American Top 40 With Casey Kasem Debuted 50 Years Ago Today — This Was Its Countdown

[gcparent]

Love that song.

[SamAdams76]

WoW! Number 2 and 3 were black bands. Strange for a racist country.

Mighty strange!

[SamAdams76]

That was hilarious!

By the way, the images of Casey in that clip reminded me of a young Mike Dukakis.

[OttawaFreeper]

His show was the way I “downloaded” music in 1983, lol.

[Big Red Badger]

“White Album”
and
Charlie Manson.
.
Things got ugly then.

[mellow velo]

Lots of great memories here. Harkens me back to summer camp. I had the biggest crush on Melanie back then, when I was only 11!

Stevie's Signed, Sealed, Delivered all the way down at 26 has certainly stood the test of time longer than many that made this first list.

[Big Red Badger]

I was Flashing,
“APOCALYPSE NOW!”
.
Welcome Home.

[dfwgator]

I think that was Stevie’s last hit before he went more on his own and produced his best albums: Talking Book and Innervisions.

[Gay State Conservative]

Can't agree with ya on the "great era" thing.You see,I'm a child of the 60's,*the* great era for pop,rock and folk. The decade of Hendrix,The Who,The Yardbirds,The Stones (when they were good),Dylan's early stuff,etc,etc,etc.

Just tryin' to set ya straight! ;-)

[Kickass Conservative]

>>>The summer I turned 16<<<

Same here my FRiend.

Back then we had no idea how lucky we were growing up in that era.

[Dilbert56]

Politicians say: “More taxes will solve anything.”

[dfwgator]

...and the band played on...

[SamAdams76]

I suspect I was born a few years later than you. Which is why 70s music sounds better to me than 60s music.

Now I like 60s music well enough but it's the 70s music that brings back memories of when I was growing up.

[M1903A1]

I loved that movie when it came out.

Nowadays, it reminds me of a story about a popular AFVN host that was abruptly yanked off the air, demoted, and reassigned as a chaplain’s assistant...for playing a WLS jingle on the air.

[CatOwner]

I sort of straddle the 60s and 70s. My decade is probably mid-60s to mid-70s.

[aynrandfreak]

Good catch. Paul had already quit The Beatles by then. I agree Rubber Soul and Revolver are amazing, but I still love Abbey Road too, especially the side-two medley leading to “The End”

[F450-V10]

I think the formative years of music imprinting on our brains are from around age 9 to 14. I was 12 in 1970, and hearing that summer’s songs (or even reading the list) can transport me.

I can’t describe how much I love the music of the early 70s (late 60’s very close 2nd). I listened to CKLW in Detroit/Windsor until I turned to album rock on WABX, WRIF, WWWW a few years later. A radio station changing format from rock to country, or such, was like a death in the family. I could also pick up WMMX? in Cleveland on a good day in the early 80’s. WIOT in Toledo was decent, too.

I think it’s magical the way several teenagers or early 20’s kids can form a band and create a tune that will stay in tens of millions of peoples’ heads for decades. Even if they’re AH’s I hope God honors their simple gifts to humanity. A classical master is not necessarily a good tunesmith. Also, how is it that many rock bands’ creativity peaks in their early or mid twenties?

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Brotherhood Of Man – “United We Stand”

We could use a re-boot of this one, for sure!

Love so many of these songs. I was 11 that Summer and my Transistor Radio was with me and ON at all times. Well, until Mom would take it from me when I went to bed with it, LOL!

Faves:

The Carpenters – “Close To You”
Freda Payne – “Band Of Gold”
Blues Image – “Ride Captain Ride” - First 45 I ever bought!
The Jackson Five – “The Love You Save”

Great post. Thanks! :)

[TalBlack]

I think it’s magical the way several teenagers or early 20’s kids can form a band and create a tune that will stay in tens of millions of peoples’ heads for decades. “”

Yeah, I thought it was magical too. Then I learned about session musicians and, specifically The Wrecking Crew et al. The part these people played in the sound and the creation of the hits is far from secondary or tangential. Very often the things you remember most about many songs came out of their heads.

There was plenty of talent out there creating music and at an explosively varied time but they had HUGE help from a handful of players who gave it amazing cohesion.

The Beatles are the closest thing to a bunch of kids creating long lived hits. But we lumped a lot of other guys in with them who weren’t quite that talented. quite that good.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

‘Rubber Soul’ for sure is my favorite Beatles album. I also own the CD ‘1’ with all of their hits, which is fun from time to time, but I could take a steady diet of ‘Rubber Soul’ for the rest of my life. ;)