Monday, May 21, 2018

Musical Monday - Do That to Me One More Time by Captain and Tennille


#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: February 16, 1980.
#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: February 2, 1980.
#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

Most soft rock, at least soft rock from the 1970s and early 1980s, is about sex. I say this because I saw someone make a nostalgic comment about this song remarking about how music used to be "innocent and sweet". Except that this song is almost certainly about sex - that is the "that" that Tennille is saying she wants done to her one more time. It doesn't explicitly say this, but in the context of the song, it seems pretty obvious to me.

This seems to me to be akin to how suburban America took the Starland Vocal Band song Afternoon Delight to heart without really noticing (or if they noticed, carefully avoiding mentioning) the fact that it is about getting a little nookie in the middle of the day. I think that by making the music easy on the ears, songwriters were often able to make the lyrics kind of racy without causing consternation among the denizens of Middle America. In short, by being nonthreatening, soft rock could sneak some stuff in without the audience noticing.

Previous Musical Monday: The Special A.K.A. Live! [Too Much Too Young] by the Special A.K.A. featuring Rico
Subsequent Musical Monday: Coward of the County by Kenny Rogers

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Rock With You by Michael Jackson
Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Rock With You by Michael Jackson
Subsequent #1 on the Cast Box Top 100: Coward of the County by Kenny Rogers

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

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