Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

In the UK, the year 1975 is often regarded as a low point in chart music, but I don’t think such a judgment applies to the US — if you like your soft rock, soul, funk and rock. This first volume of Hits from 1975 reflects the US charts of that year. The second volume, covering UK and European hits, will drop later this year.

The US charts were not introducing anything radical or new; for the most part, they were cruising in a comfortable mode, roof down and wind in their hair, leaving behind the concerns of the world. Perhaps the US needed that after the trauma of Watergate.

The one song here that really illustrates my characterisation is Sammy Johns’ Chevy Van. Where Bruce Springsteen, in his 1975 song not featured here, revved up his automobile to escape a death trap of a town with Wendy, Sammy was cruising for hitchhikers who’d give him inspiration for his Penthouse Letter of the Week (to be fair, Bruce has Wendy strapping her hands across his engines for the runner-up Penthouse letter).

Quite the opposite of Sammy’s laid-back horniness was Janis Ian’s anthem to teenage anxiety, At Seventeen, in which “ugly girls like me” were “inventing lovers on the phone who called to say ‘come dance with me’.” Girls who were 17 in 1975 are now hurtling steadily towards their next milestone birthdays. Time for Janis to write a song called At Seventy.

Where Grand Funk and Amazing Rhythm Aces, despite their names, had little to do with funk or rhythm-dominated dance, Tony Camillo’s Bazuka contributed a great slice of funk to the 1975 charts. Camillo was, as his name suggests, of Italian extraction — a slightly overweight and balding record producer in his late forties, rather than some sexy funkster in flares and glitter top who’d get the Soul Train line grooving (the Soul Train dancers were dancing to it, but not with Camillo anywhere near the action). Bazuka was Camillo’s studio band, and the hit Dynomite was a riff on a catchphrase from the sitcom Good Times.

All that might sound novelty-like, but Dynomite is a fine dance number which takes inspiration from the Average White Band, Ohio Players and Funkadelic. Camillo had a superb track record in soul and funk. His crowning glory was arranging and co-producing Gladys Knight & The Pips’ Midnight Train to Georgia. Camillo died in 2018 at the age of 90.

Links for all past mixes in the series are up.  If you dig the feel of 1975, take a look at the collection of posters from West-Germany’s Bravo magazine in 1975 (other years are available, too).

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-tushed covers and the above text in a PDF. PW in comments.

1. Bachman-Turner Overdrive – Roll On Down The Highway
2. Elton John – Philadelphia Freedom
3. B. J. Thomas – Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song
4. Sammy Johns – Chevy Van
5. Blackbyrds – Walking In Rhythm
6. Tony Camillo’s Bazuka – Dynomite (Part 1)
7. Ozark Mountain Daredevils – Jackie Blue
8. Grand Funk – Bad Time
9. Barry White – What Am I Gonna Do With You
10. Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds – Fallin’ In Love
11. Janis Ian – At Seventeen
12. Earth, Wind & Fire – That’s The Way Of The World
13. Tavares – It Only Takes A Minute
14. Bad Company – Feel Like Makin’ Love
15. Amazing Rhythm Aces – Third Rate Romance
16. Melissa Manchester – Just Too Many People
17. Staple Singers – Let’s Do it Again
18. David Ruffin – Walk Away From Love
19. Bee Gees – Nights On Broadway
20. ZZ Top – Tush
21. Kiss – Rock And Roll All Nite (live)

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Any Major Hits from 1944
Any Major Hits from 1947
Any Major Hits from 1961
Any Major Hits from 1970
Any Major Hits from 1971
Any Major Hits from 1972 Vol. 1
Any Major Hits from 1972 Vol. 2
Any Major Hits from 1973 Vol. 1
Any Major Hits from 1973 Vol. 2
Any Major Hits from 1974 Vol. 1
Any Major Hits from 1974 Vol. 2

A Year in Hits
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