Singles – Page 176 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Nena – 99 Luftballons

This song was all over the place in 1984. Both the English and German versions were played and I liked the German version better…I thought it just flowed better than the English version. When I heard “Captain Kirk” I knew I liked it.

The German version went to #2 in the Billboard 100. The English version went to #1 in the UK and #1 in Canada.

From Songfacts.

This was released in Germany, where Nena was from. Their record company had no intention of releasing it in America until a disc jockey at radio station KROQ in Los Angeles found a copy and started playing it. They recorded an English version (the original words are in German, and yes, “Captain Kirk” in German is still “Captain Kirk”) with the title translated as “99 Red Balloons” and released it in the US, where it was a big hit.

Nena’s guitarist, Carlo Karges, got the idea for the song after watching balloons being released at a Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin. He wrote the lyrics and Nena’s keyboard player Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen wrote the music.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99_Luftballons

Below are both versions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La4Dcd1aUcE&ab_channel=TV80s

99 Luftballoons

Do you have some time to myself
then I sing a song for you
99 balloons
on their way to the horizon

you might think g’rad me
Then I sing a song for you
99 balloons
And this does not come from something like

99 balloons
on their way to the horizon was
thought to be for space-based UFOs So
a General

‘Ne squadron sent an
alert after that if that were the case.
There were
only 99 air balloons

99 jet aviators
Everyone was a great warrior considered
themselves Captain Kirk
Es gave a big fireworks

The neighbors have not gathered
And you felt the same turned on
It shot on the horizon
On 99 Balloons

99 Minister of War
Match and jerry Can
for the clever people
Witterten already fat loot

Riefen, war and power
man, who would have thought
That it comes once
Because of 99 Balloons

Because 99 Balloons
99 balloons

99 years of war left
no room for victors
war minister’s no more
And no jet planes

Today I pull my laps
See the world in ruins
Have found a balloon
think of you and let him fly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wirRZsAvJGQ&ab_channel=pattyttaf1

Ninety-Nine Red Balloons

You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we’ve got
Set them free at the break of dawn
‘Til one by one they were gone
Back at base bugs in the software
Flash the message: “something’s out there!”
Floating in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it’s red alert
There’s something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
Where ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine Decision Street
Ninety-nine ministers meet
To worry, worry, super scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we’ve waited for
This is it, boys, this is war
The president is on the line
As ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine knights of the air
Ride super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone’s a Super Hero
Everyone’s a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by

As ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine dreams I have had
In every one a red balloon
It’s all over and I’m standing pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you, and let it go

Dolly Parton – Jolene

This great artist has crossed genres and is loved by many for her singing, songwriting, acting, honesty, and just being Dolly. The song peaked at #60 on Billboard’s 100, #1 on the Hot Country Song Chart and #84 in Canada in 1974.

I’ve talked to people who have met her and know her. I hear the same stories on how nice and generous she is with her time. In the Country Charts Dolly has had 25 NO. 1 HITS 54 TOP 10 HITS 107 SONGS IN THE CHARTS

From Songfacts.

Dolly Parton has disclosed in several interviews that the song was also inspired by a red-headed bank clerk who flirted with her husband Carl Dean around the time they were newly married. Recalling the origins of her hit tune during her performance at Glastonbury 2014, she said:

“Now, some of you may or may not know that that song was loosely based on a little bit of truth. I wrote that years ago when my husband was spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be.

I put a stop to that. I got rid of that redhead woman in a hurry.

I want you folks to know, though, that something good can come from anything. Had it not been for that woman I would never have written ‘Jolene’ and I wouldn’t have made all that money, so thank you, Jolene.”

Some of the many artists who have covered this: The White Stripes, Reba McEntire, Olivia Newton-John and 10,000 Maniacs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW25foOMkwI&ab_channel=MUSICLEGENDS

Jolene
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
I’m begging of you: please don’t take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
Please don’t take him just because you can

Your beauty is beyond compare
With flaming locks of auburn hair
With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green

Your smile is like a breath of spring
Your voice is soft like summer rain
And I cannot compete with you, Jolene

He talks about you in his sleep
There’s nothing I can do to keep
From crying when he calls your name, Jolene

And I can easily understand
How you could easily take my man
But you don’t know what he means to me, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
I’m begging of you: please don’t take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
Please don’t take him just because you can

You could have your choice of men
But I could never love again
He’s the only one for me, Jolene

I had to have this talk with you
My happiness depends on you
And whatever you decide to do, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
I’m begging of you: please don’t take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
Please don’t take him even though you can

Jolene, Jolene

Brewer & Shipley – One Toke Over the Line…and another version

This is a catchy counterculture song by Brewer and Shipley. It was released in 1970 and it peaked at #10 in the Billboard 100 and was their only top 40 hit.

This song was performed on the Lawrence Welk Show sung by Welk Musical Family singers on his weekly television show. In 1971, singers Gail Farrell and Dick Dale performed “One Toke Over the Line” on the show. And after the song, Welk is seen on camera saying, “There you heard a modern spiritual by Gail and Dale.”

Lawrence liked to have popular songs performed on is show…I don’t think he got the full meaning of this one.

From Songfacts.

The incident that sparked this song happened at the Vanguard in Kansas City, Missouri. The band was playing the show because, in seeking to escape the LA music scene, they started a tour of their Midwest homelands. Shipley reports that he was given a block of hash and told to take two hits. He ignored the advice and instead took three. Shipley recounts in The Vinyl Dialogues, “I go out of the dressing room – I’m also a banjo player, but I didn’t have one, so I was playing my guitar – and Michael (Brewer) came in and I said, ‘Jesus, Michael, I’m one toke over the line.’ And to be perfect honest, I don’t remember if Michael was with me when I took that hit or not. I remember it as ‘not’; I think Michael remembers it as ‘yes.’ And he started to sing to what I was playing, and I chimed in and boom, we had the line.”

Brewer also remembers the occasion. “I just cracked up,” he said. “I thought it was hysterical. And right on the spot, we just started singing, ‘One toke over the line, sweet Jesus,’ and that was about it; then we went onstage.”

Brewer and Shipley…below is the Lawrence Welk version

The Lawrence Welk Show

One toke over the line sweet Jesus
One toke over the line
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line

Awaitin’ for the train that goes home, sweet Mary
Hopin’ that the train is on time
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line

Whoooo do you love, I hope it’s me
I’ve bin a changin’, as you can plainly see
I felt the joy and I learned about the pain that my momma said
If I should choose to make a part of me, surely strike me dead
Now I’m one toke over the line sweet Jesus
One toke over the line
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line
I’m waitin’ for the train that goes home sweet Mary
Hopin’ that the train is on time
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line

I bin away a country mile
Now I’m returnin’ showin’ off a smile
I met all the girls and loved myself a few
Ended by surprise like everything else I’ve been through
It opened up my eyes and now I’m
One toke over the line sweet Jesus
One toke over the line
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
Don’t you just know I waitin’ for the train that goes home sweet Mary
Hopin’ that the train is on time
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line

Don’t you just know I waitin’ for the train that goes home sweet Mary
Hopin’ that the train is on time
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line

I want to be
One toke over the line sweet Jesus
One toke over the line
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line
Don’t you just know I waitin’ for the train that goes home sweet Mary
Hopin’ that the train is on time
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over line
One toke, one toke over the line

Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)

This song came out in 1970 and was performed by Edison Lighthouse who was not a working band but an English studio group with Tony Burrows singing. This is bubblegum music but I do like it. In 1970 this song peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada and #1 in the UK.

Freedy Johnston also covered this song in 2001 and I like his version just as much or more as the original. The song didn’t chart but did get some airplay.. I have it under the original.

Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)

She ain’t got no money
Her clothes are kinda funny
Her hair is kinda wild and free
Oh, but Love grows where my Rosemary goes
And nobody knows like me

She talks kinda lazy
And people say she she’s crazy
And her life’s a mystery
Oh, but Love grows where my Rosemary goes
And nobody knows like me

There’s something about her hand holding mine
It’s a feeling that’s fine
And I just gotta say
She’s really got a magical spell
And it’s working so well
That I can’t get away

I’m a lucky fella
And I’ve just got to tell her
That I love her endlessly
Because Love grows where my Rosemary goes
And nobody knows like me

There’s something about her hand holding mine
It’s a feeling that’s fine
And I just gotta say
She’s really got a magical spell
And it’s working so well
That I can’t get away

I’m a lucky fella
And I’ve just got to tell her
That I love her endlessly
Because Love grows where my Rosemary goes
And nobody knows like me

Fadeout:
It keeps growing every place she’s been
And nobody knows like me

If you’ve met her, you’ll never forget her
And nobody knows like me

La la la- believe it when you’ve seen it
Nobody knows like me

Arlo Guthrie – City of New Orleans

If I could meet any performer I wanted to…Arlo would be one of them. He seems like the most laid back guy in the world. His father was the great singer-songwriter, Woody Guthrie. Arlo wrote some very good songs but he didn’t write this one. City of New Orleans was written by Steve Goodman. Steve did a great job writing this song. Its structure and imagery are fantastic.

Arlo released this in 1972 and it peaked at #18 in the Billboard 100 and #11 in Canada.

Arlo said he ignored his mother’s advice. She said if he wanted to play music that was fine…but learn something else as a fallback. He said if he would have learned something else, in the hard times he would have done something else instead of music.

“I’ve quoted my dad a lot of over the years. One of my favorite things he said is: ‘It’s better to fail at being yourself than to succeed at being somebody else’.”

From Songfacts about the writer Steve Goodman

Goodman wrote the lyrics on a sketch pad after his wife fell asleep on the Illinois Central train, where they were going to visit his wife’s grandmother. Goodman wrote about what he saw looking out the windows of the train and playing cards in the club car. Everything in the song actually happened on the ride.

After he returned home, Goodman heard that the train was scheduled to be decommissioned due to lack of passengers. He was encouraged to use this song to save the train, so he retouched the lyrics and released it on his first album in 1971.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlMFQLHUynE&ab_channel=SteveBobo

The City of New Orleans

Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail
All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms and fields
Passin’ trains that have no names
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles

Good morning America how are you?
Don’t you know me I’m your native son
I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Dealin’ cards with the old men in the club car
Penny a point ain’t no one keepin’ score
Won’t you pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumblin’ ‘neath the floor
And the sons of Pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their father’s magic carpets made of steam
Mothers with their babes asleep
Are rockin’ to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they dream

Good morning America how are you?
Don’t you know me I’m your native son
I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Nighttime on The City of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
Half way home, we’ll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness
Rolling down to the sea
And all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
And the steel rails still ain’t heard the news
The conductor sings his song again
The passengers will please refrain
This train’s got the disappearing railroad blues

Good night, America, how are you?
Don’t you know me I’m your native son
I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen

This was a very enjoyable song by Dexy’s Midnight Runners. It was very different than what was on the radio at the time. It was released in 1982 and peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the UK Charts, and #2 in Canada. The song was written by lead singer Kevin Rowland.

I really thought this band would score another hit but they ended up a one hit wonder…one thing that didn’t help was when they were opening up for David Bowie in France, Kevin Rowland called Bowie a bad copy of Bryan Ferry and later he told the British press: “We only agreed to the show because France is an important market for us – not because I have any respect for Bowie”… Not a smart thing to do.

From Songfacts.

This song is based on a true story. Eileen was a girl that Kevin Rowland grew up with. Their relationship became romantic when the pair were 13, and according to Rowland, it turned sexual a year or two later.

Rowland was raised Catholic and served as an altar boy in church. Sex was a taboo subject, and considered “dirty” – something that fascinated him. When he wrote this song, Rowland was expressing the feelings of that adolescent enjoying his first sexual relationship and dreaming of being free from the strictures of a buttoned-down society:

You in that dress
My thoughts I confess
Verge on dirty

The song describes the thin line between love and lust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASwge9wc-eI&ab_channel=MadFranko008

“Come On Eileen”

Come on Eileen

Poor old Johnnie Ray
Sounded sad upon the radio
But he moved a million hearts in mono
Our mothers cried
Sang along
Who’d blame them?

You’ve grown (you’re grown up)
So grown (so grown up).
Now I must say more than ever

Come on Eileen

Too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye, aye
And we can sing just like our fathers

Come on Eileen
Oh, I swear (what he means)
At this moment you mean everything
You in that dress
My thoughts I confess
Verge on dirty
Oh, come on Eileen

Come on Eileen

These people ’round here
Wear beaten-down eyes sunk in smoke-dried faces
They’re so resigned to what their fate is

But not us (no, never)
No, not us (no, never)
We are far too young and clever
Remember

Too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye, aye
Eileen I’ll hum this tune forever

Come on Eileen
Oh, I swear what (what he means)
Ah, come on let’s take off everything
Pretty red dress
Eileen (tell him yes)
Ah, come on let’s
Ah, come on Eileen

Pretty red dress
Eileen (tell him yes)
Ah, come on let’s
Ah, come on Eileen, please

Come on Eileen, too-loo-rye-aye
Come on Eileen, too-loo-rye-aye
Now you’re all grown
Now you have shown
Oh, Eileen

Say, come on Eileen
These things they are real
And I know how you feel
Now I must say more than ever
Things ’round here have changed

I say, too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye-aye

Come on Eileen
Oh, I swear (what he means)
At this moment you mean everything
You in that dress,
My thoughts I confess
Verge on dirty
Ah, come on Eileen

Ah, come on Eileen
Oh, I swear (what he means)
At this moment you mean everything
You in that dress,
My thoughts I confess
Well, they’re dirty
Come on Eileen

Come on Eileen

A Novelty Song from the 70s – Wildwood Weed

I usually don’t post novelty songs, but I grew up with this one. It still makes me laugh to this day and contains one of my favorite lines, Take a trip and never leave the farm.

This song made me laugh as a kid. It’s about as corny as you can get but fun all the same. Jim Stafford had some novelty hits. His prime was 1973-1974. I had in my possession (from my sister) three of his hits. The Wildwood Weed, Swamp Witch, and his biggest hit, “Spiders and Snakes.”

It was a left-field slice of Southern-fried pop comedy that somehow crashed the charts in the middle of an era dominated by singer-songwriters and serious rock men. Now let’s be clear: “Wildwood Weed” isn’t a song so much as a story, a little slice of country funk narrated by a hayseed philosopher who sounds like he might’ve just rolled off the porch with a mason jar in hand. Over a shuffling, easygoing country-blues vamp, Stafford drawls out the tale of two good ol’ boys who discover a mysterious plant growing in the fields. They dry it, smoke it, and before long they’re laughing, dancing, and finding themselves “sittin’ on that sack of seeds.”

Jim has a sense of humor.

It didn’t take a genius to know what Wildwood Weed was about but the first time I heard it as an eight-year-old, an older neighbor had to tell me about it. It peaked at #7 on the Billboard charts. It actually made it to #57 on the country charts, which surprises me, knowing how conservative country was at that time.

Wildwood Weed
Jim Stafford

The wildwood flower grew wild on the farm,
And we never knowed what it was called.
Some said it was a flower and some said it was weed,
I never gave it much thought ……
One day I was out there talking to my brother,
Reached down for a weed to chew on,
Things got fuzzy and things got blurry,
And then everything was gone!
Didn’t know what happened,
But I knew it beat the hell out of sniffin’ burlap.

I come to and my brother was there,
And he said, What’s wrong with your eyes?
I said, I don’t know, I was chewing on a weed.
He said, Let me give it a try.
We spent the rest of that day and most of that night,
Trying to find my brother, Bill.
Caught up with him, ’bout six o’clock the next morning,
Naked, swinging on the wind mill!
He said he flew up there.
I had to fly up there and bring him down,
He was about half crazy …..

The very next day we picked a bunch of them weeds,
And put ’em in the sun to dry.
Then we mashed ’em up and chopped ’em up,
And put ’em in the corncob pipe.
Smokin’ that wildwood flower got to be a habit,
We didn’t see no harm.
We thought it was kind of handy,
Take a trip and never leave the farm!

All good things gotta come to an end,
And it’s the same with the wildwood weed.
One day this feller from Washington came by,
And he spied it and turned white as a sheet.
Then they dug and they burned,
And they burned and they dug,
And they killed all our cute little weeds.
Then they drove away,
We just smiled and waved ……….
Sittin’ there on that sack of seeds!

Y’all come back now, hear?

Glen Campbell – Rhinestone Cowboy

I remember this song all over the place when I was 8 years old. Probably one of the first songs I remember blanketing radio and TV at the same time. Glen Campbell sang this song written by Larry Weiss and it was playing on top 40 radio and country alike. It peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the US Billboard Hot Country Singles, #1 in Canada and #4 in the UK.

As big as the song was…I never hear it much now.

From Songfacts

For Campbell, this was a very important song, and one he would call “maybe the best song I’ve ever sung.” It came at a time when his career had gone flat: His popular TV show had been canceled, acting gigs dried up, and he hadn’t had a hit since 1971. The story of the faded star who perseveres in the song held a lot of meaning for Campbell.

This sold over 4 million units and hit #1 on the Hot 100, Country, and Adult Contemporary charts in the summer of 1975, becoming the first song since “Big Bad John” by Jimmy Dean to reach the apex of all three charts. “Rhinestone Cowboy” gained three Grammy nominations and was the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year for 1976. In 1977, the song earned Weiss the Nashville Songwriters’ Association International’s Songwriter of the Year award.

“Rhinestone Cowboy”

I’ve been walkin’ these streets so long
Singin’ the same old song
I know every crack in these dirty sidewalks of Broadway
Where hustle’s the name of the game
And nice guys get washed away like the snow and the rain
There’s been a load of compromisin’
On the road to my horizon
But I’m gonna be where the lights are shinin’ on meLike a rhinestone cowboy
Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo
Like a rhinestone cowboy
Getting cards and letters from people I don’t even know
And offers comin’ over the phone

Well, I really don’t mind the rain
And a smile can hide all the pain
But you’re down when you’re ridin’ the train
That’s takin’ the long way
And I dream of the things I’ll do
With a subway token and a dollar tucked inside my shoe
There’ll be a load of compromisin’
On the road to my horizon
But I’m gonna be where the lights are shinin’ on me

Like a rhinestone cowboy
Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo
Rhinestone cowboy
Gettin’ cards and letters from people I don’t even know
And offers comin’ over the phone

Like a rhinestone cowboy
Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo

Like a rhinestone cowboy
Gettin’ cards and letters from people I don’t even know….

Kim Carnes – Bette Davis Eyes

I bought this single right after it was released in 1981. The song was written by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon. Jackie did a version of this in 1974. Kim Carnes was not a one-hit wonder…she had 3 top ten hits but this one was huge going to number 1 for nine straight weeks.

I would love to hear a duet between her and Rod Stewart…or Bonnie Tyler.

This is a cool fact about this song from songfacts.

After this song became a hit single, Bette Davis wrote letters to Kim Carnes and the songwriters to say she was a fan of the song and thank them for making her “a part of modern history.” One of the reasons the legendary actress loved the song is that her granddaughter thought her grandmother was “cool” for having a hit song written about her.

Bette Davis Eyes

Her hair is Harlow gold
Her lips are sweet surprise
Her hands are never cold
She got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll turn the music on you
You won’t have to think twice
She’s pure as New York snow
She got Bette Davis eyes

And she’ll tease you, she’ll unease you
All the better just to please you
She’s precocious, and she knows just
What it takes to make a pro blush
She got Greta Garbo’s standoff sighs, she’s got Bette Davis eyes

She’ll let you take her home
It whets her appetite
She’ll lay you on the throne
She got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll take a tumble on you
Roll you like you were dice
Until you come out blue
She’s got Bette Davis eyes

She’ll expose you, when she snows you
Off your feet with the crumbs she throws you
She’s ferocious and she knows just
What it takes to make a pro blush
All the boys think she’s a spy, she’s got Bette Davis eyes

She’ll tease you, she’ll unease you
All the better just to please you
She’s precocious, and she knows just
What it takes to make a pro blush
All the boys think she’s a spy, she’s got Bette Davis eyes

She’ll tease you
She’ll unease you
Just to please you
She’s got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll expose you
When she snows you
‘Cause she knows you, she’s got Bette Davis Eyes

Don Williams – Tulsa Time

I met Don Williams many times. I can’t say I really knew the man well but he was as down to earth as you could get. When I was growing up he would mow the High School baseball field and the City Park fields where I live just to help out. He gave back to the community and always would be nice to anyone.

Tulsa Time was released in 1978 and peaked at #1 in the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts and #1 in Canada RPM Country Tracks. “Tulsa Time” was Williams’ eighth of 17 number ones. He had 45 top ten hits.

Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend were admirers of Don Williams and both covered his songs. Eric Clapton would cover this song and take it to #30 in the Billboard 100.

Tulsa Time was written by Chuck Flowers.
“I wrote ‘Tulsa Time’ in about a half an hour in a motel in Tulsa. There was a big snowstorm, and we had the night off because we couldn’t work. I wrote it while watching The Rockford Files [a dramedy private eye NBC series starring James Garner]. So, I played it for Don, and a few months later I played it for Eric. I never even made a demo or put it on tape or anything. They both just went and recorded it ‘cuz it’s so simple.”

“Tulsa Time”

I left Oklahoma, drivin’ in a Pontiac
Just about to lose my mind
I was goin’ to Arizona
Maybe on to California
Where the people all live so fine.

My baby said, I’z crazy
My mama called me lazy
I was gonna show ’em all this time
‘Cause you know I ain’t no fool
And I don’t need no more schoolin’
I was born to just walk the line.

Livin’ on Tulsa time
Livin’ on Tulsa time
Well, you’ll know I been through it
When I set my watch back to it
Livin’ on Tulsa Time.

Well, there I was in Hollywood
Wishin’ I was doin’ good
Talkin’ on the telephone line
But they don’t need me in the movies
And nobody sings my songs
Guess, I’m just a wastin’ time.

Well, then I got to thinkin’
Man I’m really sinkin’
An I really had a flash this time
I had no business leavin’
An nobody would be grievin’
If I just went on back to Tulsa time.

Livin’ on Tulsa time
Livin’ on Tulsa time
Gonna set my watch back to it
‘Cause you know I been through it
Livin’ on Tulsa time.

Livin’ on Tulsa time
Livin’ on Tulsa time
Gonna set my watch back to it
‘Cause you know I been through
Livin’ on Tulsa time.

Hall and Oats – Rich Girl

I remember watching “Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie” and hearing this song…this song was their first number 1 hit on the Billboard 100 and it peaked at #5 in Canada in 1977. This song and Sara Smile are my favorites by them.

This song had a strange connection to the Son of Sam… from songfacts.

Daryl Hall was shocked to find out that the infamous serial killer David “Son Of Sam”

Berkowitz claimed he was inspired to murder by this song. It is unlikely that this song actually compelled Berkowitz to kill, as it was released after he started his killing spree, and Berkowitz cited many influences, including his neighbor’s dog, when asked why he killed. Nonetheless, it was very disturbing for Hall and Oates to have their song associated with Berkowitz, and they made reference to this in their 1980 song “Diddy Doo Wop (I Hear the Voices)” from their Voices album in the lyrics: “Charlie liked The Beatles, Sam he liked Rich Girl.”

“Rich Girl”

You’re a rich girl, and you’ve gone too far
‘Cause you know it don’t matter anyway
You can rely on the old man’s money
You can rely on the old man’s money
It’s a bitch girl but it’s gone too far
‘Cause you know it don’t matter anyway
Say money but it won’t get you too far
Get you too far

Don’t you know, don’t you know
That it’s wrong to take what is given you
So far gone, on your own
You can get along if you try to be strong
But you’ll never be strong ’cause

You’re a rich girl, and you’ve gone too far
‘Cause you know it don’t matter anyway
You can rely on the old man’s money
You can rely on the old man’s money
It’s a bitch girl and it’s gone too far
‘Cause you know it don’t matter anyway
Say money but it won’t get you too far
Get you too far

High and dry, out of the rain
It’s so easy to hurt others when you can’t feel pain
And don’t you know that a love can’t grow
‘Cause there’s too much to give, ’cause you’d rather live
For the thrill of it all, oh

And you say
You can rely on the old man’s money
You can rely on the old man’s money
You’re a rich girl, a rich girl
Oh, you’re a rich, rich girl yeah
Say money but it won’t get you too far
Oh, get ya too far

The Dave Clark Five – Glad All Over

The Dave Clark Five were the first British Invasion band that had a hit other than The Beatles. I bought the single second hand somewhere and it has a big sound to it. The drums sound huge on this. The single charted at #6 in the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada and #1 in the UK in 1964. Dave Clark and Mike Smith wrote this song.

Bruce Springsteen has mentioned that the Dave Clark Five was a big influence. The group was huge…they ended up with 24 songs in the top 100, 7 songs in the top 10, and one #1 record with “Over and Over.”

After the group broke up in 1970 Dave Clark became a media mogul and also wrote, produced, and directed.

Glad All Over

You say that you love me (say you love me)
All of the time (all of the time)
You say that you need me (say you need me)
You’ll always be mine (always be mine)

I’m feelin’ glad all over
Yes I’m-a glad all over
Baby I’m glad all over
So glad you’re mine

I’ll make you happy (make you happy)
You’ll never be blue (never be blue)
You’ll have no sorrow (have no sorrow)
Cause I’ll always be true (always be true)

And I’m feelin’ glad all over
Yes I’m-a glad all over
Baby I’m-a glad all over
So glad you’re mine

Other girls may try to take me away (take me away)
But you know, it’s by your side I will stay
I’ll stay

Our love will last now (our love will last)
Till the end of time (end of time)
Because this love now (because this love)
Is gonna be yours and mine (yours and mine)

And I’m feelin’ glad all over
Yes I’m-a glad all over
Baby I’m glad all over
So glad you’re mine

Other girls may try to take me away (take me away)
But you know, it’s by your side I will stay
I’ll stay

All of our lives now (all of our lives)
Till the end of time (end of time)
Because this love now (because this love)
Is only yours and mine (yours and mine)

And I’m feelin’ glad all over
Yes I’m-a glad all over
Baby I’m-a glad all over
So glad you’re mine

I’m so glad you’re mine now
I’m so, I’m so glad you’re mine
I’m-a so glad you’re mine now
Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa

Alice Cooper – Under My Wheels

This song was off the Killer album. It peaked at #59 in the Billboard 100. One of my favorites of Alice Cooper. The song wasn’t a giant success but it has remained in Alice’s set since it was released in 1971.

From Songfacts.

This track was written by the group’s guitarist Michael Bruce and bass player Dennis Dunaway along with producer Bob Ezrin. Bruce and Dunaway also co-wrote “School’s Out” and “I’m Eighteen.”

Dennis Dunaway about writing the song.

This was another song that I wrote. I remember singing the song to Glen Buxton about this guy who’s just bought a brand new car and he’s going over to pick up his girlfriend and take her to the movies. Glen was like, ‘We don’t do girl songs!’ And I was like, ‘No, the guy runs over the girl.’ So he said, ‘Oh, OK.’ Ha ha! Anyway, Under My Wheels is about a guy who accidentally runs over his girlfriend, who he’s trying to impress with his new car. It was a fairly decent hit in America, and we also plugged it in Britain. We did a Killer tour over there when the single had just been released.

“Under My Wheels”

The telephone is ringing you got me on the run I’m driving in my car now anticipating fun
I’m driving right up to you babe I guess that you couldn’t see yeah yeah
But you were under my wheels why don’t you let me be
’cause when you call me on the telephone saying take me to the show
And then I say honey I just can’t go old lady’s sick and I can’t leave her home
The telephone is ringing you got me on the run I’m driving in my car now
I got you under my wheels I got you under my wheels I got you under my wheels
Got you under my wheels yeah yeah I got you under my wheels
Aah the telephone is ringing you got me on the run I’m driving in my car now anticipating fun
I’m driving right up to you babe I guess that you couldn’t see yeah yeah
But you were under my wheels why don’t you let me be
Yeah yeah got you under my wheels yeah yeah I got you under my wheels
I got you under my wheels got you got you got you got you
Under my wheels got you under my wheels wheels wheels wheels

Nick Lowe – I Knew The Bride

Great pop song by Nick Lowe. This version was released in 1985 and peaked at #77 in the Billboard 100. Huey Lewis served as producer on this song. Dave Edmunds had covered it in 1977.

This is an interview with Nick in 1985 talking about his new album The Rose of England and getting help from Elvis Costello and Huey Lewis.

The British new wave singer-songwriter-producer got crucial help on the album from two old friends: Huey Lewis and Elvis Costello.

“Huey Lewis is the only person I ever knew as a normal person and then watched him become a megastar before my very eyes,” Lowe says.

“His first band, the Clover, played on Elvis’ first album, which I produced, and Huey played some bits on my first album. So this year I was telling Huey that Columbia didn’t like my new album, because they didn’t think it was commercial enough.

“Huey said, ‘No problem, let’s do “I Knew the Bride.” ‘But that’s a bit of a chestnut,’ I told him. ‘I wrote it nine years ago for Dave Edmunds.’ And he said, ‘Your fans may know that, but let’s face it, their numbers are not exactly legion. Let’s recut it with a more modern sound.’ So we cut it in three days with his band, the News, and all of a sudden Columbia decided the album was exactly what they were looking for.”

When Lowe started recording, longtime friend Costello came down to the studio as always. “Elvis got real excited that we were recording almost totally live,” Lowe recounts. “We just set up the microphones, and away we went. He phoned me up a few days later and said, ‘I’ve got this song you might like to try, Nick.’

“I sort of dreaded listening to it. Although Elvis is a great songwriter, his songs usually have tons of chords and vocal twists and very personal lyrics, none of which really fit my style. But he played me the song, ‘Indoor Fireworks,’ and it was pretty straightforward; I suppose it’s about the breakup of his marriage. I was very pleased to record it; my own marriage had also just ended, but there had been no fireworks; it was all quite amicable and boring.”

I Knew the Bride

I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll
I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll

Well, the bride was a picture in the gown that her mama wore
When she was married herself nearly twenty-seven years before
They had to change the style a little but it looked just fine
Stayed up all night, but they got it finished just in time

Now on the arm of her daddy, she’s walkin’ down the aisle
I see her catch my eye and give me a secret smile
Maybe it’s too old fashioned, but we once were close friends
Oh but the way that she looks today, she never could have then

Well, I can see her now in her tight blue jeans
Stuffin’ all her money in the record machine
Spinnin’ like a top, you should of seen her go
I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll
I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll

Well, the proud daddy only want to give his little girl the best
So he put down a grand on a cozy little lover’s nest
You could have called the reception an unqualified success
At a flash hotel for a hundred and fifty guests

Well, take a look at the bridegroom smilin’ pleased as pie
Shakin’ hands all around with a glassy look in his eye
He got a real good job and his shirt and tie is nice
But I remember a time when she never would have looked at him twice

Well, I can see her now drinkin’ with the boys
Breakin’ their hearts like they were toys
She used to do the pony, she used to do the stroll
I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll
I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll
I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll
I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll

Well, I can see her now with her walk man on
Struttin’ up and down to her favorite song
I still remember when she used to want to make a lot of noise
Hoppin’ and boppin’ with the street corner boys
She used to wanna party, she used to wanna go
I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll
I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll
I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll
I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll
I knew the bride when she used to do the pony
I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll
I knew the bride when she used to want to party
I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll

The Nashville Ramblers – The Trains

The Nashville Ramblers was a band from San Diego. The song “The Trains” was recorded in 1985 for a compilation album American Heart and Soul. they also recorded 2 other songs for the album… an original called “Nashville Rambling” and a cover of a Golliwog (pre-Creedence Clearwater Revival) song called “Fragile Child.”

Steven Van Zandt called the song “one of the examples most indescribably beautiful romantic nostalgia, disguised in a pop song.”

There is not much out there on this group. Youtube does have some performances. This song did not chart because it was hardly known about. The band wasn’t known until 20 years after this was recorded and their song was released on another compilation album. The song has a cult following.

I found this bit of info…It’s really interesting and a very good song. The song would have worked in 65 as well. It’s a shame that a wider audience never knew about them. I’ve been playing it to anyone that would listen.

https://www.midheaven.com/item/trains-fragile-child-by-nashville-ramblers-7

Recorded in 1985, “The Trains” by THE NASHVILLE RAMBLERS is one of the greatest pop songs of the entire era. Aided and abetted by ace producer MARK NEILL (Black Keys), the band expertly channeled their key influences—Beatles, Remains, Hollies, Everly Brothers, and others—and shaped them into something fresh, urgent and breathtakingly original. A heart-stopping melody, evocative lyrics, a driving beat, soaring harmonies, a dynamic, reverb-soaked production—to hear “The Trains” was to fall in love with it. And every time you heard it, you fell in love again. However, outside a small circle of fans, though, very few people ever heard it. In an era when do-it-yourself was how-it-was-done, the Ramblers waited for somebody else to do it for them. Nobody did—not really anyway. In 1986 “The Trains” and one other Ramblers song appeared on an obscure UK-only compilation, but few people noticed. The moment was lost—if it was ever there at all—and “The Trains” slipped quietly back underground to become a whispered secret passed through the years between a growing coterie of admirers. Many discovered the song for the first time in 2005 when it was included on Rhino’s Children of Nuggets box set—by then it was almost 20 years old. Fully remastered by Mark Neill directly from the original vaccum tube analog 3-track master tape, this shiny black 45rpm single and packaged in a deluxe hard cover picture sleeve, it’s paired with a terrific, previously unreleased version of the Golliwogs’ “Fragile Child” recorded at the same session. Edition of 1,000 copies.

If you know any more info please comment.

I just found this wiki page…just translate to English

https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nashville_Ramblers

The Trains

She acts unaware of her smile or the scent of her hair
When she leaves a room she takes everyone’s eyes out their heads
But I hurt too much to let her bring me down
But when she’s not around
I can hear the trains underground
When I’m alone
I can feel the sun going down
How can I explain all the reasons she frightens me so
When she has the power to burn me right down to my soul
But then every night I see her in my dreams
But the days in between
She tears me apart at the seams
Once I was strong
She’s taught me what loneliness means

No, nobody else could understand her like I do
So I gotta make her realize she loves me too
And I do
I really do

But then every night I see her in my dreams
But the days in between
She tears me apart at the seams
Once I was strong
She’s taught me what loneliness means
She acts unaware of her smile or the scent of her hair
When she leaves a room she takes everyone’s eyes out their heads
But I hurt too much to let her bring me down
But when she’s not around
I can hear the trains underground
Once I was strong
I can feel the sun going down
I can hear the trains underground
I can feel the sun going down
I can hear the trains underground