Rant #2,683: It Don't Come Easy

Happy Friday!
 
I won’t say “Thank God It’s Friday,” because Friday to me is just the last day of the work week, so until Friday is over, it is still the work week to me.
 
Looking ahead to the weekend, I hope to finally get into the pool with my wife and maybe even my son, although he has to work on Sunday, which we have been told is going to be the better of the two-day weekend weather-wise.
 
We shall see, but the pool is there and it is ready to go!
 
And when I am in the pool, we have the radio on to further relax us, and somehow, we are able to pick up pretty clearly an oldies station from southern New Jersey, and that is what we listen to.
 
It plays a really good mix of oldies from the late 1950s through the early 1970s, which I think are the best years to listen to the music of my life.
 
So included in that music are tunes from the year 1971, and music that was popular in June of that year, or exactly 50 years ago.
 
What will be the songs that we will hear on that station—I have no idea what the call letters are or the frequency, as I always have to search for it—and specifically, from June 1971?
 
Here is a rundown of the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 from the week of June 26, 1971, and I bet we will hear some of these songs when we are waddling in the pool this weekend.
 
At number 10 is one of Donny Osmond’s top solo outings away from his brothers, “Sweet and Innocent.” He was hot as a pistol then, and just about anything he put out with or without his brothers was a hit, and this one was no exception.
 
And talking about being hot, Jerry Reed’s “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” was the ninth most popular song in the U.S. this week. Reed, the actor/writer/singer and musician, placed a number of songs on the Hot 100 during this period, and his association with Burt Reynolds certainly helped him become one of America’s most popular stars during this period of time.
 
Hamilton, Joe, Frank and Reynolds placed “Don’t Pull Your Love” at the number 8 spot on the chart. Althoiugh this song was on the Dunhill label, they eventually became the fledgling Playboy record label’s biggest-selling act a few years later.
 
Ringo Starr proved to the world that he could become a top-selling solo artist apart from the Beatles with a number of songs that made the Top 10, one of them being “It Don’t Come Easy,” which was in seventh place this week. The title of the song was kind of a rebuff to the critics, who thought he would fall flat on his face away from John, Paul and George.
 
The Rolling Stones came in at number six with “Brown Sugar,” the former number one smash that was now moving down the chart, but it remains to this day one of the Stones’ most beloved songs of their entire career.
 
“Treat Her Like a Lady” by the family act the Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose came in at number five this week. It would get as high as number three on the chart in the coming weeks.
 
At number four was an out of left field hit by the Raiders, the oft-recorded “Indian Reservation.” This soon-to-be number one tune was “cleaned up” by the former teen idols, led by Mark Lindsay and, of course, Paul Revere, and it was the band’s only tune to top the chart out of the bushel-full of hits that they had during the period.
 
Honey Cone, a three-girl act that kind of resembled the Supremes, had a massive hit with “Want Ads,” which came in at number three on this week’s chart. This former number one song was one of several large hits for the group during this era.
 
One of the top acts of the 1970s placed one of their most endearing hits at the number two spot this week. The Carpenters’ “Rainy Days and Mondays” occupied the runners-up spot on the chart, and it was kept from the top spot by a tune from one of the musical juggernauts of this time period.
 
The number one song of the week was actually a two-sided hit, and topping the chart this week was—
 
Carole King and her songs “It’s Too Late” and the B side of “I Feel the Earth Move.”
 
Both coming off the “Tapestry” album, this long-time songwriter—who had recorded as a solo years earlier with some success—re-burst onto the music scene with this album, one of the largest selling LPs of all time and a record that spun off many hits for King, and pretty much signaled the beginning of the singer/songwriter period in pop music at the time.
 
The highest debuting single on the chart was “Moon Shadow” by Cat Stevens, which came in at number 70. The song would eventually reach number 30.
 
The biggest mover on this week’s chart—the song that moved up the most places from last week to this week—was “Wild Horses” by the Rolling Stones, which moved up a whopping 38 places from number 85 last week to number 47 this week. The song would eventually rise to number 28 on the Hot 100 a few weeks later.
 
So there you have it, the Top 10 of this week 50 years ago, plus two other beloved songs from that period.
 
I am willing to bet that I hear most of those songs played on the radio this weekend while I am in the pool, and let me tell you, it will be good to hear all of them again, since the songs were so strong on the chart this week.
 
Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.