A Top Ten Memoir: 1977 - "I wanna be where you are..."
My Top Ten of 1977 reflects some of the defining artists (from my perspective) of the 70s. This is also the last Top Ten list that I only recently created. (Most future Top Ten lists were created at the end of their actual years.) As such my 1977 list feels like a look back more on my favorite artists of the decade than a reflection of what I was feeling and experiencing that year. However, all of these songs have withstood the test of time (for me) and were pretty influential in what was another transitional year.
My Top Ten of 1977:
1. I Wanna Be Where You Are – Melissa Manchester
2. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant – Billy Joel
3. How Much Love – Leo Sayer
4. Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac
5. Nobody Does It Better – Carly Simon
6. She’s Always a Woman – Billy Joel
7. Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) – Billy Joel
8. Love Alive – Heart
9. Poor Poor Pitiful Me – Linda Ronstadt
10. Handy Man – James Taylor
I wound down eighth grade by getting a school newspaper headline and skipping the big end of the year class competitions. Regarding the former, I had enrolled in a journalism class in which we basically wrote about things happening at the school. I met a future very significant friend in John J. in that course. (More on him later.) That Spring it was announced that the school’s name would be changed to Walter Sundling Junior High in honor of a board member who had recently retired. I was given the opportunity to interview Mr. Sundling at his home. I remember him offering me a Coke and chatting very casually about his career. Upon writing the article, I was given not only praise by my teacher but the full front page of the paper. The multiple column story prompted some of my other teachers to give me the positive reinforcement I so desperately needed but never expected. It was a true highlight.
The class competitions were another matter. I guess the idea was to work with your 8th grade section and become the best in a number of Battle of the Network Stars-like athletic events. Feeling no connection to that entire group of fellow students, I decided to stay home that day. (I had no idea who won what and didn’t care.) I did go to graduation night wearing a blue leisure suit, flashy disco shirt, and platform shoes. I was going to feel cool for once at the end of junior high! No one but my favorite teacher, Mrs. Powaga, commented on my outfit but I felt pretty good about it.
Afterwards my mother and Ray threw me a big party that featured mostly relatives since I was basically friendless in Palatine. Our former neighbor June brought my Chicago friends Paula, Lois, and their sisters Linda and Peggy. Frankly, they were all I really needed to make the day feel good.
I was also given a trip to Hollywood with my mother. We spent a week seeing live tapings of Maude, Good Times, Laverne & Shirley, The Tonight Show, Three’s Company, the Dinah Shore Show, and, my biggest thrill, Hollywood Squares.
It was a magical week and all I could have dreamed of at that point in my life. The Good Times episode featured one of the first appearances of Janet Jackson as young Penny, a new character on the show.
We were sitting in the back of the studio in what we’d term today “stadium” seats. Unfortunately, my seat broke and I had to stand throughout the taping. I didn’t mind though. The show was great, Jimmie Walker as J.J. was hilarious, and my mom laughed her big laugh throughout the episode. I can still hear her shrilling laughter when I watch or listen to that episode!
While sitting in the seats between takes on the Laverne & Shirley set, we found out Elvis Presley had died that day. Eddie Mekka, who played the character Carmine, also came back to talk to someone and I got to say hi to him. He signed my autograph book and asked me to call him “Eddie.” It was a big thrill.
We managed to find where the artists’ entrance was and caught glimpses of Suzanne Somers from Three’s Company and Redd Foxx from Sanford and Son.
Harrison Ford was promoting a new film called Star Wars and we got to meet him briefly after the taping of Dinah’s show. More on that film in a bit.
I had also created a collage of the Carol Burnett Show from the various pictures I had cut out from my movie magazines. My mother encased it in plastic and we brought it to CBS in hopes of seeing Carol Burnett. Unfortunately, the show was not taping that week but we did manage to get a security guard to bring it to her. Many weeks later I received a letter in the mail from her thanking me for the collage. Another big thrill.
1977 also saw the release of Woody Allen’s film Annie Hall. At this point in my life, it should be pretty clear by now, that I was much more focused on television and music than movies. I certainly had my favorites during the decade such as What’s Up Doc?, A Star is Born, Smokey and the Bandit, The Poseidon Adventure, and Silver Streak. Interestingly I wasn’t a big fan of Star Wars. The film felt a little “hokey” to me at the time with what seemed to me a silly story and less than spectacular special effects. (Sorry Star Wars fans. I would appreciate the whole series much more when I viewed the first six parts in full some thirty years later.) Annie Hall was the film that beat Star Wars for the Best Picture Oscar of 1977. I was thrilled because Allen’s film blew me away. I remember seeing it in the theater with my mother and brother Jeff. It was absolutely amazing to me that a character could break the fourth wall and talk to the audience. I also loved the film’s use of animation, subtitles, and “time travel” elements. I had never seen anything like it before. I also thought it was hilarious. Annie Hall began my love of Woody Allen films from that day forward.
Musically I fell in love with Billy Joel’s The Stranger album. He told so many interesting, heartfelt, and relatable stories that to this day it deserves a listen from start to finish as a larger concept album about young romantic relationships and the masks we often wear within them. Every song felt like a masterpiece, particularly the long Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.
While I loved it at the time, I only appreciated it more years later during our regular trips to New York – a city that would represent all that was good about Billy Joel and Woody Allen to me. New York was filled with Italian restaurants and many felt like the kind of places Joel would tell stories about characters like Brend(er) and Eddie. With lines like buying “a couple of paintings from Sears,” this song also seemed relevant to any middle or working class family. Similarly, She’s Always a Woman was a beautiful love song that would seem perfectly at home at a New York cabaret. Joel’s vocals are also beautifully modulated.
Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) was another fun track on the album with its “working too hard can give you a heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack” line. Another, “If that’s movin’ up than I’m movin’ out,” called to mind the dream of getting out of Palatine.
While my sister Judy had moved out of the house by ’77, my brother Mike was still at home. I looked forward to a day when I could have my own place and not have to do chores like pulling weeds! (I was highly allergic and the only thing available to me was the not very effective product Allerest. I’d try to get some relief by going to visit my Busia in Chicago for days at a time where I could watch TV all day and play with her babushkas…) If I was to move, my thoughts were either on Chicago or anywhere in Southern California. During my mother’s many attempts to divorce her third husband Ray, she flew Jeff out to California once and actually looked at a few houses. However, mom never divorced Ray and the family never moved out of Illinois. (Years later Jeff would say that Judy and I didn’t want to move out west and that was why it never happened. He might be right. I didn’t need another big change in the form of moving but I still dreamed about California.)
I was also on the Fleetwood Mac Rumours train like everyone else in ’77. It became a monster hit and won the Grammy for Album of the Year. Go Your Own Way was the song and production that would most stand out to me. It’s a dramatic rock and roll tune with a killer guitar solo from Lindsey Buckingham. “You can go your own way. You can call it another lonely day.” Yes, I had many lonely days but more than anything this was another classic “angry” song that I could fit into future playlists with Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain and Linda Ronstadt’s You’re No Good.
My love of Carly Simon’s music continued with her incredible rendition of Marvin Hamlisch’s Nobody Does It Better from the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (which I still haven’t seen to this day.) Simon could do no wrong at the time. This is one of her finest vocal performances. The same could be said about her then husband James Taylor and his Grammy winning version of the song Handy Man. It’s a subtle performance but very effective.
Leo Sayer also returned to my Top Ten with How Much Love, the third single from his big Endless Flight album. The song was highly catchy and Sayer’s falsetto soared during key moments. It’s a big dramatic performance but SO irresistible!
I was also really beginning to explore some of the deep tracks on some of my artists’ albums. Heart had a huge hit with Barracuda from the album Little Queen but I preferred Love Alive, a slow-building rocker with more incredible vocals from the Wilson sisters. This became my favorite Heart song even though they released so many great singles, particularly in the 1970s. It has the mark of 70s progressive rock artists such as Yes and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Linda Ronstadt continued her winning streak with her 1977 album Simple Dreams, also featuring several hit singles. I loved her rendition of Blue Bayou but what stood out even more was the fun Warren Zevon cover Poor Poor Pitiful Me. I don’t think its inclusion here really reflected my view of myself in 1977 although it probably wasn’t far off. Rather, I loved the lyrics and Ronstadt’s always powerful vocal performance.
Finally, I have to again mention Melissa Manchester. She released an album of mostly covers that year including her rendition of the Michael Jackson hit I Wanna Be Where You Are. This is a song that should be an adult contemporary classic. The arrangement is smooth and silky and Manchester’s vocal is stellar and emotional.
Perhaps on some level, I also connected with this song because I did want to be somewhere else. My private worlds continued to entertain and fulfill me. As I started high school, I was beginning to feel a little more comfortable with many more students to contend with but less of the small cliques from the previous few years in Palatine.
Links to my Top Ten of 1977:
What would be in your Top Ten of 1977?
Next Up… 1978…”Wonder how I ever got along without you…”
"You Make Me Feel Like Dancing"
Leo Sayer
"Hotel California"
Eagles
"Rich Girl"
Hall & Oates
"Fly Like an Eagle"
Steve Miller Band
"Looks Like We Made It"
Barry Manilow
"Da Doo Ron Ron"
Shaun Cassidy
"Don't Stop"
Fleetwood Mac
"Barracuda"
Heart
"Lido Shuffle"
Boz Scaggs
"Give a Little Bit"
Supertramp
Wow, what a year. Amazing songs. I'm also fascinated by your trip to Hollywood. You and I have talked about this a little bit in the past, but I had no idea. It was so expensive. So wonderful that you could hear your mother's laugh on that episode of good times.
It's through reading your journey here that I've really started to listen to Melissa Manchester more than ever before. What an amazing voice.
An dammmmmm .... is that Carly Simon hot hot hot