1974: The Hideaway 100 (Part VI: 50-41)

 

Despite "You Little Trustmaker" being recorded in Philly and New York City, I always get an early Motown vibe when I hear this song. It's got a bubbly energy in its irresistible foot-tapping beat and a primo hook that you'll hum for days after a single listen. Pairs well with New York City's "I'm Doin' Fine Now" and is always good for a sunny day windows-down drive around the city. The Tymes took "You Little Trustmaker" onto the Hot 100 chart in August 1974 where it peaked at number 12 in October during a twelve-week stay. Listen to "You Little Trustmaker" HERE.

One album that has grown on me over the decades has been the sixth studio album by Chicago aka Chicago VII. Not the entire album mind you just the three soft rockin' jazz-kissed singles:

• "(I've Been) Searchin' So Long"
• "Call On Me"
• "Wishing You Were Here"

and another laid-back deep cut that got a bit of airplay ("Happy Man"). On any given day, one of these four tunes can be my favorite Chicago tune of 1974 but today "Call On Me" wins that distinction. I enjoy the horns and spicy percussion a great deal. Sometimes I wish it had an extended percussion breakdown outro like "Beginnings". The single would camp out for fifteen weeks on the Hot 100 peaking at number 6. I must confess that nearly all of my listens to "Call On Me" and the other two Chicago VII singles come from listening to the band's Greatest Hits compilation aka Chicago IX which features the songs conveniently sequenced as tracks 8-10. Listen to "Call On Me".

One of the greatest love songs of all time is John Denver's "Annie's Song" originally from his Back Home Again album. While the song's sweet sentiment was completely lost on me in 1974 the pretty melody stealthily embedded itself into my head. These days, I'm fully in touch with all of the song's charms and sing along to it regularly. Back Home Again remains a favorite album and coupled with John Denver's Greatest Hits album, the pair might be all the John Denver I will ever need. "Annie's Song" peaked at Number One in late July and early August 1974 during eleven weeks in the Top 40. Listen to "Annie's Song".

As a hip-hop fan, I've discovered a few cool jazz riffs and songs through well-deployed samples or interpolations. One example is the chicken scratch guitar riff that comes a few seconds in on the Dust Brothers-produced Beastie Boys song "Shake Your Rump" off their seminal Paul's Boutique. It's a straight lift from saxophonist Ronnie Laws and his Pressure Sensitive album from 1975. Specifically, it's the opening of Laws's cover of Rufus's "Tell Me Something Good" as played by session guitarist Roland Bautista. The song, written by Stevie Wonder, was a big sexy, state-of-the-funk hit for Rufus in 1974 and won them a well-deserved Grammy. "Tell Me Something Good" debuted on the Hot 100 in June 1974, peaking for three weeks at number 3 before exiting the chart after a seventeen-week run. Watch Chaka lead Rufus through "Tell Me Something Good" on The Midnight Special or listen to the song HERE.

Up (down?) at number 99 on this list of the 1974 Hideaway 100, we featured "I'm A Train" by Albert Hammond. His biggest hit was "It Never Rains In California" in 1972 and the final song on that album is "The Air That I Breathe". Inspired by Phil Everly's 1973 take on the song, The Hollies committed their version to tape later that year with studio engineer Alan Parsons. I've come to use "The Air That I Breathe" to achieve calm, clarity, and focus over the past few years. The Hollies single spent twenty-one weeks on the Hot 100, peaking at number 6 in August 1974. Listen to "The Air That I Breathe".

Dad had a handful of K-Tel albums with a few tunes from the 1974 Hideaway 100 with the usual heavy-handed K-Tel edits. I am fairly positive one of the songs on those albums was The Kiki Dee Band's "I've Got The Music In Me" (that would be Out of Sight - ed.) which I've always enjoyed, especially that false ending. It gives me serious Ann Wilson vibes which were validated when I heard Heart's live cover on Magazine. "I've Got The Music In Me" is a true crank it up and shake it down tune. The song spent twenty weeks on the Hot 100 with half of those sitting in the Top 40. In November 1974, the single peaked at number 12. Listen to the Classic Rock Purrfection version by DJDiscoCat or the wonderful original "I've Got The Music In Me" HERE.

The year 2024 marks the 70th Anniversary of The Spinners. Wow! Although I surely heard previous singles from the group on the radio, "The Rubberband Man" was my formal introduction to the music of the Spinners. After grabbing "The Rubberband Man" on 45, my first Spinners album purchase was 1978's The Best Of Spinners. (The group has been inconsistent in their self-identification so I will follow their lead.) Track 4 on Side One of that album is the optimistically romantic "Mighty Love". I used to think a better title might have been "That's The Way Love Goes" at least for the first two minutes of the song before the fervent testifying begins. "Mighty Love" spent eight weeks in the Top 40, peaking at number 20 on the Hot 100 and Number One on the Soul Singles chart. Listen to "Mighty Love, Pt. 1" or flip the single over to hear "Mighty Love, Pt. 2" on the staticky b-side.

One day a loyal listener surprised us at the station with a visit or as she called it in her lovely French with just a touch of German accent "a pilgrim-odge" from her home in Luxembourg. A just over 9,000-kilometer pilgrimage! With her hulking non-English speaking husband and lookalike older sister, they posed for pics with the staff to share with her friends. "Waterloo" by Abba was one of the songs she loved most and she got emotional telling us how it always reminded her of her mother and she loved hearing it on our station. I've liked "Waterloo" since I first heard that opening piano riff and though I once had no particular memories associated with the song, I now link it with the station's Number One fan from Luxembourg. "Waterloo", sung with original Swedish lyrics, won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974. (The 1973 event was held in Luxembourg.) The song first became part of my collection when I received Star Trackin' '76 as a birthday gift. "Waterloo" hit number 6 in August 1974 near the end of a seventeen-week stay on the Hot 100. Watch Abba's official video for "Waterloo".

Number 42 on the 1974 Hideaway 100 is "Do It ('Til You're Satisfied)" which may be the grooviest chunk of funk on the list. One of remix legend Tom Moulton's earliest mixes, the irresistible groove builds from the fade-in with horn stabs, organ flourishes, and chanted lyrics icing the cake. "Do It ('Til You're Satisfied)" boarded the Hot 100 in late September 1974, peaked at number 2 for two weeks, and exited the tally after eighteen weeks. Listen to "Do It ('Til You're Satisfied" in its full Tom Moulton-mixed glory or go for the single edit HERE.

Dad was a big fan of Neil Diamond's music so naturally, I became a fan too. His eight-track tapes of live albums Gold (the plastic shell was gold-colored!) and Hot August Night (with a black-as-night plastic shell) along with his vinyl copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull were heard A LOT while I was growing up. The tapes didn't get played in the car like nearly all of his other tapes but spent all their playtime in the basement Panasonic stereo and his portable General Electric deck. Where some folks hear schmaltzy melodramatic kitsch in Diamond's music, I hear evocative poetic majesty in his compositions and "Longfellow Serenade" is a prime example. I probably first heard the tune on WLS circa late 1974; it didn't join our collection until we picked up the 1981 K-Tel album The Elite, where it is the oldest song on the compilation. No idea if Dad liked the song as it was newer than his preferred Diamond listening. "Longfellow Serenade" spent two weeks at number 5 in late November 1974 during a fifteen-week Hot 100 run lasting into January 1975. Listen to "Longfellow Serenade" HERE.

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We're sixty percent in. See y'all soon with the next ten percent.