It’s election month and it shows. This playlist doesn’t exactly rock the vote, but there are a few less-than-subtle nods to the recent presidential showdown.
And on the surface, this week’s countdown is all breezy Southern California vibes. This Top 40 would have you believe life in 1972 was all chardonnay, yachting, and shimmering sunset from the bosom of the Pacific Ocean.
But that’s not how everybody was living. Curtis Mayfield keeps things real, The Temptations get heavy, and The King makes his final sweaty appearance in the Top 10.
Let’s get to it.
Tin Soldiers and Nixon’s Coming
We usually start with a look back at the week in history. But here, it seems pertinent to mention that the month began with a presidential election. On Tuesday, November 7th, Richard Nixon earned a second term with a landslide reelection over Democratic challenger and South Dakota Senator George McGovern.
Nixon’s reelection bid was not at all hampered by the widening investigation into the Watergate Hotel break-in. In fact, it was never close. Nixon won 49 states.
And thus would begin a second term clouded entirely by scandal, resignations, and ultimately, Nixon’s own disgraceful exit. These events shaped the era, shrouded the national mood, and hung like a specter over this week’s countdown.
With that in mind, let’s jump ahead a few weeks, and take a quick (but tragic) trip over the Atlantic.
November 25, 1972—The Week at a Glance
On Tuesday, November 21st, British daredevil Stephen Ladd performed a stunt in which he rode his motorcycle through a 50-yard tunnel of flaming hay bales. He succeeded on his first run, emerging unscathed.
However, against the urging of the event’s organizers, he insisted on going for a second run, even as the flames grew in their intensity. Ladd’s motorcycle overheated and stalled before he could cover the full distance. Ladd did not survive this second attempt.
Back in the U.S., this same Tuesday saw the acquittal of the so-called Chicago 7, a group of prominent anti-war activists charged with crossing state lines to incite a riot during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Defendants included notable counterculture figures like Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Tom Hayden.
Though affiliated with different segments of the counterculture and anti war movement, they were grouped together as defendants, where Judge Julius Hoffman convicted them (and their lawyers) for contempt of court, handing out jail sentences of varying lengths.
On this Tuesday, an appellate court threw out their convictions based on various procedural errors. The U.S. government declined to retry any of the cases, and the individual members of the Chicago 7 went free.
Tom Hayden in particular made good on his freedom, successfully running for seats in the California Assembly and California Senate, as well as successfully lobbying for a 17 year marriage to Jane Fonda.
And on Wednesday, November 22nd, mass murderer Richard Speck set a U.S. record by receiving a 1200 year prison sentence. Originally convicted in 1967 for the murder of 8 female nurses, Speck had been sentenced to death.
Then, in the precedent setting case of Furman v. Georgia (June 29th, 1972), the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional. The state of Illinois was forced to re-sentence Speck. The resulting punishment (eight consecutive 50-150 year sentences) resulted in the longest prison sentence ever issued at the time.
This sentence has since been surpassed by prison sentences which are several millennia in length, though decorum prevents me from detailing the heinous crimes which led to them.
As for Speck, his sentence was ultimately reduced to a slap-on-the-wrist duration of 100 to 300 years. He fell well short of satisfying his sentence, dying in prison from a heart attack at age 49 without ever expressing a word of remorse for his crimes.
Election Year
Speaking of criminals without remorse, let’s dig into this week’s countdown with a look at two election-inspired numbers.
First, Alice Cooper “Elected” registers at #33 here. The first single off of the band’s sixth studio album, Billion Dollar Babies, “Elected” is actually a rehash of the band’s 1969 song “Reflected”.
Clearly, it has been updated for the year’s big theme. Dig:
“I’m your top prime cut of meat, I’m your choice,
I wanna be elected,
I’m your yankee doodle dandy in a gold Rolls Royce,
I wanna be elected.”
Alice Cooper was rewarded for their timeliness. “Elected” peaked at #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the week of the U.S. presidential election. Joey Ramone has also conceded that Alice Cooper’s tune provided some lyrical inspiration for The Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated”, which is obviously pretty cool.
On the complete other side of cool is a novelty record called “Convention ’72”, credited to a group called the Delegates and reaching #11 in this week’s countdown. This one was actually created by a Pittsburgh area DJ named Bob DeCarlo and was commissioned by local record execs to capitalize on the heightened tension around election season.
The record features DeCarlo in various comedic voices meant to spoof notable TV reporters like Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley, here cleverly recast as Walter Klondike and David Stinkley.
In various characters, DeCarlo posed various questions to candidates on the campaign trail including Nixon, McGovern, Spiro T. Agnew and Jane Fonda.
The “candidates” provided answers in the form of various song snippets, including bits and pieces from, among many many other songs, “Jungle Fever” by The Chakachas, “A Horse With No Name” by America, “I Gotcha” by Joe Tex, and “Coconut” by Nilsson. Strangely, the latter two both appear on the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs 20 years hence.
But I digress. The Delegates novelty tune gets real old real fast, which explains why its clumsily-titled follow-up, “(After the Election) Richard M. Nixon–Face the Issues” failed to catch on.
The best thing I can say about “Convention ‘72”, aside from the fact that it is a somewhat revealing artifact of the era, is that the B-side to this single was called “Funky Butt”, it’s entirely instrumental, and it’s a helluva lot better than the charting single—which reached as high as #8 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
If you must, blame Richard Nixon.
I Can See Clearly Now
In spite of the pall cast over America, Johnny Nash tops this week’s countdown with a sublime spot of optimism. Though born in Houston, Texas and fashioned in the late ‘50s to compete in the same lane as pop crooners like Johnny Mathis, Nash would forge his own distinctive path through popular music.
Relocating to Jamaica in 1965, Nash quickly became acquainted with Bob Marley, Rita Marley, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh. He signed the young Wailers to his publishing label and became an early champion for Marley, and reggae in general.
He even landed a UK hit in 1971 with a cover of Bob Marley’s “Stir It Up.” But his greatest success came in 1972, with the release of the album, I Can See Clearly Now.
This one contained no less than four original Bob Marley compositions. But it was Nash’s self-penned “I Can See Clearly Now” that topped the Billboard Hot 100 in early November.
“I Can See Clearly Now” has since become something of a standard, often covered, and occasionally charting. Fittingly, the most notable of these chart entries comes from another reggae legend.
In 1993, Jimmy Cliff recorded a cheerful cover version for the Cool Runnings soundtrack. It hit #18 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the legendary Jamaican singer’s first visit to the Top 40 in 25 years.
So-Cal Rising
Johnny Nash wasn’t the only one feeling breezy in ’72. As this week’s countdown clearly demonstrated, the laid back Southern California sound had fully emerged as a true force in popular music, ushering in an era of country-rock, singer-songwriter, and Life-FM fare including Bread with “Sweet Surrender” at #30, “Listen to the Music” by the Doobie Brothers at #25, “Witchy Woman” by The Eagles at #16, “Ventura Highway” by America at #13, and the utterly perfect “Summer Breeze” by Seals & Crofts at #6.
But perhaps no one song better captures the moment than the #14 entry on this week’s countdown—“It Never Rains in Souther California” by Albert Hammond.
In addition to being a bit of hooky bittersweet brilliance, this tune comes with a bunch of cool trivia. Albert Hammond—who was of Gibraltar descent—scored his one and only top 5 hit with this tune, off of the debut album of the same name. He enjoyed backing by members of L.A.’s session musician coterie—The Wrecking Crew.
While “It Never Rains” was Hammond’s only moment in the sun as a singer, he enjoyed enormous and ongoing success as a songwriter, penning hits for Starship (“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us”), Whitney Houston (“One Moment in Time”), Leo Sayer (“When I Need You”) and countless other hitmakers and legends.
He also recorded the original cut of “The Air That I Breathe”, subsequently recorded to achingly beautiful effect by The Hollies.
Reaching #2 in the U.K. in 1974, it not only gave the Hollies their last charting hit, but it also provided the chord progression later used in Radiohead’s “Creep”.
And Albert Hammond made one more major contribution to alternative rock–his son. Albert Hammond, Jr., would go on to become the guitarist for garage rock revivalists–The Strokes.
Chuck, Elvis, and the Burning Ding-a-Ling
Two unlikely legends from the Golden Age of Rock and Roll turn up on our list.
In what is perhaps one of the great injustices in rock and roll history—the brilliant Chuck Berry scores his one and only career #1 with the absurdly suggestive and sophomoric “My Ding-a-Ling”, which makes #32 on this week’s countdown.
Chuck’s version is actually a cover of legendary New Orleans bandleader Dave Bartholomew, who conceived the novelty track in 1952.
Bartholomew, in turn, nicked the melody from the 19th-century traditional folk song, “Little Brown Jug.”
But none of that really justifies the fact that this is Chuck Berry’s highest charting hit. But wait…it actually gets worse.
“My Ding-a-Ling” held a tight grip on that top spot in late October of 1972, so tight in fact, that it succeeded in holding off Elvis Presley’s incendiary and excellent “Burning Love”.
A cover of a song released earlier in the same year by Alabama-born country-soul singer Arthur Alexander, Presley’s “Burning Love” reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 but was halted in its tracks by Chuck’s Ding-a-Ling.
Elvis Presley comes in at #22 on this week’s countdown with “Burning Love”, a sweaty country rocker with a touch of that Vegas-era slickness. It captures all the best things about the King. It was also his last Top 10 hit.
Just to put into perspective how momentous this is, Elvis Presley charted 149 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 over the course of his lifetime, including 114 Top Hits. He had 40 Top 10 hits, 18 of which reached #1.
This was, to be sure, the end of an era.
Super-Curtis
While breezy soft rock confections and election-year novelties permeated the charts, only one artist owns two spots on this week’s countdown. And his is the record that tells the hardest truths.
Curtis Mayfield’s soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Superfly stands shoulder to shoulder only with Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On as a statement piece of the era. Mayfield was initially invited by the film’s directly to appear in a cameo as the house band singer for a single scene.
But this role quickly evolved into Mayfield’s third solo full-length LP—a startling, stark and honest story of drug abuse, violence, and crime in the ghettos of urban America. The grooves are immaculate, the narrative is devastating, and Mayfield’s singing is urgent and arresting.
As with What’s Going On before it, record executives gave Mayfield’s confrontational release little chance of success. And like Marvin Gaye, Mayfield scored the biggest hit of his career. Sales for the soundtrack far exceeded box office returns for the film that inspired it.
Independent of the film, Superfly was massive. And accordingly, it charts twice on our countdown, at #40 with the sumptuously funky “Superfly” and at #12 with “Freddie’s Dead”.
No small addendum to this section—The Temptations reach #5 with “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”—the finest and most consequential of their Norman Whitfield-helmed psychedelic soul recordings.
Like Marvin and Mayfield, the Temps were attacking more socially conscious material and sonically confrontational music. And record buyers were here for it.
The Top 40 for November 25, 1972 in Order
40: SUPERFLY – CURTIS MAYFIELD
39: AMERICAN CITY SUITE – CASHMAN & WEST
38: SUNNY DAYS – LIGHTHOUSE
37: THUNDER AND LIGHTNING – CHI COLTRANE
36: LIVING IN THE PAST – JETHRO TULL
35: I BELIEVE IN MUSIC – GALLERY
34: WALK ON WATER – NEIL DIAMOND
33: ELECTED – ALICE COOPER
32: MY DING-A-LING – CHUCK BERRY
31: GOOD TIME CHARLIE’S GOT THE BLUES – DANNY O’ KEEFE
30: SWEET SURRENDER – BREAD
29: ROCK ‘N ROLL SOUL – GRAND FUNK RAILROAD
28: DIALOGUE – CHICAGO
27: CORNER OF THE SKY – JACKSON 5
26: ROCKIN’ PNEUMONIA, THE BOOGLE WOOGIE FLU – JOHNNY RIVERS
25: LISTEN TO THE MUSIC – DOOBIE BROTHERS
24: GARDEN PARTY – RICK NELSON & THE STONE CANYON BAND
23: ME AND MRS. JONES – BILLY PAUL
22: BURNING LOVE – ELVIS PRESLEY
21: FUNNY FACE – DONNA FARGO
20: OPERATOR (THAT’S NOT THE WAY IT FEELS) – JIM CROCE
19: CRAZY HORSES – OSMONDS
18: SOMETHING’S WRONG WITH ME – AUSTIN ROBERTS
17: CLAIR – GILBERT O’ SULLIVAN
16: WITCHY WOMAN – EAGLES
15: I’M STONE IN LOVE WITH YOU – STYLISTICS
14: IT NEVER RAINS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA – ALBERT HAMMOND
13: VENTURA HIGHWAY – AMERICA
12: FREDDIE’S DEAD (THEME FROM “SUPERFLY”) – CURTIS MAYFIELD
11: CONVENTION ’72 – THE DELEGATES
10: IF I COULD REACH YOU – THE 5TH DIMENSION
9: NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN – THE MOODY BLUES
8: YOU OUGHT TO BE WITH ME – AL GREEN
7: IF YOU DON’T KNOW ME BY NOW – HAROLD MELVIN & THE BLUE NOTES
6: SUMMER BREEZE – SEALS & CROFTS
5: PAPA WAS A ROLLING STONE – THE TEMPTATIONS
4: I AM WOMAN – HELEN REDDY
3: I’LL BE AROUND – THE SPINNERS
2: I’D LOVE YOU TO WANT ME – LOBO
1: I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW – JOHNNY NASH