K-Tel’s Music Express! 20 Original Hits! 20 Original Songs!

Kristin Nilsen 0:00

And it starts with that, like,

Michelle Newman 0:07

Wait, okay, cuz you know what I was like, what is the song until you just did that? Yes, absolutely, no, I still don't know it.

Unknown Speaker 0:18

Come on. Get happy. Get

Unknown Speaker 0:23

happy is what we'll be bringing we'll make you happy.

Michelle Newman 0:30

Welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheel generation who really wish they were Oscar Mayer wieners or wondered why they were supposed to wish they wanted to be Oscar

Carolyn Cochrane 0:44

Mayer wieners. 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.

Kristin Nilsen 0:56

And today, we'll be saving the 70s version of mixtapes with a tribute to the most beloved K tel record of all time. No, it's not full tilt, it's not hot nights and city lights. It's not even 24 great truck driving songs. It's music Express. I'm Carolyn, I'm Kristin,

Michelle Newman 1:17

and I'm Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationists.

Speaker 1 1:23

K 12 Album of the Year. Stars, 20 original hits, 20 original superstars, disco queen, Thelma, Houston,

Speaker 1 1:42

Cal Kansas, the star of Starsky and Hutch. David soul, Steven Bishop, kiss Atlanta, rhythm section, Chilliwack and Cliff Richards. Mary McGregor, The Jacksons in Jackson Jacksons stars a sensational new album, 20 original hits, 699, from K 12 tape or cassette.

Kristin Nilsen 2:11

Way back in 2021 we released an episode devoted to the only thing that I actually collect. A subsection of my vinyl record collection is devoted to K tel albums. It is possibly the most Gen X thing one could collect, musically, visually, artistically, textually, culturally. And if you're having trouble picturing them or for you're like, what is K tel I don't know. Maybe you didn't have a TV or something. K tel records were compilation albums full of the hit songs of that very moment, the songs that were actually played on the radio right at that moment. And how did we know about them? Because they were advertised incessantly on TV.

Michelle Newman 2:55

Oh yes, they were 20 original hits, 20 original stars,

Carolyn Cochrane 3:00

incessantly, either really, really late at night or in those afternoon reruns that we would watch, you know, when we got home from school, those were the two places that I remember them playing incessantly, and I needed to have it those albums.

Kristin Nilsen 3:14

Then, yeah, and they were, they would scroll the songs. The songs would scroll up like credits, the different titles of the songs, and you would get what, three seconds of each one, like, knock three times and then the next song.

Michelle Newman 3:29

It's not a lot less than you actually get on the album.

Kristin Nilsen 3:32

Yeah, that's true. All of the songs are really truncated,

Michelle Newman 3:36

yeah, I just remember, for me, the the hallmark of the K tel commercial is that man's voice, right? 20 original, 20 original stars, and then he'd be like, you know, you get this album for 599, 699, eight.

Kristin Nilsen 3:52

Track, so urgent.

Carolyn Cochrane 3:56

Everything go. Everything was so quick. And then they list the stores like, you know, at Kmart, at Bosco, it would list places that you think, oh, where's that? Because you didn't recognize

Kristin Nilsen 4:09

the name. I don't know what Kroger is.

Michelle Newman 4:12

Did you know that? Early on, they would say not available at any store because they weren't right away. Eventually they got sold in retail stores. But at first they would be like, you know, you know that, yeah, the do all the little Elton, John the captain and tail Charlie Daniels, because it was always the weirdest mix. And then he'd be like, and many more. And then it would be like, yeah, or but wait, right? There's more. It's like, a whole.

Kristin Nilsen 4:38

It's a whole. There's a whole lexicon that the K tel album infomercial. They're the first infomercials, really, that they created, which you just said it, Michelle, But wait, there's more. It wasn't just Elton, John, Charlie Daniels, the Pointer Sisters, But wait, there's more. And they could do that like five or six times in a commercial. But in addition to, but wait. There's more. And in addition to 20 original hits, 20 original stars, you also had as seen on TV or never before seen on TV, yeah, and not available in stores or only available at Kroger and Walgreens. You know what? It just went on and on.

Michelle Newman 5:18

And as a you know, eight year old watching these, a 10 year old watching these, the urgency in his voice, also the three second song, and a lot of them. I was watching some of the commercials on YouTube this morning. They just show their face, right? They show like an album cover. But also the the names of all the songs are scrolling. There's so much going on. So 10 year old, I was frantic, and the only thing I knew to do is order it like they would have the

Carolyn Cochrane 5:52

800 number, but there'd also be the address that you could write to. I remember trying to feverishly Write the address, you know, on a piece of paper. Not that I'd be able to get it anyway, but it would go so fast, and I'd be so worked up. And sometimes I didn't get the whole thing. It was like I had to wait till I saw the commercial again and grab my little piece of paper and get the, you know, the zip code,

Kristin Nilsen 6:13

leave the paper and the pencil right by the TV, sit there until it comes on again and but I

Michelle Newman 6:19

mean, that is good targeting for us as children. Because, yeah, it was like I said. It was so frantic. We were so afraid we were missing something, because it was all going so fast. Yeah, we didn't want to miss out, especially when, even if only two of those songs were favorite songs of ours, we even already had the 45 maybe we even already had them on an eight track. We didn't care. We needed them on this album. That's right, they were all together.

Carolyn Cochrane 6:44

It's like the ultimate Love Boat episode where all of our artists are having these crossovers, Captain and Tenille and seals and Crofts and the Pointer Sisters, along with, you know, Kenny Rogers, all is well in the world.

Michelle Newman 6:59

That's the best. That's the best, like subtitle to a Kato record I've ever heard. The Love Boat of albums.

Kristin Nilsen 7:06

Yes, it totally is. And you're like, who's gonna be on it this time? And even the titles, even the titles of the albums, were so urgent, everything sounds like it has an exclamation point at the end. You had right on out of sight, Full Tilt, high energy, star power. My favorite is Mind Bender. Like, what's mind bending about it? That's a good one. I like bender.

Michelle Newman 7:32

This one's specialized. I have a list of some some of the titles, and this one's specialized in soul and R B, because don't forget, some of them were purely just country, that's right. Most of the rocks, like, we, like, mixed it all together. You just got all of it, right? You might get music box, Music Box dancer with, you know, like, Devil Went down to Georgia or something. But this one specialized in soul and RMB, and it's called super bad,

Kristin Nilsen 8:00

super better, or something

Michelle Newman 8:01

like that, super worse, circuit breaker. Circuit Breaker is actually circuit breaker.

Kristin Nilsen 8:07

There's a circuit breaker. There's a lot of electricity.

Michelle Newman 8:10

Look at this one, Starburst, I love that one. And it's just, and it's just the covers. Can we fireworks on it? Covers? Because look at, yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 8:19

that's the thing that is so 70s about it, Starburst, I love so much that I have actually bought it like three times. Oh my god. Carolyn is now holding dynamic sound, dynamic sound. And look

Michelle Newman 8:30

inside, got like, sound waves on it. Uh huh. Sexy one is, remember that machine, and it's a

Carolyn Cochrane 8:36

big robot. It has sexy mama and then paper roses,

Kristin Nilsen 8:40

oh my gosh, right next to each other.

Carolyn Cochrane 8:43

Well, I've got, oh

Kristin Nilsen 8:46

my God,

Carolyn Cochrane 8:48

I've got the Hudson brothers on Out of sight, along with the DeFranco family and cool and the gang and the Kiki D band. So before Elton John and Kiki D were together, there was the Kiki D band. She's listed right after Elton, John on the list of folks there.

Kristin Nilsen 9:05

That's probably not amazing. So we talked about this a little bit in our first K tel episode. But Dave Grohl, the front man, the drummer for Nirvana, the front man for Foo Fighters, he has praised K tel for exposing him to music when he was a child, specifically the song Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter group.

Kristin Nilsen 9:38

This is the song that made him want to be a musician, and this came on his first album, which was blockbuster. He had Blockbuster and his mom, who was a school librarian, they didn't even have a turntable at home. His mom would check out the turntable at school and bring it home for him so he could listen to Blockbuster. He has said blockbuster changed his. Life, and from blockbuster, we get Nirvana and we get Foo Fighters. I mean, it's just like your brain just explodes, and Dave is not alone. Because these records really kind of became a vehicle for how we discovered new music. It's basically the precursor of the mixtape. Because we couldn't make mixtapes. There was no way to have songs from different artists on one medium. We needed K tel, it was life or death, right? And it saved us from having to buy 2040 fives for $1 a piece. So instead of paying $20 for all those 40 fives, you pay 499 so what was the most popular K tel album? Well, if only we knew technically. But if we can judge by the internet and how often people talk about it, music Express is by far the most beloved K tel album, just ask my friend Amy, who chose to pose for a picture with music Express instead of her first true love, Donnie Osmond, during I had this crush party, I invited everybody over, and everyone was grabbing their albums of their first crushes. Take this big picture. And she's like, can I pose with music Express? Because she loves she's in love she's in love with music Express. And I swear to God, the look on this happens all the time. It's not just my friend Amy who is in love with music Express. I have witnessed people come face to face with music Express for the first time since 1975 when it was released. And the look on their face is no different than if you show them a picture of their first crush, like they are in love with me.

Michelle Newman 11:45

So much to them, right? They have so many memories tied to it,

Carolyn Cochrane 11:51

probably the first hotel album for a lot of Gen Xers, because it's 1975 75 Yeah, so you think about it like I'm the oldest Gen X, and that would have made me 10. So it

Kristin Nilsen 12:03

could be your first album

Michelle Newman 12:04

that's prime, certainly, first albums, and also prime. I'm getting away from my Disney albums and starting out to really want to branch out into actual music that's on, you know, on the radio

Kristin Nilsen 12:22

like that is not just what my parents like. And for me, this particular compilation, music Express, is so transportive. I don't know if that's a word, I feel like I'm making it up. It transports me. It's like a time travel word. It is a visceral time travel experience. For me, when I listen to this album, I almost tingle, I swear to god, I almost tingle with familiarity, like I'm in the same room where I listen to these songs the first time. We need a word for that. It's not who Skir do. What is it when you're like, oh my god, I'm there, I'm I'm totally it's, it's getting man alone a little. It's a little

Michelle Newman 13:00

bit like being but it's more like, it's sort of like you're transportive, right? Yeah? Well, we'll think of that our listeners, you know, send us a message and help us with that one. Yeah, help

Kristin Nilsen 13:10

us come up with that word. And I think it is what you were talking about, Michelle. I think it's because in 1975 I was seven, and this is, like, my musical coming of age. This was when I was starting to listen. I know is that unusual?

Michelle Newman 13:23

Again, new listeners. Kristen Benjamin has Benjamin Button to life. So when she was seven, she was really like 38

Kristin Nilsen 13:31

I was 39 when I was seven, but this is when I'm really starting to make my own choices about music. I am buying music with my birthday money. I am listening to the I have my own radio. I'm listening to the radio by myself. I'm just not passively listening to whatever my parents put on the turntable or put on the radio. It's a big deal in a person's life, and I kind of want to challenge everybody to figure out what that what age that was for you, and then see what music corresponds to it. See if you have any feelings about that. So I feel like the songs on this album, as varied as they are, there are a lot of songs that are kind of haunting just and we'll, we'll tease that out a little bit more as we go song by song. We'll name those songs later. But it's, it's really weird. It's like a haunting vibe in the midst of like disco bops and story songs. It, even though we don't know about the sales figures, if this actually was the biggest selling one, it does have one of the highest number of charting songs on it. It says, it says on the cover, it says, oh, top 10 hits. I don't think that's true, according to my research, that is verifiably false, but nonetheless, it does have a lot of chart hits, more than some of the others. But what I do know, this is verifiable somehow, and I don't know how people tracked this. It is the most searched K tel album online when people want to find. And I'm guessing that's because they had it and they want to find out what was their album.

Michelle Newman 15:03

Is that the one that you didn't have for so long?

Kristin Nilsen 15:07

No, that was hot lights and city lights. Oh, yes, I actually have three copies of this. And part of the reason that I have three copies is because it's so pretty this album.

Carolyn Cochrane 15:18

Also, I think the art on so many of those album covers was so happy, and so like, when you said, people get this visceral response, I know for me when I saw that album, and also, sorry, the dynamite one, or whatever it was

Kristin Nilsen 15:34

called sound, yeah, it's the it's the

Carolyn Cochrane 15:37

of the album and the fonts and the color and the design, that's what really hits me, like I have to go and look and see what the songs were. But it's that album cover that jolts me back and says, Oh yeah, you owned that. You stared. Yes.

Michelle Newman 15:51

Do you guys remember? So hold up your music Express album, Kristen and so just for the people just listening, when we had to do that in art class. Like with our name, we had to write our names in like, block letters, and then we had to put a point, and then you put a point at the bottom or at the top of your paper, and then you used your ruler, and from your block self, see, like from every edge, it goes down. Me and my friends, we did that with everything for about, you know, two months or something. It was like, the on all our notes on all our Yeah, it was really fun.

Kristin Nilsen 16:25

We're gonna make our own art projects. This is my kind of art project. If it involves a ruler, I can do it.

Michelle Newman 16:30

So here's what I want you guys to do, and then we're gonna, we are gonna take pictures. So let's put the cover of music express just on social media this week. Yeah, we're all gonna write our names and block letters, I think this might do you, and if it doesn't, I'm so sorry you didn't get this in art class. And I hope that there's some people listening going, Yes, we used to do that in elementary school, too. And then you can do all those rainbow colors like you did. We would write like, words of your, you know, like the name of your crush or whatever. And so we're

Kristin Nilsen 16:57

gonna do our names, and I'm just gonna just for the because, again, it's not a visual medium. I'm going to describe it very specific. Very specific. Yes, the background is a great color. The block letter saying music Express are bright yellow, and then you have these rainbow colors like Michelle described, all coming out of each letter, coming down to a point. And then underneath music Express, it says 20 original hits, 20 original stars. And then it lists all of the people on the album. And here's the hallmark of the K tel album. You have the little portholes. You have the little circles with the artists on it, Love Boat. This is The Love Boat portion of our album cover, yes. And so I'll just give you a little preview on the copy of this one. And I'm telling you, these portholes sold these albums. If you were a Walgreens and you saw Andy Gibb and a little porthole, you're like, Mom, I need this.

Carolyn Cochrane 17:48

I'm boarding that shit.

Kristin Nilsen 17:49

Yes, I'm gonna board that shit. So on the portholes, on music Express, we have Phoebe snow, the captain, and Tenille Elton, John and 10 CC. That's just a little teaser, just a little teaser, just to wet your whistle, just to wet your whistle. And now we have got to get moving on this album, because we have 20 original songs and 20 stars to talk about. It's gonna take us a long time, and we're gonna go through we're gonna go in order. Side one, all the songs in order. Side two, all the songs in order. And so starting with side one, our first song is probably, I think it was the biggest song of 1975 Michelle, you're gonna tell us.

Michelle Newman 18:29

I think it was too we did recently. One by recently, I mean, a couple months ago, back in 2025 I think in the fall, we did a whole celebration of 50 Years of pop culture things. And I believe this was the number one song of 1975

Michelle Newman 19:02

sweet talking girl, and that's love will keep us together. By the captain and Tenille, I think, like you guys, my memories of this song, you know, I'm only five and six years old at the time, but loving it, singing it gleefully, especially that I will, I will be them.

Michelle Newman 19:24

Now so, so I just have memories of belting this song out. The song was written by Neil sadaqa and Howard Greenfield. It made a huge leap. This is so incredible. The song made a huge leap. At one point it was number 98 on the Billboard, hot 100 and in just nine weeks, it went from 98 to number one. Wow, isn't that crazy? I think that's kind of unprecedented.

Kristin Nilsen 19:50

It is. It is an amazing song. It's like the earworm of the century.

Carolyn Cochrane 19:54

Yes, I mean that I would say that is the song, If I had to say of my gen, Ed. Growing up. I mean, I have that album because I saw it right when I was looking up my K tel albums, and I would sing the hell out of that with those giant headphones, and my dad would come in say I was too loud.

Michelle Newman 20:13

That sounded Yes, I just think there's a solid handful of songs that completely take you that word we need, transport you right back and that way back machine. And this is one of them. It stayed at number one for four weeks. I think this is really cute. In her memoir, Toni Tenille said that the first time she ever heard her own voice on the radio, it was this song, and she was driving in her car, and she was so overwhelmed, she says she nearly drove her car off the road. She had to pull over into a gas station to calm down. So I thought that was That was adorable. The song won Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1976 but Darryl Dragon, as you know, is the captain. Did you know that on this song, he actually played every single instrument except for the drums? I did

Carolyn Cochrane 21:08

not know that either he's like a Richard carpenter or something.

Kristin Nilsen 21:11

Well, you know, his father was a big band leader. I did not know that. Yeah, I did not know that Carmen Dragon, his dad's name is Carmen Dragon, and I Why do I know this? Because my grandpa worked with him, yeah, and

Carolyn Cochrane 21:25

asks us, like we all would know that well, you know that his grandfather was or his father and like that? That's just common knowledge. I learned something

Kristin Nilsen 21:37

all the time. Rainbows are

Michelle Newman 21:39

flying out of everybody's listening device. Listening Device right now. And we've talked about this before that I did not know until this past fall when we did our 1975 episode. But during the songs fade out, Tony Tenille can be heard saying, Sadak is back, and that's a tribute to Neil Sedaka, who wrote the song, and because he made a huge comeback in the mid 70s, and I'm gonna mention that briefly in just a little bit. Okay, two other

Kristin Nilsen 22:05

things that I do, but I do have to add on the K tel album, they fade it before sadaqah is back.

Michelle Newman 22:11

Well, that's really sad cut all those songs. Yeah, I know this is the best. I did not know this until this morning. Did you guys know there is a parody in 2009 Neil Sedaka recorded a humorous spoof called Lunch will keep us together for his children's album.

Kristin Nilsen 22:29

Wait, Neil sadacre had a children's album? Yes, he does.

Michelle Newman 22:33

He says lunch, lunch will keep us together. There's no meal that's better.

Speaker 2 22:42

Just give me a fork and a spoon. It's almost noon. Make me some food, cause I wanna eat sooner. Hungry. I can hear my tummy. Lunch keep us together.

Michelle Newman 23:00

Lunch. Keep us together, hot dog, mac and cheese, french fries and ketchup all around when the others say they're stuffed, who's still chowing

Michelle Newman 23:21

it down and chew forever. So yes, has a 2009 children's album, and I think now I need the I need, I must find it. And I need, I need all the songs in my life.

Carolyn Cochrane 23:35

Neil sadaka, I think that would be an awesome kids album.

Kristin Nilsen 23:39

I'll remind people quickly of the story that I've told 9 million times about the about hearing level keep us together in a casino in Reno when I was seven. That's a

Carolyn Cochrane 23:48

song right there, Captain

Michelle Newman 23:51

and to Neil and Lucille.

Kristin Nilsen 24:00

Like people might think that I went to a concert at a casino. That was not a thing. Then, no, no, no, I left the diner and went into the lounge with my four year old brother alone because my parents were playing blackjack, and we went to see some people that I thought were the captain of Neil. They were not okay. Are we ready to move on to the next one?

Michelle Newman 24:18

Yeah, but I am gonna write a song about that, because I do like the whole I thought it was the captain and Chenille, but it was really just Jerry and Lucille.

Kristin Nilsen 24:26

Yep, Lucille and her bowl cut. Next on our album, we have swearing to God by Frankie Valli. You have to have the apostrophe. It's not swearing to God. It's swearing to God, and that's how it's written on the album. What you don't know, swearing to

Michelle Newman 24:44

God? Maybe

Carolyn Cochrane 24:50

I can bring it up. Okay, hold on, I got hurt. So good. And there

Kristin Nilsen 24:56

is an apostrophe. It is, s, W, E, A, R, I. In apostrophe, swears. Yeah, of course it is because I don't want anyone to make a mistake and say swearing No. And I remember when I was a kid, I was like, Oh, he's swearing

Carolyn Cochrane 25:14

your little disco beat in there. You

Kristin Nilsen 25:29

nothing, yet nothing.

Carolyn Cochrane 25:30

I'm sorry. Oh, wait, hold on. I meant I want that

Kristin Nilsen 25:35

chorus, yeah,

Michelle Newman 25:40

oh yeah, yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 25:41

yeah. Now she's got it okay,

Kristin Nilsen 25:44

but you're right. Carolyn, this has a very distinct I never if you had asked me this, I wouldn't have been able to tell you this until I'm listening with these ears. There is a very distinct disco beat, and on this album, you can see that disco did not start with Saturday Night Fever. This is 1975 and some even say that it was on its way out at the end of 1975 and you should be dancing, which is from Saturday Night Fever. Is a recycled Bee Gees song from their 1975 album. I think it's 1975 main course, the biggest disco hit of all time, is not from, literally from Saturday Night Fever. But here's another, just a little tiny factoid about swearing to God. Swearing to God. So when, of course, when you have an album, one of the big benefits of having an album is what reading it right? And so you just like, who are the names who did this? And on swearing to God, it says case am music, C, A, S, E, y, E, M, and so just tell you, like visually. What does that say to you?

Michelle Newman 26:52

Casey casem, yeah, I immediately think Casey, Casey, almost like a combination of his name,

Kristin Nilsen 27:00

that's right, it's case am music. And so I also immediately thought Casey casem. And so I'm like, Let's google it. Let's see if Casey Kasem had something to do with this song. I can't say that I have any information for you. However, when I put in case am music, Casey casem is the only thing that comes up.

Michelle Newman 27:20

Did he have, like some sort of production label or something like that, like a company?

Kristin Nilsen 27:26

Find out for another episode. I only did the first page.

Michelle Newman 27:31

Let's put a pin in that. Yes, everyone pin in that. Move on.

Carolyn Cochrane 27:54

On the next song on music Express is perhaps one of my favorites that can do that transportive thing, and that would be get down tonight by Casey and the Sunshine Band. Get down tonight.

Carolyn Cochrane 28:22

That's song along with, that's the way I like it and shake your booty were the soundtrack of my roller rink days. Okay, totally. I mean, if you have to say who is the artist you remember the most from roller skating, it would be Casey and the Sunshine Band. And as I was thinking about the song today and kind of singing it along. You know, it was really pretty overtly sexual for a top 40 song that a 10 year old would be belting out at the roller ring, because you've got do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight. So I can just see, and I think we would go down, like as we were rollers, yeah.

Michelle Newman 29:01

Or you could just kind of do the dip, yeah, roll roller skate, yeah, sorry buddy. You guys, I keep for you can't see us going a

Carolyn Cochrane 29:09

bunch of like, you know, nine and 10 year old kids just make a little, it's just funny. Just flirted with that line of being a little too much, but they got to play it on, you know, on the radio, it was Casey, and the sunshine band's first number one hit reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1975 many historians point to it as one of the songs that pushed disco out of clubs and into suburban America. Okay, that's important. Yes, I think. And that's so true when I think about what would be, I wouldn't have even thought it was disco, in a way, because somehow I always think disco is what you just said, Kristen, Saturday Night Fever and all of those songs. But that didn't happen until 1977 so here we are doing our thing, and then we just said that Frankie Valley song had a disco beat. So I think we're starting to see that. Yeah, musicality in a lot of our songs

Kristin Nilsen 30:03

on mainstream radio. It's coming into the suburbs. It's in our homes. It's on a seven year old record player, exactly.

Carolyn Cochrane 30:10

So really, probably one of our the first exposure for a lot of us, Gen Xers, to that whole disco culture. And I think, from what I have noticed on social media, I think Casey and the Sunshine Band are still at least. Casey's still around doing singing these songs, like on 80s cruise or 70s cruises, I guess, and stuff like that. So the

Kristin Nilsen 30:28

casino, the casino tour, speaking of casinos,

Carolyn Cochrane 30:32

that's right, but not big casinos that you've heard of

Michelle Newman 30:36

when you said it was the when you said it was a soundtrack to your roller skating, or your roller days. I, I think I just thought of the word I was, whooshker.

Kristin Nilsen 30:48

Dude back. Yes, you are you're.

Michelle Newman 30:55

Yeah, yeah, dude, when you started saying that and singing it and listing the other case. He saw Casey and Sunshine Band songs, I felt like I was at the roller ring, like I could, like, he, like, remember, like, even when you'd walk with like, all four wheels, like, down, like you, that was really sound, right? Yes, but I was whooshger Dude, back to

Carolyn Cochrane 31:20

that wins. I love it.

Michelle Newman 31:22

Okay, we're perfect. Everybody. Write it down. It's hard.

Carolyn Cochrane 31:24

It's part of our trade market. Right after this. Dude, okay, yes, nobody.

Kristin Nilsen 31:29

Side one is, we're gonna spend more time on side one, I think inside two, this is definitely a banger. Side one is a banger, and side two is like, we'll see. Carolyn, what's next?

Carolyn Cochrane 31:40

So next coming up is Philadelphia, Freedom took me knee high.

Carolyn Cochrane 32:02

Too old. Took me, and I'll be honest you guys, that would not have been a song that I probably would have chose as one of my favorites in 1975 but because, as you all know, my high school, eighth grade and high school were all spent in the suburbs of Philadelphia, I just have such fond memories of this song. It was kind of the anthem of the city and for all the sports teams, and I love how joyful and upbeat it is. So that song does have a special place in my heart. And as much as I love it, I had no idea about its origins, so I don't know anything. I'm going to take you to Philadelphia Freedom School. Are you guys ready? Yeah, because why would this

Kristin Nilsen 32:37

guy from England be singing about Philadelphia? Okay, right. Okay, fill us in.

Carolyn Cochrane 32:42

So this song was released in February of 1975 as a standalone single. It did not appear on an Elton John album until his greatest hits, Volume Two in 1977 two years later. So actually, when you think about it, the first time Philadelphia freedom appeared on an album, it was music Express.

Kristin Nilsen 33:02

Oh my god, yes, it is yes. Otherwise you bought the 45

Carolyn Cochrane 33:07

The song reached the top of Billboard's Hot 100 in April of 75 and stayed there for two weeks, becoming one of Elton's biggest hits of the 70s. Okay, here's why he wrote it. Elton wrote the song as a tribute to tennis legend Billie Jean King and her World Team Tennis team called the Philadelphia freedoms. What? Yes, I had no idea. I did not either, and the 45 label even reads with love to Bjk and the sound of Philadelphia.

Kristin Nilsen 33:39

Oh, I just got total nibble lightning. How about that apple? You guys? My god,

Carolyn Cochrane 33:46

yes, I cannot.

Kristin Nilsen 33:47

That changes everything, doesn't it? Though? Yes, it changes every

Carolyn Cochrane 33:51

specifically written for that moment, standalone song, not part of an album or anything. And we can also attest to the fact that the original version is not the one we hear on music Express, because the original recording is about five minutes and 38 seconds, and at first radio some radio stations refused to play it because they said it was too long for radio playlists. But its popularity overrode that, and obviously it did get its time on the airwaves, and we get it being a top hit of the of Elton's career, and now, when he tours, actually, is he touring anymore? Are we on

Kristin Nilsen 34:31

his he had his finale, his farewell, family, his farewell. Yeah. Wasn't it a Dodger Stadium or something?

Carolyn Cochrane 34:37

Yeah, I think that's right. Well, when he used to tour, and if the city he was in, if the rhythm and the musicality worked for the name Philadelphia, he would say the name of that city. So,

Carolyn Cochrane 34:55

yeah. So those are my fun Philadelphia. Freedom facts. And that was great alliteration, wasn't it? My five Philadelphia freedom

Kristin Nilsen 35:04

facts, well, and there's, there's something notable on Philadelphia freedom on the album cover, and that is that it says that it's by the Elton John band, not by Elton John it's by the Elton John band. I'm like, What the hell is this? So I look it up, and it says, basically, well, he just wanted to attribute it to all of the people in his band, who included some interesting people, including Nigel Olson, who is his drummer. Do you remember this hit? A little bit of soap will wash away the makeup from her face. Does that not sound familiar to you? It's a really good song. Okay, so that's Nigel Olson. I think he was a one hit

Michelle Newman 35:44

a commercial, yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 35:51

but this one, this is such an underground Gen X tip, okay, the person singing backup in the Elton John band is a person that we recognize. We know as Cindy bullens, now known as Sidney bullens. Oh, Carolyn's looking Yeah, she's I see recognition in her face.

Carolyn Cochrane 36:12

We've talked about her before. We can't remember why

Kristin Nilsen 36:15

Cindy bullens is actually a dead name. They're known now as Sydney bullens. They transition to be a man, and we know Sidney bullens from the grease soundtrack, from those little known songs there were. You know, it's not Olivia Newton, John it's not Rizzo it's Cindy bullens. And so Sydney bullens saying, Freddie, my love, it's raining on prom night, and we didn't know anything except words on again, because we were reading the album cover right? And I have some more interesting facts about Sydney coming up, but I'm gonna save those. Okay, okay, so next on the album is cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin, and this is the first story song on our album. And we covered cats in the cradle in our story, songs episode, didn't we? Michelle didn't. Yep. So if you want to learn more about cats in the cradle, Michelle goes deep on that one. Okay, and then we have a fan favorite. If you want to get mandaloed, what is next? Carolyn? Next would be

Carolyn Cochrane 37:15

Mandy Looking in their eyes.

Unknown Speaker 37:18

I see your memory. I never realized.

Unknown Speaker 37:38

Me and stop me from shaking.

Carolyn Cochrane 37:41

So if you're not already teary enough from cats in the cradle, you're gonna get teary now we're hitting that section of the album and the stretch of songs, so as we continue with the lumps in our throats, I dare you not to be struck by the waves of nipple lightning that you will get as you hear those first few notes of that iconic Barry Manilow hit made it number one in 1975 and it is Barry's first number one hit. And if you remember from our Barry Manilow episode, which was way back in May of 2021, episode 17, that's, that's only a song Love this. We were such babies. The the title of that episode was, I ranked the songs of Barry Manilow, and we told everybody that Barry didn't even want to record Mandy. It was at the insistence of record producer Clive Davis that he finally relented. And the rest we can say is history. Remember the title.

Michelle Newman 38:35

It was brandy, but there was already a site brandy, you're fine. It was Mandy.

Kristin Nilsen 38:42

And then, and then, because of that one little thing, how many Amanda's do we get in the late 70s? How many babies are born named Amanda, so that they could be Mandy, right? I wanted

Carolyn Cochrane 38:54

my daughter his whole fan culture, the fanalos. That's when they, you know, kind of were born, when man born? But, well, yes, fan culture, and you think about that, was without social media that he was able to, you know, well, he wasn't, but that this whole culture called fantalos, way before they were ever Swifties or anything like that, we had a group that obviously loved and continues to love him, as we do, because, as you know, we saw him in concert in Palm Springs, and also, as you know, and if you don't, why don't you? Because this song took on a whole new meaning for us when we saw Barry perform it in concert a few years ago. So if you remember listeners, and if you don't, here's what happened. We see a video of Barry Manilow singing this song in 1975

Kristin Nilsen 39:44

on like on a giant on a giant screen.

Carolyn Cochrane 39:47

And it's from his first performance of this of Mandy on television. It was on the Midnight Special. And then the song plays, and then a few minutes later, the real current day Barry Manilow starts. Playing that Mandy goes right into his old, his younger self, and he's playing at the piano, and the young Barry's on the screen playing the piano, and we have this moment. And it really saw that was the birth of our term mantalode, to get mantalode right when we are our present day selves at the same exact moment that we are our young 1975 songs. Such a powerful, powerful song.

Kristin Nilsen 40:24

It was such a device. It was such an effective tool. Because we were seriously disoriented. We're like, what year is it?

Carolyn Cochrane 40:31

Right? Where am I? It was that, like, get, kind of getting whooshger, dude. But then, yes, then who's good? It was like, this, push and pull. It was just, it was insane. It's almost too much.

Michelle Newman 40:44

It's almost too much. Yeah, you know, at the time 2021 Barry Carolyn, afterward, was just so moved and in tears, because she said, in that moment she was 2021 Carolyn, but she was 1975 Carolyn, seeing it all. And it was, it's like we said, it's too much, almost. You needed a word to describe that feeling. But exactly, everybody's like, existential overload. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Carolyn Cochrane 41:10

But I have a question for you guys. Do you think that Barry manilow's career would exist as we know it, without the song?

Kristin Nilsen 41:16

No, 100% no. I mean not that there who wouldn't be Barry Manilow, right? That that song, just like catapulted him in front of all of us, and here was this guy. He was not a sex symbol, and he kind of became this odd sex symbol, oh, because of Mandy, because everyone wanted to be Mandy. Yeah, it was, it was a moment, and he, he had been in the music business forever, right? He just had and he had had albums before, but it was really Mandy that made him a superstar.

Carolyn Cochrane 41:46

Yes, indeed.

Kristin Nilsen 41:49

Okay, moving on to our next song. This is where the haunting music comes in. Although, I would argue cats in the cradle is a haunting, yeah? I think this whole little section, yeah, Mandy is a haunting song, but this next one is the hauntingest I'm not in love by 10 CC. The thing that is most notable about this song is the opening. It is a very dramatic, lush, sustained note in a variety of harmonies for A freakishly long time, almost like a Gregorian Chant you

Kristin Nilsen 42:54

so my neighbor, John, works for the biggest hearing aid company in the world. So he's really into sound.

Carolyn Cochrane 43:03

Do we get a discount? By the way?

Kristin Nilsen 43:06

I'll ask. We can get some free hearing aids. So he's really into sound, and he brought that whole segment to my attention long ago. He's like, Have you ever heard 10 CC? It's probably when he discovered that I liked that I listened to 70s music. He's like, do you know 10 CC? Yes, I do. Do you know I'm not in love Of course I do. It's The Haunting of song on music Express. So he brought that segment, Segment to my attention as sort of a historical feat in music recording, because it is that one thing that opens that song that we just heard is 256 voices layered, one atop the other in varying harmonies, sustained, and Wikipedia calls it a wordless choir. I love that. It is they're not saying a word. They're just going,

Carolyn Cochrane 43:56

how many did you say to 256 you guys, can we just give that producer and editor of that song a huge round of applause? That is a lot of tracks. I only have to deal with three

Michelle Newman 44:09

digital like they had to probably

Carolyn Cochrane 44:12

remember, yes, big tape

Michelle Newman 44:15

documentary watching his split and loop. And, yeah, wow. So it's 256

Kristin Nilsen 44:22

voices, but it's only the voices of the guys in the band. So they said they spent days singing notes into the microphone for Carolyn's face. I wish

Carolyn Cochrane 44:33

I'm thinking there's 256 people, like they got some choir from some church.

Kristin Nilsen 44:38

Wow. They're like, Hey, this is your note. Sing this note, and then they record it. Then sing this note, then they record it, and it's a full it's like 35 seconds is how long this this Gregorian Chant goes on, and it took them days of singing a single note into the microphone to get that 35 seconds of the song. And the song, it's. Self is about a guy who's really trying to convince himself that he's not in love anymore, but he's not convincing anybody else, like we know the truth. We can feel that he's working really hard to convince himself that this is true, but even he knows it's futile. He is most definitely in love, and they struggled with how to record this idea, how to make it poignant enough, how to get people to understand because he's not like, I'm not in love. I'm not in love. They were it was hard not to have that vibe to it. They're like, how do we make people understand this notion that he's trying to convince himself? So at first, they made it like sort of a bossa nova beat, because they really liked the song The Girl from Ipanema. And that did not work.

Carolyn Cochrane 45:48

No, that does not work. Yeah. And then finally,

Kristin Nilsen 45:51

after all of this work, they finally said, Okay, forget the instruments, forget guitars, forget drums, just a heavenly choir and a tsunami of voices.

Carolyn Cochrane 46:03

That's amazing to me that someone would have had that thought, like, that's a gift. That's like, musical genius, yep, wow.

Kristin Nilsen 46:12

And it's a beloved song. It's, it is, if you need, if you're in a mood, if you're in a mood, just turn on. I'm not in love by

Michelle Newman 46:19

that's a good way to put it. It's a mood song. Yeah, it is, but it's a mood song, yeah, moody, if you're moody, yeah, yeah.

Kristin Nilsen 46:27

And it's just so sad, and it's so poignant, you really feel like you feel for this guy, like she's obviously gone, I'm okay, I'm not in love.

Unknown Speaker 46:40

It's just a silly face.

Kristin Nilsen 46:48

And the next song is also haunting. The next one is poetry man by Phoebe snow. This one got to number five on the chart.

Speaker 2 47:02

You're the have to go and

Kristin Nilsen 47:07

Phoebe Snow's voice was regarded as a singular phenomenon, and she was on her way to being huge until her daughter was born with severe brain damage, and she then devoted her life to taking care of her so they wouldn't so she didn't have to put her in an institution. So instead of being a pop star, she becomes a working musician, and she is singing jingles like the atnt Jingle and General Foods International Coffee and stouffers, and she sang back up on 50 ways to leave your lover. Wow.

Carolyn Cochrane 47:40

So we have heard Phoebe snow a lot more than we realize. We have heard.

Kristin Nilsen 47:45

Yes, you definitely know her. And but if you were to ask people, right, what Phoebe snow songs, do you know? It's just poetry man, that's all we've got. And the song, poetry man, has a very like Joni Mitchell vibe to it, and it is an ode to romantic love that she wrote when she was in the throes of young love. She was only 22 when this album came out. But, but what we never noticed unless you were listening really carefully, unless you were listening really, really carefully, was that this love affair that carried her away was with a married man. So she starts talking about the poetry man, which sounds like, I swear to God, if it's like, a nickname that my roommates and I would have come up with for, like, your crush in the library, like maybe he's always hanging out in the poetry section. So you start calling him poetry man, did you get a poetry man sighting, right? Can't you? That's exactly what it seems like. Probably the ponytail. Ponytail. Poetry. Man, ponytail poetry. Man, yeah, and she says in the lyrics so incredibly beautifully, you're the poetry. Man, you make everything all rhyme, which I always thought was you make everything all right, because poetry doesn't work like that. You make everything all rhyme. But here's the part that we didn't notice. She says, so once again, it's time to say so long and to recall the lull of life. You're going home now, homes, that place, somewhere you go each day to see your wife, to see your wife. Oh, and I never heard it. I never heard it.

Carolyn Cochrane 49:24

You know what I have? I have a little theory here. Yeah, she be the wife in the song that you told us.

Michelle Newman 49:33

Oh my god in diary. Diary, oh my god by bread,

Kristin Nilsen 49:38

by bread, yes, by bread.

Carolyn Cochrane 49:41

Her diary and her husband, yeah, yes,

Kristin Nilsen 49:45

okay, we're gonna have to do a little. We're

Michelle Newman 49:49

gonna have to once again. Carolyn, you need to be writing fan fiction about all these batteries you have and things.

Kristin Nilsen 49:57

Okay, the next song is, I didn't do any research on this. Song and I and I am remorseful, because I feel like there's a good story here. The next song is Chevy van by Sammy Johns, and I didn't dig into it. But I've always assumed that this is about doing it in a van, and it's all right with him.

Michelle Newman 50:13

I don't think I know that.

Carolyn Cochrane 50:15

So, yes, you do. I'm sorry. We probably shouldn't do that to people like, I'm just thinking about like, especially if they truly don't, then you made them feel kind of stupid, okay, but she's gonna play it. And you will know, in my Chevy van, and

Michelle Newman 50:34

there's actually, I would say half of the songs, if I just look at the title on these.

Carolyn Cochrane 50:39

Well, I thought that too, but we're going to talk about some because once I heard them, I thought, Oh, I didn't know that was the title

Kristin Nilsen 50:45

of that song. Okay, here's that. Here's Chevy van.

Kristin Nilsen 51:01

Wait till the chorus. Yeah, wait till the chorus.

Unknown Speaker 51:19

Still not here on Okay,

Michelle Newman 51:34

no, but I love it. I kind of love it. So I don't know they're gonna do it in his van. I kind of love No but I love that he calls it his Chevy van, his Chevy

Kristin Nilsen 51:44

van. It's not any van, it's a Chevy van, and

Carolyn Cochrane 51:46

they're just Chevy man. That's all right with Him,

Kristin Nilsen 51:49

and that's all right with him. I would imagine I would not protest, no arguing there. And we're gonna bring up the end of side one with Michelle's last

Michelle Newman 51:57

so good. I mean, you have to close side one with you know, you've got teenage tragedy, you've got murder, a pregnancy. This actually was this, of course, I'm talking about run, Joey, run, Daddy,

Kristin Nilsen 52:15

please don't, it wasn't his fault. He means so much to me, Daddy, please don't. We're gonna get married. Just you wait and see.

Michelle Newman 52:27

This was one of my story song picks back in that story songs episode. You know, I was like a moth to a flame with this song at age six, because it shattered me. Yet I couldn't stop listening to it. I don't know what it was, if it was her, if it was the daddy, please don't I don't know what it was, but I couldn't stop listening to it. And I do talk about this in our story songs episode. But because some of you haven't listened to that one yet and you loved this song, I'm going to just talk a little bit about it again. It was performed by soft rock singer David Geddes, released in 1975 reached number four on the Billboard. Hot on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the cash box charts. And as we know it, tells the very dramatic story through three voices. Okay, so we have Joey, we have his girlfriend, Julie, and we have her very angry father. And of course, the conflict is that Julie calls Joey up and she warns him that her father is furious over their relationship and her pregnancy at age six. I didn't get that there was a pregnancy, but if you listen to it now, you get that and is coming for him with a gun now ignoring her, which is Joey's fatal flaw. I mean, he should have just called the police, right? Let's just be real. He his fatal flaw. He kind of set himself up for this because he rushes to her house, and as as the Father aims the gun at Joey, Julie steps in front of the bullet to save him, and then she dies in Joey's arms, and her last words are the plea, once again, for like the 80th time to her father, Daddy, please don't but by this time, she's choking it out.

Michelle Newman 54:11

Some fun facts. In the original David Geddes version, it features the high pitched voice of Paula Vance. She plays Julie. She was the daughter of the song's co writer Paul Vance, and she's the one who does the daddy, please don't. It was because at the beginning, let's not forget, she's not gurgling. She's not she's still very passionate. Daddy, please don't actually gets more and more impassioned, right? There is a debate because run, Joey, run is frequently listed on lists. It's frequently cited on lists of the worst songs ever recorded. So there's a big debate, because people get really passionate about this song, for one of the two, for either side, absolutely not. It's so classic. It's so great. Or it's horrible. And I do think I've told this story before, but the first time we played it for our girls, they literally jaws were just like, open to the ground, like, what was wrong with your generation? What was wrong

Kristin Nilsen 55:11

with you people? This is a this is entertainment for you.

Michelle Newman 55:15

I don't know it is. It is an awful song, but I'm gonna stand I do not believe it should be on the worst songs ever recorded, because it's just so tragic and sad, so tragic makes you feel, it does it makes you feel so for that reason,

Kristin Nilsen 55:29

there's the category of so bad it's good, like it's so bad I would never want to do, I would never want to be without it. But I think the thing for me that would take it over into the category of worst song of all time is the little voice that is so manipulative, like Danny.

Michelle Newman 55:46

Please. Let's also not forget that the actual lyrics of the song are pretty bad. He's like, I got into a car and ran to join to Julie's house. I was, I don't even know the words, but just sort of a

Carolyn Cochrane 56:06

newspaper article or, like, something you have written down, and then you just, like, try to sing it or something, but his

Michelle Newman 56:13

voice is even just so, like, I like Kristen, I think I'm going To sit stand firmly, and what you said, I think it's so bad that it's kind of good.

Kristin Nilsen 56:26

Yeah, I never want to be without it. I love it.

Carolyn Cochrane 56:29

It's a great story. I mean, my story song, it definitely has pictures in my mind and a narrative. And, you know, it has a beginning, middle and an end. It's cinematic. I guess it depends on what you're looking the characteristics of what you think a great song are. Yeah, it

Michelle Newman 56:45

stands firmly in that genre of teen tragedy songs, and it might be one of the best worst songs, however you can say it. So, yeah, great way to close side one, though. I think we can all agree.

Kristin Nilsen 56:56

Yes, I wonder how, like how would you do all tragedy is like that, and all tragedy in music is manipulative of your emotions. So what makes a good? Well, how would you even do a good everybody dies song, it's all gonna be bad, and that includes on side two of music Express, because the opener on side two is the song I'm gonna Husker do people like crazy right now, the song rocky by Austin Roberts, and you're like, yep, never heard of it. Yes, you have. It's another story song. It is another tragedy. It's a weirdly upbeat little diddy about a man whose young wife dies and her dying words are rocky. I've never had to die before. Don't know if I can do it. Oh, here. No, Michelle's shaking her head again. Come on.

Michelle Newman 57:47

I'm shaking my head like I don't it wasn't like, on, you know, on, on repeat, but no, I was shaking my head. Oh, you know, yeah, I know Carolyn. Does it

Kristin Nilsen 57:57

sound Does it sound familiar to you?

Carolyn Cochrane 57:59

My but I'm right now years old thinking. I thought the whole time we were getting ready for this, and when I saw it on the back that it was the theme from Rocky, of course you did, I was like, why are you going to who Skir do me?

Kristin Nilsen 58:12

Because Rocky, think about that. There was a time when the name rocky didn't mean Sylvester Stallone, and he changed that for all of history. So this is just a year prior. There's this song called Rocky, and Austin Roberts, after Rocky, the movie comes out, is probably like, god damn it. Now my song is gonna get all messed up.

Michelle Newman 58:34

No, I bet it was. I bet it was the opposite. I bet maybe, did they buy the 45 by accident? I bet it's the theme from Rocky,

Kristin Nilsen 58:41

where's Gonna Fly Now, and she's like, Rocky, I've never had to die before. So this song another story song. It tells the whole story in song from when they met as 18 year old college students, and he proposes, and they get married, and they buy a house and they fix it up. This is just the first verse you guys, and there's this progression with a familiar refrain. First, it's Rocky. I've never been in love before. Don't know if I can do it, but if you let me lean on you, take my hand, I might get through it, through it. And then it's Rocky. I've never had a baby before. I don't know if I can do it. And then it's Rocky. I've never had to die before. Don't even WTF, right? And then the fourth refrain has Rocky, envisioning hearing his deceased wife reassuring him, Rocky. You know you've been alone before. You know that you can do it.

Michelle Newman 59:42

It's terrible, like it's terrible.

Kristin Nilsen 59:46

It's terrible. She can still advise him, and she can still lead him, and he can still count on her, even though he's alone with their baby. Oh, I know it's horrible. It's. Horrible, yeah?

Michelle Newman 1:00:01

Listen to that that often, because stuff like that just, just

Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:05

that gives me, like, love story, vibes. And that's very love story, yeah.

Kristin Nilsen 1:00:09

And it is very run, Joey, run where you have the, you have the woman's voice, like, oh, Rocky. I've never had to die before. Well, of course, you haven't. You only die once. That makes no sense. You can have lots of babies, you can fall in love, but you only die one time. Stupid. Okay, anyway, the next song on the album, okay, we're gonna put that on the haunting category. Yeah, I think this next one is also haunting. The next song is Jackie blue by the Ozark Mountain daredevils.

Michelle Newman 1:00:39

Mountain daredevils.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:43

But I don't, I would have never. I couldn't have told you who sang it.

Kristin Nilsen 1:00:46

It's like magnetic poetry. That's how they got their band name, mountain Daredevil Okay, and I think this song is very notable for that that Ooh, hoo. Jackie blue, live a life from inside of a room,

Michelle Newman 1:01:03

and it's about that woman. I would have spent a million years Brandon. I do this all the time when we're listening to, like, different 70s playlists, yeah, and well, you know the song, like that one you can sing, yep. You cover up the screen in your car and you say, Okay, three guesses who sang it, and it is the most obscure name, and we're like, yep, we always come back to, it's got to be America. It's America.

Kristin Nilsen 1:01:29

It's a good guess. Yeah, good guess. But

Michelle Newman 1:01:31

the Ozark Mountain dare devils never,

Kristin Nilsen 1:01:34

never heard of it. And think of the impact. I mean, I just want to reach out to the Ozark Mountain dare devils, and so we could be sitting next to them on the bus for all we know, right? And their music is in our minds, and we can sing it. We can sing all the words we know it by heart. And yet those people are just, you know, going through the McDonald's drive through like we are. We have no I think of the impact I should be so lucky that I create something that people will quote in 50 years you

Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:05

have created be meant. I just been our words. I didn't necessarily mean your book lightning and all that.

Michelle Newman 1:02:19

Yeah, but yes, your words, okay. But this is really interesting, because the entire side two, there's only two songs that when I looked at it, I was like, Yeah, I only know two songs from side two. Isn't that correct? Now I'm like, maybe I know more.

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:31

Yeah, yeah. You just wait. Just wait. So the song itself, we kind of know we've been singing it, but we didn't know it, living your life from inside of a room. So it's about a woman who never gives anything really enough time or energy to really find any kind of happiness. She just kind of, she just lives her life inside of a room. She gets bored. She's kind of indifferent. And radio stations often played an edited version of this song that omitted this last verse, which really kind of makes it more apparent. So the last verse says, Every day in your Indigo eyes, I watch the sunset, but I don't see it rise, moonlight and stars and your strawberry wine. You take the world, but you won't take the time. I mean, that's a 70s verse, right there, moonlight and stars and your strawberry wine, right? And big surprise, this kind of makes sense. It's inspired by someone they met who was strung out on drugs. She just was not living a full life. She just was hiding out in her room. And, you know what's funny? I listened to something on NPR the other day that really kind of struck me, because, you know, now dispensaries, you're going in on every corner, right? And everybody's trying to normalize weed smoking, or, you know, I'm gonna have a gummy before bed, or whatever, you know, to each

Michelle Newman 1:03:45

other, been in my house lately,

Kristin Nilsen 1:03:49

however, however, there is something to be considered that I don't hear people talking about. And this person on NPR said that weed might make you feel better, but it steals your ambition. You're okay, yeah, it's fine, whatever.

Michelle Newman 1:04:07

Yeah, I don't know. I guess, if you I guess if people take a yeah, a lot, then maybe, maybe it numbs, you know, numbs me right to sleep, though.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:04:20

And here's like, goody two shoes over here, I wouldn't know, because I've never done it or experienced it, so I don't know if I'd have any not one puff, not nothing. The one time I tried to puff in high school, I started coughing so much, and they grabbed it on my hand, like I was wasting it. Like, like people are wanting, like, get it away from get

Michelle Newman 1:04:41

it away from get it away from the rookie. I've never taken a puff of anything, cigarette, doobie, cigarette.

Kristin Nilsen 1:04:50

No, never had a desire in high school, Michelle,

Michelle Newman 1:04:54

just by being me. How did I look cool by my stirrup leg? Wings and my jelly shoes and my giant my ponytail, my giant shoulder pads. Christian, duh.

Kristin Nilsen 1:05:07

I was, like, full on Olivia Newton, John at the end of Greece.

Michelle Newman 1:05:10

Like, yeah, no, but like,

Kristin Nilsen 1:05:14

carry a pack in your purse or anything. I never, I never owned any. I never bought any. I never hate the smell, literally, like

Carolyn Cochrane 1:05:24

pop culture Preservation

Kristin Nilsen 1:05:25

Society, definitely not a smoker, only a poser. I was

Michelle Newman 1:05:30

a complete sniper. Yeah, I hate the smell of cigarettes, way too.

Kristin Nilsen 1:05:33

I mean, maybe even literally, like this, right? I'm posing now, just so I can look cool for the boys.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:39

Jacket, blue. Okay,

Kristin Nilsen 1:05:47

so the next song on side two, I think that we were still doing like haunting, right? We're still haunting now we're getting out of the haunting, because our next song is the theme to the Rockford Files. Who's got it? Who's got it. Who wrote?

Carolyn Cochrane 1:06:02

Well, of course, we know. Yeah, Mike Post.

Kristin Nilsen 1:06:04

Mike Post, yes, yeah, absolutely. He wrote all the TV theme songs and and I don't, I don't know this for a fact, but I think Rockford Files might have been the first one that just like

Carolyn Cochrane 1:06:15

blew up. I think it might have been too I would agree with you. Oh my god,

Kristin Nilsen 1:06:19

I just waved at my dog. Anyway, he doesn't have hands. Yeah, so obviously, this is an instrumental. We all know it. Oh, I take it back. It may not be the first one, because wasn't the theme from switch the first theme song that was a number one hit. It was like the biggest song of 1975

Michelle Newman 1:06:37

Wow, you amaze me.

Kristin Nilsen 1:06:41

You told me. You told me that I did well, I remember. Okay, don't google it. Don't Google it. We may not remember. Okay. So then the next, the next song on side two is, for me, the reason that I bought this record. This is my number one song. It is not the same as the other haunting songs, but it still haunts me, as in, I'm sort of mesmerized. So it is the song sky high by the British band jigsaw. I love this song. I feel like a child being moved by music for the very first time, because it's possible that I was I almost feel like crying. It's such a dramatic song. It's very anthemic. And this was the song I waited for on the radio, and I never got it. It was so elusive. It was so very elusive. And it starts with that, like, blah, blah, blah,

Michelle Newman 1:07:39

wait, okay, cuz you know what I was like, what is the song until you just did that? Yes, absolutely no, I still don't know.

Kristin Nilsen 1:07:47

And then you you blow, but telling me,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:07:54

yes, you do, Michelle, such a guy even wrote down, you know what? You just don't know that. You know it. That's right.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:08:07

So far, no another disco sounding one.

Kristin Nilsen 1:08:16

Just get to the chorus. Yeah, you got to get to the chorus. It's gonna there are lots of changes in the sun, lots of changes.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:08:31

That's why I can't before you said it was haunting. It just gets me.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:36

Here we go. You've blown it all sky, but telling me a lie,

Kristin Nilsen 1:08:47

see, she's singing along. She knows it only that

Michelle Newman 1:08:50

part, okay, but again, oh yeah, that part for sure. Yeah. And also, that is a great song. Like, I need that song on my playlist right now, and I'm just gonna add that. I can't believe that was the

Carolyn Cochrane 1:09:06

reason you bought it, Kristen, because when I was looking I thought, like, I just said, you know, you know it. You just don't know, you know what kind of a song, yep. But yeah, yeah, obviously Kristin knows it, because that's why she

Kristin Nilsen 1:09:16

got it. And it wasn't elusive song. It wasn't it did go to like, number eight? Yeah, I did. I had

Michelle Newman 1:09:23

a captain making a jello mold in the kitchen while she was posing her smoking cigarette, Smoking her cigarette.

Kristin Nilsen 1:09:32

It turns out everyone thought that this song was by Paul McCartney and Wings. But no, yeah, British band, jigsaw, kind of a one hit wonder. I am in second grade. I am mesmerized by this song. Peaked at number three, but it was really significant. It was a huge hit worldwide, and that's because it was the theme song for a movie you never saw called I mean, if you did, please let us know it was a movie called The Man from Hong Kong, and it is. Sort of described as, like a melange of like James Bond and Bruce Lee, basically, I had no idea. I did not know this was a theme song, but when I watched the opening credits of this movie, it is a fantastic theme song. It totally works as a theme song. There's shooting, there's Kung Fu, like, like, one good guy against three bad guys. Kung Fu, there are soldiers marching with guns and hang gliding. There's lots of hang gliding because, you know, sky high. It's very sky high. The theme is hang gliding. This is such a roller skating song for me. I think that's probably where I heard it most. Was at the roller rink, and not on the radio necessarily. Yeah, and it's, it's just like, it's a dramatic song, and we can only play like, one or two clips here people, so you have to listen to the whole song, because it changes so dramatically. It can be like, spooky and wooey, and then it's anthemic, and then we're dancing. It's just a lot. There's a lot going on in sky.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:11:02

There's a lot going on in that intro to the movie that you just, you know, explained to it. Maybe you had to go from soldiers marching to hang gliding to all the things.

Kristin Nilsen 1:11:11

We're gonna put this in the Weekly Reader, because it is such a wonderful marriage of music and movies, even though many of you will not have heard the song or seen the movie. But when you put the two together, you're like, Oh, you've blown it all sky high. It's amazing. Okay? The next song, none of you have heard of it. It's called Brazil by the Richie family. It's another disco instrumental. I take that back. You've probably heard it. You didn't know they were saying Brazil. You thought they were saying, like, I didn't

Carolyn Cochrane 1:11:38

think there were any words, yeah.

Kristin Nilsen 1:11:41

But they say Brazil. Yeah, yeah, okay, I take that back. There's like, oodas, la la las Brazil. They might just say Brazil. And that's it. And then the next song gets the award for the most memorable band name ever. Oh, wait, did you do this one?

Carolyn Cochrane 1:12:01

No, I have the but that exactly. I don't know the song, but this is the best dance, their best

Kristin Nilsen 1:12:05

name, best band name ever. This is the song, get dancing. Apostrophe by disco Tex and the sex O, let's,

Michelle Newman 1:12:22

I'm gonna get that on a t shirt. I wonder if, like, Chief public has a t shirt that's the disco text and the sex. Go text

Kristin Nilsen 1:12:29

and the sex. So, like, you

Carolyn Cochrane 1:12:30

have to say that discotheques is disco hyphen, T, E, x. It's not like a disco tech that we're going to right, right?

Kristin Nilsen 1:12:42

Yeah, yes, that's what it's like Texas, not plural. Discotheque is his name, and you have to look up his picture, because when you see discotheque, you will laugh your ass off. It is more 70s than Bert convey. It is so funny. So discothex was a former hairdresser who was a regular on Johnny Carson. For some reason. I don't know if he was like, doing hair or stand up or singing. I have no idea, but he did have another big hit with the sex. O, let's called, I want to dance with you. Do that dance, and it's D, O, O, yeah. Look, there he is. Discotex. Look at, oh my God. Look at his wiener. Look at his package in his jumpsuit, gosh, oh my god. Put it away. Put that thing away.

Michelle Newman 1:13:32

It's coming for you. It's coming for you. Oh no.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:13:37

Oh my god. Pun intended. Big memories. Where's the

Michelle Newman 1:13:40

woman's Wait. Look at him here. Oh no, we don't want to see his wiener. Oh and Kristen, he's holding a cigarette like you used to in high school.

Kristin Nilsen 1:13:52

Yeah. Oh, my like Lucy.

Michelle Newman 1:13:56

Look like the precursor to the Robert Palmer girls.

Kristin Nilsen 1:14:00

Uh huh, yeah, that's their job. But here is a fun fact for you. You're gonna die. Oh, here's your interesting factoid, one of the sex O, let's was Cindy bolins from Philadelphia, freedom and the grease soundtrack. I'm not even kidding.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:14:18

That's not a trifecta. That is a culture trifecta, like the

Kristin Nilsen 1:14:23

episode right now, she was a sex O, let,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:14:27

oh my gosh.

Kristin Nilsen 1:14:27

They, sorry. They, that's right. Actually, he okay. He was a sex O, let, that's right. Sydney Bowens was a sex O, let,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:14:35

wow. Sydney Bowens got around good for

Michelle Newman 1:14:37

you, and you had several albums like he's he's got lots of different album covers. He's got that kind of Richard Simmons hair. Yeah, definitely

Kristin Nilsen 1:14:50

caricature ish, yeah, yeah. I want to dance with you.

Michelle Newman 1:14:54

Change my mind. I don't want a t shirt anymore with literally

Kristin Nilsen 1:14:59

spelled. C, H, O, O,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:15:01

so I want to dance. So does it have the word with

Kristin Nilsen 1:15:07

I wanna? I'll spell it for you. It's I wanna, W, A, n, n, a, I wanna dance. Wit, apostrophe, W, A, T, apostrophe, chew, C, H, O, O, oh. Now, parentheses. Do that dance, D, O, O, dat, dance, parentheses,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:15:26

okay, is he like a caricature thing, like, is he

Kristin Nilsen 1:15:30

funny or something? I mean, the song's pretty funny. The song like somebody, he's

Carolyn Cochrane 1:15:35

like a weird. Al Frank weird. Al Franken, no, that

Kristin Nilsen 1:15:38

sounds neat. I kick

Carolyn Cochrane 1:15:44

coming towards the end here, aren't we? We're

Kristin Nilsen 1:15:46

very, very close. The next song is long. Is long train running by the Doobie Brothers. And I was too tired to look up anything about that song. So then the next song is, my eyes adored you. By Frankie Valli Michelle, tell us about my eyes adored you.

Michelle Newman 1:15:58

I know well, as we've talked about many times on the podcast, 50s style music had a huge resurgence and became really popular in the mid 70s, and that was really driven by this huge nostalgia boom, right like the social and political climate of the 60s, and let's not forget The trauma of the Vietnam War, it kind of made so many Americans just crave for that simpler time and more innocent. And also, don't forget that the baby boomer generation, they were entering adulthood right then, and they were becoming this dominant, like consumer of music and everything. So they were also kind of driving what was being like, sold and everything like that. So my eyes adored you was performed by Frankie Valli, obviously released in November of 1974 this song became his number his first number one hit as a solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100 in March, 1975 and although it was released as a single, like a solo single, Frankie Valley, the entire four seasons group actually performed on the song. But their new label, private stock, was their new label. They insisted that he just be credited solo like by Frankie Valli, because they feared that having the four seasons on it felt too old fashioned for 1975 audiences, even though all this music was coming back.

Kristin Nilsen 1:17:34

But I can see that PR move like, no, no, no, this is not a this is not right. Has been fuddy duddy band. This is Frankie Valley.

Michelle Newman 1:17:41

Frankie Valley is now stepping out. And you know how I said it, it was their new label, private stock, that wanted to that kind of insisted on that. Interestingly, they originally recorded, or it was originally recorded for Motown, which was their like Motown, their label, but they refused to release it, but Frankie Valley believed in it so much that he bought the master rights back from Motown for $4,000

Kristin Nilsen 1:18:07

$4,000 what a smart man. And then, and then released it on his own. It was a huge right, wasn't it huge?

Carolyn Cochrane 1:18:15

Yeah, yeah. Tell album. It's on music Express. I mean,

Michelle Newman 1:18:21

yeah, and this is the song that, as you guys know, it tells the it's like kind of the singer is reminiscing about his childhood crush, yeah, but he's chasing fame in the city, yeah, walk carried your books home from school. And the love I left behind. The writers on this were a pretty successful songwriting team, Bill crew and Kenny Nolan, who, like I said before, he's, you know, I like dreaming. Because dreaming, yeah, he wrote that I like dreaming. He sang it, holding, my Oh, my God, Brian and I have loved that song. I can think, since we started dating, did you know that Kenny Nolan and Bob crew also same same had another number one hit in March 1975 Besides, my eyes adored you, and that was labelles Hit Lady Marmalade. That's kind of interesting how everybody's like, all connected, right?

Kristin Nilsen 1:19:16

Yes, everybody's all connected. I can take you one step further on that one can Okay, you guys, you're gonna die. So Bob crew, writer of my eyes, adored you his brother, Dan. Dan crew, married to Sydney Bullen.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:19:36

This listeners, is why I do this podcast. John Sebastian, she's becoming

Michelle Newman 1:19:42

yes and people are each other's like godparents and whatever Vivian Mother, this truly is the best love boat cruise ever. Yes, I love connected, but my eyes adored you is just such a beautiful song. I love it so much. Much. Its original title was blue eyes in Georgia, and that just doesn't work for me, Georgia. I mean, I guess if that's what would it have been. But my eyes adored you is just so romantic. The word

Kristin Nilsen 1:20:12

adore, I know, makes you just it makes you know, it makes you feel adored you. It's such a sweet, sweet song, like

Unknown Speaker 1:20:29

a million miles

Unknown Speaker 1:20:36

away from me, you couldn't see how I adored you so close, so close.

Kristin Nilsen 1:20:46

Okay, the next song is, it's a close runner up to disco text in the sex. So let's as far as the band name is concerned. It's another instrumental. It's called dynamite by Tony camillos, Bazooka, whatever, whatever. Okay.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:21:00

It started quite an instrumental, because if you start from the very beginning, they do say Dino might, I thought, Okay. JJ, get his Dino mite from this song?

Kristin Nilsen 1:21:12

Well, keep in mind, I think Dino might like. JJ, I don't think he invented that. I think his his performance of it went viral. If viral was a thing back then, but I think people would use that as slang all the time, like, oh yeah, dynamite, yeah, that's true. Dynamite, yeah. If you were white, you said dynamite,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:21:32

yes, yes, yes, but yeah. So they do say that in the beginning of the song, but then it truly it is an

Kristin Nilsen 1:21:37

instrument, and then it is and it sounds very much like movie or music that you would hear in a made for TV movie, when they go out dancing, that's what the song is. You can see them right now, and they're like in their circle, skirts right? In their wrap around skirts, right?

Carolyn Cochrane 1:22:00

Is that, like, plucking a guitar? Like, what is that? Yeah, that would be plucking. Yeah, you

Kristin Nilsen 1:22:07

like, twang it, and then we're gonna, we're gonna close out music Express already with we're gonna close it out. Here it is. The last song on side two is Black Superman, quote, unquote, Muhammad Ali by Johnny Wakelin and the Kinshasa band. So this went to number 21 that was my top 10 song. Yeah, your favorite band, right? This is such a funny song. It's by an English songwriter, and it's not, it's not a novelty song, you guys. It really is not a novelty song. It's by an English songwriter named Johnny Wakelin, and this song is a reggae version of another hit he had abroad called Hungarian Superman. Joe parentheses, Joe Buckner, who was also a boxer. A boxer. Yes, he was a boxer. So not coincidentally, this guy, Johnny Wakeland was discovered by a producer who is responsible for the song. Everybody was comfy fighting me like it all makes sense, right? Yes, it all makes sense. And he really wanted you know, as you can tell from you know, Black Superman, Muhammad Ali and Hungarian Superman. Joe Buckner, he wanted to write song. I mean, those are that those names are in the title of the song, guys. I'm not just adding that on. It's Hungarian Superman parentheses. Joe Buckner, parentheses, Black Superman parentheses. Muhammad Ali parentheses. So he wanted to write songs that would catch people's attention. And so this is a tribute to boxing champion Muhammad Ali, who fought on October 30, 1974 against George Foreman in a matchup known as you guys know, know what it was.

Michelle Newman 1:23:54

It's the greatest match of all time, or something like that.

Kristin Nilsen 1:23:58

Oh, my God, almost, almost. It's called the Rumble in the Jungle. Of course, yes, yes. And this, this was broadcast. The reason it's the Rumble in the Jungle is because it was broadcast from Kinshasa Zaire, what is the name of our band? Oh, Kinshasa band, yes. From Kinshasa Zaire, yes.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:24:20

Wow. I remember that fight. I mean, I remember my dad wanting to watch it. And, you know, you think about it, Muhammad Ali, we all knew who that was. Like, yes, we did pop culture icon 100 like our friends would imitate him on the playground,

Unknown Speaker 1:24:36

sing like a bees

Michelle Newman 1:24:38

and figures. I'm greatest, and you can do that voice,

Kristin Nilsen 1:24:41

yes, yeah, I don't remember the song. Maybe I do. I try to listen.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:24:47

I thought maybe I did, but it sent me down a rabbit hole of looking up quotes from Muhammad Ali and things he's known for. I mean, how often do you know quotes from from a boxer, but he was such an i. Icon of the time. I mean, such a pop culture icon, and beyond Johnny Carson and that fight I remember again, like my dad wanting to watch it and all of that.

Kristin Nilsen 1:25:10

I mean, that could be one of our T shirts. Sting like a butterfly.

Michelle Newman 1:25:16

Butterfly. Sting like ladies. Flow like

Michelle Newman 1:25:26

but everybody knew it, Yeah, apparently we did it.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:25:32

Well, you guys were younger.

Kristin Nilsen 1:25:34

I knew sting like a bee. I got, there's something about a butterfly and a bee. But we loved and everybody loved him, like, I'm not a boxing fan, but he was like a big teddy bear. Everybody loved Muhammad Ali.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:25:46

Yeah, I remember he changed his name kind of like Kareem Abdul Jabbar did, and I can tell you both of their original names. So Muhammad Ali was Cassius Clay, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar was Lu Alcindor. I did a report on him in fifth grade, an oral report. And my teacher said it was as good as a seventh graders. And riding that high,

Michelle Newman 1:26:13

that's what we're putting our shirts, actually, yeah, at the bottom of your resume is that what you always had for, like, special skills. Bottom oral report.

Kristin Nilsen 1:26:22

That's what I lead with good as a seventh grader who

Speaker 3 1:26:28

changed his name to Muhammad Ali. He knows how to talk and he knows how to fight, and all the contenders will beat out of sight. Sing Muhammad. Muhammad Ali,

Speaker 4 1:26:45

he floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee, my homie, the Black Superman, who calls to the other guy,

Unknown Speaker 1:27:02

Catch Me If You Can.

Kristin Nilsen 1:27:04

Well, I think this, now that we're at the end of music Express, I think this really says it perfectly. K tel was such a force in people's lives that there was actually an article in Forbes magazine called K tel records, the Spotify of the 70s. And I think I introduced this quote that I'm going to read to you in our previous K tel episode, but it has even more meaning today. This is what the writer says. Perhaps my favorite K tel record was 1975 music Express, an almost unimaginable mix of hits and unknowns from Love will keep us together to a song about Muhammad Ali, there was a little of everything Chevy van get down tonight and the most bizarre song of my childhood. Run, Joey run, a tale of teenage pregnancy and death that would leave Nancy Grace at a loss for words. But it was 10 cc's, I'm not in love that left me reeling, filled with a melancholy I had no precedence nor background for to have it all makes sense. I just knew that this was a love song unlike any I'd ever heard, and I needed to hear more like that. So yes, please, please, everybody today, treat yourself to a little 10. CC. Thank you for listening, and we will see you next time,

Michelle Newman 1:28:17

and before we hit stop, a huge thanks to our Patreon crew. You keep the mics on, the memories flowing and the Gen X spirit alive. Seriously, we couldn't do this without you. Thanks for hanging with us, supporting the show and being part of this family. And today, we're giving a special shout out to Magdalena, Mike, Alice, Miriam, Linda, Richard, Nancy, Celia and Julie

Kristin Nilsen 1:28:43

in the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast. Courtesy of the cast of Three's Company, two good times, two Happy

Michelle Newman 1:28:49

Days, Two

Carolyn Cochrane 1:28:50

Little House on the Prairie. Cheers.

Kristin Nilsen 1:28:56

Cheers, everybody. The information, opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society podcast belongs 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. You.