70s Singalong Classic Has Been ERASED From RADIO for Being Culturally INSENSITIVE!—Professor of Rock

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Coming up next, we're firing up the time machine and heading to an iconic year in the 70s… Can you guess it? It was the year Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record and Muhammad Ali stunned George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle. And in music, it was a pummeling, too. One song came when a future rock star Donal Fagen, hit on the wife of one of his college professors when she was pregnant. Then there’s the all-time classic Piano Man everyone sings along to, but Billy Joel was embarrassed by it; he only made a couple of grand from it. Then there’s Randy Bachman, who wrote Ain't Seen Nothing Yet as a joke to make fun of his brother's speech impediment, and it hit #1 in 22 countries. And then there’s Steve Miller, who ripped off a lyric from an oldies song, but misheard it and has been singing the wrong word for 50-plus years... one that doesn’t exist in the English language. It was a fabulous year in music, and we're counting 'em down NEXT on Professor of Rock!

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Executive Producer
Brandon Fugal

Honorary Producers
22Unchained, Thomas Halterman, Keith Novak, Yvonne Fus, Jeffrey Thorn

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Hey music junkies, Professor of Rock, always here to celebrate the greatest artists and the greatest songs of all time. If you recited the bad jokes inside your favorite flavor of taffy, you’ll dig this channel of deep musical nostalgia. Subscribe below right now. Also, check out our new podcast on Apple and Spotify.

When historians reflect on 1974, they will immediately bring up the resignation of Richard Nixon as President of the United States. It was also the year when Muhammad Ali stunned George Forman in the Rumble in the Jungle, and Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s seemingly untouchable career home run record. On the music scene, it was another year loaded with so many exuberant classics, it was difficult to narrow a list down to 11 songs, but we did it! The countdown of the Top 11 Songs of ‘74 begins with a tune that was spawned by a chance encounter at a party on a college campus. At #11, it’s Steely Dan with “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.”

Back when Donald Fagen was a student at Bard College in upstate New York, he met a fellow student at a party named Rikki Ducornet. They chatted, hit it off, and at some point, Donald gave her his number… but she never called. Not only was Rikki married to one of the instructors at Bard College when Donald made his move, but she was also pregnant.

Years later, Rikki would reflect on the whole thing and the song it inspired. She was intrigued by Donald, and “tempted” to call him, but decided against it. She believed the “number” in “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” might’ve meant more than just digits on a napkin—maybe it was something deeper, a kind of metaphor for identity or the self. Either way, that brief encounter clearly left a mark that led to Steely Dan’s highest charting single. When Donald wrote the lyrics to the song, he sent a message of longing and the hope of reconnection.

Rikki Docornet became a renowned writer, poet, and visual artist. Rikki won the Letters Award, the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Meanwhile, “Rikki Don’t Lose that Number,” featuring background vocals by future Eagle Timothy B. Schmit, dialed up to #3 in Canada, and #4 on the Hot 100.

At #10, it’s “Hooked on a Feeling” a spirited remake by Blue Suede: In 1974, a Swedish band named Blue Swede, led by vocalist Björn Skifs, catapulted to fame with their rendition of "Hooked on a Feeling," a song that had already seen success in the US with BJ Thomas’s version, but was about to get a whole new lease on life.

The original "Hooked on a Feeling" was penned by Mark James and first recorded by BJ Thomas in ’68. BJ's version rose to #5 on the charts