blatantly bad 70s songs: don't give up on us (david soul)

don’t throw up on the gravy!

there’s an age-old showbiz activity that goes on to this day: let’s make the actors SING! disney now does it in spades with all the teen kings and queens featured on the disney channel shows and movies. and in the 1970s, television seemed to be teeming with variety hours where actors would guest star and end up in a musical number or two. f’rinstance, milton berle singing on the donny and marie showdanny thomas singing on the tony orlando and dawn show. i guess funnymen from the old world of vaudeville were used to having to be able to do it all.

fast forward to the younger folks of the 1970s, specifically david soul. (was he starsky or hutch?) to capitalize on his fame in starsky and hutch, the blonde guy in the duo cut a single. a treacle-y mess of a single. a single so nauseatingly sweet, i have never ever figured out it’s redeeming qualities.it was his only US hit. he has since gone on to become a british citizen, probably realizing that they are the only folks who appreciate his unique, uhm, talent. i don’t wish him ill; i just don’t wish him to do another single in the US.

and yes. i really did sing it as don’t throw up on the gravy as a girl. still do.

12 thoughts on “blatantly bad 70s songs: don't give up on us (david soul)

  1. He was Hutch (Wiki says Starsky was played by Paul Michael Glaser, who apparently also directed Arnold’s “Running Man”!). I still know most of the words to this one, although I don’t recall ever having seen the video. I can feel the sucrose-y sweetness oozing out of your blog now. On a related note, my first car was a Gran Torino, similar to that used in S&H. Vrooom!

  2. This blog is now my must-read-first everyday blog! This is SO fun. I remember this song but did not realize who sang it.

    (and I now can’t get Betcha,By Golly,Wow out of my head – is this going to be worthy of your blog? I’m going to have to go look up the rest of the words…)

  3. OH! I love this song. I still do. I could still sing along to all the words.

    When I was a kid my brothers and I used to rush home from school to watch Starsky and Hutch reruns. Ah, good times. And I’m such a trivia geek I can remember without looking at IMDB or Wikipedia that the character of Huggy Bear was played by Antonio Fargas. Isn’t that incredibly useless trivia?

  4. Don’t throw up on the gravy. heh. Little miss Yankovic, you are.

    You don’t have any Erik Estrada nonsense up your sleeve, do you? Surely someone somewhere put him behind a mic. Now, that would be quite the travesty.

  5. My Girl Wants to Potty All The Time, Potty All The Time, Potty All The Tiiiime!

    Oh wait, that was the 80s and Eddie Murphy 😉

    Oh honey, I was a HUGE David Soul/Hutch fan. Watched that show religiously and was so so humiliated for David when that song came out!! That horrible note he doesn’t quite hit at the end? “We can still come throoooo!” Oy. Beagles howl in pain at that one.

  6. yes wreke, david soul is pretty bad but such is the case when actors try to “break out” creatively. Another one from the seventies that many of you probably either don’t know or remember was the great Vinnie Barbarino himself singing Let Her In. This hit the charts for about half an hour in the mid seventies.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pbA333gnNc

    Additionally, I have to add this classic. Anybody who thinks William Shatner is an underrated artist is definately better off never having seen him “interpret” Rocket Man.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvQwXOCKNLY&feature=related

  7. Wow, what a blast from the past. I was fortunate to have a father who was a rock promoter in his early days so my first concert ever (at the tender age of six months) was KISS. Second and third were Alice Cooper and Blue Oyster Cult. From there is was a decade of brilliance, diversity and total avoidance (thankfully) of the “music” you’ve got going on here. It’s a great list so far. Looking forward to seeing what’s next in line…

  8. How and why does MiddleBro not have a blog? Those are both steaming piles of crap he hath lain before thine eyes. Wowee.

    I kept waiting for the crowd to erupt in laughter during the Shatner piece, thinking it was a comedic interpretation. Seems he had a habit that was hard to kick.

  9. David Soul was very handsome, a real natural look. I thought his song and voice were very good . I loved the song. I don’t know why these people (John Travolta) and others make one song and never again. If I could sing and make money to. Wow, I’d never quit. I guess they just want to be on screen. Why not do both.

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