It’s a mere 1 year before Thomas is born…but let’s hear from Sadie!
The Chart
Three weeks for “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” – Paul Simon and then one for “Theme From S.W.A.T.” – Rhythm Heritage
- “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” – Paul Simon
- [new] “All By Myself” – Eric Carmen
- “All My Myself” – Eric Carmen
- “Baby Face” – A Wing & A Prayer Fife & Drum Corps
- [new] “Bohemian Rhapsody” – Queen
- “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do” – Neil Sedaka
- “Convoy” – C.W. Mccall
- [new] “December 1963” – Four Seasons
- [new] “Deep Purple” – Donny & Marie Osmond
- “Do You Know Where You’re Going To” – Diana Ross
- [new] “Dream On” – Aerosmith
- [new] “Dream Weaver” – Gary Wright
- “Evil Woman” – Electric Light Orchestra
- “Fanny” – Bee Gees
- “Golden Years” – David Bowie
- [new] “Grow Some Funk Of Your Own” – Elton John
- “I Love Music” – O’jays
- “I Write The Songs” – Barry Manilow
- [new] “Junk Food Junkie” – Larry Groce
- [new] “Lonely Night” – Captain & Tennille
- “Love Hurts” – Nazareth
- “Love Machine” – Miracles
- “Love Rollercoaster” – Ohio Players
- “Love To Love You Baby” – Donna Summer
- [new] “Money Honey” – Bay City Rollers
- [new] “Only Sixteen” – Dr. Hook
- “Sing A Song” – Earth Wind & Fire
- [new] “Slow Ride” – Foghat
- “Somewhere In The Night” – Helen Reddy
- “Squeeze Box” – Who
- [new] “Sweet Thing” – Rufus
- “Take It To The Limit” – Eagles
- [new] “The White Knight” – Cleddus Maggard & The Citizen’s Band
- “Theme From S.W.A.T.” – Rhythm Heritage
- “Time Of Your Life” – Paul Anka
- [new] “Tracks Of My Tears” – Linda Ronstadt
- “Wake Up Everybody” – Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes
- “Walk Away From Love” – David Ruffin
- [new] “White Knight” – Cleddus Maggard & The Citizen’s Band
- “You Sexy Thing” – Hot Chocolate
[new] = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
The Times
On February 8, 1976, Martin Scorsese’s psychological neo-noir masterpiece Taxi Driver premiered in New York City. Starring Robert De Niro as the alienated, insomniac Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle, the film captured the grimy, morally decaying streets of mid-1970s Manhattan with raw intensity.
Written by Paul Schrader and featuring Bernard Herrmann’s final, haunting jazz score, the film went on to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes and earned four Academy Award nominations. Bickle’s improvised monologue (“You talkin’ to me?”) instantly entered the cultural lexicon as one of the most famous lines in cinema history.
On February 17, 1976, Asylum Records issued Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) by the Eagles. Compiling ten tracks from their first four studio albums—including “Take It Easy,” “Desperado,” and “One of These Nights”—the release was the very first album to receive a Platinum certification from the RIAA (a designation newly created in 1976 to recognize 1 million copies sold).
The record spent five weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 and would eventually become one of the two best-selling albums in U.S. history.
February 1976 was the month “Laverne & Shirley” exploded into an inescapable television phenomenon. The Happy Days spin-off starring Penny Marshall (Laverne DeFazio) and Cindy Williams (Shirley Feeney) followed two single female roommates working as bottle-cappers at Milwaukee’s Shotz Brewery in the late 1950s.
Its classic slapstick comedy, blue-collar perspective, and iconic opening chant (“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8! Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!”) propelled the series to the #1 or #2 spot in Nielsen ratings throughout the late 1970s, establishing a new archetype for female-led buddy sitcoms.
The Take
- “All By Myself” – Eric Carmen
The verse is based on the second movement (Adagio sostenuto) of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 1900–01 Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18. The chorus draws from the song “Let’s Pretend”, which Carmen had written and recorded with the Raspberries in 1972
- “Bohemian Rhapsody” – Queen
According to May, the video was produced so that the band could avoid miming on Top of the Pops, since they would have looked off miming to such a complex song
Though some artists had made video clips to accompany songs (including Queen themselves; for example, their earlier singles “Keep Yourself Alive”, “Liar”, “Seven Seas of Rhye” and “Killer Queen” already had “pop promos”, as they were known at the time), it was only after the success of “Bohemian Rhapsody” that it became a regular practice for record companies to produce promotional videos for artists’ single releases.[62] The Guardian stated it “ensured videos would henceforth be a mandatory tool in the marketing of music”
All of the special effects were achieved during the recording, rather than editing. The visual effect of Mercury’s face cascading away (during the echoed lines “Magnifico” and “Let me go”) was accomplished by pointing the camera at a monitor, giving visual feedback, a glare analogous to audio feedback. The honeycomb illusion was created using a shaped lens. The video was edited within five hours because it was due to be broadcast the same week in which it was taped.
- “Slow Ride” – Foghat
“Sweet Thing” – Rufus
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.