Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Let’s travel back to 1975 and rewrite history. In 75, 36 Songs hit #1, but as we look at the songs that missed #1 but hit the top 10, I would bet my life on the fact that most of these songs were better than the #1 hits. So let’s give them their due with Lady by Styx, the song that invented the power ballad. It was a song that was a total bust on the charts a few years earlier but a Top 40 DJ heard the song on a jukebox at a pizza joint, and played it on his show, and saved the career of one of classic rock’s most successful bands… plus the musical genius Jeff Lynne who was severely criticized by his own father, who told him his music was rubbish. He retaliated by composing his first top 10 hit in America… plus the sexualized rock song Feel Like Making Love that the singer joked may have caused the birth rate to skyrocket in the 70s. Plus the classic hit Low Rider that came from a drummer playing the wrong beat it could’ve been a disaster… Instead, it inspired the lead singer to throw out a joke lyric that became a pop culture phenomenon, and that story is where our countdown starts.
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Executive Producer
Brandon Fugal
Honorary Producers
Kelly Moan, Curtis Stoddard, Paul Duenas, Robert Hickerty, rondell m
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Subscribe to the Professor of Rock Podcast
Apple: apple.co/445fVov
Spotify: spoti.fi/42JpfvU
Amazon: amzn.to/44b5D6m
iHeartRadio: bit.ly/444h8MO
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Patreon: bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan
Merch Store: professor-of-rock-lsn-shop.fourthwall.com
Instagram: bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of_Rock
#classicrock #70srock #vinylstory #70smusic
Hey Music Junkies, we’ve got a great countdown today as we put it right for the songs that should’ve been #1 in 1975, and at #10 it’s a song that only happened because the drummer played the wrong beat…that caused the singer to make up a strange chorus just joking around and it became a smash. it’s “Low Rider” by WAR at #6: So here’s the story. To start off withThe band WAR had a very cool, multi-ethnic core, with 7 musicians creating a unique blend of funk, latin rock, soul, and jazz. They truly embodied the mixed culture of Los Angeles in the 70s. “Low Rider” was one of the signature tracks from WAR that brought that culture into the forefront of popular music: Here what drummer Harold Brown told me about his major screwup that led to Lowrider. Sax player Charles Miller brought something new to the studio parking lot: a freshly bought 1952 Chevy.After sharing some tequila, and right after Harold played the wrong beat Charlie’s voice came out raspy and low, and while leaning over an existing track, he delivered the now-famous line—“low rider”that gave the song it’s coooool vibe.
For those who don’t know. A “low rider” is a customized vintage car with a lowered body that rides close to the ground. It was a big attention grabber during the cruising days of the 70s and 80s in LA. The term also describes a dude with a laid-back, slower style. Some of the lyrics heard on “Low Rider” confused listeners. Many listeners read the lyrics, especially phrases like “take a little trip” and “rides a little higher,” assuming that the track was about getting high. Our buddy, co-founder & drummer, Harold Brown, later made it clear the band intended the song to stay clean: it was all about cars, cruising, and the lifestyle around them… not drugs:
The main hook has a space-age feel that doesn’t sound like a typical lead instrument.
It’s actually a blend of Charles Miller’s alto saxophone and Lee Oskar’s harmonica, played in unison, supported by the band’s collective percussion rather than a single standard guitar/brass line. It was a big part of why that song stood out in ’75, and still sounds fresh today: Before WAR took off, Harold actually ran a car repair business, and that work helped keep him deferred from the Vietnam draft in the early days. “Low Rider” was such a bad ass track, it should’ve gone #1, but it stopped at #7 on the Hot 100:
Our special countdown of the Top 10 songs from ’75 that didn’t reach the pinnacle of the Billboard Hot 100, but should’ve comes out swinging at #9 with the rock voice that every one from Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin and Freddie Mercury of Queen to Ann Wilson from Heart admired as the greatest singer of his time with a song that may have contributed to a baby boom of massive proportions in the 70s . “Feel Like Makin’ Love” by Paul Rodgers of Bad Company at #10: In ’68, a 19-year-old that would become one of the greatest voices of the Rock Era, Paul Rodgers, who was from Middlebrough, England, was cutting loose across America.
Let’s travel back to 1975 and rewrite history. In 75, 36 Songs hit #1, but as we look at the songs that missed #1 but hit the top 10, I would bet my life on the fact that most of these songs were better than the #1 hits. So let’s give them their due with Lady by Styx, the song that invented the power ballad. It was a song that was a total bust on the charts a few years earlier but a Top 40 DJ heard the song on a jukebox at a pizza joint, and played it on his show, and saved the career of one of classic rock’s most successful bands… plus the musical genius Jeff Lynne who was severely criticized by his own father, who told him his music was rubbish. He retaliated by composing his first top 10 hit in America… plus the sexualized rock song Feel Like Making Love that the singer joked may have caused the birth rate to skyrocket in the 70s. Plus the classic hit Low Rider that came from a drummer playing the wrong beat it could’ve been a disaster… Instead, it inspired the lead singer to throw out a joke lyric that became a pop culture phenomenon, and that story is where our countdown starts.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Executive Producer
Brandon Fugal
Honorary Producers
Kelly Moan, Curtis Stoddard, Paul Duenas, Robert Hickerty, rondell m
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to the Professor of Rock Podcast
Apple: apple.co/445fVov
Spotify: spoti.fi/42JpfvU
Amazon: amzn.to/44b5D6m
iHeartRadio: bit.ly/444h8MO
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patreon: bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan
Merch Store: professor-of-rock-lsn-shop.fourthwall.com
Instagram: bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of_Rock
#classicrock #70srock #vinylstory #70smusic
Hey Music Junkies, we’ve got a great countdown today as we put it right for the songs that should’ve been #1 in 1975, and at #10 it’s a song that only happened because the drummer played the wrong beat…that caused the singer to make up a strange chorus just joking around and it became a smash. it’s “Low Rider” by WAR at #6: So here’s the story. To start off withThe band WAR had a very cool, multi-ethnic core, with 7 musicians creating a unique blend of funk, latin rock, soul, and jazz. They truly embodied the mixed culture of Los Angeles in the 70s. “Low Rider” was one of the signature tracks from WAR that brought that culture into the forefront of popular music: Here what drummer Harold Brown told me about his major screwup that led to Lowrider. Sax player Charles Miller brought something new to the studio parking lot: a freshly bought 1952 Chevy.After sharing some tequila, and right after Harold played the wrong beat Charlie’s voice came out raspy and low, and while leaning over an existing track, he delivered the now-famous line—“low rider”that gave the song it’s coooool vibe.
For those who don’t know. A “low rider” is a customized vintage car with a lowered body that rides close to the ground. It was a big attention grabber during the cruising days of the 70s and 80s in LA. The term also describes a dude with a laid-back, slower style. Some of the lyrics heard on “Low Rider” confused listeners. Many listeners read the lyrics, especially phrases like “take a little trip” and “rides a little higher,” assuming that the track was about getting high. Our buddy, co-founder & drummer, Harold Brown, later made it clear the band intended the song to stay clean: it was all about cars, cruising, and the lifestyle around them… not drugs:
The main hook has a space-age feel that doesn’t sound like a typical lead instrument.
It’s actually a blend of Charles Miller’s alto saxophone and Lee Oskar’s harmonica, played in unison, supported by the band’s collective percussion rather than a single standard guitar/brass line. It was a big part of why that song stood out in ’75, and still sounds fresh today: Before WAR took off, Harold actually ran a car repair business, and that work helped keep him deferred from the Vietnam draft in the early days. “Low Rider” was such a bad ass track, it should’ve gone #1, but it stopped at #7 on the Hot 100:
Our special countdown of the Top 10 songs from ’75 that didn’t reach the pinnacle of the Billboard Hot 100, but should’ve comes out swinging at #9 with the rock voice that every one from Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin and Freddie Mercury of Queen to Ann Wilson from Heart admired as the greatest singer of his time with a song that may have contributed to a baby boom of massive proportions in the 70s . “Feel Like Makin’ Love” by Paul Rodgers of Bad Company at #10: In ’68, a 19-year-old that would become one of the greatest voices of the Rock Era, Paul Rodgers, who was from Middlebrough, England, was cutting loose across America.
