Here are five songs by artists who hadn’t had Casey call their names as of June 1977. It was just a matter of time…
99. Walter Egan, “Only the Lucky”
Lead track from Egan’s debut album Fundamental Roll. Buckingham’s producing, Nicks is singing backup, and it’s a thorough pop delight–a stronger vocal could have put it over the top. As it is, it’s only gonna climb to #82.
94. REO Speedwagon, “Ridin’ the Storm Out”
That siren sounds, the crowd fires up, and the boys from Champaign start rockin’ live. The studio version had appeared four years earlier, but this is what I heard on the radio in high school. It’s their first charting single and is at its peak.
89. Dave Mason, “So High (Rock Me Baby and Roll Me Away)”
Former Traffic member would finally have a Top 40 hit later in the year with Let It Flow‘s second single, “We Just Disagree” (a much better song, honestly). He’d just missed in 1970 with his “Only You Know and I Know,” a #20 hit the following year for Delaney and Bonnie.
Like the song immediately above, “So High” is at its peak, in its last week on the chart.
86. Chuck Mangione with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and Esther Satterfield, “Land of Make Believe”
Someone’s going to have to help me out on this one–is this a single version of the 12-minute title song from Mangione’s 1973 album, somehow released four years after the fact? My attempts to figure this out are coming up dry so far. It’s a cool piece, but also wouldn’t climb any higher.
68. Bonnie Raitt, “Runaway”
Raitt was on her sixth album, Sweet Forgiveness, at this point. Even though she was already highly regarded, it was the first time she charted with a single. Raitt took by far the longest of these five acts–fourteen more years, Casey hosting a different show by then–for him to spin one of her tunes. This cover of the Del Shannon classic would peak eleven slots higher.
The Music of My Life 