WPGC Playlist - Top 100 of 1974

It was the end of the road for one Richard Milhous Nixon who met his 'Waterloo' (if not ABBA) with Watergate and moved out of the White House in 1974, and the beginning of a new dawn in popular music with the advent of Disco, launched by the Hues Corporation's, 'Rock the Boat'. Dancing (complete with bubble machine sfx) was also on the minds of the Jackson 5 with their last major hit for Motown, 'Dancing Machine'.

One of the year's biggest box office successes spawned the year's biggest hit. Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford memorably teamed up in, 'The Way We Were'. The title track from the film and album was her most successful song since 1963 with, 'People'. The film won two Academy Awards while the song also ended the year at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100, having spent 23 consecutive weeks on the chart that year.

Other movie music came from another Redford film, reunited with Paul Newman in, 'The Sting', featuring the instrumental hit, 'The Entertainer' from Marvin Hamlisch who had also co-written, 'The Way We Were'. It was that song that won him an Academy Award and a Grammy for 'Best New Artist Of the Year'. Another instrumentalist from the UK, Mike Oldfield crafted the perfect complement to the year's most frightening film, 'The Exorcist' with, 'Tubular Bells'. Pea soup has never been the same. For that matter, neither has Georgetown.

Perhaps the most maligned song of the year was Paul Anka's, '(You're) Having My Baby'. Aside from its syrupy lyrics, the simple oversight of using 'my' instead of 'our' in the title resulted in widespread outcry from those offended by its chauvinistic overtones. Though Anka claimed the tune was written in homage to his wife, the damage was done and no amount of backpedaling could repair the tarnished image of the tune in its wake. Anka did however rebound with several other less controversial songs later in the '70's.

No song took off faster in 1974 than the speed with which participants in the latest fad, streaking moved, sans clothing on Ray Stevens', 'The Streak'. The novelty tune became his biggest hit ever and an anthem with the au naturel crowd thereafter. Perhaps they were in a hurry to evade the authorities for having 'Wildwood Weed' in their possession (one wonders where they stashed it without clothes), Jim Stafford's ode to 'taking a trip without leaving the farm'. The success of that song as well as his, 'Spiders & Snakes' and, 'My Girl, Bill' led to his own Summer TV series the following year.

Stevie Wonder reached new heights creatively with his acclaimed, 'Fulfillingness First Finale' LP, epitomized by the track, 'Living For the City'. The album won him the Grammy for 'Album Of the Year' for the second consecutive year. In his spare time, he wrote hit records for other acts including, 'Tell Me Something Good' for Rufus and, 'Until You Come Back To Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)' for Aretha Franklin. Motown also had a hit duet with two of the biggest stars in its stable, Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye who joined together for, 'My Mistake (Was To Love You)'.

The pairing of brothers and sisters fared well on the charts for Richard & Karen Carpenter who were on 'Top Of the World', a song Richard had written and earlier had been a Country hit for Lynn Anderson, and the duo of Donny & Marie whose remake of Dale & Grace's 1963 hit, 'I'm Leaving It All Up To You' kicked off their recording partnership that would eventually result in their own TV series patterned after, 'Sonny & Cher'. In a similar vein, it was the husband and wife duo of James Taylor and Carly Simon who also remade a 1963 hit by a brother and sister act, Inez & Charlie Foxx on, 'Mockingbird'.

The best intro of the year had to be the 'ooga-chuga' heard at the beginning of Blue Swede's remake of, 'Hooked On A Feeling'. Other recycled hits in 1974 included Grand Funk's, 'The Loco-Motion' (employing a similar chuga-chuga motion), Ringo Starr's, 'You're Sixteen' and a remake of a Beatles track, 'You Won't See Me' by Anne Murray. Speaking of the Great White North, the Guess Who paid homage to one of the best loved personalities ever, Wolfman Jack on, 'Clap For the Wolfman' who was seen at the time as the announcer and frequent guest host of, 'The Midnight Special' on NBC-TV. Wolf's custom voice tracks would be used on Saturday nights on WPGC the following year.