-
50 years ago this week….
….the Partridge Family was at the top of the charts with their number 1 single I Think I Love You, and the Carpenters had their song “We’ve Only Just Begun” peak at #2. Wow, I had no idea the Partridge Family had a hit song, never mind a number 1 chart topper. The Kinks “Lola” was on it’s way to #9 , and The Who was right at their skirt tails with See Me, Feel Me on it’s way up the charts to #9 as well. The Guess Who was also in the charts with their song “Share The Land” at #5. I wonder if the Who were irritated at all with another band, the Guess Who, strutting a similar name. When I was a kid I recall for a little while thinking they were the same band.
Gotta listen to Lola one more time, so superbly performed here by Mona and Lisa.
-
28 Replies
-
-
The Guess Who – Share The Land
These are the sounds from 50 years ago, sounds as good today as they did back then!
-
Such great songs from back in the day. But don’t leave us hanging on that first one, Jung!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV1dQdR6E2M
-
I’m glad you posted it David, I was just about to go and look up the song. It’s a nice catchy song, kudos to the Partridge Family.
-
Yeah, I find most of their songs to be rather trite and formulaic, but this one has always been an earworm for me. The descending progression in the verse creates an ominous atmosphere, followed by a sudden rise to an exuberant refrain. It gives me the feeling of cautiously exploring a mysterious cave with a lantern and then discovering a huge open chamber containing something magnificent.
-
I grew up watching The Partridge Family…one of many tv music shows I enjoyed as a kid, I loved the Theme song and the Rainbow Partidge images in the show’s opening…
Wow, Jung, you mean to say before now, you were not aware/familiar with the Partridge Family tv show in the 70s…. !?!? I’m stunned.?! Being in Canada , I thought you might of been familiar with them….They were a fixture in Canadian homes to watch….Please tell me you’re familiar with Beachcombers, ( shot in BC)…and some other tv greats of the pastvfrom 50s-80s…. oh how I loved tv back then.?…
-
Hi Jacki, I’m familiar with the Partridge Family TV shows, though I tended to prefer the Brady Bunch. I just wasn’t aware their music had any significant popularity outside of the TV show, although their song “I Think I Love You” was written by someone else, song writer Tony Romeo. The Beachcombers, oh yes I remember that show, even been to the Sunshine Coast and the little quaint town of Gibsons where they filmed it.
David, I like your description of the song, and for me too it’s that ominous feeling descending progression of the song that appeals to me. That’s what makes the song I think.
-
Jung,
We are entering the era of the 70’s and hard to believe we are at 50 years ago. The Mona Lisa Twins did a great job of Lola in my book, and my son who is 36 loves it so much he has it on his play list on his computer. The Partridge Family was huge in the early 70’s along with the Osmands and Jackson 5. I have XM radio and the 70’s channel has Kasey Kasum in on the weekends with America Top 40 Show and wow brings back cool memories
-
Bill, I love those 60s and 70s radio stations. In my city we use to have an AM radio station that played the most awesome songs from the 60s and 70s, and being an AM station they kept that retro feel of the old radio stations from then. Could listen to the station for hours. Unfortunately the station got bought up by a bigger conglomerate of stations a few years ago and decided to convert it into a contemporary pop station, playing the usual bland commercialized fare, as if we didn’t have enough radio stations that did that. Kasey Kasum is awesome!
-
I agree, Jung; it’s a tragedy what has happened to radio. I haven’t even tried listening to the radio for the last 20 years, because every station is playing literally the same songs.
How does that work as a business model? Assuming people are listening just for the music, what can a station do even in principle to draw listeners away from their rivals? Wouldn’t it be better to create a niche format and corner that market?
Or are everyone’s musical tastes so homogenized these days that one tenth of the mass audience is still bigger than the number of people who want to hear something different?
-
-
50 years ago this week, the Carpenters were still at the top of the charts with this one.
I remember listening to this on the radio in the 70s.
-
I recently discovered an interesting subculture on YouTube: young people who take requests for old songs they should check out, and then record their reactions as they listen to them for the first time. We’ve Only Just Begun is a very popular choice, and you gain a whole new appreciation for the song when you hear it through fresh ears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGsmiuZZUAY&t=54s
-
-
In quite the contrast to the Carpenters, this one was also in the top of the charts.
The charts had a great variety of good music to listen to unlike today.
-
Ok….I’m going to chime in with my 2 cents worth here, and you may/may not agree with my posting and that’s fine, either way…
Ottawa %0/audio stations back in tge day were far better than what they have now offered…. I agree, most stations are seemingly gearing to tge generations below us (younger than 50+) and will agree, many pkay similar rotations of same music. I now only wake up to a certain station for the hosts, not necessarily the music… I enjoyed back in tge day, when Ottawa had certain radio stns one could be loyal too, as they were distinctive , as in Energy 1200, was like top 40 stuff, Oldies 1310 was that ,dedicated to oldies, Chez 106 was Rock, CKBY was country….but like all things, Radio stns change, formats change, etc… The internet is a godsend for offering a variety of 4adio stns tgat are distinctive yet cater/appeal with stuff to suit all music tastes rather than zone in on specific age brackets…. i’m not sure for rest of Canada or USA but in my opinion , compared to USA/Europe, they are more open minded in their radio stns formats, etc….
-
Jacki, it’s the same in Vancouver, mediocrity seems to have prevailed when it comes to music radio stations. I don’t turn on the radio anymore to listen to music, it’s all just become noise. Only station I listen to is the national CBC for news or interesting talk programs.
-
-
Jacki,
So true in the USA. We have stations that are owed by huge company’s and it is the same set list each day no matter what. Back in 1969 in Pittsburgh WDVE 102.5 was born and they have been the huge station with classic rock etc, but have fallen to the times of today but they do what they call Electric Lunch and callers call in for songs that we dont usually hear. But back in the day all stations had a good mix of songs and DJ’S had more control but not so much today.
-
Every song is a memory for me during the 1960s and 1970s……and there are so many songs above that brings back a time that was simpler and was filled with so many feelings that I could write a book about them….well, maybe a short story. Maybe that is what music is supposed to do, in part. Thank you guys for the posts. Mike
-
David Herrick wrote:
I recently discovered an interesting subculture on YouTube: young people who take requests for old songs they should check out, and then record their reactions as they listen to them for the first time. We’ve Only Just Begun is a very popular choice, and you gain a whole new appreciation for the song when you hear it through fresh ears.
David, yes it goes to show how some songs are timelessly beautiful like “We’ve Only Just Begun”. What a legacy to create something so beautiful that might last forever, touching and moving people for generations. Sometimes I listen to a Bach piece written nearly 300 years ago, and I can feel it pull at my heart strings, something Bach wrote so long ago still has that power. I think to be an artist/song writer who can do that is such a special gift. It’s sad though when you think about how the current music industry has curtailed many potential great art because of it’s negative influence forcing artists to conform to what major record labels and top 40 radio stations think is good music to make it in the industry. Songs like Hey Jude, Bridge Over Troubled Water I think will be here in 300 hundred years from now touching people with it’s timeless inspired beauty, unspoiled by negative influences.
Log in to reply.
