Top 10 Piano Sections in Rock Music

Casey Kasem's American Top 40 - The 70s - July 4th 2010

This weekend marks the 40th Anniversary of the very first American Top 40 Countdown with Casey Kasem. July 4th 1970 was the official beginning to a new era in music and how people found out what the top songs and artist were, by listening every Sunday.
To celebrate this week AT40 the 70s is airing the very first American Top 40 countdown show.

10 - Hitchin' A Ride - Vanity Fare
9- The Wonder of You - Elvis Presley
8- The Long and Winding Road - The Beatles
7- (They Long to be) Close To You - The Carpenters
6- Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) - Melanie
5- Band of Gold - Freda Payne
4- Ride Captain Ride - Blues Image
3- Ball of Confusion - The Temptations
2- The Love You Save - The Jackson 5
1- Mama Told Me (Not To Come) - Three Dog Night
(first of 2 weeks at #1)


The #1 Album this week in 1970:
Let It Be - The Beatles 4th of 4 consecutive weeks at #1


What do you say about one of the best albums ever by the biggest group to every record music?
It was 1970 and the Beatles were just in name only, everyone was moving on, Paul McCartney had just been moved out of the top spot of the album chart by, of all groups, The Beatles.
Paul McCartney's album McCartney had been the top album in the US for 3 weeks in May until his other group came along and pushed him out.
Let It Be was already considered a classic with a movie about the making of the album and they had just had 2 #1 singles from the album with "Let it Be" and just 2 weeks earlier with "The Long and Winding Road" . This album was a Phil Spector produced release because of the dissolution of the group and the original album title Get Back was scrapped for Let It Be.
In 2003 Paul McCartney along with BMI and Apple records remastered and remixed the original master tapes of Let It Be and released Let It Be...Naked as a way of putting their version of the album out to the public.

1971 Grammy Awards

Today in 1971 The Grammy Awards for the year in music 1970 were held in Los Angeles California at the Hollywood Paladium and hosted by Andy Williams.
The BIG winner was Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel.
They took home Record of the Year (Performer), Song of the Year (writer/producer Paul Simon), Album of the Year, Contemporary (Rock) Song of the Year,Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) and Best Engineered Recording (Roy Halee).



This video clip is very cool because it is one of the only times Simon and Garfunkel performed this song together before their breakup. They had recorded the song in there own studios and had it mixed together and basically refused to be together at this point. In the clip from that years Grammy's you could sense the tension between them but the managed to seem like a team for the show.

The other big hit at the 1971 Grammy awards was Ray Stevens and his #1 hit Everything is Beautiful, which was nominated for all the major awards and lost to Simon and Garfunkel. He did however win Contemporary Male Vocalist of the Year and Best Sacred Performance.


The Beatles took home a Grammy Award in 1971 for Best Original Score written for a Motion Picture or Television Special with Let It Be


Best New Artist Grammy and Contemporary Vocal Group - The Carpenters



On the Country side, Ray Price won for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male with his hit For The Good Times

Best Country Vocal Performance, Female was Lynn Anderson for Rose Garden

Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group was Johnny Cash/June Carter with
If I Were a Carpenter

Best R&B Song went to General Johnson & Ronald Dunbar (songwriters) for Patches performed by Clarence Carter