This Will Bring Back Either Memories or Nightmares

If you are a man of a certain age (like me) or woman of a certain age (unlike me) and started listening to AM radio in the late 60’s—maybe you tuned into Larry Lujack on Chicago’s “Big 89” WLS-AM (for “World’s Largest Store, because it used to be owned by Marshall Field’s, now Macy’s)—or the equivalent in New York or LA or whatever, but really came of age in the 1970’s, then you listened to the stuff on this seven CD Rhino reissue entitled Have a Nice Decade: The 70s Pop Culture Box.

Yes, you listened to every single blinking song, no matter how bad or how good, because your Dad’s car only had an AM radio on it, so you couldn’t listen to cool stuff like WXRT-FM (“Chicago’s Finest Rock”) or WLUP-FM (the “Loop”, with Steve Dahl and that very seriously stacked blonde who said “Pow” in the TV commercials and you wanted to go “Pow”, with her, too, for as long as you possibly could, even though she was married and had a kid) and you were stuck listening to The Night Chicago Died by Paper Lace, a truly insulting song to a Chicagoan because it refers to the “East Side of Chicago” and Chicago doesn’t even have an East Side because it’s in Lake Michigan, you stupid Brit morons who did this song!

Anyway, you get the picture. Back to the review.

Have a Nice Decade: The 70s Pop Culture Box contains about 160 more or less classic songs from the dying heyday of AM radio (“dying”, because AM rock radio as we knew it in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s was dead in the 80’s, killed off by demographic and technological changes and fragmenting music tastes that drove pop music to the superior fidelity of FM radio). Now, I have conveniently listed the songs below and I’m not going to comment much on what’s contained here, except to say that the collection does indeed range from the sublime to the ridiculous, from classic performers like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder and the Doobie Brothers to some truly great one-hit wonders like Blues Image’s Ride, Captain Ride to an appalling collection of dross, flotsam, jetsam and assorted vomitoia such as Terry Jacks, Coven, and David Soul (from Starsky and Hutch if you must be reminded, and if you have to be, you weren’t born in the 50’s or 60’s).

What I am going to comment on are three things. First, this collection is missing the AM hit music that was performed from most of the musically significant major bands and performers of the period: no Eagles, Steely Dan, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Van Morrison, Rolling Stones, ex-Beatles, or a host of others. It was probably too expensive to get the rights.

Second, interspersed amongst the songs are various snippets from radio newscasts and the like that are supposed to create an aura of nostalgia but really get in the way of the music. If you’ve heard the Patty Hearst interview once, you’ve heard it a million times.

Third, and truly appalling to a purist like me, some of the songs are shortened in order to make room for the snippets. Whoever thought of that one should be shot.

Aside from that, though, the enclosed 92-page booklet is nicely done. It contains an extended essay on different types of music, evolving trends and lots of trivia. More importantly, each song contains a short paragraph discussing the performers and writers and how the song did on the charts. The songs are also indexed by name and performer.

One could bash around why some artists are included and others not. Where, for example, is that great cannibal tune Timothy, by the Bouys? Or how come nothing by the late Jim Croce or that musical horrowshow Christopher Cross? Where’s that late 70’s New Jersey sex romp Ariel (She wore a peasant blouse with nothing underneath/I said “Hi”/She said “Yeah, I guess I am)?

OK, this is nitpicking. Except for the stupid radio snippets and the occasionally-shortened songs, this is as good a collection as you’re likely to find, unless you want to invest in the 25-CD Have A Nice Day collection, and there is an 80-song overlap between those songs and these songs, and this one is a lot cheaper. So look at the tunes below, and if your stomach is strong enough, give it a whirl. Frankly, most of this stuff is pretty bad. On the other hand, from the distance of some thirty years or so, there IS some occasional song writing craftsmanship displayed here and, anyway, it's neither as bad nor as obscene as what passes for most pop music today.

You’ll listen to this maybe once every five years or so, but you’ll have fun doing it.

Five stars, less one for monkeying around with the songs.


Disc: 1
1. Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) - Edison Lighthouse
2. Venus - Shocking Blue
3. Rose Garden - Lynn Anderson
4. American Woman - Guess Who
5. Green-Eyed Lady - Sugarloaf
6. Vehicle - Ides Of March
7. Little Green Bag - George Baker Selection
8. Ride Captain Ride - Blues Image
9. Spirit In The Sky - Norman Greenbaum
10. Superstar - Murray Head
11. Give Me Just A Little More Time - Chairmen Of The Board
12. Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time) - Delfonics
13. O-O-H Child - 5 STAIRSTEPS
14. ABC - Jackson 5
15. Band Of Gold - Freda Payne
16. Fire And Rain - James Taylor
17. Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian) - Raiders
18. Put Your Hand In The Hand - Ocean
19. One Toke Over The Line - Brewer & Shipley
20. Signs - Five Man Electrical Band
21. Don't Pull Your Love - Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds
22. Me And You And A Dog Named Boo - Lobo
23. Wild World - Cat Stevens
24. Joy To The World - Three Dog Night

Disc: 2
1. Theme From Shaft - Isaac Hayes
2. Family Affair - Sly & The Family Stone
3. Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get - Dramatics
4. Treat Her Like A Lady - Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose
5. Have You Seen Her - Chi-Lites
6. Want Ads - Honey Cone
7. Let's Stay Together - Al Green
8. Do You Know What I Mean - Lee Michaels
9. Maggie May - Rod Stewart
10. Mr. Big Stuff - Jean Knight
11. Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It) - Daddy Dewdrop
12. Brand New Key - Melanie
13. One Tin Soldier (The Legend Of Billy Jack) - Coven
14. School's Out - Alice Cooper
15. Popcorn - Hot Butter
16. Joy - Apollo 100
17. I Am Woman - Helen Reddy
18. A Horse With No Name - America
19. I'll Take You There - Staple Singers
20. Everybody Plays The Fool - Main Ingredient
21. I Gotcha - Joe Tex
22. I'll Be Around - Spinners
23. Lean On Me - Bill Withers
24. Day By Day - Godspell

Disc: 3
1. Alone Again (Naturally) - Gilbert O'Sullivan
2. Precious And Few - Climax
3. Brandy (You're A Fine Girl) - Looking Glass
4. Dancing In The Moonlight - King Harvest
5. Nice To Be With You - Gallery
6. The Candy Man - Sammy Davis, Jr.
7. Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast - Wayne Newton
8. Hot Rod Lincoln - Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen
9. Rock And Roll Part 2 - Gary Glitter
10. The Cover Of 'Rolling Stone' - Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show
11. You're So Vain - Carly Simon
12. Me And Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul
13. Freddie's Dead (Theme From 'Superfly') - Curtis Mayfield
14. The Morning After - Maureen McGovern
15. That Lady (Part 1) - Isley Brothers
16. I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby - Barry White
17. Love's Theme - Love Unlimited Orchestra
18. Jungle Boogie - Kool & The Gang
19. Tell Her She's Lovely - El Chicano
20. Stuck In The Middle With You - Stealers Wheel
21. Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree - Dawn
22. Smokin' In The Boy's Room - Brownsville Station
23. Frankenstein - Edgar Winter Group
24. Dueling Banjos - Eric Weissberg

Disc: 4
1. Love Train - O'Jays
2. Midnight Train To Georgia - Gladys Knight & The Pips
3. The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia - Vicki Lawrence
4. Long Train Runnin' - Doobie Brothers
5. Brother Louie - Stories
6. Hello It's Me - Todd Rundgren
7. Seasons In The Sun - Terry Jacks
8. The Air That I Breathe - Hollies
9. Cat's In The Cradle - Harry Chapin
10. The Night Chicago Died - Paper Lace
11. Tell Me Something Good - Rufus
12. Billy, Don't Be A Hero - Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods
13. Lady - Styx
14. The Payback-Part 1 - James Brown
15. You're No Good - Linda Ronstadt
16. The Entertainer - Marvin Hamlisch
17. Rock The Boat - HUES CORPORATION
18. Kung Fu Fighting - Carl Douglas
19. Midnight At The Oasis - Maria Muldaur
20. The Streak - Ray Stevens
21. Do It ('Til You're Satisfied) - B.T. Express
22. Radar Love - Golden Earring

Disc: 5
1. Beach Baby - First Class
2. Sideshow - Blue Magic
3. You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
4. I'm Not In Love - 10cc
5. The Bertha Butt Boogie-Part 1 - Jimmy Castor Bunch
6. Black Superman 'Muhammad Ali' - Johnny Wakelin & The Kinshasa Band
7. Jackie Blue - Ozark Mountain Daredevils
8. Chevy Van - Sammy Johns
9. Shining Star - Earth, Wind & Fire
10. Why Can't We Be Friends? - War
11. Love Will Keep Us Together - Captain & Tennille
12. Feelings - Morris Albert
13. Miracles - Jefferson Starship
14. Magic - Pilot
15. Love Machine (Part 1) - Miracles
16. You Sexy Thing - Hot Chocolate
17. Lady Marmalade - LaBelle
18. Fame - David Bowie
19. Sky High - Jigsaw
20. Convoy - C.W. McCall
21. Bad Blood - Neil Sedaka
22. Slow Ride - Foghat

Disc: 6
1. Get Down Tonight - K.C. & The Sunshine Band
2. Love Rollercoaster - Ohio Players
3. December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night) - Four Seasons
4. Saturday Night - Bay City Rollers
5. The Rockford Files - Mike Post
6. Rhinestone Cowboy - Glen Campbell
7. Fly, Robin, Fly - Silver Convention
8. Evil Woman - Electric Light Orchestra
9. Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To) - Diana Ross
10. Happy Days - Pratt & McClain
11. Making Our Dreams Come True - Cyndi Grecco
12. Let Your Love Flow - Bellamy Brothers
13. Tear The Roof Off The Sucker (Give Up The Funk) - Parliament
14. Right Back Where We Started From - Maxine Nightingale
15. Fooled Around And Fell In Love - Elvin Bishop
16. Afternoon Delight - Starland Vocal Band
17. Dream Weaver - Gary Wright
18. I'd Really Love To See You Tonight - England Dan & John Ford Coley
19. Disco Duck (Part 1) - Rick Dees & His Cast Of Idiots
20. Turn The Beat Around - Vickie Sue Robinson
21. Car Wash - Rose Royce
22. More, More, More (Pt. 1) - Andrea True Connection
23. You Are The Woman - Firefall
24. Fly Like An Eagle - Steve Miller

Disc: 7
1. Do You Feel Like We Do - Peter Frampton
2. Free Bird (Live Version) - Lynyrd Skynyrd
3. Ridin' The Storm Out (Live) - REO Speedwagon
4. Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band - Meco
5. Disco Inferno - Trammps
6. Brick House - Commodores
7. Got To Give It Up (Pt. 1) - Marvin Gaye
8. Feels Like The First Time - Foreigner
9. Don't Give Up On Us - David Soul
10. Sometimes When We Touch - Dan Hill
11. Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder
12. I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
13. I Love The Nightlife (Disco 'Round) - Alicia Bridges
14. Happy Anniversary - Little River Band
15. Baby Hold On - Eddie Money
16. Werewolves Of London - Warren Zevon
17. Kiss You All Over - Exile
18. I Want Your Love - Chic
19. We Are Family - Sister Sledge
20. Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now - McFadden & Whitehead