Official Issue 967: (The Last CHUM Chart)

Half dreck, half good-to-great (some of which I wore out long ago). No idea what will finish first...Obligatory Cancon that wouldn't chart elsewhere: Ken Tobias, Murray McLauchlan, Suzanne Stevens, Sweet Blindness (BTO would, although I don't think I remember that song).

Suzanne Stevens was the only one I didn't realize I knew, very Canadian-sounding disco. That BTO song was a stand-alone single that Bachman unconsciously borrowed from an Alice Cooper demo he had heard, leading to a post-hoc co-writing credit with Alice.
I was three at the time, overhearing the mellower songs on this list on CFRB (Tobias, Campbell, Stevens, Manilow, Ross, Captain and Tennille). Infant me would vote for "Theme From Mahogany" for the melody, grown-up me will probably be the only vote for "Island Girl".

As bad as all that CFRB stuff was, I (symbolically, at least) like seeing it alongside the good-to-great half. That's what Top 40 was, even as late as Dec. 27, 1975. Gave the BTO song a listen, and no, I don't remember it.

i might vote for Jigsaw because somebody should

Puzzling song.

I should probably re-listen to some of these, and listen to a few of them for the first time, but my instant response is "Over My Head."

In the running for me...First North American single from Fleetwood Mac--who would've guessed all that followed?

(I was just on the controversial-music-opinion thread, where KC means something entirely different.)

Love looking at these old charts where rock, R&B, MOR, and country all congregate. Think I'd vote "Let's Do It Again." I've pretty much worn out The Staples' bigger hits, but that one still raises goosebumps.

Oh wow, I assumed "Respect Yourself" charted higher than "Let's Do It Again." It did not. I've certainly heard it more, especially recently.

Weren't you a Top 40 DJ yourself?

The R&B on here seems split between the disco that's about to take over (O'Jays, Silver Convention, white folks K.C. and the Bee Gees), funk (War, Ohio Players, Hot Chocolate), and pop (Diana Ross, Natalie Cole). I'm blanking out on "Let's Do It Again," and I can't play it this second--closer to funk?

Singer-songwriters (in the Rolling Stone, Neil Young/Joni Mitchell sense), who were all over Top 40 in the early '70s, are virtually gone. Murray McLauchlan might be the only guy who qualifies.

Big-money stadium rock--Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Wings, ELO--very much in evidence.

K-Tel novelties--C.W. McCall--at a minimum.

Yes I was! Well, a year and half at a Lite MOR, and then a year at more of a Hot AC.

"Let's Do It Again" is a slow jam.

Just discovered that the entire premise of this poll is bogus. The last pocket-sized chart was April 26, 1975; I got fooled by the Dec. 27 chart because the list still looked exactly like the lists in the pocket-sized charts. But this one in fact appeared in the newspaper.

Proceed apace, world.

http://chumtribute.com/75-04-26-cover.jpg

Singer-songwriters are virtually gone.

Paul Simon and probably Ken Tobias too, unless they are "soft rock".

I always think of singer-songwriters in the strictest sense as being solo, otherwise Simon would count (on his own, for sure). Tobias, I guess you could count him--didn't realize till reading up that he wrote the Bells' "Stay Awhile."

Here's the actual last Top 30 from a pocket chart: http://chumtribute.com/75-04-26-chart.jpg. Also pinpointed the first chart with a Top 10 albums list as mid-'71: http://chumtribute.com/71-05-08-chart.jpg (first #1 album: Pearl). Before that, the bottom of the page was reserved for "Chum Chargers," bubbling-under singles.

I'm naming my new band Chum Chargers

I find the debut of the album chart in '71 interesting. The general view is that albums became important in '65 or '66, or at the very latest in '67 with Sgt. Pepper. Things take time to reach the general public, though; my sense from that is that it took another few years before the average Top 40 listener cared about LPs.

I am embarrassed to admit that I didn't know they used to print a physical chart. I used to clip them from the newspapers (and save them) for years in the 80's, I think until the very last one in '86.

This won't come as a surprise: they can be expensive on eBay. (As low as $4, up into the hundreds for some.)

Notwithstanding that I botched this:

1. "Fox on the Run," Sweet
2. "I Love Music," O'Jays (preferably the long version on Philadelphia Classics)
3. "Over My Head," Fleetwood Mac
4. "Saturday Night," Bay City Rollers
5. "This Will Be," Natalie Cole (I think--should re-listen and can't right now)

Good songs I'm tired of: "Love Rollercoaster," "Low Rider"

"Fox on the Run" is basically the greatest song ever so that.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.