The Addrisi Brothers, "We've Got to Get It On Again"

The Addrisi Brothers, to the extent they're remembered at all, are remembered for being the writers of the Association's imperial chestnut "Never My Love" (later also a hit for the Fifth Dimension and Blue Swede). And perhaps for laughably bad fashion decisions. But they had a recording career as well: its high point was, for me, the 1970 theme song for Nanny and the Professor; the brothers also went Top 20 in '77 with a vaguely misogynist middle-age swinger's lament, "Slow Dancin' Don't Turn Me On." (Sample lyric: "But when they dance slow, I just can't tell / If all the moving parts are put together so well.")

Five years earlier, though, they'd done something a bit more interesting, though it fared worse on the charts. "We've Got to Get It On Again" is, as its title suggests, a plea for reconciliation. One with nice enough harmonies, and undoubtedly the only use of "penetrating" in a Top 40 charter. What I'd never noticed, though, until hearing it this weekend on a rebroadcast of a Casey Kasem American Top 40 countdown from this week in 1972, was that the song's chart presence came roughly nine months before Pop Argot's arrival on the scene. In other words, this was part of the soundtrack when I was but a twinkle in my daddy's pants. Interesting, and discomforting, circumstances for conception. I'll stick with "Nanny" and "Never My Love."