As the Spring of 1979 warmed into the Summer of 1979, HERC and his junior high friends had three ongoing, heated debates:
1) Who was the best superhero group in comics: Fantastic Four, The Uncanny X-Men or The Mighty Avengers? HERC has always been firmly in the Avengers camp, natch.
2) Who was the hottest woman on prime time TV: Cheryl Ladd (Charlie's Angels), Barbara Bach (Dukes Of Hazzard), Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman), Loni Anderson (WKRP In Cincinnati) or Suzanne Sommers (Three's Company)? HERC was a Lynda Carter man until Loni Anderson's sweet white bikini poster came out. The fact that he had to take the poster down and hide it when his grandparents visited sealed the deal. (Sadly, Wonder Woman might have won that battle had HERC come across this poster at the BX.)
3) Was Donna Summer's new song "Hot Stuff" too rock for disco or too disco for rock? This debate had begun nearly a year earlier when The Rolling Stones had released the rockin' disco choon "Miss You". Then Rod Stewart followed that with his own hybrid "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" Further fanning the flames of discourse would be Paul McCartney & Wings and their dance floor ditty "Goodnight Tonight" which was released just prior to "Hot Stuff" in March 1979. But those all represented rock stars going disco - Summer was the first Disco star going rock. Not surprisingly, HERC and his friends were equally split on this point - some of them thought it was too rock, others thought it was too disco and still others, mimicking Goldilocks, though it was just right. That last group was HERC's group.
When "Hot Stuff" debuted at #79 on the Hot 100 for the week ending April 21, 1979, the Top 3 songs and 10 out of the Top 16 were disco songs. By June 2nd, it was the Number One song in the country with the title track of the album racing up the charts in it's second week. On June 23rd, both songs were in the Top 5 and the following week it was "Hot Stuff" at #2 and "Bad Girls" at #3 with "Ring My Bell" holding the top spot. The next week, the two flipped positions in preparation for "Bad Girls" ascension to the top on July 14th. The two tracks would share the Top 10 for four more weeks - the duration of "Bad Girls" reign as #1 - and both would end up in the Top 5 of all 1979 singles at year's end. Even after all this time, HERC can't hear "Hot Stuff" without it segueing seamlessly into "Bad Girls".
2) Who was the hottest woman on prime time TV: Cheryl Ladd (Charlie's Angels), Barbara Bach (Dukes Of Hazzard), Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman), Loni Anderson (WKRP In Cincinnati) or Suzanne Sommers (Three's Company)? HERC was a Lynda Carter man until Loni Anderson's sweet white bikini poster came out. The fact that he had to take the poster down and hide it when his grandparents visited sealed the deal. (Sadly, Wonder Woman might have won that battle had HERC come across this poster at the BX.)
3) Was Donna Summer's new song "Hot Stuff" too rock for disco or too disco for rock? This debate had begun nearly a year earlier when The Rolling Stones had released the rockin' disco choon "Miss You". Then Rod Stewart followed that with his own hybrid "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" Further fanning the flames of discourse would be Paul McCartney & Wings and their dance floor ditty "Goodnight Tonight" which was released just prior to "Hot Stuff" in March 1979. But those all represented rock stars going disco - Summer was the first Disco star going rock. Not surprisingly, HERC and his friends were equally split on this point - some of them thought it was too rock, others thought it was too disco and still others, mimicking Goldilocks, though it was just right. That last group was HERC's group.
When "Hot Stuff" debuted at #79 on the Hot 100 for the week ending April 21, 1979, the Top 3 songs and 10 out of the Top 16 were disco songs. By June 2nd, it was the Number One song in the country with the title track of the album racing up the charts in it's second week. On June 23rd, both songs were in the Top 5 and the following week it was "Hot Stuff" at #2 and "Bad Girls" at #3 with "Ring My Bell" holding the top spot. The next week, the two flipped positions in preparation for "Bad Girls" ascension to the top on July 14th. The two tracks would share the Top 10 for four more weeks - the duration of "Bad Girls" reign as #1 - and both would end up in the Top 5 of all 1979 singles at year's end. Even after all this time, HERC can't hear "Hot Stuff" without it segueing seamlessly into "Bad Girls".
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