Summer In Stereo #40

After writing a pair of early hits for the Eagles ("Already Gone" and "Peaceful Easy Feeling"), Jack Tempchin wrote and recorded "Slow Dancing" with his band The Funky Kings in 1976.  The single was a Top 20 hit on the Easy Listening chart and crossed over to #61 on the Hot 100. Several artists almost immediately recorded the song including Steve Winwood's brother, Muff, and his band Unicorn; and the still very much in country mode Olivia Newton-John.  Johnny Rivers recorded the song for his Outside Help album, though he retitled the song to avoid confusion with the similarly titled though thematically opposite "Slow Dancin' Don't Turn Me On".  Released as a single in the Summer of 1977, "Swayin' To The Music (Slow Dancin')" debuted at #88, becoming the industry veteran's twenty-eighth Hot 100 single dating back to 1964.  HERC first heard the song when he saw Johnny Rivers perform it on The Midnight Special on June 3, 1977 but it wasn't until July 30, 1977 when Casey Kasem introduced it as #36 on America's Top 40 that he heard it on the radio.  It was probably late August, with school starting, that the song started to finally get some airplay on WLS.   Maybe it's the crickets in the background but this song always takes HERC back to the Summer of 1977.