Feb. 5, 1972

A Toronto station, I meant to say. The Toronto station.

"Stay With Me"

One of those stupid things you remember: a clear memory of "American Pie" dropping to #3 that week, after holding down #1 for a couple of weeks - ha i have crystal clear memories (and some residual outrage) of the day britny fox (BRITNY FOX!) knocked 'pour some sugar on me' out of #1 on dial-mtv. there are some obv huge classics here that i'm nowhere near tired of but i'm voting apollo 100, it just feels right. also, blame it on proximity to thanksgiving or just 'canadian radio' + 'early 70s' but i scanned that list several times looking for this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfJZrUTEcJM

blown away there's a bandstand style clip of it

Gordon Sinclair had something similar a year later:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn2A6nfSXM4

No recollection of it at the time. Loved "Joy" in Boogie Nights--weird choice!

American Pie over Heart of Gold

"Black Dog" for me, though it was nearly a coin flip with Faces "Stay With Me".

Unrelated to anything, this chart is from the day my wife was born.

birthday twins! I was born precisely 14 years after this date.

voting black dog.

tonight don cherry informed me that gordon lightfoot is from orillia

this may or may not have had anything to do with my vote

Perhaps weirdly, I'm more familiar with Badfinger's version of "Without You". I much prefer that one, now that I'm listening to Nilsson's. This is most likely "Black Dog".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfTfMoR8sg

Ha, I didn't know a rock version of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" became a Top 40 radio hit. lol 70s.

Well, "Everything I Own" is a perfect AM Top 40 single.

The CRTC was only 4 years old, Cancon only 2 years old. So little Canadian music here.

I think I'm a little angry that this version of "Without You" is more popular than Badfinger's.

"Bang A Gong" over "Black Dog."

Some nice AM fodder here
Gotta go Nilsson

Stylistics.

Also like T. Rex, Betty Wright, Paul Simon Apollo 100

It's an embarrassment of riches, really.

I'm considering whether Led Zeppelin fans or Bread fans would have been more likely to win in a fight. Jocks can be really pussy about music so I'm not sure which side they would have taken. You don't necessarily want stoners on your side.

Also, I should probably stop posting before I get this tired.

If it was the Ken Boothe version of "Everything I Own" I probably would have gone with it, but Bread never did it for me as performers.

got to be al green

Huh, three of those singles (Don McLean, Osmonds, Apollo 100) are among the first 45s I owned, possibly given as birthday gifts. (I was five.)

Voting for Zep - the very notion of Led Zeppelin on AM radio, especially something as eccentric as "Black Dog", is just bizarro to me.

T.Rex, although UKers know the song as 'Get It On' (it was changed for the US release).

wanna vote stylistics but

got to be al green

what a selection !?!

i'm dropping my vote for t-rex.

Faces

what a great poll. I've always been year-centric about the Top 40, and have long held 1972 as the top Top with 1966 and 1984 not far behind. in 1972 I was 14 in 8th grade really getting into competitive swimming so most of these are recalled from car radio going to/from practice. Indelible memories of hearing "american pie" over and over on a frozen sub-zero journey from Ohio to Chicago for a big meet, probably around Feb 5.

“Love Me Love Me Love,” Frank Mills
“I Am a Preacher,” Tony Kingston
“Softly Whispering I Love You,” English Congregation
“Don’t Say You Don’t Remember,” Beverly Bremers

Canadian content?

gonna be predictable and vote Al Green but "Rock and Roll Lullaby" is a real sleeper (no pun intended)

That's a pretty impressive lineup. "Stay With Me" vs. "Let's Stay Together" for me - weird that their lyrics are basically diametrically opposed approaches to the same subject. Going with Al because there are Faces songs I like more than "Stay with Me" but "Let's Stay Together" is one of my favourite songs ever.

Great poll! Voting "Let's Stay Together," although it's weird that I don't remember it being played much, or at all, on Minneapolis Top 40 radio at the time. (Not as much as "Lazy River" anyway!) Maybe radio programmed to our mostly white population? I owned and loved "Joy" at the time, almost voted for it.

“Softly Whispering I Love You” wasn't Canadian content, but "Cotton Jenny" surely was. Very minor hit here, huge up there.

That's a pretty impressive lineup. "Stay With Me" vs. "Let's Stay Together" for me - weird that their lyrics are basically diametrically opposed approaches to the same subject. Going with Al because there are Faces songs I like more than "Stay with Me" but "Let's Stay Together" is one of my favourite songs ever.

― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, November 21, 2012 6:34 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ditto

No way I could vote against "Let's Stay Together"

Was surprised Badfinger wasn't on there, because I associate that year with "Day After Day" and "Baby Blue" as much as anything. (Didn't know they did "Without You"; it was always a Nilsson song for me.) I think this chart may have been between singles. All of the following I'd classify as varying degrees of brilliant: "Without You," "Hurting Each Other" (loving, rather than hating, the early Carpenters singles is very much a generational thing, I think), "Let's Stay Together," "Black Dog," "Stay with Me," "You Are Everything," "Bang a Gong," "Mother and Child Reunion," "Rock and Roll Lullaby," "Everything I Own." I could vote for any one of them, although Al Green, Zeppelin, and the Faces loom largest for me. I also have a lot of nostalgia for something like "Sweet Seasons." M. Coleman's first Cancon guess is definitely right, but I don't know about the other three.

Add "American Pie" to the brilliant list. "Heart of Gold"'s fine, but having gone on to a lifetime of Neil-listening, it has receded.

For sentimental reasons, I'm going to vote "Heart of Gold." I was 3 years old in 1972, and my dad was away from home stationed without us in Okinawa for a long time, and my mom used to listen to Harvest a LOT.

Sund4r totally OTM. It's a genuine crime that Pete Ham and Tom Evans don't get recognized more for writing "Without You." And their version >>> Nillson's.

So they actually wrote it? I must have been aware of that, but I guess I forgot.

Yep.

I really like "Hurting Each Other" too btw, so it might not be a generational thing.

badfinger on roughly concurrent wabc playlist - http://www.musicradio77.com/Surveys/1972/surveyfeb872.html

Ditto the 2/7/72 WLS-AM Chicago list: http://www.users.qwest.net/~oldiesloon/wls020772.htm

(also: "Scorpio"!)

I guess the presence of "Black Dog" is striking since no other harder rock made this chart (and they've lingered on FM classic rock stations but not on the sorts of stations that still play Bread or the Carpenters). Did Led Zeppelin just have that much more crossover appeal than other heavy bands?

Like, in any time period of which I have first-hand memory, hard rock bands have only crossed over to pop or AC charts with ballads.

I remember "Immigrant Song" more than "Black Dog" on the AM radio, but yeah Zep seems to be kind of an outlier.

Roughly concurrent playlist from KDWB Twin Cities: http://www.oldiesloon.com/mn/kd013172.htm

Al Green WAS on there, albeit misspelled, along with these not on CHUM: "Levon," "Iron Man" and "Daisy Mae" by Hamilton, Joe Frank and reynolds.

I first (and frequently) heard Zeppelin on WLS-AM in the late 70s/early 80s. Heard a lot of Styx too, but they were local, and supplied the station with a dumptruck full of cocaine (also their status as "heavy" is debatable).

Yeah, that's interesting that commercial AM stations were playing Black Sabbath, Al Green, AND the Carpenters at the time. I knew FM stations were wildy eclectic in this time.

xpost Styx ballads like "Lady", right? Or the heavier/proggier stuff too?

Definitely "Lady" and "Babe," but the proggy/heavy stuff was in just as heavy rotation (particularly "Renegade"). But again, this may have been because they were local. And tbf, the Zep song I heard most on WLS was "All My Love."

"Levon," "Iron Man" and "Daisy Mae" by Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds.

Don't remember "Daisy Mae"--"Don't Pull Your Love" was a huge hit. "Iron Man" never would have been played on CHUM. "Levon," yes.

Thought I didn't remember "Daisy Mae" either, but I just gave a listen and I sure do!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTmffag_7NI

In '73 "Smoke on the Water" was a top 5 hit and Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" was a number 1.

ahhhh motherfucker I missed that "Let's Stay Together" was on this list. I probably would have voted for that.

Just listened to "Don't Say You Don't Remember" and, uh, I don't.

Don't know it, Dan...Always wondered whether the double entendre of "Don't Pull Your Love" (out of me, baby) was intentional or not.

Hard to imagine it wasn't. Interesting to me that "Daisy Mae" was at #4 on my local chart - which would mean it got played in heavy rotation - when it only hit #41 Billboard.

Didn't seem to be bothering the charts in LA either. I smell some payola in Minneapolis.

UK comparator, "early February" Top 30 per everyhit.com:

1 Chicory Tip - Son Of My Father
2 T Rex - Telegram Sam
3 Neil Reid - Mother Of Mine
4 Chi-Lites - Have You Seen Her
5 New Seekers - I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing
6 Slade - Look Wot You Dun
7 America - Horse With No Name
8 Al Green - Let's Stay Together
9 Don McLean - American Pie
10 Sonny & Cher - All I Ever Need Is You
11 Melanie - Brand New Key
12 The Fortunes - Storm In A Teacup
13 Greyhound - Moon River
14 Badfinger - Day After Day
15 Donnie Elbert - Where Did Our Love Go
16 Faces - Stay With Me
17 Bread - Baby I'm A Want You
18 Elvis Presley - I Just Can't Help Believing
19 Bee Gees - My World
20 Sly & The Family Stone - Family Affair
21 Nilsson - Without You
22 Stevie Wonder - If You Really Love Me
23 John Barry Orchestra - The Persuaders
24 Cat Stevens - Morning Has Broken
25 Johnny Pearson Orchestra - Sleepy Shores
26 Michael Jackson - Got To Be There
27 Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra - Theme From 'The Onedin Line'
28 The Sweet - Poppa Joe
29 Middle Of The Road - Soley Soley
30 Holly Sherwood - Day By Day

Nilsson was new, just beginning his chart climb in the UK - he would eventually hit no.1 here as well.

Note all the TV themes in the lower reaches. Must remember to vote for The Onedin Line in the TV themes poll! :)

Neat having both "Day By Day" and "Day After Day" up there. Especially since a different version of the former charted in North America later that year.

I remember noticing the "Day After/By Day" thing at the time--"Day by Day" was from Godspell, though I had to check. I would get it confused with Dr. Music's "Sun Goes By," then and now. CHUM would sometimes take its cue from the British charts; the Sweet, for instance, were a little bigger here than in the States.

I had to pick "American Pie" because at one point (i.e. when I was about fifteen) it was one of my all-time favourite songs.

I had no idea that Anne Murray covered "Cotton Jenny", I've got to track that down!

Voted "Bang a Gong" to be righteous. But "Don't Say You Don't Remember" is really good....and I can't find it anywhere!!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

So close, but: 1) "Let's Stay Together," 2) "Stay with Me," 3) "Black Dog," 4) "Superstar."

("Hurting Each Other," I mean...which I don't like quite as much, so make #4 "Mother and Child Reunion.")

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

Thought there wad more time to vote! Not that it would have made a difference - I was deciding between the top 3