Top Ten when Carpenters Peaked

A bit of a mix of songs here. A number of these aren’t really strong, in my opinion and, unfortunately, ‘A Kind of Hush’ is one of those.

My pick for best song from this chart - far and away ‘Dream Weaver’ by Gary Wright. ‘Dream Weaver’ seemed irresistibly exciting when it was released - totally magic!

Interestingly, I think Gary Wright’s ‘I Really Want to Know You’ was on American Top 40 at the same time as ‘Touch Me When We’re Dancing’, five years later.

The next strongest songs here are Maxine Nightingale’s ‘Right Back Where We Started From’ and ABBA’s ‘I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do’.

‘Let Your Love Flow’ isn’t bad.

Next in line come a few quite mundane songs - Carpenters’ ‘A Kind of Hush’, Olivia Newton John’s ‘Come On Over’ and Carole King’s ‘Only Love is Real’. None of them are too bad - they’re quite pleasant - just not very interesting, exciting or energetic.

Unfortunately, Carpenters were definitely past their string of amazingly faultless recordings by this time. It’s a shame they couldn’t get stronger material and do it justice, like they did in their earlier years.

I don’t know the John Denver song or Tony Orlando’s version of ‘Cupid’ and I can’t remember theme from ‘SWAT’, atm.

Count yourself fortunate. Maybe this will refresh your memory;



You know popular music is in trouble when you have TV show themes topping the charts...
 
"Theme From S.W.A.T." was written by Barry DeVorzon, composer of much of the BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN soundtrack, and it's still used today on the updated version of S.W.A.T. airing on CBS.
 
This is the version I remember, though. I think I have the 45 of this.



Oh yes, that's right! I recognised it straight away. This is the version that I remember, as well. By the time this was released, I would have known almost every song and tune on the radio. I used to like this in my pre-teen years. Never saw the TV show, though.
 
I'm not a fanatic Stones fan, but they produced some good rock n roll... Brown Sugar & Honky Tonk Woman were recorded when they were at their absolute best IMHO.

You have no doubt seen this, but I like this video (the boys were in their prime) of Brown Sugar. Mick is singing live but it sounds like the backing instrumentals are playing off the standard recording and the boys are miming;



Love it!
 
"Looking For Space" was near the end of John Denver's hit-making years. It managed to get to number one on the Adult Contemporary chart and I recall it get a good bit of airplay. It followed his "Fly Away" song with Olivia Newton-John backing. He had one more number on on that Adult chart with "Like A Sad Song" and then a number two song with "How Can I Leave You Again". His fortunes on the charts faded a bit but he staged a 1982 comeback AC hit with "Shanghai Breezes".

'Shanghai Breezes' was played a lot on the radio station I used to listen to in my mid-teens. I reckon I used to hear it at least once a day. 'Fly Away' also got a lot of airplay when it was released. I'll look up 'Looking for Space' sometime and give it a listen.
 
'Shanghai Breezes' was played a lot on the radio station I used to listen to in my mid-teens. I reckon I used to hear it at least once a day. 'Fly Away' also got a lot of airplay when it was released. I'll look up 'Looking for Space' sometime and give it a listen.

"Looking for Space" is one of my favorite John Denver songs. Had never heard of it until after his tragic death and I bought one of the many compilations that followed of which this song sat.
 
So this is from Canada's RPM for the week of April 24, 1976 on RPM's Pop Music Playlist

1. There's A Kind of Hush (All Over The World) - Carpenters
2. Dream Weaver - Cary Wright
3. Theme from S.W.A.T. - THP Orchestra
4. Let Your Love Flow - Bellamy Brothers
5. Looking For Space - John Denver
6. Come On Over - Olivia Newton-John
7. I Do, I Do, I Do - Abba
8. Only Love Is Real - Carol King
9. Right Back Where We Started From - Maxine Nightingale
10. Cupid -Tony Orlando & Dawn

There are so many great songs just on this top 10. I always loved that Bellamy Brothers tune. I remember "Dream Weaver" played on the radio all the time. I also remember Right Back played a lot on the radio too. "Come On Over" a terrific Barry Gibb tune that Olivia just nails in singing, perfect for her vocals. It makes me think how he could have tailored a great tune for Karen's voice.

John Denver's "Looking For Space" is one of my favorite songs he recorded but I think my ultimate favorite is the song "Rhymes And Reasons". Olivia fans never knew that she also recorded "Looking For Space" it was finally released from the vaults 34 yrs after she recorded it. It was released from Japan on her 40th Anniv Collection CD set of all her albums. The set is very much like the Carpenters 40th set in that everything is replicated down to artwork, inner sleeves just top notch. Her version of this song was found as a bonus track on her album Don't Stop Believin' from 1976. It's on u tube and cool to hear John's version and then Olivia's. I still think John's is superior but cool to have her version in my collection after all those years of it being hidden away.
 
On my site that I created, I tried to put the top songs of the week for each one of the singles. I think I did that for every single, but if not I did it for many.
 
All this talk of John Denver reminded of the first time I heard/saw him when he was on the Today Show while I was getting ready for school in the early 70s. He performed a tune about "Toledo, Ohio" that was a funny song not very complimentary to the town. I liked some of his stuff, but not a huge fan. There was a song called Late Night Radio I really liked but I never bought any of his albums. When I went to find the song this morning on my Spotify account, the song wasn't there but I was shocked to find that Take Me Home Country Roads had almost 300 million downloads! Other songs by John Denver where flirting with 100 million. Then I realized just how popular he was back in the 70s. He was a major player...
 
Gary Wright fans might like this video. Here he is performing with Spooky Tooth (an early A&M act). The drummer's facial expressions in this are priceless! If I have posted this before sorry, here it is again;

 
All this talk of John Denver reminded of the first time I heard/saw him when he was on the Today Show while I was getting ready for school in the early 70s. He performed a tune about "Toledo, Ohio" that was a funny song not very complimentary to the town. I liked some of his stuff, but not a huge fan. There was a song called Late Night Radio I really liked but I never bought any of his albums. When I went to find the song this morning on my Spotify account, the song wasn't there but I was shocked to find that Take Me Home Country Roads had almost 300 million downloads! Other songs by John Denver where flirting with 100 million. Then I realized just how popular he was back in the 70s. He was a major player...
Late Night Radio can be found on his Windsong album. That's one of my favorite albums, every song is terrific in my opinion. I bought an original sealed LP of this album that sounds better than the CD. I always found the song Windsong to be quite a moving experience to listen to, something you can't see makes a powerful statement put forth to lyrics. I have (4) 45 rpm's of his in mono format that are quite special to me including the hit Fly Away w/ Olivia.
 
Late Night Radio can be found on his Windsong album. That's one of my favorite albums, every song is terrific in my opinion. I bought an original sealed LP of this album that sounds better than the CD. I always found the song Windsong to be quite a moving experience to listen to, something you can't see makes a powerful statement put forth to lyrics. I have (4) 45 rpm's of his in mono format that are quite special to me including the hit Fly Away w/ Olivia.

Thanks for the "heads-up"! I looked up the Windsong LP on the Spotify site and found Late Nite Radio which explains why it didn't query before. I have now added to my playlist. :)
 
All this talk of John Denver reminded of the first time I heard/saw him when he was on the Today Show while I was getting ready for school in the early 70s. He performed a tune about "Toledo, Ohio" that was a funny song not very complimentary to the town. I liked some of his stuff, but not a huge fan. There was a song called Late Night Radio I really liked but I never bought any of his albums. When I went to find the song this morning on my Spotify account, the song wasn't there but I was shocked to find that Take Me Home Country Roads had almost 300 million downloads! Other songs by John Denver where flirting with 100 million. Then I realized just how popular he was back in the 70s. He was a major player...
He has so much power that his manager demanded that he host the pilot episode of “The Midnight Special” in order to appear on it (according to the DVD extra’s).
 
Thanks for reminding me of John Denver's song "Looking For Space."
It is one of my favorites. I heard it on the radio recently, but forgot the title and went looking for it...
happily, I found it again here !
 
This topic makes me feel old. Really brought the 70's back to me.
I remember most all of these songs from "When I was young [and] I'd listen to the radio".
Carol King's Tapestry album is a classic and I still listen to it, among others.
Fifth Dimension were also a favorite. Some people thought they were trying to sound "white". Go figure. Good music.
I once got tickets to Three Dog Night and I remember my brother saying " Wow, they're all out of jail?"
Good times.
When Carpenters were hot on the charts it was cool to be a fan. Then everyone at school was onto Fleetwood Mac and Rod Stewart.
 
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I just found this from New Zealand.

March 28, 1982

1 Hands Up (Give Me Your Heart) - Ottawan
2. Tainted Love - Soft Cell
3. Good Thing Going - Sugar Minott
4. Daddy's Home - Cliff Richard
5. I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) - Hall & Oates
6. Down Under - Men At Work
7. Centerfold - The J. Gells Band
8. Girls on Film - Duran Duran
9. How Great Thou Art - Sir Howard Morrison
10. Beechwood 4-5789 - Carpenters
 
I just found this from New Zealand.

March 28, 1982

1 Hands Up (Give Me Your Heart) - Ottawan
2. Tainted Love - Soft Cell
3. Good Thing Going - Sugar Minott
4. Daddy's Home - Cliff Richard
5. I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) - Hall & Oates
6. Down Under - Men At Work
7. Centerfold - The J. Gells Band
8. Girls on Film - Duran Duran
9. How Great Thou Art - Sir Howard Morrison
10. Beechwood 4-5789 - Carpenters

That must be by far the highest 'Beechwood' charted anywhere in the world. I wonder what the difference was. Just the DJs prepared to play it on the radio, maybe.
 
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