When the United States celebrated it's Bicentennial in 1976, the U.S. Mint issued commemorative Quarters. K-Tel celebrated the Bicentennial in the only way they knew how - issuing 20 song collections of popular hits on vinyl and 8-track tapes. Thus far on The Hideaway, HERC has shone the spotlight on several collections from 1976: Right On!, Hit Machine and Mind Bender [click on the album titles to go directly to the corresponding Spotify playlist].
Added to that list today is Block Buster featuring the ever-popular "20 original hits 20 original stars". Whatever your take on that tried and true slogan, we may have a technicality here today as one of those songs is a cover version of a classic Beach Boys song!
Johnny Rivers made a career out of covering other peoples songs including early rock and blues classics as well as seminal Motown tracks and in 1975, ten years after the Beach Boys took the original to the top of the charts, Rivers made it to #22 with his harmonica heavy take of "Help Me, Rhonda" featuring Beach Boy Brian Wilson, the man who wrote the song, on backing vocals. If Brian gave his blessing, so shall HERC. Two years later, Johnny on the spot took an obscure tune originally by the overlooked singer/songwriter super group The Funky Kings, increased the tempo a bit and cracked the Top 10, giving HERC his favorite Johnny Rivers song of all, ""Swayin' To The Music (Slow Dancin')" aka "Slow Dancin' (Swayin' To The Music)":
Speaking of sped up tempos... dig that hyper horn section! K.C. & the Sunshine Band are one of HERC's most favorite groups. Their string of hits from 1975-1979 included four Number Ones and "That's The Way (I Like It)" was one of them. Ironically, their positive dance groove was considered "too pop" for the jocks at the discos of the day as their songs never made it too high up on the Disco charts although they were as popular on the R&B charts as they were on the Pop charts.
Spotify features 19 of the album's 20 tracks, missing only "The Last Game Of The Season (A Blind Man In The Bleachers)" by David Geddes. Try to enjoy HERC's playlist anyway.
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| discogs.com |
Two words: Canadian version! Here's your artwork and the playlist below features the songs from the playlist above PLUS eleven more from the Canadian version for a 30 song trip back to 1975-1976!
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