By Frank “Smokin” Truatt
It’s been a NY Minute since I’ve looked back on the Billboard charts of 50 years ago to reminisce about music that topped the singles chart. Yes, this week in 1974 is (believe it or not) 50 years ago, and once again did not disappoint for its variety of artists and genres. I’ll take a look at the top ten starting with number ten. The Osmonds were there with “Love Me for A Reason.” This song would peak at this number as we saw the popularity of the band and Donny Osmond as a solo artist begin to fade away from the pop charts. Mac Davis had a song called “Stop and Smell the Roses” peaking at number nine this week as it became his second biggest song after “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me.” So far, we’ve had a bubble gum family act and a country crossover artist. At number eight, featuring that southern rock sound is the classic “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. At number seven was Tony Orlando and Dawn with a song from their best selling 1973 album “Dawn’s New Ragtime Follies.” This unique album combined Vaudevillian ragtime flavors with pop and a bit of early disco. They also started their popular television show a few months earlier on CBS. At number six, it was rock and roll with Bad Company’s “Can’t Get Enough.” The group hailed from England along with the number five artist, Elton John who had his song “The Bitch is Back” moving up the chart at number five. Carole King was still rolling out the hits, three years after her “Tapestry” album with a song called “Jazzman” at number four. There’s more rock from Bachman-Turner Overdrive sitting at the number three position with “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.” There’s quite a diverse mix of music in the top ten and, not to leave out Motown, Stevie Wonder had “You Haven’t Done Nothin” sitting at number two. The song featured the Jackson Five on background vocals and was a political statement about our president at the time, Richard Nixon. Nixon was on his way out and would resign two days after the song was released. At number one was a collaboration between Dionne Warwick and The Spinners with a song called “Then Came You.” It was the first number one song for Dionne Warwick, who had been on the charts since the 1960’s and for The Spinners too. It’s quite the mix of music again from the 1970’s and hard to believe that all of these songs are 50 years old yet still sounding great today!
