Summer Breeze-Seals and Crofts-1972-#6
M&L---James Seals and Dash Crofts
Seals and Crofts were Texans who had worked together since 1954 ,most profitably after they joined the Champs,who'd had a No.1 record with Tequila in 1958.When Seals and Crofts left to go with the Dawnbreakers,they converted,like all members of that group,to Baha'i a religion founded by a 19th century Persian prophet.In 1969 they became a duo,and Baha'i figured in the lyrics of most of their songs.
Sounds of The Seventies
In the late 60s the rise of progressive rock led to the rise of FM radio.FM grew out of the Haight-Ashbury scene in San Francisco and gave air play to experimental and political records that would otherwise have gone unheard.Labels quickly learned their acts didn't need a hit single it they could instead get FM air play on album cuts,and soon the album replaced the single as the basic unit of rock. Soon after that,when its profitability became more apparent,FM radio grew nearly as formulaic and tightly controlled as AM,its playlists almost as hard to crack.
Let it Rain-Eric Clapton-1972-#48
M&L--Eric Clapton and Bonnie Bramlett
Clapton was the blues-rock guitarist of the 60s,an artist who considered pop hits antithetical to good music.After a bad experience with the 1969 supergroup Blind Faith,he purposely adopted a less flashy profile working as a sideman for Delaney and Bonnie and Friends,and then cutting a solo album in fluenced by their gospel-rock stylings.
M&L--Eric Clapton and Bonnie Bramlett
Clapton was the blues-rock guitarist of the 60s,an artist who considered pop hits antithetical to good music.After a bad experience with the 1969 supergroup Blind Faith,he purposely adopted a less flashy profile working as a sideman for Delaney and Bonnie and Friends,and then cutting a solo album in fluenced by their gospel-rock stylings.
Hold Your Head Up-Argent-1972-#5
M&L----Rod Argent and Chris White
Ron Argent was a veteran of the British invasion group the Zombies,which broke up in 1968.He formed his own namesake band two years later and wrote Hold Your Head Up with former Zombie Chris White.As a sign of the times,the song was initially released as a single over six minutes long;when it began attracting attension,the single was shortened to a more conventional length to insure its success.
M&L----Rod Argent and Chris White
Ron Argent was a veteran of the British invasion group the Zombies,which broke up in 1968.He formed his own namesake band two years later and wrote Hold Your Head Up with former Zombie Chris White.As a sign of the times,the song was initially released as a single over six minutes long;when it began attracting attension,the single was shortened to a more conventional length to insure its success.
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The Instructor
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Black and White-Three Dog Night-1972-#1
M&L---David Arkin and Earl Robinson
This tune went back to 1955,when Earl Robinson and David Arkin (father of Alan Arkin) wrote it to celebrate the Supremes Court's Brown vs Board of Education ruling banning segregation in public schools.Sammy Davis Jr. cut Black and White shortly after it was written for an EP issued by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.Three Dog Night,however learned the song from a version they heard on the radio by the Jamaican reggae band Greyhound.After their version was released,Earl Robinson,who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy Era,found himself at the top of the rock-n-roll charts--further proof that the 45 single ruled once again.
M&L---David Arkin and Earl Robinson
This tune went back to 1955,when Earl Robinson and David Arkin (father of Alan Arkin) wrote it to celebrate the Supremes Court's Brown vs Board of Education ruling banning segregation in public schools.Sammy Davis Jr. cut Black and White shortly after it was written for an EP issued by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.Three Dog Night,however learned the song from a version they heard on the radio by the Jamaican reggae band Greyhound.After their version was released,Earl Robinson,who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy Era,found himself at the top of the rock-n-roll charts--further proof that the 45 single ruled once again.
A Horse With No Name-America-1972-#1
M&L--Dewey Bunnell
The soft,acoustic band America consisted of three militaty brats living in London.A Horse With No Name,a dead ringer for a Neil Young song,was inspired by member Dewey Bunnell's homesickness for the desert a few hours away from Vandenberg Air Force Base in San Luis Obispo,California,where his father had once been stationed.
M&L--Dewey Bunnell
The soft,acoustic band America consisted of three militaty brats living in London.A Horse With No Name,a dead ringer for a Neil Young song,was inspired by member Dewey Bunnell's homesickness for the desert a few hours away from Vandenberg Air Force Base in San Luis Obispo,California,where his father had once been stationed.
By 1972,the single was becoming acceptable again.Rock had fragmented into numerous factions,most of them in reaction to the extended jams and virtuoso soloing of the 60s bands and yet nearly all of these factions respected the 45 single.So, suddenly,did some of the very 60s acts that had inspired this reaction. Nilsson,Alice Cooper,and Derek and the Dominos perhaps best defined the parameters of that growing trend.
Harry Nilsson was a clever writer,singer and arranger who signed his first record contract in the early 60s.Throughout most of the 60s,his material was recorded by many others while he worked as a computer processor at a bank in the San Fernando Valley.His first hit,"Everybody's Talkin'was written by someone else,Fred Neil,and received major exposure as the theme from the popular film "Midnight Cowboy. Nilsson initially mistook"Without You" which he first heard while drinking at friends house,for a John Lennon song.But it was actually by Badfinger,Beatles soundalikes.
Clapton was the blues-rock guitarist of the 60s,an artist who considered pop hits antithetical to good music.After a bad experience with the 1969 supergroup Blind Faith,he purposely adopted a less flashy profile,working as a sideman for Delaney and Bonnie and Friends,and then cutting a solo album influenced by their gospel-rock stylings.This effort yielded "Let It Rain",which scored modestly as a single some two years after it was first recorded." Let it Rain" set the stage for Derek and the Dominos.That group was intended,in Clapton's words,to recapture "the spirit," if not the sound,of 50s rock and included studio veterans Bobby Whitlock,Jim Gordon and Carl Radle.