Me” (which reached Number 1 on the Easy Listening chart) and on Columbia Records in 1965, “Before and After” reached the Top 20. In total Chad & Jeremy had seven US Top 40 hits between 1964 and 1966.

In February 1966, the British music magazine NME reported that the duo had applied for U.S. citizenship. The magazine commented that as U.S. citizens, they would be eligible for military conscription, and that they had no wish to end up defending their adopted country in the Vietnam War. However, the practicalities of constantly renewing U.S. work permits were problematical.

The duo performs for a television special at Marineland, 1966 In the fall of 1967, they released the psychedelic album Of Cabbages and Kings (as “Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde”) and a 1968 follow-up, The Ark.

The duo also made several television guest appearances. They portrayed a fictional singing duo, “The Redcoats” (Fred and Ernie), on the 10 February 1965 episode of the sitcom Dick Van Dyke Show that satirized Beatlemania. Two songs were featured in that episode: “No Other Baby” and “My, How the Time Goes By”. The following week they appeared on The Patty Duke Show as an unknown British singing duo, “Nigel & Patrick”, performing “A Summer Song”, “The Truth Often Hurts the Heart” and “Yesterday’s Gone”. They also appeared as itinerant actors in “That’s Noway, Thataway”, a January 1966 episode of the comedic western Laredo, which was intended as a pilot for their own spin-off series.

The duo appeared as themselves in the December 1966 episodes “The Cat’s Meow” and “The Bat’s Kow Tow” of the television series Batman, in which the guest villain was Julie Newmar as Catwoman. In “The Cat’s Meow”, Catwoman attempts to “steal” the voices of Chad and Jeremy. During the latter episode, they sang “Distant Shores” and “Teenage Failure”.

Clyde appeared in 1966 as a bachelor contestant on The Dating Game, where he won. Stuart voiced Flaps the vulture in Disney’s 1967 film The Jungle Book. That same year, Clyde appeared on an episode of My Three Sons.

In 1968, they composed and recorded music for the film soundtrack of Three in the Attic. The music soundtrack was released in the U.S. on Sidewalk Records.

In 1983, Chad & Jeremy reunited to record the album Chad Stuart & Jeremy Clyde for the MCA-distributed Rocshire Records label. Plans for a second reunion album in 1984 were well-advanced when the label folded. The duo starred in the West End production of Pump Boys and Dinettes from 1984–85, before returning to the U.S. in 1986 for a nostalgia tour with other British Invasion artists. In 1987, they performed in short residencies at both Harrah’s Casino in Lake Tahoe, and the Reno Hilton before again breaking up.

In 2003, PBS reunited Chad & Jeremy in the 60s Pop-Rock Reunion special, which also prompted a tour the next year. In 2008, the group released Ark-eology, an album featuring remakes of material they recorded in the 1960s. In September 2010, Chad & Jeremy marked 50 years of performing together with a limited-edition CD entitled Fifty Years On.

They performed at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in January 2009.

Harry Chapin an American singer-songwriter best known for his folk rock songs including “Taxi”, “W*O*L*D”, and the No. 1 hit “Cat’s in the Cradle”.

Chapin was also a dedicated humanitarian who fought to end world hunger; he was a key participant in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977. In 1987, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work.

Chicago an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described “rock and roll band with horns” began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, generating several hit ballads. The group had a steady stream of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Second only to The Beach Boys in Billboard singles and albums chart success among American bands, Chicago is one of the longest-running and most successful rock groups, and one of the world’s best-selling groups of all time, having sold more than 100 million records.

According to Billboard, Chicago was the leading US singles charting group during the 1970s. They have sold over 40 million units in the US, with 23 gold, 18 platinum, and 8 multi-platinum albums.[3][4] Over the course of their career they have had five number-one albums and 21 top-ten singles. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 8, 2016 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Jim Croce was an American folk and popular rock singer of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1966 and 1973, Croce released five studio albums and singles. His songs “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” and “Time in a Bottle” reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Croce did not take music seriously until he studied at Villanova, where he formed bands and performed at fraternity parties, coffee houses, and universities around Philadelphia, playing “anything that the people wanted to hear: blues, rock, a cappella, railroad music … anything.”

Croce’s band was chosen for a foreign exchange tour of Africa, the Middle East, and Yugoslavia. He later said, “We just ate what the people ate, lived in the woods, and played our songs. Of course they didn’t speak English over there but if you mean what you’re singing, people understand.” On November 29, 1963 Croce met his future wife Ingrid Jacobson at the Philadelphia Convention Hall during a hootenanny, where he was judging a contest.

Croce released his first album, Facets, in 1966, with 500 copies pressed. The album had been financed with a $500 wedding gift from Croce’s parents, who set a condition that the money must be spent to make an album. They hoped that he would give up music after the album failed, and use his college education to pursue a “respectable” profession. However, the album proved a success, with every copy sold.

1960s

From the mid-1960s to early 1970s, Croce performed with his wife as a duo. At first, their performances included songs by artists such as Ian & Sylvia, Gordon Lightfoot, Joan Baez, and Woody Guthrie, but in time they began writing their own music. During this time, Croce got his first long-term gig at a suburban bar and steakhouse in Lima, Pennsylvania, called The Riddle Paddock. His set list covered several genres, including blues, country, rock and roll, and folk.

Croce married his wife Ingrid in 1966, and converted to Judaism, as his wife was Jewish. He and Ingrid were married in a traditional Jewish ceremony.[9] He enlisted in the Army National Guard that same year to avoid being drafted and deployed to Vietnam, and served on active duty for four months, leaving for duty a week after his honeymoon.[10] Croce, who was not good with authority, had to go through basic training twice. He said he would be prepared if “there’s ever a war where we have to defend ourselves with mops”.

In 1968, the Croces were encouraged by record producer Tommy West to move to New York City. The couple spent time in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx and recorded their first album with Capitol Records. During the next two years, they drove more than 300,000 miles,[12] playing small clubs and concerts on the college concert circuit promoting their album Jim & Ingrid Croce.

Becoming disillusioned by the music business and New York City, they sold all but one guitar to pay the rent and returned to the Pennsylvania countryside, settling in an old farm in Lyndell, where Croce got a job driving trucks and doing construction work to pay the bills while continuing to write songs, often about the characters he would meet at the local bars and truck stops and his experiences at work; these provided the material for such songs as “Big Wheel” and “Workin’ at the Car Wash Blues”.

1970s

They returned to Philadelphia and Croce decided to be “serious” about becoming a productive member of society. “I’d worked construction crews, and I’d been a welder while I was in college. But I’d rather do other things than get burned.” His determination to be “serious” led to a job at a Philadelphia R&B AM radio station, WHAT, where he translated commercials into “soul”. “I’d sell airtime to Bronco’s Poolroom and then write the spot: “You wanna be cool, and you wanna shoot pool … dig it.”

In 1970, Croce met classically trained pianist-guitarist and singer-songwriter Maury Muehleisen from Trenton, New Jersey, through producer Joe Salviuolo. Salviuolo and Croce had been friends when they studied at Villanova University, and Salviuolo had met Muehleisen when he was teaching at Glassboro State College in New Jersey. Salviuolo brought Croce and Muehleisen together at the production office of Tommy West and Terry Cashman in New York City. Croce at first backed Muehleisen on guitar, but gradually their roles reversed, with Muehleisen adding lead guitar to Croce’s music.

In 1972, Croce signed a three-record contract with ABC Records, releasing two albums, You Don’t Mess Around with Jim and Life and Times. The singles “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim”, “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)”, and “Time in a Bottle” (written for his then-unborn son, A. J. Croce[citation needed]) all received airplay. Croce’s biggest single, “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”, reached Number 1 on the American charts in July 1973. Also that year, the Croces moved to San Diego, California.

Croce began touring the United States with Muehleisen, performing in large coffee houses, on college campuses, and at folk festivals. However, Croce’s financial situation was still bad. The record company had fronted him the money to record his album, and much of what it earned went to pay back the advance. In February 1973, Croce and Muehleisen traveled to Europe, promoting the album in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Monte Carlo, Zurich, and Dublin, receiving positive reviews. Croce now began appearing on television, including his national debut on American Bandstand[13] on August 12, 1972, The Tonight Show on August 14, 1972, The Dick Cavett Show on September 20/21 1972, The Helen Reddy Show airing July 19, 1973 and the newly launched The Midnight Special, which he co-hosted airing June 15. From July 16 through August 4, 1973, Croce and Muehleisen returned to London and performed on The Old Grey Whistle Test. Croce finished recording the album I Got a Name just one week before his death. While on his tours, Croce grew increasingly homesick, and decided to take a break from music and settle with his wife and infant son when his Life and Times tour ended.

In a letter to his wife which arrived after his death, Croce told her he had decided to quit music and stick to writing short stories and movie scripts as a career, and withdraw from public life.

Death

On Thursday, September 20, 1973, during Croce’s Life and Times tour and the day before his ABC single “I Got a Name” was released, Croce and five others died when their chartered Beechcraft E18S crashed into a tree, while taking off from the Natchitoches Regional Airport in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Others killed in the crash were pilot Robert N. Elliott, musician Maury Muehleisen, comedian George Stevens, manager and booking agent Kenneth D. Cortose, and road manager Dennis Rast.[18][19] Croce had just completed a concert at Northwestern State University’s Prather Coliseum in Natchitoches and was flying to Sherman, Texas, for a concert at Austin College. The plane crashed an hour after the concert. Jim Croce was 30 years old.

An investigation showed the plane crashed after clipping a pecan tree at the end of the runway. The pilot had failed to gain sufficient altitude to clear the tree and had not tried to avoid it, even though it was the only tree in the area. It was dark, but there was a clear sky, calm winds, and over five miles of visibility with haze. The report from the NTSB[20] named the probable cause as the pilot’s failure to see the obstruction because of his physical impairment and the fog reducing his vision. 57-year-old Elliott suffered from severe coronary artery disease and had run three miles to the airport from a motel. He had an ATP Certificate, 14,290 hours total flight time and 2,190 hours in the Beech 18 type.[20] A later investigation placed the sole blame on pilot error due to his downwind takeoff into a “black hole”—severe darkness limiting use of visual references.

Jim Croce was buried at Haym Salomon Memorial Park in Frazer, Pennsylvania.