Casey Kasem’s Top 40 from late April 1971 is a window into a nation at war abroad and at war with itself. This week’s countdown is a time capsule from a moment when Canadian soft-rock and funky soul shared radio space with Janis Joplin, Tom Jones, and the immortal Marvin Gaye.
But before we get to the countdown…
The Week in History
The week would begin with a major technological achievement for humankind. Unfortunately for the U.S., the humans who achieved the feat were Russian. On Monday, April 19th, the Soviet Union launched Salyut 1, the first ever space station in orbit. Even as the U.S. and the Soviet Union found themselves at odds, it was a landmark moment for manned space exploration.
It was, however, a triumph that would give way to tragedy in the coming months. On June 7th, the three crew members of the Soyuz 11 mission docked and entered the space station, becoming the first human beings ever to do so. They would remain aboard the Salyut 1 space station until July 29th, when they departed for their return flight.
However, on July 30th, as the cosmonauts prepared for re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere, their capsule suddenly depressurized. All three crew members were killed. Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev are the only three humans to have died in space.
Back on Earth, the Cold War raged on. The United States and the Soviet Union faced off in an expanding Southeast Asian theater even as Americans grew increasingly skeptical of America’s objectives in the region.
On Saturday, April 24th, the day of Casey Kasem’s broadcast, massive demonstrations were held in protest of the Vietnam War. 200,000 gathered in Washington D.C. and another 125,000 assembled in San Francisco to voice their opposition to the bloody, costly and unpopular conflict.
Highlights from This Week’s Top 40 Countdown
In 1970, Motown star Marvin Gaye found himself at a personal and professional crossroads. At the time, Gaye was in close correspondence with his brother, who had recently returned from a tour of duty in Vietnam. His brother wrote letters describing not just of the horrors that he witnessed in Vietnam but of the mistreatment that veterans faced upon their return home.
Marvin was deeply affected by these letters, and began to reevaluate the role that his music could play in raising consciousness. The result was the #4 song on the week’s Top 40 countdown–“What’s Going On”.
The composition actually originated with Four Tops member Renaldo “Obie” Benson, who was moved to conceive the melody and title refrain after witnessing a confrontation between protestors and police during a 1969 demonstration at People’s Park on the UC Berkeley campus. Benson was horrified by the behavior of police officers, who sent more than 100 unarmed protesters to the hospital with injuries and killed one innocent bystander with a stray bullet.
The incident came to be known as Bloody Thursday, and prompted California Governor Ronald Reagan to call in the National Guard for reinforcements.
Benson drafted the song and offered it to his own band. They rejected it, fearing commercial blowback for recording a protest song. Benson shared the song with Gaye, and insisted that he record his own vision. The result was a June 1970 recording session lubricated by marijuana and whiskey. The hazy laid back atmosphere and loose energy comes through clear as day on the final recording.
Motown label chief Berry Gordy reportedly hated it. According to Marvin, he called it the worst thing he’d ever heard. Gordy worried that the old-fashioned jazz interlude and challenging political subtext might threaten Gaye’s standing as a singer of popular romantic chart-toppers.
He refused to approve its release, as did Motown’s quality control department.
Others were more convinced of its commercial viability. In late January of 1971, Motown executives Harry Balk and Barney Ales conspired to place 100,000 copies of the single in record stores without Gordy’s knowledge. When the first shipment of copies sold out, they quickly shipped another 100,000 copies.
It became Motown’s fastest selling single of all time, reaching #1 on the Hot Soul Singles Chart, #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #4 on this week’s Top 40 countdown. Berry Gordy, conceding his error, offered Gaye full creative control over his output thereafter in exchange for a full-length record to go with the hit single. The condition was that the album had to be completed in 30 days.
Marvin Gaye did it in 10.
Over two weeks in March of ’71, Gaye recorded What’s Going On, a song cycle about a Vietnam Veteran who returns home to a community impacted by inequality, violence, addiction, and pollution. The result is a record that somehow captures the trauma of the Vietnam war, the yearning of the Civil Rights movement, and the possibility of something better all against a backdrop of lush strings, street-corner chatter, and aching multi-layered falsetto.
Fun Facts About This Top 40 Countdown
As it happens, Marvin Gaye wasn’t the only guy rewriting the playbook at Hitsville. Producer Norman Whitfield would help to usher in a new era for Motown. The dapper matching suits and romantic pop songs of the mid-60s had become passe.
Groups like Sly and the Family Stone, Funkadelic and the Chambers Brothers were driving soul music to edgier, trippier and more socially conscious terrain. Norman Whitfield helped Motown make the journey, becoming one of the chief architects of the psychedelic soul sound.
One of his first efforts would be “Smiling Faces Sometimes”, a searing and cynical slice of psychedelic soul first paired with the Temptations, and subsequently paired here, to greater effect and wider success, with The Undisputed Truth. Ranking #3 on this week’s countdown, the Whitfield production would give the Undisputed Truth their one and only Top 40 hit.
More importantly though, it would provide the template for Whitfield’s more monumental achievements in the area of psychedelic soul, most specifically and repeatedly with the Temptations (“Cloud 9”, “Psychedelic Shack”, “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”, etc.)
This countdown is actually brimming with what I would call soul nuggets—deeper cuts from otherwise forgotten artists that absolutely radiate elegance, passion and sonic ingenuity. See “Right on the Tip of My Tongue” by Brenda and the Tabulations (#33) and “I Love You For All Seasons” by Fuzz (#23).
And for the funkiest moments from this week’s countdown, check out Honey Cone’s with “Want Ads”(#32) and “Baby Let Me Kiss You” by King Floyd (#29).
If that King Floyd break sounds familiar to you, you can thank Shaggy.
Anyway, all around, April 1971 sounds like a funky badass month for music, right?
Well…each of these Top 40 Countdowns is a thing of many complexions.
The Dollar Bins Get Fodder
In the same year that psychedelic soul was beginning to burn up the charts, Canadian soft rock combo The Bells saw its greatest success with the saccharine and basically unlistenable “Stay Awhile.”
Andy Williams also charted at #24 with “Where Do I Begin (The Theme From Love Story)”, as did Donny Osmond with “Sweet and Innocent” (#22) and The Partridge Family with “Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted” (#20).
And remarkably, the very same countdown that included Marvin Gaye’s signature anti-war anthem also included something called “Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley” by Terry Nelson and “C” Company (#37).
Lt. William Calley, you may recall, is a man who was convicted for the murder of 22 unarmed civilians in the Vietnamese village of My Lai. Though Calley claimed he was merely following orders, his actions went well beyond his duties as a soldier and rose to the level of wartime atrocity.
Anyway, this is a hit spoken word recording about how Lt. Calley was a good soldier and a good man, all set against a creepy southern backporch-swing version of “Battle Hymn of the Republic”. I try to stay objective, but…oof.
Odds and Ends
At #17, the baroque pop song “Timothy” by the Buoys may be the biggest hit ever recorded about trapped miners who are forced to eat their fallen comrades for survival. As it happens, this lurid tune about eating people was written by a man named Rupert Holmes. A decade hence, he would become far more famous for writing a song about drinking Pina Coladas.
And the #1 song on this week’s countdown is “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night. Like most of Three Dog Night’s hits, this one is a cover. The original is by songwriter Hoyt Axton.
Hoyt wasn’t the only songwriter in his family. His mother, Mae Axton, was responsible for a little tune called “Heartbreak Hotel”, a #1 hit for Elvis Presley upon its 1956 release.
When Three Dog Night reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Joy to the World”, Hoyt and Mae Axton became the first mother and son to write chart-topping songs. And if Hoyt Axton looks familiar to you, it’s because he became a pretty successful character actor as well. You may remember him best as the irresponsible father from Gremlins whose careless actions are lead to the ensuing chaos, death, and property destruction.
And finally, we close by noting the inclusion of “Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin at #18 on this week’s countdown. “Me and Bobby McGee” was composed by songwriter Kris Kristofferson, and originally recorded in 1969 by country star Roger Miller. (Incidentally, Kristofferson and Miller are said to be distant cousins).
Several versions followed, including notable takes by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, Gordon Lightfoot, and the Statler Brothers.
But Janis Joplin would record the definitive take only days before her death in October of 1970. It would be included on her final album—Pearl.
Kristofferson reportedly sang the song for Janis in person, but he was not aware of her decision to record it. He learned of her version only upon hearing it for the first time, one day after her passing.
Janis would ultimately reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March of 1971, becoming only the second artist to achieve the feat posthumously. Late soul legend Otis Redding topped the charts in 1968 with “(Sitting On) The Dock of the Bay”, which was released less than a month after the plane crash that claimed his life.
Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 Countdown–April 24, 1971
40: BROWN SUGAR – ROLLING STONES
39: LOVE’S LINES, ANGLES AND RHYMES – FIFTH DIMENSION
38: WOODSTOCK – MATTHEW’S SOUTHERN COMFORT
37: BATTLE HYMN OF LT. CALLEY – “C” COMPANY
36: DON’T CHANGE ON ME – RAY CHARLES
35: HERE COMES THE SUN – RICHIE HAVENS
EXTRA: HOW HIGH THE MOON – LES PAUL & MARY FORD
34: FRIENDS – ELTON JOHN
33: RIGHT ON THE TIP OF MY TONGUE – BRENDA & THE TABULATIONS
32: WANT ADS – HONEY CONE
31: EIGHTEEN – ALICE COOPER
30: I PLAY AND SING – DAWN
29: BABY LET ME KISS YOU – KING FLOYD
28: HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT – SAMMI SMITH
27: FOR ALL WE KNOW – THE CARPENTERS
26: NO LOVE AT ALL- B.J. THOMAS
25: I DON’T BLAME YOU AT ALL – SMOKEY ROBINSON & THE MIRACLES
24: THEME FROM “LOVE STORY” – ANDY WILLIAMS
23: I LOVE YOU FOR ALL SEASONS – FUZZ
EXTRA: I DON’T KNOW HOW TO LOVE HIM – YVONNE ELLIMAN
22: SWEET AND INNOCENT – DONNY OSMOND
21: WILD WORLD – CAT STEVENS
20: DOESN’T SOMEBODY WANT TO BE WANTED – PARTRIDGE FAMILY
EXTRA: LOOK FOR A STAR – GARY MILES
19: LOVE HER MADLY – DOORS
18: ME AND BOBBY McGEE – JANIS JOPLIN
17: TIMOTHY – BUOYS
16: ME AND YOU AND A DOG NAMED BOO – LOBO
15: SHE’S A LADY – TOM JONES
14: ONE TOKE OVER THE LINE – BREWER AND SHIPLEY
13: WE CAN WORK IT OUT – STEVIE WONDER
12: BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER – ARETHA FRANKLIN
11: POWER TO THE PEOPLE – JOHN LENNON
10: CHICK-A-BOOM – DADDY DEWDROP
9: JUST MY IMAGINATION – TEMPTATIONS
8: ANOTHER DAY – PAUL McCARTNEY
7: STAY AWHILE – BELLS
6: IF – BREAD
5: I AM, I SAID – NEIL DIAMOND
4: WHAT’S GOING ON – MARVIN GAYE
EXTRA: GOOD LOVIN’ – YOUNG RASCALS
3: SMILING FACES SOMETIMES – UNDISPUTED TRUTH
2: PUT YOUR HAND IN THE HAND – OCEAN
1: JOY TO THE WORLD – THREE DOG NIGHT