Coming up…a year in music that needs some tweaking. It was the best of times, but today we’ll make it even better as well as select the 10 songs that should’ve been #1, including the greatest opening 20 seconds of a song in the history of our planet. And I know I won’t get a single argument from you once you hear the song. Plus, one of the most feel-good singalong classics, Easy, a song that ever came from a singer’s notes that he wrote down at a stressful business meeting… He turned those meeting notes into an all-timer. Plus Aerosmith's Walk This Way, the most miraculous rock song ever, that FAILED the first time it was released, then it hit The top 10 when it was put out again a few years later and then 10 years after that it came out a 3rd time and saved this band’s failed career. Plus, Paul McCartney's Maybe I'm Amazed that wasn’t a hit until 7 years after it was recorded, but a live version was what made all the difference. Plus the nasty lyric from Go Your Own Way that a guitarist wrote to shame his former girlfriend that caused her serious PTSD for decades because she had to sing it every night with him and take his abuse night after night….Let’s do 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 #onehitwonder #70srock
Hey music junkies, Professor of Rock, always here to celebrate the greatest artists and the greatest songs of all time. Make sure to like, share, comment, and subscribe to keep this channel in your feed. Hindsight is always 20/20… and it’s even more so when it comes to music that stands the test of time. So today we are going back in time to an insane year in music where the #1 hits of the year pale in comparison to the top 10 hits that missed #1, and all these years later it’s more apparent than ever. So today we’re going back to 1977 to rewrite history and put the true classics where they belong… At #1 it’s our latest yearly #1 in our hearts countdown. So I’ll give you an example os some song that hit #1 that 50 years later have zero impact…“Don’t Give On Us” by David Soul, or “Torn Between Two Lovers” by Mary McGregor or Don’t Leave me This Way By Thelma Houston to Undercover Angel by Alan O day. These were all #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, while some of the biggest song of all time missed #1.
The countdown begins with a cover of a tune originally recorded by Jimmy Jones in ’59. But a legendary singer-songwriter turned the song on it’s head and made his cover the definitive version. It’s James Taylor with “Handy Man” at #10: In the mid-70s, James Taylor was going through a very tough time, with deep depression, substance struggles, and a very public unraveling of his marriage to Carly Simon. He didn’t exactly reach for another heavy, introspective song. Instead, he went hunting for something light, breezy, and fun. JT found “Handy Man” as a musical reset: What James loved about “Handy Man,” was the sweet tenderness surrounding the original tune. The earlier versions were quicker and more lighthearted, almost like a teen novelty, but James, with producer Peter Asher, decided to flip the vibe. They slowed it waaaay down, turning the arrangement into something smooth, intimate, and genuinely comforting. The result is that soothing sound people still associate with the ’77 version. The signature “comma, comma, comma” harmonies in JT’s rendition, is officially credited to Leah Kunkel, Cass Elliot’s sister, and the wife of JT’s drummer, Russ Kunkel.
Studio lore says Carly Simon also sang backing vocals on the track, but was uncredited. Knowing they’d divorce a few years later makes a lot of listeners hear the song differently—like a bittersweet snapshot of the last good moments of their time as a couple: “Handy Man” was first recorded by Jimmy Jones and co-written by Otis Blackwell—the same legendary writer behind hits like “All Shook Up” and “Great Balls of Fire.” In the ’59 recording session, a flute player hired for the track didn’t show up. So Blackwell stepped in and improvised those instantly catchy whistling hooks that helped turn the original into a million-seller. When JT's “Handy Man” hit the charts in summer 1977,
