Monday, October 17, 2022

Coast To Coast Charts, 1972 - This Week We're Stopping in Tenessee - October 14th

 

 

Now this is a different approach to listing your station's most popular tracks ...

WKDA only lists their Top Ten "Favorite Songs" (ALL of which are somewhat unique to the charts we've been sharing lately ... have we even seen "Nights In White Satin" on another chart yet?  And here it's already #1!!! Which, of course, it would be ... everywhere but Billboard where it peaked at #2.)

On last week's Hawaiian chart, "You Wear It Well" by Rod Stewart was just starting to make its climb up the list.  Here, it's already sitting at #6.  "City Of New Orleans" by Arlo Guthrie sits right above it at #5. while Seals and Crofts have the #4 hit with "Summer Breeze."  Cool to see Leon Russell's "Tight Rope" perched at #7,  too.

Beyond The Top Ten, they simply list other songs played on WKDA ... and you'll find a few surprises here:

"Moonage Daydream" by David Bowie, "Colorado" by Danny Holien (a song that Clark Besch raved about a few weeks ago), "Geronimo's Cadillac" by Michael Murphey, " "Rock And Roll Soul" by Grand Funk Railroad, "Let's See Action" / "When I Was A Boy" by Pete Townshend (!),  "Deteriorata" by National Lampoon, "And You And I" playing as an LP cut by Yes ... looking at the wide range of albums they're featuring ... looks like 40 in all ... and being an FM station, I'm guessing that this is more the genre of music they leaned toward back in 1972.

How about "Hard Life, Hard Times" by John Denver, "Redwood Tree" by Van Morrison, "Paradise" by Jackie DeShannon, "I Love You More" by Donny Hathaway, "Coming Down All Alone" by Joe South, "Yes, I'll Say It" by Swallow (???) and two of my personal favorites from this era, "No" by Bulldog and "American City Suite" by Cashman and West.

Of the new songs on the list, only Al Green's "You Ought To Be With Me" ever really made it ... but they've also listed then unknown band Steely Dan's first LP, "Can't Buy A Thrill" as one of their up-and-comers.  Seeing LPs on the list by George Carlin, Cheech and Chong, National Lampoon and some imports (by the likes of The Beach Boys and Jimi Hendrix no less!!!), I think they catered to the underground listener who just couldn't get into country music like the rest of his neighbors at the time.