[Dr. Sivana]

Here’s one even worse than Captain and Tennille — “Philadephia Freedom” by Elton John released in Feb 1975. “... took me knee-high to a man, yeah gave me piece of mind my Daddy never had.”

That shot up to #1 and stayed there for two weeks.

If you can set aside the lyrics for a bit, it is perfectly melodic, and the Gene Page arrangement (strings, woodwinds) a very light touch despite sharing some elements of peak-Disco, there is really nothing wrong with it.

Compare that with current stuff which is barely arranged at all, with mashups, sampling, auto-tune, and mis-employed synthesizers. By comparison, the Captain and Tennille used synthesizers A LOT, and more primitive ones, but Darryl Dragon knew how to employ them artfully for a Pop Sound.

You have to accept pop music on its own terms. Rick Wakeman and Frank Zappa won't be on top of the singles charts.

[dfwgator]

Well actually....

Zappa’s “Bobby Brown (Goes Down)” was successful in Europe, where it was a number-one-hit in Norway and Sweden.

[Alas Babylon!]

Yeah, that line from Elton was de facto gay.