1970's Variety Shows

Back when I was a young woman ( had to change that from teen once I looked it up because the song I liked was from 1972), I have warm memories of watching variety shows, in the evening,  with my mother.    I didn't leave home until I got married (for the first time - which was in '72 as well, I think.  I really have wiped that memory out.)  

We watched Tom Jones wiggle and gyrate those hips and Mac Davis crooned.Wikipedia says his  show ran from 1974-1976 so this was during the chaos that was my first marriage. Believe me, I needed quiet time with Mom.

 Tom is still around but Mac pretty much drifted away.  Terry and I saw Tom Jones in Las Vegas in the early 90s and he was still doing the same thing.  There is just something wrong with a middle aged man doing hip thrusts!

Mac, I would say, was more successful as a song writer than a performer.  He wrote, Elvis's  In The Ghetto, A Little Less Conversation, Memories, and Don't Cry Daddy.    He wrote for many other artists as well. 

On stage, Mac was low key and easy to watch.  You wonder what makes some artists continue on and others fade away.  Maybe he wanted to retire.  I, for one, missed him.

This is still a great oldie for a sing along.  After listening to the lyrics all these years later,  I think, you dog you!  Funny how life experiences influence your opinions  on past events.

I do remember "the scandal" when his second wife Sarah left him for Glen Campbell.  Mac, according to Wikipedia,  was born in 1942.  He met Sarah after his divorce from his first wife when she, at 16, and living in his apartment building with her mother.  They were married in 1971 when she was 18, until 1976 when she traded him in for Glen.    That would have made him about 29 and her 18....  but 16 when they met.  Oh, Good Grief! 

Is there a singer or an actor that is no longer active that you miss?  Someone that faded away, rather than died.