Mom-and-Pop Music

Flip through the chapters of my life and you’ll find a bookmark at 1975. It was the year I became a teenager. It was the year I started middle school. But most importantly, 1975 was my first foray into Top 40 music. In those days, punk, funk, disco, and metal were just getting started; all too progressive for a kid taking his first dip into the pool of radio rock. Instead, my preference was to chew on something a little sweeter. Like bubble gum.

In the 1970s, I was way too young to witness the birth of rock and roll.  I also missed the advent of pop music.  But I was right on time for a musical genre known as bubblegum.  Bubblegum siphoned off pop music’s more catchy, upbeat tunes and marketed them to children and adolescents.  And what better way to market theses songs than kid TV?  Anyone who ever watched The Partridge Family, The Monkees, or the cartoon rock of The Archies on Saturday mornings enjoyed bubblegum music.

As for 1970s Top 40, it’s easy to look back on those weekly lists and find bubblegum.  “Love Will Keep Us Together” (Captain & Tennille), “Laughter In The Rain” (Neil Sedaka), and “He Don’t Love You, Like I Love You” (Tony Orlando and Dawn) are just a few examples from fifty years ago.  Like most things back then, music was more innocent.

Having said that, bubblegum wasn’t even specific enough to define my own tastes.  The industry standard Billboard Magazine generates a Hot 100 list at the end of every year based on sales and radio plays.  It’s fun to go through the 1975 list and recognize just about every song.  But I was looking for three names in particular and – no surprise – all of them made the list with multiple entries.  Hello again, John, Olivia, and Barry.

John Denver was only 53 when he was tragically killed piloting a single-engine plane above California’s Monterey Bay, yet he managed to create over twenty-five years of gentle hits before that.  When I first heard his voice he’d already landed top-ten’s like “Leaving on a Jet Plane” (from the movie Armageddon for you younger readers), “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, and “Rocky Mountain High”.  One of Denver’s biggest hits, “Annie’s Song”, was a love song to his first wife.  Another, “Calypso”, paid tribute to the late ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau.  I purchased most of Denver’s albums (cassette tapes!) with a good chunk of my meager teenage savings.

I was an Olivia Newton-John fan well before 1978’s Grease became a Hollywood phenomenon.  Newton-John and her sweet Australian accent were an instant teenage crush, with songs like “If You Love Me, Let Me Know”, “Have You Never Been Mellow”, and “I Honestly Love You”.  Then Grease came along and good-girl-turned-bad Olivia turned my teenage heat up several notches.  A testament to Newton-John’s popularity came in the form of 100 million records sold, fifteen top-ten singles, and four Grammy awards.  To this day, the soundtrack to Grease remains one of the world’s best-selling albums.

Barry Manilow and his music are more of a confession than the two we’ve already visited with.  It wasn’t at all cool to admit to liking Manilow’s “adult contemporary” music back then.  His hits were better suited for your parents, like “Mandy”, “This One’s For You”, and “Even Now”.  “Copacabana” was a dance number you couldn’t get out of your head.  “I Write the Songs” spoke to my inner-musician wannabe.  Manilow’s talents on the keyboard certainly captured my attention as I pursued the piano myself.  Unlike Denver and Newton-John, I purchased every Barry Manilow album as soon as it hit the shelves.  Somewhere in my attic I still have a boxed CD collection of his best work.

Like him or not, what is remarkable about Manilow is his enduring popularity.  He has been ensconced in Las Vegas for years now.  He just completed his 600th performance at Westgate’s Resort & Casino (an achievement which prompted this post), breaking a record held by Elvis Presley.  The one time I saw him in concert – at an outdoor venue in the Bay Area – I knew every song he performed.  Sure, almost all of his audience members are now graying at the temples, and his popular music is from five decades ago (!) but you still have to give him props.  The man has staying power.

Do I still listen to John, Olivia, or Barry?  No, but I can sing entire songs from memory.  There’s nothing like the music of those three to take me back to my teenage years.  Call it adult contemporary if you want, but this guy will always think of it as “Pop” music.

Some content sourced from The Atlantic article, “It’s Okay to Like Barry Manilow”, and Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.

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Author: Dave

Five hundred posts would suggest I have something to say… This blog was born from a desire to elevate the English language, highlighting eloquent words from days gone by. The stories I share are snippets of life itself, and each comes with a bonus: a dusted-off word I hope you’ll go on to use more often. Read “Deutschland-ish Improvements” to learn about my backyard European wish list. Try “Slush Fun” for the throwback years of the 7-Eleven convenience store. Or drink in "Iced Coffee" to discover the plight of the rural French cafe. On the lighter side, read "Late Night Racquet Sports" for my adventures with our latest moth invasion. As Walt Whitman said, “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” Here then, my verse. Welcome to Life In A Word.

27 thoughts on “Mom-and-Pop Music”

  2. I enjoyed this stroll down memory lane (though when you were out bopping to bubblegum music, I was home listening to John and Olivia and watching the Monkees while changing my kids diapers!)

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      1. It is fun to learn what other people like in music. I particularly enjoyed your ‘piano’ posts. My mom was a classically trained pianist so we heard far more of that in our house than any other kind of music (on records). We also didn’t have TV or really good radio reception for the first decade of my life – so I pretty well missed out on the music of the ’50’s!

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  3. A somewhat related note: I was living in Manhattan in the summer of 1975. I thumbed thru the Manhattan White Pages one day to see if people I knew about were in it. Manilow was. I don’t think he had become famous yet.

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  4. I was into the bubblegum music Dave. I can remember getting my allowance and going to Kresge’s (a/k/a “the dime store”) to pick up the local teenybopper radio station WKNR Keener 13’s Music Guide and buying one 45 record from that list. Yes, the Archies and Steam’s Na, na, na, na were all around the same time. I admit to watching “The Patridge Family” too. We had Tommy James and the Shondells play in the gym at our middle school I think in 9th grade. Yes, Barry Manilow does have long-lasting star power. He was just here in the Detroit area a few weeks ago. I always liked John Denver and Olive Newton-John and was sad to hear when both passed away, especially Olivia Newton-John after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Recently, I read an article marking the 50-year anniversary of Jim Croce’s passing from a plane crash. Like you, I can sing along to all of these songs. I remembered all the words to sing along to Jim Croce’s hits as I heard snippets of his most-famous songs on that anniversary date. I’ll bet you liked Jim Croce too.

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    2. I didn’t know Manilow was also touring – that’s remarkable. I wanted to mention 45s in addition to the cassette tapes (my own collection was thoroughly Top 40 but quite the variety) but I figured many readers wouldn’t even know what those are/were. And Jim Croce – absolutely. I’m told his son tours, singing his old man’s songs. I’d love to see that concert and hear the background on some of that wonderful music.

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      1. Yes Dave, Barry Manilow resumed touring, not a full-fledged tour, but is doing this after he left his long-term Las Vegas gig. I found a glowing review by a local music critic who’s been around a while and will put it in a separate comment. I listen to the Mitch Albom radio show sometimes and Manilow was a guest on the show the day of the concert. I had more 45s and LPs than cassette tapes, but I’m a bit older than you. I figured you’d like Jim Croce – great songs. I went to a wedding once in a tiny chapel at Greenfield Village. A guitar player sang “Time in a Bottle” – it was very moving. I didn’t know Jim Croce’s son was touring – wow. So many great songs from him and others back in the day.

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    1. Yes, “bubblegum”. I thought everything Top 40 back then earned that label but apparently it was just the more upbeat, family-friendly, “poppy” songs.

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    1. “Hello world here’s a song that we’re singing… come on get happy!” Yeah, that one’s gonna rattle around in my brain for a few days now 🙂

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  7. Bungle in the Jungle! Oh I read through the list and that’s the song that started playing in my mind. Say what you will about FM radio, but back when I was a girl it was the only way I heard pop music. Records were too expensive, but the hits on the radio were just a dial away.

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    1. I was surprised to learn Casey Kasem’s weekly countdown didn’t start until the 1980s. I didn’t miss too many of his broadcasts. And no surprise to see “Love Will Keep Us Together” at the top of the 1975 Top 100, right? Captain and Tennille were the very definition of bubblegum. I would’ve assumed Bungle in the Jungle was by a one-hit wonder until I looked up the artist. Jethro Tull – who knew?

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  9. I’m a bit older than you, so the oldies I know by heart are a little more dated. John Denver made a movie in Georgetown, Colorado called “The Christmas Gift” and he’s revered here. We have a John Denver weekend with music and stories. I’m sure, as a former Coloradan, you know he lived in Aspen.

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    1. I didn’t know “The Christmas Gift” was filmed in Georgetown but I remember it simply because John Denver was in it. Something about developing the town into more than the residents wanted it to be and the fight to protect it. Yes, we’ve been to Aspen and to the John Denver Sanctuary, which is a beautiful space. I thought lyrics carved into stones would be tacky but it actually works really well as a sort of walk-through garden.

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      1. He was sent from New York to buy up Georgetown for a ski resort, but fell in love with the town, as so many of us have, and fought to keep it as it is. We show the movie during our Christmas Market every year.

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  10. You were getting into pop music about the time I was getting out of it, but I remember all of those examples from the radio. I love music with a good hook, and bubblegum had plenty of those. I will still confess a fondness for The Monkees over and above the others.

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    1. Somehow the Monkees’ hits stand the test of time. Anytime I hear “Last Train to Clarksville” or “Daydream Believer” (among others) I’m not tempted to change the station.

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