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. An interesting final note:
This week, it's the Sounds of the Summer of '78:
15. King Tut—Steve Martin (#17, July)
It all started with that performance of this song on Saturday Night Live on April 22, 1978 when he dressed up in Egyptian pharaoh garb and had a good time doing it. That's all this song was … a good time and kind of poked holes at history, too, while the boy king's remains were all on display on tour throughout the U.S. that year. Some of the silliest stuff radio could ever offer, but when it's a "wild and crazy guy" offering it up, you just smile and let him have the radio airwaves floor. The Toot Uncommons that played behind Martin on the song were members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
14. Use Ta Be My Girl—The O'Jays (#4, July)
The O'Jays had plenty of songs to keep me happy as a child listening on the radio like "I Love Music," "Backstabbers" and the No. 1 smash "Love Train." Let's say they put the silky smooth into the Summer of '78 with this great little record that showed the "slowed-down" style of Disco and these three member singing super harmonious throughout. Of course, Dan Ingram on WABC-AM conused me for life when he said that the line in the middle of the song was "If I had the chance, I'd break her back" when it was really "I I had the chance, I'd take her back." Silly! These guys never promoted violence like in that song. That'd be so wrong.
13. Copacabana—Barry Manilow (#8, August)
The first concert I ever got to see was on July 8, 1978, at the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J. I got to see Barry Manilow perform in concert, but on this night, we had to wait like a half hour -- seems his mom arrived late for the show and being the good son he was, he waited for her to arrive and get properly seated. And it was in t his concert, he set aside a segment for life in the 1940s in New York City at this club called the Copacabana in which he got dressed up or the part and would perform this song from the "Even Now" album. Wonderul storytelling for the time of the tale of Lola, Tony and Rico with a wonderul Latin disco feel to it.
12. My Angel Baby—Toby Beau (#13, August)
Come to turn out, the name Toby Beau was found to come from the name of a shrimp boat outside of Port Isabel, Texas. But this one was all over the radio in the Summer of '78. It's got that mellow feel to it with great guitars played by Danny McKenna and Michael Flores and an even better harmonica solo. In the end, Toby Beau was nothing more than a one-hit wonder with this summer smash, but what a one hit the band gave us.
11. Still The Same—Bob Seger (#4, July)
There are better rockers out there by Michigan's own Bob Seger and his Silver Bullet Band like "Night Moves," "Against The Wind" and "Like A Rock." But this one serves its purpose as an outstanding first single from his new 1978 album "Stranger In Town." It's a simple rocker with great keyboards by Robyn Roberts, a haunting vocal backdrop driven by the Waters family of Maxine, Oren, Julia and Luther and and a super narrative laid down by Seger himself. Outstanding backbeat, it's a song I forever associate with that Summer of '78.
10. The Groove Line—Heatwave (#7, July)
When that cymbal opening began and then that "waa-waa-waa-waa" sound kicked in with the picking of guitar strings, followed by that funky backbeat that highlights this record, all things stopped for that moment with my transistor radio on. These guys got me the year before with "Boogie Nights," but I liked this song better than "Boogie Nights." I always loved the piano solo on the record by the man who wrote this song, Rod Temperton, and I always thought there was like four lead vocalists on the song. Turns out it was just two -- the late Johnny Wilder and his brother Keith. Before Disco music started going way over the top shortly after this summer of great dance smashes had come and went, "The Groove Line" was one of those great summertime Disco songs.
9. Shadow Dancing—Andy Gibb (#1, June)
Unlike
"I Just Want To Be Your Everything" the summer before was a
breath of fresh air, there was starting to be backlash of Andy Gibb
songs and how they all sounded the same. Myself, I always liked this
song, but yes, even I admit, this song was just played over and over
and over again and probably why I don't have this song ranked higher
in my favorites list from the Summer of '78. But they, it's still an
enjoyable record and a remdinder of how great the work of Barry Gibb
was to his little brother, even if he wanted to carve out his own
niche.
Many
an established act were starting to dip their toes into the pool
known as Disco music. And in a lot of cases, they all pointed to the
success of “Miss You,” the eighth and final No. 1 hit for Mick,
Keith, Charlie, Bill and Ronnie. The unique thing about “Miss You”
is it's unapologetic in its Disco sound, but it's proud of its bluesy
guitar provided by both Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood. If you take
anything away from “Miss You,” other than Mick Jagger's
up-and-down vocal style and Bill Wyman's terrific and
underappreciated bass guitar backdrop, it's the honky-tonk sound the
guitars make as Jagger tells his tale on this record. Many a
superstar tried to be as cool as the Stones and came up short in that
effotrt.
Unfortunately
for New Yorker Walter Egan, he will always be a one-hit wonder,
though “Full Moon Fever” barely missed out on the Top 40 in the
Summer of '83 and he did write the 1979 Night smash “Hot Summer
Nights,” which he did a year earlier. I'll always think of 1950s
music when I hear “Magnet And Steel” and that Summer of '78. The
doo-wop backing vocals strengthen the cause and Egan sounds reticent
about how he feels about his mate, whether they are too shy to let
him know. There was always rumor that maybe this was about a guy
“coming out” of the closet or about a shy girl making her
feelings known. It's always, in my mind, been an ambiguous record
because of that, though Egan explained it was Fleetwood Mac' Stevie
Nicks who proved as inspiration. And she's singing backing vocals
with Lindsay Buckingham and are the co-producers of the song. How
cool is that?! Super guitar work on the bridge of this song. I will
forever remember this song as well from its use in “Boogie Nights”
as that song playing during the New Year's Eve party when William H.
Macy's character Little Bill Thompson commits suicide after seeing
his wife having sex in an open bedroom.
Oh,
that measured guitar work by Joe Walsh. No, the Eagles were still recording
“The Long Run” in the Summer of '78, so that gave Walsh a side
project for himself while doing that album to do his own album, “...
But Seriously Folks.” The tongue-in-cheek lyrics are classic, “My
mazeratti does 185. I lost my license, now I don't drive” and “I
got to parties sometimes until 4. It's hard to leave when you can't
find the door.” This song was great during the Eagles concert I saw
in Philadelphia in September 1994 and I've always been more
supportive toward the 8-minute album track both on that album and on
the 1978 soundtrack album of “FM.” When Joe Walsh records or
performs, he's having fun. And we all go along with him to the party
on this rocker.
I have
got a lot of favorites from Donna Summer. “Hot Stuff” will always
be my No. 1, followed by “I Feel Love” and “Heaven Knows.”
But this is the one Donna Summer song that I can stay with from start
to finish and never want to turn off. The slowed feel of this song
that begins it turns into a disco show by the middle and it's not
that hard for Summer to stay with that beat during her days as “The
Queen Of Disco.” This is the song that she sang in the disco in the
movie “Thank God It's Friday” that had everyone on their ears,
including the DJ, who was played by the Ray Vitte, who kept promising
to play her song before she took the initiative and performed
it live. So good this song was that it won the Oscar for Best Song in
1978. It's a great song right to the very end.
4. Grease—Frankie Valli (#1, August)
None
other than Barry Gibb write “Grease.” It became the seventh
No. 1 song Gibb put pen to paper and got recorded that year. I went
to see “Grease” in the old cinema at Ocean County Mall on July
19, 1978 and my first impression is that song blaring out of the
speakers as the opening intros are taking place before we cut to the
scenes of Danny and Sandy on the beach in that summer before school
started again. It's true Frankie Valli and that almost garbled high
vocal of his that makes it impossible to truly understand the words,
but super strings backdrop and great backing vocalists. It's still a
pleasure to hear this song, right to the fading out of “Grease
is the word, is the word, is the word, is the word.”
No one who saw this movie will forget the scene when Olivia Newton-John goes all leathered out, puts her goody two shoe image aside and freaks John Travolta out and says, “Tell me about it, stud.” There's a '50s good-time feel to this record, but this song is more pop rocker than doo-wop by any means. Travolta and Newton-John deliver great back-and-forth dialogue on the song written for the movie by her producer-writer, John Farrar. It's under three minutes long and is just a good-time party from start to finish, easily my favorite song from the movie version of the Broadway play and a wonderful way to begin wrapping up the movie.
Still,
I call this the greatest love song ever written. Lionel Richie wrote
this song after hearing his father tell his mother at a party for
their 37th
anniversary that she's a great mother, a great lover and a great
friend. Three things that stuck in Richie's mind. That was enough to
go back and write the words to the song that would forever be his
hallmark as a songwriter and the biggest hit ever for his group, the
Commodores. The edited version of this song, cut down to just over
3:30, has never
done
this record justice one bit. The edited version has always taken out
the verse, “You shared my dreams, my joys, my pains. You've made my
life worth living for. And if I had to live my life over again, dear,
I'd spend each and every moment with you.” Every emotion comes out,
even with the soft guitar solo of Commodores member Thomas McClary at
the bridge. The six-minute and 36-second version of this song is
still, by far, the greater version of this record. To this day, I
still don't believe this song would have worked in any other season
of the year than that Summer of '78. It was a perfect fit going to
No. 1 that August.
1. Baker Street—Gerry Rafferty (#2, June)Arguably, one of the two greatest summertime songs in my lifetime (the other one is coming up in my 1983 countdown). This record defines what a great summer song is all about. You can take your radio with you to the beach, to the park, to a picnic or have it on during a regular drive on a summer's day. This song still remains that summertime smash. Perhaps it's the very low-key vocals of Scotsman Gerry Rafferty, the former singer in the group Stealer's Wheel of “Stuck In The Middle With You,” that makes this song what it is. Or maybe it's the wailing saxophone of Raphael Ravenscroft that will forever be associated with this song. Or perhaps it was the guitar work at the end by Hugh Burns that nearly completes what I consider a perfect summer song. All three get fit in here to make “Baker Street” a forever summertime memory. I will always put myself back to any place I went to that Summer of '78 and associate “Baker Street” with that memory. The only thing this song didn't do correctly was hit No. 1, spending six frustrating weeks at No. 2. But it will forever be one of my No. 1 summertime musical memories.
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