Pop Shots – A Look At The Charts … From 44 Years Ago
Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week I’m hopping into my time machine again, and this time around I’m setting the coordinates for 1977 – the year before I was born!
Hopping out of my time machine I hear a lot of classic rock (although back then they just referred to it as rock), disco, funk, R&B, and an NYC-based punk band that would become legendary.
So let’s get into this look at the Billboard Hot 100 from this week back in 1977. Of course, since this is Pop Shots, you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.
The Emotions had everyone on the dance floor with their feel-good R&B smash “Best of My Love.” For some reason I feel like this song has been ever-present on television in some way, shape, or form for the past 44 years, and I’m more than OK with that.
The other day I was watching a documentary on Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album Rumors (which is what inspired me to set my time machine for this particular year). Every member of the band was writing songs directed at other members of the band as everyone was breaking up with everyone. The result was a classic for the ages, a classic that included this song.
Heart were, are, and will always be totally freakin’ badass, and “Barracuda,” with its killer intro, and big, bold, take no prisoners vocals, is the band at its absolute best. The song was written by Ann Wilson after she learned Mushroom Records fabricated a story about her and her sister being involved in an incestuous affair. The sisters ditched the label, and released this epic song on Portrait Records.
“Black Betty” is a song that’s been around for nearly a century, but Ram Jam’s complete reworking of it is what turned it into a classic rock song that continues to be covered by bands to this day. My personal faves, Larkin Poe, did a heck of a job with it just a few years ago.
Foreigner’s “Cold As Ice” is a classic rock radio staple, but I don’t think anyone in 1977 could have imagined it would gain a hip-hop audience 23 years later. That’s exactly what happened, though, when in 2000 M.O.P. used a sample of part of the chorus for their own song of the same name. As a result, Foreigner is a band that both classic rock, and hip-hop fans, immediately recognize and love.
Listen, I totally get it, this song has a wonderful relaxed vibe, but honestly – how on earth did “Margaritaville” become not just a classic song, but a whole damned lifestyle? Well, at least Parrot Heads are a chill group of folks, so I’d probably have a drink with them. Wait, did I just turn into a … NOOOOOOO!
Every time there’s a gale warning I make the joke that if we get hit with that kind of storm it would make my brown eyes blue. Very few people get the joke, which means there needs to be far more Crystal Gayle awareness in the world, or at least on social media. Damned kids!
I promised there would be some funk in here for ya, and HERE WE GO! It gets no more funky than the Commodores classic “Brick House.” If this song doesn’t make you move there’s a pretty good chance you’re legally dead. And yes, that’s Lionel Richie in the background. Y’all remember he was in the Commodores, right?
The Ramones didn’t get a lot of love on the Billboard Hot 100 – their highest charting song was “Rockaway Beach,” which peaked at #66 – but they also didn’t care. They were doing something bold, new, and loud … very very loud. Whipping crowds into a frenzy at CBGB, the band ushered in punk rock, and in 1977 they introduced everyone to Sheena, who was a punk rocker.
A Euro-Caribbean vocal group created by a German record producer, and fronted by a male exotic dancer, Boney M. had a unique origin story, to say the least. In 1977 the band gave listeners a groovy disco song with “Ma Baker,” which was inspired by the story of 1930s U.S. outlaw Ma Barker. The “k” in “Barker” was dropped for the song, which, sadly, didn’t ascend any higher than #96. Based on this live performance, however, Boney M. must’ve put on a heck of a show!
That’s all for this edition of Pop Shots, but come back next Monday for more shots on all things pop.
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