I'd say HCTN actually is one of the few songs that attempts to be lively on the entire album. The other songs, with the exception of Shortenin' Bread, tend to be real snoozers....ok, some of those snoozers I like (the Denny songs, Angel Come Home and Good Timin'), but the Carl songs are mediocre and to me the most wretched moment on the album is the Jesu Joy of Mans Desiring intro to Lady Lynda. This musical mashup of Lynda and Jesus just never seemed quite, well, appropriate to me.
I do remember the long version of HCTN did in fact chart on Billboard's disco singles club chart or some such denomination, and rather highly at that. The 45 steamed up the charts rather quickly also, before stalling out in the low forties....I heard the song often on top 40 WHB when it was released. Also heard "What You Do to Me" (C. Wilson single!) on that station when it was released as well as Mommy and Daddy by the Monkees.
I do wonder sometimes if the HCTN 45 did not stall out mainly because of the musical conservatism of many of the BB's fans of that time period. (Reportedly there was lots of negative reaction regarding the single from BB's fans and doubtless several of those folks who may have purchased the single but did not hurt the single's progress on the charts). Kind of hard for a song to be a hit when the group's own fan base is bashing it mercilessly! Also it seems to me that perhaps its failure tangentially is related to the thread on here about Pet Sounds and racism. Well, you know I hate to be a downer, but disco music was highly associated with urban gay and black subcultures and it is not something that may have been the cuppa tea of many BB's fans, just as the utter hatred of disco and rap by some whites has been sometimes, rightly or wrongly, attributed to prejudice.
Indeed, I think the inherent musical conservatisim of the BB's core audience may in fact be what sunk the group when they attempted to progress after (and during Pet Sounds). I think I feel this way since I, as a then hard core BBs fan, loved Smiley Smile, loved Friends, Wild Honey, 20/20, etc. I could only attribute their relative failures to the inability of the group's fan base in general to accept the new sounds and the change in the group's appearance. At least where I lived, in conservative outstate Missouri, the big top forty stations in the state, WHB in KC and KXOK in St. Louis always played their singles up through Breakaway, at least upon release. One can only surmise that while the records were played at least some, and in the stores, BB fans were not flocking to buy them. Maybe the fault was not in the stars, but in the fan base itself, in large part.
I also remember running into a guy in college who had seen the "integrated" Blondie/Rickey BBs and commenting that while it was a very good show, he did not know why they had to add those black guys to the group! In not perhaps such genteel lingo, if you get my drift.
Bruce himself thought the song should win "some sort of Grammy for vocal arrangements" in an interview in the Time Barrier Express at the time. I think the background vocals are pretty amazing, though as others have mentioned, the Carl vocal not one of his best and the disco arrangement rather leaden.
But maybe the fan base had simply drifted away to other sounds....I remembered arguing with a kid in high school who was cooler, Grand Funk or the Boys? Sadly the prevailing opinion at my h.s. was that the Funk were way cooler than the fading rock group revival. Though now I appreciate Grand Funk also!![]()
I do remember the long version of HCTN did in fact chart on Billboard's disco singles club chart or some such denomination, and rather highly at that. The 45 steamed up the charts rather quickly also, before stalling out in the low forties....I heard the song often on top 40 WHB when it was released. Also heard "What You Do to Me" (C. Wilson single!) on that station when it was released as well as Mommy and Daddy by the Monkees.
I do wonder sometimes if the HCTN 45 did not stall out mainly because of the musical conservatism of many of the BB's fans of that time period. (Reportedly there was lots of negative reaction regarding the single from BB's fans and doubtless several of those folks who may have purchased the single but did not hurt the single's progress on the charts). Kind of hard for a song to be a hit when the group's own fan base is bashing it mercilessly! Also it seems to me that perhaps its failure tangentially is related to the thread on here about Pet Sounds and racism. Well, you know I hate to be a downer, but disco music was highly associated with urban gay and black subcultures and it is not something that may have been the cuppa tea of many BB's fans, just as the utter hatred of disco and rap by some whites has been sometimes, rightly or wrongly, attributed to prejudice.
Indeed, I think the inherent musical conservatisim of the BB's core audience may in fact be what sunk the group when they attempted to progress after (and during Pet Sounds). I think I feel this way since I, as a then hard core BBs fan, loved Smiley Smile, loved Friends, Wild Honey, 20/20, etc. I could only attribute their relative failures to the inability of the group's fan base in general to accept the new sounds and the change in the group's appearance. At least where I lived, in conservative outstate Missouri, the big top forty stations in the state, WHB in KC and KXOK in St. Louis always played their singles up through Breakaway, at least upon release. One can only surmise that while the records were played at least some, and in the stores, BB fans were not flocking to buy them. Maybe the fault was not in the stars, but in the fan base itself, in large part.
I also remember running into a guy in college who had seen the "integrated" Blondie/Rickey BBs and commenting that while it was a very good show, he did not know why they had to add those black guys to the group! In not perhaps such genteel lingo, if you get my drift.
Bruce himself thought the song should win "some sort of Grammy for vocal arrangements" in an interview in the Time Barrier Express at the time. I think the background vocals are pretty amazing, though as others have mentioned, the Carl vocal not one of his best and the disco arrangement rather leaden.
But maybe the fan base had simply drifted away to other sounds....I remembered arguing with a kid in high school who was cooler, Grand Funk or the Boys? Sadly the prevailing opinion at my h.s. was that the Funk were way cooler than the fading rock group revival. Though now I appreciate Grand Funk also!