Andy Williams: The Early '70s Charting Singles

The 1960s were Andy Williams's big decade, where his reassuring grin charmed TV cameras and his fail-safe croon comforted the generation gap's parental wing. His signature song "Moon River," from the 1961 Breakfast at Tiffany's film, became the theme song for his Andy Williams Show, which ran on NBC from 1962 to 1971 and helped create the template for the variety show format that dominated television throughout the following decade. Among Williams's early seventies highlights as one of easy listening radio's most reliable voices were definitive versions of the Love Story and Godfather movie themes, although his presence on the Billboard charts would fade by 1976 (not counting the now perennial Christmas reissue appearances.)

"Can't Help Falling in Love" (1970) - Andy Williams

Written by George David Weiss, Hugo Peretti, and Luigi Creatore * Produced by Dick Glasser * Arranged by Al Capps * 45: "Can't Help Falling in Love" / "Sweet Memories" * Label: Columbia * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#88); easy listening (#28) * Entered: 1970-02-28 (Hot 100/easy listening)

In the late sixties Columbia record executives determined that the way to keep their classic voices like Andy Williams and Tony Bennett commercially viable was through movie themes and contemporary hit covers. (Clive Davis, in his 1975 autobiography, reports Bennett as being none too happy about the strategy, favoring Great American Songbook standards.) Williams's first chart entry takes Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love" and straps it onto a bolting horse; the heights to which arranger Al Capps pushes Williams's vocal make him sound like a jockey trying not to lose control. This was a single-only release in the US, with a flipside called "Sweet Memories" taken from his 1969 Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head album. Written by Mickey Newbury, that song seemed to have all sorts of natural, unappreciated hit potential. It featured a melodic hook in the verses later used by John Denver in "Sunshine on My Shoulders," while the choruses allowed Williams to sing falsetto and (unlike the A-side) to glide with grace.


Side A: "Can't Help Falling in Love"


Side B: "Sweet Memories"

"One Day of Your Life" (1970) - Andy Williams

Written by Howard Greenfield and Neil Sedaka * Produced by Dick Glasser * Arranged by Al Capps * 45: "One Day of Your Life" / "Long Time Blues" * Label: Columbia * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#77); easy listening (#2) * Entered: 1970-06-06 (easy listening); 1970-06-27 (Hot 100)

The Andy Williams Show ran on NBC from 1962-1971 and had served as a convenient springboard for the popular easy listening crooner's record releases. For eight episodes during the summer of 1970, the program morphed into Andy Williams Presents Ray Stevens. This was an apparent trial run for the comedy country singer who had scored a surprise #1 earlier in the year with the earnest "Everything Is Beautiful." A June episode of the show featured a Williams guest turn where (in addition to wrangling with the show's ever-present "Cookie Bear") he performed this hyper-arranged Neil Sedaka-Howard Greenfield number, which sounded made to order for a Kodak commercial. (It also seemed poised to merge into a medley, at any moment, with Gary Puckett's "Young Girl.") Although the A-side was a single-only release, the rural B-side "Long Time Blues," written by "Classical Gas" guitarist/comedy writer Mason Williams (no relation), had shown up previously on the 1969 Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head album.

Side A: "One Day of Your Life"


Side B: "Long Time Blues"

*Non-charting bonus*

"Joanne" (1970) - Andy Williams

Written by Michael Nesmith * Produced by Mike Post * LP: The Andy Williams Show * Label: Columbia * Billboard charts: —

The Andy Williams Show LP, released in the fall of 1970, gathered up a handful of his previously recorded covers from the late sixties and added six freshly recorded ones ("Joanne," "Make It With You," "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life," "Close to You," "El Condor Pasa," and "Snowbird"), then added applause tracks and segue music. Produced by Mike Post, the album presented a more scaled-down band sound as opposed to the big, orchestral approach more typically found on an Andy Williams record, and sold respectably in the US while going top ten in the UK. "Joanne" is Williams's steel-guitar countrypolitan version of ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith's #21 hit from earlier in the year. The song's baying vocal hook is perhaps what got the dog on the cover participating. In 1971, the album appeared on one of the rare surviving playlists of Los Angeles MOR station KMPC, which justifies inclusion here.

"Joanne"

"Home Lovin' Man" (1970) - Andy Williams

Written by Roger Greenaway, Roger Cook, and Tony Macaulay * Produced by Dick Glasser * Arranged by Artie Butler * 45: "Home Lovin' Man" / "Whistling in the Dark" * LP: Alone Again (Naturally) (1972, two years later) * Label: Columbia * Billboard charts: Easy listening (#10-1970; #27-1972) * Entered: 1970-10-24 and 1972-11-04

The three British songwriters Roger Greenaway, Roger Cook, and Tony Macaulay were late-sixties/early-seventies zeitgeist-crafting VIPs, generating between them such era-defining hits as "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing," "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress," "Gimme Dat Ding," and "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)." Their evocative, seafaring "Home Lovin' Man," though, which featured a "Whiter Shade of Pale" organ intro and an uncredited pianist sounding very much like Nicky Hopkins, had all the earmarks of a big hit in Britain, where Andy Williams's recording of it peaked at #7. (According to Williams, in his Moon River and Me memoir, the song had originally been intended for actor-singer Richard Harris, who was "irate" over the interception.) In the US, though, it only managed to go top ten on the easy listening chart. The flipside contained a big, Al Capps-orchestrated version of Henry Mancini's "Whistling Away in the Dark," from the Darling Lili film (starring Julie Andrews). Both sides were non-album tracks, reflecting a possible short-term effort on Columbia's part to keep Williams's singles and albums as separate marketing entities.

In 1972, "Home Lovin' Man" would reappear on the Alone Again (Naturally) album, with a reissue of the track as a single maxing out at #27 on the Billboard easy listening chart. Although the album itself bore the title of a Gilbert O'Sullivan song, the O'Sullivan-penned flipside for the "Home Lovin' Man" single reissue did not make the cut. Entitled "Who Was It," the recording had appeared on O'Sullivan's UK chart-topping LP Back to Front and charted in the US the following year in the distinctive voice of Hurricane Smith. Williams's version, though, features an unsettling, double-tracked lead vocal.

Side A: "Home Lovin' Man"


Side B: "Who Was It"

"(Where Do I Begin) Love Story" (1971) - Andy Williams

Written by Carl Sigman and Francis Lai * Produced by Dick Glasser * Arranged by Richard P. Hazard * 45: "(Where Do I Begin) Love Story"/"Something" * LP: Love Story * Label: Columbia * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#9); easy listening (#1) * Entered: 1971-02-06 (both charts)

Although Erich Segal's Love Story was enough of a bummer to fit early seventies film trends, it also had a sentimental, tearjerker quality, rife with images of two lovers (played by Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw) frolicking in the snow, to function as an effective cultural escape. The pervasive title theme (which contained no vocalized manifestations on the soundtrack) was among the last of the big multiple-version hits, although the Godfather theme tried to keep the tradition alive the following year. Out of the five charting recordings of this song, all of which competed with each other in early 1971, the crescendo-heavy Andy Williams version climbed highest at #9. Columbia label-mate Tony Bennett would enter the charts with an equally dramatic iteration a week later, but wouldn't be able to contend with a Williams single that had already caught fire. Side B contains a comparatively soothing interpretation of George Harrison's "Something," which alternates between cheerful horns and moody strings.

Side A: "Where Do I Begin (Love Story)"


Side B: "Something"

"A Song for You" (1971) - Andy Williams

Written by Leon Russell * Produced by Dick Glasser * Arranged by Ernie Freeman * 45: "A Song for You" / "You've Got a Friend" * LP: You've Got a Friend * Label: Columbia * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#82); easy listening (#29) * Entered: 1971-08-21 (Hot 100); 1971-08-28 (easy listening)

Oklahoma songwriter/musician Leon Russell had long established himself as an in-demand LA session player and side man by the time he recorded his first solo album, A Song for You, in 1970. With its sophisticated structure and expressive melody, the title track became a favorite cover tune for big voices. Andy Williams was among the first to interpret it, adding it to his You've Got a Friend album, which rounded up eleven versions of contemporary hits. With its opening chord sequence mirroring the first two chords from "Love Story," among more general similarities in mood throughout, it sounded like a suitable follow-up. An Al Capps-arranged show band version of "You've Got a Friend" appears on the B-side, while the back cover depicts a flashy Elton John look.

Side A: "A Song for You"


Side B: "You've Got a Friend"

"Love Is All" (1971) - Andy Williams

Written by Jack Elliott and Norman Gimbel * Produced by Dick Glasser * Arranged by Dick Hazard * 45: "Love Is All" / "Help Me Make It Through the Night" * Billboard charts: Easy listening (#29) * Entered: 1971-12-04

"Love Is All" was part three in Andy Williams's early seventies run of minor-key chansons nouvelles, the idea clearly being to replicate the success of "Love Story." This was another vocalized version of an instrumental movie theme, this time for Herbert Ross's bummer film T.R. Baskin, about a newly-independent young runaway (Candice Bergen) struggling to get a footing in Chicago. The era's preoccupations with the cold muddle of modern life are on full display along with ripe thematic offerings for timely feminist cultural critique. Disadvantaged by the film's poor reviews and box office receipts, though, "Love Is All" only managed an easy listening chart appearance before vanishing, never even showing up on an album. In 1973, Engelbert Humperdinck would barely dent the Hot 100 with the song. Side B of Williams's single is a version of Kris Kristofferson's "Help Me Make It Through the Night," about a lonely one night stand, and in spite of Ernie Freeman's atmospheric string arrangement, it comes off as a cruel swipe at Bergman's sexually vulnerable film character.

Side A: "Love Is All"


Side B: "Help Me Make It Through the Night"

"Music from Across the Way" (1972)  - Andy Williams

Written by James Last and Carl Sigman * Produced by Dick Glasser * Arranged by Ernie Freeman * 45: "Music from Across the Way" / "The Last Time I Saw Her" * LP: Love Theme from "The Godfather" * Label: Columbia * Billboard charts: Easy listening (#30) * Entered: 1972-01-29

Like William's previous three singles, "Music from Across the Way" sailed the same melodramatic, minor-key waters as "Love Story." That song's Carl Sigman even provided lyrics for it, with German show band maestro James Last handling the music. Last's own version, sung by an anonymous choral group, outperformed Williams's, reaching the Hot 100 at #84 around the same time. After a brief easy listening chart appearance, the track would eventually turn up on Williams's forthcoming Love Theme from "The Godfather" album. For the opening piano line, arranger Ernie Freeman borrows from the Carpenters's "For All We Know" refrain. On side B of the single is a treatment of Gordon Lightfoot's 1968 track "The Last Time I Saw Her," which Glen Campbell had turned into a charting crossover single in 1971.

Side A: "Music from Across the Way"


Side B: "The Last Time I Saw Her"

"Speak Softly Love (Love Theme from The Godfather)" (1972) - Andy Williams

Written by Nino Rota and Larry Kusik * Produced by Dick Glasser * Arranged by Al Capps * 45: "Speak Softly Love (Love Theme from 'The Godfather')" / "Home for Thee" * LP: Love Theme from "The Godfather" * Label: Columbia * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (# 34); Easy listening (#7) * Entered: 1970-04-08 (both charts)

Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather turned Mario Puzo's best-selling mafia novel into the highest grossing film of 1972, demonstrating that the early seventies cinematic penchant for downbeat themes had blockbuster potential. Critical success accompanied it too, with many of its scenes and performances turning into cultural touchstones. Among the era's preoccupations playing out on screen were the plight of the antihero, a fascination with family and tradition at a time when both underwent unprecedented redefinition, and a "going back" instinct that reached toward ethnicity and roots.

In spite of this, Andy Williams, one of pop music's WASP-iest singers, ended up with the biggest hit version of the theme song, but he was primed and ready, having charted the previous four times with similarly sophisticated and stormy minor-key offerings. Composed for the soundtrack by the classically-oriented Nino Rota, veteran lyricist Larry Kusik then turned the theme into the vocal-friendly "Speak Softly Love." As Andrew J. Edelstein and Kevin McDonough said about the film in their The Seventies: From Hot Pants to Hot Tubs (1990), the record came off as "high art disguised as pop entertainment."

Aside from Williams, who had his final Top 40 appearance with the song, the only other singer to chart with it (#80) would be Al Martino, who had played washed up pop star Johnny Fontaine in the film. Instrumental versions by Roger Williams (#116), Carlo Savina (#66, from the soundtrack album), and Ferrante and Teicher (easy listening #28) also made chart showings.  Side B of "Speak Softly Love" contained the 45-only track "Home for Thee," written by Paul Parrish. (Final tangential tidbit: Lyricist Larry Kusik was the uncle of the musician and music writer Lenny Kaye, for whom Kusik had once written and produced a record called "Crazy Like a Fox," on which Kaye used the pseudonym "Link Cromwell.")

Side A: "Speak Softly Love (Love Theme from The Godfather)"


Side B: "Home for Thee"

"MacArthur Park" (1972) - Andy Williams

Written by Jimmy Webb * Produced by Dick Glasser * Arranged by Artie Butler * 45: "MacArthur Park" / "Amazing Grace" * LP: Love Theme from "The Godfather" * Label: Columbia * Billboard charts: Bubbling under (#102) * Entered: 1972-08-05

Its high angst levels, epic length and "cake in the rain" lyrics have always invited critics to call it overbaked, but Jimmy Webb's "MacArthur Park" nonetheless touched some sort of psychological nerve in its time. Between 1968 and 1972, the actor Richard Harris (in the voice and persona of a mad Renaissance courtier), Waylon Jennings (with Grammy-winning dourness), the Four Tops, and Andy Williams all showed up on various Billboard charts with their own personalized recipes for it. No one did as well as Harris, who'd reached #2, but of the four, Williams served up the most palatable entry.

With an intro that hints at Burt Bacharach's "Trains and Boats and Plains" or the Bee Gees' "Words," the Artie Butler arrangement for this version bumps the severe minor-key verse section to the end while allowing the major-key bridge—in which Williams shames Harris on the high notes—to take precedence. In 1978 Donna Summer would elevate "MacArthur Park" to pop heaven, with a 45 that managed to clock in under four minutes and still seem grandiose. (She'd make an eighteen-minute behemoth available for discotheques.) The flipside of Williams's single was his contribution to Jesus Rock—a version of "Amazing Grace." This had previously appeared on his Alone Again (Naturally) album with an Al Capps arrangement taking cues from Judy Collins's acapella hit from early 1971.

Side A: "MacArthur Park"


Side B: "Amazing Grace"

"Solitaire" (1973) - Andy Williams

Written by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody * Produced by Richard Perry * 45: "Solitaire" / "My Love" * LP: Solitaire * Billboard charts: Easy listening (#23) * Entered: 1973-10-06

With his Solitaire LP, Andy Williams shook things up by getting in the studio with producer Richard Perry, who had been on a hot streak with hit albums by Carly Simon, Harry Nilsson, and Ringo Starr, among others. The song selection included deeper album tracks along with the usual hit covers, while Williams's vocal sound now popped with slapback echo. Neil Sedaka's original 1972 recording of the album's title track had included more card metaphors in the chorus, which Williams and Perry had altered to Sedaka's apparent chagrin (as reported in Williams's Moon River and Me). After the song reached #4 in the UK and then became a Top 40 hit for the Carpenters, Sedaka likely set his grievances aside. The closing section of "Solitaire" transported listeners directly to the closing section of Nilsson's "Without You," a #1 hit for Perry in 1972. The Solitaire version of Paul McCartney's "My Love," with an uncomfortable rendering of its "whoah whoahs," takes up the B side. Another song from the album—a satisfying interpretation of "Getting Over You" by the British singer-songwriter Tony Hazzard—rose to #35 in England.

Side A: "Solitaire"


Side B: "My Love"


UK chart bonus: "Getting Over You"

"Remember" (1974) - Andy Williams and Noelle

Written by Harry Nilsson * Produced by Richard Perry * 45: "Remember" / "Walk Right Back" (Andy Williams) * LP: Solitaire * Label: Columbia * Billboard charts: Easy listening (#30) * Entered: 1974-01-05

Seventies TV had a thing for variety shows, in which hosts would guide viewers through a bevy of skits and musical numbers. A standard Christmas device brought audiences into a celebrity's "home," as Andy Williams had done every year since 1962. Although his show had run its course by 1971, he was back on air in 1973 for a December 13 Christmas special, which treated viewers to songs by Andy, his own brothers, his teen idol nephews the Williams Brothers, and his then-wife Claudine Longet. In one segment, Williams sings Harry Nilsson's "Remember Christmas" to Noelle, his ten-year-old daughter. This prompted Columbia to release a 45 of the song—which had also appeared on his recently released Solitaire album—with added dialogue and a verse sung by Noelle. The album version, thankfully, is free of these intrusions. A product of the '73 Christmas season, the record made its first chart appearance in January 1974. (Neither the 45 nor the album version of the song use Nilsson's full title of "Remember Christmas.") The venerable British session man Nicky Hopkins handled the gorgeous piano part, as he had done on the original 1972 recording by Nilsson, while the ever-reliable Gene Page worked his magic on the string arrangement. An unembarrassing iteration of the Everly Brothers' "Walk Right Back" from Solitaire, with tasteful Jimmy Calvert guitar lines, appears on the flipside.

Side A: "Remember"


Side B: "Walk Right Back"

"Love's Theme" (1974) - Andy Williams 

Written by Aaron Schroeder and Barry White * Produced by Mike Curb * Arranged by Don Costa * 45: "Love's Theme" / "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me" * LP: The Way We Were * Label: Columbia * Billboard charts: Easy listening (#16) * Entered: 1974-06-08

After Andy Williams's flirtation with contemporary album artistry on Solitaire, he appeared to drift back into easy listening assembly-line mode for his follow-up, The Way We Were. Every song but one—a Mike Curb-Alan Osmond variation on "O Holy Night" (listen to the bridge) called "If I Could Only Go Back Again"—paid tribute to established hits. Even so, Williams's vocal version of the Love Unlimited Orchestra's "Love's Theme" went down like a sweet disco ambrosia. Love Unlimited, the vocal trio on whose Under the Influence of Love album Barry White's instrumental first appeared, did their own vocalized take, also using Aaron Schroeder's lyrics, for their late 1974 In Heat album.

MGM mogul Mike Curb's involvement in the Columbia album as producer is a curiosity that perhaps had to do with some inter-label tit for tat. In 1966, MGM had released the soundtrack to the Columbia film Born Free, which may well have set the table for a deal like this. Williams's side-B easy listening performance of Jim Weatherly's "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me" (with an added "You're" in the title), demonstrates the song's crossover elasticity—Gladys Knight had recently topped the soul chart with it while Ray Price did the same thing on the country chart, and both records appeared on the Hot 100 (Gladys Knight #3, Ray Price #82).

Side A: "Love's Theme"


Side B: "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me"


Bonus: "If I Could Only Go Back Again"

"Another Lonely Song" (1974) - Andy Williams

Written by Billy Sherrill, Norro Wilson, and Tammy Wynette * Produced by Billy Sherrill * 45: "Another Lonely Song" / "A Mi Esposa con Amor" * LP: You Lay So Easy on My Mind * Label: Columbia * Billboard charts: Easy listening (#29) * Entered: 1974-09-21

With country music going through such aggressive crossover experimentation in the early seventies, it wasn't any kind of stretch for Andy Williams to "go country" for one album. All he needed was some denim for the cover, a judicious steel guitarist, a Nashville producer, and a roundup of ten hits that already sounded like candidates for the easy listening charts. Tammy Wynette's 1973 chart-topping "Another Lonely Song" got the nod as the lead off single for Williams's You Lay So Easy on My Mind album, produced by countrypolitan king Billy Sherrill. An interpretation of acquired-taste vocalist Sonny James's 1973 country hit "A Mi Esposa con Amor (To My Wife with Love)" appears on side B.

Side A: "Another Lonely Song"


Side B: "A Mi Esposa con Amor"

"Love Said Goodbye" (1974) - Andy Williams

Written by Nino Rota and Larry Kusik * Produced and arranged by Marty and David Paich * 45: "Love Said Goodbye" / "One More Time" * Label: Columbia * Billboard charts: Easy listening (#24) * Entered: 1975-01-11

The December 1974 release of the second acclaimed Godfather film, complete with a new theme song by Nino Rota, called for another Andy Williams rendition. "Love Said Goodbye" was a similar-sounding but less-memorable track with lyrics again provided by Larry Kusik, and it greeted the market late in the year as a non-album one-off. The record signaled early success for future Toto member David Paich, son of veteran arranger/producer Marty, who'd already won an Emmy with his father in May 1974 for a piece the two had composed for the Ironsides TV show. Side B of the Godfather Part II single included David's song "One More Time," which was unavailable on any albums until it showed up as a bonus track on the 2002 CD reissue of the 1976 Andy album.


Side A: "Love Said Goodbye"


Side B: "One More Time"

"Cry Softly" (1974) - Andy Williams

Written by Buddy Killen, Billy Sherrill, and Glen Sutton * Produced by Billy Sherrill * 45: "Cry Softly" / "You Lay So Easy on My Mind" * LP: You Lay So Easy on My Mind * Label: Columbia * Billboard charts: Easy listening (#20) * Entered: 1975-04-12

In 1966, before the names Buddy Killen, Billy Sherrill, or Glen Sutton became such country industry fixtures, Nancy Ames crept into the Hot 100 (#95) with "Cry Softly"—a schlager welding-job the three men had done on the Franz Liszt melody "Liebestraum." Andy Williams's 1974 recording of the song gathered up enough momentum on MOR radio for it to see release as a single, which entered the Billboard easy listening chart in April 1975. Although Sherrill is listed as a songwriter on the label, he had only appeared as a co-producer on the 1966 Ames single for some reason. (The closing musical phrase in the verses drove me crazy for a long time because it reminded me of something else, which turned out to be the chorus endings of Cass Elliot's "One Way Ticket.")

One of the more memorable songs on the You Lay So Easy on My Mind album was the title track, which also served as the B-side of "Cry Softly." It took Bobby G. Rice's 1973 sexual revolution double entendre hit and traded its honky tonk gait and underwater guitar for crying lap steel and even more emphasis on the chorus's falsetto. Not released as a single in the US, it reached #32 in the UK. Only two more songs (in 1975 and 1976) would chart for Willliams in the US and UK until 1998, when TV commercials by Peugeot ("Can't Take My Eyes Off of You") and Fiat ("Music to Watch Girls By") would spark a UK revival.  [And thanks to the commenter who has pointed out the rejuvenated chart power of "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year."]

Side A: "Cry Softly"


Side B: "You Lay So Easy on My Mind"

Chart Song Cinema: Sometimes a Great Notion (1970)

"All His Children" (1971) - Charley Pride with Henry Mancini

Written by Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, and Henry Mancini * Producer: Jack Clement * 45: "All His Children" / "You'll Still Be the One" * LP: Sometimes a Great Notion (soundtrack) * Label: Decca (LP); RCA (45) * Charts: Billboard Hot 100 (#92); Billboard country (#2) * Entered: 1972-04-01 (Hot 100); 1972-02-19 (country)

The 1971 Paul Newman film Sometimes a Great Notion (which had the much better overseas title of Never Give an Inch) put Ken Kesey's Oregon logging novel, with its gorgeous fir trees and coastal scenery, to the big screen. If early seventies media tended to splash its feet in post-sixties cultural bewilderment, this film submerged itself, with every development—all the way to the closing credits—feeling like a gasping lunge through political and interpersonal complexity. Charley Pride's theme song, written by composers who excelled in memorability, was surprisingly forgettable, and the odd paired billing of Pride and Mancini (who also gave his arrangement scoopfuls of stock background vocals) only added to the entire project's murkiness. What makes "All His Children" special, though, is Pride's final note, which sputters with knowing exasperation. A Johnny Duncan composition from Charley Pride Sings Heart Songs (1971) appears on the B-side.


Side A: "All His Children"


Side B: "You'll Still Be the One"

Tom Jones: The Early '70s Charting Singles

So many of the sub-chapters in early '70s pop music history involve artists whose radio strategies from the '60s ran into complications. Sir Tom Jones, the Welsh emblem of libido in a tuxedo with the mastodon voice, whose Vegas persona found solid appeal with the youth market's mothers, was no exception. He shared manager Gordon Mills with Engelbert Humperdinck, a singer who perhaps embraced that unhip, bread-and-butter demographic more hungrily than did the more soulful Jones. His early '70s singles—which included a hit even bigger than "It's Not Usual," "What's New Pussycat," or "Green Green Grass of Home"—plot a course to mid-'70s pop chart oblivion, which forced a late '70s re-route to country radio, followed by a dance re-branding in 1988. Such is the very bigness of Tom Jones, though. Space has gotta be made somewhere for it.

"Without Love (There Is Nothing)" (1969) - Tom Jones

Written by Danny Small * Produced by Peter Sullivan * 45: "Without Love (There Is Nothing)" / "The Man Who Knows Too Much" * LP: Tom * Label: Parrot * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#5); easy listening (#1) * Entered: 1969-12-27 (Hot 100); 1970-01-03 (easy listening)

In his Over the Top and Back (2015), a regretful Tom Jones reveals that his excitement to record a version of "Without Love (There Is Nothing)" by his idol Clyde McPhatter caused him to reject a song called "The Long and Winding Road" that Paul McCartney had offered exclusively to him. His first choice paid off nicely, though, going Top 5 and giving him the chance to further demonstrate the R&B roots that differentiated him from his rival Engelbert Humperdinck. It featured a unique, out-of-fashion spoken intro he was eager to include against the wishes of in-house Decca producer Peter Sullivan, which Jones believed someone could only "pull off if there's belief in what you're saying." (The 1957 McPhatter track included no such intro.) James Luck and John Szego's "The Man Who Knows Too Much" sounded like a lost James Bond theme and leapt out as a 45-only B side.

Side A: "Without Love (There Is Nothing)"


Side B: "The Man Who Knows Too Much"

"Daughter of Darkness" (1970) - Tom Jones

Written by Geoff Stephens and Les Reed * Produced by Peter Sullivan * 45: "Daughter of Darkness" / "Tupelo Mississippi Flash" * LP: I (Who Have Nothing) *Label: Parrot * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#13); easy listening (#1) * Entered: 1970-05-02 (both charts)

The disembodied female voice in the intro hinted at impending doom, which might be understood now as Jones's forthcoming loss of chart momentum. (An accompanying steel guitar is chosen over theremin.) The darkness soon scatters, though, because Jones can't help but ham it up (climaxing at 2:58, when he yells "why did you feel so good!"—or something). His version of Jerry Reed's 1967 country hit "Tupelo Mississippi Flash" on side B showcased Jones's stylistic versatility, which made his recording gameplan as much of a challenge as it made his stage show so dynamic. The Welshman Jones did a good US southerner, although his enunciation of the "e" in Tupelo gave him away.

Side A: "Daughter of Darkness"


Side B: "Tupelo Mississippi Flash"

"I (Who Have Nothing)" (1970) - Tom Jones

Written by Jeff Leiber and Mike Stoller * Produced by Peter Sullivan * 45: "I (Who Have Nothing)" / "Stop Breaking My Heart" * LP: I (Who Have Nothing) * Label: Parrot * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#14); easy listening (#2) * Entered: 1970-08-22 (both charts)

Tom Jones released his 45 of "I (Who Have Nothing)" (covering former Drifter Ben E. King) within a year of releasing "Without Love (There Is Nothing)" (covering former Drifter Clyde McPhatter). The two "nothing" songs were quite something though, reaching #14 and #5, respectively. "I (Who Have Nothing)" had first been an Italian hit in 1961 for Joe Sentieri called "Uno Dei Tanti" as composed by Carlo Donida and Giulio "Mogol" Rapetti. Its lovelorn angst evokes the male-vocal Neopolitan song tradition that also brought forth such familiar melodies as "O Sole Mio" and "Santa Lucia." The English lyrics Jones used for his version—the highest charting one in the US—had been concocted by the rock 'n' roll songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for the Ben E. King record.

Side B sported a fine track called "Stop Breaking My Heart," written by Jones manager Gordon Mills along with his arranger and perpetual-motion band conductor Johnny Harris. With its Motown vibe, it came from an underappreciated single Jones had put out in 1966. The album's "Wales: The Land of Song" image on the back could be the front cover for a theme album Jones might still conceivably record.

Side A: "I (Who Have Nothing)"


Side B: "Stop Breaking My Heart"

"Can't Stop Loving You" (1970) - Tom Jones

Written by Tony Waddington and Wayne Bickerton * Produced by Gordon Mills * 45: "Can't Stop Loving You" / "Never Give Away Love" * LPs: Tom; I (Who Have Nothing) * Label: Parrot * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#25); easy listening (#3) * Entered: 1970-11-21 (Hot 100); 1970-11-28 (easy listening)

This is not to be confused with "I Can't Stop Loving You," the Don Gibson-penned Ray Charles weeper that Jones had included on his essential Live at the Talk of the Town LP. It's an altogether different song written by Waddington-Bickerton, the team that would soon provide star-making hits for the UK's Rubettes. Originally included on the April 1970 Tom album, the track found an encore spot on the US edition of the November 1970 I (Who Have Nothing) album thanks to airplay action. "Never Give Away Love," one of Jones's buried treasures (written by manager Gordon Mills), hailed from the same forgotten 1966 single as "Stop Breaking My Heart" on the flipside of his previous one.

Side A: "Can't Stop Loving You"


Side B: "Never Give Away Love"

"Puppet Man" (1971) - Tom Jones

Written by Howard Greenfield and Neil Sedaka * Produced by Gordon Mills * 45: "Puppet Man" / "Resurrection Shuffle" * LP: Tom Jones Sings She's a Lady * Label: Parrot * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#26) *  Entered: 1971-05-22

"Resurrection Shuffle" (1971) - Tom Jones

Written by Tony Ashton * Produced by Gordon Mills * 45: "Puppet Man" / "Resurrection Shuffle" * LP: Tom Jones Sings She's a Lady * Label: Parrot * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#38) * Entered: 1971-07-03

For its first six weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, "Puppet Man" appeared as a single with the emotive Ben Peters song "Every Mile" on the B side. A reissue with "Resurrection Shuffle" as the new B side, though, possibly to consolidate conflicting radio attention, took its place and enjoyed a run as a double A side. Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield's "Puppet Man," which attempted to muscle in on James and Bobby Purify's metaphorical turf, came off badly from any angle, with its payoff line being "If you want to see me do my thing, pull my string." It hadn't worked any better as a female-perspective 5th Dimension single. "Resurrection Shuffle," though, was a cheeky wink at the Jesus-rock craze that the British trio Ashton, Gardner and Dyke had a minor hit with in 1970, and it's one of Jones's best recordings from this era.



Side A: "Puppet Man"


Side B: "Resurrection Shuffle"

"She's a Lady" (1971) - Tom Jones

Written by Paul Anka * Produced by Gordon Mills * 45: "She's a Lady" / "My Way" (Parrot) * LP: Tom Jones Sings She's a Lady (Parrot) * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#2); easy listening (#4) * Entered: 1971-02-06 (both charts)

Tom Jones's biggest hit of the early seventies distinguished itself by serving up the phrases "she always knows her place" and "she's never in the way" during an era otherwise known for heightened feminist awareness. Even so, its high ranking on the easy listening charts indicated that the minor-key sizzler had a sizable female listenership. Or did that ranking reflect older generation values?

Composer Paul Anka apparently regretted it. Jones says the following in his Over the Top and Back: The Autobiography (2015), p. 298: "Paul Anka wrote ['She's a Lady'] especially for me, scribbling the lyrics on the back of a TWA menu, somewhere between New York and London, and adding the tune in an hour and a half at a piano later. Afterwards he'll declare that he hates the song—will claim that it's his least favorite number of any that he wrote and that he thinks it's chauvinistic. Maybe he's right. Actually, definitely he's right. But it was a hit for me—a dance floor number in the earliest days of disco and the last significant hit I would have in America for a number of years."

In his My Way: An Autobiography (2014), Anka expressed his view this way: "I dislike 'She's a Lady' more than anything else I've written. I'm not saying I don't have a chauvinistic side, but not like that. Still, I wanted to make it as realistic as possible, and Tom Jones is swaggering and brash as a Welsh coal miner in a pub on Saturday night."

The 2013 Paul Anka Duets album includes a version of the song with Jones, featuring a remodeled first verse sung by Anka. Instead of

Well, she's all you'd ever want
She's the kind I like to flaunt and take to dinner
But she always knows her place
She's got style, she's got grace, she's a winner

he sings

Oh she knows what love's about
She turns me inside out, that's not easy
She loves me through and through
She knows what to do and how to tease me.
                          
Verse two, though, about never being "in the way" gets a faithful, unaltered delivery by Jones. The original single's otherwise context-vacant cover of "My Way" on the B-side frames the product as a Paul Anka tribute. (Lyrics by Paul Anka ©1971 and ©2013, Chrysalis Standards, Inc.)

Side A: "She's a Lady"


Side B: "My Way"

"Till" (1971) - Tom Jones

Written by Carl Sigman, Carla Gaiano, and Charles Danvers * Produced by Gordon Mills * 45: "Till" / "The Sun Died" * Label: Parrot * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#41); easy listening (#4) * Entered: 1971-10-30 (both charts)

For his follow up to "She's a Lady," Jones abandoned the discotheque for the ballroom, changing into his tuxedo as he ran. "Till" had been a 1956 hit in France (as "Prière Sans Espoir") for the operatic singer Lucien Lupi. Other famous renditions were done by Percy Faith (as a 1957 instrumental), Jane Morgan (who sung the Carl Sigman English lyrics for the first time in 1958), and Caterina Valente (as a 1960 hit sung in Italian except for the refrain and title). Many versions down the road, Tom Jones gave it the brash ballad treatment (true to its original European incarnation) and reached #2 on the UK singles chart. For the flipside, Jones reached again into the variété française pantry and chose the dramatic "Il est Mort le Soleil," a 1967 hit for Nicoletta written by Pierre Delanoe and Hubert Giraud, given new English words (as "The Sun Died") by Ann Gregory and Ray Charles, who unveiled it on his 1968 Portrait of Ray album. Neither side of this 45 appeared on any album.

Side A: "Till"


Side B: "The Sun Died"

"The Young New Mexican Puppeteer" (1972) - Tom Jones

Written by Earl Schuman and Leon Carr * Produced by Gordon Mills * 45: "The Young New Mexican Puppeteer" / "All That I Need Is Some Time" * LP: Close Up * Label: Parrot * Billboard charts: Easy listening (#14); Hot 100 (#80) * Entered: 1972-04-22 (easy listening); 1972-04-29 (Hot 100)

Something in Tom Jones's subconscious (or conscious) mind gave him the urge to express puppet metaphors. "The Young New Mexican Puppeteer" was either heavily symbolic or merely detailed, telling of a boy in Albuquerque who found a means of generating "peace and joy." The Wikipedia entry for this song reports, with no sources, that the chorus melody comes from Pinocchio. This is not invalid: If you listen to the Tom Jones chorus at :51, then listen to the segment at :05 - :11 of "When You Wish Upon a Star" from the soundtrack, you'll hear a similarity. A non-album Carpenters-style ballad by Jones's arranger Johnnie Spence appears as the B side. Notice on the album cover for Close Up how the ring wear looks as if the wind is blowing a crater into young Sir Tom's coif.


Side A: "The Young New Mexican Puppeteer"


Side B: "All That I Need Is Some Time"

"Letter to Lucille" (1973) - Tom Jones

Written by Tony Macaulay * Produced by Gordon Mills * 45: "Letter to Lucille" / "Thank the Lord" * LP: The Body and Soul of Tom Jones * Label: Parrot * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#60); easy listening (#11) * Entered: 1973-05-12 (both charts)

You detect a familiar early '70s bubblegum sound in "Letter to Lucille" because it comes from Tony Macaulay, who wrote such era pop quintessentials as "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" and "Smile a Little Smile for Me." A complementary song called "Thank the Lord" by Australian songwriter Tony Cole appeared on the flipside but not on the album, all of which otherwise stays true to the "She's a Lady" sound. Shel Starkman, who did the cover art for The Body and Soul of Tom Jones, also did one apiece for each of manager Gordon Mills's other star clients: Engelbert Humperdinck (In Time) and Gilbert O'Sullivan (I'm a Writer Not a Fighter).

Side A: "Letter to Lucille"


Side B: "Thank You Lord"

"Somethin' 'Bout You Baby I Like" (1974) - Tom Jones

Written by Tony Macaulay * Produced by Gordon Mills * 45: "Somethin' 'Bout You Baby I Like" / "Keep A-Talkin' 'Bout Love" * LP: Somethin' 'Bout You Baby I Like * Label: Parrot* Billboard charts: Easy listening (#23) * Entered: 1974-10-05 (easy listening)

After "Letter to Lucille," Tom Jones went through a Hot 100 cold spell, breaking through only one more time (with 1977's "Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow") until 1988 (the year he covered Prince's "Kiss"). Two more of his early '70s singles did make it to the easy listening charts, though, the first one being a song by Richard Supa (formerly of the group Man) called "Somethin' 'Bout You Baby I Like." This was a bouncy number that would have fit easily in the Leo Sayer catalog; curiously enough, British hard rock institution Status Quo would rework it as a Top Ten UK in 1980.

Jones kept the non-album B side tradition alive with another " 'Bout" song called "Keep A-Talking 'Bout Love," a welcome contribution to the early '70s Jesus-and-brotherhood spirit by US songwriter Ben Peters, who would soon be enjoying massive success with Freddy Fender's "Before the Next Teardrop Falls."

Side A: "Somethin' 'Bout You Baby I Like"


Side B: "Keep A-Talkin' 'Bout Love"

"Pledging My Love" (1974) - Tom Jones

Written by Don Robey and Ferdinand Washington * Produced by Gordon Mills * 45: "Pledging My Love" / "Too Far Gone (To Turn Around)" * LP: Somethin' 'Bout You Baby I Like * Label: Parrot * Billboard charts: Easy listening (#23) * Entered: 1974-10-05 (easy listening)

The non-album "Pledging My Love," a countrypolitan interpretation of Johnny Ace a la Charlie Rich, indicated which direction Jones would take from the late '70s to the late '80s. The versatile singer never was and never would be a one-genre guy, but the newly built format structures in the demographic-smitten radio and music industries demanded compliance. By 1977, then—the year his first U.S. country chart entry ("Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow") went #1—Jones the Voice would call country home until 1986.

Side B of "Pledging My Love" contained another hidden non-album nugget, a pared-down, rocked-up rip-through of J.R. Bailey's "I'm Too Far Gone (To Turn Around)," a song that Bailey, Bobby Bland, Joe Simon, and Freddie Scott had all done before him with downcast demeanor.

Side A: "Pledging My Love"


Side B: "I'm Too Far Gone (To Turn Around)"

WQXI (Atlanta): Top 40

With its nickname "the Quixie in Dixie," 790 WQXI launched itself as a Top 40 vehicle sometime in 1960, then shape-shifted according to subsequent eras' conceptions of the format until the mid-80s. In 1974, the station's FM signal became its mothership, billing itself as "94 QXI-FM," then becoming "94 Q" by 1977.

The rare Southern Gold promo LP images shown here (thanks to radio station vinyl resource Radio Use Only) come from 1973, during the station's final glory days as a classic AM entity that loomed large in reputation (if not wattage) throughout the Southern US. A typical umbrella format hodgepodge, the album does showcase a "New South" attitude with Charlie Daniels' "Uneasy Rider" and leads off with "Brother Louie," one of the era's quintessential black/white issue hits.

Among the disk jockeys who spun records for WQXI during the early seventies were longtime morning man Gary McKee, Dr. Don Rose (who left in 1972 and became a San Francisco institution), Scott Shannon, John Leader, and J.J. Jackson (who was neither the MTV personality nor the singer included on side 2 of the Southern Gold album). The station's long time general manager Jerry Blum became an inspiration for the character of Arthur Carlson on WKRP in Cincinnati, having once pulled, in real life, the turkey stunt that inspired the show's most famous episode.

I'm hoping that a clearer album image [see update below] of the jocks in front of the Peachtree Street sign eventually turns up. Clockwise from the top: Dave Smith, Dave Weiss, Ron Parker, Tomm Rivers, John Leader, Lee Logan, Barry Chaser, and Gary McKee. (You can hear a full Gary McKee morning show from 1972 at Airchexx.)

Update 8/21/18: My hopes for a clearer image were fulfilled by none other than Ron Parker (top right), the weekend man during WQXI's heyday, who currently does the afternoon show for WLS-FM in Chicago. I asked Ron about his radio adventures and I'm posting it here to energize radio hopefuls, radio vets, and radio historians alike:

"I started at WQXI when I was 20 years old and worked there for over 3 years while attending The University Of Georgia. WQXI was the WABC of the South!... Just one of those stations you wanted to work at while in High School. I was hired by Program Director John Leader [front row, second to rar right] and Corporate Program Director Bill Sherard. Yes, I picked a career in radio majoring in journalism - radio - TV.

"After programming changes at WQXI,  I moved over for awhile to Z 93 FM Atlanta which became the huge TOP 40 winner.  Upon graduation from college I landed afternoons at the legendary WLCY Tampa Bay. My career has taken me to great places: Miami, Houston, Phoenix, Dallas, San Francisco, New York City at WCBS FM, and currently I hold down the afternoon show at WLS FM Chicago.  I also have done work for SIRIUS XM for the past 10 years.

"Yep, I wanted to do radio and have done everything from Program Director, Mornings, Afternoons, and whatever with successful ratings.

"Trust me, this is something I've always wanted to do and would have never changed anything!"

Side 1:
Stories - "Brother Louie"
Climax - "Precious and Few"
Isley Brothers - "It's Your Thing"
Gallery - "Nice to Be with You"
Charlie Daniels Band - "Uneasy Rider"
Lobo - "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo"
Sylvia - "Pillow Talk"

Side 2:
Curtis Mayfield - "Superfly"
Melanie - "Brand New Key"
Freda Payne - "Band of Gold"
Focus - "Hocus Pocus"
J.J. Jackson - "But It's Alright"
Five Man Electrical Band - "Signs"
Sugarloaf - "Green Eyed Lady"

Chart Song Cinema: Norwood (1970)

Like True Grit, Norwood featured Glen Campbell (on screen and in the soundtrack) with Kim Darby and used a Glen Portis novel as source material. Unlike True Grit, an esteemed classic, Norwood comes off as a trifle. It tells the story of hayseed guitar picker Campbell who's come back home to Ralph, Texas, from the Marine Corps, and is fixated on getting a spot on the Louisiana Hayride radio show (which had actually stopped airing by 1969.)

A post-Midnight Cowboy rube-in-New York subplot plays itself out (Portis's novel, by the way, predated Midnight Cowboy by three years), while quirky characters come and go. Campbell, along the way, carries around a fancy Ovation with no case (Campbell was one of the carbon fiber guitar model's first endorsers) and serenades his co-stars to fully orchestrated soundtracks. Joe Namath, the Pennsylvania native who took his New York Jets to a 1969 Super Bowl victory, plays a marine buddy of Campbell who throws a football around at a fish fry and imitates the southern accents he heard as a college player at Alabama.

Of most interest here is the transitional bigger-picture awkwardness of the sixties turning into the seventies and of the old, isolated South morphing into a newer, mainstream version. Glen Campbell was a poster child for this process, hosting his Goodtime Hour on TV from 1969 to 1972, playing with the Beach Boys and the Wrecking Crew in the sixties, popularizing a more sophisticated brand of country song ("Gentle on My Mind," "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," and "Wichita Lineman"), wearing a peace symbol on his album with Bobbie Gentry, covering the black gospel song "Oh Happy Day," and endorsing non-standard acoustic guitars.

Equally awkward, but typical of 1970, are the real world complexities that—in a film that attempts to come off as a Disney live action film for adults—serve as glaring sexual revolution signifiers. Campbell's sister has shacked up with the effeminate moocher Dom DeLuise, Campbell racks up a shameless one night stand with his Big Apple host, and his eventual "right girl" Kim Darby, who dresses like the Flying Nun, is pregnant with another marine's child—a non-issue compared to Campbell getting to the Hayride.

Director Jack Haley, Jr. was the son of the same Jack Haley who played the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz (and who appears in Norwood, in his final role, as Joe Namath's dad). Haley Jr.'s best loved movie moment came in 1974 when he put together the Hollywood musical retrospective That's Entertainment. (The other Wizard of Oz connection: he was married to Liza Minneli, daughter of Judy Garland, from 1974 to 1979.)

Two songs from Norwood made the charts thanks to their appearance in the film:

"Everything a Man Could Ever Need" (1970) - Glen Campbell

Written by Mac Davis * 45: "Everything a Man Could Ever Need" / "Norwood (Me and My Guitar)" * LP: Norwood * Produced by Neely Plumb * Label: Capitol * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#54); country (#5) * Entered: 1970-07-04 (Hot 100)

Written by future country-pop crossover star Mac Davis, Glen Campbell's "Everything a Man Could Ever Need," from the Norwood soundtrack, runs on "Gentle on My Mind" fumes, using that song's opening root to root-major7 sequence, which borrowed from Bob Lind's "Elusive Butterfly" (1966). Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey" also used it in 1968, as did Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin' " in 1969, giving Norwood another small connection to Midnight Cowboy (see above). That chord sequence became a familiar late sixties/early seventies sound on the radio, usually accompanying itinerant male self-analysis. "Everything a Man Could Ever Need" included Campbell's fellow Wrecking Crew alumnus Al DeLory as a co-arranger, who helped make the already too-crafty song sound even less likely to have stood a chance on the real Louisiana Hayride. Another Mac Davis composition from the soundtrack appears on the B-side.


Side A: "Everything a Man Could Ever Need"


Side B: "Norwood (Me and My Guitar)"

"I'll Paint You a Song" (1970) - Mac Davis

Written by Mac Davis * 45: "I'll Paint You a Song" / "Closest I Ever Came" (Columbia) * Produced by Jimmy Bowen * Arranged by Artie Butler * LP: Song Painter (Columbia) * Billboard charts: Bubbling under (#110); country (#68) * Entered: 1970-07-18 (Bubbling under)

Mac Davis's second charting single as a vocalist was his own version of a song he'd written for Glen Campbell to sing on Norwood in a train car scene in the middle of the night—fully orchestrated but somehow waking no one. "I'll Paint You a Song," with its rainbows and bluebirds, featured a comparable easy listening backdrop arranged by Artie Butler that laid the groundwork for Davis's forthcoming stream of crossover MOR-country hits. By 1972, his "Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me" would turn him into a multi-media figure in the mold of Campbell. The Song Painter album was Mac Davis's debut and presented itself as a full-fledged "Meet Mac Davis-the-artist" affair, with numerous musical interludes. His "Babies' Butts" series might have inspired Tom T. Hall to write "I Love." It's not implausible. (A 1974 reissue of this album had an alternate cover.)

Side A: "I'll Paint You a Song"


Side B: "Closest I Ever Came"

Jack Jones - "Get Together" (1970)

"Get Together" (1970) - Jack Jones

Written by Chet Powers * Produced by Ernie Altschuler * LP: Jack Jones in Person at the Sands, Las Vegas * Label: RCA Victor * Billboard charts: —

Jack Jones, with his silky-bourbon voice, was born to sing in Vegas, so it's surprising that this is the first live album he'd ever record. He'd gotten his start as a kid, in fact, singing with his dad, the actor Allan Jones, at the Thunderbird Hotel and Casino. In Person at the Sands, which appeared on a 1970 playlist of the high-powered Los Angeles MOR station KMPC, contains renditions of Jones signature songs like "Wives and Lovers" and "Lollipops and Moonbeams," but it also includes 1970 "brotherhood" songs like the Youngbloods' "Get Together," John Sebastian's "I Had a Dream," and Joe South's "Games People Play." (In spite of these well-meaning motions, Jones takes a few minutes at the beginning of side two to ridicule Cubans and gays.) Joe Kloess directs the orchestra and would do the same for many of Jones's future seventies LPs.

Although Jones never charted in Billboard's Hot 100 after 1968, he'd appear with regularity on the easy listening/adult contemporary charts all the way up until 1980, the year his "Love Boat Theme" barged into our collective consciousness.

"Get Together"

See also: A KMPC Playlist circa 1971

Chart Song Cinema: Claudine (1974)

"On and On" (1974) - Gladys Knight and the Pips

Written and produced by Curtis Mayfield * 45: "On and On" / "The Makings of You" * LP: Claudine * Label: Buddah * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#5); soul (#2) * Entered: 1974-05-25 (Hot 100)

Directed by John Berry, Claudine infiltrated the early seventies blaxploitation film market with something different: a sympathetic look at a single mother, played by Diahann Carroll, who struggles to raise a large family in the deep city. James Earl Jones plays her love interest, a strong garbage collector whose laudable sensitivity threatens to function as a fatal flaw.

Although the film posters billed Claudine as "a heart and soul comedy," early seventies cinema trends ensured that the sobering food-for-thought factors overshadowed any laughs. (The American Welfare System turns in an especially fine performance as the villain.) Giving the film added edge are the Harlem visuals and the music written and produced by blaxploitation VIP Curtis Mayfield.

Gladys Knight and the Pips perform all the music on Claudine, with the hit single "On and On" exploding in the opening credits as the big-screen urban scenes unfold. Here's a rare situation, though, where a film made a song seem better than it actually was. (It's usually the other way around.) No one who experiences "On and On" away from the film would rank it with Knight's or Mayfield's best work.

Side A: "On and On"


Side B: "The Makings of You"