Grand Funk, the self proclaimed American Band, was pure rock band. In 1974 as they were working on their album Shinin’ On and was thinking that they may need one more song to complete it. Mark Farner as a lark began singing ‘Everybody’s doing a brand new dance now’, which with standard reaction other members of the band thought, ‘Yeah, Grand Funk doing the Locomotion’. After thought they said Why not and turned out this version of the ’60′s pop classic.

The Locomotion became the group’s 2nd Number 1 single and their biggest selling single.

The original version was done in 1962 by Little Eva, the 13 year old baby sitter of the song’s writers Carole King and Gerry Goffin.

In the 1980′s the song became a hit again this time by Australian Kylie Minogue.

Carole King has performed the song many time in her live shows. This version was from the Coming Home Concert in the early 1990′s.

Herbie Hancock is one of those musicians who seem to have been around forever. He first came on the scene in 1962 when he recorded his album Watermelon Man then got more attention when he joined Miles Davis and his band.

He also composed the music for Bill Cosby’s Fat Albert TV cartoon series.

By the 1970′s he had begun to work with electronic music and his 1974 Album Head Hunters showed his Funky side.

The Album version of the song was over 15 minutes of pure Funky Jazz.

To many when they think of the song I will Always Love You, they will think about the version that Whitney Houston sang from the movie My Bodyguard. But long before that it was done by its composer Dolly Parton.

Parton wrote the song in 1973 and released it as one of the songs on her album Jolene and was the follow up single to Jolene. Even though it hit Number 1 on the country charts in a year when many country songs were cross over hits on the Pop charts it was not a big success on the Pop charts.

Parton has re-recorded the song twice. Once in 1982, (this clip may be from 1982) for the movie Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and again in 1995 as a duet with Vince Gill.

The Whitney Houston version released in 1992 is the 6th most successful song in chart history.

Seasons in the Sun, the story of a dying man, bidding farewell to friends and family, was written in 1961 in French by the Belgian poet-composer Jacques Brel (Le moribond) with the English translation done by Rod McKuen. McKuen’s version was recorded by Bob Shane of the Kingston Trio in 1964. Even though it didn’t sell well, Canadian Terry Jacks liked the song.

While working with the Beach Boys, he had them record the song. The group refused to release the track. Jacks decided to record the song himself. After getting permission he changed the words to the last verse and made other minor changes in the song.

The song was released in Canada in 1973 and became at the time the best selling single in Canadian history. it was released in the US and reached the Number one spot on March 2, 1974 remaining there for three weeks.

Added Bonus a fan video using the Beach Boys version

1974 was a big year for county singer Charlie Rich, not to say that 1973 wasn’t big too. However in 1974 Charlie, known as the Silver Fox, reached Number 1 on the county charts with 5 different songs.

In March it was There Won’t Be Anymore for 2 weeks, April came with A Very Special Love Song for 3 weeks, in mid June for 1 week I Don’t See Me in Your Eyes Anymore, I Love My Friend in October for 1 week and She Called Me Baby to begin December for 1 week.

It’s no wonder that he won the Country Music Association – Entertainer of The Year and Album of The Year with A Very Special Love Song.

From their 1974 double album Chicago VII. In some ways Chicago VII brings back a feeling of their first three albums where there are a number of instrumentals along with the rock arrangements. The first disk is mostly made of up Jazz favor instrumentals. Mongonucleosis is one of these instrumental pieces and was composed by trombone player, Jimmy Pankow.

The song has a real Latin sound to it. It was also recorded during the period that the group was recording in James William Guercio Caribou Ranch Studio and Brazilian percussionist Laudir de Oliveira was a member of the band.

This version is reportedly from a 1977 concert in Amsterdam.

By 1974 the Jackson 5 had not only added their younger brother Randy to the group, but were also on a downturn in the music industry. Before Dancing Machine their last top 10 hit was in 1972 with Sugar Daddy.

Part of this was that Motown wasn’t sure in what direction they wanted the act to go and most of the brothers were not happy with the direction they were heading.

Dancing Machine brought them back to the spotlight reaching number 2 on the Pop charts and Number 1 on the R&B Charts. It would be thier last Top 10 release on Motown.

The song appeared on two of their albums. It was the closing song on 1973′s Git It Together, an album that had them recording a number of songs first recorded by others, and as the title song for the 1974 albums Dancing Machine.

Although they had been popular since the beginning of 1970 they had only been nominated for one Grammy award with their Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals nomination for Dancing Machine they received just their second. They lost to Rufus featuring Chaka Khan.

The group would release one more album for Motown before moving to CBS Records in 1976 and changing their name to The Jacksons. Through legal moves Motown was able to retain the rights to the name Jackson 5 as well as Jermaine, who stayed with Motown. Jermaine had married Berry Gordy’s daughter, Hazel, around the same time that this song was recorded.

From the Donny and Marie Show.

The Osmonds seem to have been born to entertain. Over 50 years ago brothers Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay began performing together as a young barbershop Quartet. They appeared in Disneyland as well as on the Andy Williams show in the 1960s.

By the beginning of the 1970s the brothers, now joined by Donny, born in 1957 shortly before his older brothers started, Rocked and Rolled. Sometimes they were called the white Jackson Five. But although early songs were closer t Bubblegum Rock, once they began recording their own songs they really did rock.

Donny following a similar type career as Michael Jackson recorded solo as well as with his brothers.

Younger sister, Marie, recorded a couple of county flavored songs.

Then there was the idea to team Donny and Marie together with their own variety show on ABC. The older Osmonds moved behind the scenes and supported their siblings and occasionally appeared as a quest on the show.

The clip of this song is not from the 70′s but was made later. Not sure when.

Anyway it was the spring of 1974, near the end of the Streaking craze when Ray Stevens reached the top of the Charts with this song. It also hit Number 3 on the Billboard Country chart.

It was also an international hit reaching Number 1 on the UK Charts.

The song was Stevens most popular and was his 2nd number 1. While many of the songs that Stevens recorded were comedy/novelty songs his other Number 1 was the 1970 hit Everything is Beautiful.

John Denver was one of the biggest artist of the early 1970′s. Before his 1971 hit Take Me Home (Country Roads) he was known more as a song writer. He wrote the Peter, Paul and Mary hit Leaving on a Jet Plane. Follow Me was one of his best songs. This is from a 1974 appearance on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. “It’s by far the hardest thing I’ve even done. To be so in love with you and so alone”