Sunday, August 14, 2011

American Top 40 Flashback - Bee Gees

Strange to be doing one of these on a Sunday morning, you say? Not really - after all, that's when "American Top 40" used to play, at least in these parts.

And so today we bring you a bit of foreshadowing - a song that isn't much more than a footnote to history, but man what a footnote.

By the summer of '75, Disco was really making a dent, and starting to gain a stranglehold on the airwaves. Rolling Stone magazine ran a feature on the craze that summer, including a section featuring clay figures that showed you how to dance "The Hustle" and some of the other hot moves of the time.

So out of the blue that summer came a song by a group of old Australian white guys who were quite obviously just trying to cash in on the craze...right? This HAD to be a cynical move designed to do little more than put just a bit more cash in their pockets, and keep them on the state fair circuit...right?



Little did we know at the time that "Jive Talkin'" was just the beginning, and that in three short years these dudes would be the biggest act on the planet.

At the time, it just seemed like a lightweight, fairly innocuous dance tune. "Jive Talkin'," the Bee Gees, the #1 song this week in 1975.

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