What I’m playing now are some easy listening classics, the kind of music you heard back in the day when WGY actually played mellow Top 40 music. Well, so did WROW, inbetween tracks from the Ray Conniff Singers and the 101 Strings. But I digress.
So with that in mind, let me blast you back to the past on K-Chuck Radio, with ten songs that were smooth easy listening tracks from the early 1970’s.
| BREAD Diary David Gates and Bread, a classic easy listening pop band with a smooth smooth sound. And an ironic song about discovering that the inner thoughts of the girl you’re in love with are about someone else, not about you. |
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| HAMILTON, JOE FRANK AND REYNOLDS Falling in Love Yeah, their name sounds like a law firm, but the three-man harmonics of Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds really captured this beautiful melody. |
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| BADFINGER Day After Day The greatest non-Beatles band to ever grace Apple Records. Their melodies and lyrics are just superb. What a great band and what a great song. |
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| THE RASPBERRIES Overnight Sensation (Hit Record) How audacious can you be to write a song called “Hit Record” and have it actually become a hit record? Well, if you’re Eric Carmen and the Raspberries, you can create a classic 5-minute song like this – with one of the coolest false endings in pop music history. |
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| LARRY SANTOS We Can’t Hide It Anymore When I was younger, I thought the song was about a young boy who was looking for his mother, who was in the middle of dating another man. When I got older, I discovered that the song had a more adult – and adulterous – meaning. |
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| KEITH CARRADINE I’m Easy This was the theme song from the motion picture Nashville, and Keith Carradine was related to all the other acting Carradines – John Carradine, Robert Carradine, Kwai Chang Caine… |
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| ERIC CARMEN All By Myself Okay, so most of this song came from a Rachmaninoff piano concerto, but DAMN what he did take sounds great. |
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| AMBROSIA How Much I Feel David Pack and Ambrosia had several easy listening hits in the 1970’s, but this track was one of their best. Absolute best. |
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| FIREFALL Strange Way There were some great pop Firefall tracks, but this one stands out as just one of their best efforts ever laid to vinyl. |
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| HARRY NILSSON Without You Listen carefully to what I have to say right now. Harry Nilsson was one of the smoothest vocalists of the 1970’s, and the fact that he’s not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is an absolute miscarriage of justice. |
Now THAT’s an oldies groove, smooth and solid, commercial free and ten in a row. Right here … on K-Chuck Radio!!
Chuck The Writer 
I’m betting on links to other posts in which these have been mentioned, Chuck, but …
I’d give honorable mentions to “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” by England Dan and John Ford Coley, and “Look What You’ve Done to Me” by Boz Scaggs.
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Chiding and correcting myself, especially since you pride yourself on accuracy in dates, Chuck:
“Look What You’ve Done to Me” actually was released in 1980. But, um, maybe it was composed in 1979? Hoping I can slide by on a technicality …
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Jay – It’s all good. I do enjoy that Boz Scaggs song.
So I take it you like this “K-Chuck Radio” blog post from time to time? 🙂
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I do, indeed. And I appreciate the judge’s generosity!
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It’s amazing how music can trigger memories. Thank you for a wonderful walk down memory lane.
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Memories… Seals and Crofts and Firefall, on 8-Track… Bic pen cap jammed in on the left side of the cartridge opening to make it play without skipping… Plymouth Gran Fury with room for 4 people in the trunk to smuggle into the Latham Drive-In…and 45 cents-per-gallon gas.
Life was pretty good.
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question:did Ringo and the boys play on the Badfinger stuff…they sound like they may have…
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I think I have been time warped back to my teens… thanks for the songs and reminders of having fun!
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