The AT40 Blog/June 28, 1975: A big mover party for summer

The Top 40 chart of June 28, 1975 was an indicator that the spring hits were getting cleaned out of the countdown and the summertime hits were brewing and ready to make an impact.

Usually, you get lucky with a chart that has one or two big movers of 10 places in the same week. But in this particular weekend, four songs that became staples of 1975 made the big jumps of 10 notches as June was leaving us and July was right around the corner.

And three of those songs, as Casey Kasem would point out on this particular AT40, were the artists' followups to No. 1 hits. The fourth was by a newcomer to the countdown.


:Leading the way was Olivia Newton-John's "Please Mr. Please," the biggest mover in the countdown. It had debuted at No. 34  the week before and jumped 19 places from No. 34 to No. 15. The Australian-raised singer hit No. 1 with her previous song in March, "Have You Never Been Mellow," but on this one, she returned to the country side of her career that she established in 1974 hits like "If You Love Me (Let Me Know)" and "Let Me Be There."

In "Please Mr. Please," Newton-John sings about playing a song on the jukebox at a country music juke joint, but she has to wait for the other songs to be played, one of which was selected by a "button-pushin' cowboy" who pressed B-17, which brings back painful memories of a love gone wrong. Written by a pair of Brits in Cliff Richard's backing band The Shadows, Bruce Welsh (who recorded an earlier version of the song) and John Rostill, Newton-John's summer smash would peak at No. 3 over a month later.

Bur right behind Newton-John's smash mover of 19 notches was the latest single by the Eagles, "One Of These Nights," the title track from the Southern California-based band's newest album. Like on the previous No. 1 smash, "Best Of My Love," drummer Don Henley sings lead vocal again and features a screaming guitar solo by Don Felder. Glenn Frey, who co-wrote the song with Henley, said he calls "One Of These Nights" his favorite song. Frey explained that "One Of These Nights" is about chasing after one's dreams, whether it's money, fame, a house, a girl, and that "one of these nights," you will attain that dream.

Well, the Eagles attained that dream of a second straight No. 1  hit as the song leaped up 15 notches from No. 31 to No. 16 and would climb into the Top 10 the very next week at No. 9. Four weeks after that, it held down the top spot for one week.

In most weeks, Frankie Valli's "Swearin' To God" would be the biggest mover of the week. It jumped up a solid 13 notches from No. 27 to No. 14, just ahead of "Please Mr. Please" at No. 15 and "One Of These Nights" at No. 16. But in an extraordinary week of big movers, "Swearin' To God" seemed pedestrian in terms of its move up the countdown.

Of course, "Swearin' To God" was the follow-up to Valli's first No. 1 solo hit "My Eyes Adored You" on Private Stock Records, the record company who took a chance on that song when only Valli believed in it. And like "My Eyes Adored You," this new hit was co-written by Bob Crewe, the producer behind the sound of Valli's famous group, The Four Seasons. The song, done in two versions, one with Valli famously flowing the line, "I cross my heart and hope to diiiii-Iiiiiiiiii dooooo," was Valli's first foray into disco music, proving when done correctly, anyone could be a disco artist.

"Swearin' To God" would not get to No. 1, but it did get to the Top 10 in two weeks and would peak at No. 6 in late July.

The fourth song to make a leap of 10 or more notches the week of June 28, 1975 was "Midnight Blue," the first Top 40 hit for Bronx, N.Y. native Melissa Manchester. The daughter of a bassoon payer in the Metropolitan Opera and the designer/owner of a clothing firm, Manchester got into music early, singing and playing the piano and harpsichord at the famed Manhattan School of Music and performing commercial jingles at the age of 15. At the age of 20, she was discovered by another New York City musician named Barry Manilow while playing the Manhattan club scene. Soon after that, Manilow set her up with another find of his, Bette Midler, and she got to sing backup with her group, the Harlettes.

In 1973, Manchester made her debut album, "Home To Myself," and built a friendship with another young talented songwriter, Carole Bayer Sager, who co-wrote many of the songs on the album and the follow-up album, "Bright Eyes" in 1974. They continued to work together and in 1975, they collaborated on the adult contemporary staple "Midnight Blue" for Manchester's third album, simply called "Melissa." The song leaped up 11 places from No. 32 to No. 21 on June 28, 1975. A month later, "Midnight Blue" became another huge part of the Summer of '75 musically, peaking at No. 6.

Rarely did songs have that kind of pole-vaulting power in the 1970s on the Top 40 chart, especially in the same week on the chart. But four songs made such impacts the week of June 28, 1975.

And all four helped to establish the sound of that summer. Not a bad way to introduce yourself to a new season.

The AT40 Blog/June 22, 1974: The Eurovision Song winner that created worldwide legends

The roads to the Top 40 are many. Each song has a story of how it got to there, whether it's the artist or the writing or production of the song or even outside sources that had something to do with that song's success.

But never had a song from the famed Eurovision Song contest ever made it to the Top 40 before. There were famous songs that came from the contest: In 1967, Britain's entry, "Puppet On A String" by Sandie Shaw, won the contest and not only hit No. 1 in her native England, but was a Top 10 hit in just over a dozen countries.

Just not here.

In 1969, Scottish-born Lulu represented the United Kingdom on "Boom Bang-A-Bang" and was amazingly one of four songs that shared the win that year. On the British chart, "Boom Bang-A-Bang" hit No. 2 that year for Lulu, one of the biggest hits she ever had in her native land.

It never crossed over to the U.S.

In 1970, the song "All Kinds Of Everything" won the annual event for the UK and for the singer, who went by the name of Dana. The song was released immediately and less than a month after winning the contest in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, "All Kinds Of Everything" jumped into the No. 1 spot in the UK, spending two weeks at the top, while hitting the Top 10 in nine other countries.

Again, just not in the U.S.

Eurovision, for all its greatness and glory across the Atlantic Ocean, had no standing in the U.S. Maybe it was meant to be a separate entity for someone's success in other foreign lands.

And it set the tone for the evening of Saturday, April 6, 1974. The site was a place simply called The Dome in the seaside town of Brighton, England. The 19th annual event featured 18 countries, but would soon become 17 when France withdrew its entry due to the passing of President Georges Pompidou four days earlier.

One of the favorites to win the event was the latest United Kingdom entry, "Long Live Love," written by Valerie Avon and Harold Spiro and performed by pop and country star Olivia Newton-John. Couldn't miss. Another act with pop success on their side was Mouth & MacNeal of "How Do You Do?" one-hit wonder fame in 1972. They were at the contest to represent their native Netherlands on the song "I See A Star."

Three other acts were back to represent their countries -- Gigliola Cinquetti, who won for Italy in 1964, was back to represent the country, as was Romuald Figuier for Monaco, 10 years after he represented them in the event and five years after he represented Luxembourg, and the Bendik Singers, back for the second straight year to represent Norway.

Newton-John went second in the 17-act event and "Long Live Love" was convincing enough to take the early advantage. And through seven acts, the UK was on its way to yet another victory.

That when the next act came on the stage -- and it was nothing like any of the other acts the judges saw. First, the conductor of the orchestra representing the country of Sweden, Sven-Olof Walldoff, famously walked out onto the stage dressed like Napoleon Bonaporte as he led the orchestra. Then came the two men and two women who were to represent the country. Benny Andersson sat down and played piano. Bjorn Ulvaeus, who co-wrote the entry with Andersson and group manager Stig Anderson, was on stage wearing space boots with high heels while carrying a multi-pointed-shaped guitar. Then came the ladies to the stage -- blonde-hair Agnetha Foltskog dressed in blue and redheaded Anni-Frid Lyngstad in orange. The two would sing in harmony throughout on the song that blew the rest of the competition out of the water.

The song was "Waterloo" and featured Andersson's pounding piano and a rousing saxophone over an irresistible beat. Together since 1972, the group called ABBA had arrived on the biggest stage throughout Europe.

The judges thought very highly of the song and the act. In the end, the Finnish and Swiss judges gave them first-place votes and the 24 points ABBA accumulated were enough to win the annual Eurovision contest.

The song was released immediately by the record labels that had ABBA signed to them and became an instant smash. It hit No. 1 in Belgium, Finland, Switzerland, West Germany, The Netherlands, Ireland, South Africa, Norway, Denmark and in England, where it spent three weeks at the top in May 1974. Though the song surprisingly didn't go to No. 1 in their native country, their Swedish-language version went to No. 2 and their English-language record went to No. 3 at the same time.

Seeing the potential of a hit record, Atlantic Records, who signed ABBA to a deal just a year earlier, also released "Waterloo" as a single. After climbing the Hot 100, it finally reached the Top 40 as it debuted at No. 39 on the week of June 22, 1974. And the song would keep climbing until a month later when it hit the Top 10 and would peak at No. 6 in August, the first of four Top 10 hits in this country for the quartet.

Though they became huge throughout the world and as big as Volvo in their native Sweden, ABBA never had that same type of success in the United States, even with 14 Top 40 hits here.

ABBA ultimately broke up in 1982 and in 2010, were inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame with all the members but Faltskog attending the ceremony. Between then, Andersson and Ulvaeus wrote the score for the play they created, "Chess," in 1985, then in 1999, they developed another play based on ABBA's music, "Mamma Mia," which was turned into a movie in 2008 starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Amanda Seyfried.

Since that memorable win in 1974, Sweden has done well for itself with five more wins in the Eurovision contest, including titles in 2013 and 2015. But for as big a win as maybe those acts had, none will ever have the presence that ABBA had that night in 1974 in the town of Brighton, England, when they brought the house down with a history lesson for the ages, traveling a well-remembered road to success.

The AT40 Blog/June 17, 1972: Clapton's unrequited love make for Top 40 legend

These days, "Layla" is a staple of classic rock radio. It's become legendary, whether on radio or in the movie Goodfellas. The song lives forever.

But the song nearly didn't even become a Top 40 hit. "Layla" took two years from the time it was recorded in 1970 to the time it became a smash single, debuting in the Top 40 the week of June 17, 1972, at No. 32.

"Layla" was co-written by drummer Jim Gordon and guitarist Eric Clapton, but came from a much deeper place. Already building a reputation as a legendary guitarist, Clapton had built many friendships within his inner circles of musicians, playing guitar on numerous sessions, then starring with such groups as The Yardbirds, Cream and Blind Faith.

But he became a good friend to all four of the Beatles. And he grew a fondness to fellow Beatles guitarist George Harrison, who would allow Clapton to come over and jam with him.

And being in Harrison's home meant Clapton got to grow close to not only the legendary guitarist, but to Harrison's beautiful wife, model Pattie Boyd. As time went on, Clapton's feelings grew for Mrs. Harrison.

By 1970, Clapton could not take it anymore. Not only did he have these feelings for Pattie Boyd Harrison, he also recognized that the relationship between she and her husband was starting to grow sour. And it was at that time that playwright/actor Ian Dallas turned the well-read Clapton's attention to a book written by 12th-century poet Nizami Ganjavi called The Story of Layla and Majnun. Ganjavi's tale is about a man who is absolutely and completely in love with Layla, but can not do anything about it because she is married and forbidden from even being near him and the young man goes absolutely crazy because of it.

Suppressed by the fact he could not have Mrs. Harrison and frustrated by the entire situation, Clapton sat down and wrote the words to "Layla." When he finished the ballad, he went to share the song with someone who would get the meaning of it -- yes, he went to the Harrison household and caught Pattie while George was away. Boyd has stated in her book Wonderful Tonight that when she read Clapton's poem that things were going to change and that she knew he was serious about her feelings about her.

A few months later in September 1970, Clapton went into the Miami-based Criterium recording studio with producer Tom Dowd an members of the backup band Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, Gordon, bassist Carl Radle and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, who had broken away and wanted to be  part of this project with Clapton. Also a part of the project was Duane Allman, a member of the Southern rock band The Allman Brothers Band, and had known of Clapton through mutual friends, but never met one another until Dowd put them together at an Allman Brothers show.

Clapton found the guitar chemistry between he and the talented Allman undeniable. Both fed ideas off of one another and when it came time to record "Layla," the song included 16 tracks put together by the band and Dowd, six of which were guitar tracks laid down by Clapton and Allman, apart or together. Gordon, who was fiddling around on piano, played a piece of music he had reportedly taken from a track that his ex-girlfriend, Rita Coolidge, was working on. Clapton supposedly liked it so much he convinced Gordon to put that piece on the track, which became the memorable "second" part of the song, a longer instrumental part that not only included Gordon's piano, but the dual guitar work of Clapton and Allman in harmony. Allman convinced Clapton to turn "Layla" into a rocker.

When released to radio, though, the song did not take off. The album, "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" did not sell well in this country when released on Atco Records and "Layla" the song would only get as high as No. 51 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1971 in its "radio-friendly" 2-minute and 43-second version.

A year later, though, Atco Records (Polydor in the UK) released a double album of Clapton's work called "The History of Eric Clapton," which included songs from his various incarnations, whether it'd be The Yardbirds, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, Delaney & Bonnie, Cream and Blind Faith. On the final side of the double album were three songs from the Derek & The Dominos sessions -- two versions of "To Tell The Truth," one intended for recording, the other a simple jam session, and the failed chart single, "Layla." Sadly by now, Allman, whose slide guitar work on the "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" album became legendary, had died in a motorcycle accident in October 1971.

The album of Clapton's work flew into the Top 10 in the U.S. peaking at No. 6. This gave Atco the courage to give "Layla" another shot, even in its edited version. Released in early May 1972, "Layla" climbed the Hot 100 and this time around, made it to the Top 40. It would continue to climb the Top 40 until it would finally peak at No. 10 the week of August 5, 1972.

Two years later in 1974, George Harrison and wife Patti separated and suddenly, Eric Clapton had the girl. The divorce became official in 1977 and in 1979, Clapton and Boyd married. They were a strong force together, but by the mid-1980s, the love he once felt for his "Layla" began to wane. And by 1988, acknowledging he had a child out of wedlock, the pair divorced, though they still remain friends to this day. Harrison, who never felt any bit of jealousy toward his friend for taking his lady, went to the wedding of his friend and ex-wife in 1979 which also included former Beatle mates Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney and featured the three Beatles playing a jam session at the reception party. Harrison and Clapton remained dear friends until Harrison's passing from cancer on November 29, 2001, at the age of 58.

In 1992, Clapton was flying high on the charts because of his emotional "Tears In Heaven," which went to No. 2 and became his second-biggest solo hit after his 1974 No. 1 hit "I Shot The Sheriff," from the movie Rush and the release of his Grammy Award-winning "MTV Unplugged" album. From the album came "Layla," but this time in the ballad form it was supposed to be recorded in the first place. The acoustic guitar version of the song would miss out on being a Top 10 hit again, peaking at No. 12 in December 1992.

A newer generation got to appreciate a "different" take of "Layla." And when Clapton toured, he always made sure he would play "Layla" in concert as a reminder of how great the song was when it was first recorded.

And a reminder of where it came from: His unrequited love to a married woman he never gave up on until he got her.

The AT40 Blog/June 11, 1988: Solo Go-Go's flow into history

When Belinda Carlisle and Jane Wiedlin made history, they made it together.

The year was 1981 and the pair were two-fifths of the ground-breaking, all-girl rock band The Go-Go's, Carlisle on lead vocal, Wiedlin on lead guitar. Now keep in mind, they weren't the first all-girl rock band in history -- the band Fanny had beaten them to the punch in the 1970s with Top 40 songs "Charity Ball" and "Butter Boy." And then there was the ground-breaking group of teenage female rockers, The Runaways, that featured two future Top 40 artists, Joan Jett and Lita Ford.

But The Go-Go's, who admitted they had no idea how to play music when they got involved in the Los Angeles punk rock scene in 1978, made their Top 40 debut in 1981 with the song that has become an early '80s classic, "Our Lips Are Sealed." It went to No. 20, but it would be the follow-up in 1982 that helped to establish history as "We Got The Beat" went to No. 2 in April, the first-ever Top 10 hit for an all-female rock band. That song -- along with "Our Lips Are Sealed" -- came from the band's IRS Records album, "Beauty And The Beat," which became the first album in history by an all-female rock band to hit No. 1.

The Go-Gos, who were co-created by both Carlisle and Wiedlin, would continue to hit the chart with "Vacation" in 1982 and "Head Over Heels" and "Turn To You" in 1984 before internal strife within the group forced the band to call it a day by 1985.

Naturally, lead singer Carlisle would be the first of the Go-Go's to make it big with 1986's Top 5 hit "Mad About You." A year later, she released the album, "Heaven On Earth," and the first single from that album, "Heaven Is A Place On Earth," went to No. 1, the first No. 1 by any of the former Go-Go members. Carlisle's hit streak from the album continued with the hit song "I Get Weak," which climbed to No. 2 in the winter of 1988.

And in April, Carlisle hit the Top 40 with her third hit from "Heaven On Earth" when "Circle In The Sand," another hit song co-written by the team of Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley.

But while Carlisle's latest single was flying up the chart, she would be joined on the Top 40 a month later. After the breakup of the Go-Go's, Wiedlin jumped into her solo career with her self-titled 1985 debut album, but got little favor from critics for the album because her not-so-strong voice even if the eclectic music she was creating was very good and praise-worthy.

But Wiedlin, the moving force as a songwriter in the band with guitarist-keyboardist Charlotte Caffey, was not deterred by the criticism. While she dabbled in small roles as an actress in movies such as Clue, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Sleeping Beauty, she was back into the studio in late 1987 to record "Fur," which featured a bare-shouldered Wiedlin holding a rabbit. (Wiedlin has been a long-time animal rights activist.)

For "Fur," Wiedlin broached a number of topics such as fidelity ("Homeboy"), love ("One Heart One Way," and "Lovers Night"), ambition ("Inside A Dream") and, of course, her own objections to the fur trade and how she felt about the treatment of animals (the title track, "Fur"). But one song on the album had Top 40 pop hit potential, a song she co-wrote with Peter Rafelson, the son of Bob Rafelson, who co-created the TV show The Monkees in the 1960s.

That song was "Rush Hour," featuring a pounding keyboard backdrop played by Robert Fisher. It was the catchiest tune for radio and was released in April 1988.

And so it came the week of June 11, 1988 that for the first time in their history, two members of the The Go-Go's made it to the Top 40 and both were on the chart the same week. As "Circle In The Sand" climbed into the Top 10 at No. 9, up two places from No. 11 the week before, Wiedlin's first Top 40 made its debut as "Rush Hour," in its sixth week on the Billboard Hot 100, debuted at No. 33.

A week later, Carlisle's hit would peak at No. 7 before heading down. Two weeks later, Wiedlin's hit would eclipse Carlisle's on the chart, moving to No. 19, while "Circle" dropped to No. 23. On July 23, 1988, "Rush Hour" followed "Circle In The Sand" into the Top 10 at No. 10. A week later, it wold peak at No. 9.

Unfortunately, Wiedlin did not have a follow-up single and would never have another Top 40 solo hit. Carlisle, meanwhile, would score two more Top 40 hits solo in 1989 with "Leave A Light On," featuring the recognizable guitar work of the late, great Beatle George Harrison, peaking at No. 11 and "Summer Rain" climbing to No. 30.

Like a lot of artists, the 1990s pretty much ended Carlisle's solo success. And there was only one thing left to do: In 1999, twice after they had reunited for various events, the original Go-Go's of Carlisle, Wiedlin, Caffey, drummer Gina Schock and bassist Kathy Valentine reunited for a tour. They've been touring on and off ever since and in 2001, released their fourth album, and first in 17 years, "God Bless The Go-Go's."

In 2013, Valentine left the band, citing "irreconcilable differences," then suing the band two months later for "abuse of control" and depriving her of her 20 percent royalties within the band. She and the other bandmates would settle their case out of court in early 2014 and since Valentine's departure, the band has toured as a quartet with occasional adjunct bass player Abby Travis.

The Go-Go's were a history-making band together in the early 1980s. And in 1988, three years after the breakup, they were still making history thanks to its co-creators as solo stars.