The Top Hits of 1974 - Volume I Quiz

Answer: The Way We Were

This was Barbra Streisand's first Number One hit and the title song for the movie in which she co-starred with Robert Redford. What can one say about Streisand? She's indefatigable. Over her career she's touched virtually every base. Records, two-time Oscar winner as an actress, movie director, the stage, television specials, the most expensive ticket in Vegas... and now approaching the age of 66 in 2008, she shows no signs of slowing down.

"The Way We Were" won the Academy Award in 1973 for Original Song and the Grammy in 1974 for Song of the Year. It was the second time the Bergmans won the Oscar for Original Song having won in 1966 for "Windmills Of Your Mind" from the movie "The Thomas Crowne Affair". They would win again in 1983, this time for the score in another Streisand vehicle, "Yentl". Altogether, they have been nominated for Oscars 16 times over the years as lyricists for various movie projects and like Streisand, seem intent on carrying on indefinitely. Hamlisch is the relative waif in this group. He's been nominated for eight Oscars but this has been his only win so far.

Answer: Bennie And The Jets

Early in 1973, Elton John hunkered down somewhere in Jamaica with a folder full of Bernie Taupin lyrics and commenced to compose the music that would ultimately yield the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" album. In an odd twist, three songs were released from that album as singles in North America and they did progressively better on the charts. "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" was released first and peaked at Number 12. The title song came next and stalled at Number Two for three weeks. "Bennie And The Jets" made it third time lucky topping the charts for a week in April 1974. In the U.K., the song was the B side to "Candle In The Wind" in 1974 and was finally released as a single in 1976, peaking at Number 37.

Taupin's lyric was part homage, part parody of "glam rock", particularly David Bowie's successful concept LP "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust" released in 1972. Who better than Elton to do it with his outlandish costumes and electric stage presence! As noted in the lyric, Bennie was a woman of myth, the star of a "glam" band and referred to by Elton as his "Sci-Fi rock Goddess". The song was presented as though it was recorded live with clapping and cheering in the background. These were special effects dubbed in by producer Gus Dudgeon drawn from actual live performances elsewhere and largely served as the song's percussive element. The three single releases from the LP maintained the momentum of hits that Elton John would have through to the conclusion of the decade.

Answer: Show And Tell

Al Wilson recorded this gem. He had only one other charting hit on his résumé to this point, "The Snake", a funky 1968 number produced by Johnny Rivers that peaked at Number 27. Actually, Johnny Mathis originally recorded "Show And Tell" earlier in 1973 but his version of the Jerry Fuller composition flopped miserably. Wilson gave it a huskier, more soulful treatment and that proved to be the ticket to success.

Unfortunately, despite recording steadily for the remainder of the decade, he would only have two more middling hits - "La La Peace Song", a Number 30 later in the year and the Number 29 "I've Got A Feeling" in 1976.

By the 1980s, he was resigned to working as a lounge act. As this quiz was being written, it was reported that Wilson died of renal failure on April 21, 2008 at the age of 68.

Answer: Rock On

Like "American Pie" and "Crocodile Rock" before it, this was yet another song that fondly recalled the earliest years of rock 'n' roll music. The artist and song's composer was David Essex and although technically not a one hit wonder - his follow-up release "Lamplight" wallowed in the nether regions of the Hot 100 peaking at Number 74 - for all intents and purposes he was. Such was not the case in his native land, however. Although "Rock On" stalled at Number three on the U.K. charts, two of his other songs achieved Number One status there and altogether, he would have a total of 19 songs make Top 40 chart appearances. Perhaps it was a distribution or licensing issue but it is curious that his output was so under-represented in America.

Essex was a well-rounded performer and in the early 1970s was an up-and-coming actor in British film. By the mid-1980s, he had all but curtailed his recording career choosing to focus on acting, especially in live theatre, often composing the musical scores for the productions he starred in. With the new millennium, Essex continues to work in these areas while devoting more and more time to various charitable causes. In 1999, he received the OBE for his contributions to British music, film, stage and charitable work.

One last item... "Rock On" was covered by a young actor, Michael Damian, and it hit Number One on June 3, 1989. Like Essex, his recording career has taken a back seat to his acting endeavors. He's most famous for his work in the soap opera "The Young And The Restless" but he also took on the lead role in the Broadway production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". It's dubious that he'll ever receive the OBE, however!

Answer: Carl Douglas

Douglas was born in Jamaica, growing up there and in California before moving to England in the early 1960s to study sound engineering. Following his studies, he did production work for Pye Records but moonlighted with some bands in his spare time. A record producer with Pye was aware of Douglas' vocal talent and when he needed someone quickly to record a couple of tracks, called on Douglas. Requiring a "B" side for one of them, they decided to go with this Douglas composition and recorded it in ten minutes.

When the suits at Pye heard the demo, they insisted it was to be the "A" side and sure enough, it reached Number One in the U.K. It also shot to the top when it was released in the U.S., Canada, Australia, South Africa and The Netherlands and who knows where else! Altogether, it sold over 6,000,000 copies world-wide. Like many other artists who record "accidental" hits, Douglas was unable to sustain his success.

His follow-up only charted at Number 48 in the U.S. and although he scored with two more Top 40 hits in the U.K., effectively the magic was over by 1977. Eventually, Douglas moved to Germany where he owns and operates a successful music production company.

Answer: Time In A Bottle

This posthumous hit for Jim Croce was the last Number One hit of 1973 and the first of 1974, overlapping the calendar years. Originally, it was a track on Croce's debut album released in 1972 but following his death in September 1973, his record company was anxious to release anything that might have commercial appeal to his grieving fans. Two more single releases would follow in 1974 before the limited vault of Croce material would be exhausted; "I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song" that charted at Number Nine but lacked sufficient points to rank in the top 100 for the year and the Number 32 "Workin' At The Carwash Blues". It was the third song to top the charts posthumously following "Dock Of The Bay" by Otis Redding in 1966 and "Me And Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin in 1971.

Since there will be no more Croce anecdotes in this series of quizzes, I think this one amply measures the man we lost in that plane crash in Louisiana but it pertains to "I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song". It is paraphrased from Croce's widow's autobiography. She relates that after a particularly arduous road trip, Croce was finally at home for some family time but had one little promotion film to do. He told her that a couple of people would be over the next day but it turned out to be a full film crew of 15 people and they were there the entire day. She prepared breakfast, lunch and dinner for the lot of them and afterward admonished him for not telling her the extent of the "little meeting". Furthermore, times were tight at the time and the expense of feeding everyone was not exactly within their budget. Apparently, Croce did not handle confrontations of this type very well and stormed out of the bedroom to mope. The next morning when she awoke, Jim serenaded her with this song. If you have a chance, listen to the song or at least look up the lyrics. In this context, it'll be sure to leave you misty eyed.

Answer: (You're) Having My Baby

Paul Anka surely wasn't idle those eleven years. He was a fixture performing in Las Vegas during that period, was composing songs for other recording artists and actually released seven albums that were either moderate successes on the album charts or totally overlooked altogether. What stimulated this remarkable rebound isn't exactly clear. Perhaps it was promotion and marketing... maybe the stars were perfectly aligned. It wasn't, sorry to say, his most memorable composition.

Of the four three week Number One hits that year, this one fared the poorest in the year-end rankings largely due to its brief placement in the Hot 100, just 15 weeks. Anka's resurgence as a charting performer was relatively short-lived. Follow-up releases with protégé Odia Coates, "One Man Woman/One Woman Man" and "There's Nothing Stronger Than Our Love", charted at Number Seven and Number 15 respectively and "I Don't Want To Sleep Alone" peaked at Number 8, all in 1975. "Times Of Your Life" reached Number Seven and topped the Adult Contemporary Chart in 1976 but he would only have three more so-so chart entries, the last in 1983.

Regarding Odia Coates, she sings several significant lines in this hit clearly meant for a female voice but did not receive acknowledgement on the label. This was amended in the follow-up releases as noted. Once a member of The Edwin Hawkins Singers of "Oh Happy Day" fame in the late 1960s, she pursued a solo career with Anka's support but nothing much came of it. She passed away in 1991 of breast cancer at the young age of 49.

Answer: You're Sixteen

Ringo Starr's Number One version out-charted Johnny Burnette's 1960 original by seven spots. It was Starr's second chart topper, his song "Photograph" reaching that exalted position a few months earlier in 1973. Now when the Beatles broke up in 1970, what were the odds that Ringo would have more Number One hits than John Lennon by the middle of 1974? And that Lennon would have exactly zero? Baffling! Lennon finally cracked the goose-egg in November 1974 with "Whatever Gets You Through The Night" and drew even with Starr in 1980 with his posthumous chart topper "(Just Like) Starting Over". Harrison would have three Number Ones during his solo career while McCartney has had nine to this point including his efforts with Wings, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.

Compared to the other Beatles, Ringo wasn't much of a song writer although he was given credit on the odd occasion for his contributions. As a singer, he was handed the task of performing lead vocals on amiable but lightweight stuff such as "With A Little Help From My Friends" and "Octopus's Garden", the latter being one of his compositions. This form held true as a soloist. Certainly, his two Number Ones were not earth shaking material nor were many of his other hits like "Back Off Boogaloo", "Oh My My" and "No No Song". But he had charisma as a performer, loved to entertain and relished the role of "star", too much so perhaps as his excessive lifestyle ultimately led to his decline in the 1980s. By 1989, he had cleaned up his act and started touring with his "All-Starr Band" and every few years, he recruits a new crew of accomplished sidemen and does it again, releasing live albums in their aftermath. He's also released a few studio albums in recent years to modest critical acclaim and chart action. His CD "Liverpool 8", was released in early 2008.

Answer: Cat's In The Cradle

Harry Chapin's song dealt with a father who was so wrapped up in work and other temporal matters that he neglected his loving son who expresses that he wants to grow up just like him. When the father is much older and his son has a family, the tables are turned. When he wants to share time with his son, his son is too busy for him and has indeed become just like him.

The lyrics were derived from a poem that his wife had written during her previous marriage about her husband who exhibited the traits of the father in the song. There was a period when Chapin was doing the same early in his career and she showed him the poem to warn him of the dangers of immersing himself in work at the expense of his family. Lesson immediately learned, Chapin went about the business of composing and recording the song for everyone to heed. It was his second big hit following "Taxi" in 1972. He would only have one more entitled "Sequel", a narrative similar to "Taxi" recounting the events after the encounter described in the earlier song. Regrettably, Chapin was another artist who departed this mortal coil far too soon. While driving to New York City from his Long Island home, a semi smashed into the back of his car, the gas tank exploded and he perished in the ensuing blaze. He was only 38.

Answer: Sweet Home Alabama

Neil Young released an album in 1970 entitled "After The Gold Rush" and on it he included a track called "Southern Man", a scathing indictment of the American South's treatment of black people. This song was a response by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Much was made of it in the press with an implication that the band and Young were feuding. Nothing could have been further from the truth! Actually, the group's leader, Ronnie Van Zant, and Young were reasonably close friends and Van Zant often wore a Young tee shirt during concert performances. The song was merely a good natured jab at Young not to throw out the baby with the bathwater... there were plenty of good things about the South too. When Van Zant was killed in a plane crash in 1977 (another premature death of a rising young musical talent), a memorial service was held for the three band members who perished. Young appeared at the service and sang this very song in tribute.

Lynyrd Skynyrd were classic exemplars of good, old Southern rock with a smattering of blues and country tossed into the mix. They were primarily an album oriented band and only had two significant hits as singles - this one and the classic "Freebird", a tribute song to Duane Allman following his death in 1971. However, they released six albums from 1973 to 1977 and every one of them went gold or platinum. The group disbanded with Van Zant's demise, reformed briefly in 1987 for a reunion tour including the surviving group members with Johnny Van Zant, Ronnie's younger brother, at the helm. They reformed permanently in 1991 and remain popular to this day touring and cutting hit albums.