My Seventies Music

Category: Seventies Pop Music

  • Journey – “Wheel In The Sky”, “Lights”, “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’”, “Any Way You Want It”, “Who’s Crying Now” and “Don’t Stop Believin’”

    Cover of 1978 Journey album "Infinity", featuring "Wheel In The Sky"
    San Fancisco band Journey were very successful from the late Seventies on into the Eighties, with songs like “Wheel in the Sky”, “Lights”, “Lovin,’ Touchin,’ Squeezin’”, “Any Way You Want It”, “Who’s Crying Now” and “Don’t Stop Believin’”.

    I remember that in the part of southern Germany where I lived in the early 1980s (Franconia, North Bavaria) you used to hear a lot of the 1978 release “Wheel In The Sky”, both on American Forces Network AFN (there were a lot of GIs stationed in the area back then) as well as on German stations and just generally at parties, dances and concerts.

    This is what “Wheel in the Sky” sounded like live when it first came out:

    Here’s “Lights”, live in Chicago in 1978:

    And “Lovin,’ Touchin,’ Squeezin’” live on the Midnight Special in 1979 (nice and bluesy!):

    The next few songs are actually from the early years of the following decade, but the sound is still pretty much as it was in the Seventies. As you can see, all of these performances are live.

    “Any Way You Want It”:

    “Who’s Crying Now”:

    “Don’t Stop Believing”:

    Journey continue to tour live and record today.

    The Journey continues, so to speak…

    Paul

  • Chicago – “If You Leave Me Now”, “Hard To Say I’m Sorry/Get Away” and “Beginnings”

    Cover of 1976 Chicago single "If You Leave Me Now"
    There have been over 100 versions of the Chicago song “If You Leave Me Now”, but the classic was and is the original, which went to Number 1 in the USA (both singles and album charts, the album was Chicago X), Australia and in the UK, among others, in 1976.

    Chicago had many hits right through the Seventies and beyond, but “If You Leave Me Now” is the one that stands out for me:

    The next Chicago track to reach No. 1 (and the first since 1978 to reach the Top 50) was “Hard To Say I’m Sorry”, which is actually from 1982. On the album it segued into “Get Away”, as it does in this live version recorded in Dortmund, Germany:

    And this is what Chicago, then still known as The Chicago Transit Authority, sounded like in the early days, still very jazz oriented with lots of brass, “Beginnings”, released in October 1969:

    Not everyone’s cup of tea, and it didn’t chart, but quite pleasant nonetheless.

    Paul

  • Dragon – “April Sun In Cuba”, “Are You Old Enough?” and “Rain”

    New Zealand band Dragon, who relocated to Sydney, Australia in 1975 had a national hit in 1977 with “April Sun In Cuba”, which reached No. 2 in Australia.

    I don’t actually remember any of their other songs, but “Are You Old Enough?” reached No. 1 a year later.

    This is “April Sun In Cuba”:

    And here is “Are You Old Enough?”:

    After splitting and reuniting, with various personnel changes, Dragon reached No. 2 in Australia with “Rain”, played live here in Sydney in 1983:

    Obviously went down well in Australia.

    Paul

  • Three Dog Night – “One”, “Celebrate, “Eli’s Coming”, “Easy To Be Hard”, “Mama Told Me Not To Come”, “Just An Old Fashioned Love Song”, “Black And White” and “Joy To The World” (“Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog”)

    Three Dog Night "Golden Bisquits" album cover
    Three Dog Night hardly wrote a song of their own, but they had numerous hits with the songs they covered, such as “One”, “Celebrate, “Eli’s Coming” and “Easy To Be Hard”, “Mama Told Me Not To Come”, “Just An Old Fashioned Love Song”, “Black And White” or “Joy To The World” (sometimes called “Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog” after the opening line).

    I have a copy of one of their compilation albums, “Golden Bisquits”, from 1971, which includes five of these songs.

    The name apparently refers to an article an associate of the band read about an Australian Aborigine custom of using the body warmth of a native dog (dingo) to keep warm on cold nights. A three dog night was a very cold night…

    Some of the Three Dog Night versions of songs were actually more successful than the originals. Listen to these and you’ll understand why:

    “One”:

    “Celebrate”:

    “Eli’s Coming” in 1970:

    And “Eli’s Coming” in the 21st century:

    “Easy To Be Hard”:

    “Mama Told Me Not To Come”:

    “Just An Old Fashioned Love Song”:

    “Black And White”:

    “Joy To The World” (“Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog”):

    I’ll drink to that!

    Paul

  • The Mike Curb Congregation – “Burning Bridges” (From The Film “Kelly’s Heroes”)

    It may have hit the charts in 1971, but when I heard “Burning Bridges” by The Mike Curb Congregation earlier this evening, I still knew the words…

    My family were watching a video of the Clint Eastwood/Donald Sutherland/Telly Savalas film “Kelly’s Heroes” from 1970 – one of a big box of videos we recently acquired.

    “Burning Bridges” was written by Argentinian Lalo Schifrin, who was also responsible for the themes of the TV series “Mission: Impossible”, “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “Starsky and Hutch” among others, as well as dozens of movies, such as the Clint Eastwood films “Coogan’s Bluff” (1968) and “Dirty Harry” and the Steve McQueen classic “Bullitt”. (You can see all the movie themes by Lalo Schifrin here.)

    Here is a video of “Burning Bridges” with the opening scenes from “Kelly’s Heroes”, plus further shots accompanied by an instrumental version without the singing (uh, how was that for a redundant phrase…):

    Some songs just stay with you for years.

    Paul

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