Rant #2,703: You've Got a Friend

It’s the summer, and radio was made for the summer … or at least it was way back when.
 
In the days of transistor radios, there was nothing better than going to the park, to the beach or to your favorite haunt and having a transistor radio with you, and with a headphone, it was even better.
 
Your music became portable, and while you couldn’t play your records anywhere you wanted, you could play the stations that brought that music to you in the first place with you anywhere you were.
 
And you could go a long way with AM radio … heck, you could go to Florida and hear New York’s AM stations loud and clear, even as far south as Miami.
 
So what were kids listening to way back when, 50 years ago in 1971?
 
Let’s go back to those days, and look at the Top 10 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 for July 31, 1971.
 
Tom Clay took two songs and melded them into one with his hit “What the World Needs Now Is Love/Abraham, Martin and John,” which hit number 10 on this date. When was the last time you heard this socially conscious song on the radio? It is one of those hits that was for the time, and even oldies radio today doesn’t play this tune.
 
The Grass Roots continued to have huge single hits into the early 1970s, and one of their biggest songs was “Sooner or Later,” which hit number nine on this date 50 years ago.
 
John Denver had become a songwriter of some renown in the late 1960s, but when he decided to go out on his own, he created one of the strongest catalogs of music of its time, and “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” which hit number eight this week, was one of the best known and most endearing of those tunes.
 
Hamilton, Joe, Frank and Reynolds’ “Don’t Pull Your Love” moved down the charts, pulling in at number seven this week. Yes, they did sound like the Grass Roots, didn’t they? And sharing the same record label, Dunhill, probably made that association somewhat viable.
 
The Bee Gees had a very long hit-making career in several different music genres, but they were still all rock in 1971 with one of their best songs, “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” which hit number six on the chart this week. Next week, the song would top the chart.
 
Tommy James went out on his own with a similar sound to that of the Shondells and had a major hit with “Draggin’ the Line,” which hit number five on the chart this week. It would be the biggest solo hit of James’ career.
 
Although today probably best known as a commercial jingle, Jean Knight had the biggest hit of her career with “Mr. Big Stuff,” which came in at number four on the chart this week.
 
Carole King’s former number one two-sided hit, “It’s Too Late on the A side and “I Feel the Earth Move” on the B side, came in at number three this week. This success helped make her “Tapestry” LP one of the biggest selling albums of all time.
 
What was thought to be an out-of-leftfield, fluke hit came in at number two this week: “Indian Reservation” A few years after the hits pretty much stopped, the Raiders—or really Mark Lindsay, who planned to release this as a solo recording but Columbia Records decided to revive the band’s career with it—came back to the upper echelon of the singles charts in a huge way with this record, which had previously topped the Hot 100, the only Raiders’ single to do so in their long history.
 
Singer-songwriters were hot in 1971, and with Carole King already having huge success with her music, it was almost predictable that another such artist would soon have major success on the Hot 100.
 
So, topping the Hot 100 this week was—
 
James Taylor with “You’ve Got a Friend.”
 
Taylor would have long-term success on both the singles and albums charts with numerous big records well into the late 1990s, but this single was his only number one hit he was able to register on the Hot 100.
 
The highest debut single on the Hot 100 this week was “Spanish Harlem” by Aretha Franklin, which came onto the chart at number 69 and would eventually reach the fifth position in a few weeks' time.
 
The biggest mover on the Hot 100 this week—or the song that moved up the most places on the chart from last week to this week—was “Where You Lead” by Barbra Streisand, which moved up 22 spots, from number 90 to number 68, from one week to the next. However, the single would stall at number 40 … but it was revived a few years later as a medley with “Sweet Inspiration,” but it also never made much of a dent as either a song on its own or as part of a medley.
 
So that is what we kids were listening to 50 years ago almost to the day, a good mix of artists who hit it big in the 1960s who were moving into the 1970s with some hit-making swagger and a few new artists who were making their presence known in a big way.
 
I would bet that if you found these songs and listened to them again, each one would bring back a huge set of memories to you.
 
Whatever music you are listening to as July peters out and we begin August, have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.