Started from the Bottom: Week of 11/15/1975
A bottom 10 full of funk, soul and a few white guys putting it down, too.
Like most music enthusiasts, I love the Billboard charts - and like most music writers, I am constantly trying to think of different ways to look at and talk about pop music. In that spirit, I present a regular free feature called Started from the Bottom, where I take a look at a random Hot 100 chart's lowest 10 entries. Are they classic hits on the way down? Future classics just starting their run? Forgotten fun that never reached the highest heights? Come and take a look with me!
Hot 100 date: November 15, 1975
At the top: Elton John's "Island Girl" holds the No. 1 spot for a third and final week - his third chart-topper of the year, after a cover of The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Philadelphia Freedom." Other acts in the Top 10 include the Eagles, Natalie Cole, The Four Seasons, Jefferson Starship and KC & The Sunshine Band, whose "That's the Way (I Like It)" will surge from No. 6 this week to the top of the list the next.
This could have probably done some "numbers" with the right sync license in the '90s.
- Firefly, "Hey There Little Firefly (Part 1)" (re-entry; previously peaked at No. 96)
Oh we're absolutely starting off with a true Hot 100 oddity - the kind they really don't make anymore. Firefly is, best as I can tell, a studio group whose three singles were vehicles for the writing and production of Kenny Nolan, who co-wrote "My Eyes Adored You" for Frankie Valli and "Lady Marmalade" for Labelle. (Just over a year later, his own vocal on "I Like Dreamin'" netted him a Top 5 hit.) This is just a sunny, lushly-arranged mostly-instrumental that never peaked higher than the mid-'90s but is enough to put a smile on my face, and maybe yours too.
Look, it's no "(Not Just) Knee Deep."
- Funkadelic, "Better by the Pound" (peak position)
As far as charts go, the sprawling discography of George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic collective favors the former more than the latter: Parliament had two Top 20 hits ("Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)" and "Flash Light") to Funkadelic's lone Top 30 ("One Nation Under a Groove"). "Better by the Pound" joined an assortment of early '70s Funkadelic cuts that briefly troubled the lower quarter of the Hot 100; this one sounds like a more focused Sly & The Family Stone album cut but doesn't last long enough to attain escape velocity.
We love a good falsetto. Most of Half a Love was written and produced by Eugene Record, who many sources say was out of The Chi-Lites at this point in the band's history. Guess not!
- The Chi-Lites, "It's Time for Love" (current peak position)
The very last Chi-Lites single to bother the Hot 100 would only get as high as No. 94 and represents the group at its strongest struggle: their label, Brunswick Records, was collapsing - and their LP Half a Love was half an album, featuring four album cuts from previous releases. But the tight harmonies and a lovely arrangement from all-timer Tom Tom 84 make this an unfairly slept on track (other than in the U.K., where it made the Top 5).
After "Fame" became Bowie's then-biggest hit, the singer quipped that he'd never knew how to pick singles. As a much bigger fan of "Young Americans," I can say that America didn't, either.
- David Bowie, "Fame" (previously peaked at No. 1)
David's most plastic of soul, with John Lennon in tow, had previously reached the summit for two weeks in September and October of that year. You might not expect these white boys to bring this much grit into the mix, but James Brown straight-up ripped the song off, so that coked-up elf was clearly on(to) something.
It confused me as a kid that "Dance with Me" and "Dancing Queen" had similar opening chorus melodies but wildly different vibes.
- Orleans, "Dance with Me" (previously peaked at No. 6)
A pleasant little boogie that I don't love as much as their other big hit "Still the One." Blame the more languid tempo, or the fact that it's not from the album where the one guy is absolutely looking at the other guy's balls.
Apparently the song was workshopped with the lyrics "He Went to the Cross Loving You," which would have made more sense but would've almost certainly barred its entry into the pop charts.
- The Statler Brothers, "I'll Go to My Grave Loving You" (current peak position)
The gospel-inspired close harmonies of the Statler Brothers - only two of whom were brothers, and neither of whom were named Statler - had been mainstays on the country charts since the '60s, when "Flowers on the Wall" became a crossover Top 10 pop single. "I'll Go to My Grave" was one of those songs with enough juice in Nashville (No. 3 country) to briefly hit the lower rungs of the Hot 100; it only peaked at No. 93, perhaps because it was a maddeningly upbeat song for one titled "I'll Go to My Grave Loving You."
Fogerty wouldn't release another solo album for another decade: 1985's Centerfield. The title track confused me as a kid; I thought "put me in coach / I'm ready to play" had to do with his disdain for traveling first class between gigs instead of, you know, baseball.
- John Fogerty, "Rockin' All Over the World" (previously peaked at No. 27)
A pretty great CCR-sequel of sorts that I know better as done by Status Quo, particularly their version that kicked off all of Live Aid.
These guys are so happy to be there. Can you blame them?
- Head East, "Never Been Any Reason" (re-entry; previously peaked at No. 93)
Not this song from Dazed and Confused making me miss rock bands! Moog-riffic rock bands with vocal harmonies and completely anonymous Midwestern faces! Head East's signature single was on its way up here, ultimately peaking at No. 68.
This dude's gonna fall sitting like this.
- Billy Swan, "Everything's the Same (Ain't Nothin' Changed)" (current peak position)
A great if vaguely similar follow-up to Swan's signature tune, the country/pop chart-topper "I Can Help." I've got a lot of love for country adjacent songs with a bit of a groove, and this is one of 'em.
Kool & The Gang's horn section aren't as fun, to me, as Earth, Wind & Fire's, but EWF probably couldn't do an instrumental with the kind of gusto that this has.
- Kool & The Gang, "Caribbean Festival" (current peak position)
Think about what it would be like if more songs like this got their due on the Billboard charts. An eventual No. 55 hit for Kool & The Gang not long after "Jungle Boogie" and "Hollywood Swinging" became Top 10s, it soon became clear that there was less room for loose funk as disco started taking over. Luckily, Kool & The Gang were highly adaptable, and went on a crazy, slick post-disco hot streak in the late '70s and early '80s.