Back in 1975 L.A. AM radio station 93 KHJ would play “The Top 500 Songs Of All Time” over Memorial Day weekend. On this particular weekend two of my friends and I planned to drive in one of their Volkswagen Bugs up to San Jose to visit our friend Paul Keller from the Bay Area Prog Rock band, Hush. The band was playing a gig and were great, as always. Before we left for up north we stopped by a May Company department store to hear another one of our friends perform. May Company decided having acoustic performers play in the store during lunch hour was a good idea and they set him up in an alcove surrounded by clothes in the womens section. He had a stool on which to sit and they gave him a microphone plugged into a public address system. He had his acoustic guitar which was not miced.
My friends and I decided to have a quick lunch in the store cafeteria while he set up. While we were eating we started to hear the strangest sound coming over the store’s PA system. Our friend the performer had a Dylanesque vocal quality, not a great voice, and now it was being broadcast throughout the entire store. Only his voice as his guitar was not amplified. Confused shoppers walked by us asking each other what that terrible sound was. We knew what it was and immediately left the store for San Jose.
In the five hour trip up Highway 5 we listened to the “Top 500 Songs Of All Time” which were, for the most part, among the top songs of the Rock and Roll era, no question about it. When we got to the top ten it included Bob Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone, The Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction, The Doors’ Light My Fire and songs you could debate about but not completely disagree with. Then, after five hours, the big moment came and they played The Number One Song Of All Time... Love Will Keep Us Together by The Captain and Tennille.
At first we thought it was a cruel joke. We had listened for five hours, although we were stuck in the car anyway, and they played the song that happened to have been the number one song of that particular week as the Greatest Song Of All Time?! That was actually pretty funny, except that they were serious. The songs were selected by called in votes from the station’s listeners and the song responsible for the comeback of Neil Sedaka actually got the most votes. Record company scam? Teeny bopper fan conspiracy? I never knew for sure but I learned something; to the very young the greatest thing in the world, off ALL TIME, is whatever happens to be the current subject of interest. I suppose the next year’s Memorial Day Top Five-Hundred Countdown was topped by whatever song was number one on the top forty hit parade of that particular week but I didn’t find out as I never listened to KHJ ever again.
My friends and I decided to have a quick lunch in the store cafeteria while he set up. While we were eating we started to hear the strangest sound coming over the store’s PA system. Our friend the performer had a Dylanesque vocal quality, not a great voice, and now it was being broadcast throughout the entire store. Only his voice as his guitar was not amplified. Confused shoppers walked by us asking each other what that terrible sound was. We knew what it was and immediately left the store for San Jose.
In the five hour trip up Highway 5 we listened to the “Top 500 Songs Of All Time” which were, for the most part, among the top songs of the Rock and Roll era, no question about it. When we got to the top ten it included Bob Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone, The Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction, The Doors’ Light My Fire and songs you could debate about but not completely disagree with. Then, after five hours, the big moment came and they played The Number One Song Of All Time... Love Will Keep Us Together by The Captain and Tennille.
At first we thought it was a cruel joke. We had listened for five hours, although we were stuck in the car anyway, and they played the song that happened to have been the number one song of that particular week as the Greatest Song Of All Time?! That was actually pretty funny, except that they were serious. The songs were selected by called in votes from the station’s listeners and the song responsible for the comeback of Neil Sedaka actually got the most votes. Record company scam? Teeny bopper fan conspiracy? I never knew for sure but I learned something; to the very young the greatest thing in the world, off ALL TIME, is whatever happens to be the current subject of interest. I suppose the next year’s Memorial Day Top Five-Hundred Countdown was topped by whatever song was number one on the top forty hit parade of that particular week but I didn’t find out as I never listened to KHJ ever again.
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