musical memories

Seen at Deb’s
1. Go to the Billboard #1 Hits listings (scroll down and you’ll see them separated by decades on the left in the sidebar)
2. Pick the year you turned 18 [well you know my motto, rules are meant to be broken…. And the music of 1972 just didn’t do it for me mostly (let me qualify that, the ones that got onto the US #1 list anyway) so I'm changing it a bit and doing the year I turned 17 in 1971 (yes I know, most of you were only thinking about getting born around then, but trust me, we knew how to rock, even that far back!)
3. Get yourself nostalgic over the songs of the year
4. Pick 5 songs and write something about how these songs affected you
5. Pass it on to 5 more friends (not going to happen, I hate chain letters, tagging etc… if you like it, do it, if not, so what! But if you do decide to do it, please leave a comment to let me know, I'd love to share your memories too!)
So, in 1971:
June 19 - July 23: It's Too Late - Carole King
I was in my first year of A levels, at a new school. As the classes were small, especially for the sciences, I had to do Maths and Chemistry at the adjoining boy’s schools. In the Maths class there were 6 of us, 2 of whom had cars, so we all used to get lifts with them. It was the year Carole King’s Tapestry album came out, and we played it to death in the car on the way to maths. I still think it is a brilliant album, there’s hardly a song on it I don’t like. My favourite is actually not this one, but "You've got a friend", which also occurs on this #1 list, but done by James Taylor. I always prefered Carole King's version.

April 17 - May 28: Joy To The World -Three Dog Night
I was one of those gawky, large teenagers who didn’t fit in with the “in” crowd, so on the rare occasion when I was invited to one of their parties, it was memorable.
This song was really huge then, and I remember a few good parties where we all sang “JEREMIAH WAS A BULLFROG” loudly, long before Karaoke was heard of! To this day, it is still one of my "feel good" songs.
(BTW I see the same website you get these lists from has a page of 50 wierdest band names, I was surprised to see this wasn't on it!)

March 20 - April 2: Me and Bobby McGee- Janis Joplin
I don’t think anyone ever sang this song with as much soul as Janis…. And a love of her music was one of the many things Max and I had in common when we met (in 1976). (It was doubly attractive, of course, because mom was scandalised that I listened to music by someone who openly did drugs, I never heard the end of it when Janis died of a drug overdose!!) We bought a cd of her greatest hits recently and loved listening to her belting out her sad songs all the way to Capetown a couple of months ago!

October 2 - November 5: Maggie May -Rod Stewart
Another all time favourite, I seem to have a thing for people with rusty creaky voices!

December 25, 1971 - - January 14, 1972: Brand New Key -Melanie
What I remember about this song is that, although I enjoyed its catchy, whimsical sound, I always felt a little dumb when I listened to it because I never knew what she meant by “brand new key”. I mean, I never knew you needed a key for roller skates????…