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I never expected starting this column would lead to moments of introspection, but sometimes a song can dreg up happy or sad memories. Today it was #49. My son cannot stand Mr. Blue Sky after hearing it hundreds of times at school. Before Covid put everything off the rails, his school was in the process of producing a video using this ELO hit as the sound track. It was not finished before the schools were closed down, so the school improvised and while it took a while, they finally finished the video. I have happy memories of my son in school, the school concerts, the Jazz Festivals and just the raw creativity his school created. Sad memories for the opportunities that were lost to students. Here is a link to the finished project, especially important around the 40 second mark for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W5ikgSsAP0&list=RD7W5ikgSsAP0&start_radio=1

1978 - Jackson Browne, Bob Seeger, Steely Dan and the list goes on and on. The variation of music styles provided an seemingly endless selection of music to listen to. Mr Randomizer did a pretty good job, not his fault there is too much to chose from.

27 - Carly Simon “You Belong To Me”

37 - Billy Joel “Only The Good Die Young”

41 - Patti Smith Group “Because The Night”

67 - Chuck Mangione “Feels So Good”

89 - Helen Reddy “Ready Or Not”

I have to admit, it is nice for a year to come up where I recognize the majority of the songs.

I have a hard time naming only a single favorite. Even narrowing it down to #19 and #32 leaves at least 5 other songs I could listen to over and over again.

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Dr. Strange: C’mon Billy, you gotta be messing with me…
Billy: No, Doctor
Dr. Strange: “Feels So Good” – Chuck Mangione 1977. Honestly Billy, you said this one would be hard.
Billy: Ha! – It’s 1978
Dr. Strange: No Billy, while “Feels So Good” may have charted in 1978, the album was released in December of 1977.
Billy: No, Wikipedia says it’s a nineteen seventy-…
Dr. Stephen Strange: Check again.
Dr. Garrison: Where do you store all this useless information?
Dr. Stephen Strange: Useless?! The man charted a Top-10 hit with a Flugelhorn… Status Billy?
Billy: 1977
Dr. Garrison: Oh please. I hate you.
Dr. Stephen Strange: Oh! Feels. So. Good. Doesn’t it? :slight_smile:

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That school project looks really fun! I don’t recall ever doing anything “school-wide” like that. All the different clubs and groups did their own things, but nothing on this type of scale. Very cool!

As for the Billboard, WOW, what a fantastic year, and I honestly had no idea “Because the Night” was that old! For anyone else looking for the full list, I think this is it:

I’m not even going to bother trying to list my favorites, as there are wayyy too many. I’ll just mention that I really enjoyed seeing “King Tut” was apparently on the charts for 8 weeks and that I’d completely forgotten how much I loved Spyro Gyra! Thanks for the share!

Edit to add: I can already tell I’m going to have #3 in my head for the rest of the day (at least).

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Baker Street was a great song too!

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Loved this song as a kid, makes me want to hear again.
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Even more impressive was the Rube Goldberg inspired video they produced the year before my son joined the school. It is an Arts Centered School and it was in a completely different school district so my son had to audition and they had to petition the school board for him to be accepted. Luckily the music teacher was looking for a drummer for their Jazz Band. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZMT497-f4k

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Let me throw in my favorite cover of number 3 on the chart

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Thanks a ton…it was just working itself out of my brain and now it’s BAAAACCCKK!

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Yes!

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Daughter plays the drums, this is one of the tracks she is learning

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