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April 1970

April 10, 1970 will be remembered as the day The Beatles ended. It was on that day that Paul McCartney in a “self-interview” for his upcoming solo album McCartney announced the break-up. It really wasn’t a surprise since it was obvious that the members of the Beatles were doing their own thing.

On April 14 The Monkees’ become a duo when Michael Nesmith announces he’s leaving the group to go solo.

The Top 10 in April was full of The Beatles. Let It Be, the last single released before McCartney’s announce, was Number 1 for two weeks. John Lennon’s Instant Karma and Badfinger’s Come and Get It, written by Paul McCartney were in the Top 10.

Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Trouble Water was Number 1 at the beginning of the month and the month ended with the Jackson 5’s ABC closed the month at the top spot.

Along with Paul McCartney’s self-title album McCartney, Elton John released his self-titled Album. Elton John had the songs Your Song, Border Song and Take Me to The Pilot.

April 28 had the most album releases. Some of the Albums released that day were Melanie’s Candles in the Rain, Creamm’s Live Cream and Booker T. & the M.G.s’, instrumental covers LP of Abbey Road, McLemore Avenue.

Eric Burdon & War’s first of two albums Eric Burdon Declares “War” featuring the song Spill the Wine was also released on April 20, 1970. After the second their album Eric Burdon would leave the group, but War would continue as one of the funk bands of the 70’s.

John Lennon’s “Instant Karma”

How long does it take to write a song, record it and have it mixed and ready for release? In the case of John Lennon’s “Instant Karma” a day.

That day was January 27, 1970 and as John Lennon was quoted as saying, “I wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we’re putting it out for dinner.”

And who was in Abbey Roads Studio that day and played on the record. George Harrison on guitar, Klaus Voorman on bass, Alan White on drums, and keyboard player Billy Preston.

Ten days later the song was in the stores. It reached #3 on the US Charts and No. 5 in the UK.

Where did the title come from? Yoko Ono had heard her former husband Tony Cox wife, Melinde Kendall, use the phrase.

Top 40 – 1970

1 – “Bridge Over Troubled Water”; Simon & Garfunkel
2 – “(They Long to Be) Close to You”; The Carpenters
3 – “American Woman”; The Guess Who
4 – “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”; B.J. Thomas
5 – “War”; Edwin Starr
6 – “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”; Diana Ross
7 – “I’ll Be There”; The Jackson 5
8 – “Get Ready”; Rare Earth
9 – “Let It Be”; The Beatles
10 – “Band of Gold”; Freda Payne
11 – “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)”; Three Dog Night
12 – “Everything Is Beautiful”; Ray Stevens
13 – “Make It with You”; Bread
14 – “Hitchin’ a Ride”; Vanity Fare
15 – “ABC”; The Jackson 5
16 – “The Love You Save”; The Jackson 5
17 – “Cracklin’ Rosie”; Neil Diamond
18 – “Candida”; Dawn
19 – “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”; Sly & the Family Stone
20 – “Spill the Wine”; Eric Burdon & War
21 – “O-o-h Child”; Five Stairsteps
22 – “Spirit in the Sky”; Norman Greenbaum
23 – “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)”; Melanie
24 – “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today)”; The Temptations
25 – “Love on a Two-Way Street”; The Moments
26 – “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?”; The Poppy Family
27 – “All Right Now”; Free
28 – “I Want You Back”; The Jackson 5
29 – “Julie, Do Ya Love Me”; Bobby Sherman
30 – “Green-Eyed Lady”; Sugarloaf
31 – “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours”; Stevie Wonder
32 – “Ride Captain Ride”; Blues Image
33 – “Venus”; Shocking Blue
34 – “Instant Karma!”; John Lennon
35 – “Patches”; Clarence Carter
36 – “Lookin’ out My Back Door” Creedence Clearwater Revival
37 – “Rainy Night in Georgia”; Brook Benton
38 – “Something’s Burning”; Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
39 – “Give Me Just a Little More Time”; Chairmen of the Board
40 – “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)”; Edison Lighthouse

Beginning and The End

The decade of the seventies began with us listening to these Top 10 Songs:

1 – RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD –•– B.J. Thomas
2 – LEAVING ON A JET PLANE –•– Peter, Paul and Mary
3 – SOMEDAY WE’LL BE TOGETHER –•– Diana Ross and the Supremes
4 – DOWN ON THE CORNER / FORTUNATE SON –•– Creedence Clearwater Revival
5 – NA NA HEY HEY KISS HIM GOODBYE –•– Steam
6 – WHOLE LOTTA LOVE / LIVING LOVING MAID (She’s Just a Woman) –•– Led Zeppelin
7 – I WANT YOU BACK –•– Jackson 5
8 – VENUS –•– The Shocking Blue
9 – HOLLY HOLY –•– Neil Diamond
10 – LA LA LA (If I Had You) –•– Bobby Sherman

And it ended with these Top 10 Songs:

1 – ESCAPE (The Pina Colada Song) –•– Rupert Holmes
2 – PLEASE DON’T GO –•– K.C. and the Sunshine Band
3 – BABE –•– Styx
4 – SEND ONE YOUR LOVE –•– Stevie Wonder
5 – STILL –•– The Commodores
6 – DO THAT TO ME ONE MORE TIME –•– The Captain and Tennille
7 – YOU’RE ONLY LONELY –•– J.D. Souther
8 – NO MORE TEARS (Enough Is Enough) –•– Barbra Streisand / Donna Summer
9 – LADIES NIGHT –•– Kool and the Gang
10 – TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME –•– Supertramp

Woodstock

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, also known as An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music, held in Bethel, New York on August 15,16 and 17, 1969 has been called both the end of the 60’s and the beginning of the 70’s.

I suppose that both of these can be true, but I feel as an event it was more of the beginning of the 70’s with the Moon Landing a few weeks earlier being the end of the 60’s.

Hair reaches 1 and 2

Mid-April had a couple of songs from the Broadway Play Hair on the Charts. The 5th Dimension
was number one with “Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In”, a medley of two songs from the play. The recording won both the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group that was issued in early 1970. They held the Number 1 spot for 6 weeks.

Also on the charts in the Top 10 was the play’s title song “Hair” by the Cowsills.

A few weeks later on the May 10th Charts, the songs would be Number 1 and 2.

Carole King’s Tapestry

Most people receive gifts on their birthday, Carole King gave the world a gift the day after her birthday. On February 9, 1971 she celebrated her 29th birthday and a day later her album Tapestry was released.

Prior to the release Carole King was known as a songwriter. She and her then husband Gerry Goffin wrote some of the greatest songs of the 1960’s including The Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, “Take Good Care of My Baby” for Bobby Vee, “Up on the Roof” for the Drifters, “I’m into Something Good” for Earl-Jean (later recorded by Herman’s Hermits), “One Fine Day” for The Chiffons, “Pleasant Valley Sunday” for the Monkees and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” for Aretha Franklin.

“Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” was recorded by Carole for Tapestry.

Tapestry was the follow-up of her first solo album Writer released in May of 1970.

Tapestry was number one on the Billboard 200 for 15 consecutive weeks, and was listed on the Billboard 200 for 318 weeks between 1971 and 2011 (302 weeks consecutively from April 10, 1971 to January 15, 1977).

The lead single from the album “It’s Too Late”/”I Feel the Earth Move” spent five weeks at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The second single “Smackwater Jack” along with “So Far Away,” charted at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The album received four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year.

In Memoriam: 2018

As the music of the 70s get older, those that created and performed the music are older. And each year we lost more.

A listing of some of the music figures of the 70s who died in 2018:

Ray Thomas — January 4 — The Moody Blues at the age of 76.

Edwin Hawkins – January 15 – Edwin Hawkins, 1970 “Oh Happy Day” at the age of 74.

Jim Rodford — January 20 — Bass player with Argent, The Kinks and The Zombies at the age of 76.

Dennis Edwards — February 1 — Singer, The Temptations at the age of 75.

Mickey Jones — February 7 — Drummer with Kenny Rogers and The First Edition at the age of 76.

Craig MacGregor — February 9 — Bass player for Foghat at the age of 68.

Mike Harrison — March 25 — Lead singer with Spooky Tooth at the age of 72.

Yvonne Staples — April 10 — The Staple Singers at the age at age of 80.

Bob Dorough – April 23, 2018 – musical keystone of Schoolhouse Rock! at the age of 94.

Charles Neville — April 26 — The Neville Brothers at the age of 79.

John “Jabo” Starks — May 1 — Drummer who played with James Brown at the age of 79.

Danny Kirwan — June 8 — An Early member of Fleetwood Mac, 1968 to 1972, at the age of 68.

Alan Longmuir — July 2 — bassist was a founding member of The Bay City Rollers at the age of 70.

Aretha Franklin — August 16 — “The Queen of Soul,” at the age of 76.

Ed Willis — August 20 — Guitarist with Motown’s Funk Brothers at the age of 82.

Ed King — August 22 — Lynyrd Skynyrd at the age of 68.

Maartin Allcock — September 16 — Jethro Tull at the age of 61.

Marty Balin — September 27 — co-founder and co-lead singer of Jefferson Airplane, at the age of 76.

Tony Joe White — October 24 — singer/songwriter “Polk Salad Annie” and “Rainy Night in Georgia.” at the age of 75.

Wah Wah Watson — October 24 — guitarist Motown’s The Funk Brothers at the age of 67.

Hugh McDowell — November 6 — cello player with Electric Light Orchestra at the age of 65.

Roy Clark — November 15 — Country Music and co-host of TV’s Hee Haw at the age of 85.

Joe Osborn — December 14 — member of the Los Angeles session outfit The Wrecking Crew at the age of 81.

Norman Gimbel — December 19 — lyricist who co-wrote such hits as Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” Jim Croce’s “I Got a Name” and Astrud Gilberto’s “The Girl from Ipanema.” and TV shows themes, Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley at the age of 91.

Ray Sawyer — December 31 — Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show at the age of 81.

1969 – The Beginning

As December was ending one could see the beginnings of the Music of the ’70’s

Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard it on the Grapevine” topped the Pop Charts during the final weeks of December 1968 and January 1969. Gaye was one of the Motown acts of the ’60’s that transitioned into the ’70’s with what many feel was his greatest album What’s Going On.

Creedence Clearwater Revival’s second Album “Born on the Bayou” was on the verge of being released. It would hit the stores during the beginning of 1969. 1969 and 1070 were the group’s best years. They released 5 singles that reach Number 2. They never had a Number 1 hit though. There were 3 others Top 10 hits and 5 Top 10 Albums of which 2 hit number 1 including what many consider their best Album “Cosmo’s Factory” released in the Summer of 1970.

Other groups that would be considered acts of the ’70’s that were coming into their own in late 1968 include Led Zeppelin, Three Dog Night and Chicago.

In England future members of Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and Genesis were coming together to create music that in the early 70’s would be termed as Prog.

The Who was working on Tommy, often called the 1st Rock Opera. The album would be a big factor of them transforming from an British Invasion singles band to one of the leading bands of the 70’s.

In a few months a man would walk on the moon, a counter culture leader would lead his group to commit grisly murders, and a half million people to go to an outdoor concert that in many ways was the event that bridged the 60’s and 70’s.

Brothers Gibbs Hold on Music in 1978

Beginning on Christmas Eve 1977 the Brother Gibbs would begin strangle hold on the number 1 spot on the US Billboard Charts. From then until July 29, 1978 The Brothers Gibb (The Bee Gees, brothers Barry, Maurice and Robin, or their younger brother Andy) held the Number 1 spot for all but 7 weeks.

December 24, 1977 – January 7, 1978 (3) “How Deep is Your Love – Bee Gees
February 4 – February 25 ( 4) “Stayin” Alive” – Bee Gees
March 4 – March 11 (2) ” (Love is) Ticker than Water” – Andy Gibb
March 18 – May 6 (8) “Night Fever” – Bee Gees
May 13 – “If I Can’t Have You” – Yvonne Elliman (Written by the Bee Gees)
June 17 – July 29 (7) – “Shadow Dancing” – Andy Gibb

The artists and songs that were not associated with a Gibb were:
January 14 – January 28 (3) – “Baby Come Back: – Player
May 20 & 27 (2) – “With a Little Luck” – Wings
June 3 – “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late” – Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams
June 10 – “You’re the One That I Want” – John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John

The movie “Grease” would have another Number 1 song in 1978, its theme song “Grease” by Frankie Valli and written by Barry Gibb and held the top spot for 2 weeks August 26 and September 2.