Billboard Hot Soul Singles – April 6th 1974

-
Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye
Enjoy this weekend's Billboard soul top 20 from 1974, counting down from 20 to 1! 😊 It is a special year to me, because 1974 was the year that I discovered pop music. 

The Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart from exactly 50 years ago mainly contains a lot of classic (Motown) soul, with some early disco here and there. Only some lyrics are no longer acceptable in 2024. For instance, Bobby Womack mainly wants a woman to clean the house and prepare delicious food for him and Leon Haywood seems to justify domestic violence by stating that problems should be kept indoors. Ecstasy Pleasure & Pain, Spinners, Billy Paul and MFSB are the representatives of The Sound Of Philadelphia, or Philly Soul for short, the sound that would start the disco craze in years to come. 

The sessions for Diana & Marvin, a duets album by then super stars Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, started in 1971 and took until the beginning of 1973. Diana Ross told in an early 1973 interview in Blues & Soul magazine that the album, produced by Ashford & Simpson, was to be titled Art & Honey. Motown held the album from being released, because Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye had solo albums ready to be launched. Diana Ross brought out her album Touch Me In The Morning, which coincidentally contained a cover of a Marvin Gaye song, Save The Children, which was part of a medley. Marvin Gaye released his LP Let's Get It On by the end of the summer. Both albums were very successful and both peaked in the top ten. Marvin Gaye's album sold more than three million copies, becoming his best-selling Motown album ever, surpassing his masterpiece What's Going On. Eventually Motown renamed the long-awaited duets album Diana & Marvin and dropped it on October 26, 1973. The LP reached number 26 on the Billboard 200 and number 7 on the R&B albums chart, selling over half a million copies in the United States.

Next up is a new part of Sunny Breeze From The West Coast!

Tracklist:

Tyrone Davis – I Wish It Was Me
Jackson 5 – Dancing Machine
Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye – My Mistake Was To Love You
Ecstasy Pleasure & Pain – I Wouldn’t Give You Up
The Temptations – Heavenly
Eddie Kendricks – Boogie Down
Earth, Wind & Fire – Mighty Mighty
Spinners – Mighty Love
Billy Paul – Thanks For Saving My Life
Leon Haywood – Keep It In The Family
James Brown – The Payback
New Birth – It’s Been A Long Time
Main Ingredient – Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely
Barry White – Honey Please, Can't Ya See
Chi-Lites – Homely Girl
Staple Singers – Touch A Hand, Make A Friend
MFSB Feat. The Three Degrees – TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia)
Bloodstone – Outside Woman
Bobby Womack – Lookin’ For A Love
Gladys Knight & the Pips – Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Disco Knockouts!

-
Image
Apart from the picture of Sharron Davies, there are two songs that inspired me to make this mix. One of them is a recent track from Duck Sauce. The repetition of the female vocals reminded me of Stars On 45 (I believe they both sampled 'Gotta Go Home' by Boney M). The other one is from Dutch singer Dee Dee. I heard ‘I put a spell on you’ on a recent episode of Tim Sweeney’s ‘Beats in space’. In the accompanying video she looks a little bit like a sex doll, but I love the song! I like the closing track from soul veterans the Drifters, but isn’t it strange to hear guys who were in their thirties at the time sing about schoolgirls? Different times, I guess, when no one had heard of R. Kelly yet... One of my personal favourites is ‘Night time’ from Maggie MacNeal. I bought the 7” which was produced by Michael Lloyd (known for his work for the Osmonds, Lou Rawls and Solomon Burke) way back in 1979. Maggie MacNeal was one half of the successful Dutch duo Mouth & MacNeal. Their
Read more

Smooth Sailing On A Late Summer Night

-
Image
Unsplash As a touring member of the Pretenders Welshman Carwyn Ellis originally started his worldwide collective Rio 18 in Brazil. She’s In L.A. is a collaboration with AOR masters Young Gun Silver Fox: “They deliver a new flavour of lowriding Californian funk, telling a story about the joy of finding a new life in the City Of Angels, the metropolis by the sea.” (Bandcamp) Evie Sands began recording as a teenager in the mid-1960s. After a rocky start and having trouble with unreliable record executives who stole her songs, she finally had a hit single with Any Way That You Want Me in 1969. Her debut album, also named Any Way That You Want M e, was released several months after the single had peaked. In 1975 Estate of Mind saw the light of day on Capitol Records. Produced by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, the album marked her continued output as a first class singer/songwriter. The disco inspried One Thing On My Mind is one of the outstanding tracks. The song was covered by severa
Read more

Soft Rock For Autumn Days by The Smooth Operators

-
Image
Pexels Look outside and watch the falling leaves and early sun downs: this is the AOR soundtrack to this year’s autumn by The Smooth Operators (Martijn Soetens and I) 😊 Enjoy some soft rock with a touch of soul! Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel are best known for their UK number one hit (Come Up And See Me) Make Me Smile in 1975. The song came from their album The Best Years Of Our Lives and was co-produced by then relatively unknown engineer Alan Parsons. Their pretty funky track White, White Dove was released a year later as the final single from their next LP Timeless Flight . The track was written and produced by Harley himself.  White, White Dov e was the second single from the album , after Black Or White had failed to chart. White, White Dove came out shortly after Timeless Flight , but despite the album's top 20 success in the UK, the single did not reach the UK top 50 either. However, the same year Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel would return to the UK top 10,
Read more