Pop Music - July 1974

 

July 1974: Chris Evert and Jimmy Conners win Wembledon

Looking at American Top 40 charts for July, 1974... 40 years ago this month: What songs made their Top 40 debut? What was new and trending? Well, there were 20 songs entering the Top 40 during July (4 weeks). Here they are, ranked by eventual peak:

• (You're) Having My Baby  - Paul Anka - 1
• Rock Me Gently  - Andy Kim - 1
• Feel Like Makin' Love  - Roberta Flack - 1
• The Night Chicago Died  - Paper Lace - 1
• Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me  - Elton John - 2
• Tell Me Something Good  - Rufus - 3
• I'm Leaving It All Up To You  - Donny Osmond - 4
• Please Come To Boston  - Dave Loggins - 5
• Call On Me  - Chicago - 6
• Wildwood Weed  - Jim Stafford - 7
• Hang On In There Baby  - Johnny Bristol - 8
• You And Me Against The World  - Helen Reddy - 9
• Keep On Smilin'  - Wet Willie - 10
• Shinin' On  - Grand Funk Railroad - 11
• Rub It In  - Billy "Crash" Craddock - 16
• Sure As I'm Sittin' Here  - Three Dog Night - 16
• Machine Gun  - Commodores - 22
• This Heart  - Gene Redding - 24
• Fish Ain't Bitin'  - Lamont Dozier - 26
• Ballero  - War - 33

I was actually able to find all but one of of these songs on Spotify. And added to a playlist. Right now it includes through September 1974, and 164 of the 175 songs which entered the Top 40 in the 1st 9 months of 1974. I'm pretty impressed that they have almost 94% of these songs...

Check it out: http://open.spotify.com/user/lsqrd42/playlist/23G0cY9o6mflTaGwievQ9z