Top Ten Tuesday: 1972, The Next 10

Top Ten Tuesday 2 Minutes

Up to 1972 already! Have I really been doing this that long? Counting down the #11 through #20 songs on the year-end Hot 100 for 1972.

#20 – Michael Jackson, "Ben": A beautiful love song to a rat. The song spent a week at #1 in the US and Australia.

#19 – The Staples Singers, "I’ll Take You There": I talked about this recently. It was one of two #1’s they had during the ’70’s.

#18 – The Stylistics, "Betcha By Golly, Wow": Did you know that Connie Stevens did this originally, in 1970 as "Keep Growing Strong"? The Stylistics had the big hit with this, reaching #2 on the Hot 100 and #3 on the R&B chart, and the record went Gold by April 1972.

#17 – Neil Young, "Heart Of Gold": This is Neil’s only #1 single in the US. It also went to #1 in Canada.

#16 – Luther Ingram, "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want To Be Right": I’m surprised Luther didn’t have more success in his career. This went to #1 on the R&B chart and #3 on the Hot 100.

#15 – Chuck Berry, "My Ding-A-Ling": A novelty song originally recorded by Dave Bartholomew, this ended up being Chuck’s only #1 in the US. Hard to believe, but true.

#14 – Gallery, "It’s So Nice To Be With You": On American Bandstand in February 1972, this got a "lousy" rating of 57.5 (on a scale of 35 to 98), and yet, when Gallery appeared on AB in May, they played this song because it reached #4 on the Pop chart. It was an international Top 5. No accounting for taste…

#13 – The Chi-Lites, "Oh Girl": This was their first and only #1 on the Hot 100, which is kind of surprising, but maybe that’s just my perspective.

#12 – Looking Glass, "Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)": A classic of the Jersey Shore sound, this reached #1 in the US and Canada.

#11 – Al Green, "Let’s Stay Together": This came out in November 1971 and reached #1 on the Hot 100 and the R&B chart, going Gold in the US, the UK, and Italy. Rolling Stone magazine ranks it at #60 on their Top 500 Records of All Time.

And that’s Top Ten Tuesday for July 20, 2021.

Published by John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

Published

20 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday: 1972, The Next 10”

  1. Pingback: The End Of July (Already?!) Week That Was – The Sound of One Hand Typing

  4. Interesting list John
    That song about a rat is a little creepy – ? But maybe it is that we know MJ’s sad latter years and also what his family was going thru during early years so I that is all I see when I see old videos of MJ

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    1. That was actually the theme song for a movie called “Ben” which was about a rat. I think the song was up for an Academy Award. Michael and the rest of the Jacksons had a hard life. He had the most success and the most problems, I think…

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  5. Funny how some songs make it big and others dont but ate so famous now. Love Ding-A-Ling. I remember when Ben came out even though I was 8. It scared the hell out of me. Some fun ones to listen to here.

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  8. This was the year I graduated from high school and embarked on my journey into the military. This is a very familiar and much loved list for me.

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