Even in 1975, there was still room on the charts for some bubblegum pop, especially when it came from the stars of Saturday morning's The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show. "Rendezvous" peaked at #26 in August of 1975, and then plummeted the week CBS cancelled the show. The talented Hudson Brothers could always find a catchy hook, but the band's career hit the rocks around the same time Bill Hudson married Goldie Hawn in 1976. He's Kate and Oliver Hudson's dad. You'd never forget meeting Mark Hudson. He sports a psychedelic beard.
The Isley Brothers get political, and funky, on the opening cut to The Heat Is On, released in June of 1975. Guitarist Ernie Isley's "Fight the Power", with its line about "all this bullshit going down", would top the R and B charts and peak at #4 on the Billboard 100. One of the classic message songs that could fill the dance floor.
In June of 1975, Jefferson Starship released Red Octopus which features Marty Balin's mellow, keyboard laden classic "Miracles". Peaking at #3 it became the biggest hit of the Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship career until "We Built This City". The single would be released in late August, at half the running time of the album cut and minus the line "I had a taste of the real world when I went down on you, girl", which could have been the most outrageous lyric in a Top 10 single since Lou Reed's "But she never lost her head/ Even when she was giving head " in "Walk On The Wild Side". Fun fact: the word "Baby" can be heard 45 times in the album version.
Red Octopus would top the US album charts on four separate weeks between September and December of 1975 and earn a rare 5 star rating in the 1983 edition of the Rolling Stone Record Guide.
Marty Balin: "I wrote 'Miracles" about Barbara (his girlfriend at the time), and also about the miraculous powers of Sai Baba. I went to Puttaparti with Barbara and saw Sai Baba. We journeyed through the South Indian desert to the village; the song emerged from that darshan, that experience."
"When I wrote 'Miracles,' I had my love for Barbara and my love for Sai Baba -- two very different forms of love -- running through me. So the song is about both of them. I picked up my guitar and I started singing: 'If only you believe, if only you believe like I believe, we'll get by' The words flowed one after another, along with the music; I got the song written down in one draft, on a sheet of yellow paper."
"Miracles" is also a bit of a cult favorite because of its use at the end of the 2006 film Crank, in which Jason Statham falls to his apparent death. "Apparent" because there is a Crank 2.
It was a good week for some of the most iconic acts of the 1970's, but a spectacular time for Captain and Tennille. The duo's cover of Neil Sedaka's "Love Will Keep Us Together" was leap-frogging its way up the charts, from #25 to #12 and now #2. It would hit #1 the following week where it would stay for four weeks on its way to becoming the top selling single in 1975.
1 SISTER GOLDEN HAIR –•– America
2 LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER –•– The Captain and Tennille
3 WHEN WILL I BE LOVED / IT DOESN’T MATTER ANYMORE –•– Linda Ronstadt
4 BAD TIME –•– Grand Funk
5 OLD DAYS –•– Chicago
6 I’M NOT LISA –•– Jessi Colter
7 LOVE WON’T LET ME WAIT –•– Major Harris
8 THANK GOD I’M A COUNTRY BOY –•– John Denver
9 PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM –•– The Elton John Band
10 GET DOWN, GET DOWN (Get On the Floor) –•– Joe Simon
Played on the BBC's Radio 1 as a tribute to John Peel on the day of his funeral, this Roy Harper tune from 1975's HQ has layers upon layers of melancholy and meaning.
When an old cricketer leaves the crease, you never know whether he's gone If sometimes you're catching a fleeting glimpse of a twelfth man at silly mid-on And it could be Geoff, and it could be John, with a new ball sting in his tail And it could be me, and it could be thee, and it could be the sting in the ale
Harper would also sing lead vocals on Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar", which was recorded at Abbey Road the same time Harper was making HQ.
In 1975 Larry Jon Wilson was a new recording artist in his 30s, craggy-faced, acne-scarred, with thinning hair and a rumbling, smoky voice. Even in the 'funky' mid '70s this was not the most marketable image. ~ New Beginnings Liner Notes
With a deep voice that earned him a decent living doing television voice over work, Larry Jon Wilson could also spin a tale. And that's what he did on his 1975 album New Beginnings. Wilson was a "singer's singer" and a "guitar picker's guitar picker" and he numbered Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson among his admirers. In that sweet spot where country meets funk, Wilson recorded his best songs including "Ohoopee River Bottomland", a tribute to the Georgia gator hole near which he grew . The clip below is taken from a documentary on the outlaw country movement called Heartworn Highways.
With Agnetha and Anni-Frid wearing their now iconic Alley Cat mini dresses, Abba performed seven or eight songs on The Eddy Go Round in Holland on June 11, 1975, including the latest single "S.O.S". Among the other songs are"Waterloo", "Ring Ring", and "I Do I Do I Do" . "S.O.S" would reach the Top 10 in the UK and Top 20 in the US, and is most likely the only Hot 100 single in which both the artist and the hit single are palindromes.
