The top 20 songs on Billboard Hot 100 November 8, 1975

Elton don’t play Island Girl no more.

WTF OP?

WTF r2?

Loved Island Girl!

And here is it is almost 50 years later and many of those songs are still being played.

Those days of music were fantastic. Everything was new and exciting and fresh.

Love it.

I'm 50 and I only know one of these songs (Lyin' Eyes).

I've never ever heard that Olivia song at #13, and I know a lot of her old stuff.

R1 is it because 'Island Girl" is now considered racist?

R8, the graphic on the album cover was.

Sky High!

Who cares? Nov 10, 2024

There’s four good recordings on that list.

I also count four that I might not mind hearing again.

Same four?

I have no memory of John Denver’s Calypso.

It’s awful.

R6 I’m 51 and know all but two songs. You must be ignorant.

SOS still sounds great. Long live ABBA!

I'm eleventy years old....recognized almost all of these songs, though I was probably a bit too young to hear and remember them from when they would have been "live" in 1975 - most of these were pretty popular on Top 40 radio through the end of the 70s.

I didn't realize that was the name of that particular John Denver song.

The ones I didn't recognize: #11, #13 (despite being a big ONJ fan and having most of her 70s records), #14, and #20.

Feelings really was and is a dreadful song.

That KC song has worn out its welcome with me long ago.

[quote]And here is it is almost 50 years later and many of those songs are still being played.

50 years ago? It feels like a million. And I remember it well.

I was 14 and remember all the songs. I like about 7 of them.

I’m with R17. I was 12/13 in ‘75 and those songs, excepting the exact 4 that he mentions, which I have no recollection of, are etched into my memory. My long bus ride to the horrors of middle school - the bus being equipped with a very decent sound system that was always tuned to the top-40 station - provided some relief to the unhappiness that awaited me upon our arrival.

What do you think, r8?

I see your teeth flash, Jamaican honey so sweet

Down where Lexington cross 47th Street

Oh she's a big girl, she's standing six-foot three

Turning tricks for the dudes in the big city

Island girl

What you wanting with the white man's world?

Island girl

Black boy want you in his island world

He want to take you from the racket boss

He want to save you, but the cause is lost

Island girl, island girl, island girl

Tell me what you wanting with the white man's world

Well she's black as coal, but she burn like a fire

And she wrap herself around you like a well-worn tire

You feel her nail scratch your back just like a rake, oh oh

He one more gone, he one more John who make the mistake

Wow. No wonder he doesn't sing it anymore.

Feelings stayed in the public consciousness because it was on regular rotation for elevator music and it would show up on a tv show or movie sung by a really bad lounge singer.

Nights on broadway is brilliant and sky high reminds me of a 70s disaster movie .

Don’t forget he sings it with a Jamaican accent.

There's eight of them I'm still really fond of (5, 7, 10, 11, 15, 17, 18, and 19), a few I can take or leave (4, 6, 8, 12, 13, and 20) some I don't care for (1, 2, 3.1, 9, 16) and a couple I don't really remember at all (3.2 and 14).

15 is probably my favorite out of this group.

Like R17 and R21, I know/remember all of these songs except those same four. I was 10 going on 11.

#11 is a disco/funk masterpiece written and produced by Leon Huff.

"Heat Wave" was the worst song on Linda's Prisoner in Disguise album.

Ha, I just listened to the Olivia song and realized I did know it. Enough to sing along with the chorus. It’s a cute/square tune with a shuffle beat and multi vocals on the chorus. Kind of Lawrence Welk Show sounding.

r30 Olivia's "Something Better to Do" is a simple song with unusual (for the mid 70s) production. You can thank her main writer/producer, the brilliant John Farrar for that. It doesn't sound like anything else on her album Clearly Love. It sounds like a 1940s song to me.

I love Natalie Cole. This Will Be is her big breakout hit song. I like it but I can see where her high, nasally, way of singing it (especially at the end) might drive someone absolute ape.

Thanks R31, it makes sense that it stalled at #13 given that it was an anachronistic 40s sounding tune. Now that I think about it, ONJ and Farrar went there again on one of the tracks on the Xanadu soundtrack. The medley one where she’s all Andrews Sisters and The Tubes keep cutting in.

r33 that song you're referring to is "Dancin'" a duet between Olivia Newton-Joh and The Tubes from the 1980 double-platinum Xanadu movie soundtrack. It mixes big band 1940s, Andrew Sisters sounds and 1980s new wave, corporate rock. At first Olivia as 1940s then The Tubes as 1980s then both styles blending at the end. An unusual, unique, and fantastic track.

R34 that’s the one! Ok now you got me wanting the video. so good.

[quote]sky high reminds me of a 70s disaster movie .

It reminds me of being in the dentist's office, buzzed on nitrous. "Jackie Blue" is another one.

I loved "Jackie Blue." Still do.

When I was a kid I thought Joni Mitchell sang "Jackie Blue" - color me surprised when I found out not only did she NOT sing it, but that it was a guy singing it!

I wouldn't turn off "This Will Be"