OUT OF LEFT FIELD: This is the...

OUT OF LEFT FIELD: This is the season of odd-ball records at No. 1 on the national pop charts: the Beach Boys’ nod to Jimmy Buffett’s good-timey tropical sound, “Kokomo,” Bobby McFerrin’s a cappella sing-along, “Don’t Worry . . . Be Happy” and UB40’s 5-year-old remake of Neil Diamond’s 1968 song, “Red Red Wine.”

But a medley of two mid-’70s rock anthems is perhaps the most unlikely chart-topper of them all. The smash by the Florida-based duo Will to Power combines Peter Frampton’s “Baby, I Love Your Way” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird.”

The record brings back memories of the ‘70s album-rock scene better than a Day on the Green festival poster or an Allman Brothers 8-track tape.

But what’s the record doing at No. 1 in an era populated by young stars (Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, et al) who were still in preschool when the songs were originally hits?

Bob Rosenberg, Will to Power’s producer/leader, thinks the blend of the two songs is the key ingredient in the single’s success. “I knew it would do pretty well just from the feel of the two songs . . . the segue, the way they fit together,” he said. “I don’t think either song by itself would have made it. But hearing them in a medley made it into something different.”

The Miami-based producer, who formed Will to Power with singer Suzi Carr, said he sought to bring a fresh, contemporary approach to the songs rather than just copy the ‘70s hits. And he added a consistent bass line that neither of the original records had.

Rosenberg, 29, first tried his hand at blending songs while working as a nightclub DJ and later as a DJ a Miami radio station. “I used to do ‘hot mixes’--Bruce Springsteen or Madonna medleys to promote their concerts--and the medleys often became the No. 1 requested record on the station,” he said. “I’m always hunting for segue points (in songs), it’s second nature to me. Any time I hear a song, I hear the songs that go with it.”