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Plethora of Pop’s Rate-A-Record
Schools, Angels, and the Happiest Girl
Crossover Country in 1972
There are no anomalies in AM Hit Radio, circa my youth (1962–75). There are, however, many jarring juxtapositions.
Like the position of two songs on the year-end Hot 100 Billboard charts for 1972. The # 75 song for that year was Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out.” Think what you want about Cooper’s nightmares, but I had that LP, and the cover, not to mention the music inside, was pretty ingenious.
I’m gonna get to the # 74 song in a bit, but before I do, let me remind you that the # 1 song that year was Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” # 2 was Gilbert O’ Sullivan’s “Alone Again (Naturally),” and # 3 was Don McLean’s “American Pie.” And then at # 4, Harry Nilsson’s “Without You.”
I was 16 that year, and each of these songs, when I listened to late night radio, would make me romantically yearn for someone to lay down beside me. Or in the case of “American Pie,” I wondered what exactly was happening to the Pop/Rock world I thought I knew (what had ever happened?, you might ask).
And then came song # 5 for that year, throwing everything, but especially musical taste, off kilter: