Dave's guide to early 1970s pop songs

I have a secret weakness for early 1970s pop songs. Some of them are interesting or just plain weird. Here's my list of some odd, unusual, wonderfully bad, or awfully bad songs that I either listened to when growing up or found on Rhino Records' Have A Nice Day compilations.

Mammy Blue - Pop Tops
A strangely epic song about... I'm not sure what. For some reason, it reminds me of a ship full of immigrants to the New World, fleeing wartime Europe. And is Mammy Blue his mother? To me, this song is more of an epic tale than "Bohemian Rhapsody". According to a translation from the German version of Wikipedia, this band was originally from Spain.

Softly Whispering I Love You - The English Congregation
Features a female choir and smarmy male lead singer. You can almost hear his sideburns. It's like two completely different songs mashed together.

Venus - Shocking Blue
One of many bands from Holland who reached the charts in the early 1970s. The rhythm guitar is irresistible. Covered in the 1980s by Bananarama.

Indiana Wants Me - R. Dean Taylor
I think I've mentioned this before, but if I haven't: I love this song to pieces. The central character is holed up somewhere, wanted for killing somebody who dissed his girl. ("No one has the right to say what he said about you.") The police have surrounded the building. The song ends with a soaring string section and gunfire.

Coconut - Harry Nilsson
This is just plain weird. You put de lime in de coconut, and drink them both up. Doctor! Doctor!

Amazing Grace - Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
Believe it or not, this bagpipe instrumental topped the charts in 1972. It's probably the only bagpipe song I can listen to. (Someone once wrote: "A gentleman is somebody who knows how to play the bagpipes, but doesn't." I did a Google search, and this was attributed to R. Acket, Oscar Wilde, Nikolai Demidienko and Thomas Beecham.)

Joy - Apollo 100
An instrumental based on J.S. Bach's "Ode To Joy". According to the Wikipedia article, this song has been featured in the movies Boogie Nights and The 40-Year Old Virgin.

Ballroom Blitz - Sweet
This song reminds me of a fun day on the CNE midway. Covered by The Damned (with Lemmy from Motorhead on bass).

How Do You Do - Mouth and Macneal
European hit song that featured the use of the words "na na na na" instead of something more explicit. (Someone has created a MySpace page for them that features the song, if you're curious.)

Ma Belle Amie - Tee Set
Early 1970s hit song by a Dutch band. I sometimes think that they didn't know the English words they were singing, and were just reproducing them phonetically. They have an official home page.

Hocus Pocus - Focus
I've never taken cocaine, but this sounds like the musical equivalent: it's a whole lot of hyperactive guitars and yodelling.

My Ding-A-Ling - Chuck Berry
I seem to recall reading that this song was Chuck's only number one. It's a novelty song that consists of a lot of sniggering penis jokes.

Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress - The Hollies
I only listed this because I remember having a 45 of it when I was a kid. At a certain point in the intro, my friends and I used to pound each other senseless with pillows. You had to be there, I guess.

Day By Day - Godspell
Jesus Christ Superstar - Murray Head
Put Your Hand In The Hand - Ocean
O Happy Day - Edwin Hawkins Singers
There were a lot of songs about God in the early 1970s. Here's four of them. The first two were from the well-known musicals. The third is from a Canadian group with a male and female singer, and rather annoys me. The fourth is from a more traditional choral group.

Spirit In The Sky - Norman Greenbaum
Another song about God and religion, featuring a killer guitar riff that probably did more for Christianity than the sermons of a hundred preachers. Covered, almost note-for-note, in the mid-1980s by Doctor and the Medics.

Brandy - Scott English
A harmless song, which may or may not have been about his pet dog. Covered by Barry Manilow, who turned it into the unlistenable "Mandy". (This is not a value judgment - I defy you to get through the entire song.) Not to be confused with "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)" by the Looking Glass.

Rock'N'Roll (Part II) - Gary Glitter
The flip side of a British single, this song has no lyrics, just shouting. You've heard this at some sporting arena or other. Glitter, whose given name is Paul Gadd, is currently doing time in Vietnam for sexual offenses against children.

Seasons In The Sun - Terry Jacks
The worst pop song in the history of the universe. According to the Wikipedia article about this song, this started off as a Jacques Brel song, was translated into English by Rod McKuen, and then "lightened up" a bit by Jacks. The article states that the song had been sitting on Jacks' shelf for over a year until a newspaper boy liked it enough to ask Jacks to play it for his friends. That paperboy has a lot to answer for.

Stay Awhile - The Bells
No, I take it back: this is the worst pop song in the history of the universe. Too sugary-sweet to believe. I can listen to about 15 seconds of this, tops, after which I would be willing to cause property damage to make it go away. Both "Stay Awhile" and "Seasons In The Sun" were Canadian in origin, which meant that AM radio stations in Toronto played them both over and over again. I feel sorry for the younger version of me.