As a respite from today’s overdose of election talk, let’s take a distracting turn down Memory Lane. Thirty-six years ago today, a catchy and upbeat song by songstress Anne Murray hit Billboard’s Hot 100 list. The Canadian-born Murray had already succeeded with a 1970 top-10 international hit “Snowbird” as well as her 1974 country number one hit, “He Thinks I Still Care.” But when she released “You Needed Me” in the fall of 1978, the song quickly topped the Hot 100 and remained on the list for 26 weeks. Murray would go on to win a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance with her song.
The world has undergone remarkable changes since 1978! Even when Murray originally sang this song, her sweet-sounding ballads were being challenged with songs by artists like Donna Summer and the Bee Gees. Country music was still dominated by musicians including Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Beyond the music world, it was in 1978 the first baby born via in vitro fertilization was announced. Pope John Paul I headed the Roman Catholic Church for barely a month before he died. Nine hundred eighteen people died in Jonestown (Guyana) in a mass suicide.
What do you remember about that time? A mix of good and bad, happy times and sad, a time of tragedies and celebrations? Kind of like today, huh? Continue reading “I Cried A Tear . . .”