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My most recent BATTLE OF THE BANDS' Battle Of The Booze contest took place HERE. It was between Three Dog Night's 'Joy To The World' ("mighty fine wine") and America's 'Ventura Highway' ("moonshine").
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Most of the voters stated that they liked both songs, and that goes for me, too. I still remember how immensely popular 'Joy To The World' was when I was just a li'l boy. The moment you heard that memorable opening line, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog", you knew exactly what song was about to play.
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However, 'Ventura Highway' by America has a certain dream-like nostalgic quality about it that immediately has me reminiscing & missing golden days long gone.
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| 'Me, Lynth & The Beach Report' - now available on compact disc! |
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So, including my own vote for the "golden days long gone" song, the outcome looks like this:
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FINAL TALLY:
Three Dog Night = 4 votes
America = 8 votes
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Not a bad Battle, and 'Ventura Highway' will advance to the eventual Battle Of The Booze playoff rounds.
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My very sincere thanks to EVERYONE who took the time to visit 'n' vote!
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I'll have something new for you to drink hear on October 1st , so y'all come back now. Thanks!
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
I thought it would have been closer, but they're both good songs. Thanks for sharing the results.
ReplyDeleteDEBBIE ~
DeleteThank you for checking in on the Results.
According to Billboard, 'Joy To The World' was a far bigger hit than was 'Ventura Highway', and Three Dog Night was a much more popular band than was America.
While 'Ventura Highway' climbed to #8 in the Billboard charts in 1972, 'Joy To The World' went to #1 and stayed there for six consecutive weeks in 1971 (a *massive* hit song!) Also, America had 11 Top 40 hits, while Three Dog Night had 21.
But, even so, I was pert-dern sure that 'Ventura Highway' was going to win this Battle. I have a knack for accurately predicting the winners of my Battles. I'd guess that my predictions are correct at least 90% of the time. However, I'm not nearly as good at predicting the margin of votes between the winner and loser, and sometimes the results come as a tremendous surprise to me. And that's what keeps BOTB interesting for me... that, along with all the fun chatter in the comment sections.
Like you, I *feel* that this Battle should have been closer, considering how big a hit 'Joy To The World' was, but I'm still pleased that it wasn't a true blowout.
Thanks again for participating!
~ Stephen
That seems like an appropriate outcome for a strong Battle. Your final vote was far less skewed than mine. I've now posted my results.
ReplyDeleteLee
BOIDMAN ~
DeleteAs I mentioned to Debbie above, I was expecting America to win, but I was hoping this would be a closer contest (maybe a 2-vote margin of victory). Nevertheless, I was pretty pleased with how it went. It wasn't quite a blowout, and far from a shutout, and I'll always be satisfied with results like that.
~ D-FensDogG
I've seen America five times. Listening to them sing never gets old. I also saw Three Dog Night on July 4th, maybe 1998. Two of the dogs were there. I think only one is alive now. I still have my (numerous) Three Dog Night albums, purchased as a pre-teen and teen. One of them is signed by the two dogs. Unfortunately, I had America on eight-track tapes. I have an eight-track tape player in an elderly console I bought at the Salvation Army thrift shop several years ago, but when I tried to play my tapes, they broke. :-(
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Hokey-Smoke! Long time no yak, JANIE!
DeleteThat's a shame about the broken 8-tracks. Thankfully, in this wonderful modern age we can find almost any album available online for the nice price of FREE!
Wow! You saw America five times? I haven't seen any musical artist that many times. I get close with Waylon Jennings, whom I saw perform four times at three different venues. (The third and fourth time he was playing at a state fair, and I watched both of his sets there.)
After Waylon, my next most would be the three times I saw Styx. What's kind of funny is that I no longer like the music of Styx. They were my favorite band when I was in high school, but apparently Styx was simply a teenage phase for me which I eventually grew out of, kind of like acne. :^D
~ D-FensDogG
America is the only group I've seen more than once. Now I'm trying to see certain acts before they die or I do. I want to see James Taylor, Arlo Guthrie, Ringo Starr's All Star Band, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, and a few others. I would like to see Paul McCartney a second time and not from the nose bleeds.
DeleteJ.J. ~
DeleteSo, I am going to go way out on a limb here and guess that AMERICA might - just might - be your all-time favorite musical artists. How'd I do? When you were really young, were Bobby Sherman or David Cassidy in the running? ;^)
[I recently watched an ol' episode of 'Frasier' where Roz Doyle confessed her youthful lustful feelings for Bobby Sherman. And I thinx my sister may have had a Bobby Sherman poster on her bedroom wall about eleventy thousand years "agone".]
"Paul McCartney"? Don't you mean "Billy Shears"? ;^D
WOW! Brian Setzer... I always liked him and the Stray Cats. Never saw them, though. In this current 'Battle Of The Booze' theme I'm running with, I used The Stray Cats against Jerry Lee Lewis in May, and they kicked Jerry's butt all the way back to Dean Martin's outhouse in Italy!
It won't be in my next Battle on October 1st, but at some point I'm planning to use The Brian Setzer Orchestra against... against... uhm... someone. (I haven't figured out yet who the competitor will be. Helck! I haven't even fully settled & decided upon who my next competitors will be on October 1st. But I'm leaning toward Tom Waits and David & David. Pssst! Keep that quiet. It's a secret between you, dIEDRE, and me... for now.
FUN FACT: I turned my Ma on to The Brian Setzer Orchestra in 1998 or '99. I played her several songs from the album 'The Dirty Boogie' that I thought she might like. She was pretty ho-hum about them.
As a last resort / afterthought (I was ready to tell her the music session was done - over & out), I put on Setzer's cover version of the song 'Since I Don't Have You' . And I was expecting another ho-hum reaction.
My Ma practically went through the roof! She completely fell in love with Setzer's voice and I was required to play his version of 'Since I Don't Have You' for her on a regular basis until The Good Lord called her Home in 2005.
At some point (SHhhhh!...) I intend to use The Brian Setzer Orchestra's version of 'Rock This Town' in my BOTB's Battle Of The Booze series. My big problem is in trying to come up with a song that I think might give it at least a wee bit o' fight. (BOTB is a LOT harder to do well than non-BOTBers can even imagine!)
~ D'DogG
I thought it might be a little closer, but what a great battle! Tough choices often have the best outcomes ;-) I actually had second thoughts when I heard Three Dog Night crackling in the old speakers of the grocery store. But no, I'm sticking with my first thought - ha!
ReplyDeletedIEDRE ~
DeleteMany of my Battles were a whole lot closer before I started working with these bar & booze themes. Restricting myself to these themes limits my possibilities. But I still enjoy it and will see this theme through before I abandon it for sumpin' else.
~ D-FensDogG