Songs Casey Never Played, 9/18/76

By Wm. on September 18, 2026

Three months after I began charting AT40, WSAI let me down terribly, removing the show from its early Sunday evening slot, starting with the 9/11 offering. Apparently there was an outcry from the listenership in response (though not from me; I imagine I just moped), as it would return in mid-October. As a result of that five-week gap there are several songs, such as “(The System of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether,” “It’s O.K.,” and “Sunrise” that I don’t automatically think of as Top 40 hits. Here are a half-dozen tunes from that moment which truly didn’t make the grade.

90. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “Gimme Your Money Please”
This is song one, side one from B-TO’s 1973 debut disk, so what is it doing here? Turns out “Gimme Your Money Please” was put out as a single from the GH album they had just released, and is on its way to #70. Maybe the boys knew their Top 40 days were already behind them, as Randy would be departing the band after one more studio LP. That won’t stop me from enjoying this 1973 clip from The Midnight Special, though.

88. The Whispers, “One for the Money (Part 1)”
Quite the jam, my fave discovery this time out. Glad to learn “One for the Money” reached the Top 10 on both the Soul and Dance charts, but it’s a big mystery to me how it couldn’t climb higher than this in its ten-week ride on the Hot 100.

66. Ronnie Dyson, “The More You Do It (The More I Like It Done to Me)”
Dyson might have been brand new to me here were it not for having listened regularly to early AT40s for the past decade-plus. Turns out he’s a two-hit wonder who’s as fond of parentheticals as I am (summer 1970’s “(If You Let Me Make Love to You Then) Why Can’t I Touch You” and spring 1973’s “One Man Band (Plays All Alone)“). I definitely admire his powerful, clear voice. This turned out to be his final shot at a third call-out by Casey, soon to stall out at #62.

61. Sherbet, “Howzat”
I guess open shirts really were a thing back then… These guys were big in Australia throughout most of the 70s–ten Top 10s, a couple of #1’s, including “Howzat”–but success in the U.S. barely materialized (“Howzat” is peaking here). I came across them in 1981 after they’d morphed into the AOR-oriented Sherbs. I loved “No Turning Back” and The Skill, the album on which it appeared, was one of my relatively few high school era LP purchases.

49. James Brown, “Get Up Offa That Thing”
I had no idea how close I’d come to missing out on a Top 40 appearance by the Godfather of Soul during those weeks WSAI temporarily abandoned Casey–“Get Up Offa That Thing” is starting to fall after reaching #45. Brown was at this point roughly two years into his long hiatus from AT40, though he was of course name-checked in Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love.” I’ve never watched Doctor Detroit, but I just might have to now, if only to see this song performed by the man himself.

43. Michael Franks, “Popsicle Toes”
My first encounter with Franks came in 1985, almost certainly watching/hearing “Your Secret’s Safe with Me” on the nascent VH-1 in our campus student center. I know today’s your birthday, Michael–you’re turning 82, apparently–and it must have been bittersweet to see your one and only Hot 100 hit top out on your special day, three slots shy of Casey-land.