I Think I Love You

The Beatles formally announced their breakup and John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison each had their own projects. George must have had a big backlog of songs since he released the three record album All Things Must Pass along with the number 5 best song of 1970, My Sweet Lord.

The number 4 song of the year, Close To You by The Carpenters. It was the first ‘hit’ single release by the siblings Richard and Karen Carpenter. The song was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. This was their second release having released a version of The Beatles, Ticket to Ride, a few months earlier.

The number 3 song was also written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and was featured in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head by B.J. Thomas was the first number one song of the 1970′s.

I’ll Be There by Jackson 5 was their 4th number one song in 1970. The previous three were all upbeat songs, but this one was a ballad. The song was released by Mariah Carey in 1992 and also was a chart topper.

Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel was the number 1 song of 1970. It also won the Grammy for Song of the Year, Record of the Year and appeared on the Album of the Year, which also had the same title.

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Many thanks to Steve Atkinson who has given permission to republish this which was originally published at 6 Things to Consider – 6ThingsToConsider.com

Most of my music experience was from Movie Musicals, Saturday Morning Cartoons, (The Archies, The Beatles cartoon, etc), and other TV shows. Of course the biggest of these were the Monkees and the brand new series, The Partridge Family.

Christmas of 1970 brought presents that would be the beginning of the creation of this Music Fan.

For it was on that Christmas morning I opened my very first record player. Looking back 40 years ago with how easy it is to have a constant source of music, having your own record player may not be a big deal. But for this 12 year old boy it was. I’m sure it would be to anyone living it that generation. A generation where entertainment in the house usually was focused in one room of the house. A TV set, and it may not have been a color one, and music console were all together.

My record player wasn’t simply a small one. It resembled a medium sized trunk. Nor was it mono, as many were in 1970. It was a stereo. It also have a Bass and Treble control. I don’t know how expensive it may have been, but I’m sure for our family it was quite expensive.

On top of that I received three albums. Amazingly these are still in my collection. Those albums were The Beatles, Yesterday and Today, Elvis Presley, From Memphis to Vegas and the first album from what was my favorite music group, The Partridge Family.

I’m sure that there are many, men and women, my age who still think back to the Christmas of 1970 as the beginning of their musical journey. And while they may not admit that the Partridge Family, The Jackson Five and the Osmonds were some of their earliest favorites, like mine they probably were.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy 1971

The show, based loosely on the family group the Cowsills, was to show the adventures of a family who came together to be pop stars. Shirley Jones was the Mom of the group and the songs that were to be used were developed and recorded by a group of studio and session musicians.

It wasn’t until after the cast was finalized and filming began that it was discovered that David Cassidy was a musician as well as an actor. The first couple of episodes featured songs recorded by the studio group and not with Cassidy singing lead. But it wasn’t long before that changed.

The only cast members of the television show to actually participate in the recordings of the songs on the show were David Cassidy and Shirley Jones. Studio musicians such as Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, Joe Osborne, Louie Shelton, Tommy Tedesco, and others was the ones behind the music.

When I Think I Love You, the first single release, reached Number 1 on the Billboard Charts they became the third third fictional artist to have a #1 hit. The first was The Chipmunks with The Archies reaching number 1 with Sugar Sugar in 1969.

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Over the years there have been a few artist who have gone just by one name. The 60′s artist Donavan and from the 80′s Madonna and Prince. Beginning in the late 1960′s and even into today, Melanie is one of those one name artist.

She was just a young singer when she was invited to perform at the Woodstock festival in 1969 but by the end of it she was better known.

The song Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) which she recorded in 1970 with the Edwin Hawkins Singers was inspired by the events at Woodstock. It reached a top spot of Number 6 on the charts.

And as an added bonus Melanie performing the same song 20 years later.

Note:The following was originally published at 6 Things To Consider. We thank Steve Atkinson for allowing us to republish this.

It was on Friday the 13th, February 1970 that the album that many consider the first Heavy Metal album was released. It was released in the United Kingdom. The debut album of a band from Birmingham England. The band and the album shared the name Black Sabbath.

The album had seven tracks. Five were original songs written by the group and two covers.

Black Sabbath consisted of Tony Iommi on guitar, Ozzy Osbourne sang lead, Terry “Geezer” Butler was the bassman, and Bill Ward at drums.

The album was a commercial success reaching number 8 on the UK Albums Chart, and following its US release in May 1970 reached number 23 on the Billboard 200 staying on the charts for over a year. It was widely panned by critics partly because it was so much different than what had been heard before.

A few months later the band would record their second album. From that recording came two of the most popular and most familiar songs done by the group. The album’s title song, Paranoid and the album’s second single Iron Man.

The term Heavy Metal wasn’t used until a number of years after the album’s released. Once it did become a term for music with a heavy rock beat, it was determined that this album was the first.

The 1970s began just like the 60s ended, at least at the top of the charts. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head sung by B.J. Thomas, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid spent 4 weeks at Number 1. The first week was the last week of 1969 then topping the charts for the first 3 weeks of 1970.

It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Burt Bacharach’s score won for Best Score.

The song about infidelity, first by the wife of the singer and then the singer himself towards his secretary Maria.

The song reached Number 2 on the Billboard charts towards the end of 1969 and really shouldn’t be classified as a song of the 1970s. But it was a favorite of this author’s and I always sat back to listen to it when it played on the radio. Still do.

It was Greaves only hit record. He had a couple of more low charting singles in the early 1970s including a remake of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” and Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale”.

Greaves was a nephew of the late great Sam Cooke.

The song One Tin Soldier was written by the songwriting team Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter. It was recorded in late 1969 by the Canadian group The Original Caste and was a minor hit in the United States, but a big hit, reaching Number 1, in Canada.

Most people will remember the version of the song done for the 1971 film Billy Jack as recorded by Jinx Dawson and listed with her group Coven. Even though she sang it with the film’s orchestra she requested that the credit would be to the group and not in her name. Coven’s version would chart again in 1973 and 1974.

The obvious Anti-war song would be one of the most requested songs on American Radio in the early 70′s

On the Sonny and Cher show, the song as sung by Cher, was played in front of a cartoon.

Two clips of Edwin Starr singing his 1970 war protest song War. One is from the 70′s. Not sure when the second one is from, but it’s obviously much later than the first.

The song was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. It was Edwin Starr’s most successful song as well as the most successful anti-war song. It reached the number 1 spot in 1970.

The song was also recorded by the Temptations, although their version was slightly less intense than Starr’s. Motown was debating whether or not to release the Temptations version as a single when Starr volunteered to re-record the song. Motown had been afraid that it could hurt the Temptation’s career.

Starr’s version was more in a James Brown inspired Soul-Shout and the song instead of hurting his career gave him a successful one.

Bruce Springsteen had the song as part of his concert and it was recorded as part of the Live/1975-85 album. Springsteen released his live version as a single and once again it was a big seller, reaching Number 8 on the charts.

“War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin’!” The line is just as meaningful in 2009 as it was in 1970. It’s surprising that someone hasn’t re-recorded it. At least the Starr and the Springsteen versions are still being played.