Betty Davis: Nasty Gal

One of my favorite series of Faux Show posts are my Year in Review entries. Now that it is 2025, I can go back 50 years and review the music of 1975, and I am very excited to get started. I love going back to remember what albums were released in a particular year, if for no other reason than it allows me to listen to so many records that I have loved for so long. My plan is to present my Top 20 albums of that year along with any other albums or songs I decide to mention. I’ll kick it off with Album # 20 on my list.

Looking back at 1975, I found the same thing I find every time I do a list like this – too many great albums to choose from. Ask me in a year, and this list will be different, especially after my Top 5 or 10 albums. Some of the artists I left off of this list are albums I still listen to fairly often by Led Zeppelin, Paul Simon, Tom Waits, Neu!, ELO, Jethro Tull, David Bowie, Elton John, Heart, Black Sabbath, and War. There was a time when all of these may have made the list, but I have learned so much about music over the last few decades that the diversity of my list has expanded to the point at which none of these made the cut.

There is no better example of how my 1975 list has changed than album #20. I hadn’t heard of Betty Davis 10 years ago – very few people had – and her third and final official release (Nasty Gal) is still ignored by most. That is disappointing, because this is a solid piece of funk that deserves to be heard. It isn’t as good as her first two albums (few funk albums are), but it is still a fun listen that has aged well and presents some scathing attacks on her detractors. If her career had lasted past 1975, the title track would have become her signature song. No one then or now funked like Betty Davis.

To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.

• Best of 1975