Professor of Rock

Go to https://www.kachava.com/ and use code POR for 15% off your first order. Coming up… It’s time to rewrite history and give the greatest songs of 1973 their real due. These Top 10 hits missed the #1 spot on the charts, but as you’ll see, they were all actually better than the songs that did hit #1. Let’s put it right. So many classics here. Including the song that a legendary singer wrote as a parody of Bob Dylan. He basically did an impersonation of him, and it made the song an all-time classic. Plus the Rock song that Paul McCartney wrote in mere minutes on the spot that was rejected by an iconic movie franchise that wanted a lounge act to replace him on the song… As well as the classic rock song that every casual rock fan knows by heart but almost nobody can remember who sings it. It’s one of the most missed trivia questions in music. There’s also Long Train Running by the Doobie Brothers, a song that came from a 10-minute jam that they sat on for 3 years until their producer forced them to put words to it, and it became a classic. And finally, there’s the classic Steely Dan hit Do It Again that confused the hell out of fans because the lead singer was so overcome by stage fright, he had the band’s backup singer tackle it in concert. Leaving fans trying to figure out who really sang it? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive Producer Brandon Fugal Honorary Producers 22Unchained, Thomas Halterman, Keith Novak, Yvonne Fus, Jeffrey Thorn ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Professor of Rock Podcast Apple: https://apple.co/445fVov Spotify: https://spoti.fi/42JpfvU Amazon: https://amzn.to/44b5D6m iHeartRadio: https://bit.ly/444h8MO ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: http://bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan Merch Store: https://professor-of-rock-lsn-shop.fourthwall.com/ Instagram: https://bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of_Rock #classicrock #70smusic #vinylstory #onehitwonder Hey Music Junkies, Professor of Rock, always here to celebrate the greatest artists and the greatest songs of all time. Make sure to subscribe. It’s time to fire up the time machine and go back to the year 1973. Where we will right the wrongs on the charts and give the songs from that year that missed #1 their due. They were more riveting than the song that did hit the top. Our countdown kicks off with A JAM SONG… It was a ruthless 10-minute band jam for about 3 years Till they gave it a name. It’s “Long Train Runnin’” by The Doobie Brothers. Long Train Running began as an unnamed, lyrics-free jam the band had been playing live for three years before they finally recorded it. During live shows, they even gave the song some weird, colorful working titles—“Rosie Pig Mosley,” “Parliament” (because of the cigarette brand), and “Osborn.” And when they actually played it, it didn’t have much structure. No real verses at all. Tom would just get up and “scat,” singing blues melodies over what could easily turn into a half-hour guitar solo. Tom didn’t think much of it. He called it a throwaway song and figured it was NO big deal. So it always amused him when, decades after its release, foreign interviewers would ask him to break down that “complex” guitar lick, because to him, it was just a casual, simple riff from the start. It was producer extraordinaire, Ted Templeman, who pushed the Doobies to shape Tom’s wordless jam into a real song. Ted heard the groove in a live setting and told Tom, “Dude, write some words. We need to cut this song.” It didn’t take Tom long to add lyrics and structure, but it wasn’t ready in time to add it to the Doobies Toulouse Street LP. It was one of the first in line for the The Captain and Me album, the band’s stellar 3rd release. Long Train Runnin’ evolved from a funky jam, to the lead single that became the first Top 10- moving to #8 on Hot 100, but it is #1 in our hearts. At #9 on our special #1 in our hearts episode. It’s a song that was released just 1 day after the legendary singer-songwriter behind it passed away tragically…It’s “I Got a Name” by Jim Croce. Jim Croce was known for writing his own deeply personal, story-driven folk and pop songs, but “I Got a Name” was actually penned by the legendary songwriting duo Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox, the same team behind “Killing Me Softly with His Song”. Ingrid Croce later shared that since Jim didn’t write the track himself, he recorded it without his acoustic guitar. For Jim, holding the guitar was almost like leaning on a bar as a bartender, something that made him feel grounded and protected between him and the audience. It was unusual for him to put the guitar down and sing straight in the studio, but he ended up really enjoying how liberating it felt.