Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Two weeks of hell

If we survived these back-to-back Billboard charts from 43 years ago, quite possibly the worst, most annoying two weeks of popular music ever, there is hope for all of us. 

Here are the Billboard US Top 10 singles for the weeks ending July 23 and July 30, 1977. Ten years after the Summer of Love, this is your soundtrack to the Summer of the Son of Sam, playing across the nation as Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin were being pulled apart to keep from killing each other in the Yankee dugout.

1  LOOKS LIKE WE MADE IT –•– Barry Manilow
2  I JUST WANT TO BE YOUR EVERYTHING –•– Andy Gibb
3  DA DOO RON RON –•– Shaun Cassidy
4  I’M IN YOU –•– Peter Frampton
5  MY HEART BELONGS TO ME –•– Barbra Streisand
6  ANGEL IN YOUR ARMS –•– Hot
7  UNDERCOVER ANGEL –•– Alan O’Day
8  MARGARITAVILLE –•– Jimmy Buffett
9  DO YOU WANNA MAKE LOVE –•– Peter McCann
10  BEST OF MY LOVE –•– The Emotions

1  I JUST WANT TO BE YOUR EVERYTHING  - Andy Gibb
2  I’M IN YOU - Peter Frampton
3  LOOKS LIKE WE MADE IT - Barry Manilow
4  MY HEART BELONGS TO ME - Barbra Streisand
5  DA DOO RON RON  - Shaun Cassidy
6  BEST OF MY LOVE  - The Emotions
7  DO YOU WANNA MAKE LOVE  - Peter McCann
8  MARGARITAVILLE - Jimmy Buffett
9  (Your Love Has Lifted Me) HIGHER AND HIGHER  - Rita Coolidge
10  WHATCHA GONNA DO? - Pablo Cruise

These songs were ubiquitous that summer, like the heat and humidity. You heard them everywhere. In bars. Getting a hair cut. From a car driving by, a window open for someone to throw a half-eaten McDonald's hamburger out into the street. Maybe that's why as I first read these song titles, I wasn't so much reading them as I was silently singing them to myself. Two weeks of hell to haunt you forever.