The Top Hits of 1975 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rhinestone Cowboy

Born in Arkansas in 1936, Glen Campbell has had a long and varied career in show business. He first started playing the guitar at the age of four and after honing his skills as a member of a few C&W bands in his teens, he moved to L.A. in 1958 and became a highly regarded session man. Among the artists he backed up in those earliest years were Bobby Darin and Ricky Nelson.

He joined The Champs briefly and was part of the studio group The Hondells who had a Top Ten hit with "Little Honda" in 1964.

When Brian Wilson had his meltdown in 1965, Campbell was recruited to tour with the Beach Boys and was actually invited to join the group permanently when it was evident that Wilson was not returning. Campbell rejected the offer due to contractual differences with the group and Bruce Johnston got the job. Meanwhile, Campbell continued to do session work for the likes of Frank Sinatra, The Monkees, The Association and The Mamas & The Papas.

In 1967, Campbell finally was signed to a solo recording contract by Columbia and scored a big country and moderate pop hit with "Gentle On My Mind". That was followed by a number of hits on both charts with Jimmy Webb compositions such as "By The Time I Get To Phoenix", "Galveston" and "Wichita Lineman". Chart successes in the early 1970s were few but by then he had his own TV show and was appearing in the movies quite regularly. Following this hit, he had a few more pop hits including the Number One "Southern Nights" in 1977 but by the end of the decade and throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, he was almost exclusively a C&W artist.

He now spends most of his time on the golf course in semi-retirement but performs fairly regularly at his own theatre in Branson, Missouri.

Answer: Love Will Keep Us Together

The long, lost composer of this piece was Neil Sedaka and toward the end of the song during the instrumental fadeout, Toni Tennille slips in the words "Sedaka is back". And he was, at least for a couple of years. He scored seven Top 40 hits during 1975-6 with two Number Ones, "Laughter In The Rain" and "Bad Blood" both in 1975, the former the 10th ranked song for the year. He followed those up with the Number Eight hit "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" in 1976, a slow remake of his up-tempo Number One hit from 1962. His last charting effort in 1980 was the Number 19 "Should've Never Let You Go" which he recorded with his daughter Dara. Since then, he has continued to perform in casinos and small theatres right into the 21st century.

At the other end of the spectrum, Captain and Tennille were just starting their journey. As noted, this was their debut entry on the Top 40 charts and their run culminated with another Number One in early 1980 with "Do That To Me One More Time". In the interim, they had seven more charting hits most of which were solid Top 10 entries.

Neither the Captain nor Tennille were neophytes to the music industry at this point of their lives. In fact, he was 33 years of age and she 32 when this song topped the charts. His father, Carmen, was a noted orchestra conductor during the big band era. Her father was a big band singer before pursuing a career in the family furniture business. After performing with a number of groups in a variety of genres, "the Captain", Daryl Dragon, had settled in as the regular touring pianist with the Beach Boys starting in 1967. He got the "Captain" moniker from the rest of the band because he always wore his trademark yachting cap on stage. Meanwhile, Toni Tennille was performing in a touring stage production in San Francisco. When the show briefly moved to L.A., Dragon was recruited to play the keyboards when his Beach Boys' obligations permitted. Romance blossomed between the two and she became part of the Beach Boys entourage herself as a back-up singer in 1973. In 1974, they decided to go it alone, got married in 1975 and scored this hit as a wedding present to each other!

Answer: Philadelphia Freedom

Elton John kept rumbling along. This particular number was dedicated to Billie Jean King, famous tennis player and, at that time, coach of the Philadelphia Freedoms of the World Team Tennis league. Elton was a devoted tennis player himself (I'm unsure of his abilities) and he and Billie Jean had become fast friends after she had presented him with a customized team warm-up suit at a charity function. Obliquely, the song also paid homage to the "Sound of Philadelphia" which at the time was the hottest trend on the musical scene. Because of the specific nature of the song, John has admitted that this was probably the only time he ever purposely tried to write a hit.

The song was featured on the Number One album "Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy" which was received with such anticipation that it was the first album ever to debut at Number One on the album charts primarily due to its advance sales.

Answer: Calypso

These two hits were the last releases by John Denver to achieve Top 10 status and this song in particular was a portent as to the direction his life would take. He was slowly disengaging from the music world and spending more and more of his time and energy on ecological issues. The "Calypso" was a boat purchased by Jacques Cousteau that he used for his exploration and study of the world's oceans. Denver was fascinated by Cousteau's work and wrote this song in homage to him. As he stated later in the lyric, "To live on the land we must learn from the sea."

Answer: Before The Next Teardrop Falls

Of the choices provided, "Wooly Bully" peaked at Number Two in 1965 for Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs and "La Bamba" was a Number 22 hit for Richie Valens in 1959 but a Number One for Los Lobos in 1987. Freddy Fender sang the other two but only "Before The Next Teardrop Falls" hit Number One. "Wasted Days And Wasted Nights" was his follow-up hit and it peaked at Number Eight in 1975, garnering sufficient points to rank 44th for the year.

Fender was born Baldemar Huerta in Texas in 1937, the son of Mexican itinerant farm laborers. He first dabbled in music in the late 1950s but his career was curtailed when he was imprisoned for three years for possession of marijuana. When paroled, one of his conditions was to stay clear of the music industry and he did so working as a mechanic. In 1974, a chance meeting with the owner of a record label induced him to try his hand at recording again and this was his debut release. He continued to record throughout the rest of the decade but his appeal was largely confined to the country market. He passed away in 2006 of cancer.

Answer: One Of These Nights

Again, you were faced with four plausible choices here if you didn't know the answer right off. "Devil Woman" was a Number Six hit for Sir Cliff Richard in 1976. "Wildfire" was a pretty big hit in 1975 for Michael Murphey. It peaked at Number Three and finished the year ranked 42nd. "Lyin' Eyes" was one of three big hits The Eagles would have in 1975. It peaked at Number Two and ranked 61st for the year. Their other biggie was "Best Of My Love", another Number One and the 20th ranked song of 1975.

The Eagles were in peak form in 1975 with those three hits and they would have three more Number One hits before the decade was through. They disbanded in 1982 when their individual aspirations superseded group loyalties. Their brand of soft Country-Rock paved the way for many other similarly oriented groups to do very well on the charts during the late 1970s. Among them were Poco, The Marshall Tucker Band, The Bellamy Brothers and Pure Prairie League. They mounted a comeback in 1994 with an album and tour and again in 1998 following their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. With the new millennium, they seem to have forged another loose alliance for recording and touring purposes.

Answer: My Eyes Adored you

Frankie Valli had his personal renaissance with this hit. Ironically, his group, The Four Seasons, also returned to the charts with the Number Three "Who Loves You" and the Number One "December 1963 (Oh What A Night)" in early 1976. So what went wrong in those intervening seven years? A couple of factors, actually. First, change in the musical climate. The psychedelic era was in full swing and neither the group nor Valli embraced it. It is probably not just a coincidence that the group's friendly rivals from California, The Beach Boys, suffered a similar slump in popularity over the same time frame for precisely the same reasons. Second, Bob Crewe, the producer of all their big hits and co-writer of many of them with Bob Gaudio, severed his association with the band to do other projects. The Four Seasons "sound" essentially went with him.

Alas, the recovery was short lived. The group would have one more chart entry later that year and Valli had one last major success with the Number One "Grease" in 1978. Since then, Valli has essentially abandoned his solo career but continues to lead the group mainly as a touring "show" band, the only original member still active with the group.

Answer: Ballroom Blitz

Sweet, a British band, performed this song and indeed they were a difficult band to label. If you've never seen them in action, this song is available on YouTube - take a look and draw your own conclusions as to the genre. Whatever it was, clearly the boys were having fun! During their tenure, four of their five charting successes were Top 10 hits - "Little Willy", a Number Three hit in 1973, an undeniable throwback to the bubblegum era; "Ballroom Blitz" in 1975; "Fox On The Run", a Number Five in 1976, and the Number Eight "Love Is Like Oxygen" in 1978.

Their music was getting a little "heavier" as the 1980s approached and they started releasing "concept" albums that seemingly didn't register with the buying public. By 1982, they were history.

Answer: Lovin' You

Minnie Riperton, she of the five octave vocal range (Mariah Carey before Mariah Carey), sang this number for her only charting success.

She was born and raised in Chicago and in the early 1960s and barely into her teens, she was lead singer of a group called The Gems. They released a few unsuccessful singles on their own but were used primarily by the Chess label as back-up vocalists for the likes of Etta James, The Dells and Fontella Bass. In the late 1960s, she became lead singer for a group named The Rotary Connection, a psychedelic soul band a la The Fifth Dimension. Their one album was regionally successful but failed to reach a broader market. She also released a solo album at the time that was apparently well-received by critics but not by the buying public. After a break from the industry to re-charge her batteries, she relocated to Los Angeles and recorded an album that featured this song. Both were outstanding successes. Shortly afterward she was diagnosed with breast cancer and although she released several albums most of which did well commercially, she never did achieve another charting single release. Unfortunately for her and unlike her wish in the lyric, she did not grow old, succumbing at the age of 31 in 1979.

Answer: When Will I Be Loved

In 1975, Linda Ronstadt was just beginning phase two of her long, successful career - the cover-of-old-songs-and-make-them-big-hits phase that would last three years. Our title song was originally released by The Everly Brothers. "It Doesn't Matter Anymore", this record's B-side, was a Number 13 hit for Buddy Holly in 1959 and "You're No Good" first charted at Number 51 in 1964 as recorded by Betty Everett. Ronstadt turned this gem into a Number One hit earlier in 1975. Your other choice "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" was a Number One hit for Connie Francis but a red herring for quiz purposes. Ronstadt never covered that one.

Ronstadt first came to the public's attention as lead singer of the folk-rock group The Stone Ponies who stormed the charts with the Number 13 "Different Drum" in early 1968. Later that year, Ronstadt went solo in the folk-country genre and released a couple of albums that were moderately successful on the Pop Album charts, more successful on the Country Album charts. End of phase one. Phase two, as noted, began in late 1974 and featured several covers of older R&R hits re-done in country motif such as the Number Five "Heat Wave" later in 1975 and what may have become her most famous hit "Blue Bayou", a Number Three hit in 1977. The original versions of those songs were both recorded in 1963 by Martha & The Vandellas and Roy Orbison respectively. Phase three began toward the end of the decade and the early 1980s with the release of what could best be described as "new wave" recordings that did reasonably well. The mid 1980s were largely devoted to the release of albums of pop standards lushly orchestrated by Sinatra's old arranger, Nelson Riddle. That was phase four and followed by a return to pop music that lasted through to the end of the 1980s. Phase six was a return to her Mexican-American roots with several album releases featuring Spanish and Mexican standards. By the mid-1990s and into the 21st century, Ronstadt seems to have settled into stage seven, recording an eclectic mix of pop, country, children's and Latino music while delighting her many fans with regular concert dates.

Answer: Black Water

I've remarked on this before and I'll doubtlessly do it again but the hows and whys of the anatomy of a Number One song can be baffling! The Doobie Brothers released an album in early 1974, "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits". The featured song on the album to be released as a single was "Another Park, Another Sunday". It was nothing more than a moderate success peaking at Number 32 in June. The flip side was "Black Water" and eight months later, it tops the charts. Perhaps the Warner label released the song recognizing its hit potential after the fact. Maybe it garnered play on FM "album oriented" stations or perhaps a bored DJ just started playing the flip side of the original record. Whatever, it would ultimately be the group's second biggest hit, only outdone by "What A Fool Believes" in 1979.

The Doobies were formed in Southern California in the early 1970s and developed a fervent local fan base that grew nationally with each album release. Numerous personnel changes over the years was reflected in their product as they went from a rock band, to a country tinged rock band with this release and finally, a pretty much middle-of-the-road pop group by the end of the decade, maintaining their popularity through the morphs. They disbanded in 1983 but re-formed in 1988 and have soldiered on ever since playing revival tours and "oldies" shows.

Answer: At Seventeen

Janis Ian only had two big single hits over her career but both were highly controversial. Her first hit in 1967 was "Society's Child" which dealt with inter-racial dating. Many radio stations refused to include it on their playlists. "At Seventeen" discusses what it must be like for the "ugly duckling" growing up, the girl who was never asked to her senior prom or the klutz who is never chosen when pick-up teams are drafted in sports. It truly was a haunting song that spoke to the pain many people feel when they're outcasts not because of who they are but because of what they look like or because they're poor or... well, you get the picture. No doubt, its popularity was due, in part, because it did resonate with so many people who might have been affected in ways like that. Ian has related that she put everything she had into the production of this song, that it took months for her to compose to get it just right. She realized that just getting the song airplay would be difficult given its length (4:36) and its subject matter. She felt, probably with some justification, that with most station managers being male, this song would not have much appeal to them. What she did was send copies of the song to the spouses of those station managers. Then her management agency booked her on every daytime TV show they could. Essentially, they promoted the song exclusively to the female market. It took six months, but eventually she got a spot on The Johnny Carson Show and it was that exposure that carried the day.

Janis Ian never had another big hit but she's recorded a number of hard hitting albums that have broached controversial topics like homosexuality, prostitution and domestic violence. When not recording, she's a popular draw at folk festivals and conferences where her messages have sympathetic ears.

Answer: Listen To What The Man Said

Paul McCartney and Wings had a tough job in 1975 trying to follow up the massive success of the triple platinum best selling album "Band On The Run". "Venus And Mars" didn't do too badly, reaching platinum status itself and topping the album charts for a week, fending off some tough challengers in the process - The Eagles, Elton John and Starship.

The breezy "Listen To What The Man Said" was the biggest hit from that album and typical for McCartney, it was one of those numbers that would subconsciously stick with you. One that you found yourself humming absentmindedly because of its simplicity.

He would replicate the formula for many years to come!

Answer: Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

Elton John had quite a year in 1975! He started it off right with this Number One hit, followed it up with the previously mentioned "Philadelphia Freedom" and then, the Number Four hit "Someone Saved My Life Tonight". Then, to top it all off, he scored yet another Number One hit with "Island Girl" in November. His year would be an outstanding career for most recording artists.

Since "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" received so much airplay circa 1967, I automatically assumed it was a charting hit for The Beatles. Not so! It was simply another track on the "Sgt. Pepper's" LP, apparently never released as a single in North America or the U.K.; such was the wealth of riches in The Beatles songbook. It was widely believed that because of the ethereal imagery contained in the lyrics and the unusual song title, it was about or at least written under the influence of LSD. Lennon wrote the song and vehemently denied those implications. He claimed never to have used the substance except for one instance when someone spiked his drink with it. He didn't like the experience and vowed never to use the stuff again. Officially, he said he wrote the song after seeing a picture his son Julian drew of a schoolmate named Lucy who was surrounded by stars in the sky, hence the title. The imagery of the song was not induced by an acid trip but from Lennon's reflections on "Through The Looking Glass", a story by Lewis Carroll.

This was the 16th Hot 100 hit for Elton John but the first one not composed by himself or together with Bernie Taupin.

Answer: Mandy

Classically trained at Juilliard, Barry Manilow was writing and performing jingles until he became the pianist and music arranger for Bette Midler in 1971. Her success directly led to him signing a recording contract with Bell Records, later to become Arista. Things were dicey with Arista at the time; many of the artists in the Bell stable did not survive the transfer to Arista and Manilow's first album with Bell proved to be a dud.

He reckons two things saved his bacon with the label; first, he was in the midst of recording a second album and a considerable amount of cash had already been poured into the project and, second, he did have allies but he wasn't sure that the head of the label, Clive Davis, was among them. During a meeting, Davis asked Manilow if he would include a song on the album entitled "Brandy".

It had been a Number 12 hit in the U.K. for Scott English in 1971 and even made a short appearance on the Hot 100 at Number 91. Manilow listened to the song with his producer and they agreed it had promise.

They changed the title to "Mandy" to avoid confusion with the Looking Glass hit "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)", slowed the tempo down from the original and had themselves a hit. Manilow was 28 years of age when this song topped the charts and he would use it as a springboard to chart many more songs of similar ilk - middle of the road ballads. Over the next five years, he would produce 15 charting singles, nine of which would crack the Top 10 with two more Number Ones - "I Write The Songs" in 1976 and "Looks Like We Made It" in 1977. Ultimately, he would become the biggest selling act the label would ever have, a far cry from those tenuous early years.