If you conveniently forget that John Williams’s “Theme” is played at the beginning and end, this is the second week that all twelve songs featured in the novelty hit “Mr. Jaws,” by break-in record master Dickie Goodman, are together on AT40. Eight of the top nine (not #5) appear on it, as well as the tunes at #11, 13, 17, and 22 (that last one was the last to make the show, “Get Down Tonight”). The Dickie Dozen would all hang around for Casey to play just one more week, after which “The Hustle” and “Dynomite” would fall out. I confess that I like “Mr. Jaws” more than I probably should; I didn’t get the single, but I had a friend who did. We likely played it more often than was wise when I visited him at his house that fall.
Not too surprisingly, all twelve were Top 10 hits (six of them reached the top spot), and quite a few were songs I rather liked. Forced to choose one favorite, it’d come down to a battle between “Midnight Blue” and “I’m Not in Love.” The latter is in the last of a three-week run at #2, in which a different song from the DD (“The Hustle,” “One of These Nights,” and “Jive Talkin’”) beat it out each week. I’ve long loved both its dry humor and the ethereal voices in the background. Sometime in the last year or so I read that Eric Stewart of 10cc assisted Paul McCartney on his 82 hit “Take It Away;” my understanding is those “ah’s” at the end of “Take It Away” are a direct legacy of what we hear on “I’m Not in Love.”
By the 9/13 show, the one on which “Mr. Jaws” debuted, only five of the twelve were still around. As it happens, that’s the same week that John Williams climbed aboard.
The Music of My Life 