7 Hits from the 1970s with Very Identifiable Backup Singers
Hi there to all you Rebeat readers! It’s been a while, and though you may not have noticed I haven’t written any articles for Rebeat lately. Last year I decided that after 21 years in Louisiana I was ready to return home to South Carolina, and I decided to just call it a day. I’m not really old enough to retire yet, but because our family has a beach house in Pawleys Island, SC (look it up – it’s a beautiful place!) that eased the transition and my wife and I headed home! I changed careers after the fact, and though I’m working hard, being back here at the beach makes it all worthwhile.
I knew I’d be busy with the move and change of careers, so I told Allison last summer that after having written 80 articles for Rebeat since 2014 I would be taking a hiatus for a while. My most recent book came out last August, and frankly, I haven’t written a word in at least six months. But oddly enough, this week after work I was sitting on the porch in the sun (it’s been in the 70s here) having a cold one, and “American Dream” by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band came up on a playlist. I heard the very apropos lines “Sandy beaches drinkin’ rum every night,” and just after that Linda Ronstadt’s voice came through loud and clear. That got me thinking – I know a lot of hits used other popular singers for backup vocals, but on which songs are the backup’s voices so prominent that there’s no mistaking that they are there? Suddenly I had the urge to write, and here we are!
With no further ado, here are seven songs from the 1970s with prominent and easily identifiable backup singers – in reverse chronological order, so I can start with the song that inspired me.
“An American Dream”(1979) by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
This song was written and originally recorded by country singer Rodney Crowell, but the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (by that time recording as just “The Dirt Band”) released it at the end of 1979 and built an album around it. While the song just did okay on the country charts (#58), it did even better on the pop charts (#13). Since I already tipped you off in the intro, Linda Ronstadt sings backup, and her voice comes through loud and clear – it’s more like a duet with her instead of a back up gig, honestly. But there’s no doubt that her recognizable harmonies really make the song.
“Fire Lake” (1979) by Bob Seger
Honestly, I’m not a big Bob Seger fan, but I love this song. I’m even less of an Eagles fan, but their backup vocals really make this work. Seger had written the song for an earlier album but never finished recording it, and it had been written but never finished even earlier than that, in 1971. He finally finished it in 1979, and in 1980 it peaked at #6. The backup vocals by Eagles members Glenn Frey, Don Henley, and Timothy B. Schmidt are so distinctive that there’s no doubt who’s singing them.
“Gold”(1979) by John Stewart
This might be the one song on the list that doesn’t pop right into your head when you hear its name now, but it was popular back in the day. It was written and recorded by John Stewart, who had become famous as a member of the Kingston Trio in the 1960s, and had written “Daydream Believer” for the Monkees. For his album Bombs Away Dream Babies he enlisted the help of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac, arguably the most popular band in the world at the time. Nicks’ vocals come through loud and clear, and I’d have to attribute the immense popularity of this song to Nicks’ very obvious and recognizable presence. In fact, I’d say the only song I can think of that owes more to its backup singer than this one is probably Rockwell’s 1984 hit “Somebody’s Watching Me,” where Michael Jackson hits the chorus in such a dominant fashion that it’s almost a Jackson song. That’s an ’80s cut however, so for the ’70s, this one gets the “obvious contributor makes it a hit” prize. Maybe that’s why later in his career Stewart claimed he hated it and quit singing it: without Nicks performing it with him, it simply wouldn’t have been close to the same song.
“Magnet & Steel”(1978) by Walter Egan
Walter Egan has just one Top 40 hit, and this was it. It was a big one though, and though it’s more his song than Nicks’ (unlike “Gold”), Nicks’ voice is unmistakable. She wasn’t there alone though: while Nicks does the high harmonies, Lindsey Buckingham does the low, and singer Annie McLoone handles the middle harmonies. It’s one of the finest songs of the late ’70s, and rose to #8 on the Top 40. Nicks and Buckingham also co-produced it, and it’s an all-around excellent recording.
“Wishin’ You Were Here” (1974) by Chicago
Chicago is one of those groups you generally either really like or you really don’t, largely because of the transition they made to softer rock in the mid-70s. By the time they recorded this song in 1974 they had moved away from some of the edgier sounds of their early music (think “Make Me Smile and “25 or 6 to 4”) and were moving firmly into the genre of adult contemporary music. This song, though not a bad one, was clearly geared more towards their older audience; not surprisingly, although it remained outside the Top 10 on the pop charts, it went all the way to #1 on the Easy Listening charts. Three members of the Beach Boys – Al Jardine, Carl Wilson, and Dennis Wilson – joined Peter Cetera of Chicago to provide harmonies for the song. Few groups could sing harmonies like the Beach Boys, and their smooth sound no doubt helped the song become as popular as it did.
On a side note, while the video shows Al Jardine and Carl Wilson singing backup, it also shows Mike Love, who reportedly was not on the original recording. I don’t know where Dennis was, but Love was also a better vocalist anyway.
“Heart of Gold“ (1972) by Neil Young
Neil Young’s only #1 single was a great song from a greater album, Harvest. Linda Ronstadt (who as this list illustrates apparently sang backup for a lot of her friends) and James Taylor sang backup, and as is almost always the case Ronstadt’s vocals come through loud and clear. That’s not to knock Taylor, because his vocals are superb as well, though the backup vocals don’t really come into the song until about the 2:32 mark. By the way, “Old Man,” Young’s other big hit from the same album, also features Ronstadt and Taylor on backing vocals, but on that song they contribute a lot earlier.
“You’re So Vain” (1972) by Carly Simon
To round out today’s countdown I offer one of the most enigmatic songs ever recorded, the song that’s probably about Warren-Beatty-and-two-other-men-we-aren’t-sure-about. What we are sure of is that Mick Jagger is one of the backup singers, and his voice becomes more and more prominent as the song goes on. Simon later said it was just happenstance that Jagger was there; he apparently called the studio and she invited him down to join in. He came and sang, although he is uncredited on the album. On a side note, every teenage boy in America thought the album cover pictured above was the hottest thing they’d ever seen until the iconic Farrah Fawcett poster came along a few years later.
There are a lot more of these I could have covered this week, and maybe next time I’ll examine “The Bitch is Back,” “Fame,” and a few others I left on the table. Until then.
