Tuesday, April 11, 2017

I Miss the Old Days

“Do Me a Solid” – The Top 15 Slang Words of the 1970s

4 comments:

Jeff Meyerson said...

Never, ever, ever said "Cool Beans" and would have smacked anyone who said it to me.

"Groovy" was '60s, dude, not '70s, though it was still used then. "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)" was 1966.

"A Groovy Kind of Love", a song written by Toni Wine and Carole Bayer Sager in 1964 and popularized a year later by The Mindbenders.
"We've Got a Groovey Thing Goin'", the flip side of the 1965 hit single "The Sounds of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel
"The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)", a 1966 song also by Simon & Garfunkel
"Somebody Groovy", a song from the 1966 debut album If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears by The Mamas & the Papas
"Groovin'", a 1967 song by the Young Rascals
"Workin' On a Groovy Thing", a 1968 song by Neil Sedaka


I never asked anyone to "Do Me a Solid" either (though I've heard it used), and as for "What a Fry" - huh? This is literally the first time I've ever heard that expression.

Unknown said...

I thought the same about "groovy." I think some of the others came along before the '70s, too.

Don Coffin said...

#2. Far out. Very common by the mid-1960s.
#3. Dream on. Also very common by the mid-1960s.
#5. Catch you on the flip side. Common as early as the 1950s; a reference to the growing popularity of 45 rpm records.
#8. Brick house. Was in active use in my part of the country in the late 1950s/early 1960s.
#10. Cat. Was common among musicians in the 1930s. (And, later, the beats, in the 1950s). Maynard G. Krebs used it often.
#11. Chump. Apparently goes back to the 17th century.
#12. Cool beans. We were using that in grade school in the late 1950s.
#14. Groovy. Dealt with above by Jeff..

I have my doubts about most of the rest of these originating in the 1970s.

Rick Robinson said...

As far as "book" is concerned, in my experience it always meant to leave, as in "I'm gonna book" meaning I'm gonna leave. Not to move quickly. It was Sixties too, I think.