Singles – Page 175 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Pure Prairie League – Amie

This is a great country – rock song and its acoustic feel is great. The song peaked at #27 in the Billboard 100 and #40 in Canada in 1975.

This is an article from the Tennessean about Amie… written by Dave Paulson in 2016

“Amie, what you want to do? I think I could stay with you for a while, maybe longer if I do.”

“Aime” certainly has stuck around. The Pure Prairie League song — recorded in 1972 — took three years to turn into a hit, but has since endured for decades. The band’s Craig Fuller told the story of “Aime” to Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.

Let’s take it back. Pure Prairie League is a band out of Ohio. You’ve done it the hard way; you’ve played the clubs, been on the road for years. In 1971 you finally attract the attention of RCA.

CF: RCA New York. They came to see us play a festival in Cleveland. … I think they brought the (A&R) fellow back with the power to sign. Then we played on the front porch of our house and they said, “Oh, that’s good, let’s do that.”

So you recorded the album “Bustin’ Out.” In terms of musicianship, it’s still one of my favorite records ever. It still actually sells CDs. And RCA signed you, but then they drop you. But “Amie” gets some airplay on country stations and airplay on pop stations and college stations and AOR stations. … So in 1975 they re-sign the band and put the single out.

CF: Well, when we recorded it in that mecca of country music Toronto, Canada, it was longer, and I think they edited it for radio and got it shorter. I guess you’re right. It kept bubbling there along and they decided to give it another shot promotion-wise.

Who is Amie?

CF: Just a song I wrote. Just an exercise in song craftsmanship.

Boy, people really dissect that song — about what it’s about. I’ll give you my take on it: The guy may have waited too long. You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.

CF: That’s just as fair as my take on it, because all I was doing was stringing words and music together.

There’s some genius to it. You fell into one, Craig, I’m telling you.

CF: I think the track on that song had a lot to do with it. We were up there luxuriating (with) a large budget for back then. We were in Toronto all summer right across from Maple Leaf Gardens. It took us all summer to record that record. It wasn’t even mixed yet and at that time Gordon Lightfoot came in. We had the whole (studio) blocked out in the days and Gordon Lightfoot would come in and record in the evening. He did a record in two weeks. Stompin’ Tom Connors, who was a guy from Canada, country kind of guy, he did a record in two nights. So we were just up there having a good time.

So tell me about the resilience of that song. Through the decades you’ve played it around the world. That’s one that everybody recognizes. So the lead singer of Evanescence, Amy Lee, apparently was named after that song, even though she spells it with a Y. I told you we were just in D.C. lobbying for songwriters two or three weeks ago and ran into another Amie that allegedly was named after that song. You’ve got to hear that a lot.

CF: I’ve had mothers come up and say, “I named my daughter Amie — and she named her daughter Amie.”

Wow. That means it’s been a while, right?

CF: Exactly. That was the joke.

So one last question, Craig. In your mind’s eye, did you get back with Amie?

CF: Amie is just a song so I get along with Amie really well.

Yeah, but did you get back with her? Have you ever thought about that?

CF: Does the character?

Yeah, does the character get back with her? Do they end up happily ever after or is it a hard lesson learned for him for the rest of his life?

CF: I suppose the protagonist of the song is just laying it out and then it’s up to her.

I love that version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4xp2lgiAjY&ab_channel=Lordismyportion

Amie

I can see why you think you belong to me,
I never tried to make you think,
Or let you see one thing for yourself,
And now you’re off with someone else and I’m alone,
You see I thought I might keep you for my own.

Amie, what you wanna do?
I think I could stay with you,
For a while maybe longer if I do.

Don’t you think the time is right for us to find,
That all the things we thought weren’t proper could be right in time,
Can’t you see which way we should turn together or alone,
I can never see what’s right or what is wrong,
‘Cause that take too long to see now.

Amie, what you wanna do?
I think I could stay with you,
For a while maybe longer if I do.

Come on now,
Amie, what you wanna do?
I think I could stay with you,
For a while maybe longer if I do.

Now it’s come to what you want, you’ve had your way,
And all the things you thought before just faded into gray,
And can you see that I don’t know if it’s you or it’s me,
But if it’s one of us I’m sure we both will see, yeah,
Won’t you look at me and tell me.

Amie, what you wanna do?
I think I could stay with you,
For a while maybe longer if I, longer if I do.

Amie, what you wanna do?
I think I could stay with you,
For a while maybe longer if I do.

I keep fallin’ in and out of love with you,
Fallin’ in and out of love with you,
Don’t know what I’m gonna do,
I keep fallin’ in and out of love with you.

Jim Stafford – Swamp Witch

Since it is Halloween I thought I would post this song by Jim Stafford. It reached #39 in the Billboard 100 and #46 in Canada in 1973. My sister had this single but to this six-year-old it was scary. The song described a town by the bayou with an uneasy relationship with the local Witch…which seems to be a prerequisite of a town near the bayou.

The town gets hit with a plague and the Witch (Hattie) helps the town out but not before they all thought Hattie caused the plague to begin with… She cures them and after that, they decide to fetch her from the woods…bad idea.

I think the lesson here is…leave well enough alone.

Swamp Witch

Black water Hattie lived back in the swamp
Where the strange green reptiles crawl
Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees
Like sausage on a smokehouse wall
Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes
An’ all of them watching you
Stay off the track to Hattie’s Shack in the back of the Black Bayou

Way up the road from Hattie’s Shack
Lies a sleepy little Okeechobee town
Talk of swamp witch Hattie lock you in when the sun go down
Rumors of what she’d done, rumors of what she’d do
Kept folks off the track of hattie’s shack
In the back of the Black Bayou

One day brought the rain and the rain stayed on
And the swamp water overflowed
Mosquitoes and the fever grabbed the town like a fist
Doctor Jackson was the first to go
Some say the plague was brought by Hattie
There was talk of a hang’n too
But the talk got shackled by the howls and the cackles
From the bowels of the Black bayou

Early one morn ‘tween dark and dawn when shadows filled the sky
There came an unseen caller on a town where hope run dry
In the square there was found a big black round
Vat full of gurgling brew
Whispering sounds as the folk gathered round
“It came from the Black Bayou”

There ain’t much pride when you’re trapped inside
A slowly sink’n ship
Scooped up the liquid deep and green
And the whole town took a sip
Fever went away and the very next day the skies again were blue
Let’s thank old Hattie for sav’n our town
We’ll fetch her from the Black Bayou

Party of ten of the town’s best men headed for Hattie’s Shack
Said Swamp Witch magic was useful and good
And they’re gonna bring Hattie back
Never found Hattie and they never found the shack
And they never made a trip back in
‘Twas a parchment note they found tacked to a stump
Said don’t come look’n again

The Small Faces – Lazy Sunday

Always been one of my favorites of the Small Faces. It came off the great album Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake. The Small Faces didn’t intend to release this song. Marriott was against his manager Andrew Loog Oldham’s decision to release this as a single and that was one reason why he left the group shortly afterward. The band didn’t take the song seriously and made it into a joke. Steve sang some of the voices with a cockney accent.

They were touring Germany and they picked up a music paper and saw it was not only released but a hit. Steve wanted a tougher image for the band and this was more of a pop song.

From Songfacts.

This Steve Marriott penned song has a traditional East End of London Music Hall sound. Keyboardist Ian McLagan recalled to Uncut magazine: “When Steve came in with this it was slower. We started taking the piss out of it while he was out of the room. The ‘Root-ti-doo-ti-di-day’ thing stop and he laughed when he came back in and heard us. So we cut it like that. It was a piss take!”

Marriott sang much of the song in a greatly exaggerated cockney accent. Drummer Kenney Jones told Uncut : “Steve had been a child actor, he was the first Artful Dodger in Lionel Bart’s Oliver in the West End. He brought back that theatricality to this.”

Lazy Sunday

A-wouldn’t it be nice to get on with me neighbours?
But they make it very clear, yhey’ve got no room for ravers
They stop me from groovin’, they bang on me wall
They doing me crust in, it’s no good at all, ah
Lazy Sunday afternoon
I’ve got no mind to worry
I close my eyes and drift away-a
Here we all are sittin’ in a rainbow
Gor blimey, hello Mrs. Jones, how’s old Bert’s lumbago? (he mustn’t grumble)
(Tweedle-dee) I’ll sing you a song with no words and no tune (twiddly-dee)
To sing in your party while you souse at the moon (oh yeah)
Lazy Sunday afternoon, I’ve got no mind to worry
Close my eyes and drift away-a

Root-de-doo-de-doo, a-root-de-doot-de-doy-di
A-root-de-doot-de-dum, a-ree-de-dee-de-doo-dee (doo-doo, doo-doo)
There’s no one to hear me, there’s nothing to say
And no one can stop me from feeling this way, yeah
Lazy Sunday afternoon
I’ve got no mind to worry
Close my eyes and drift away
Lazy Sunday afternoon
I’ve got no mind to worry
Close my eyes and drift a-
Close my mind and drift away, close my eyes and drift away

Scandal – Goodbye To You

Good song and singer in Patty Smyth. This song made it to #65 in the Billboard 100 in 1982. I would have sworn it made it higher than that. It was played heavily by MTV at the time. Scandal would have a top ten hit in 1984 with The Warrior.

from Songfacts.

This was written by Scandal guitarist Zack Smith. It’s a breakup song where Patty Smyth sings about moving on from a relationship. Smith wrote most of Scandal’s songs, while Smyth fronted the group, moving on to success as a solo artist and eventually marrying tennis star John McEnroe.

Patty Smyth credits MTV for this song’s success. The song didn’t get much radio airplay, but the video got a lot of spins on MTV. The clip was a typical, low budget, performance video, but Smyth was easy on the eyes and MTV was hankering for American Rock acts, especially females (note Pat Benatar’s early acceptance on the network).

Goodbye to You

Those times I waited for you seem so long ago
I wanted you far too much to ever let you go
You know I never got by, “I feel it too”
And I guess I never could stand to lose
It’s such a pity to say

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you

Could I have loved someone like the one I see in you
I remember the good times baby now, and the bad times too
These last few weeks of holdin’ on
The days are dull, the nights are long
Guess it’s better to say

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you

‘Cause baby it’s over now
No need to talk about it
It’s not the same
My love for you’s just not the same
And my heart, and my heart
And my heart can’t stand the strain
And my love, and my love
And my love won’t stand the pain
And my heart, and my heart
And my heart can’t stand the strain
And my love, and my love
And my love

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you

Now, could I have loved someone like the one I see in you
Yeah, I remember the good times baby now, and the bad times too
These last few weeks of holdin’ on
The days are dull, the nights are long
Guess it’s better to say

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you

Goodbye baby
So long, darlin’
Goodbye to you

Jerry Lee Lewis – What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)

The title alone made me want to listen to this song. This song went to #2 in the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and #1 in the Canadian Country Charts in 1968. Rod Stewart also made a great cover of this song. The Stewart version is the one I listen to the most, but I like both versions.

From Songfacts.

Jerry Lee Lewis took the song to #94 in the Billboard 100 in 1968, but that’s the only version of the song to chart in that country. Rod Stewart’s 1972 rendition was a much bigger hit in the UK, even though the song is very American in its subject matter.

This was written by Glen Sutton, who was the first husband of country singer Lynn Anderson. They married in 1968 and divorced in 1977. Anderson recorded a version on her 1971 album How Can I Unlove You.

It’s late and she is waiting, and I know I must go home,
But every time I start to leave, they play another song,
Then someone buys another round and whatever drinks are free,
What made Milwaukee famous has made a loser out of me.

Baby’s begged me not to go, so many times before,
She said love and happiness can’t live behind those swingin’ doors,
Now she’s gone and I’m to blame, too late I finally see,
What made Milwaukee famous has made a loser out of me.

What made Milwaukee famous has made a loser out of me,
What made Milwaukee famous has made a loser out of me.
What made Milwaukee famous has made a loser out of me.

Chi Coltrane – Thunder and Lightning

Chi Coltrane can sing rock, blues, and anything in between. I remember this son,g but I’m stunned that she didn’t have more hits. She was signed by Clive Davis and had this hit single and a couple of critically acclaimed albums. This song was her only hit back in 1972. It peaked at #17 in the Billboard 100, #4 in Germany, and #18 in Canada. She moved to Europe in 1977 and started a career there. She gained a large following with many hits and still performs to this day.

She is an excellent musician, producer, singer, and songwriter. She wrote Thunder and Lightning. Unlike some other singer-songwriters of the time…Chi was said to have been equal to a session musician in her piano playing.

Thunder and Lightning

Oooh, what a good thing I’ve got
Oh, it’s such a good thing I’ve got
I don’t think I can stand it

Thunder and lightning, oh yeah!
I tell you it’s frightening, oooh!
It’s thunder and lightning
And you’re in control

I thought my life was complete
But look what you’re doin’ to me
Oh, you’re makin’ me crazy

Thunder and lightning, oh yeah!
I tell you it’s frightening, ooohooo!
It’s thunder and lightning
And you’re in control

I don’t know how to handle it
It’s more than I would dare
I wouldn’t try to run from it
It reaches everywhere

I’m feelin’ dizzy and weak
You make me forget how to speak
I can feel it happening

It’s thunder and lightning, oh yeah!
I tell you it’s frightening, ooohooo!
Thunder and lightning
And you’re in control

Oh, thunder and lightning, ooohooo!
I tell you it’s frightening, oh yeah!
I tell it’s thunder and lightning, ooohooo!
I tell you it’s frightening, oh yeah!

I tell you thunder and lightning, oh yeah!
Don’t you know that it’s frightening, oh yeah!
I know it’s thunder and lightning

Dr. Hook – The Cover of the Rolling Stone

At one time this novelty song was true…you wanted to be on the cover of Rolling Stone when it was a good magazine…but that is a different discussion. This song was released in 1972 and peaked at #6 in the Billboard 100 and #2 in Canada. Dr. Hook was very successful with 6 top ten hits in their career. They were also known as Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show.

From Songfacts.

This is a parody of the rock and roll lifestyle. It pokes fun at all the things that rock stars indulge in when they’re successful: groupies, shady characters hanging around, limo rides, etc.

The group had a funny side and a serious side, but it was the funny side that came out on stage and framed their image. The pirate theme added to the novelty of the group: originally known as the Chocolate Papers, they took the name Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show after the character in Peter Pan, which also played up the eye patch worn by their singer Ray Sawyer, who many people assumed was “Dr. Hook.” Sawyer wore the eye patch as a result of a car accident.

Cover of the Rolling Stone

Well, we’re big rock singers
We got golden fingers
And we’re loved everywhere we go (that sounds like us)
We sing about beauty and we sing about truth
At ten-thousand dollars a show (right)
We take all kinds of pills that give us all kind of thrills
But the thrill we’ve never known
Is the thrill that’ll gitcha when you get your picture
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone

(Rollin stone) want to see my picture on the cover
(Stone)Wanna buy five copies for my mother (yes)
(Stone)Wanna see my smilin’ face
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone (that’s a very very good idea)

I got a freaky ole lady name a cocaine Katy
Who embroideries on my jeans
I got my poor ole grey haired daddy
Drivin’ my limousine
Now it’s all designed to blow our minds
But our minds won’t really be blown
Like the blow that’ll gitcha when you get your picture
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone

(Rollin Stone) want to see our pictures on the cover
(Stone) want to buy five copies for our mothers (yeah)
(Stone) want to see my smilin’ face
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone
(talking) Hey, I know how
Rock and roll

Ah, that’s beautiful
We got a lot of little teenage blue eyed groupies
Who do anything we say
We got a genuine Indian Guru
Who’s teaching us a better way
We got all the friends that money can buy
So we never have to be alone
And we keep getting richer but we can’t get our picture
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone

(Rollin stone)Gonna see my picture on the cover
(Stone) Gonna buy five copies for my mother (wa wa)
(Stone) Gonna see my smilin’ face
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone
On the cover of the Rollin’
Stone) Gonna see my picture on the cover
(talking) I don’t know why we ain’t on the cover, baby
(Stone) Gonna buy five copies for my mother
(talking) We’re beautiful subjects
(Stone) Want to see my smilin’ face
(talking) I ain’t kiddin’, we would make a beautiful cover
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone
(talking) Fresh shot, right up front, man
I can see it now, we’ll be up in the front
Smilin, man
Ah, beautiful.

Etch a Sketch

Oh, how this toy teased me as a kid. I would start drawing something halfway decent and then I would hit a wall because I would get so close to what I wanted and then make a wrong move…then came the shake part and start all over again. The definition of insanity would be this toy in my hands…but yet I still tried. Some people can do interesting things with it…I’m not one of those people.

In the late 50s French electrical technician André Cassagnes applied his experience with the clinging properties of an electrostatic charge to invent a drawing toy with no spare parts.

The Ohio Art Company took a look at the toy and invested $25,000. It has sold more than 175 million units worldwide since it hit stores on July 12, 1960.

They have new versions of it now with more options.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etch_A_Sketch

April Wine – Just Between You and Me

I’m not a big power ballad lover but this one I liked. I owned this single back in 1981. I also had the album “Nature of the Beast” which it came off of. The song peaked at #21 in the Billboard 100 and #22 in Canada. April Wine was the first Candian band played on MTV.

From Songfacts.

Through nine lineup changes, April Wine has been going continuously since 1969 up until the present day. The Nature of the Beast represents their commercial peak, selling over one million copies in the US. “Just Between You and Me” was also their greatest-selling single in the US, becoming the band’s defining power ballad. However, their career has spawned 32 hits on the Canadian charts, 21 of those in the top 40.
Although they’ve been nominated eleven times for a Juno award, April Wine hasn’t won one yet. They have, however, been inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, the East Coast Music Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, along with being presented with a CMW Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

Just Between You and Me

Time and time again I see
A love that seemed strong
Was not meant to be
Broken hearts don’t always mend
Left too unsure to try love again

But just between you and me
Baby I know our love will be
Just between you and me
Always I know our love will be
Just between you and me

Lovers often seem to say
Hearts can be blind to love gone astray
Always it’s the same old song
Someone’s been hurt by love that’s gone wrong

Just between you and me
Baby I know our love will be
Just between you and me
Always I know our love will be
Just between you
Just between you and me

Words are sometimes hard to find
The silence can be so unkind
You always help me find my way
The love that we share
Grows stronger each day

Just between you and me
Baby I know our love will be
Just between you and me
Always I know our love will be
Seulement entre toi et moi
Means that our love will always be
Just between you and me
Baby I know our love will be
Just between you
Just between you and me

Climax Blues Band – Couldn’t Get It Right

I remember this song from when I was growing up. The Climax Blues Band had been playing since the late 60s, more of a blues-rock outfit at first (the name sort of gives that away). But by 1976, when they cut Gold Plated, the band shifted gears. Paul Carrack-style keyboards, funky guitars, and a dance-floor beat crept in. The result was this song, and it was a perfect slice of transatlantic pop.

This wasn’t supposed to be the single. The label wanted a hit, the band knocked this one together, and boom: lightning in a bottle. Climax Blues Band never really matched the success of Couldn’t Get It Right again, but that hardly matters. One song like this that still plays on classic rock radio and quietly fills dance floors decades later.

They scored with this song in 1976, which peaked at #3 on the Billboard 100, #8 in Canada, and #10 in the UK. Their other big hit was “I Love You,” released in 1979. A version of this band is still playing today.

From Songfacts.

This song is a great example of the dual vocal technique The Climax Blues Band was known for. Holt explains: “Colin Cooper used to sing the lead – the low vocal, and I used to sing an octave higher. And then, because 4 of us sang in the band, we used to harmonize. The fact that we had the dual singing the same line but with an octave split made the sound very unique, and it’s still very unique today. Whenever people use it I think it’s great. That was one of our trademarks, we just used to sing together in unison.”

Couldn’t Get It Right

Time was drifting
This rocker got to roll
So I hit the road and made my getaway
Restless feeling, really got a hold
I started searching for a better way

But I kept on looking for a sign
In the middle of the night
But I couldn’t see the light
No, I couldn’t see the light
I kept on looking for a way
To take me through the night
I couldn’t get it right
I couldn’t get it right

LA fever made me feel alright
But I must admit it got the best of me
Getting down, so deep I could have drowned
Now, I can’t get back the way I used to be

New York City took me with the tide
And I nearly died from hospitality
Left me stranded, took away my pride
Just another no account fatality

I kept on looking for a sign
In the middle of the night
But I couldn’t see the light
No, I couldn’t see the light
I kept on looking for a way
To take me through the night
I couldn’t get it right
I couldn’t get it right

Billy Preston – Will It Go Round In Circles

Billy Preston and Bruce Fisher wrote this song as well as “Nothing from Nothing” and You Are So Beautiful. Will It Go Around In Circles peaked at #1 in the Billboard and #1 in Canada. Billy Preston played with the biggest names including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. When he was a teenager he played keyboards in Little Richard’s band and met The Beatles while they were still playing in Hamburg.

During the difficult recording of Let It Be George Harrison invited Billy to play with The Beatles and it eased the tensions with the group somewhat and Billy contributed to the album and movie.

He toured with the Stones in the seventies also.

From Songfacts.

This was borne out of a joke Preston made to his songwriting partner, Bruce Fisher, about having a song but no melody. The comment inspired the opening refrain, “I got a song that ain’t got no melody, I’m gonna sing it to my friends,” and set up similar proclamations, such as having a story with no moral and having a dance with no steps.

The song’s success allowed Fisher to finally quit his job in the mailroom at NBC in Burbank, California. He went on to collaborate with Preston on his next #1, “Nothing From Nothing,” and the Joe Cocker hit “You Are So Beautiful.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDehYXKI31g&ab_channel=driftbolt

Will It Go Round In Circles

I’ve got a song, I ain’t got no melody
I’ma gonna sing it to my friends
I’ve got a song, I ain’t got no melody
I’ma gonna sing it to my friends