Despite that, the year had some excellent songs as presented in this chart from Maui's KMVI radio. (I lost the KKUA Top 69 chart of 1972)

KMVI was Maui's most popular station at the time with the teen crowd. The nightly L.D. Reynolds show featured top 40 music and a weekly countdown of the Top 35 hits every Monday night. At the end of the year, they compiled their chart data and played the Top 100 on New Year's Eve. Being the fanatic chart freak that I was, I actually listened to this entire broadcast and jotted all the song positions. I recently decided to transfer this data to a computer file, and hence to HTML. Note that KMVI billed itself as "Radio Free Maui" back then... some 19 years before there was a "Radio Free Hawaii!"

Looking upon the Top 100, one will immediately notice that KMVI's list more or less reflected what was popular nationwide at the time. 1972 was not a good year for local artists to cross over into the mainstream Top 40. As this chart shows, only one remotely local artist made it to the Top 100.

The rock group Sweet Marie was a local favorite here, having had a big hit in 1970 with their single "Remember Mary" and another lesser hit, "Stuck In Paradise" in 1971. "Stella's Candy Store", an electrifying rocker issued on a clear red 45 rpm single by Yardbird Records turned out to be the groups' swan song. It rocked and rolled itself to the top of the local charts. The song was very popular in Hilo, where KPUA radio d.j. Jim Kennedy (J.K.) jokingly called the small Pepeekeo store outside of Hilo "Stella's Candy Store". Other than that, I know very little of this group and am not sure if they were from Hawaii or not. I do remember seeing them on Don Robbs' old AM Hawaii TV show one morning. Local hits are indicated by bold type on the Top 100.

The only other local artist that I remember getting heavy airplay and crossover hit status on top 40 radio was New Zealander John Rowles. He charted in 1972 with the single "(Don't Take Her) She's All I Got." It was issued on the Kapp label, a subsidiary of MCA Records. Rowles is most well known in Hawaii for his enchanting, romantic ballad, "Cheryl Moana Marie" which was a big hit in 1970.

Several singles became big hits in Hawaii in 1972 despite being flops elsewhere in the nationa and world. One of the biggest is "Summer Sun" by the Jamestown Massacre. This song was the band's only hit, but was big enough to be number 1 on almost all of the local radio stations. The song is a brassy Chicago-ish type, upbeat pop tune. So far, this single released on Warner Bros., cannot be found on compact disc. I would not mind owning this on CD since my original copy of it is long, long gone.

Outside the chart, several songs and albums were big with Hawaii audiences. Probably one of the biggest was Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" which became a dance favorite at proms that year. The song which was never released as a single, was destined from that time to become one of the biggest album rock tracks ever. The Stylistics were a very big R & B group in 1972, and all of their albums and singles were best sellers in Hawaii. The group is most noted for their hits "You Are Everything," "Betcha By Golly Wow," "Ebony Eyes" (a b-side that became a hit in Hawaii) and "I'm Stone In Love With You," which came at the end of 1972 but did not make Maui's chart until the next year. It was however, the #1 song on the KKUA Top 69 chart for that year.