Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Music Column – The Breakfast Show with William Price King and Sally Cronin – Chart Hits 1973 – Part Two – Dawn and Tony Orlando, Carly Simon, Roberta Flack and Wings

Each week William and I will select two top hits from the charts in the US and UK starting with 1960 for two weeks followed by 1961 etc..through to 1985. We will also include some of the notable events in those years for the up and coming stars who were centre stage at the time.

Welcome to our show and we are excited to share decades of music with you in 2021. Here is my second selection of top 1973 hits which I hope you will enjoy. William.

News Event: May 17th Stevie Wonder releases “You are the Sunshine of my Love”

Dawn (Featuring Tony Orlando)  –  Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree  

“Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree” hit the top 10 in ten countries, and topped the charts in eight. It reached #1 in the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. In 2008, Billboard ranked the song as the 37th biggest song of all time.

News Event: June 17th Dolly Parton records her song “I Will Always Love You” (later huge hit for Whitney Houston) for RCA in Nashville

Carly Simon  –  You’re so vain

“You’re so vain,” written by Carly Simon, reached #1 in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and #3 in the UK. It is ranked at #92 on Billboard’s Greatest Songs of All Time and was voted #216 in RIAA’s Songs of the Century. In August 2014, the UK’s Official Charts Company crowned it the ultimate song of the 1970s.

News Event: September 27th “The Way We Were” single released by Barbra Streisand (Billboard Song of the Year 1974)

Now time for my second top chart picks from 1973 and that was a great year in the UK for clubs and dance halls.

Roberta Flack – Killing Me Softly With His Song

“Killing Me Softly with His Song” is a song composed by Charles Fox with lyrics by Norman Gimbel. The lyrics were written in collaboration with Lori Lieberman after she was inspired by a Don McLean performance in late 1971. Lieberman released her version of the song in 1972, but it did not chart. In 1973 it became a number-one hit in the United States, Australia and Canada for Roberta Flack, also reaching number six in the UK Singles Chart.

News Event:  October 20th Queen Elizabeth II opens the Sydney Opera House

Wings – Live and Let Die

“Live and Let Die” is the theme song of the 1973 James Bond film of the same name, performed by the British–American rock band Wings. Written by English musician Paul McCartney and his wife Linda McCartney, it reunited McCartney with former Beatles producer George Martin, who produced the song and arranged the orchestra. McCartney was contacted to write the song by the film’s producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli before the screenplay was finished. “Live and Let Die” was the most successful Bond theme up to that point, reached No. 1 on two of the three major US charts (though only reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100) and No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart.. It became the first Bond theme song to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, but ultimately lost the award to Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were”. It was also nominated for the Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) at the 16th Annual Grammy Awards in 1974.

Additional sources: On This Day – Music – Hits of the 70s: Playback FM – Wikipedia

Your Hosts for The Breakfast Show

William Price King is an American jazz singer, crooner, and composer.

His interest in music began at an early age when he studied piano and clarinet in high school. At Morehouse College in Atlanta where he grew up, he sang in the Glee Club and studied classical music. After graduation he went off to the Yale School of Music where he earned a Masters degree. From there he journeyed to New York where he created a jazz trio ‘Au Naturel’ which performed in some of the hottest venues in Manhattan including gigs on Broadway and the famous ‘Rainbow Room.’ These gigs opened doors for performances in Montreal and a European tour.

While touring Europe he met a lovely French lady, Jeanne Maïstre, who, a year later became his wife. King left the group ‘Au Naturel’ and settled in the south of France where he started a new life on the French Riviera, opening his own music school – the “Price King Ecole Internationale de Chant.” He has had the pleasure over the years of seeing many of his students excel as singers on a professional level, and some going on to become national celebrities. He continues to coach young singers today, in his spare time.

Blog– IMPROVISATION – William Price King on Tumblr – Buy William’s music: William Price King iTunes – Facebook – William Price King – Twitter – @wpkofficial
Regular Venue – Cave Wilson

Sally Cronin is an author, blogger and broadcaster who enjoyed four years as part of the team on Onda Cero International’s English speaking morning show in Marbella and then for two years as a presenter on Expressfm the local radio station in Portsmouth. She co-presented two ‘Drive Time’ shows a week with Adrian Knight, hosted the live Thursday Afternoon Show and The Sunday Morning Show guests including musicians and authors. Following this she became Station Director for a local internet television station for two years, producing and presenting the daily news segment, outside broadcasts and co-presenting the Adrian and Sally chat show live on Friday evenings.

She and her husband David have now returned to Ireland where they live on the Wexford Coast where she blogs and continues to write books.

Books :Amazon US – And: Amazon UK – More reviews: Goodreads – blog: Smorgasbord Blog Magazine Twitter: @sgc58 – Facebook: Sally Cronin – LinkedIn: Sally Cronin

Next week 1974 Part One. We hope you will tune in.. as always we love to hear from you.. thanks William and Sally.

 

Previous Breakfast Shows can be found The Breakfast Show Archive