Here we are at the beginning of another year in our journey, and only one year before Thomas enters the picture. First of let’s hear from Sadie…
The Chart
It’s a mixed week at the top, with 5 songs taking number one just the once – first up its “Saturday Night” – Bay City Rollers then the “Convoy” rolls in for C.W. Mccall before “I Write The Songs” by Barry Manilow, “Do You Know Where You’re Going To” by Diana Ross and finally “Love Rollercoaster” by Ohio Players triumphs.
- [new] “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” – Paul Simon
- [new] “All My Myself” – Eric Carmen
- [new] “Amazing Grace” – Amazing Rhythm Aces
- [new] “Baby Face” – A Wing & A Prayer Fife & Drum Corps
- [new] “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do” – Neil Sedaka
- [new] “Chain Gang Medley” – Jim Croce
- [new] “Close To You” – B.T. Express
- “Convoy” – C.W. Mccall
- “Country Boy” – Glen Campbell
- [new] “Disco Sax” – Houston Person
- “Do You Know Where You’re Going To” – Diana Ross
- “Evil Woman” – Electric Light Orchestra
- [new] “Fanny” – Bee Gees
- “Fly Away” – John Denver
- “Fly Robin Fly” – Silver Convention
- “For The Love Of You” – Isley Brothers
- “Fox On The Run” – Sweet
- [new] “Funky Weekend” – Stylistics
- [new] “Golden Years” – David Bowie
- [new] “Growin’ Up” – Dan Hill
- [new] “Hold Back The Night” – Trammps
- [new] “Honey I” – George Mccrae
- [new] “Hurricane” – Bob Dylan
- [new] “I Could Have Danced All Night” – Biddu Orchestra
- [new] “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
- “I Love Music” – O’jays
- “I Write The Songs” – Barry Manilow
- [new] “If I Only Knew” – Ozark Mountain Daredevils
- [new] “Lady Bump” – Penny Mclean
- [new] “Let It Shine” – Olivia Newton-John
- [new] “Let Your Love Flow” – Bellamy Brothers
- “Let’s Do It Again” – Staple Singers
- [new] “Love Hurts” – Nazareth
- “Love Machine” – Miracles
- “Love Rollercoaster” – Ohio Players
- “Love To Love You Baby” – Donna Summer
- [new] “Make Love To Your Mind” – Bill Withers
- “Nights On Broadway” – Bee Gees
- [new] “Once You Hit The Road” – Dionne Warwick
- “Over My Head” – Fleetwood Mac
- [new] “Quiet Storm” – Smokey Robinson
- [new] “Remember Me” – Willie Nelson
- “Rock And Roll All Night” – Kiss
- [new] “Sara Smile” – Hall & Oates
- “Saturday Night” – Bay City Rollers
- [new] “Since I Fell For You” – Charlie Rich
- “Sing A Song” – Earth Wind & Fire
- “Sky High” – Jigsaw
- [new] “Somewhere In The Night” – Helen Reddy
- [new] “Squeeze Box” – Who
- [new] “Take It To The Limit” – Eagles
- [new] “Tell It Like It Is” – Andy Williams
- [new] “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” – Bruce Springsteen
- “That’s The Way I Like It” – K.C. & The Sunshine Band
- [new] “That’s Why I Love You” – Andrew Gold
- [new] “Theme From S.W.A.T.” – Rhythm Heritage
- [new] “This Old Heart Of Mine” – Rod Stewart
- “Time Of Your Life” – Paul Anka
- [new] “Una Paloma Blanca” – George Baker Selection
- [new] “Venus ’76” – Frankie Avalon
- [new] “Wake Up Everybody” – Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes
- “Walk Away From Love” – David Ruffin
- [new] “What’s The Name Of This Funk” – Ramsey Lewis
- [new] “Winners And Losers” – “Hamilton Joe Frank & Reynolds”
- “You Sexy Thing” – Hot Chocolate
- [new] “You’re Fooling You” – Dramatics
[new] = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
The Times
On January 14, 1976, ABC premiered “The Bionic Woman”, starring Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Sommers. Spun off from the massive hit “The Six Million Dollar Man”, the series followed a professional tennis player who, after surviving a catastrophic skydiving accident, is rebuilt with cybernetic parts and becomes an undercover government agent. The show was an instant ratings juggernaut, earning Wagner an Emmy Award and establishing Sommers as one of the first mainstream, independent action heroines on network television.
Then on January 21, 1976, supersonic passenger travel became a reality as the Concorde simultaneously took off on its first scheduled commercial flights: British Airways flying from London Heathrow to Bahrain, and Air France flying from Paris to Rio de Janeiro via Dakar. Flying at twice the speed of sound ($M = 2.04$), the needle-nosed jet cut transatlantic travel time in half. It instantly became the ultimate jet-set status symbol and an enduring pop culture icon of mid-70s futurism and luxury design.
And on January 23, 1976, David Bowie released his 10th studio album, “Station to Station”, introducing the world to his new persona: The Thin White Duke. Bridging the gap between the plastic soul of Young Americans and the experimental, synthesized landscapes of his upcoming Berlin Trilogy, the record fused American funk with German krautrock. Driven by standout tracks like “Golden Years” and the sprawling 10-minute title track, the album proved to be a massive critical and commercial success, reaching the top five on both US and UK charts and establishing one of the most influential sonic pivots of Bowie’s career.
The Take
Paul Simon’s “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” became his sole number-one hit as a solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States.
Following his divorce from his first wife Peggy Harper, Simon opted to take a more humorous approach to document the event. He recorded the song at A&R Recording on 48th Street in New York City, a small studio “in the heart of Broadway’s theater district”, and built the song around percussion—”martial drums” in particular—in order to “avoid clutter”. Simon described the song as “just a fluke hit that I slipped into by accident”.
In addition in 2023, Simon appeared on The Howard Stern Show and stated that he wrote the chorus lyrics while teaching his son Harper how to rhyme.
Then we have “I Could Have Danced All Night” by Biddu Orchestra. The song was originally written by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner for the 1956 Broadway musical My Fair Lady. Biddu gave the traditional show tune an upbeat, instrumental disco makeover in 1975 in what feels like an early “dance mix” occurence.
In a more rocky vein, but also a cover, we have “Love Hurts” by Nazareth. First recorded by The Everly Brothers in July 1960,
performed as a power ballad, the Nazareth version is the most popular version of the song and the only rendition of “Love Hurts” to become a hit single in the United States. Randomly, the Nazareth single was so successful in Norway that it charted for 61 weeks on the Norwegian charts, including 14 weeks at No. 1, making it the top single of all time in that country!
A real slice of 70s funk is Ramsey Lewis’ “What’s The Name Of This Funk (Spider Man)”, which makes more sense when you realise that the “Spider-Man” in the title refers to radio personality Spider Harrison, a friend of Lewis and Soul Train creator Don Cornelius.
The algorithm also served me a timely slice of 1976, with a Dolly Parton live performance with K.C. & The Sunshine Band of “That’s The Way I Like It”. RIP Dolly!
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.