ANOTHER JOURNEY INTO THE HEART OF AMERICA: TOP TEN SONGS: WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 8TH.
We're studying pop music going back 50 years here, starting with this week's top ten chart from the Billboard Hot 100 and working our way backward through the charts from this week in 2010, 2000, 1990, 1980, and 1970, analyzing each separately.
This week my guest is one of my all time besties Elizabeth LeBaron. For 3 years now we have traveled all over this side of the Mississippi playing for anyone that will listen to our band the Dream Eaters. Elizabeth is an amazingly talented musician with a beautiful voice and boundless enthusiasm. She learns her parts at blinding speed, almost in real time. She is a joy to be around, she's a ray of sunshine, unless it's before 1PM.
Speaking of the Dream Eaters, we have a "new" album coming out, a compilation of our music from 2015-2020, called, aptly, "2015-2020". Of it we are extremely proud. There's plenty of actual new content and remixes, plus our favorites from our albums, and from our EPs when we were simply known as Jake and Elizabeth. There's also a bunch of songs we sent out for free exclusively to the people on our mailing list, which you can subscribe to here. You can the buy the new album right now on Bandcamp and starting this Friday the 14th you can listen to it on Spotify, Apple Music, whatever floats your boat. We press on:
TOP TEN SONGS THIS WEEK IN 2020
1. THE BOX by Roddy Rich
2. LIFE IS GOOD by Future featuring Drake
3. CIRCLES by Post Malone
4. MEMORIES by Maroon 5
5. SOMEONE YOU LOVED by Lewis Capaldi
6. 10,000 HOURS by Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber
7. DANCE MONKEY by Tones And I
8. ROXANNE by Arizona Zervas
9. DON'T START NOW by Dua Lipa
10. EVERYTHING I WANTED by Billie Eilish
JAKE: I am not hearing whatever is appealing enough about THE BOX to keep it at number one for this long. When it comes to trap, I am definitely the old guy going "these kids and their music, it all sounds the same", although I'm pretty sure I would have hated it when I was a young person as well. :: Maroon 5 played the Super Bowl last year and Adam Levine had his shirt off much of the time, and he's a ripped guy and he's covered in tattoos which, as a visual, has absolutely nothing to do with the music of Maroon 5. It would be like if James Taylor or Christopher Cross played the Super Bowl half time show and took their shirts off and they were really ripped and covered in tattoos and you'd go "hey why does this soft-rock star look like he's fronting Black Flag?" After the Super Bowl, no one raised much of a stink about Levine's partial naked-ness. Conversely, this year Shakira and Jennifer Lopez played the Super Bowl halftime show and they didn't take their shirts off but they did show a little leg and so naturally they were lambasted in the ensuing week for not being wholesome enough, because Jesus wouldn't like that. :: It's refreshing to hear an actual very well played bass guitar on Dua Lipa's DON'T START NOW, a song which makes a good noise. She's got a good voice: unique, tough, confident. I dig this. I'm a sucker for disco. This would get me on the dance floor, which no one wants to see. I am a terrible dancer and I notice people slowly moving away from me whenever I make the agonizing decision to actually dance, and I think this is because of the fact that I am so gigantic and also because of the terrible dancing. :: Billie Eilish is back on the charts this week with EVERYTHING I WANTED. Good lyrics, good sounds. Barring complete self-destruction I think she's going to be around for quite some time, although I don't really see this particular song hanging around in the top ten for very long.
ELIZABETH: I have to assume that once you've been around for as long as Maroon 5, you just look at your watch and go “fuck it, let’s do a song that gives people no choice but to play it at high school graduations” and call it a day. MEMORIES has the exact same chord progression as that Vitamin C song and if someone hasn’t already done a mash-up of the two then there’s a huge missed opportunity here. :: I don’t have much experience with Drake despite the inevitable “but you’re both Canadian!” reaction I get every. single. time I say that. I’ve always sort of recoiled when I hear him, probably because it only happens when teenagers are playing him full blast on their phones on the subway so that’s not really fair. I’m sure he’s great. I don’t know who Future is but based on LIFE IS GOOD I think I’m cool to keep it that way. :: I find great comfort in knowing that the piano ballad isn’t going anywhere anytime soon because the first few songs on this top 10 had me spiraling into a deep depression over the current state of things. I don’t know who this guy is but SOMEONE YOU LOVED is fantastic and exactly the breakup song that’s due on this list so far. :: It’s no secret that I love Justin Bieber. Bieber fans deserve 10,000 HOURS. I deserve this 10,000 HOURS. That said, this is one of those songs that would be playing on every station no matter what you flip to for a solid 4 months, so I’m glad I am no longer at the mercy of my high school car’s radio. I haven’t fully processed my feelings around Bieber being on a country track but I’m pretty sure the answer is that he is perfect. :: DANCE MONKEY: I have no idea where to start with this type of vocal trend (young white girls doing all this super nasally embellishing) that seems to have taken over the charts for the last couple of years but I’m probably just jealous. It’s catchy, I get it. I’m sure I’d be dancing my face off to this in a club if I were 22 right now but as it stands I kind of want to claw my eyes out.
TOP TEN SONGS THIS WEEK IN 2010
1. TIK TOK by Ke$ha
2. TODAY WAS A FAIRYTALE by Taylor Swift
3. BAD ROMANCE by Lady Gaga
4. BEDROCK by Young Money featuring Lloyd
5. BABY by Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris
6. REPLAY by Iyaz
7. SEXY BITCH by David Guetta featuring Akon
8. EMPIRE STATE OF MIND by Jay-Z + Alicia Keys
9. HARD by Rihanna featuring Jeezy
10. HEY, SOUL SISTER by Train
JAKE: BABY might be, lyrically anyway, one of the worst songs to ever crack the top ten, it's such trite nonsense. But the Biebs was not to be stopped at this point in his career. He's gotten a lot better since then, but even on this track he'd already found most of his signature style as a vocalist. And he was only like 15 at the time. :: If you understand who is actually in Young Money you're way ahead of me. BEDROCK is pretty irritating and the concluding line "call me Mr. Flinstone/I can make your Bedrock" is a pretty stupid joke to base an entire song on. Also the simile doesn't really work: Fred Flintstone doesn't "make" bedrock. "Bedrock" is the name of the town he lives in. So maybe the line should be "call me Mr. Flintsone/I can [do something sexual to you] while I operate my brontosaurus-crane". If only these guys had had me around to explain things to them. They could have made much less money. :: SEXY BITCH is some lowest common denominator boiler-plate bullshit but I'm sure it was plenty effective in a club with the lights going and your roll is kicking in. Ditto for REPLAY, although I think that one is a better song.
ELIZABETH: BABY - We’ve already covered the fact that Justin is a literal angel and this song is that idea personified and frozen forever as God’s gift to us. I actually forgot that Ludacris was even in this song but it all makes sense, Bieber was probably too new for this to have taken off on the charts without Ludacris dropping in to say something about Starbucks. :: The 2010 list is particularly cringey for me because this was at the height of me going to da club in the summertime with my gurl pack clad in a rainbow of American Apparel tube top dresses. “I’m trying to find the words to describe this girl without being disrespectful” is a hilariously stupid lyric and now seems like a kind of eerie foreshadowing to the me-too era.
TOP TEN SONGS THIS WEEK IN 2000
1. I KNEW I LOVED YOU by Savage Garden
2. WHAT A GIRL WANTS by Christina Aguilera
3. SMOOTH by Santana featuring Rob Thomas
4. BACK AT ONE by Brian McKnight
5. GET IT ON TONITE by Montell Jordan
6. BRING IT ALL TO ME by Blaque
7. BLUE (DA BA DEE) by Eiffel 65
8. HOT BOYZ by Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott Featuring NAS, EVE & Q-Tip
9. THAT’S THE WAY IT IS by Celine Dion
10. I NEED TO KNOW by Marc Anthony
2. LIFE IS GOOD by Future featuring Drake
3. CIRCLES by Post Malone
4. MEMORIES by Maroon 5
5. SOMEONE YOU LOVED by Lewis Capaldi
6. 10,000 HOURS by Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber
7. DANCE MONKEY by Tones And I
8. ROXANNE by Arizona Zervas
9. DON'T START NOW by Dua Lipa
10. EVERYTHING I WANTED by Billie Eilish
JAKE: I am not hearing whatever is appealing enough about THE BOX to keep it at number one for this long. When it comes to trap, I am definitely the old guy going "these kids and their music, it all sounds the same", although I'm pretty sure I would have hated it when I was a young person as well. :: Maroon 5 played the Super Bowl last year and Adam Levine had his shirt off much of the time, and he's a ripped guy and he's covered in tattoos which, as a visual, has absolutely nothing to do with the music of Maroon 5. It would be like if James Taylor or Christopher Cross played the Super Bowl half time show and took their shirts off and they were really ripped and covered in tattoos and you'd go "hey why does this soft-rock star look like he's fronting Black Flag?" After the Super Bowl, no one raised much of a stink about Levine's partial naked-ness. Conversely, this year Shakira and Jennifer Lopez played the Super Bowl halftime show and they didn't take their shirts off but they did show a little leg and so naturally they were lambasted in the ensuing week for not being wholesome enough, because Jesus wouldn't like that. :: It's refreshing to hear an actual very well played bass guitar on Dua Lipa's DON'T START NOW, a song which makes a good noise. She's got a good voice: unique, tough, confident. I dig this. I'm a sucker for disco. This would get me on the dance floor, which no one wants to see. I am a terrible dancer and I notice people slowly moving away from me whenever I make the agonizing decision to actually dance, and I think this is because of the fact that I am so gigantic and also because of the terrible dancing. :: Billie Eilish is back on the charts this week with EVERYTHING I WANTED. Good lyrics, good sounds. Barring complete self-destruction I think she's going to be around for quite some time, although I don't really see this particular song hanging around in the top ten for very long.
ELIZABETH: I have to assume that once you've been around for as long as Maroon 5, you just look at your watch and go “fuck it, let’s do a song that gives people no choice but to play it at high school graduations” and call it a day. MEMORIES has the exact same chord progression as that Vitamin C song and if someone hasn’t already done a mash-up of the two then there’s a huge missed opportunity here. :: I don’t have much experience with Drake despite the inevitable “but you’re both Canadian!” reaction I get every. single. time I say that. I’ve always sort of recoiled when I hear him, probably because it only happens when teenagers are playing him full blast on their phones on the subway so that’s not really fair. I’m sure he’s great. I don’t know who Future is but based on LIFE IS GOOD I think I’m cool to keep it that way. :: I find great comfort in knowing that the piano ballad isn’t going anywhere anytime soon because the first few songs on this top 10 had me spiraling into a deep depression over the current state of things. I don’t know who this guy is but SOMEONE YOU LOVED is fantastic and exactly the breakup song that’s due on this list so far. :: It’s no secret that I love Justin Bieber. Bieber fans deserve 10,000 HOURS. I deserve this 10,000 HOURS. That said, this is one of those songs that would be playing on every station no matter what you flip to for a solid 4 months, so I’m glad I am no longer at the mercy of my high school car’s radio. I haven’t fully processed my feelings around Bieber being on a country track but I’m pretty sure the answer is that he is perfect. :: DANCE MONKEY: I have no idea where to start with this type of vocal trend (young white girls doing all this super nasally embellishing) that seems to have taken over the charts for the last couple of years but I’m probably just jealous. It’s catchy, I get it. I’m sure I’d be dancing my face off to this in a club if I were 22 right now but as it stands I kind of want to claw my eyes out.
TOP TEN SONGS THIS WEEK IN 2010
1. TIK TOK by Ke$ha
2. TODAY WAS A FAIRYTALE by Taylor Swift
3. BAD ROMANCE by Lady Gaga
4. BEDROCK by Young Money featuring Lloyd
5. BABY by Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris
6. REPLAY by Iyaz
7. SEXY BITCH by David Guetta featuring Akon
8. EMPIRE STATE OF MIND by Jay-Z + Alicia Keys
9. HARD by Rihanna featuring Jeezy
10. HEY, SOUL SISTER by Train
JAKE: BABY might be, lyrically anyway, one of the worst songs to ever crack the top ten, it's such trite nonsense. But the Biebs was not to be stopped at this point in his career. He's gotten a lot better since then, but even on this track he'd already found most of his signature style as a vocalist. And he was only like 15 at the time. :: If you understand who is actually in Young Money you're way ahead of me. BEDROCK is pretty irritating and the concluding line "call me Mr. Flinstone/I can make your Bedrock" is a pretty stupid joke to base an entire song on. Also the simile doesn't really work: Fred Flintstone doesn't "make" bedrock. "Bedrock" is the name of the town he lives in. So maybe the line should be "call me Mr. Flintsone/I can [do something sexual to you] while I operate my brontosaurus-crane". If only these guys had had me around to explain things to them. They could have made much less money. :: SEXY BITCH is some lowest common denominator boiler-plate bullshit but I'm sure it was plenty effective in a club with the lights going and your roll is kicking in. Ditto for REPLAY, although I think that one is a better song.
ELIZABETH: BABY - We’ve already covered the fact that Justin is a literal angel and this song is that idea personified and frozen forever as God’s gift to us. I actually forgot that Ludacris was even in this song but it all makes sense, Bieber was probably too new for this to have taken off on the charts without Ludacris dropping in to say something about Starbucks. :: The 2010 list is particularly cringey for me because this was at the height of me going to da club in the summertime with my gurl pack clad in a rainbow of American Apparel tube top dresses. “I’m trying to find the words to describe this girl without being disrespectful” is a hilariously stupid lyric and now seems like a kind of eerie foreshadowing to the me-too era.
TOP TEN SONGS THIS WEEK IN 2000
1. I KNEW I LOVED YOU by Savage Garden
2. WHAT A GIRL WANTS by Christina Aguilera
3. SMOOTH by Santana featuring Rob Thomas
4. BACK AT ONE by Brian McKnight
5. GET IT ON TONITE by Montell Jordan
6. BRING IT ALL TO ME by Blaque
7. BLUE (DA BA DEE) by Eiffel 65
8. HOT BOYZ by Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott Featuring NAS, EVE & Q-Tip
9. THAT’S THE WAY IT IS by Celine Dion
10. I NEED TO KNOW by Marc Anthony
JAKE: Another week, another opportunity to talk about BLUE (DA BA DEE), the most fascinating song ever to hit the top ten. It starts with the guy saying "Yo listen up, here's the story...." but there's no story here, just a recitation of a collection of sentences that contain the word "blue". God the verse is a mess but the chorus is so glorious. :: I don't remember Montell Jordan having another hit besides the "This Is How We Do It", which remains so ubiquitous that one would think he should easily be to live a lavish lifestyle from it for the rest of his life. :: SAVAGE GARDEN does not sound anything like a band called SAVAGE GARDEN. INNOCUOUS FLOWERPOT would be more apt.
ELIZABETH: It’s endlessly entertaining to imagine what went into the creation of BLUE and as Jake has mentioned in the past, it’s worthy of its own post if not a 6 part Netflix documentary. I was 8 years old when this album came out and I listened to nothing else for a solid 3 years. I could probably still recite the lyrics to every track although that’s not saying much given that one song just spells out the word PLAYSTATION over and over for some reason. I remember staring at the CD cover and having the weirdest ideas of what Europe (which might as well have been outer space to me) must be like. :: I worked weddings for a while and can confidently say every song on this list still gets played on every wedding dance floor. What a pure time for music. :: Remember when WHAT A GIRL WANTS was the most risqué thing to ever happen to pop music? :: I will confess that I thought Marc Anthony was a fashion designer until 10 minutes ago.
TOP TEN SONGS THIS WEEK IN 1990
1. OPPOSITES ATTRACT by Paula Abdul & The Wild Pair
2. TWO TO MAKE IT RIGHT by Seduction
3. DOWNTOWN TRAIN by Rod Stewart
4. JANIE’S GOT A GUN by Aerosmith
5. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU by Michael Bolton
6. WHAT KIND OF MAN WOULD I BE? by Chicago
7. DANGEROUS by Roxette
8. I REMEMBER YOU by Skid Row
9. ESCAPADE by Janet Jackson
10. ALL OR NOTHING by Milli Vanilli
JAKE: ESCAPADE was always one of my favorite Janet Jackson singles. It's so melodious it practically floats on air. :: Roxette's DANGEROUS sounds pretty generic at the start but it distinguishes itself from your run-of-the-mill 80's-teen-movie-soundtrack-sounding thing when the chorus comes in, which is pretty unique. And it has a pretty bitchin harmonica solo, which is kind of unusual. :: ALL OR NOTHING: I'll take nothing please. I always thought the Milli Vanilli controversy was bizarre, especially when people started angrily returning records, which, as far as I know, still had exactly the same music on them as they had when they were purchased originally. I can't imagine buying a Milli Vanilli album in the first place, but I especially can't imagine working up enough righteous indignation to go to the record store and return it, much less start a class action lawsuit because the two dudes you saw in the video are not the two dudes that are actually singing on the record, which is a thing that has probably happened hundreds of times in pop history to varying degrees. Most people believe that Milli Vanilli's downfall began in the aftermath of a concert during which a recording they were lip synching to started skipping: "girl you know it's... girl you know it's... girl you know it's..." and that was the beginning of the end for them. But as embarrassed as the imposters were about the incident, they went back onstage to finish the concert and were astonished to find the audience either didn't know or didn't care, which shows you just how much you can get away with in terms of lip synching on stage, which in turn shows you how the environment that allowed for the long con that is Milli Vanilli was created in the first place, and it's definitely still going strong today. In any case, this particular incident didn't necessarily prove anything, other than they were lip synching, but they certainly could have been doing that to recordings of their own voices. When ALL OR NOTHING reached the top ten it was well after the lip-synching incident, which was ostensibly in their rear-view mirror. From there it was a fairly slow process that brought them down; it would be almost a year and a half after the lip-synching incident that a tide of accusations forced the duo to admit to the LA Times that they hadn't sung on their record. Their Grammys were taken away, they lost all credibility, and they became a joke. And I feel the same way now as I did back then: the music sucks no matter what, so who cares.
ELIZABETH: We're starting to get into the territory that Jake loves to make fun of me for knowing nothing about even though I hadn't even been born yet. Most of my Aerosmith knowledge is thanks to skipping school to play Guitar Hero and Rockband (which I am insanely good at, for the record). :: I had this pretty fancy keyboard when I was a kid that came with a bunch of MIDI files programmed into it and a little screen to play along with them to. I'm almost positive that HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU was one of them but there's also a pretty good chance of that being a completely false memory.
TOP TEN SONGS THIS WEEK IN 1980
1. ROCK WITH YOU by Michael Jackson
2. DO THAT TO ME ONE MORE TIME) by the Captain and Tennille
3. COWARD OF THE COUNTY by Kenny Rogers
4. CRUISIN’ by Smokey Robinson
5. CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE by Queen
6. YES, I’M READY by Teri DeSario with K.C.
7. SARA by Fleetwood Mac
8. THE LONG RUN by Eagles
9. LONGER by Dan Fogelberg
10. DON’T DO ME LIKE THAT by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
ELIZABETH: It’s endlessly entertaining to imagine what went into the creation of BLUE and as Jake has mentioned in the past, it’s worthy of its own post if not a 6 part Netflix documentary. I was 8 years old when this album came out and I listened to nothing else for a solid 3 years. I could probably still recite the lyrics to every track although that’s not saying much given that one song just spells out the word PLAYSTATION over and over for some reason. I remember staring at the CD cover and having the weirdest ideas of what Europe (which might as well have been outer space to me) must be like. :: I worked weddings for a while and can confidently say every song on this list still gets played on every wedding dance floor. What a pure time for music. :: Remember when WHAT A GIRL WANTS was the most risqué thing to ever happen to pop music? :: I will confess that I thought Marc Anthony was a fashion designer until 10 minutes ago.
TOP TEN SONGS THIS WEEK IN 1990
1. OPPOSITES ATTRACT by Paula Abdul & The Wild Pair
2. TWO TO MAKE IT RIGHT by Seduction
3. DOWNTOWN TRAIN by Rod Stewart
4. JANIE’S GOT A GUN by Aerosmith
5. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU by Michael Bolton
6. WHAT KIND OF MAN WOULD I BE? by Chicago
7. DANGEROUS by Roxette
8. I REMEMBER YOU by Skid Row
9. ESCAPADE by Janet Jackson
10. ALL OR NOTHING by Milli Vanilli
JAKE: ESCAPADE was always one of my favorite Janet Jackson singles. It's so melodious it practically floats on air. :: Roxette's DANGEROUS sounds pretty generic at the start but it distinguishes itself from your run-of-the-mill 80's-teen-movie-soundtrack-sounding thing when the chorus comes in, which is pretty unique. And it has a pretty bitchin harmonica solo, which is kind of unusual. :: ALL OR NOTHING: I'll take nothing please. I always thought the Milli Vanilli controversy was bizarre, especially when people started angrily returning records, which, as far as I know, still had exactly the same music on them as they had when they were purchased originally. I can't imagine buying a Milli Vanilli album in the first place, but I especially can't imagine working up enough righteous indignation to go to the record store and return it, much less start a class action lawsuit because the two dudes you saw in the video are not the two dudes that are actually singing on the record, which is a thing that has probably happened hundreds of times in pop history to varying degrees. Most people believe that Milli Vanilli's downfall began in the aftermath of a concert during which a recording they were lip synching to started skipping: "girl you know it's... girl you know it's... girl you know it's..." and that was the beginning of the end for them. But as embarrassed as the imposters were about the incident, they went back onstage to finish the concert and were astonished to find the audience either didn't know or didn't care, which shows you just how much you can get away with in terms of lip synching on stage, which in turn shows you how the environment that allowed for the long con that is Milli Vanilli was created in the first place, and it's definitely still going strong today. In any case, this particular incident didn't necessarily prove anything, other than they were lip synching, but they certainly could have been doing that to recordings of their own voices. When ALL OR NOTHING reached the top ten it was well after the lip-synching incident, which was ostensibly in their rear-view mirror. From there it was a fairly slow process that brought them down; it would be almost a year and a half after the lip-synching incident that a tide of accusations forced the duo to admit to the LA Times that they hadn't sung on their record. Their Grammys were taken away, they lost all credibility, and they became a joke. And I feel the same way now as I did back then: the music sucks no matter what, so who cares.
ELIZABETH: We're starting to get into the territory that Jake loves to make fun of me for knowing nothing about even though I hadn't even been born yet. Most of my Aerosmith knowledge is thanks to skipping school to play Guitar Hero and Rockband (which I am insanely good at, for the record). :: I had this pretty fancy keyboard when I was a kid that came with a bunch of MIDI files programmed into it and a little screen to play along with them to. I'm almost positive that HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU was one of them but there's also a pretty good chance of that being a completely false memory.
TOP TEN SONGS THIS WEEK IN 1980
1. ROCK WITH YOU by Michael Jackson
2. DO THAT TO ME ONE MORE TIME) by the Captain and Tennille
3. COWARD OF THE COUNTY by Kenny Rogers
4. CRUISIN’ by Smokey Robinson
5. CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE by Queen
6. YES, I’M READY by Teri DeSario with K.C.
7. SARA by Fleetwood Mac
8. THE LONG RUN by Eagles
9. LONGER by Dan Fogelberg
10. DON’T DO ME LIKE THAT by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
JAKE: There's only one new entry this week here and it's LONGER by cutout bin staple Dan Fogelberg. As a teenager I always felt badly for the acts that ended up in the cutout bin, but now that I know more about the music industry I realize that to have a record in the cutout bin is a tremendous accomplishment - a shocking amount of things would have had to have gone right for an artist to even end up there in the first place and take their place with other cutout bin staples like Molly Hatchet, Accept, Yes, ELP - bands that were often still huge but had flagging record sales. If you don't know what a cutout bin is, congratulations, you're not old. It was basically the discount section of a record store where you could buy records with a notch cut out of the sleeve, denoting that the record had been previously returned to the record company by the record store, and then that record was re-sold to the record store at a discount, the notch being cut out to ensure the record store wouldn't sell the record at the un-discounted price. Anyway I promise you've heard LONGER before even if you think you haven't. :: I apologize to any Stevie Nicks fans reading this for what Elizabeth is about to say.
ELIZABETH: SARA might be the most boring Fleetwood Mac song of all time so I'm a little confused about how it ended up here but maybe there's some history behind it that I'm missing.
TOP TEN SONGS THIS WEEK IN 1970
1. VENUS by The Shocking Blue
2. I WANT YOU BACK by Jackson 5
3. RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD by B.J. Thomas
4. THANK YOU (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) / EVERYBODY IS A STAR by Sly and the Family Stone
5. WITHOUT LOVE (There Is Nothing) by Tom Jones
6. I’LL NEVER FALL IN LOVE AGAIN by Dionne Warwick
7. HEY THERE LONELY GIRL by Eddie Holman
8. WHOLE LOTTA LOVE / LIVING LOVING MAID by Led Zeppelin
9. NO TIME by The Guess Who
10. JINGLE JANGLE by The Archies
ELIZABETH: SARA might be the most boring Fleetwood Mac song of all time so I'm a little confused about how it ended up here but maybe there's some history behind it that I'm missing.
TOP TEN SONGS THIS WEEK IN 1970
1. VENUS by The Shocking Blue
2. I WANT YOU BACK by Jackson 5
3. RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD by B.J. Thomas
4. THANK YOU (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) / EVERYBODY IS A STAR by Sly and the Family Stone
5. WITHOUT LOVE (There Is Nothing) by Tom Jones
6. I’LL NEVER FALL IN LOVE AGAIN by Dionne Warwick
7. HEY THERE LONELY GIRL by Eddie Holman
8. WHOLE LOTTA LOVE / LIVING LOVING MAID by Led Zeppelin
9. NO TIME by The Guess Who
10. JINGLE JANGLE by The Archies
JAKE: Some movement at the bottom of the top ten in 1970 this week with three new entries: The gorgeous Philly-soul slow jam HEY THERE LONELY GIRL by Eddie Holman, an instant classic; The Guess Who's NO TIME, a jangly affair that gets on the train to Rock City toward the end of the song, and JINGLE JANGLE by the Archies, which is fun harmless nonsense. I love the sound of it though.
ELIZABETH: I truly don't think I've ever heard the original version of VENUS until right this very minute and I'm surprised at how much I love it despite the Venus commercial being drilled into my brain my entire life. Let's all just go back to the 70s and live there forever.
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Follow my band the Dream Eaters so you can write your own blog about how stupid my songs are.
Twitter: @dreameatersband
Facebook: @dreameatersband
Instagram: @dreameatersband
Web: thedreameaters.com
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Prime; just pick an evil corporation and you'll find us there.
ELIZABETH: I truly don't think I've ever heard the original version of VENUS until right this very minute and I'm surprised at how much I love it despite the Venus commercial being drilled into my brain my entire life. Let's all just go back to the 70s and live there forever.
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(this is my personal top ten list from the all the February top tens for every year we're covering here. Much consideration is given to having something from every decade, otherwise it'd probably just be songs from '70 and '80.)
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Read my review of the films Midsommar, Rocketman and Parasite.
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Read my review of the films Midsommar, Rocketman and Parasite.
Follow my band the Dream Eaters so you can write your own blog about how stupid my songs are.
Twitter: @dreameatersband
Facebook: @dreameatersband
Instagram: @dreameatersband
Web: thedreameaters.com
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Prime; just pick an evil corporation and you'll find us there.