1970s

Simon + Garfunkel | My Little Town

“It’s humorous to see what experts in the music world thought was the location of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘My Little Town,’ the duo’s final Top 10 Columbia Records single,” (Viera Voice). “On October 18, 1975, Simon hosted the second broadcast of Saturday Night Live. In doing so, he brought on his former partner. They sang three songs together, including a new Simon composition called ‘My Little Town” … the fun began when people began to opine exactly where they thought that little town was.

In his book Paul Simon: A Life, writer Marc Eliot proclaims that ‘My Little Town’ is ‘clearly Queens, and all the references to schoolbooks, saluting the flag and so on appear to be symbols of nostalgia for the days of Tom and Jerry as much as for the years of Simon and Garfunkel.’ Not so, counters music critic Dave Marsh, the author of The Heart of Rock and Soul. ‘(It’s) a portrait of the middle-class Forest Hills, NY neighborhood where Simon and Garfunkel grew up.’

… In a (1980s) interview with Bill Flanagan for his book Written in My Soul: Conversations with Great Songwriters, Simon admitted, ‘I was picturing a town. I was thinking about Gloucester, Massachusetts. A friend of mine comes from Gloucester, and he used to talk about what it was like to grow up there … . That song was entirely an act of imagination. … There’s no element of me in there at all.'”

Starting in E major, the tune then briskly parades through many keys; at the 1:14 mark, D major is a resting point for awhile. After an interlude, the tonality shifts to B minor at 2:05 for the woeful mantra “Nothing but the dead and dying back in my little town.” 2:23 brings another multi-key tour before B minor and the mantra return — this time accompanied by the intensity of a full horn section even as the tune fades.

Tim Curry | Easy Street (from “Annie”)

Film and stage actor Tim Curry, a UK native, left us this week at age 80 after a long illness. After 1975’s classic film interpretation of the musical theatre classic Rocky Horror became a hit, “Tim Curry found himself in demand both on Broadway and in Hollywood,” (The Independent). “On the stage, he was nominated for a Tony Award three times over the course of 24 years, for roles as varied as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1981’s Amadeus, swashbuckling movie star Alan Swann in 1992’s My Favorite Year, and King Arthur in 2005’s Spamalot … His film and television roles were just as eclectic.” Curry’s co-star Rob Schneider remembered: “’I have never known another actor who could say more with a knowing grin or a raised eyebrow than the splendid Tim Curry. I was astonished as a young actor to witness Tim do a scene seven completely different ways and ALL OF THEM FANTASTIC!’ remembered Schneider.”

” … Rocky Horror became a cult classic hit and the center of its own devoted subculture,” (W Magazine). “Curry, suddenly famous, found himself inside a celebrity world he would later chronicle in his 2025 memoir Vagabond, with encounters with David Bowie and nights at Studio 54 alongside Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, and Carly Simon … By the end of his career, Curry had acting credits in roughly 126 movies and feature films, making him the sort of omnipresent figure that feels like part of the very fabric of pop culture … Of his penchant for playing villains, Curry told The Guardian in a 2025 interview, ‘I’ve always tried to make them amusing, which gives them a bit more edge. It’s like people being drawn to the scene of a car crash … ‘”

Curry is of course best known for his role in Rocky Horror, but we are featuring his performance as the con artist Rooster Hannigan in the 1982 movie version of Annie, alongside Bernadette Peters and Carol Burnett. With a score written by Charles Strouse, the film followed the 1977 Broadway hit. “Initially intended as a major production number, the final version (of ‘Easy Street’) is more contained, but still crackles with villainous chemistry,” (Golden Age Flicks). Starting in Bb major, the tune makes a bouncy shift to B major around the 1:25 mark. Several more dizzy jumps in tonality follow; meanwhile, the actors are completely absorbed in delivering relaxed-looking but exquisitely choreographed physical comedy.

Dolly Parton | You’re the Only One

“We’ve been wishing for something to unite us, and as always we have forgotten to be careful what we wish for,” (Esquire). “Today each of us has lost a family member. Dolly Parton has died at age 80, and it’s a measure of the space she leaves behind that no words seem to want to fit in front of her name. I’ve tried a few, too: ‘Country music superstar’ is limiting, ‘entertainer’ doesn’t cut it, ‘icon’ has been rendered meaningless by overuse. She did too many things, at too high a level, with too singular a sensibility, that reached too many people in too personal a way to be reduced to a simple descriptor. ‘Dolly’ will have to do.

Even if you aren’t a superfan, you know the details of her life. You know she was (the fourth of 12 children, raised) in rural Tennessee in a one-room log cabin … you know she started playing guitar and writing songs at age eight and those songs got her on local radio at age 13. You know she went right from high school to Nashville, where she met her husband Carl Dean at a laundromat the day she arrived, and that she got her big break as the new ‘girl singer’ on The Porter Wagoner Show, which she soon outgrew. You know that leaving Porter behind was the basis of ‘I Will Always Love You,’ and maybe she did write that song on the very same day she wrote ‘Jolene,’ or maybe she didn’t, but it doesn’t matter anyway because it’s now up with George Washington chopping down the cherry tree in American lore.”

Co-written by Carole Bayer Sager and Bruce Roberts, “You’re the Only One” (1979) topped the US and Canadian Country charts. But it also crossed over for respectable top-100 chart positions in both countries, also reaching #14 (US) and #1 (Canada) on the adult contemporary charts. The intro and verse are in C# major, leading into a chorus which climbs up to D major (0:42). At 1:14, the next verse settles back into the original key. The two keys continue to alternate throughout. We’ve featured many of Dolly’s most famous tunes in the past (including the multi-key hit “Here You Come Again“). But today, we’ve chosen “You’re the Only One” to honor the sheer depth of her catalog, comprising scores of tunes. This track was merely a garden-variety big hit, not quite reaching the level of multi-generational classic. Many thanks to Julianna A. for submitting this track!

Ronnie Milsap | It Was Almost Like a Song

“Listen closely to Ronnie Milsap’s golden voice and you’ll hear a singer as close to the heart of American music as anyone who’s ever made the charts,” (Soul Country). ” He wound through the R&B nightclubs of Memphis and Atlanta, where he sang straight-up Southern soul and rock ‘n’ roll, before moving to Nashville at the urging of Charley Pride.

‘Today, the coolest building in the world is cooler for the presence of Ronnie Milsap,’ (interviewer) Peter Cooper said, introducing the singer for the joyful, wide-ranging conversation in 2015. ‘He is the piano-playing, country-soul singing, Braille-reading, radio listening, native North Carolinian and 42-year Nashvillian who is — along with Hank Cochran and Mac Wiseman — among the three newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.’ The singer’s accomplishments in popular music are staggering. He had 12 No. 1 singles in his first five years in country music, Cooper said. Then came the 1980s. ‘He sang 35 No. 1 Billboard country singles between June 1973 to March of ’92,’ Cooper continued. ‘Every song he released was a Top 20 country hit. All but two were Top 10. All but six were Top Five.'”

Co-written by Burt Bacharach’s favorite lyricist collaborator Hal David and Archie Jordan and released in 1977 on an album of the same name, Milsap’s “It Was Almost Like a Song” begins in C major. At 2:31, a key change up to Db major takes effect through to the end of the tune, accompanying Milsap’s soaring vocal and leading up to a quieter piano feature for the short outro. Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for submitting this tune!

Joni Mitchell | Down to You

“Joni Mitchell’s sixth album was a change of gear, coming deep from within the ME decade, its romantic entanglements dissolving to reveal a deeper search within, but far from being solipsistic Mitchell’s rumination strikes a universal chord … Post-Woodstock, the hippy dream was in crisis,” (The Quietus). “Progressive political hopes were dashed with 1972’s George McGovern electoral loss to incumbent Nixon. Mitchell (said) that this was ‘an especially lonely time’ with nothing feeling likely to last … New songs explored the struggle between love and freedom, set against a decadent backdrop, another illusion for her sharp-eyed and warm-hearted compositions to see through.

They required more expansive musical settings. Tom Scott, who would also play on Carole King’s wonderful single ‘Jazzman’, told Mojo that the self-taught Mitchell was ‘intuitively sophisticated.’ Since childhood, she’d favoured unorthodoxy, singing descant in the choir, playing her hurdy-gurdy backwards. Favouring open tunings, she produced what David Crosby called ‘weird chords’ or as she says ‘chords of inquiry’ ripped from her inner core. Rock players couldn’t follow them.

‘Down To You’ is Court and Spark’s cornerstone and one of the great songs of the 1970s. There’s a Buddhist view of transience comparing new lovers with new fashions, both being an ever-changing succession of veils that cover a core of loneliness … There’s no judgement here and life lessons come in a state of grace, from its easeful rhymes to its dazzling orchestral interlude with Mitchell’s headstrong piano working through Scott’s panorama of woodwind, horns and strings … Scott and Mitchell scooped a Grammy for this eye-watering showstopper … Court and Spark received rave reviews in both Rolling Stone and NYT, who hailed Mitchell as the ‘premier explorer’ of ‘not love songs but songs about love.’ By March it was at #2 in the US, going double platinum. November’s Miles Of Aisles live album hit the same peak and a Time cover that month sealed her cultural impact … The NYT review noted how Mitchell ‘can turn her experiences into truths that touch everyone.'”

After an unsettled intro, the verse enters at 0:33 in D major with a definitive statement about constant change. At 1:19, a rubato section in D minor delves into lightweight moonlit romance. A short interlude, built around Mitchell’s “chords of inquiry,” leads to the dawn of the next verse, which returns to a relatively uncomplicated D major. More shifts in tonality follow, second only in prominence to the shifting textural wonders of Scott’s arrangement for piano and small chamber orchestra.

J.D. Souther | Banging My Head Against the Moon

“It’s been said that JD Souther could have been a major artist if he had kept more of those beautiful, introspective songs he wrote for himself,” (Country Music Hall of Fame). “He had the aching tenor voice, the good looks that got him TV acting jobs … He wasn’t a star of country-rock, but he was crucial to its enduring power.

—Kyle Young, CEO, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum”

Souther wrote ‘Faithless Love’ for his then-girlfriend Linda Ronstadt and later co-wrote ‘The Best of My Love’ with Glenn Frey and Don Henley of the Eagles. He went on to write other signature Eagles hits: ‘Heartache Tonight,’ ‘New Kid in Town,’ and ‘Victim of Love.’ “Souther even had an opportunity to join the band early in their run—an experience he called being ‘an Eagle for a day.'” He summed it up by saying “‘I think they were so relieved when I said no. I’m not a very good team player.’” He had his own chart success with 1979’s “You’re Only Lonely” and then a duet with James Taylor, ‘Her Town Too.’ Looking back, he summed up his career: “’Good music really lasts a long time.’”

“Banging My Head Against the Moon,” from Souther’s 1976 release Black Rose, is built in F major overall. At 1:39, a bridge slips quickly into Db major for what starts as an instrumental bridge, later joined by vocals. At 2:00, we slip right back into F major before a return to the next verse at 2:09.

Bill Champlin | What Good is Love

“In 1978, Bill Champlin had left his namesake band to pursue both his solo career and his career as a session vocalist— the latter would provide him with one of the most extensive and impressive CVs in the music industry,” (The Review Revue). “His credits as both a session vocalist and songwriter read like a who’s who of the music industry of the late seventies and through the eighties as well. He even netted a couple of grammies (Best R&B single for ‘After The Love Is Gone’ for Earth Wind & Fire in 1979 and Best R&B single for ‘Turn Your Love Around’ for George Benson in 1982).

(Champlin’s 1978 album) Single is a product of that era. The influences are evident as the album bears a musical resemblance to Boz Scaggs Grammy-winning Silk Degrees album from a couple years prior. It’s little surprise that many of the musicians who performed on Silk Degrees also performed on Single. Incidentally those musicians who appeared on both Single and on Scagg’s Silk Degrees (Steve Lukather, David Hungate, Steve Porcaro, David Paich, & Jeff Porcaro) created a band of their own, Toto, and released a self-titled debut between working with Scaggs on Silk Degrees and Champlin on Single … Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers and Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates contributed their voices for some catchy background vocals. And having future svengali producer David Foster at the helm in one of his first turns as producer certainly didn’t hurt.”

Built initially in F major, “What Good is Love” is saturated to the point of bursting. The former Chicago vocalist obviously convened a gargantuan band for this track, with nobody working on a per-note basis. A dense flotilla of kitchen sinks sails by as a fast funk/disco groove drives the track. The musicianship is excellent, but the thick sonic texture might violate some sound systems’ warranties. A shift to G major is led by the backing vocalists during one of the only (comparatively) calm moments of the track (2:28).

Rod Stewart | You’re In My Heart (The Final Acclaim)

“Over the course of his career, Rod Stewart has … written several songs that turned into modern standards; he’s sung with the Faces, who rivaled the Rolling Stones in their prime; and he’s had massive commercial success” as a solo artist (AllMusic). “He’s one of rock & roll’s best interpretive singers, as well as an accomplished, innovative songwriter whose work created a raw, loose, and charming combination of folk, rock, blues, and country. After Stewart became successful, he began to lose the rootsier elements of his music, adapting his style to suit the times, leading to smash hits in the disco, new wave, and MTV eras.”

Stewart’s 1977 release “You’re In My Heart,” a single from Footloose and Fancy Free, hit #1 on the Australian and Canadian pop charts, peaking at #4 on the Billboard pop chart in the US and in the top ten in Ireland, the Netherlands, and the Stewart’s native UK.

After a start in B major, the soft-spoken mid-tempo tune’s chorus shifts to A major from 1:36 – 1:54 before returning to its original key. The pattern continues throughout. Surprisingly, the song performed much better on the singles charts than “Hot Legs,” the album’s lead track, which was much more in keeping with Stewart’s raucous image at the time; Billboard called “Hot Legs” a “blistering blues rocker.”

Seals + Crofts | Get Closer

“’Get Closer’ (1976) has all those soft-rock flourishes that everyone loves to deride: the wash of strings, the soulful piano, the soothing harmonies … The lyrical premise of ‘Get Closer’ is simple and pleasantly symmetrical,” (SF Weekly). “Seals and Crofts are asking for reciprocity in their romantic relationships. ‘If you desire emotional intimacy with me, I need you to open up more,’ they seem to be saying. ‘You want me to be monogamous with you? Then quit sleeping around with my friends.’

This song has the added bonus of the voice of Carolyn Willis. Willis was a member of the R&B group Honey Cone in the early 1970s. After the group broke up, she worked as a session singer in Los Angeles for many years before retiring. She seems to have never pursued a solo career; aside from ‘Get Closer,’ you may also recognize her voice on the original ‘Wonder Woman’ theme.”

After starting in G major through the verse, there’s a shift up to A major at 1:01 the chorus. At 1:41, an unprepared modulation back down to G major would have been a bit jarring all on its own, but we’re also knocked further off balance by an unexpected 2/4 bar in an otherwise 4/4 arrangement. The pattern continues from there — until we jump all the way up to E major for the balance of the track at 3:12.

David Bowie | Life on Mars

“In music, there are some songs that speak to some people, and some speak to every one of us,” (Anurag Arya). “This is a song that makes us think of escapism and disillusionment with the world: ‘Life on Mars’ by David Bowie. The song is a career-defining one for Bowie, and one of his most-covered songs. Originally appearing on his Hunky Dory album (1971), it isn’t your standard rock ballad by any means. Bowie could have easily made a four-chord hit out of this one, but instead, this song contains about twenty chords, with unusual scale and tempo changes.

… In a song with a duration of about four minutes, David Bowie made us think of life, a sense of purpose versus a tendency to escape the real world, and commercialism with vivid imagery and a beautiful melody. No wonder his genius lives on even after his death: Among the generic and commercial tropes within pop music, David Bowie managed to cut through the clutter and redefine songwriting musically and lyrically.”

After beginning in E major, 0:42 brings us to a transitional pre-chorus with plenty of pivots in tonality. But at 0:58, we land squarely in A major for the chorus. After another unsettled section — this time an instrumental interlude (1:38 – 1:53), another E major verse returns. The pattern continues from there, with the tune ending with a return to A major.

Many thanks to Mark B. for submitting this tune — his fifth contribution to MotD!