From Zero To 60, Part 2:

Ten Songs From My Next Ten Years

Over the summer, I invite you to join me by celebrating a song from each year to the present. These 60 songs may not all deserve 10’s on our TNOCS scale, but they all mean something to me. And I look forward to sharing them with you.

Part 2:
Welcome back to a celebration of 60 great songs, one year at a time, to the present:

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1973:

By 1973, life changed significantly for my brother, sister and me. My parents divorced the summer before, and for a while, we were the only family we knew that celebrated birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter at two homes. It took adjusting, but my parents kept things matter-of-fact and amicable, so we followed their lead.

My mom worked in reservations at Hyatt Regency O’Hare in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont; that’s where she met an assistant for Gladys Knight. They hit it off, and Mom’s new friend arranged for the three of us to meet Gladys briefly before she and the Pips left the hotel to get back on the road.

It’s impossible for me to hear “Midnight Train to Georgia” without thinking of my one meeting with a Number Ones artist. A nice lady, and a fantastic song.

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1974:

The power of a strong composition is its ability to shine in any version. This worked in a ‘90s dance remake by Real McCoy. About the same time on the soundtrack of “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.” Cyndi Lauper offered an oddball yet charming mashup of this song and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”

Still, nothing beats the original. At 10 going on 11 when this was a hit on Chicago radio, I wondered why stations would permit a song with “Hell” so prominent in the lyrics. (I reasoned that the same stations were playing Sister Janet Mead’s version of “The Lord’s Prayer.”) It took decades before I learned the group was singing, “Hail…”

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1975:

This song was everywhere in the summer of ’75. Even playing on radios on Chicago’s L (elevated) trains – which was supposed to be forbidden.

I don’t recall anyone complaining whenever this or Van McCoy’s “The Hustle” was on.

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1976:

My favorite song of 1976 peaked at No. 22 on “American Top 40.” I remember being stunned the week it fell to No. 36, thinking, “What was wrong with radio stations and record stores?” I felt vindicated eight years later when “Caribbean Queen” brought Ocean back in the US, all the way to the top…

… And again in 2019 when this song gained a new set of fans due to its inclusion in a Netflix series.

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1977:

Like my 1971 choice by the Grass Roots, the Emotions’ “Best of My Love” is a song that cannot help but brighten my mood. Even if I were to remain immune to its charms through the first two thirds, that dramatic pause, simultaneous “Ohh!!” and final vamping of the chorus make resistance absolutely impossible. 

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1978:

I appreciate this record for the way I feel when I sing along with it, completely the opposite of the Emotions’ smash. Often, I’m contemplative if not downright sad, and singing with Johnson’s bewildered, brokenhearted narrator, I find solace in knowing I’m not alone. It’s not a mood brightened, but a mood shared. And sometimes that’s enough.

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1979:

I wasn’t surprised by the disaster that was Comiskey Park’s “Disco Demolition Night.“ All through the winter and spring of ’79, I heard anti-disco sentiment every day from classmates on the bus heading home from the Chicago suburbs.

The worst was when one guy asserted that Donna Summer must be a lesbian because she sang, “Wanna share my love with a {woman} lover…” I decided anyone so stupid to hear that non-lyric and not even notice that the next line was “Wanna bring a wild man back home” wasn’t worth an argument.

I do remember saying the song sounded more rock than anything else in the Top 40. (“My Sharona” didn’t hit until the school was out, leaving Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” as the main challenger. To me, no contest.)

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1980:

In the summer of ’79, my dad and the three kids moved from Chicago to South Bend, Indiana. I’ll write about that down the line, but it was even more of a life change than my parents’ divorce. For now, suffice to say that everything I loved about being a high school junior in South Bend comes to mind when I hear “Hot Rod Hearts.”

Now, I’m craving a Bonnie Doon’s sundae.

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1981:

I’ve read that Mr. Mellencamp doesn’t care much for this and other hits pre-“American Fool.” That’s too bad. For me, this song conjures up a moody teenage feeling that later hits like “Cherry Bomb” can only aspire to. By the fall, I’d be heading his way, leaving South Bend for Bloomington and Indiana University.

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1982:

It truly amazes me how much the shift from “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” to “Getaway” elevates this song. With both parts, it’s a 10. With just the ballad, it’s a 6 or 7. If I know I’m listening to the full composition, I’ll listen every time. (See also, Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U/Baby I’m a Star”)

WENS, the adult contemporary station out of Indianapolis that I listened to a lot at IU, almost always played “Getaway” along with the ballad.

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Next time:

Young adulthood.

A broken heart.

And the road to recovery.

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