#21 for 1974
#33 for 1973
This is one of the less fondly remembered singer/songwriters of the decade, mainly because he was a one hit wonder with a ballad that wasn't that big and only released two albums during his career. Even so, this did have its fans back in the day as it was a modest success around the world for the American crooner.
There weren't a lot of RNB groups to make it big in Australia back in the day, one of the lucky few who did was the Stylistics who scored a massive hit with this RNB ballad due to how inescapable it was throughout the rest of the world. Like many RNB groups of the day, they had more success over in NZ even during the second half of the decade, giving you an idea of how much they loved RNB.
It had been well over a year since Livie last touched our charts with "Banks of the Ohio" by the time she released this country ballad, as such it makes sense that it wasn't the runaway success that or "I honestly love you" was from earlier on this list despite being among her more popular pre-Grease country ballads.
This failed to appear on the Australian side of my site mostly because it was only a minor success here in Australia, I guess if Countdown hadn't of taken off when it did it would've at least been as successful here as it was in NZ for Wings.
This was yet another big hit that the Eagles had in NZ this decade, it was the second single from their breakthrough album One of these nights (at least in the southern hemisphere it was) where it became a massive hit over there despite it flopping here in Australia. As I said, all of these songs I've featured on this site from the band remain staples on oldies stations to this day.
Well Jon English managed to have a huge music career by appearing in Jesus Christ superstar, so it seems natural that someone who played the titular character in the original west end version also managed to have a massive success in NZ with a song of his own. This was Paul Nicholas who scored his one and only hit worldwide with this pop tune before returning to the world of theatre.
So, we've all seen Star Wars, right? Apparently Meco had seen it over forty times back in the day and loved it so much that he decided to make a disco rendition of the opening title sequence. Here he didn't just remix the original track, instead he got an orchestra to rearrange the melody to fit in with the disco trends that were emerging this decade which resulted in it being a huge success for him.
I told you we'd get to this version of the Mixture's earlier entry on this list eventually, here we have the debut single for Mungo Jerry who is a band named after a character from a book of cat poetry that would be the basis of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats. Honestly, I could go on all day about this track, however I'll leave it at this being the quintessential track about doing nothing ala "The lazy song" or "Hakuna Matata."
This was the only hit that Harry Chapin managed to achieve in his lifetime, indeed like some artists who made it big this decade, he didn't live for very long after he scored his big hit as he died in a car crash in 1981 meaning there was every chance he could've scored a second hit in his career if he lived through the 80's. This song was covered by Ugly kid joe in the early 90's where it became an even bigger success for them.
It took us a while, but we Aussies eventually allowed this ballad about a dead dog to become a success here in Australia following its massive popularity over in NZ and Henry's native America. I'd be remiss not to include the infamous rant that Casey Kasem made about this song which likely boosted this song's popularity with us Aussies (which I'll include here.)
We have another entry from the brothers Gibb, this will be their earliest entry to feature on my site as I don't think I'll ever be looking at what was popular in the 60's where most of their pre disco success came from.
This may have been their only hit in Australia, however it's obvious that we were touched by the band's inspiring tale that the best was yet to come for them that we granted their wishes in making them a household name with the song and the album it came from. Indeed, these guys have a lot to be proud of as this remains a staple on oldies stations to this day.
This was the only hit that Charlie Daniels and company managed to score in Australia, although considering that A: it was a country track (and one that goes hard at that) and B: the lyrics were about an outlaw causing trouble, it's a miracle that it was even as big as it was outside of the band's native America. This is a song I first heard from Coyote ugly, so I was a bit surprised to learn it was a hit back in the day.
It makes sense that these guys would perform this track on Countdown thirteen years after its initial release given how it was indeed one of the biggest hits of the decade here in Australia back in the day. Interestingly, this was only a hit in America two years after it became a massive worldwide success, even more curiously it was around the time that they topped our charts with "Fox on the run."
It's hard to say if this would've been as big a hit here in Australia had it been released well into the Countdown era as it seems to fit in nicely with all of the country ballads that permeated the first half of the 70's. In any case, we have the one and only hit from Billy Swan who made a huge splash worldwide with this ballad, although I guess even in his native America, he remains a one hit wonder with this song.
This was a modest success for Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds (what a weird band name) here in Australia, likely due to it being a huge hit in their native America where this type of ballad reigned supreme on the Billboard charts.
This was the first Billboard chart topper for Olivia Newton John, although she had massive success in Australia and her native UK throughout the first half of the decade as a country star when female country singers were dominating the mainstream. This was written by Peter Allen around the time he came out as gay, meaning it's possible this was about how he fell in love with a guy who was in a straight relationship that he gave to Livie to straightwash the scenario.
#35 for 1974
This is a song that by all accounts should be seen as one of the laziest ever recorded and yet works so well despite its brutal minimalism, it's sort of like a trance track from the 90's with how well it works with how little it has and it appears the general public of this year agrees with that assessment as this became a huge success for Donna Summer worldwide.
This remains the most successful song in John Lennon's catalogue outside of his work with the Beatles, although curiously this protest track didn't hit number one on Billboard despite it being a massive chart topper throughout the rest of the world. I guess American listeners didn't quite feel the positive message of world peace this song was going for, that or they felt this was communist propaganda from an out of touch millionaire.
Bread was another band who managed to achieve quite a bit of success in their native America throughout the decade, this was their biggest hit here in Australia despite it not being their biggest hit on the Billboard charts (we'll get to what was in a bit.) Bread are one of those bands who are often described as "white people music" mainly due to their lack of appeal in other demographics.
By far one of their most easily recognisable hits in their catalogue, we have this ballad from the Carpenters which became their biggest hit in the UK likely due to how tender it sounds despite it clearly being about nostalgia for the years that had gone by. It was also a huge hit in their native America, although not quite at the dizzying heights of their earlier entries.
While this wasn't the first hit single Bonnie Tyler had in her career (that honour goes to "Lost in France") this was the first hit song of hers to use her iconic raspy vocals as previously she had sounded more like your typical lovestruck pop diva that obviously didn't connect well with her audience. Here she makes such as splash on the international market that it even manages to crossover to Billboard for her.
Pablo Cruise sounds like the name of a lounge singer who would perform Barry Manilow covers as your local lounge bar, well they're actually a band which wrote their own music that is admittedly similar to what Barry was releasing throughout the 70's. This was their only hit worldwide which does indeed fit the theme of being on a cruise, perhaps it was big because of it being featured in a commercial for one.
We looked at his final hit "Strokin" from the late 80's on the NZ side of this site, time now to look at the only hit that Clarence Carter had here in Australia which is also his biggest hit worldwide due to how huge it was in the UK of all places. Clarence did find success in his native America throughout the 60's, although none of those songs managed to crossover internationally like this did.
Ever wanted to hear a disco rendition of the 2001 a space oddity theme? Well, you're in luck as we have just that from Brazilian composer Deodato who laid out the blueprints for the genre with this rearrangement of the classic theme that tickled audiences fancy upon its initial release.
You better believe this was a huge sleeper hit in NZ upon its initial release, this means that I've now featured both popular versions of this track on this site even though the Faith no more version was more successful in the southern hemisphere than this ever was. Still, it remains a huge staple on oldies stations likely due to it being the first taste of success Lionel Richie had in his career.
Although it doesn't say so on the album cover, this is in fact a duet between Donna Summer and the short-lived American trio Brooklyn dreams. In fact, this is technically their song as this doesn't appear on any of Donna's albums and was instead the lead single to their second album which was a massive flop for them even in their native America, I'm guessing because even back then people didn't realise this was their song.
While this wasn't Elvis's final hit anywhere in the world, it is the last song he released from his catalogue that has largely survived the test of time likely due to it feeling like a track from the 60's rather than the early 70's. It was a massive hit for the king of rock and roll regardless of where in the world you're from, although outside of Australia, it was a bit of a comeback for him.
We have a returning entry from my Countdown list, naturally this lead single from Foreigner's debut album was bound to make the cut here given how well received their performance of the track was on the show back in the day. Admittedly the album sales are why this failed to reach the upper echelons of our charts; however, it's remained a staple on oldies stations to this day for good reason.
Given how their earlier entry on this list was a massive success on time in NZ, it only makes sense that the kiwis would also allow the second single from their comeback album Destiny to also be a success for them this year which sadly wasn't the case here in Australia when this finally saw the light of day the following year. That's a shame because it's since become a disco classic even on our oldie's stations.
These guys didn't have a lot of success with their singles in Australia, this was mainly due to how huge their albums were and that album artists generally didn't spawn a lot of hits here in Australia with rare exceptions such as Abba and Sherbet. They did have success during the second half of the 70's given how they had the second biggest hit of the decade with "Mull of Kintyre" from two years later.
This was one of those soft rocker ballads that managed to be a massive success in America but struggled to find an international audience for the singer/songwriter in question, in this case it's Randy Vanwarmer who scored a massive breakthrough with this ballad before he faded into obscurity right when the 70's had become the 80's.
Although the Osmonds never found much success here in Australia, that didn't prevent their key member from finding a ton of success as a solo artist as this is one of many entries from Donny Osmond on this list. At least MJ appeared earlier on this list with his solo breakthrough, otherwise I'm sure this will spark an unwanted debate on how this kid copied the work of a much more talented kid of colour and found more success to boot.
If the production on this track sounds familiar to you, that's because it was sampled in Len's one and only hit "Steal my sunshine" over two decades after this came out. This is another song I feel got the short end of the stick here in Australia as this was a massive hit throughout the rest of the world, I guess Countdown listeners were put off by the seductive nature of the song in a way that didn't apply to Donna Summer.
This was a big hit for American soft rock band the Gallery here in Australia as well as their native America and interestingly enough, Canada where it was a huge chart topper for them. Despite its international success, it remains their only hit worldwide given how the band only lasted a few years together before calling it quits in 1974.
If this sounds like a KC and the Sunshine band song to you, you're not far off as it was written by Harry Casey who was the lead singer of the disco band. This was George McCrae's only hit worldwide likely due to it arriving a little too early to the disco bandwagon to be seen as anything more than a novelty at the time, if it had of come out even a year later then he probably would've had a ton more success.
You'd think that one of the most iconic songs of the decade would've been a bigger hit here in Australia, admittedly it was a huge hit for Boston in their native America as it was a Billboard chart topper for them, but it was only a modest success here for some reason. Naturally the oldies stations have added this driving anthem to their playlists so there's a good chance that you've heard this if you've ever tuned into their stations.
These guys were known as British Jigsaw in Australia due to there being a more popular band by that name during the first half of the decade, this was a common trend when it came to international artists finding success after a local act with the same name made it big here. In any case, we have another song that was made more popular in the 90's thanks to there being a dance track that covered it.
While this wasn't the first big hit that Kenny Rogers had here in Australia, this was the song which seemed to convince us and most of Europe that he was the real deal in country music which is odd because this wasn't among his bigger hits in his native America. In any case, he was able to make a huge splash with this ballad that cause his career to explode going into the new decade.
We've looked at the Boy George cover from 1987 on the NZ side of my site, time now to look at the original non reggae version from Bread which was a hit here in Australia fifteen years prior to when George's version briefly scrapped our top ten before quickly leaving our charts (making it a fan single in my opinion.) This failed to crack our top ten but stuck around for quite some time regardless.
This is the final entry from Helen Reddy to appear on this list, it's another pop country ballad that was a massive success for the pioneering feminist back in the day, proving that even back then, the music industry wasn't opposed to progressive ideas despite what online activists will otherwise tell you.
Of the four hits that these guys had in Australia back in the day, this was by far the most normal as it wasn't a cod reggae track like "Dreadlock holiday," a glam rock track like "Rubber bullets" or even a sophistopop track (or whatever the 70's equivalent of that was) like "I'm not in love." Instead, we have a fairly straight forward pop rock track from the band which came from their biggest album Deceptive bends.
Sweet were on a roll when they released their biggest hit in Australia this year, although it's worth noting that around the time this became a massive success here and in their native UK, their earlier hit "Ballroom blitz" had only just crossed over to America where it became a huge success on Billboard. This is another song that was huge back in the day to be fondly remembered today by oldies stations.
We have one final entry on this list that had its success partially eaten up here in Australia due to a local rendition stealing its thunder, this time we have Johnny O'Keefe and unknown singer Margaret McLaren to thank for why the original from Carly Simon and her (then) husband James Taylor didn't see the levels of success here they did internationally with this collaboration.
Well, this is just depressing, not the song itself as it remains a disco classic to this day but rather that it was the only hit that both bands involved had here in Australia. There was little chance this was going to fail as it's a celebration of disco right when the genre seemed to be at the peak of its popularity, although it's likely due to this oversaturation that the disco backlash took place in America.
No comments:
Post a Comment