We’re in the fourth installment of contrasting each year from the Hot 100!
Featuring the top 3 Hottest Debuts (or “HD”…)
..with the same number of Biggest Movers, (or “BM.”)
Hot damn!
(Sorry, couldn’t contain myself…)
You should know the rules by now, but as a quick reminder: when there are four or more contenders due to ties—and there are several in this post—I only count the highest score among those that tied.
So far, the contest stands at 8 HD and 10 BM overall. Can HD come back and equal or even overtake HD? Read on and find out!
1976
- Stevie Wonder – “I Wish” (entered at 40, peaked at 1)
- Queen – “Somebody to Love” (entered at 45, peaked at 13)
- Bread – “Lost Without Your Love” (entered at 47, peaked at 9)
- Jimmy Dean – “I.O.U.” (jumped 83-35, peaked at 35)
- John Sebastian – “Welcome Back” (jumped 59-20, peaked at 1)
- Chicago – “If You Leave Me Now” (jumped 60-28, peaked at 1)
- “I Wish” is just one of the many joys from Stevie Wonder’s classic Songs in the Key of Life album. Bubbly, lightly funky and delightful every second.
- “Somebody to Love” is a strong singalong, but since it’s not among my top 10 for the group, an 8 is all I can muster for it. And apparently
- Americans were stoked for a reunion of Bread after a 3-year breakup, but “Lost Without Your Love” is a mixed comeback. The second half sounds much livelier and tighter than its meandering first part.
- “I.O.U.” is soggy, saccharine schmaltz—although he’d never use that word—from Jimmy Dean, recalling how indebted he was for everything his mother did to help him in life. It ends after over 6 long minutes with him saying that she told him he was paid in full. Why? Because he told her that he loved her. Hoo boy …
- “Welcome Back” and “If You Leave Me Now” are more sincerely sentimental than “I.O.U.”, but not the best work of John Sebastian and Chicago. Easy to take and easy to forget.
HD: “I Wish” – 10 + “Somebody to Love” – 8 + “Lost Without Your Love” – 6 = 24
BM: “I.O.U.” – 1 + “Welcome Back” – 6 + “If You Leave Me Now” – 7 = 14
Winner: Highest Debuts
1977
- Marvin Gaye – “Got to Give It Up” (entered at 50, peaked at 1)
- Barbra Streisand – “My Heart Belongs to Me” (entered at 52, peaked at 4)
- Elton John – “Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!)” (entered at 56, peaked at 28)
- Ronnie McDowell – “The King is Gone” (jumped 89-40, peaked at 13)
- Boz Scaggs – “Lido Shuffle” (jumped 72-35, peaked at 11)
- George Benson – “The Greatest Love of All” (jumped 89-54, peaked at 24)
- Marvin Gaye was so cool, he crafted arguably the most soulful disco tune ever. Like the artist, “Got to Give It Up” is smooth and sexy.
- Barbra Streisand gives almost all she can vocally to “My Heart Belongs to Me,” but the lyrics and production come up short compared to her contribution.
- As for “Bite Your Lip,” it sounds like Elton John and Bernie Taupin trying to copy the better “Saturday Night’s All Right for Fighting” to unimpressive results. It wears out its welcome even on the single version, though Elton’s piano playing is strong.
- “The King is Gone” still irks me nearly a half-century later. Elvis deserves a better tribute than this mawkish mess.
- “Lido Shuffle” is my favorite track of Boz Scaggs’ wonderful Silk Degrees album, up-tempo, on point and in the groove.
- And though the original “The Greatest Love of All” isn’t as strongly sung or ornately produced as the Whitney Houston version, it’s definitely got a passion and power of its own, albeit a little long.
HD: “Got to Give It Up” – 10 + “My Heart Belongs to Me” – 6 + “Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!)”– 5 = 21
BM: “The King is Gone” – 1 + “Lido Shuffle” – 10 + “The Greatest Love of All” – 8 = 19
Winner: Highest Debuts
1978
- The Bee Gees – “Too Much Heaven” (entered at 35, peaked at 1)
- Rod Stewart – “Do You Think I’m Sexy?” (entered at 49, peaked at 1)
- Barbra Streisand & Neil Diamond – “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” (entered at 48, peaked at 1)
- The Bee Gees – “Night Fever” (jumped 76-32, peaked at 1)
- Parliament – “Flash Light” (jumped 79-38, peaked at 16)
- Wings – “With a Little Luck” (jumped 57-17, peaked at 1)
- Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band – “Hollywood Nights” (jumped 78-38, peaked at 12)
- The Bee Gees returning to their balladry days with “Too Much Heaven” is gorgeous, with some of the best uses of falsetto ever on record.
- “Do You Think I’m Sexy?” is a disco number that perfectly captures in every department the atmosphere of a one-night stand. Or so I’ve been told …
- But the hot streak ends with “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.” Two top singers are reduced to a duet with greeting card lyrics backed with an avalanche of strings. The final product makes The Sound of Music soundtrack come across as hard rock in comparison.
- “Night Fever” is the best Bee Gees track from Saturday Night Fever, beautifully reflecting the appeal of a dance floor in an urban setting.
- “Flash Light” shows how funky music should sound when you hit that dance floor.
- “With a Little Luck” is featherweight fun with Paul McCartney passing time while playing around with a synthesizer. It’s a 6.
- Better as the tiebreaker is “Hollywood Nights,” where Bob Seger’s voice complements some good lyrics and musicianship on display for a tight listen.
HD: “Too Much Heaven” – 9 + “Do You Think I’m Sexy?” – 9 + “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” – 4 = 22
BM: “Night Fever” – 10 + “Flash Light” – 9 + “Hollywood Nights” – 8 = 27
Winner: Biggest Movers
1979
- The Bee Gees – “Tragedy” (entered at 29, peaked at 1)
- Eagles – “The Long Run” (entered at 33, peaked at 1)
- The Bee Gees – “Love You Inside Out” (entered at 37, peaked at 1)
- Donna Summer – “Hot Stuff” (jumped 79-29, peaked at 1)
- Peaches & Herb – “Reunited” (jumped 66-26, peaked at 1)
- Eagles – “Heartache Tonight” (jumped 52-15, peaked at 1)
- Donna Summer and the Brooklyn Dreams – “Heaven Knows” (jumped 77-40, peaked at 4)
- The Bee Gees show considerably better vocal and production range on “Tragedy” than on “Love You Inside Out,” but both are listenable.
- Falling between the two is the solid-but-could-have-been-better “The Long Run.” Not to sound like a broken record (no pun intended), but it’s a little short of the group’s best work.
- “Hot Stuff” shows Donna Summer could rock out with the best of them, especially with that great guitar solo.
- I prefer hearing Peaches and Herb singing about bumping booties and shaking their groove thing, but “Reunited” is sweet enough if somewhat slow.
- And it’s a tie to me between “Heartache Tonight” and “Heaven Knows,” both upbeat, strong singalong songs. So, I’m bending my rule slightly and listing the two next to their shared score. No problem with that, right?
HD: “Tragedy” – 8 + “The Long Run” – 7 + “Love You Inside Out” – 6 = 21
BM: “Hot Stuff” – 9 + “Reunited” – 6 + “Heartache Tonight”/“Heaven Knows” – 8 = 23
Winner: Biggest Movers
1980
- Bruce Springsteen – “Hungry Heart” (entered at 30, peaked at 5)
- Neil Diamond – “Love on the Rocks“ (entered at 32, peaked at 2)
- The Rolling Stones – “Emotional Rescue” (entered at 33, peaked at 3)
- Diana Ross – “Upside Down” (jumped 49-10, peaked at 1)
- The Spinners – “Cupid/I’ve Loved You for a Long Time” (jumped 67-29, peaked at 4)
- Donna Summer – “On the Radio” (jumped 86-49, peaked at 5)
- “Hungry Heart” is what you get when Brill Building songwriting with Springsteen’s traditional hard rock, and it’s no surprise that it’s energetic and captivating.
- “Love on the Rocks“ mistakes making a downbeat ballad into a depressing one for nearly four minutes. Forget the “Rocks” and go instead for the Stones, showing once again that few other bands can make such a distinctive sound showing off the talents of all their members effortlessly.
- Though he disliked how Diana Ross did the final mix, “Upside Down” is another feather in the cap for the production and guitar work done by Nile Rodgers. Great tune indeed.
- “Cupid/I’ve Loved You for a Long Time” repeats what producer Michael Zager did with the Spinners’ previous tune, “Working My Way Back to You/Forgive Me Girl“ by combining an oldie into a medley with a new song he wrote. Yeah, it’s formulaic, but it still works thanks largely to the group’s performance.
- And “On the Radio” is another winner that lets Donna Summer display her considerable vocal talents with top lyrics and music.
HD: “Hungry Heart” – 9 + “Love on the Rocks“ – 3 + “Emotional Rescue” – 8 = 20
BM: “Upside Down” – 9 + “Cupid/I’ve Loved You for a Long Time” – 7 + On the Radio” – 8 = 24
Winner: Biggest Movers
1981
- Styx – “The Best of Times” (entered at 31, peaked at 3)
- Neil Diamond – “Hello Again” (entered at 32, peaked at 6)
- George Harrison – “All Those Years Ago” (entered at 33, peaked at 3)
- Kenny Rogers – “I Don’t Need You” (entered at 33, peaked at 3)
- Neil Diamond – “America” (jumped 76-39, peaked at 8)
- The Rolling Stones – “Waiting on a Friend” (jumped 70-36, peaked at 13)
- REO Speedwagon – “Take It on the Run” (jumped 86-49, peaked at 5)
- Ronnie Milsap – “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me“ (jumped 86-49, peaked at 5)
- Little River Band – “Take It Easy on Me” (jumped 86-49, peaked at 10)
- “The Best of Times” may be the best of power ballads for hardcore Styx fans, but since I’m not one of them, it’s just tolerable, albeit presented with polish.
- “Hello Again” is another offering of aural cubic zirconia by Neil Diamond. It’s morose instead of moving.
- On the other hand, “All Those Years Ago” is a somewhat jarringly upbeat tribute by George Harrison to John Lennon. The lyrics are heartfelt, but the jovial tone of the music creates a juxtaposition of tones at times that’s hard to reconcile.
- It’s better than its tying number, “I Don’t Need You.” a mostly forgotten Kenny Rogers crossover tune with lyrics that are supposed to be clever—“Hey, listen to what he’s saying, he really DOES need her!”—but winds up tiresome by the end instead. It’s a 4.
- Despite my previous complaints about Neil Diamond, “America” is a dynamic celebration of immigration that’s inspired and inspiring.
- And “Waiting on a Friend” is arguably the Stones’ best mellow number ever, setting a relaxing mood from a band not known for such an approach.
Deciding on what’s best between these selections isn’t easy, since they’re all mediocre:
- “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me“ glaringly bad but not really distinctive either. It’s a 5.
- “Take It Easy on Me” starts slowly and doesn’t get much better thereafter. It’s a 4.
- That leaves “Take It on the Run”, which is at least well sung and has pretty decent lyrics, although that “Heard it from a friend who/Heard it from a friend who/Heard from another …” part grates on me.
HD: “The Best of Times” – 6 + “Hello Again” – 3 + “All Those Years Ago” – 7 = 16
BM: “America” – 10 + “Waiting on a Friend” – 10 + “Take It on the Run” – 6 = 26
Winner: Biggest Movers
Looks like “Biggest Movers” is leading as we head into the 1980s.
But it’s only a slight advantage…. Check in next time to see if it’ll hold!
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C’mon Ozmoe, where’s the love for Ronnie Milsap? Dude was a hit making beast on country radio.
The best: Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the Boss, Emotional Rescue.
The worst: the Eagles always!
Re: Ronnie — and a North Carolinian, to boot!
When I was in high school and early college, I thought (The) Eagles were amazing: Great musicianship, steady output, tight vocals and lots of hits that didn’t all sound the same. A new drive-along-sing-along radio experience every eight months.
And in the past decade or so, I often see them slammed. Was their music formulaic, or something, and I just didn’t see it? Are they associated with bad boomer behavior? Was Jeff Bridges’ Big Lebowski movie character the start of all of it?
Azoff and Henley certainly have their issues. But there has to more to it than that. Somebody please clue me in?
I like the Eagles, too — saw them in concert in 1979, as you know — but I think they came to represent all the excesses of “Life in the Fast Lane.” And I do think my life would be just fine if I never heard “Hotel California” again.
Aside from being one of the three most boring concerts I ever saw? (The other two were Dean Friedman of “Ariel” fame and Lou Reed in his Heroin years.) John Entwhistle of The Who was once asked why he moved so little on stage. He said it was relative to the other three maniacs in the band and, paraphrasing here, “Let me join the Eagles. Then you’ll see how much I move.”
(The) Eagles have great vocal harmonies and decent songs but take themselves way too seriously, have close to zero sense of humor, and suffer from being overplayed. I think that’s why we’ve grown tired of them.
I have a friend who dates back to high school. I never see him anymore; at this point, he just texts YouTube videos without any additional comment.
No exaggeration: A half dozen (The) Eagles links and live concert tracks per month. And I have zero desire to have a look.
To your point about being overplayed: that tracks. I’m just not interested anymore.
What everybody else said… plus they are fake and self-important in all the wrong ways. Insufferable and mediocre. Their tunes I could take them or leave them but their vibe is absolutely poisonous to my system. They’re a glorified bar band singing to the cheap seats, yet act like they’re 20th century cultural icons.
The Dude voiced what many did not think to articulate, but had felt was true for a while.
Or, like, ya know, in their opinion, or whatever.
I’ll give it a try, mt. When Tom reviewed Hotel California, my basic comment was that the Eagles to me are the equivalent of Thomas Kincaid. Technically excellent and churned out art that appealed to the masses. As I did with Kincaid, at first I enjoyed their output, but as I grew used to it, it appealed to me less and less. Somehow, when all of the rough and raw parts of art are consistently stripped out so that the art can be an efficient commodity, and there are no longer any pleasant surprises, I tend to lose interest. I think this may be one reason why there are those of us who thumb their noses at this band, while it remains beloved and enjoyed by the masses. Peaceful, Easy Feeling is one of the only Eagles songs I care to willingly hear, and it’s part of their early output, and they didn’t write it. It feels more real than just about any of their later songs.
Eagles did a lot of things right, musically. But everything that everyone is saying here is exactly right. Overly serious. Huge egos. Overplayed. Boring in concert. But I have to defend their music. I think their songcraft and production never fail to impress me. I rarely choose to put on an Eagles song voluntarily. Sometimes “New Kid in Town” or “In the City” maybe. But I usually don’t mind hearing them randomly in the wild.
What everyone else has said here about them I pretty much concur. The most boring major band I’ve ever seen in concert (or rather on tape or film in concert), looking like each one of them was performing for themselves. Their ubiquity (I’m not sure if their greatest hits LP is still the top selling album, but it’s up there). Their music occasionally reflecting the conservative approach of some Boomers. That said, I can handle listening to their songs occasionally and enjoy them that way. But I haven’t played their greatest hits LP in nearly 40 years since I first bought out, which is telling to me.
All houses have gates now, or walls. I can’t just visit my one-room house hidden in the back, away from the main road. I had to share the room with my parents. We lived like Eskimos, I guess. (My ears they burn!) The fence isn’t very high. I can scale it. The temptation quickly passes. And I get back in the car.
“Emotional Rescue” is my Rolling Stones starter song. I like Mick Jagger’s falsetto. Prince or Barry Gibb? I am also a big fan of “Waiting on a Friend”.
So those are the best.
Honorable mention: “Upside Down”.
I really don’t believe in worst songs. But if I had to pick, by default, I’ll go with “Hello Again” and pretty much, all Neil Diamond ballads, in general. When Rick Rubin worked with Diamond, I read that the producer gave the musician his two cents on everything he ever recorded. If I recall correctly, there were songs in which Rubin asked: “What were you thinking?” “Heartlight” makes me want to smack my forehead. I talk about E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial in hushed tones, but “Heartlight” seems to be describing Scatman Crothers’ heart in Steven Spielberg’s segment of The Twilight Zone. I can get through “Hello Again”.
For once, I wish somebody would play “Holly Holy” at a baseball game. Worthy of Elvis, that song.
“Holly Holy” is Neil’s best song!
I think “Love on the Rocks” packs a good punch. We don’t think of it as a ‘power ballad’, because it’s Neil Diamond, but it’s a great power ballad.
And I always defend “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”. I think the music is hauntingly beautiful. And it seems sappy, but if you let yourself believe the characters singing…I think it really works.
I knew all but 4 of these. Only 3 of them are “gotta have it” songs for me. In order-
Emotional Rescue gets an honorable mention.
I would argue that “You Should Be Dancing” is the best BeeGees song on the SNF soundtrack, 10 times over. And the scene in the movie in which it appears, when Travolta takes over the dance floor, may be the greatest dancing scene in the history of movies, no lie, starting with “Oh, forget this”.
I prefer George Benson’s original “Greatest Love Of All” to Whitney Houston’s cover. I recognize that I am in the minority.
I’ll sign on to this.
It should be irrelevant to his musical popularity that George Benson has been married to the same woman for 59 years.
But I can’t help it. It’s a nice thing to know about him. And it comes to mind whenever he pops up on the radio or a playlist.
I didn’t know that! Good on George.
I like both.
Well, this is certainly a motley group of songs … some classics, yes, but then “Bite Your Lip,” “I.O.U.” and “The King Is Gone.” Whew.
I have to disagree on “Lido Shuffle.” Not only are there several album tracks on “Silk Degrees” that are better (“Georgia,” “What Do You Want the Girl to Do?”) but of the official singles, I’d rank it last with “It’s Over,” “Lowdown” and “What Can I Say?” all coming before it in that order.
And, as Dave Mason would sing, we just disagree — completely — when it comes to Neil Diamond. I love “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” “Love on the Rocks” and “Hello Again” but find “America” shamelessly cloying. Ah, well — strong opinions and disagreements make for good conversations.
You and I are much more aligned when it comes to Bruce, Donna and “Upside Down,” but I’m not surprised by that. 🙂
Silk Degrees: Track listing by favorites – in reverse order
“Love Me Tomorrow”
“Jump Street”
“We’re All Alone”
“Harbor Lights”
“What Do You Want the Girl to Do”
“Lido Shuffle”
“What Can I Say”
“Georgia”
“It’s Over”
“Lowdown”
(This was harder than I thought it would be. And if you’re a fan of mixing up an album’s track order…stay tuned…)
😮
My turn!
Least favorite: Love Me Tomorrow
Second least favorite: We’re All Alone
Favorite: Lowdown, It’s Over, Georgia, What Can I Say, Lido Shuffle, What Do You Want the Girl To Do, Harbor Lights, Jump Street
Good work, Ozmoe! “I Wish” and “Got To Give It Up” are definitely 10s, and you’re right about “Somebody To Love.” It’s an 8 only because Queen has so many other 9s and 10s. I might even give it a 9, too.
I’ve checked with Maureen in Accounting and Ozmoe has covered 24 years so far. She added the HD and BM scores to get an overall rating for each year. 1958 has the lowest score with 31, but that was a partial year so we’ll throw it out and say that 1975 is the worst year so far with 32.
The highest ranking years are 1964, 1967 and 1968 with 55, 52, and 49 respectively. Interestingly, while that only reflects Ozmoe’s rankings of a few select songs, it lines up with our poll results. We liked the mid-to-late 60s. 1964 through 1970 are the only years with a weighted average over 7 out of 10.
Could those be the best years for music or do we as a group skew Boomerish?
It’s hard to argue against mid-to-late 60s. Though I would say that early-to-mid 80s is another great time.
And early-to-mid 90s for me, though the top of the charts are less representative there.
I’m still on the immature side of 50 (even if my wife treats to me breakfast on a steam train) so although I’d agree that mid to late 60s is a sweet spot I’m also with Phylum on early to mid 80s and again in the 90s being just as captivating.
Somebody did a poll of the commenters at The Number Ones, and I think boomers made up only 16% of the responders. Gen X was the largest contingent. This was a few years ago. That said, the people that participate in your poll probably do still skew older. That cannot be left out of the equation when summarizing the opinions expressed.
I’m borderline Boomer-Gen X myself (born in 1965), so even though I started following music heavily in the 1970s, a lot of the 1960s hits were played regularly on the radio and got a lot of glowing coverage in the pop culture history books I read. The reverence for that time still runs strong. I mean, Eddie Murphy was just on Late Night with Seth Meyers and told the host that one of the celebrities he met that amazed him was Paul McCartney because he was a Beatle. And by and large the hits have stood the test of time better than the overall output of the 1970s (and 1940s through early 1960s), but that’s a very generalized statement I making here, since I love songs from all those eras.
“Flash Light is one of the greatest of the greats. A pinnacle of pop-as-dance.
“Somebody to Love” is basically one big spoof on gospel music, but the fact that it manages to be sweet and earnest as well as goofy makes it a kind of magic.
(And yes, much better than “A Kind of Magic”)
It appears to be the Bee Gees / Donna Summer / Neil Diamond years. With a surprising flourish from the Stones.
Bee Gees and Donna offer a mix of good and so so whereas Neil offers me a disappointing walk along a windswept beach to a cafe that’s closed. In my case not even America can redeem his appearances. The only good thing I have to say about him is that at least none of these are Sweet Caroline.
Enough about my irrational (it seems rational to me anyway) distaste of all things Diamond.
On the positive side there’s Hungry Heart, Got To Give It Up and I Wish.
The Stones were getting solid airplay in the early 80s here. That would slowly dwindle through the rest of the decade, and they failed to land a single in the top 40 after ’89, though their albums continued to chart high.
I play a little game reading these. I look at the lists for each year and try to guess which one Ozmoe will rate higher. Went 6/6 this time. I was a little worried about 1977, since he’s not a Streisand fan and there was a possibility he might not hate “The King Is Gone” as much as I do.
“Somebody To Love” is my favorite Queen song. One of my goals when taking piano lessons as a child was to learn to play it, which kept me practicing for many hours.
Did you learn it eventually, Zeus?
I had similar motivation (as an adult) to learn Tony Banks’ piano intro to Genesis’ “Firth of Fifth”. And I finally was able to play about 90% of it perfectly. (There’s a part about 2/3 of the way through where he transitions back to the main melody that I would have to be rollerboogie to be able to play.)
I did. It’s not really that complicated once you figure out how to play, but as a nine-year-old beginner it seemed very hard.
Glad you went 6/6 on me, Zeusaphone! As for me not being a Streisand fan, that’s news to me. I like her fine, certainly more than Tom Breihan does. My main objection with “My Heart Belongs to Me” is that the production and writing aren’t as fully realized to their potential as her vocals for it are. (Man, that sounds pretentious, doesn’t it?)
As far as “The King is Gone,” it appalls me that a guy doing a bad imitation of Elvis got a higher placement on the chart than did the King’s last singles, “Way Down” and “My Way,” both of which are miles better than that slop.
I’m actually more bothered that McDowell was able to parlay this fluke into a decade of country chart success doing the same schtick. I have more respect for Orion, who at least had a gimmick to his Elvis sound-alike records.
Not to mention “Moody Blue,” one of my favorites of his and a song that deserved its time in the Top 40. (Not sure I feel the same about “My Way.” But I also don’t care for it as a song, either, not just Elvis’ performance.)
These are always fun. I usually claim 1978-1981 as my core music years. They are years that I liked nearly everything coming out of the radio, because I was an impressionable 8-11 year old.
It’s fascinating to see how these songs charted. Some of them take these wild leaps only to stall short of #1 or even the top 10. It’s like the songs have crazy appeal to a certain part of the population (like megafans of a group like the Rolling Stones or Elvis or Springsteen), but once they all bought the song, nobody else did. Or semi-novelty songs that have viral immediate appeal, but it wears off quickly.
There’s too many favorites here to list them all, but if I had to choose 3 to save for a desert island I might choose:
Stevie Wonder – I Wish
Chicago – If You Leave Me Now
Bee Gees – Night Fever
Also, minor point, “The Long Run” peaked at #8, not #1.
Also, good to see The Little River Band. “Take It Easy on Me” isn’t my favorite by them, but it is a solid song with great harmonies and a nice George Martin production.