Song of the Day #6,320: ‘Miracles’ – Jefferson Starship

Throwing back to the week of October 25, 1975, we find Neil Sedaka and John Denver holding on to the top two spots of the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Bad Blood‘ and ‘I’m Sorry,’ respectively.

At #3, where it peaked, was Jefferson Starship’s ‘Miracles,’ a soft rock song inspired by the teachings of an Indian guru. The album version of the song ran nearly seven minutes and was trimmed to half that length for radio play (conveniently omitting the lyric “I had a taste of the real world when I went down on you, girl”).

Continue reading

Song of the Day #6,306: ‘Bad Blood’ – Neil Sedaka

Throwing back to the week of October 11, 1975, we find Neil Sedaka atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Bad Blood,’ a song I’m certain I’ve never heard before.

This was Sedaka’s third #1 hit, following 1962’s ‘Breaking Up is Hard to Do’ and 1974’s ‘Laughter in the Rain.’ This song remained at #1 for three weeks, becoming the biggest hit of the singer-songwriter’s career.

Continue reading

Song of the Day #6,292: ‘I’m Sorry’ – John Denver

Throwing back to the week of September 27, 1975, we find John Denver atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘I’m Sorry.’

This is one of the six songs I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that topped both the Country chart and the Hot 100 that year. ‘I’m Sorry’ was the last of four chart-topping singles for Denver, all released between 1973 and 1975.

Continue reading

Song of the Day #6,278: ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ – Glen Campbell

Throwing back to the week of September 13, 1975, we find Glen Campbell atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Rhinestone Cowboy.’ This was Campbell’s first chart-topping hit on the Hot 100, and his fourth to reach #1 on the Country chart. A couple of years later he would top both charts again with ‘Southern Nights.’

‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ was written and recorded a year earlier by Larry Weiss. And if you think this sounds like a Neil Diamond song (as I do), listen to Weiss’ version and you’ll swear that’s Diamond singing it. In fact, many people have erroneously attributed the original version to Diamond.

Continue reading

Song of the Day #6,264: ‘Fallin’ in Love’ – Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds

Throwing back to the week of August 30, 1975, we find Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds atop the Billboard Hot 100 with their sole chart-topping hit, ‘Fallin’ in Love.’

I often hear classic songs and have no idea who performed them. And I often learn who performed them and fail to recognize the artist’s name even a little bit. But Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds might just be the artist name with which I’ve had the least familiarity in all my life. I read it three times before registering that this was the actual band name and not some sort of coding glitch on Billboard.com.

Continue reading