Today we’ve got 10 tracks that were going for the gold but came up just short… bringing home the bronze instead. That’s right, it’s another edition of our
#3 Hits Countdown, but this time we are counting down the greatest
#3s of the 1970s songs that peaked at just two spots from the top on the Hot 100. On this episode you’ll hear the story of Navy veteran Bill Withers, who spent years installing toilet facilities inside commercial airplanes for $3.50 an hour. And when he scored a record deal he refused to quit his day job. It wasn’t until his debut single Ain't No Sunshine sold a million copies, and his label gave him a gold-plated toilet seat, that he changed his mind. Then there’s Fleetwood Mac's John McVie, who spent nearly 4 decades performing the song Don't Stop live — night after night — without ever realizing his ex-wife had written it about their divorce. And finally… The tale of a hotshot rookie band Foreigner who got a slot at a highly coveted rock festival, but they ran out of songs. 50K fans were screaming for an encore, so they took a brand new idea they’d been tinkering with that was totally unfinished…They weren’t even sure it was a song yet, but they ad-libbed it, and the crowd went insane, so they knew what their next single was gonna be… Let’s do it.
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Executive Producer
Brandon Fugal
Honorary Producers
Jaimee Hammack, Dan Tierney, Sarge, Byrdman, Duff Gordon
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#classicrock #70smusic #vinylstory #onehitwonder
Hey Music Junkies Professor of Rock, always here to celebrate the greatest artists and the greatest songs of all time. If you ever had a bubble-blowing contest with Hubba Bubba or Bubble Yum, you’ll dig this channel of deep musical nostalgia. Make sure to like, share, and comment. Alright, it’s time to take the time machine back to the 70s as we countdown the 10 best
#3 hits out of the 103 that hit that number in the decade. These are songs that peaked at
#3 but never got any higher. Kicking off the countdown at
#10, I’ve got Fleetwood Mac and Don’t Stop… Landing on The Mac’s all-time great album Rumours, "Don't Stop" was written by Christine McVie in the wake of her separation from the band's bassist, John McVie. Married for nearly 10 years, Christine and John McVie’s relationship collapsed during the promotional tour for the band's 1975 self-titled album.
And Christine initiated a sudden split mid-tour, later saying that the decision was about self-preservation, “I broke up with John in the middle of a tour... I was aware of it being rather irresponsible, but I had to do it for my sanity. It was either that or me ending up in a lunatic asylum.” Following their separation, the McVies entered a state of icy silence. They refused to speak to each other outside of the studio. To process the agonizing transition, Christine McVie sat down with a portable electric piano and composed "Don't Stop" as an ironically peppy, "positive love letter" designed to nudge John toward accepting that they were done. However, John was entirely oblivious that this upbeat anthem was about him and their divorce. And he played the signature driving bassline day after day in the studio and performed it on stage for decades without understanding its meaning.
It actually wasn’t until 2015—38 years after the song's release—that an associate explained the lyrical context to him, prompting a bewildered response, “I’ve been playing it for years, and it wasn't until somebody told me, 'Chris wrote that about you.' Oh really?”
The original tracking of the song took place on March 16, 1976, under the working title "Yesterday's Gone". The band recorded a complete arrangement utilizing electric piano, electric guitar, bass, and drums. However, once the sessions relocated to LA for final vocal overdubs, Lindsey Buckingham and Christine discovered that the song had been tracked in a key that was out of their registers. So rather than forcing their vocals into an awkward register, Lindsey and Christine had the production team scrap every instrument on the track except for Mick's drums. Then the band put it back together from the ground up. Don’t Stop was released as the 3rd North American single from Rumours in June 1977, and it steadily climbed its way up the charts. Driven by heavy radio rotation,
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