78: Elton John, "Ego"

Wm.

May 9

It's been a busy few weeks here at Harris Central--between visits from company, a quick trip to a conference on the West Coast (with a bit of playing tourist mixed in), and the typical end-of-the-semester crunch, there's not been as much time to write as I'd like. Now that final exams have begun, here's to a few weeks of relative calm.

A couple of weeks ago, the 70s AT40 show offered by Premiere was 4/29/78, the second chart I'd reconstructed as a playlist for my iPod back around 2005. While I was familiar enough with the order of the songs, it was still good to tune in and listen to Casey tell stories, answer questions, and interject bits of trivia along the way. Here are a few items that caught my ear:

--Leading in to "Baby Hold On" at #30 is a quick note that I actually remember hearing 46 years ago, as Casey tells us that "Whatever will be, will be/The future is ours to see" was lifted from Doris Day's signature song, "Que Sera Sera." (This isn't quite correct, as Day sang "the future's not ours to see.")

--As if we didn't need more evidence of her all-around excellence, Dolly Parton delayed release of "Two Doors Down" as a follow-up to "Here You Come Again" so as not to crowd out the version by Zella Lehr climbing the country charts in early '78. Casey doesn't say this, but Dolly had re-cut "Two Doors Down" in a poppier form before putting it out as a single. It appeared as the B-side to "It's All Wrong, but It's Alright" on the country charts just as Lehr was peaking at #7.

Lehr had a number of other country hits, but "Two Doors Down" turned out to be her only visit to the Top 10. She is possibly best known now as the Unicycle Girl on Hee Haw. (After perusing its Wikipedia page, I'm realizing that I must have seen more Hee Haw growing up than I'd remembered. However, I have no recollection of the Unicycle Girl.)

--Questions from listeners: 1) Which #1 hit blocked the most songs, as measured by the number of #2's that peaked there during its run? Answer: Percy Faith's "Theme from 'A Summer Place'," holding off five challengers. 2) Which act took the most time between its first chart appearance and its first #1? Answer: David Rose and His Orchestra, whose "The Stripper" made it to the top more than eighteen years after Rose's first hit. (I believe I've mentioned before that "The Stripper" was #1 on my parents' wedding day.)

--We learn that "Mull of Kintyre" had recently become the all-time best-selling single in Britain and even hear a snippet before "With a Little Luck" is played at #5. Over here in the States, "Mull" was the B-side to "Girls' School," which had peaked at #33 back in January.

--The highest of this week's three debuts, at #37, is one of Elton John's underappreciated lesser hits. "Ego" is seemingly autobiographical, interesting musically, and chock-full of fun rhymes and striking images. Its video got plenty of play in cinemas that spring as a lead-in to the main feature. I recall seeing it in such a setting, though I can't tell you now what movie it preceded (various commenters on the YouTube video have much better memories than I do in this regard).

Chart quirk alert: two of those three new songs on 4/29/78 came close to having palindromic Top 40 runs. Michael Zager Band's "Let's All Chant" started out 38-37-38 but then advanced to #36 in its final week on, while Elton went 37-34-34-39. Maybe some day I'll do a semi-exhaustive search to how often an actual palindrome occurred in the 70s and 80s (excluding songs that were at only one position, such as two weeks at #38), but I do know of one from later in '78 that can claim this mantle. It's Dolly again--"Heartbreaker" went 40-37-37-40 in September and October.