tzikeh: (bill)
[personal profile] tzikeh
On New Year's Eve, my friends J&P have a themed dinner party for about 15 of their close friends. I'd never been able to attend until last year, because I was working the live New Year's Eve radio show at WFMT. But I quit that and joined them last year. Since I was late to the party, all the tasks had been assigned already (J cooks, P sets/clears, others bring wine, dessert, decorations, etc.). I offered to download a bunch of music to my iPod from iTunes while Jeremy was prepping to go with the food (Northern Italian Cuisine). I wound up with an eight-hour playlist that ranged from Puccini arias to Mambo Italiano. It was a *blast*. So I am now the official music person for the party.

This year, the theme is "Seventies Comfort Food". At first, I thought to simply find a list of hits from each year of the 70s. But then I thought, well - most everyone at this dinner party is of the same age group. We were all kids in the 70s. (I'm 35; the guests' ages don't vary more than 3 years up or down from that.) Kids didn't listen to Led Zeppelin; kids listened to Funky Favorites and Grease.

So my thought was, rather than music that was released in the 70s, I'd do like a "what we remember as music of our childhood from the 70s". And I need help building this playlist. It's gotta run about 8 hours. As I've started putting together my own list, I've come up with three basic categories: Disco, Schoolhouse Rock, and Pussy Music. ETA: thanks to [livejournal.com profile] valarltd for reminding me about "novelty songs". Four categories.

Disco
Schoolhouse Rock
Pussy Music
Novelties
Funkytown
Freak-Out
Saturday Night Fever
I Will Survive
Enough is Enough
Ring My Bell
Dancing Queen

Schoolhouse Rock
Free to Be... You and Me
Muppet Movie
Good Times theme
Maude theme
Willy Wonka Soundtrack
Sing, Sing a Song

Annie's Song
Wildfire
If I Were a Carpenter
Afternoon Delight
Music Box Dancer
Piña Colada Song
Don't Give Up On Us, Baby
Sundown
The Streak
Junk-Food Junkie
Dead Skunk
King Tut
Star Wars Cantina
My Ding-A-Ling



Am I missing anything glaringly obvious? And do you have more suggestions for me?

Date: 2004-11-02 05:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] valarltd.livejournal.com
Novelty songs:
The Streak, Junk Food Junkie, Dead Skunk in the middle of the Road, Convoy, King Tut, etc.

Country:
Rainbow Stew, Witchita Lineman, Are the good times really over for good (often called Snowball headed for Hell) All the stuff before Urban Cowboy

Date: 2004-11-02 05:19 pm (UTC)
ext_90: crop of 'The Morning Star' by Alphonse Mucha; woman in flowing gown with hand to forehead, painted in greens and golds (Default)
From: [identity profile] gblvr.livejournal.com
I'm not sure where you would put The Bay City Rollers, but you have to have them. I remember their obnoxious pants and everytime I hear "Saturday Night," I get it stuck in my head for *days*....

Date: 2004-11-02 05:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tzikeh.livejournal.com
Novelty! Yes, the 70s were a huge time for novelty hits. Good call - and I remember ALL of those. Don't forget My Ding-A-Ling!

Date: 2004-11-02 05:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tzikeh.livejournal.com
S-A-TUR-DAY... NIGHT!

Date: 2004-11-02 05:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laurashapiro.livejournal.com
Musical theatre played a big role in my childhood -- I'd be surprised if you weren't the same way. (: I specifically remember owning and playing the soundtrack to "A Chorus Line", but we liked older shows, too. "Oliver" and "My Fair Lady" and "The Music Man" were among them.

Oh! And "The Wiz". Very seventies.

Make sure you have some Bee Gees among your disco selections.

Date: 2004-11-02 05:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tzikeh.livejournal.com
Oh god, the Wiz. THE WIZ.

And yes, Bee Gees.

Date: 2004-11-02 05:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] valarltd.livejournal.com
http://www.super70s.com/Super70s/Music/Novelty_Songs.asp
a few I missed

Weird Al got his start in the late 70's as well, with My Bologna and Another One Rides the Bus

Date: 2004-11-02 05:31 pm (UTC)
ext_90: crop of 'The Morning Star' by Alphonse Mucha; woman in flowing gown with hand to forehead, painted in greens and golds (Default)
From: [identity profile] gblvr.livejournal.com
Hehehehee!

Date: 2004-11-02 05:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com
Afternoon Delight. You have to play that one. That to me epitomizes the 70's. I remember singing it with my dad as we drove up to get some stuff from his school when I was like 6. It was one of the first Radio Songs I could sing.

And have you hit Elton John? Crocodile Rock? Goodbye Yellow Brick Road?

Villiage People?

Date: 2004-11-02 05:33 pm (UTC)
twistedchick: watercolor painting of coffee cup on wood table (Default)
From: [personal profile] twistedchick
Sorry, sweetie, but my childhood was the 1950s. So the 1970s was when I was in college, and working, and I wouldn't call any of 'their ilk' by the name pussy music. It's folk and folk-rock, and it's the music I love.

::grrrrrr::

Date: 2004-11-02 05:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] killabeez.livejournal.com
Sha Na Na! And Grease, definitely. I guess the BeeGees and Andy Gibb count as roller rink? I also remember a lot of Top 40, like Rod Stewart (Some Guys Have All the Luck), Al Stewart, My Sharona, Heart of Glass, some Michael Jackson/Jackson 5, Hall & Oates, Fleetwood Mac. Roller rink classics like Hooked on Classics and the Star Wars theme.

Kansas. Boston. Steely Dan. Eric Clapton. Under country, The Gambler! and other Kenny Rogers kitsch. The Devil Went Down to Georgia!

And my all-time favorite song when I was 7 - "Hot Blooded." Followed by "Slow Hand." Yes, my mother was revolted that I liked that song...

Must not forget Don't Give Up on Us Baby.

Date: 2004-11-02 05:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] valarltd.livejournal.com
http://thinks.com/cgi-bin/music/music.pl/item-B000006OIT/search-AsinSearch/cds.htm

And more.
I have the Star Wars/Cantina Disco mix if you need it.
And Werewolves of London.

I do not, however, have "Candy Man."

Date: 2004-11-02 05:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] par-avion.livejournal.com
Novelty songs:
The themes to Love Story, the Love Boat, M*A*S*H.
The Music Box Song ? I can hum it, but I'm not sure of the title. (Instrumental).
The theme to Icecapades?

The Bee-Gees!
Neil Diamond -- Love on the Rocks, Blue Jeans.
Barry Manilow - Mandy, Copa Cabana.
The Pina Colada Song.
Wings - Silly Love Songs.

Date: 2004-11-02 05:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laurashapiro.livejournal.com
::is now being earwormed by the tornado music::

Date: 2004-11-02 05:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tzikeh.livejournal.com
Eeee, don't be angry - I love pussy music. Adore it. Own lots of cds of it. Sing it on car trips. It always makes me happy. But it is *pussy music*. And not all folk or folk-rock qualifies as pussy music - it's a very specific sub-category of the folk and folk-rock genre.

Date: 2004-11-02 05:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tzikeh.livejournal.com
Oh my gosh, Music Box Dancer - I used to play that on the piano!

Date: 2004-11-02 05:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] truepenny.livejournal.com
Songs from Sesame Street?

Like, for example, "Rubber Duckie."

Which I now have stuck in my head.

::goes to put something--ANYTHING--in the stereo::

Date: 2004-11-02 05:59 pm (UTC)
ext_1843: (Default)
From: [identity profile] cereta.livejournal.com
You need some Abba. I would recommend "Dancing Queen."

Date: 2004-11-02 06:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lanchid.livejournal.com
Novelty music:
"The Devil Went Down to Georgia" The Charlie Daniels Band

I have it, so I can email it, if you want.

Date: 2004-11-02 06:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] arallara.livejournal.com
How about Music Your Friends' Older Siblings Had on 8-Track or Vinyl, all that stuff you never would have heard if your friend's older sisters or brothers didn't listen to it. Like, Abba, Ted Nugent, AC/DC, David Bowie, and Fleetwood Mac for me.

Great idea for a soundtrack. I hope the party is fun! :)

Date: 2004-11-02 06:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meri-oddities.livejournal.com
Great idea! And to name the first 10 I could think of that weren't on your list.

Midnight at the Oaisis - Maria Muldaur
I Shot the Sheriff by Eric Clapton
Piano Man by Billy Joel
Black Magic Woman by Santana
The Entertainer by Marvin Hamish
Tommy by the Who (The movie came out in the 70s)
The City of New Orleans by Alro Guthrie
Black and White by Three Dog Night
Billy Don't be a Hero by Bo Donaldson and the Haywoods
Disco Duck by Rick Dees and His cast of idiots

Date: 2004-11-02 06:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ardent-muses.livejournal.com
You probably consider this part of your existing pussy category but, for me, the 70s were about Jackson Browne, James Taylor and the Eagles. :) I would consider their Southern California country/rock thing it's own category. Maybe CSNY too.

Joni Mitchell, however, can go in the pussy category. :)

I second [livejournal.com profile] kwaldo12's suggestion of Elton John. He was HUGE during that decade. And I was so in love with him. I wanted to marry him. Then I learned about sexual orientation. *G*

Date: 2004-11-02 06:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com
OH! I forgot Barry Manilow! Damn... what's the one about the Pina Coladas? The bar... DAMN!!!

Ah, looked it up.

Copacabana


Waldo.
From: [identity profile] sisabet.livejournal.com
"Help Me Make It Through the Night" - I would sing that song and cry. I was four. I had a hard time keeping ribbons in my hair and over-identified with the singer as I thought she also had a ponytail that would not stay pony-tailed and was just declaring ribbon freedom. Yes *take* the ribbon from your hair! Shake it loose and let it fall - Declare Freedom! Sisters in Ribbon-Free Solidarity Unite!

I also learned that you don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off of the ole Lone Ranger and you don't mess around with Jim.

Papa sang bass, Mama sang tenor and me and little brother would join right in.... except sometime that song would morph into "Rocky Top." Was that a popular song in the seventies or was I just *that* much of a redneck that I remember the UT fight song (about killing federal agents and hiding their bodies) as a Pop!Hit of the seventies...?

Oh - a song I took very seriously: Angel of the Morning. I still take that song seriously. Dammit. I am going to vid that song.

What about that one song about the guy and he was looking for love and wanted to know if you were too? Not "Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places" but that other song? Where he was all wanting love? Not "I Want Love" - was that even a song? I swear I remember it and will sing it to you this weekend. No the one where he was all "I Think I Love You" but the one where he was much more longing and not Keith Partridge. You know - that song. It isn't about a Hot Child in the City so much as it is about just marking time and how "One Bad Apple" can spoil the whole bunch but less Donnie and no Marie. You know - *that* song - not the one where he was caught Smoking In the Boys Room. The one where he wants to be in love. It is *like* the Pina Colada Song but without the personal ad. Like Chicago whining "If You Leave Me Now" but without losing the biggest part of me. Just kinda there - you know - that song. You know the song where he makes a booty call and says that its been awhile and he really just misses your smile. That song.

"Sara Smile" - cause Hall & Oates - One of the biggest henges in the world... one has nothing to do with the other other than make me giggle. And anyway - it isn't as if Sara could rely on the old man's money. Is Pac-Man Fever 80's or borderline - cause it make me feel like I am on top of the world looking down on creation... until I feel like leaving (leaving) on that midnight train to Georgia (superstar but he didn't get far). I then end up screaming at the night sky "Billy, Don't Be a Hero" but nothing really matters, as anyone can see because he probably thinks this song is about him... but that is fine cause she is forty-one and her daddy still calls her baby. And she *never* had joy or fun or seasons in the sun.

All I know is that I am alone again, naturally. And it feels like A, B,C, - easy as 1,2,3...

Cause I'm not talking 'bout movin' in and I don't want to change your life but there's a warm wind blowin' the stars around and I'd really love to see you tonight...

That song. I think it is about Lex.





From: [identity profile] tzikeh.livejournal.com
Oh my god I am going to make love to you when you get here.

Date: 2004-11-02 07:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sisabet.livejournal.com
Flash!

Ahhhhhhhhhaaaaa

He'll save every one of us!

Date: 2004-11-02 07:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tv-elf.livejournal.com
Close to You -- The Carpenters
Harper Valley PTA
Here Comes the Sun
Janis Joplin - Take Another Little Piece of My Heart
Star Trekkin'

Date: 2004-11-02 07:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tv-elf.livejournal.com
And, uh, the Village People!!!

Date: 2004-11-02 07:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] feochadn.livejournal.com
You missed "Seasons in the Sun."
The Ultimate pussy song.

Date: 2004-11-02 08:12 pm (UTC)
ext_8787: (Default)
From: [identity profile] deejay.livejournal.com
Umm, I have a folder containing 465MB worth of '70's songs, 115 of 'em at the moment. Got all the novelty ones and lotsa rarities. Gimme a yell if you are looking for anything in particular, 'cuz I prolly got it (or know where to nab same).

luv - deejay, deesco baby

Date: 2004-11-02 08:39 pm (UTC)
ext_6848: (Default)
From: [identity profile] klia.livejournal.com
Oooh, cool! Okay, here's the music I remember from the 70s. I'll have you know, just listing most of these songs pained me because it was stuff I absolutely *loathed* at the time. *g*

Disco:
The Hustle - Van McCoy
Miss You - Rolling Stones
Get Down Tonight or Shake Your Booty - KC and the Sunshine Band
Boogie Oogie Oogie - A Taste of Honey
Lady Marmalade - LaBelle (the *real* one)
(Oh, btw, don't go looking for the song Freak Out. It's called Le Freak, by Chic.)

Schoolhouse Rock:
ZOOM theme
Rockford Files theme - Mike Post

Not sure how to classify these -- sorta novelty, sorta pussy:

I Am Woman - Helen Reddy
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia - Vicki Lawrence
Puppy Love - Donny Osmond
American Pie - Don McLean
Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree - Tony Orlando
ABC - The Jackson 5
Dueling Banjos - Eric Weissberg
Killing Me Softly - Roberta Flack
At Seventeen - Janis Ian
It's Too Late - Carole King
One Tin Soldier (The Legend of Billy Jack) - Coven
Popcorn - Hot Butter
Joy - Apollo 100
Colour My World - Chicago
Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head - BJ Thomas
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot
When I Need You - Leo Sayer
You're So Vain - Carly Simon
You Light Up My Life - Debby Boone
Love's Theme - Love Unlimited Orchestra
Love Will Keep Us Together or Muskrat Love - Captain and Tennille
50 Ways To Leave Your Lover - Paul Simon
Evergreen or The Way We Were - Barbra Streisand
Come Sail Away - Styx
Beth - KISS
Longer - Dan Fogelberg
I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (Coke theme) - ??
Candy Man - Sammy Davis, Jr.
Cat's in the Cradle - Harry Chapin

And in case you want some non-pussy 70s music:
Low Rider - War
Paradise by the Dashboard Light - Meatloaf
Frankenstein - Edgar Winter Group
My Sharona - The Knack (no, they're not pussy music! *g*)
LaGrange - ZZ Top
Superfly - Curtis Mayfield
Jessica - Allman Brothers
Theme from Shaft - Isaac Hayes
More Than a Feeling - Boston
Dust in the Wind - Kansas
Baby I Love Your Way - Peter Frampton
I Want You To Want Me - Cheap Trick (live version, definitely)
Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love or Dance The Night Away - Van Halen
Walk This Way - Aerosmith
Shining Star - Earth, Wind & Fire

Whew! Okay, that distracted me from thinking about the election. Thanks!

Date: 2004-11-02 09:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] itsthewa.livejournal.com
Great stuff! I'd also add Blondie to that list, like Call Me, The Tide Is High, and Heart of Glass.

Maybe some TV themes too, if you can get them, like The Jeffersons, All in the Family, One Day at a Time, (I think someone already mentioned MASH), the Love Boat, Love American Style, Good Times, the Rockford Files, Sanford and Son, the Partridge Family, Laverne & Shirly, Chico and the Man, Barney Miller, Welcome Back Kotter, and Happy Days.

Date: 2004-11-02 11:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] flambeau.livejournal.com
Bee Gees. Rod Stewart (don't forget Sailing!). Sesame Street: I lost me cookie at the disco. :)

music

Date: 2004-11-03 02:14 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
My only suggestion would be to put the "kid" music in amongst some stuff people will like as adults. Know what I mean? Hour after hour of some of that stuff on your list would drive me shrieking from the house.

Helpfully,

Mog

P.S.

Date: 2004-11-03 02:27 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Oh and is uh, "Look What They Done To My Song, Ma" the 70s? Or was that a year or so earlier?

xxx, Mog
ext_6428: (Default)
From: [identity profile] coffeeandink.livejournal.com
I think you just might be my reason to live.

Date: 2004-11-12 02:19 pm (UTC)
carbonel: Beth wearing hat (Default)
From: [personal profile] carbonel
Oh, well. That was the song I immediately thought of, and I was working my way down all the comments, thinking I might be able to be the first one to mention it.

It wasn't until long after that I discovered that the song is actually a wimpy translation of a much grittier Jacques Brel song.

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