Each week, I am releasing a list of my 15 favorite songs from the first 15 summers I lived in my beloved hometown of Toms River, N.J. between 1974-88. That takes me from the summer I was 7 until the summer I was 21. Each song from each summer has a special meaning and I will try to convey them as best as I possibly can. So I will rank each summer's hit song memory from Nos. 15 through No. 1. Each song was a hit that peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 between Memorial Day Weekend and Labor Day Weekend.
This week, it's the Sounds of the Summer of '76:
15.You Should Be Dancing—Bee Gees (#1, September)
That bass pumps at the start and you know you can't resist the slingshot-sounding keyboards of this record. Barry Gibb -- a man and his falsetto -- still sounds so rich to this day. Halfway through the record you come to the realization -- you should be dancing. A late second-half-of-the-summer memory for me.
14. Happy Days—Pratt & McClain (#5, June)
So after the producers of the "Happy Days" TV series said enough was enough with the original theme of Bill Haley & The Comets' classic "Rock Around The Clock," they got two guys named Pratt and McClain to record the good-time song written by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox and it became an iconic part of our everyday lives for the next nine years and forever in our television-watching memory banks. And made for a great early summer hit of our Bicentennial year.
13. Shannon—Henry Gross (#6, June)
OK, I admit it -- I get all watery-eyed every so often when I hear about the sad tale of Shannon, sung by former Sha-Na-Na member Henry Gross. Anyone who has ever had a dog … or pet for that matter … understands the emotion of this sad tale. It's rare when we hear about it in a song, but sung so beautifully by Mr. Gross. Great Beach Boys feel to this song (especially the fact that the dog in question is Carl Wilson's Irish setter, Shannon, which was hit by a car). Somewhere above, Casey Kasem is scowling down.
12. Turn The Beat Around—Vicki Sue Robinson (#10, August)
One of the all-time great disco tracks ever recorded, but then again, I'm a sucker for a great string section behind a dance tune. It's part orchestral, part Latin, mostly Disco, which makes this such a timeless treasure from an era that had such a glut of records that it oversaturated the musical landscape and caused the ground to cave from under it. The late Vicki Sue Robinson kept pace with the high-energy of this record and 18 years later, Gloria Estefan would do the same thing with the remake.
11. Love Hangover—Diana Ross (#1, May)
Miss Thang had never really done a "Disco" record until she recorded this piece of dance paradise that the Fifth Dimension gave a try to, but was a bigger hit for the Supremes' former supreme leader and lead singer. The slow pace at the start plods a little, but then that beat picks up and it's a nonstop dance-fest the rest of the way as Ms. Ross does many different vocal sounds, me always loving the echo of "If there's a cure for this, I don't want it." Hal Davis' production is always one of the best ever during the Disco era.
10. Don't Go Breaking My Heart—Elton John & Kiki Dee (#1, August)
The biggest artist in the world by 1976 had done a duet with his Rocket Records partner and good friend, Kiki Dee, and you thought these two had natural talent together. Though it turned out to be a one-time and good-spirited song, my 9-year-old mind thought that Captain Fantastic stopped making solo records and was going to duet with this woman I never really heard of the rest of his career. The things you think of when you're young!
9. Got To Get You Into My Life—Beatles (#7, July)
The way this song got played on WABC-AM all summer, the Beatles had "come together" again. No, but how anyone forgot to ever release this tune at Parlophone Records in the UK or Capitol Records here should have had a tongue-lashing coming. Still one of my all-time faves by the Fab Four. McCartney nails the vocals and one of the few things you ever hear on a Beatles records shines through -- those horns. Always loved when McCartney himself does this song in concert.
8. Misty Blue—Dorothy Moore (#3, June)
Even to this day, whenever I hear this song on the radio, I picture a rainy summer afternoon or evening song. It's slow, but it's so elegant in its offering to its listener. Dorothy Moore from the state of Mississippi performs remarkably on lead vocals with a wonderful-sounding vocal backdrop behind her. It works amazingly as a torch record, but it has that "come over here and cuddle up with me" attitude to it. Hey, if she says yes, I'm going over!
7. Sara Smile—Daryl Hall & John Oates (#4, June)
Like "Misty Blue," this song has that same bluesy, slow-moving approach. Daryl Hall sings the hell out of this record that became the first hit for the duo from Philadelphia, the group's calling card. John Oates delivers a great blues guitar work that makes you think that for one moment that's B.B. King playing behind them. As a matter of fact, "Sara Smile" sounds like the song that King turned down to let these guys have a chance to make it in the music business.
6. Kiss And Say Goodbye—The Manhattans (#1, July)
Sometimes when this song fades out before it ends, I get mad. One of those sad songs about having a relationship between two people come to an end, that bass vocal opening by Winfred "Blue" Lovett, the man who wrote the song, sets the whole tone. Then it's Gerald Alston who delivers one of the all-time great lead vocals on a sad record such as this one. And then I think about how Alston joined the group when original lead singer George Smith suddenly became ill and died not too long afterward. This song only works all the way to the very end, the last "bye" the group sings. A great ballad that gave the group its first No. 1 pop hit.
5. More, More, More—Andrea True Connection (#4, July)
Another great tune from the genre of Disco music, the story goes that sometime soft-porn actress Andrea True, a singer on the side, could not leave Jamaica because an attempted coup in the country was taking place and she couldn't transfer her Jamaican money back to American money, so to spend the rest of the money, she called good friend and writer-producer Greg Diamond to Jamaica to write what would be her biggest pop hit. It's always exciting to hear "More, More, More" on the radio when it comes on and a good piano lick hypnotizes my mind, like this one does. I always love the bridge where it sounds like they're doing mouth-popping sounds with their fingers. Tried to emulate that for years, but it's so hard to do that double-pop sound. Great horns and very sexy vocals from the late True to make this a Disco and pop smash.
4. Let 'Em In—Wings (#3, August)
There are a lot of things I think about when I hear this song -- the doorbell opening, the piano that pounds throughout this record thanks to Sir Paul, the 1776-sounding drumbeat leading up to the chorus, those horns, that trombone solo, the people honored in the chorus ("Sister Susie, Brother John, Martin Luther, Phil and Don, Uncle Ernie, Auntie Gin. Open the door … let 'em in!") and the fade-out that comes right back in at the very end. Feels like Macca spent a year and a half trying to make that song work. Well, whatever time it took, it was more than well worth it. It's a dandy tune that made it big in the late Summer of '76 thanks to radio, sales and the tour the band was doing that year.
3. The Boys Are Back In Town—Thin Lizzy (#12, July)
Too bad this would turn out to be the only Top 40 hit in this country for the band Thin Lizzy. Phil Lynott, who we lost way too soon at the age of 36 in 1986, had that rarity for a lead singer of a hard rock band -- a true, soulful vocal. It bleeds all over the radio or whatever your listening to on "The Boys Are Back In Town." I would always turn my transistor radio up when that song came on the radio back then. Super. great guitar work by both Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson is so memorable because it almost had a bagpipe feel to it. One of classic rock's greatest tunes ever recorded, "The Boys Are Back In Town" made the Summer of '76 very memorable.
2. Afternoon Delight—Starland Vocal Band (#1, July)
Seems every countdown needs one schlocky, forever-remembered pop tune that drives it. And here this one does with the memorable "Afternoon Delight" by the not-so-memorable Starland Vocal Band, who had helped John Denver for years as his backing act and helped Denver out on his breakthrough 1971 smash "Take Me Home, Country Roads." This is playful in nature and if you were younger, you had no idea what "Afternoon Delight" was … I thought they were going out for lunch for all I knew! Enticing to the ears and maybe a little over the top in approach. Who puts skyrocket sounds on a record, huh?? The harmonies by the two married couples of the group still remain the best thing about this song -- and the last part where it's just them singing the title and the acoustic guitar finishing the record out. How can you not be enticed by "Afternoon Delight?" It's too easy to be! And I'll have a soft spot for with its use in the movie Anchorman.
1. Moonlight Feels Right—Starbuck (#3, July)
Two things forever stand out about "Moonlight Feels Right." The first is the Southern feel of this record. It has that breezy, cool feel to it, so laid-back that you wish a Pepsi and a Moon pie were right nearby. Secondly, how many songs do you know that have a marimba solo?! Huh!? For the record, it's a guy named Bo Wagner playing the marimba on the record. It's why "Moonlight Feels Right" stands out above all the other great songs of our Bicentennial year's summer. It's an easy, breezy song that found its right passageway to being released during the right season of the year. This song would never have worked if released in the fall or winter. This is a summer song! I will always think of this song as a summer song -- even if it's played in the winter on the radio. That "summer song" designation was planted on this song long ago and will last for however time I have left on this planet.
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