Sunday Photoblogging ripoffs again

Chris Bertram has a stunning photo of a boulangerie (unclear whether it's still opened or not, but I'd guess closed).  I have a Parisian shop window.

The Top Ten (?) Songs of the 1970s

Bill Crider has been posting links to a compilation of the top 75 songs from the 1970s, based on the criteria used by Cashbox Magazine.  You can find Bill's links to the lists (and comments by his regulars) here:

75-51
50-26
25-11
10-1

I wondered what the Billboard list would look like, so I looked.  I have ranked the songs by the number of weeks they are listed at #1, and have not tried to break ties.  Here's what I get (and I'm going to do this in one list).  Overall, 251 songs made it to #1 on Billboard in the 1970s.  Of those, 120 lasted a single week at the top, and 62 held on for 2 weeks.  So only 70 songs lasted 3+ weeks in the number 1 position.  And only 35 were there for 4+ weeks.  I'm going to report those 35 songs.  I should mention that of these 35 songs, I have (I think) 6 on CDs or LPs in my personal collection.

At 4 weeks as the Billboard #1 song (17 songs--about half of the 35 I'm going to list, in no particular order):
Peaches and Herb, Reunited
Rod Stewart, Do Ya Think I'm Sexy
Exile, Kiss You All Over
The Bee Gees, How Deep Is Your Love
The Emotions, Best Of My Love
Andy Gibb, I Just Want To Be Your Everything
Johnnie Taylor, Disco Lady
The Captain and Tennille, Love Will Keep Us Together
Paul McCartney and Wings, My Love
Tony Orlando and Dawn, Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Old Oak Tree
Roberta Flack, Killing Me Softly With His Song
Johnny Nash, I Can See Clearly Now
Harry Nilsson, Without You
Don McLean, American Pie
Melanie, Brand New Key
The Bee Gees, How Can You Mend A Broken Heart
The Carpenters, Close To You

At 5 weeks (8 songs, a little less than half of the remaining 18):
Donna Summer, Bad Girls
Paul McCartney and Wings, Silly Love Songs
Rod Stewart,  Maggie May
Carole King, It's Too Late
The Osmonds, One Bad Apple
George Harrison, My Sweet Lord
The Jackson 5, I'll Be There
BJ Thomas, Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head

This gets us to the Top 10, songs that held on to #1 for 6 or more weeks.  Six of the 10 made it for exactly 6 weeks,  I'm going to list these from the one I liked least to the one I liked most:
Gilbert O'Sullivan, Alone Again (Naturally)
Chic, Le Freak
The Knack, My Sharona
Roberta Flack, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Three Dog Night, Joy To The World (written by the great Hoyt Axton)
Simon and Garfunkle, Bridge Over Troubled Water.


Leaving 4.  One made it 7 weeks, 1  for  8, 1 for 10, and the #1 song of the Billboard charts held the #1 position for 12 weeks.

7 Weeks:
Andy Gibb Shadow Dancing

8 Weeks:
Rod Stewart, Tonight's The Night

10 Weeks (perhaps the worst song in my lifetime to be a #1 hit):
Debby Boone, You Light Up My Life

12 Weeks, the #1 song of the 1970s:
The Bee Gees, Stayin' Alive

Also not a favorite, and I have managed never to see the movie.

The fourth and last song that keeps playing in my head...for my reunion

Jackson Browne's "Fountain of Sorrow" was on his third album, Late for the Sky, and it blew me away.  I love the ending.

Looking through some photographs I found inside a drawer
I was taken by a photograph of you
There were one or two I know that you would have liked a little more
But they didn’t show your spirit quite as true
You were turning ‘round to see who was behind you
And I took your childish laughter by surprise
And at the moment that my camera happened to find you
There was just a trace of sorrow in your eyes

 Now the things that I remember seem so distant and so small
Though it hasn’t really been that long a time
What I was seeing wasn’t what was happening at all
Although for a while our paths did seem to climb
But when you see through love’s illusions, there lies the danger
And your perfect lover looks like a perfect fool
So you go running off in search of a perfect stranger
While the loneliness seems to spring from your life like a fountain from a pool
Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
You’ve known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
You’ve had to hide sometimes but now you’re all right
And it’s good to see your smiling face tonight

Now for you and me it may not be that hard to reach our dreams
But that magic feeling never seems to last
And while the future’s there for anyone to change still you know it seems
It would be easier sometimes to change the past
I’m just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you
In my lessons at love’s pain and heartache school
Where if you feel too free and you need something to remind you
There’s this loneliness springing up from your life
Like a fountain from a pool
Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
You’ve known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
You’ve had to hide sometimes but now you’re all right
And it’s good to see your smiling face tonight

Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
You’ve known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
You’ve had to struggle, you’ve had to fight
To keep understanding and compassion in sight
You could be laughing at me, you’ve got the right
But you go on smiling so clear and so bright

Words and Music by Jackson Browne
© Swallow Turn Music ASCAP
All Rights Reserved

One more song for my high school reunion...

Another song that seems to be a part of my mental reunion play list. 

Recorded by Mary Hopkin, produced by Paul McCartney...See it here.

Once upon a time there was a tavern
Where we used to raise a glass or two
Remember how we laughed away the hours
And dreamed of all the great things we would do
Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.
La la la la...

Those were the days, oh yes those were the days
Then the busy years went rushing by us
We lost our starry notions on the way
If by chance I'd see you in the tavern
We'd smile at one another and we'd say
Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.
La la la la...

Those were the days, oh yes those were the days
Just tonight I stood before the tavern
Nothing seemed the way it used to be
In the glass I saw a strange reflection
Was that lonely woman really me
Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.
La la la la...

Those were the days, oh yes those were the days
Through the door there came familiar laughter
I saw your face and heard you call my name
Oh my friend we're older but no wiser
For in our hearts the dreams are still the same
Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.
La la la la...
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days

About the song.

Another song for my reunion play list

My (50th high school) reunion is finally almost here...only 4 days to go...and this song is part of my interior play list.

Photograph
Melanie Safka
...

Do you have a photograph when you were still in high school
Were you happy in it
Little reason lots of rhyme
Were you happy in it at the time
Way back in your memory
Do you recall the line
When your heart was in it
And your reason changed your mind
Did you love forever at the time

Are you living here and now
Or in the moments past
Is now tomorrow's memory and will the memory last
How much of this will pass

Do you have a photograph when you were only growing
And your heart was in it
And your reason changed your mind
When you loved forever
But your reason changed your mind
The songs that you once loved to sing
Are ones that make you cry
And wouldn't you just give it all to never say goodbye
We once lived in forevers
But we learned to say goodbye

Do you have a photograph when you were only growing
And your heart was in it
Little reason lots of rhyme
Were you happy in it
But your reason changed your mind
Did you love forever
But your reason changed your mind
Were you happy in it at the time

Is what you wanted long ago long gone from your mind
Asks a ghost in dreaming
Or a friend you left behind
The songs that you once loved to sing
Are the ones that make you cry
And wouldn't you just give it all to never say goodbye
Oh goodbye...goodbye...goodbye...goodbye...

"Bob Dylan's Dream" and my 50th high school reunion

One week until the reunion, and "Bob Dylan's Dream" keeps  playing in my head:

While riding on a train goin’ west
I fell asleep for to take my rest
I dreamed a dream that made me sad
Concerning myself and the first few friends I had

With half-damp eyes I stared to the room
Where my friends and I spent many an afternoon
Where we together weathered many a storm
Laughin’ and singin’ till the early hours of the morn

By the old wooden stove where our hats was hung
Our words were told, our songs were sung
Where we longed for nothin’ and were quite satisfied
Talkin’ and a-jokin’ about the world outside

With haunted hearts through the heat and cold
We never thought we could ever get old
We thought we could sit forever in fun
But our chances really was a million to one

As easy it was to tell black from white
It was all that easy to tell wrong from right
And our choices were few and the thought never hit
That the one road we traveled would ever shatter and split

How many a year has passed and gone
And many a gamble has been lost and won
And many a road taken by many a friend
And each one I’ve never seen again

I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
That we could sit simply in that room again
Ten thousand dollars at the drop of a hat
I’d give it all gladly if our lives could be like that

Copyright © 1963, 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991, 1992 by Special Rider Music