You Might Think I'm Cranky

... when you look at how i handled the meme below.  It's really a cool thing, originally from Willworks LJ , and spied at  Johnny Bacardi and Pop Culture Gadabout.  It goes like this:

Go to http://www.musicoutfitters.com/ .  Enter the year you graduated in the search function.  Bold for the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate, and leave alone the ones you don't remember or don't care about.  Underline your favorite.

Here's where i went wrong. i don't not care or recall anything on my list, so if it's bold i love it, if it's got a strike through it i hate it, and the untouched ones on my list are just OK, i like/not love them. i wanted to follow along, but i swear the year (1971) and the circumstances of Detroit radio at the time were such that i wasn't listening to charted radio at all.  By 1971, we had real freeform radio on WABX, and they were playing fewer than half these songs. But, with golden hindsight, here's my uncharacteristically  black-or-white list:

1971

1. Joy To The World, Three Dog Night 
2. Maggie May / (Find A) Reason To Believe, Rod Stewart 
3. It's Too Late / I Feel The Earth Move, Carole King 
4. One Bad Apple, Osmonds 
5. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, Bee Gees 
6. Indian Reservation, Raiders 
7. Go Away Little Girl, Donny Osmond 
8. Take Me Home, Country Roads, John Denver 
9. Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me), Temptations 
10. Knock Three Times, Pawn 
11. Me And Bobby Mcgee, Janis Joplin 
12. Tired Of Being Alone, Al Green 
13. Want Ads, Honey Cone 
14. Smiling Faces Sometimes, Undisputed Truth 
15. Treat Her Like A Lady, Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose 
16. You've Got A Friend, James Taylor 
17. Mr. Big Stuff, Jean Knight 
18. Brown Sugar, Rolling Stones 
19. Do You Know What I Mean, Lee Michaels 
20. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Joan Baez
21. What's Going On, Marvin Gaye 
22. Uncle Albert-Admiral Halsey, Paul McCartney 
23. Aint No Sunshine, Bill Withers 
24. Signs, Five Man Electrical Band 
25. She's A Lady, Tom Jones 
26. Superstar, Murray Head and The Trinidad Singers 
27. I Found Someone Of My Own, Free Movement 
28. Amos Moses, Jerry Reed 
29. Temptation Eyes, The Grass Roots 
30. Superstar, Carpenters 
31. My Sweet Lord / Isn't It A Pity, George Harrison 
32. Sweet And Innocent, Donny Osmond 
33. Put Your Hand In The Hand, Ocean 
34. Chick-a-boom, Daddy Dewdrop 
35. For All We Know, Carpenters 
36. Help Me Make It Through The Night, Sammi Smith 
37. Rainy Days And Mondays, Carpenters 
38. If You Could Read My Mind, Gordon Lightfoot 
39. Gypsy, Tramps And Thieves, Cher 
40. Never Can Say Goodbye, Jackson 5
41. Rose Garden, Lynn Anderson 
42. Don't Pull Your Love, Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds 
43. It Don't Come Easy, Ringo Starr 
44. Mr. Bojangles, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band 
45. I Love You For All Seasons, Fuzz 
46. Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get, Dramatics 
47. That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be, Carly Simon 
48. If You Really Love Me, Stevie Wonder 
49. Spanish Harlem, Aretha Franklin 
50. I Don't Know How To Love Him, Helen Reddy 
51. Yo-yo, Osmonds 
52. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Aretha Franklin 
53. Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted, Partridge Family 
54. Draggin' The Line, Tommy James 
55. Proud Mary, Ike and Tina Turner 
56. Beginnings / Color My World, Chicago 
57. Stay Awhile, Bells 
58. Sweet City Woman, Stampeders 
59. Me And You And A Dog Named Boo, Lobo 
60. Another Day / Oh Woman, Oh Why, Paul McCartney
61. If, Bread 
62. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology), Marvin Gaye 
63. One Toke Over The Line, Brewer and Shipley 
64. She's Not Just Another Woman, 8th Day 
65. Bring The Boys Home, Freda Payne 
66. I Just Want To Celebrate, Rare Earth 
67. Never Ending Song Of Love, Delaney and Bonnie and Friends 
68. Easy Loving, Freddy Hart 
69. Liar, Three Dog Night 
70. Stick-up, Honey Cone 
71. Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, Mac and Katie Kissoon 
72. Love Story (Where Do I Begin), Andy Williams 
73. Wild World, Cat Stevens 
74. When You're Hot, You're Hot, Jerry Reed 
75. Funky Nassau, Beginning Of The End 
76. If Not For You, Olivia Newton-John 
77. Groove Me, King Floyd 
78. Watcmng Scoity Grow, Bobby Goldsboro 
79. Woodstock, Matthews' Southern Comfort 
80. Amazing Grace, Judy Collins
81. I Hear You Knocking, Dave Edmunds 
82. Lonely Days, Bee Gees 
83. Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again, Fortunes 
84. Won't Get Fooled Again, Who 
85. Trapped By A Thing Called Love, Denise Lasalle 
86. Mama's Pearl, Jackson 5 
87. Timothy, Buoys 
88. I Woke Up In Love This Morning, Partridge Family 
89. Theme From "Shaft", Isaac Hayes 
90. If I Were Your Woman, Gladys Knight and The Pips 
91. I Am...I Said, Neil Diamond 
92. Wedding Song (There Is Love), Paul Stookey 
93. Don't Knock My Love, Pt. 1, Wilson Pickett 
94. Love Her Madly, The Doors 
95. Here Comes The Sun, Richie Havens 
96. Sweet Mary, Wadsworth Mansion 
97. Right On The Tip Of My Tongue, Brenda and The Tabulations 
98. One Less Bell To Answer, Fifth Dimension 
99. Riders On The Storm, The Doors 
100. It's Impossible, Perry Como

i'm challenging Neal over at From Belfast Commons , even though his will probably look a lot like mine!  i hate many of the charters from 1971, and admire the selection Bill got from 1968!  Guess you can tell this old hippie became a punk in not too many years...

Comments

[Franciner]

WABX!! What a fond memory that is!! And that indie station in Mt Clemens that lived for a hot minute in the early 80's....they had this cool segment called Tell Us What You Hate, and folks would call in and diss top 40 songs!

[juana]

i don't remember ever hearing the Mt. Clemens station, though i would have love Tell Us What You Hate! That would be during the Free Radio Now! years, and Mt. Clemens/Port Huron was a hotbed of radio activism.

[Evelyn]

Man...1971 was top 100 HEAVEN compared to 1975! ARGH! I forgot how terrible it was. Thanks for reminding me, Juana :)

[Juana]

You know, Jeanne at the Body and Soul blog, pointed out that the best way to do the list is to use the year you were 13, because 13 is when top 40 type radio actually matters. This is a great observation (she has a lot of those). i was 13 in 1966, and the songs on that list were AND are a huge deal to me. Many of them are songs i'm still listening to all the time.