Sunday Showcase August 5, 1979

It's time once again to dive into the past and see what was shaking in an old Sunday Showcase. Hart To Hart was coming to TV and Mac Davis was promoting North Dallas Forty on the August 5-11 cover. What sort of goodies can I find inside this week's edition? 

KDF and Sound Seventy in association with Service Merchandise were presenting another One For The Sun at Hermitage Landing. It was later in the summer than the one's I remember from the Eighties and the line-up wasn't as large or well known, but from little seeds big plants grow.

You could park for 50 cents in the Cain Sloan parking lot and see the concerts held at the Tennessee Theater. Your upcoming choices were folk and soul acts. The wild & crazy toga party night sounds like fun since you'd get a free beer if you wore your toga. 

The Hee Haw honeys were promoting good dental hygiene by helping to celebrate National Smile Week. Hee Haw was a staple of my house growing up and by 1979 at the age of 12 I was beginning to pay much more attention when Misty Rowe was on the screen.

Sonny Bono was the big guest star on The Love Boat on this weekend. It was a rerun since it was the dead of the summer, but Bono's character Deacon Dark was a pretty hilarious take off on Kiss. 

SMASH IT!

Speaking of Kiss, they were coming to play a sold out show at Municipal Auditorium on August 14th. They were at their peak Seventies popularity with "I Was Made For Lovin' You" becoming their second gold single. You could purchase your Kiss clothes at Castner Knott and maybe even get to meet the band in person if you won their contest. I wanted to see the show, but I was still too young according to my parents. I did get a blue pair of Kiss shorts though.

Paul hits the wrong chord in 1979

tonight Paul is going to give it all to you

Local new report on the Nashville show (thanks to Wes for reminding me this was out there!)

REO Speedwagon were coming just a few days later. They were like many of the so called "dinosaur corporate rock" acts of the Seventies: they toured and toured and toured building up a live fanbase for the most part without the benefit of Top Forty singles. Their kind of hard rock gets put down by critics and other music fans, but I admire the work ethic of such bands even if the music sometimes doesn't move me. REO would get their Top Forty success a little over a year later with the release of Hi Infidelity. 

REO riding the storm out live in Germany later in 1979

The Belle Meade Theatre is presenting a slew of old horror movies along with some live appearances of Frankenstein's monster and Dracula (although...how can Dracula put in a live appearance since he's undead) with the notice that if you're brave enough to sit through the whole show and leave unassisted you'll receive a free 2 for 1 pass and a free gift. It seems like it would have been better at Halloween, but I suppose they were going after the kids on summer vacation.

One of my favorite movies ever was playing this week at Cinema South and at the Hickory Hollow Mall Cinema. I didn't see Breaking Away in the theatre, but I did see many movies at Hickory Hollow over the years. 

If you didn't want to go to the movies or a rock concert maybe you could go dance the night away at Pal Joey's at I-24 and Harding Place. You could take lessons in disco at the Dance Center of Nashville and "enjoy the rest of summer with DISCO" according to their advertisement. 

This Sunday Showcase review is brought to you today by Computer World. They will help you own, operate, or program small computers. They'll even provide a free session to you. 

Now that you've got those disco dance lessons under your belt it's time to spend the next decade enjoying the disco lifestyle...........BUT WAIT, what is that I see in its first week in the Top 10 Records.....YES, IT IS......"My Sharona" by The Knack hits number 2 it its first appearance on the local Nashville top ten sales chart. You're going to need to trade in your leisure suit for some skinny ties and learn some New Wave dances and forget about the Hustle. I can still remember the very moment I first heard "My Sharona" come blasting over the radio that summer. I was riding in a car with my cousin Freddy with the radio tuned to KX104 and then that drumbeat began and I was instantly hooked. It had such a fresh urgent energy and the bridge/solo of the song takes it into outer space.

There was still some fantastic disco hits on the charts this week with "Good Times", "Ring My Bell", "Making It", along with Donna Summer's more rocking "Hot Stuff" with the Barbra Streisand disco-ish "Main Event" tune.  I'm not saying discos disappeared or dance music vanished as there is always a demand for it, but this was the last gasp of the disco craze began by Saturday Night Fever that had come to dominate the pop music charts. 

Local Tennessean (originally from North Carolina) Charlie Daniels stood atop the charts with "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" which had crossed over from the country charts. I always thought the part where "the band of demons joined in" was the best part of the tune. Charlie passed away on July 6, 2020 and he will be missed. 

we want the best, we won't settle for less

almost rang the phone off the wall

RIP Charlie Daniels you were amazing!

my I I I I I I I I I I I

Sunday Showcase April 15, 1979

Happy Easter 2020 or as happy as you can make it during this pandemic. I'm going back to one of my favorite Sunday Showcase years again. This week's issue is from the April 15, 1979 Sunday Tennessean. Kevin Dobson is in between Kojak and Knots Landing (he joined that show's cast in 1982) so he's making television movies.  ABC News is doing a story about men in siege due to liberated women. It's all so Seventies out there!

Tom Jones would be coming to the Municipal Auditorium in the next month. Tickets seem expensive to me, but I don't think I was in the right demographic for Mr. Jones. I am very confused as to why WSM was promoting the show. Sure, Tom had cut "Green, Green Grass of Home" way back in 1967, but he wouldn't put out an actual country record until 1982. During this period Tom was cutting disco numbers like everybody else in the music industry. He was one of my father's favorite singers. Opener Freddie Roman was a stand up comedian. It was standard practice for pop singers to have comedians open for them. 

Tom Jones "Shadow Dancing" his way into our hearts

Coming much sooner to Municipal was The Black Expo Concert on April 20. Sound Seventy and WVOL are presenting this big concert. Trivia time: WVOL 1470 AM The Mighty 147 was the first media company to hire Oprah Winfrey as a broadcaster when she was still in high school. Since it is 1979 most of these artists were also trying their luck with disco which was fine with me. Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers were the lone exception with their band leader and guitarist Chuck Brown credited with inventing "Go-Go" music. I would have enjoyed this concert.

Howard Kenney save some for the children 1978

Tyrone Davis tells us you know what to do in 1979

Betty Wright circa 1979

Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers were bustin' loose!!!

The night before the 20th you could check out Cheap Trick with their opening act TKO at War Memorial Auditorium. My friend the Xman got to see this concert. He said that TKO was brilliant and it's a shame they never made it big, but Cheap Trick was next level and awe inspiring as the Heaven Tonight/Budokan era Cheap Trick was untouchable. I bet they were. One of the first records I ever bought that wasn't birthday or Christmas money related was Live At Budokan. I still remember walking up to Jackson Heights Plaza to the Sound Shop and grabbing it off the rack. I consider "Surrender" to be the greatest rock song ever composed.

Rock N'Roll Again

got my Kiss record out

Cheap Trick Rockpalast 1979

If you watched the Rockpalast concert all the way through you actually saw the Kiss record that the parents got out, but we're on to the Top 10 Records of Nashville for the week preceding April 2, 1979. There's some major disco hits on this chart with the Bee Gees, Gloria Gaynor, and Amii Stewart with some dance floor fillers. Frank Mills hits with "Music Box Dancer" and local Nashville TV station WNGE 2 started playing it before it became a hit. It's very interesting that he says melody hasn't been very popular lately due to disco. Blondie's discofied "Heart of Glass" is on the Nashville chart for its second week. I went crazy for Blondie after seeing them perform on the Mike Douglas Show and "Heart Of Glass" was a huge favorite of mine. I would get the album Parallel Lines for my birthday later that year. The Doobie Brothers hit massively with "What A Fool Believes" which is the gold plated standard for Yacht Rock. I'm going to include a funny NSFW video of how that song came about too. I recommend the whole Yacht Rock series if you want a good laugh. I watch every 6 months or so. Let's throw in Kenny Loggins's version of the tune also. 

Frank Mills on WNGE News 2 program 1979

once had love and it was a gas

muster a smile for his nostalgic tale

Yacht Rock episode 1

Kenny's version was release first!

Old soul stars, Tom Jones, Blondie, plus The Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart were all going disco so The Beach Boys joined in with an almost 11 minute disco version of "Here Comes The Night" on their L.A. (Light Album) release in 1979. They would be coming to play M.T.S.U's Murphy Center on April 24th. 

Here Comes The Night disco short version

The concert got major coverage in the May 3, 1979 Murfreesboro Press so since I love The Beach Boys (except for their foray into disco which was mildly interesting at best) I am including this as a bonus. All of those photos are by Mike West.

Back to our regularly scheduled Sunday Showcase clippings. If you couldn't be at The Beach Boys concert on April 24th you could dress up like the early 1960's and attend filming of concert scenes in Coal Miner's Daughter at Municipal Auditorium on April 24 and 25th.

Look quick and see some of the shots inside Municipal and other Nashville spots

The Great Escape had its grand opening sale going on at 1925 Broadway. My 6th grade peers that were lucky enough to visit the store that spring would come back to Murfreesboro and regale me with stories of all of the comic books for sale. I wouldn't get to visit there until 1985, but made up for lost time afterwards. I was there shopping on the last day that location was open. Of course, once the pandemic quarantine is over you should be able to visit their Charlotte Pike location, Murfreesboro, and Bowling Green, Kentucky stores again.

Now for the oddity that was NBC's version of the After School Special with Reading, Writing, and Reefer. I think ABC's fictionalized ones were better. Strangely enough you can see all of this special on YouTube. So check out Brian getting high. Note: I clipped this this before I found the clip. 

Are you high right now? Yeah, a little.

Finally we bring this Sunday Showcase review to a close with this contest ad where you could win a 2 bedroom luxury apartment at Nashboro Village courtesy of KDF. When I would go up to Nashville via Murfreesboro Road as a kid and young adult I would always remember seeing the Nashboro Village sign (I really liked the letter font used) and wonder what it was like over there. I finally went to an apartment there once in the 90's and it was very nice then. I wonder if it still is. I hope the person who won the contest enjoyed their time there. Perhaps they are still there.

Bonus Cheap Trick material: the Xman just sent me additional info from that night back in 1979.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget Cheap Trick playing “Heaven Tonight “live. It was mesmerizing.

BTW- we arrived at War Memorial about 4 in the afternoon and just walked in. When we came into the hall, Cheap Trick was doing sound check, which we sat in the back and watched. Robin waved at us at one point. Then, Rick jumps off the stage and starts walking towards us. I remember it was really weird because he had a huge piece of red licorice that he was eating. He approached us with his hands out like he was about to choke us, then walked down and introduced himself and we shook hands. Then George Harrell, who was with us, asked him if he had a guitar pick. He put one in his mouth and spit it right to him!

They finally asked us to leave, and we came back that night. Had great seats as I recall. Something like second or third row.

Sunday Showcase January 28, 1979

I thought it was a software problem initially (flashing screen on my Mac), but after many attempts at a fix it persisted so I figured it was a hardware issue after all. So I had pretty much decided to not do a Sunday Showcase post this week. I had pulled a few photos from a 1983 issue that would have made for a short post so I fired up the now disco ball Mac to move the photos to a flash drive so at least a brief post would happen, and lo and behold the gremlins disappeared. No more flashing screen. So, perhaps it was a software issue after all. I decided then to just scrap the 1983 idea and instead go back to 1979. This time around I'm just going to go straight from front to back. 

First up is this neat little ad for New Life Record Shop noting they were moving right down the road to 5343 Charlotte Ave. New Life has gone now to that record store graveyard in the sky, but I will always remember fondly browsing for hip hop records there in the mid 80's.

The Top Ten Records in Nashville are next. The disco music trend is reaching its apex. The Blues Brothers cover of "Soul Man" definitely stood out to me at the time as it was so different to the rest of the songs on the radio.

Lynda Carter poses with her best selling poster of 1978. I loved watching Wonder Woman during the 70's. 

Municipal Auditorium was the place to be if you were into ice skating. 

Sound Seventy had some amazing concerts on tap with Parliament Funkadelic, Styx, and Chuck Mangione set to play Nashville on February 23, 24, and 25. I would have loved to have seen all three of these shows. 

I know you need a Precision Haircut. 

                                                                                                                    If you were looking for something to do on that Sunday night January 28, 1979 you could go down to the Exit/In and catch Marshall Chapman and the Ramones! The Ramones would not play Nashville again until January  19, 1989 when they played Nashville Center Stage. 

If you couldn't make it to see the Ramones at Exit/In you could just stay in and watch the heavily edited television broadcast of Taxi Driver. This was its first network television showing. 

We end this week's Sunday Showcase review with an advertisement for Disco Fever. There's a disco in a jet! And Casey Kasem! And Fabian! 

Sunday Showcase December 24, 1978

Tis the season to be jolly and look through another past edition of The Tennessean Sunday Showcase. We didn't always buy a Tennessean, but when we did it was on Sunday since my father loved the comics section. I loved the comics too, but my favorite part was the Sunday Showcase hence these weekly posts. We're going to put on our polyester suit and dancing shoes as we hustle on to the Top 10 Records of the week. It is peak disco time y'all! The American music charts were dominated by disco in 1978 and this would continue well into 1979. Looking at the Billboard Top 100 charts there were 14 disco songs in 1976 and 1977 only 8 as judged by me. 1978 would see 21 and 1979 would have 30 disco hits most of them released late in '78 or the first half of '79. 1980 we're back down to 8 disco songs in the Top 100 and by 1985 there would be zero disco tunes in the Top 100. That's my opinion from looking at the charts. Your take may vary. but I'm sure it would be similar. I count at least 4 disco tunes in this chart with Hot Chocolate's "Every 1's A Winner" being a strong dance floor contender for a 5th disco tune. 

Indeed, people were freaking as disco was peaking. Clubs and lounges were touting their disco nights. Arthur Murray could teach you how to do the hustle. Disco technicians could bring the party right to you. 

If you needed some disco records there were several ads in this week's Showcase for record stores you might want to visit. I was in 6th grade and while music was definitely a passion (this was the time when I created a fake radio station in my room and in between spinning records I would do my deejay act), but comic books were something I loved more. A couple of my 6th grade friends and I created our own comics, but they are lost in the void of growing up now. The reason I bring this up is that 6th grade was when I was first made aware of The Great Escape which had opened the previous year. One of the friends I made comics with started going there to buy comic book back issues. By the time I finally managed to visit the store all I would care about was the records. Port 'O' Call Records are long gone. New Life Record Shop just closed down for good a few months ago. Just dig their crazy ad! Woolco could also hook you up with some good records, but oddly almost no disco.

Some of the funkiest ads and probably funkiest times would have been at the hotel lounges. All of the foxy ladies were welcome on Tuesday at the Ramada at I-24 and Harding and I suppose the Kixx band would rock you all night at the Rodeway Inn.

                   

If you want to rush out and get a last minute Christmas gift just remember that audio equipment is always welcome. 

Or even better, why not get me a computer at Doc's Computer Shop on Nolensville Rd. 

The Top Ten Songs in Nashville was always a big highlight of the Sunday Showcase, but another one was the TV Starscreen crossword puzzle. The one included this week has a nice cartoon of Andy Kaufman. Test your crossword skills.

That's it for this Sunday Showcase review. If you like what you see, subscribe to my blog, leave a comment, or just smile contentedly.