HERC's 1978: THE LEFTOVER 45s

It's HERC's list and when he made it and then tried to fit all the songs into genre-based groups, these eight songs ended up in between, straddling the line between two or more genres.  Hence, they are The Leftovers, no better or worse than any other singles on the list.  These eight bring the total up to 84, setting the stage for the final part of the list: Disco!

HERC's little sister was all of eight years old when she fell hard for Shaun Cassidy in 1977.  Someone somewhere had the sense to pair him with two Eric Carmen compositions (this one and "That's Rock And Roll") and they were both Top 10 hits for Cassidy with your boy HERC buying both of the 45s.

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This was unlike anything on the radio at the time and WLS played it often enough that it peaked at #8 on their in-house charts though it missed Billboard's Top 20.   Then in 1980, K-tel wisely included it on their legendary Rock 80 album.

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Too smooth to be funky, Raydio's "Jack and Jill" rocked HERC's little world for most of 1978 thanks to near constant airplay on WLS.  HERC was never able to find the 45 but he snatched up the LP the first time he saw it.

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Another one of those hear it and it makes your whole day better songs like Earth, Wind & Fire's "September", Bill WIthers' "Lovely Day" was pointlessly remixed a decade later.  Two members of Raydio can be heard on this song: Ray Parker Jr on guitar and Jerry Knight on bass.  Struggled to reach Top 30 when it should have easily been #1. 

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Chugging organ, walking bass, slamming drums - what's not to like about this one?  It is a solid blast of energy for three minutes and change.  What the heck is he saying?  Doesn't matter just catch up with him on the titular refrain.   This one got less than zero airplay on WLS but HERC heard it somewhere (jukebox?) and fell in love with it.

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Even more unique than Joe Jackson's "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" is the surf-guitar and organ-driven "Rock Lobster". Quirky to the max, The B-52's were an Eighties band years before the Eighties had even begun.  Another never heard it on the radio fave.

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Another original sound from the late '70s as punk and reggae sounds were absorbed into the mainstream.  HERC probably could have thrown this in the group of Rock 45s but he chose not to for reasons he won't divulge.  Another jukebox jam.

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For those few of you home on Saturday nights, NBC has been airing classic (though edited to an hour) episodes of Saturday Night Live just before the new ones since the 40th season of the show began last month. HERC mentions this because the third season episode hosted by Steve Martin (who performed his own song "King Tut") that featured the second appearance of the Blues Brothers recently aired.  This song was all over WLS.

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