Since it’s Elvis Week and we’ve done all Elvis posts this week, I thought we might as well go all the way and bring the King into Those Zany Charts. But an all-Elvis chart post would be boring, we can just go get that Number 1s album if you want to know about that, right? So let’s look at the Top 50 Singles from 30 years ago, the year Elvis died. Why? I don’t know – why not? To see what Elvis’ musical legacy had morphed into after his 23-year career, I guess.

Truth be told, it’s not quite as bad as I’d initially thought. There’s some pretty good 70s cheese in there. And, of course, some ridiculous disco (and I like disco). Here’s the highlights:

#43 Steve Miller Band – Jungle Love

Dude, everybody loves Steve Miller.

#40 Heatwave – Boogie Nights

The guys are HOT. Check out these moves for when you go out to the disco later tonight:

#38 Meco – Star Wars Theme / Cantina Band

This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. A disco remix (the first mash-up, perhaps?) of the Star Wars Theme and all sorts of Star Wars-based sounds, as well as the music played by the house band on Tatooine. This guy made a whole album of this disco Star Wars music after A New Hope came out. So. Very. Awesome.

#30 Shaun Cassidy – That’s Rock ‘N Roll

My dirty little secret is that I love this song. Not as in “I love this song but Shaun Cassidy’s version is atrocious”. Nope, I love Shaun Cassidy singing this song. I’ve been trying to hunt it down for several years now (and wasted about 40 minutes looking again this morning, just in case it magically appeared somewhere since I last wasted loads of time doing this) but can’t find it anywhere. There’s a Best Of available but I only want this one teeny tiny song. Anyway, there’s nothing better than when Shaun sings this on “The Hardy Boys”, but the best clip I could find was this live version from 1978:

Update: A kindly (anonymous) stranger has sent my song to 100b HQ – so, thanks to them, here it is!

   Shaun Cassidy – That’s Rock ‘N Roll

#16 John Williams – Star Wars (Main Title)

Yup, TWO versions of the Star Wars theme in the Top 50 in one week. It doesn’t get any better than that.

#12 Heart – Barracuda

I love this song, it’s so fierce and saucy. Led Zeppelin-y with a girly edge (but not grrrly and irritating). This is good for getting ready to go out, right before you knock everyone out with your Heatwave dances.

And the #1 single the week Elvis left us?

#1 The Emotions – Best Of My Love

This is what groups like Eternal were trying to be and didn’t even come close.

So they may not be “That’s All Right, Mama” or “Suspicious Minds”, but there are some good songs in there – I guess popular music wasn’t a total shambles when Elvis, erm, left the building.