We now advance a bit more into the hits of the 1970s that did not reach the top-10 pinnacle of the U.S. Billboard charts - some of those songs deserved that distinction and others didn't.
Beginning of the End-Funky Nassau Part 1 (#15): I first heard this song on the final volume of the milestone Atlantic Rhythm and Blues two-LP sets. The group was from the Bahamas, and the song is a great combination of 1970s funk and the sound from the group's own locale of origin. I'm surprised this didn't enter the top-10, but #15 is pretty good.
Archie Bell and the Drells- Don't Let the Music Slip Away (#100), Wrap It Up (#93), Dancing To Your Music (#61): This Texas group had a brief burst of success in the late 1960s with the ultra-tight and danceable Tighten Up (the single edit is the one to hear), which topped the charts, and I Can't Stop Dancin', which went top-10. The group was pretty consistent with their dance-oriented soul songs, but these hits were not as distinctive as the more successful ones, though Don't Let the Music Slip Away is quite appealing, and should have charted higher than #100; and their version of Sam and Dave's Wrap It Up is fun. The problem was that they had a bunch of low charting songs after I Can't Stop Dancin', with the exception of the great There's Gonna Be A Showdown, which hit #21. Dancing To Your Music, when they switched from Atlantic Records to the Glades label, sees a change of sound from tight and danceable to somewhat mellow.
Benny Bell-Shaving Cream (#30): Wow! This song really sounds muffled and is in mono, what's going on? This is the high-fidelity 1970s, man! Well, actually, the song was originally released in 1946 and is one of those slightly naughty novelty songs that, thanks to novelty songs DJ Dr. Demento, was revived in 1975 by the folk-oriented Vanguard label. When I was much younger, I heard the very sexual 1950s songs of Ruth Wallis, which couched songs about the attributes of men and their sexual abilities in barely concealed code. This song is a lot tamer, involving various individuals falling or stepping into a soft substance that sounds like it's brown in colour, but after a very slight pause, we learn it's white, and is instead the very fluffy and inoffensive shaving cream. I remember hearing this song in the day amongst my fellow high school students, who of course would snigger about what Benny Bell (actually Paul Wynn on vocals) actually meant to sing.
Maggie Bell-After Midnight (#97): A not bad cover from the former Stone the Crows vocalist of the Eric Clapton classic, but the original is a whole lot better. This one's too busy in its instrumentation.
Vincent Bell-Airport Love Theme (#31): Literally bubbly sounding, as if a bubble machine was pumping out the music. Otherwise, pretty nice theme to the first of the many Airportmovies. I had the (dis)pleasure of seeing the last of those movies, called Airport '79: The Concorde, at Décarie Square in Montreal (later a part of Côte St. Luc). That film was only suited to be a TV movie.
David Bellamy- Nothin' Heavy (#77): Quite nice, a nostalgic, fairly slick mild sexual-themed country song. But also kind of strange. The song was released as by David Bellamy, but was part of the Bellamy Brothers's first album, and was put out before the duo's huge hit Let Your Love Flow.
Bellamy Brothers- Hell Cat (#70), Satin Sheets (#73), If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me (#39): These chart positions for the hits that followed Let Your Love Flow give a somewhat wrong impression of the group's overall success, because the brothers had a massive amount of hits on the country charts in the late 1970s, including 26 top-10s going up to 1990. Strangely, the first two songs mentioned above didn't hit the country top-40, and the fairly fun pun song If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me hit #1. Hell Cat, which is not bad, straddles the line between mellow rock and country and is also mildly sexual. Satin Sheets is quintessentially 1970s thematically, and is fun.
Next time: Bell & James and others.
