Posted on 08/03/2018 5:14:51 PM PDT by SamAdams76
There used to be a time, not so long ago, when the pop songs pouring out of the radio was mostly happy, upbeat music.
Listening to Top 40 radio in the 1970s was mostly a pleasure when I was a boy growing up. On hot summer nights, we'd bring our battery powered transistor radios out on the front porch and listen to hours of the current pop songs.
In those days, pop songs were in heavy rotation for around 6-10 weeks, then they'd fade away, eventually replaced by a new batch of songs. There were many 1970s "pop hits" that faded away forever, never quite making it to the oldies stations. But during their short run, it might have been your favorite song for at least a little while so when you hear it again, decades later, all those memories of a happier, uncomplicated time come rushing back.
One of those songs for me is definitely "How Do You Do" by an obscure Dutch act called "Mouth & MacNeal"
They may have had other, lesser hits, but I'll only know them for this one song, which represents a tiny slice of my childhood from the hot, muggy summer of 1972, when Richard Nixon and George McGovern were battling for the presidency and Watergate had yet to become a household word. Bobby Fischer was playing chess and the only video game we knew about was "Pong" which was a game played on a clunky console that was usually found in taverns where the only beers on tap were Budweiser, Schlitz and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Michelob was for fancy-pants lawyers who went to fern bars to drink it at two dollars a glass.
Innocent times.
When this song was saturating the Top 40 airwaves in the summer of '72, there was no such thing as "music videos." If you wanted to hear music, you either turned on your radio or you put an LP on your hi-fi or phonograph. If you said "wi-fi", well, people would look at you strange for there were no computers, no cell phones, no internet, etc. Even pocket calculators were exotic items back then and very, very expensive.
So I was very surprised to come across this music video for "How Do You Do" out on the YouTube. I had no idea a video for this song even existed.
Now you might laugh when you watch it. It's very primitive, not sophisticated in any way. But it does capture the spirit of the song. People sitting in bar having a good time as Mouth (real name Willem Duyn) and MacNeal (real name Sjoukje van't Spijker) obviously lip sync the song.
So go ahead and laugh. Maybe for those who didn't grow up with it like I did, the song is corny and "bubble-gummy". But I think it's a great song and this video is a time machine that takes me back to a better time.
you brought back some great memories and made me smile. That was quite a summer for me.
Got lots of requests for it when I worked radio in Illinois in the 70’s
Fun tune.
“There used to be a time, not so long ago, when the pop songs pouring out of the radio was mostly happy, upbeat music.”
You noticed.
And then along came Obama and we wept for the good old days and the memories of America when it was still America as reflected in pop music.
> There used to be a time, not so long ago, when the pop songs pouring out of the radio was mostly happy, upbeat music. <
You’re right. With some exceptions, the music was fun, and the music videos were fun. Nobody was singing about shooting or hitting anyone.
And by the way, thanks for posting. ‘How Do You Do’ was one of my favorite songs from those days. And I had forgotten all about it.
I had completely forgotten that song until I watched/listened to the video. Yes, a fun song.
I'm surprised you pulled up "Timothy" from The Buoys. Not many would remember that one either. Same year I think - 1972. The song (about cannibalism) was written and sung by Rupert Holmes, who would have a string of hits nearly a decade later with the biggest one being "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)"
Hundreds of other great songs from that era, now mostly forgotten about.
I have Jimi Hendrix that was recorded in Mono specifically for AM radio.
Thanks; I remember hearing that as one of those feel=good songs of the era, like Mungo Jerry “In the Summertime”, or the Looking Glass song “Brandy”.
Here’s a “video” of my favorite from that era, “Yellow River”, by Christie. It’s really a Tremeloes song doing a session with the writer, Jeff Christie, the excellent bass player/singer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxu5zyUnVzE
That’s one of the songs on a Sounds of the Seventies CD set. Very enjoyable. Thanks for posting.
You are right, that was the summer of the Fischer-Spassky chess tournament. Walking up and down the boardwalk in New Jersey, every shop had these crazy-looking electronic "Pong" games, which were housed in these six-foot-high pedestals that were covered in candyflake vinyl upholstery, like a "Kustom" guitar amplifier.
One of the big songs of that summer was Going To Take Some Time, by the Carpenters.
> I dunno, D.O.A. (Bloodrock), and “Once You Understand” (Think) are pretty down and violent. <
What the heck were you listen to back in the 1970s, Doc? Because I sure don’t remember any of those songs on any Dionne Warwick or Carpenters album.
:)
Btt
Fun tune I had forgotten. Thanks
Mouth sure doesn’t look as 11 year old me pictured him!
Yes, he was a very imaginative song writer. I believe the story was that he wrote the song on a bet; he told someone he could write a hit song about anything, and that person bet him he couldn't write a song about cannibalism. He did, and it became a hit song.
Someone else mentioned Brandy (Looking Glass), which is definitely a song I identify with summertime.
Also Sausalito Summernight by Diesel, Moonlight Feels Right (Starbuck), and Afternoon Delight (the Starland Vocal Band).
Back them, being ‘macho’ was a desirable attribute, as it would guarantee a healthy male experience with the ladies, and in society in general.
Now, that is regarded as ‘toxic masculinity’; all things lgbtq carry the day now.
Archie Bunker reminisced about the days when ‘goils was goils, and men was men’. Methinks this is what he had in mind.
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