AM Radio Gold: 1978-Part 2

Michelle Newman 0:00

When you imagine the song at the roller rink, I like to imagine myself. You know, my what nine year old self. Think of it. You imagining yourself doing those fancy crossovers, and then like being able to like twirl front to back, back to front as you're like keeping the beat. When in reality, I was probably like out of control, about to hit the carton, carpeted wall. You know.

Kristin Nilsen 0:42

Welcome back to part two of AM Radio Gold 1978. Last week we ran out of time. Our entire conversation about the songs of 1978, which we have deemed the best year in music history, our entire conversation lasted two hours and eight minutes, and it was all gold. There was nothing to edit out. Sometimes we make really hard choices and we cut parts of our conversation so you can have something reasonable to listen to while you walk the dog. But we had nothing to cut here. We loved it all, and no one walks their dog for two hours and eight minutes. And so we did you a favor and we broke that conversation into two dog walks. Last week we told you a little bit about who we were in 1978? Were we sad and lonely, or were we living our best life and testing ourselves for ESP at recess? We talked about what the year 1978 was like. Hello, Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. And after all that, we only managed to get to our first two song choices in an hour. So thank you for coming back. Thank you for joining us again for the remainder of our 1978 song choices. What will they be? What songs made the biggest impact on our little prepubescent 1978 selves? You'll have to listen to find out. Please enjoy this conclusion to AM Radio Gold 1978.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:56

Welcome to the Pop Culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheel generation, who used their recorder to do air sacs during the chorus of Baker Street. I'm doing my fingers now. Yes, we believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters, and images, and if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear, like Marshall, Will, and Holly on a routine expedition. And today we'll be revisiting the songs

Kristin Nilsen 2:30

we heard on the radio when we were 910, and 13 years old-a year we are now declaring the PCPS's greatest year in music. Today's episode is the next installment of our series called AM Radio Gold, and we're talking about the year 1978. I'm Carolyn. I'm Kristen. And I'm Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationists.

Speaker 1 2:58

This might be a very

Kristin Nilsen 3:11

low-key 1978 episode because my pick is "Here You Come Again" by Dolly Parton. This is such a sweet, wistful, like almost childlike song, and I may not have known about it except for one very memorable moment. We lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota, which is the state capital, and we lived just steps away from the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. Literally, like we could walk to the fair, and in the summer of 1978, Dolly Parton was headlining the grandstand at the state fair, and if the wind was blowing just right, you could hear the concerts from our house. And on the night of the Dolly Parton concert, I was already in bed. I was all tucked in and everything, and my dad came upstairs and he opened my bedroom window, and I could hear her sing this song. Oh wow! I know. Here you come again.

Michelle Newman 4:07

Don't you kick yourself now that you weren't there?

Kristin Nilsen 4:09

That never would have happened. Like it would never even occur to me to ask to go to a concert. Yeah, that was something that other people did. Maybe grownups did it. So I never even I never even hoped. So I was just becoming aware of Dolly Parton at this moment, and but this this window opening moment would cement her and this song in my heart forever. It's from her 1977 album of the same name, "Here You Come Again, and it was the centerpiece of her crossover from country music to pop music. It was a huge country hit, and then boom! Here she is with her very first top 10 hit on the pop charts. She really wanted the song to broaden her fan base, which it did. It totally did. But she was also terrified of sacrificing her country bona fides. She was a country performer, and she was not willing to become not country. And so she begged the producer to countryify the song by adding a steel guitar, and she wanted to make sure it was obvious. Like you, you had it. Don't just hide it in the background. You have to really hear the steel guitar and be able to identify it, so that if anyone came at her and accused her of not being country anymore, she could like point to the steel guitar and be like, "Sit on it, Potsy. And and remember, she also she when when she was offered a a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she said no because she said, "I'm a country artist. I'm not a rock and roll artist. And she said no with the most grace. You probably nobody would ever get mad at Dolly for saying no, thank you, no thank you, thank you, but no thank you. The song was universally beloved by everybody. It endeared her to a mainstream audience well beyond her country audience, and it won her a Grammy for best country vocal performance, notably country vocal performance. So she did all of that. She won best country vocal performance, and she expanded her fan base all by staying true to who she is and her heart. She is she is so Dolly Parton. Dolly Parton is so Dolly Parton. But when I hear that song, when I hear when I hear it, it's always it's always a little whispery and faint, and I just picture myself sitting up in bed with the covers, with my window open. Oh,

Carolyn Cochrane 6:28

that's such a great memory! I

Kristin Nilsen 6:29

know, but what a

Michelle Newman 6:30

great way to have experienced that song for one of the shows.

Speaker 2 6:35

Yes,

Michelle Newman 6:36

yeah, I love that song. In fact, I I need to add that to a couple playlists. It's

Speaker 1 6:42

so good.

Michelle Newman 7:01

Okay, we're moving on to our second song choices, and for my movie musical selection, "If You Light Up My Life" was the song playing on the way to, say, the pool in 1978. "Summer Nights" was the song everyone was singing at

Speaker 3 7:18

the pool.

Speaker 1 7:22

It is

Speaker 3 7:25

the

Michelle Newman 7:40

ultimate storytelling song, and let's be honest, we all assigned ourselves to either the Danny or the Sandy parts and harmonies. And when it hits the chorus, oh my god, mind blown! Right, and we still do probably assign ourselves one of the parts as we're singing it. Okay, interesting fact: out of the four massive and chart-topping Billboard hits from Greece, which are Grease. You're the one that I want hopelessly devoted to you, and Summer Nights. Summer Nights is the only one that actually came from the original 1972 Broadway stage show. The other three were definitely mega hits, but they were written from scratch specifically for the film adaptation to fit John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John's like voices and the characters and everything, so Summer Nights peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in the fall of 1978. And also an interesting fact: while reaching number five is impressive, Summer Nights is the only one of the film's three major duets and solos that didn't hit number one in America. So you're the one that I want, and Greece both hit number one, and hopelessly devoted to you hit number three. And I want to be very clear about something: I loved all of these songs, like all of these songs so much. Right. Anyway, so so Summer Nights was truly a victim of its own album success, if you think about it, because it was fighting for radio time against its album's like sister tracks.

Kristin Nilsen 9:08

That's interesting because now that you say that, I don't recall hearing that song on the radio. I just remember singing that song in people's kitchens and basements and backyards.

Michelle Newman 9:17

Yeah, right. Like you would definitely. I can remember hearing "Hopelessly Devoted to you, I can remember hearing Greece for sure, but I don't remember that one as much. So, as we know, you know, little Michelle. Now we're going to go back to who I was and why I chose this. Little Michelle often, I often she often had to live inside her head because, you know, let's face it, that was something music and songs and albums, soundtracks-that was something I could take with me when I moved every year. And so, as a result, I spent many hours, many hours acting out musicals and songs all by myself. Oklahoma was a huge fave, but Greece. When Greece came along, that was like the gift that kept on giving for me. And while all the songs, like I just said, got about equal performance times, "Summer Nights" was a huge favorite because of the skipping.

Kristin Nilsen 10:11

Oh yes, of course, of course. That's

Michelle Newman 10:14

what truly set it apart for Little Michelle. She could skip around with her hands behind her back and a and a a little cardigan over her shoulders, around and around her room as she sang, or around and around the backyard as she sang. So I think that's what did it for me. And then you know I could pretend that all the girls were asking me, you know, tell me more, tell me more, and everything. You guys want to know a really fun fact? I loved this that I learned while we all remember the skipping, obviously, and the the scene from the movie, the breezy day, the sunshine, the bleachers. I want you to also picture, you know, Sandy. She's got her sweater. She might take it off. I think it's over her shoulders. But all the the you know the T birds have on their big heavy jackets and everything. Filming the scene was super super unglamorous. They shot all the all the outdoor bleacher scenes in the dead of a blistering hot Los Angeles summer. It was like in late June or early July of 1977. So while they're all acting cool and leaping around and singing about summer heat and you know all that stuff, the temperature on the bleachers was around 100 degrees, and the sun. There was no. They couldn't like put the stuff over because the lighting and everything, and because they were in character, they were strictly forbidden from taking off their big black leather jackets between takes and everything. And word is, is that it was pretty miserable, and they were absolutely all melting.

Kristin Nilsen 11:38

Okay, that's funny because there are lots of monda greens in that song for me. There, I misunderstood so many of the words. Now that I know them, it makes perfectly. It makes perfect sense, and I think everybody else heard them. But one of the monda greens is "Summer Heat, and it's supposed to be boy and girl meat. But I heard. Well, I thought

Michelle Newman 11:56

it was boil. Boiling. I did too. Boiling on me. Boiling. Oh, you thought boy? I thought it was boiling to meat. Boy and boy meat. I wait. I still think it's i. I am right now years old when I'm. I thought it was summer heat boiling on me. No boy and girl meat. Boy and girl meat. Boy and girl meat.

Carolyn Cochrane 12:15

Think what I was saying. I like boiling on me. Born. Okay, born something was what I said. When you say born somewhere, born

Speaker 4 12:25

of the sea, born in the sea, born in the sea.

Michelle Newman 12:37

I will say I I um I don't know that I had as many monogreens, but yes, going over my head because oftentimes then I would just assign myself the John Travolta part at the same time. Most of the time, I would just look over like, "Oh, I don't know, he's over there singing. Yeah, but if I was the John Travolta, believe me, when I'm saying we made out under the dock, I'm doing the motions he did. Yeah, you know how he goes under the dock, and and

Kristin Nilsen 13:00

he's crotch. I

Michelle Newman 13:02

know what making out meant, but the way he's like crotch thrusting, that all went over my head when we talked. I thought that

Kristin Nilsen 13:07

was a dance. Wait, do we

Michelle Newman 13:08

have wait do we have an episode about the grease soundtrack? Do we? Of course we do. Of course we do. And we talk, you guys. We don't actually. It's a good. We could go back. It's such a good one, but if you're like right now screaming because you're like, oh yeah, there were so many of the lyrics in Greece. I mean, think about Grease Lightning that went over our heads. Please go back and listen to that because we talk so much about how pretty awful the lyrics were for these little tiny girls. Not awful; they're brilliant songs. Let me get that. Yeah, but

Speaker 5 13:39

for building them out. Eight-year-old and nine-year-old

Michelle Newman 13:42

girls, yeah, singing. I remember the little boy they got to bring it to. I'm just gonna tease that episode a little bit. He got to bring. They got to bring records to music class and sing their favorite songs. And he brought he brought his Grease album in, and they played Grease Lightning. And the music teacher like sent them to the principal's album. So sad, sad. Yes. So anyway, so my second pick, yeah, summer nights. Love it, love it.

Carolyn Cochrane 14:06

Well, from that song too, and maybe this is again when I like love knowing that these singers breathe. But you know that line where John Travolta is like, oh, the summer. Oh yeah, and he like you can hear him like you know that like

Kristin Nilsen 14:23

oh wait or do you mean the part where he goes uh huh that's the part

Carolyn Cochrane 14:28

I mean that yes yes yes yes yes yes that see I didn't do a good job with

Michelle Newman 14:31

yeah well she goes but she goes uh huh oh like she goes yeah but he just goes he goes yeah and it's still like yes, you just know there's

Carolyn Cochrane 14:45

more, and there's a

Kristin Nilsen 14:46

little, and he has a little smile on his face when he doesn't. He looks down.

Carolyn Cochrane 15:14

No words, but you know exactly what each of them are singing about. I just

Speaker 6 15:18

know

Carolyn Cochrane 15:19

that's so great. Okay, well, my next song also comes from a soundtrack. The other popular soundtrack of the time being Saturday Night Fever. This song reached number one on may 13, 1978, ending the eight-week tenure of Night Fever. And this would be "If I Can't Have You" by Yvonne Element. Oh, so it knocked. So Yvonne Elliman knocked. She knocks there out of the number one spot. She does. Wow. And this was the fourth single, yes, released from the Saturday Night Fever album, and I guess maybe am I going out on a limb? I don't. You would know this, Kristen, better. Is this the fourth non? This is first non BGS. Oh, that's

Kristin Nilsen 16:13

pop. Yeah, I think so. I wouldn't think written by them, of course, but not right. Yes, they wrote it

Carolyn Cochrane 16:18

exactly, and they wrote it for her. So Yvonne Ellman sang it, and this is another song that hits me hard in the feels, not because of the words or anything. Again, you guys, but because of what I was experiencing and feeling when it was playing. Okay, may 13, I tell you, it is when it peaked at number one, reached number one. So you know, it's playing before that and it's playing after that, but I think it was the beginning of May when my parents traveled to New Jersey to do their house hunting trip, and I stayed with my friend Kelly and her family. And Kelly had the coolest stereo, and she also had the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack of which I did not own. And we would sit on her floor and just look at the you know the gatefold. You all know I love that, and listen to the songs. But because this was also Yvonne Ellman's song is playing on the radio at the same time too, I was hearing it a lot. And when I was at Kelly's house hearing it, and my parents are in New Jersey buying our new house, and I'm just thinking, I'm not going to have this, and am I even going to have any friends? And this was just so special. And you know, if I can't have you, probably there's some Bobby Crozier Crosier things going on too. If I can't have you, I don't want anyone else, Robert Crozier. But all of those things, it's just another song that's deep in me, and it makes me sad. Even though it's, you know, I mean, I guess I had never seen the movie, so it's not like I was associating with a scene or anything from the movie. It's just where I was and what was happening around me at that time, and that's exactly what was happening. You were at a prime age right then to be projecting all of those lyrics onto your situation and to work reworking them. So if you think about even just the chorus of that song, of course you were thinking. I mean, you could have even been thinking about it about Kelly, like in a non you know romantic way. You could have been like, if I can't like these, this is my best friend. But if I can't have you with me? I don't want anybody else. Well, right, and that's probably the attitude I was walking through life with in terms of my parents. Like, fine, if I can't have that, I just I don't want anything. Fine, go, whatever. I'm never going to talk to you again. You know, I was just not to mention at that age you're kind of lean that way a little bit too. So it was, yeah, I was carrying a lot. Not to mention if I really peeled back layers, Lillian was probably carrying a lot too at the time, so she, you know, was probably being her utmost Lillian as a mom, and there was just a lot going on in our.

Kristin Nilsen 18:52

That's a really good point. That sometimes, you know, what is being when we fault our parents for not being good parents, it might be because they were carrying a lot and we didn't know it,

Carolyn Cochrane 19:00

right? Yeah, and you don't know it until you've kind of walked those, you know,

Speaker 6 19:05

those in

Carolyn Cochrane 19:06

those shoes a little bit, and you just think they're out to get you, and they don't understand. And how on earth would they do this to me? I had just such a great group of friends. I was in the popular group, you know. It was going to take me years to get back to a popular group, you guys. Oh, there was, and trust

Kristin Nilsen 19:22

me, I strategize on how to do that. So yeah, it was. That was another song that when I hear it, and it is. It's a super intense song. Yes, it's a disco hit, and yes, it's a dance floor song. But that doesn't mean that it's not full of longing and it's urgent. It's an urgent longing, right? Like you really, and I remember just that concept. I remember noodling on that concept. If I can't have you, I don't want anybody, and that seemed very powerful to me. It seemed like, oh, it seemed super heavy, and like you must be in such dis.

Carolyn Cochrane 20:00

Fair that you don't even want somebody else. I thought about that as a 10-year-old, like Yvonne Elliman. I'm so sorry. I know. So that's that was my second song. Not that I was, you know, blasting it on the radio or singing at the top of my lungs, but it is another one that has a home inside of my body, that it gives you big feelings. It gives me very big feelings.

Kristin Nilsen 20:32

Okay, speaking of feelings, so many feelings. My next pick is Three Times a Lady by the Commodores.

Speaker 7 20:39

This is one. You need a cigarette.

Kristin Nilsen 20:54

You need a cigarette. This one, it's it's it's more crying. It's more crying, I think, than a cigarette. Like I was, so I was working at the bookstore and I was playing a 1978 playlist in the store. I'm multitasking, right? I'm recently for this recently. Yes, I'm I'm prepping for this episode and I'm book selling at the same time, and I'm just waiting for the song, right? I'm just waiting to see what will grab me and and what will give me a physical response, which will and that's really what we're what it comes down to when we're listening for the song, we're waiting for a an emotional response or a physical response that tells us this is the song. Three times a lady starts playing and I immediately start crying.

Speaker 4 21:38

Yeah, at work,

Kristin Nilsen 21:40

at work, you just hear it's like not even the lyrics. You just hear the beginning of the song. I danced to the song with my brother at my wedding, and it was not not orchestrated. It's not like now the bride will dance with her brother. It wasn't that at all. It was when the song came on, I went to find him, and he seemed surprised. He was. He didn't know why I had come to find him when this song came on. I was like, "Don't you remember? Don't you remember? But I'm the older sister, right? And sometimes I remember more about his life than he does because I'm older. So I remember that he loved this song and that he had the 45, but he doesn't, and it's the strange power of the eldest daughter. It's we are the keeper of the memories, right? And it was it was strange for an eight-year-old boy to be so in love with a love song like this. That's why it was so memorable to me because here's this little eight-year-old boy playing with Evil Can Evil, and then he buys three times a lady, and I think this song does something to sensitive people. Lionel Richie knows which strings to pull to make you feel a certain kind of pain. Commodore's era Lionel Richie, especially. And these are my so I start making. I'm crying in the bookstore, and I start writing. I start scribbling notes. These are my notes from the bookstore, and I will expand on these things. Here's what I wrote. What does it even mean? Three times what? Omg, the crescendo of voices. It's so dramatic. And then they hush again, and they bring bringing it back to Lionel, reading about what inspired him to write the song. Now I'm crying again. I'm realizing that Lionel Richie's parents' 37th anniversary is not that far from my own 32nd anniversary this summer. He is sending me this song right now before my anniversary, and it's making me reclaimed. Oh, thank God, the song ended now, so I know I'm not crying in the store anymore. I love that. Oh, thank God, it's over. Yes, it's awkward when you walk into a store and the clerk is crying. That's awkward. What do you say? Okay, so three times a lady. Here's what Lionel Richie says about this song. I'm going to quote him. I'm just going to read the whole thing because it's really nice. He says, "I attended the wedding anniversary of my parents, and my father made a speech about how much he loved my mother and appreciated the way she had stood beside him for 37 years. It was beautiful, and I started to think about my own life and how my wife stands by me. How she does so many things without being asked or thanked. So I wrote three times a lady as a dedication to my wife and to my mother. I think my next door neighbor summed it up when she said that if a man wanted to buy her a present, all he had to do is buy her that record, and he wouldn't have to say anything else. I always thought the lyric though, and now that we've come to the end of our rainbow, there's

Michelle Newman 24:30

some. I was all even as a kid. I was like, "That's so sad. That means is someone is someone about to die, or is someone dying right now? Like that made me sad. But maybe he just meant it like it's a long journey, and their marriage

Kristin Nilsen 24:43

is a journey. Their marriage is yeah, it's not. But he says, and he literally says the end of our rainbow, which

Michelle Newman 24:49

still confuses me. Makes me sad.

Kristin Nilsen 24:52

Well, they're on the tail end of their marriage. People don't live that long. Don't say that. I

Michelle Newman 24:56

just celebrated my 33rd wedding anniversary. That makes me live really sad. Okay, good.

Kristin Nilsen 25:00

But if you lived in the South and got married in the 40s, then maybe you wouldn't live that long. It's going to be my 37th, and okay. Oh my God, this is going to be the theme song of your 35 anniversary. Everybody,

Michelle Newman 25:12

everybody, we all need to send Carolyn and Anne. Yes.

Carolyn Cochrane 25:15

Well, actually, maybe not after I share this story. That just everything's come full circle for me right now at this moment because I didn't even think of all this until right now. So this song is has a I have a distinct memory of it not from 1977 but from 1983. This is when I find out we're moving back to Texas from New Jersey, and of course, now I love New Jersey, and it's being sad for a whole other host of reasons, and friends, and boyfriend, and I'm supposed to go to college and all of that. And the day before I'm moving, one of my friends, a guy who I love dearly as a friend, he might have had different feelings for me, but we we were very close. He came with some roses and a card, and the card started with "Thanks for the times that you've given me. The memories are all in my mind, and now that we've come to the end of our rainbow, there's something I must say out loud. And then he wrote the chord. You guys, I'm just sitting here thinking. I'm talking all about how 1978 was all the the moving stuff and all of that, and and that's when the song came out, and then that was given to me to say goodbye when I'm moving back to Texas. And now I'm crying

Speaker 4 26:33

again. Yes.

Carolyn Cochrane 26:36

So Joe, if you're out there, just know that left an impression. And if you listen, just yeah, I'm thinking of you now, and that was so sweet. And of course, I was bawling then, and yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 26:47

that's such a John Hughes moment right there. The boy that you didn't have feelings for brings you roses, and just those lyrics, those lyrics kill me. Thanks for the times that you've given me, and now

Michelle Newman 27:00

that we've come to the end of our rainbow, works really well in that situation. That's why I don't like, even though that's really heartbreaking.

Kristin Nilsen 27:07

Yes,

Michelle Newman 27:07

that works well. I like to think of that instead of one person in the relationship as. Yeah, I mean, we had just

Carolyn Cochrane 27:13

graduated high school. We were, you know, everybody, you know, we were going off to college, and in my case, totally moving. But yeah, I just remember really crying hard when I read that, and yeah. So anyway, that's my.

Kristin Nilsen 27:26

And when you know these lyrics, when you know them, and you know where they come from, they're suddenly that much more impactful, right? Even the experience that you had previously, now there's even more impact given because Lionel Richie's. I'm just picturing Lionel Richie. I'm crying thinking about him sitting at his parents' anniversary party. And in those days, I mean, you have a 37th anniversary party for a reason. It means you might not make it to 40. Otherwise, why aren't you just waiting for 40? And so that was a good point, right? Why are you having a 37th? And so I'm just picturing Lionel Richie while he's while his dad is is is making this speech about his mother, and it just hit me so hard, and the and the lyrics make that much more sense. And now you realize it is like a goodbye song, like you said. Even though these people are alive and they're loving each other, it it feels it has the feeling of goodbye. It really does. And I'm trying to think too.

Carolyn Cochrane 28:21

I'm kind of crying too because I'm thinking when I was hearing it the first time. Again, I was I was saying goodbye. It didn't. I don't have the memory that I have from when Joe sent it to me, but it it's crazy now. Like again, I think of this entity, God, whoever, like looking down, going, "Oh, Carolyn, that song. For the exact reason that you are sad and crying now, you're going to hear this, or this song is going to become important again. For the the whole opposite reason, like things are going to work out so much so that in a few years you're going to be so sad. You're leaving this place that right now you are so sad to be going to right, and this song connects the two. And oh my gosh!

Kristin Nilsen 29:06

If you had had a crystal ball,

Carolyn Cochrane 29:07

oh, if only

Kristin Nilsen 29:08

if you had been 13, and if you had a crystal ball, and if you saw that moment of you with the roses and Joe and the lyrics, thanks for the thanks for the times that you've given me. The memories are all in my mind, and now that we've come to the end of our rainbow, and it's like you're going to create new

Carolyn Cochrane 29:27

memories, Carolyn, and you're going to have new friends. Yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 29:31

because you can't envision that at the moment in when you're in the middle of your pain. You can't. You're no matter what Lillian said. Lillian be like, "You watch Carolyn, you're going to find brand new friends, and you're gonna have such a good time, and you're like, "Fuck off, mom! Like you just there's no way you could ever envision that happening.

Carolyn Cochrane 29:47

And of all the songs, of all the things for Joe to have written in a card, I mean, here we're talking. You know, this is five years after the song was a hit. Yeah, it's not like it was still playing on the radio. So there's a lot there.

Speaker 7 30:00

Yes, you rose twice, three times a day. I

Speaker 8 30:10

love

Speaker 7 30:14

you. I know.

Speaker 4 30:33

I didn't expect to cry so much in this episode. I know you guys really. I thought that this would be therapeutic

Carolyn Cochrane 30:40

for me, but I think I need therapy after

Kristin Nilsen 30:43

this. Michelle, what is your third pick?

Michelle Newman 30:46

All right. Well, if we're talking about 1978 preservation, we have to talk about the Roller Rink and a song I will always associate with it, and that's Disco Inferno. When that opening beat dropped, I swear the disco ball in the roller rink started spinning faster, and we all became John Travolta on wheels. Yep, that beat just propelled you around the rink. So, Disco Inferno is a song by American disco band The Tramps from their 1976 studio album of the same name, and it reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Dance Club Songs chart in early 1977, but really had very limited mainstream success until 1978, when after it was included on the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. Boom! I feel like we should say drink, right? Yeah, the drink. Saturday Night Fever really resurrected this track for sure. It wasn't until the movie soundtrack dropped and dominated 1978. You literally could not go to the Roller Rink that year without hearing this song. Although, since I lived in three different states in 1978, I could not tell you with certainty that was the year it was big for me. Maybe it was more like 1979 because I don't know in all the different places I'm trying to figure out. Was I going where do I have time going to the roller rink with all the packing and unpacking, moving to different states and strawberry picking and shelling beans? But I know for sure that either I had it or my sister had the 45 because I have a very strong memory of it skipping, so we, my sister and I, would sing "Burn baby, burn baby, burn baby, burn baby, burn baby, burn baby, burn baby, burn baby. And I also remember having a very visual reaction to that song as a child, of because I knew that you know this is a fun fact. So the songwriter Ron Kersey, he wrote the song after watching the Towering Inferno. You know the 1974 disaster movie where this giant and I remember that movie being a big deal, right? And I knew what the word inferno. That's probably where that's how we knew it was Inferno. So I remember the song. I remember just having a very visual reaction to it, but thinking it was so clever, like Disco Inferno. Like we're all on fire. We're burning. You know. Yeah. I mean, this song is not associated with a specific memory, but just that kind of general roller skating rink, and except for I shouldn't say it's not. It is associated with specific memory because I specifically remember how it sounds. You know when that skip it goes, yeah, burn, bake, burn, baby, burn, baby, burn, baby, burn, baby. But yeah, so he, the the songwriter, yeah, he literally watched, you know, people escaping a burning building on screen and thought, "Hey, that's a great dance hook. But while we're happily doing, you know, crossovers and shooting the duck, trying not to fall on our butts to to burn baby burn disco inferno, you know, we're thinking it's a great song. It literally was about a building fire, building

Kristin Nilsen 34:21

on fire. But yeah, did

Michelle Newman 34:22

you guys love skating to that song? Do you remember the roll? Do you associate the roller rink with that song? Like for

Kristin Nilsen 34:28

sure. I mean, anything from Saturday Night Fever, I associate with the roller rink. Absolutely, yeah. And it's a

Michelle Newman 34:33

great re-listen. You know what? When I was choosing songs and looking down the list, I did much like you did, Kristen. I just there were so many I wanted to choose, but then I really had to think: Is that more like grown up Michelle loves that song, or has this one immediately jumped out at me as a oh, that's right? And when I when that that drum beat starts at the beginning, I was like, yeah, Goosebumps. All over, and I was woof screw dude right back to the roller rink, and listened to the song in its entirety again, and added it to several playlists and feel good playlists, happy playlist, you know, all that stuff. So my my serotonin was

Kristin Nilsen 35:14

there was a time when I seen

Michelle Newman 35:15

serotonin, all the neuro all the cosmic neurons, all the feel good stuff were firing from that song, yeah, there was a

Kristin Nilsen 35:21

time where where I said that was my favorite song of all time. Oh, but I, you know, but I switch it out. I switch it out, but it was it was certainly my favorite song from the soundtrack, and it is all about that opening. That opening is such a banger, and it just gets you. It gives you a little bit of time to get to the dance floor, right? Like, right, then again, get to the dance floor as fast as you

Michelle Newman 35:41

can. I love dance. And when you imagine the song at the roller rink, I like to imagine myself. You know, my what nine year old self. Think of it. You imagining yourself doing those fancy crossovers, and then like being able to like twirl front to back, back to front, as you're like keeping the beat. When in reality, I was probably like out of control, about to hit the carpeted wall, you know, because I tried to do one crossover. But yeah, it's a song that makes you feel like I can, I can disco skate. Sure, I can disk.

Carolyn Cochrane 36:27

Okay, everybody. Carol is just like move out of the way, everyone. Carol is coming to the microphone. Carol's coming in. Carol's coming to the mic. There might not be much more of a Carol song than the one I'm going to share right now, but again, because of exactly what Kristen described before, so many great songs of 1978, and it was the ones that gave me the the feeling, the you know thing in my throat, feeling in my stomach, and this song, I know you're on the edge of your seats, but I'm making you wait. Yesterday popped up also while I was on this run, and I was crying. I mean, you know, not bawling, but I was teary as I am running when "We're All Alone" by Rita Coolidge came through my ears. It's a great

Speaker 9 37:17

sound. And it may never end, so cry no more on the shore. A dream will take us out to sea forevermore, forevermore.

Carolyn Cochrane 37:41

Close the window, and I was singing it and everything.

Michelle Newman 37:45

That's a big misheard lyric for me, by the way.

Carolyn Cochrane 37:47

Oh, okay, there you go. It peaked at number seven. It's the cover of actually a Boz Scaggs song, and once you kind of know that, and it's very similar. I love Boss Boz Scaggs as well, but I'm trying to think as this song gave me that feeling. Why on earth? I mean, Rita Coolidge, but of course, I knew she was married to Kris Kristofferson because my mom teaches me, tells me all these things. And this is of the time, like the album that had "Love Lifted Me Higher" and the way you do the things you do. And here's my what I would think is why this song is so memorable to me. If you remember, I have shared with you all that my dad in 1976 purchased a quadraphonic stereo. This was a short-lived kind of era for stereo where we had these four giant speakers, and my dad would put them in four corners of the room, and he'd make us sit in the middle of the room, and he'd play like the Air Force thing, and you know airplanes were going over us, and it it had a turntable. It also had an eight track tape deck, and when my parents got that, they didn't obviously have any eight track tapes, so this was something that they were going to have to start accumulating. And my parents became members of the Columbia Record and Table Club before.

Speaker 4 39:02

Whoa!

Carolyn Cochrane 39:03

Yes, and if you recall, I've shared a few times the headphones like that came with the quadrifonic stereo were gigantic, and they like had these huge like vinyl suction things. But when they were on, they were like noise canceling. They were all the things you couldn't hear anything, and so here's how I'm thinking. This is an important song for me. I heard it on the radio, obviously, and when I'm looking at some of these eight tracks to play, I'm wanting to at least I'm not going to play like Montavani's Greatest Hits or I don't know, you know, some like other song. I haven't heard that

Kristin Nilsen 39:39

name for so long. Roger Whittaker, like these

Carolyn Cochrane 39:42

people that my parents like, I'm like, okay, which of these eight tracks would be something I would listen to? Which is, I think, why Anne Murray is such a part of my experience because that was right in my ears, and so when I was really sad about this move, and Kenley, my therapist, you. This about me. I just like to pull blankets over my head. I just like to get away from all the stuff that's making me feel yucky, so I don't have to feel it. And so I'm pretty sure that Rita was right in my ears, suctioned like with these headphones. I am so sad. I am mad at the world, and I'm all alone. And she is singing that to me, and I really do think that that is why this song does something to me because it's the only one that I can remember listening to, and kind of even holding the headphones and just basically sitting in a corner of my living room. There might have even been a blanket over my head at the time, just so sad and mad at the world, and it's right there, kind of like we're right in your ears right now. Listen, oh no,

Michelle Newman 40:47

that means one day they're going to have this awful, like post-traumatic disorder, you know, situation where they're like they hear our voice and they're like happy

Carolyn Cochrane 40:55

memories. But I think that my sadness was just enveloped in that moment, and so this song just brings it all out, and that's why I think I got teary yesterday on my walk.

Kristin Nilsen 41:09

Well, and there's that piece too where she says, "I'm all alone, and then she says it again, "I'm all alone. Oh God, that's right, and you can hear it though.

Carolyn Cochrane 41:20

You know, it's one thing to sing a song because I got to tell you, backtracking to my Barry Manilow summer of 78, he sings our Dan Hill song, and he doesn't do a good job. I don't get the the feeling. So there's also the way that an artist delivers the the lyrics of the song, and I feel like Rita Coolidge really did deliver those in such a way. I mean, maybe like Kris Kristofferson was cheating on her because I do think they end up getting bored. Yeah, they do stay married.

Michelle Newman 41:50

Here goes Carolyn with young Meredith.

Carolyn Cochrane 41:52

But you can just hear in her voice that feeling of you know of sadness of longing, and I was feeling that too. So it was again. I just absorbed it.

Kristin Nilsen 42:06

And there, and there's when you're going, especially when you're a kid. When you are, when you're dealing with something painful, you do feel like you're the only one feeling it, and there's nobody to help you. You're all alone. And it could have been. I mean, the whole song is an experience in and of itself, but she could have captured you with those two lines. I'm all alone. I'm all alone. Yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 42:27

and it's like Rita, you get it. Nobody else in this house does,

Speaker 4 42:30

but you do, Rita. Where are you with that hair? I love your hair, Rita. I loved her hair. Oh my god, I loved her hair. So beautiful light. Is the window come alive, and it will be alright? No reach of other land. Let it end. Let it all begin. Owe it to the wind, my love.

Kristin Nilsen 43:03

Okay, so we're I I don't have an alter ego. We have Marlene and we have Carol, and I don't I don't have one. But I know why.

Michelle Newman 43:10

I'm sorry, I know why. Because you already were a 45 year old woman when you were a child. Yeah, yeah.

Kristin Nilsen 43:17

It's not my alter ego. It's my actual self. Yeah, watching

Michelle Newman 43:21

Maud. Well, yeah. Well, this

Kristin Nilsen 43:23

will actually make sense with my with my third pick too, because this is a low key 1978. We could maybe do 1978 again and make it like the dance floor hits or the bangers or something. But today's, except for Disco Inferno, it's and Summer Nights. This is a low key. That's because that's why

Michelle Newman 43:39

I that's why I told you at the beginning. I really thought I hit the trifecta. Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did some balance.

Kristin Nilsen 43:46

I was. I didn't do balance at all. I just went with feeling

Carolyn Cochrane 43:49

balance that year. Yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 43:51

you didn't. You really didn't. Yeah. Okay. So my my third pick is the dog and the butterfly by heart.

Michelle Newman 43:58

Oh, that's a good sign. Right. I know. Do I know? I'm so embarrassed. I don't know. Yes, you do. Yes, you

Kristin Nilsen 44:05

do. I'm gonna play it for you because you have to know before I start talking. Okay, I might.

Carolyn Cochrane 44:11

This might be a real bad. Well, you didn't get it just

Michelle Newman 44:14

from that from my from my. I don't know. They've never

Carolyn Cochrane 44:17

sung dog in the butterfly.

Michelle Newman 44:20

That's so

Speaker 10 44:23

good.

Kristin Nilsen 44:30

Just wait, just

Speaker 10 44:31

wait. Wait till the hook. See the dog and butterfly up in the air. Like to fly, dog and butterfly.

Carolyn Cochrane 45:05

You got it. Am I a loser? Are you gonna no,

Michelle Newman 45:08

no, no, no, not actually. You're making no. You're actually validating how I have to feel in countless episodes we've had in the past almost six years, like KTL albums and stuff, where you guys are like, "What? What? How do you not know that? You know it. You yes, you know it. And then you're gaslighting me because I'm like, I don't think I do. You're like, yes, you do. So I feel invalidated right now that I wait. I actually knew a song that one of the two of you didn't know. And usually, I think when you get to the chorus, it'll pick up. But but you didn't. You really even at the chorus, you're like, no, I don't know this. Can I

Carolyn Cochrane 45:40

ask? Do you know when it, like, what months we would have been talking about? I don't know months, but I will tell

Kristin Nilsen 45:46

you this, and this could be why you've never. Why it really isn't familiar to you. It wasn't a huge hit. It only hit number 34, and that alone was a surprise. That they didn't expect it to chart at all. They were like, "What are you doing, Anne and Nancy Wilson? What do you what are you doing with this song? And so when it hit number 34, that was a huge win. That was a bonus. But a 34 song may not get played on your radio station. Oh, and it's kind of a it's a cult it's a cult hit. It really is. So if you haven't heard it, that may be why. And it could also be. I'm going to go out on a limb here. I think there's a big difference between what people on the West Coast listen to and what people on the East Coast listen to, and this is so West Coast. This is such a West Coast song. Okay, so all of that is to say, Carolyn, that you were forgiven for not knowing this song. It's just quite likely that it was not a big enough hit to ever be on your radar, and so when it popped up on this on the playlist that I was listening to in the bookstore, again, my heart got stuck in my throat, and it's one of those songs where I have to sit down. Like I can't, I can't do anything when this song is on. Again, so sweet and so childlike, and when the song is over, you're just a better person, or you're happier, or you're more able to show up for your life, like with a banana, you almost

Michelle Newman 47:02

can't describe it. You just it it lightens you. It lightens your soul.

Kristin Nilsen 47:06

Yeah, it's a soul. It's a song for your soul. This is not an earthly song at all. So I start digging into this song, and it's and it's blowing my mind. I'm like, yes, this is why I feel so good. This is why I feel so calm, and I'm vibrating on a higher level when the song is done, and I mistakenly think that that twisty feeling in my tummy is nostalgia. Like, oh, I loved this song when I was a kid. I'm. I think that I'm going back in time and I'm re-experiencing how much I loved the song when I was 10. But I literally woke up in the middle of the night and I was like, no, I did not love this song. I didn't love it. I was a little scared of this song and a little annoyed first because it was not Barracuda, and that was unacceptable to me. I think I think Barracuda was actually one of my picks for the 19 episode. Yeah, and I was so in love with Barracuda that I was not okay with this big song, this big swing from the hard-hitting barracuda to this very willowy dog and the butterfly, because I wanted barracuda. I don't know why it was scary to me, but it was. Maybe it was too. It was too ethereal, almost. But I think I figured it out a little bit because this song is incredibly meaningful to Anne and Nancy Wilson. This the meaning is very heavy and full of almost, almost New Agey and spiritual meaning a little bit, and it could be that I was uncomfortable with the otherworldly vibes of this song, almost like I got it too much and I was just a kid and I can't take it. I mean, I couldn't handle, I couldn't handle that much, and it's so interesting that it's speaking to me now in a way that makes me have to sit down. Like I think it's nostalgia, but it's not. So here's the story. So Anne Wilson is is is the singer. She's the lead singer, and she's telling the story of an old man who is sharing some of his wisdom with her, and he's asking her to look, see this dog, see this dog chasing the butterfly, watch the dog chasing the butterfly. The dog will never catch the butterfly because the dog can't fly, but it keeps trying, and when it fails, it just rolls on the ground and it and it laughs. It's just laughing. It's not failing. It just falls on the ground laughing. Anne Wilson got the idea for this song when she looked out her window and saw exactly that. She saw a dog chasing a butterfly, knowing not not knowing he can't fly. The dog doesn't know. I'm just going to keep trying to fly, and he's just happily determined anyway. And he doesn't internalize the failure. This is the important part. He falls down laughing. He doesn't internalize the failure. It doesn't frustrate him. He's just going to keep gambling about. And this song was meaningful for them, for both sisters, because it symbolized it symbolized their kind of dogged pursuit of being women in the rock industry. The sexism was intense. We talk about that a lot in our 1977 episode. That's what Barracuda is about. How they are preyed upon. They had to work. So hard to protect themselves from both predators and people who wanted to manipulate their image. There was intense pressure for Anne Wilson, the lead singer, to lose weight and to be sexier. And but they held firm. They held firm and they fought for who they were. And they their legacy is very strong as legit and respected musicians in the world of rock and roll, and that was not easy for them. And like I said, it was a surprise hit. No one expected it to do anything at all, but it eked into the top 40. And today, it's it's a fan favorite, and they sing it at almost every concert. If you're a heart fan, this is a favorite song of yours. But to the general public, maybe you don't know it.

Michelle Newman 50:41

Yeah, I'm. I guess amazed that both of you love it so much, and I'm like, I've never heard it. And then you played it. I don't think. I think my memory of it isn't from 1978. My memory is that my, you know, then after we then were back in Arizona, then the next summer we moved to Washington State, and it was my friend that I made there, who was became my very best friend, Lisa. She loved this song, so I think either she had the album, we played it at her house a lot when, and so I associate good feelings with that song too because it's, but it's also just a beautiful,

Speaker 6 51:21

yeah. I mean, vocal. It's a beautiful. The

Michelle Newman 51:23

vocals are beautiful. The music is beautiful. I certainly, I like. I mean, I like Heart just fine. But I wasn't buying their albums. I don't think I might have bought some 40 fives, but that one is not one. That's a to me. That's a deep cut. Probably to a lot of heart fans. That's not a deep cut, but to me, that's not one that I would have that I think of when I think of heart. So I'm glad you reminded me of it because I'm definitely going to put that on some playlists.

Kristin Nilsen 51:50

And I tried to choose another song. I really did, but I kept coming back to it. I was like, "Well, Kristen, just listen. Yeah, just listen. If something's telling you to do this song, then do this song. But I was trying to be more cerebral about it and pick something that was more balanced. But it just kept coming back. And then waking up in the middle of the night, right? Like Kristen, you hated this song. You hated it. How can you go from hating something to loving something? That's just very interesting to me. Yeah, it's not a coming around. It was right. It's something different entirely. Those are all of the songs that we chose as the ones that were important to us and the ones that we wanted to talk about, but like we said, the choosing was intense. It was very, very difficult, and so we always have runners up, the honorable mentions, and so we're just going to run through like the things that we have to make sure you know we considered. They're basically the songs we also considered. So let's just do a round robin. Round robin. Let's just say it. Yeah, this one was so

Michelle Newman 53:02

hard. I struggled. I

Kristin Nilsen 53:04

know.

Michelle Newman 53:04

I went back and forth with this song. I'm about to say. So this is my not. This is my first runner up. Okay, of everything. Now understand. I sort of like you did with Andy Gibb. I went ahead and cut all the rest of the Grease songs out of my runners up because that would be impossible. Otherwise, my entire runners up list would be all the Greece songs. So just we know from me talking about it, I loved it. This one though, you guys, and you might be like, "Well, that doesn't sound like Little Michelle, but I think I've in the past given you songs that don't, and that is "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions. Oh yes, oh yes, and that had everything to do with any time we would sing it out loud or on the playground or stomp your feet, boom, boom, on the bus, boom. Yes, oh yeah, and it's such a great song. To this day, that song starts, and I can't help but being filled with all the good. I get all the good feelings every

Kristin Nilsen 53:51

time, and when people do it in a stadium, like stamping their feet in a stadium.

Carolyn Cochrane 53:55

But I have, I remember specifically in 1978 doing it, and I think probably watching like cowboy games or something, and watching them sing it. But for me, that was my first runner. Yeah, Carolyn, what about you? I love that. Well, this was one that I actually started singing on my run yesterday. I love the nightlife. I love the body. And then you remember the action, action, like AX. x c h o n or something.

Kristin Nilsen 54:26

I don't even know what the words are, but I

Carolyn Cochrane 54:27

sing it anyway. Yes, I think I have the 45 to that. That's how much I um I love that song.

Kristin Nilsen 54:32

Okay, my this is embarrassing. My runners up. I don't have like three. You guys, I have a list that I'm just gonna have to read. I'm just gonna read the list because it's a long, long list. I'm and and I'll try and go fast. That being said, do you guys want to read your list instead of going round robin? Yeah, I

Michelle Newman 54:48

only have a few more, so I'll just read them. Why don't I just read them? Yeah. So I had to put Heydini on there because that was coming out of my sister's. My sisters. You guys all know the story, so that was not my. I

Kristin Nilsen 54:57

think that's but that could be like the PCPS. For the song of 1978, yeah. So Hedeni was

Michelle Newman 55:03

coming out of my sister, and I believe I picked that's rock and roll for my 1977 one of my 77 picks. But that's the soundtrack of that that house for me. Yes, is is that album? Yeah. Also, Goodbye Girl, and I've told you that you know I went and saw that in the movie theater with my mom, and Marlene was loving that song too.

Kristin Nilsen 55:21

Marlene, I don't even have an alter ego, but that's on my list too. Both of these are on my list, and then the last

Michelle Newman 55:28

one I have, I might have actually picked in 77, although I didn't do a deep dive to see if it was seven. I just feel like I've picked this for something before, and with apologies to Carolyn because I know she's not a huge favorite, but that's Copacabana. Yes, and that I mean, come on, that is always going to be one of my favorite Barry Bops. Yeah, so that had to be in my runners up.

Carolyn Cochrane 55:48

Okay, so Runners Up again, you guys. It was really, really hard, and always and forever. Oh my gosh, I love that song. Which one is Always and Forever? Always and Forever,

Kristin Nilsen 56:01

got it.

Carolyn Cochrane 56:02

Okay, this moment with you is just yeah. And then Carol is like in you know, don't make my brown eyes blue. She with the

Kristin Nilsen 56:12

hair. Oh my god! Yes, it

Carolyn Cochrane 56:14

was the hair. Down to our girls. You know, we had you needed me, Linda Ronstadt. We had Blue Bayou, so I think again this was my parents' influence a little bit. But you guys, unfortunately, it didn't make the list. I don't know how it didn't make the list because there were so many hits on this album that I can't believe one didn't make it. I'll sing you one, and maybe you'll remember. Do you remember the strong? I've sung it before. He's a dancer. Oh, does his nighttime walk in doing that funky funky rhythm, do that rock and roll. This would be one of the smash hits. Oh, should you be nickel 1978 album by the same name, dear sir? If you can see when he starts dancing,

Michelle Newman 57:04

picture those those straight up things those that have the like the inflatables outside of at the gas station or the car, yeah, and then they turn the air off and then start it and turn it off so it goes up and down. See, that's

Carolyn Cochrane 57:16

why dancing is not my strong point. But yeah, yeah, he's a dancer, so that's 1978. That is 1978. Yes, I can't believe you didn't choose that. Well, it wasn't on the list, the original list. Well, it doesn't have

Michelle Newman 57:31

to be on the heads. It just has to be your song. Yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 57:34

it was the whole album itself. But how could you

Michelle Newman 57:37

have chosen? I

Carolyn Cochrane 57:38

know it would have been really hard because I mean we've got yeah, and he's so fine. Was Christie's get was kind of the one little hit? Yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 57:45

her hit list was a hit lit.

Carolyn Cochrane 57:47

Yeah, I got to tell you, this is a little aside, but on Threads the other day, somebody had posted the the cover of this album, and I said, "Oh, this stopped us in our tracks. You can only imagine how we felt when we hosted, you know, a teen idol dinner, and look at this. And I posted the picture of Jimmy and myself. I think it was up to 300 and something. Like last time I checked, we're thrilled, and they thought they were like you, Kristen. They thought he had aged well. I can't say that I would necessarily agree, but you know what? It's a fun picture and little me dancing to he's a dancer, and then getting to meet him and then little white discounts.

Speaker 9 58:28

Yeah, that's

Carolyn Cochrane 58:30

right. And I think when I like introduced him at the teen idol thing, I think I might have even sang that a little bit. You got some points.

Kristin Nilsen 58:38

That's why he gave you his number. It's because you could sing and I don't sing it to everyone.

Carolyn Cochrane 58:42

Oh yeah, so there you go. Those were some of my other rapper readers.

Kristin Nilsen 58:46

This is embarrassing. You have like two and three, and I'm gonna I'm just gonna read read you the whole thing. But you've mentioned a lot of them already, so my list will be a little bit okay. The first one on my list is "So I'm bluer than blue. Sadder than sad. You're the only life this empty room has ever had.

Michelle Newman 59:08

Life without you is gonna be

Kristin Nilsen 59:12

bluer than blue. That's Michael Johnson.

Michelle Newman 59:18

We don't have to live.

Kristin Nilsen 59:26

Michael Johnson is his name. He was actually from Minnesota, and he comes through every one. Well, he died recently, but he used to come through and do concerts on occasion. Okay, then with a little luck, a little luck, a little luck by Paul McCartney and Wings. And then can we just give a shout out for "Feels So Good" by Chuck Mangione? I can't sing an instrumental; I don't know how to do it. But did anyone else think this was the Love Boat theme?

Carolyn Cochrane 59:51

No.

Kristin Nilsen 59:52

Honestly, am I the only one? I would get a little confused. I'm like, "Oh, it's the guy who did the Love Boat theme. Like, no, Kristen, this is something entirely. Okay, hot child in the city, and that's by Nick Gilder. I can't really sing Magnet and Steel by Walter Egan, but I loved Magnet and Steel, Short People by Randy Newman. It hurt my feelings. Yes, I just it was confusing. It was very confusing because I really liked the song. I loved the song, but I'm like, is he talking about me?

Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:32

Yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 1:00:32

like my

Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:32

mom wouldn't let us listen to it. Really, I mean, it came on. She turned it off. It was

Kristin Nilsen 1:00:36

really mean. It was mean. Love will find a way by Pablo Cruz, you said goodbye, girl by David Gates. God, I love that song. Out on the island. That's Jay Ferguson. Are you guys aware? I did not know this. That Jay Ferguson, first of all, he composed the score for The Office, and he played the guitarist in Kevin's police cover band called Scrantonicity. Do you remember Scrantonicity from The Office? Yes, yes, yes.

Michelle Newman 1:01:07

I do, and yeah. So Jane Ferguson, a Thunder Island fan, is

Kristin Nilsen 1:01:10

the guitarist. Okay, then Omk, who am I? Omk on Broadway by George Benson. That was a huge dance class warm up song. Like

Michelle Newman 1:01:22

I did, I did a I did an adult tap class tap dance to that song and a recital, and about 2000 jazz words all over

Speaker 4 1:01:29

the place. Yes, they said we did it in a

Michelle Newman 1:01:32

sorority. We wore navy with sparkles all over

Kristin Nilsen 1:01:36

it on Broadway. Okay, we talked about Hey Deanie, the PCPS pick of 1978. Don't I make your brown eyes blue? We got that. You and I, Rick James. I love Rick James. Okay, this one was really hard not to pick. I love Sentimental Lady by Bob Welch. Do you remember this song? I that's another one that like makes me feel funny. I feel a little bit funny, and I have to sit. I don't think I know that quiet for you, just so you can hear it. Bob Welch was he was in he was a lot of

Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:09

one hit wondery kind of people in this year with impactful songs.

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:14

There were a lot of impactful songs that were that would become classics, right? Okay, let me get sentimental lady because I really, really love this song. And then you had a follow up with it, which was Ebony Eyes. Sentimental lady, don't I could

Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:28

never be on a game show where they. I would know all the words to the song. I would probably not know the title, and I wouldn't know who sang it. Yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:35

but you're like, yeah, that one.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:38

Yeah, but yeah, this one I could sing all the words.

Michelle Newman 1:02:49

Yes, begun. Yes, love

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:55

this song.

Michelle Newman 1:02:56

So good.

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:57

Okay, so sentimental lady, ebony eyes, FM by Steely Dan. How about Life's Been Good by Joe Walsh? That's when I learned what a Maserati was. My Maserati does 185. I also love Heaven Knows by Donna Summer. And if anyone wants to duet with me at karaoke, I will do that song with you. Hey, what about King Tut? Oh, King Tut is 1978. I did not do Arizona. Move to Babylon, King Tut.

Speaker 4 1:03:26

King Tut. I've

Michelle Newman 1:03:27

told you guys so. The third move of 78 was where I vomited in the you know the library. That's Miss Toth. That's the teacher who loved all the King Tut stuff. And when we went to the roller rink, she would dance. She would skate with us to King

Kristin Nilsen 1:03:43

Tut. That was such a hallmark of our of. And you would go like this. Yes, right. Or you do this as you're roller skating. Yeah, which was hard. You're like, don't fall, don't fall. Yeah,

Michelle Newman 1:03:53

listeners, sorry, we're we're a Panama King Tut. King Tut moves. Yeah, the

Kristin Nilsen 1:03:57

name of the game by Abba. That was the same. That was on the same one of my favorite Alma songs. Me too. It's on the same album as Take a Chance on Me. And this started my dad's love affair with Benny and Bjorn. My dad to this day. Well, he knows everything that Benny and Bjorn have done, including like orchestral things and compositions they've done, and he knows all about Benny and Bjorn. Lights by Journey came out in 1978. Reunited, it feels so good. Shake your body down to the ground. What is? How does it go? That's the oh, shake your body. Shake your body down to the ground. What can we think of what it is? You're just saying, let's

Michelle Newman 1:04:38

dance and shout.

Kristin Nilsen 1:04:39

Well, that's what it is. Shake your body down to the ground. Shake it by down to the ground. Then you go down. Yes, that could be done. That was my favorite song on Hot Nights and City Lights. I love that, and that's also a huge. That's my number two roller skating song behind Boogie Oogie Oogie. Time passage. By Al Stewart, who did the Year of the Cat. That was hard not to choose. And last but not least, Lot of Love by Nicolette Larson. I love that. Love just love Nicolette Larson. I do too. And did you know this song was written by Neil Young?

Michelle Newman 1:05:17

No, no.

Kristin Nilsen 1:05:17

It's a Neil Young song, and he had it on a demo tape. She was a backup singer for Neil Young. He had it on a demo tape on the floor in his car, and she picked it up and put it in the tape deck. And she's like, "This is an awesome song. Why don't you record this? And he's like, "I don't like it. Do you want it? And she took it and she took that song all the way to number

Speaker 11 1:05:38

one.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:06:01

I want everybody that's listening right now to go and find a playlist, make a playlist. I don't care. Top 119 78, and I guarantee you, you're going to be able to sing more than 80% of the songs. Yes, and you don't even know you. You don't even know the words.

Kristin Nilsen 1:06:18

Yeah, it's true. It's true. That's it, everybody. You have now experienced 1978 through the music that influenced us, Carolyn, Kristen, and Michelle. And it was a lot. We can all agree it was a lot. I wonder if it was a lot for you too. Let us know. Are there songs from 1978 that are like? Are there songs for you that are indispensable? Are they an indispensable part of your childhood? Let us know, or maybe they're an indispensable part of who you are today. Let us know. It's hope is your love, right,

Michelle Newman 1:06:48

Brian? You're not allowed to call it.

Kristin Nilsen 1:06:50

It's really only in looking backward. Carolyn learned today that in having these conversations that we can really fully recognize how impactful some moments in time were, and when you do the math, on the moment that we were all singing together to Saturday Night Fever and Grease and the artists that would become icons and the songs on the radio that would become classics, all at the same time, I mean, no wonder I think I was at my peak in 1978. Thank you so much for listening today, and we will see you next time.

Michelle Newman 1:07:28

And before we sign off, we want to extend a massive, heartfelt thank you to our incredible Patreon community. You are truly the driving force behind the Pop Culture Preservation Society, and we couldn't keep this nostalgia machine running without all of you. And if you love what we do and you want to help us keep preserving these pop culture treasures, we'd love for you to join our Patreon family. By coming on board, you'll unlock awesome perks like exclusive sneak peeks of upcoming episodes, behind the scenes content, Zoom happy hours and more. Wouldn't you guys say more? Yeah, and more! Exclamation! It's it's super easy to support us. Just click the direct link in our show notes, or head over to Patreon.com/slash Pop Culture Preservation Society to check out our tiers. And today we're giving a special shout out to these patrons, hey Kelly, she's our newest patron. Hi, Kelly. Thanks for having us. Thanks, Kelly. We have Kevin, Melanie, Sharon, Felicia, Carmy, Sheila, Christina, Linda, Jill, Erica, Rosarita, MP, Cheryl, Susie, Mel, and guess what? My friend Julie, who I've talked about before, she listens to every episode. Julie, I hope you're listening because we want to wish you a happy 60th birthday. She just recently celebrated her 60th, so happy birthday, Julie! Love you, miss you.

Kristin Nilsen 1:08:56

In the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast, courtesy of the cast of Three's company, two good times,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:09:02

two happy days, two little house on the prairie. Cheers! Cheers! I love the nightlife. I like to call it on the top

Speaker 11 1:09:12

line.

Kristin Nilsen 1:09:15

The information, opinions, and comments expressed on the Pop Culture Preservation Society podcast belong solely to Carolyn, the crushologist, and Hello Newman, and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, there is always a first time. The PCPS is written, produced, and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional WJM Studios and our beloved Mary Richards. Nanu Nanu, keep on truckin' and may the force be with you.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:38

Here we keep moving on.