American Top 40 PastBlast, 7/29/72: Hollies, “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress”

I don’t have any specific memory of hearing “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” during its period of popularity. However, it got regular recurrent play on Cincinnati stations in my teen years and quickly became a song I always wanted to crank. Not exactly sure when I realized that these guys also did “The Air That I Breathe” (which I definitely remember on the radio in 74), but I suspect it was a surprise to learn.  “Long Cool Woman” was the Hollies’ biggest hit, reaching #2—it’s climbing on this show, at #10.

I bought The Hollies’ Greatest Hits on cassette while in college (perhaps because I liked this song so much); that opened up a whole new window on their work. Somehow, “Bus Stop” and “Carrie-Anne” (along with all their other 60s work, save “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”) hadn’t pierced through to my consciousness before then.