Super Hits of The 70s: Have A Nice Day, Vol. 10

I could have put Albert Hammond into a 3-Way Tie (For Second) but I’m glad I gave Looking Glass’s slept on other hit its sole vote.

Wow, that's a surprising result.

I worked as a sales rep for a small distributor back in the late 80s/early 90s. Rhino was one of our best selling labels. I remember these things coming out one after another, and thinking, There is no way there was this much from that part of the 70s worth saving. Thirty years on, I realize I was wrong.

Note the pathos in the Edward Bear song. The singer is writing "the last song I'll ever write for you" for someone who'll never hear and couldn't care less if they did. The singer's powerlessness is paralleled in the limp, hazy production.

In an interview published on the website for the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, composer Larry Evoy states that the song was inspired by his own personal experience. "It was written over a period of time and was literal. I would actually go to sleep with my light on, hoping that she’d think I was still awake and would drop by, and she did."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Song_(Edward_Bear_song)

I don't feel like hunting for it downstairs, but I used to work with (in a record store) and once interviewed the guy who produced Edward Bear, Paul White, when he was at Capitol. He told me the same story, more or less, in the interview, that he never got over the woman he wrote the song for.

I'm picturing now a whole melodramatic scenario where he leaves the light on all night, staring into space with his turntable on automatic replay playing "Last Song" over and over so loudly he can't hear her banging on the door.

The lukewarm production and the sentimental backstory somehow still have not ruined this childhood favorite for me. I also enjoyed its appearance in the Canadian film Weirdos - the main character has an Edward Bear poster in his bedroom! He is also obsessed with Andy Warhol, who keeps showing up throughout the picture to give him advice. #onethread

Not to be confused with the Canadian novel The Bear, by Marian Engel.

Was the bear's name Edward?

Ha, don’t think so.

I was at grad school with a woman who had obtained rights to film Bear but it doesn't look like that ever came to completion.

Oh right, no “The.” Maybe I should put it on my other thread.

It's just called Bear? I don't think I've ever heard . . . oh, wait, is this the one about the woman who has sex with a bear?

Couldn’t tell you, haven’t read it.

Ayup. "The shocking erotic novel of a woman in love."

The Skylark song is the only one I didn't immediately recognize but I sat with it for two seconds and remembered that it's the 'let her cryyyyyy for she's a lady' song. I may have listened to this series way too much.

Same for me except I haven’t tried to listen to it yet

Listening now. Still don’t recognize it.

I don't know how many times I saw The Neville Brothers over the years, 10 or 15 maybe, and Aaron pretty much always sang "Wildflower." He must have had a thing for that song.