It’s April, 1976 in our journey…but back in today of 2026, Sadie wants you to know its…
(Yes, she’s being a tad uncooperative in general this week – cheeky monkey!)
The Chart
The whole month is dominated by “Disco Lady” – Johnnie Taylor, which is Disco only in name!
“Action” – Sweet
“All By Myself” – Eric Carmen
“Bohemian Rhapsody” – Queen
“Boogie Fever” – Sylvers
“December 1963” – Four Seasons
“Deep Purple” – Donny & Marie Osmond
“Disco Lady” – Johnnie Taylor
“Dream On” – Aerosmith
“Dream Weaver” – Gary Wright
“Fanny” – Bee Gees
[new] “Fooled Around & Fell In Love” – Elvin Bishop
[new] “Fopp” – Ohio Players
“Get Up And Boogie” – Silver Convention
“Golden Years” – David Bowie
“Good Hearted Woman” – Waylon & Willie
[new] “I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do” – Abba
“Junk Food Junkie” – Larry Groce
“Let Your Love Flow” – Bellamy Brothers
[new] “Livin’ For The Weekend” – O’jays
“Lonely Night” – Captain & Tennille
[new] “Looking For Space” – John Denver
[new] “Lorelei” – Styx
[new] “Love Fire” – Jigsaw
[new] “Love Hangover” – Diana Ross
“Love Machine” – Miracles
[new] “Lovefire” – Jigsaw
[new] “Misty Blue” – Dorothy Moore
“Money Honey” – Bay City Rollers
“Only Love Is Real” – Carole King
“Only Sixteen” – Dr. Hook
[new] “Rhiannon” – Fleetwood Mac
“Right Back Where We Started” – Maxine Nightingale
[new] “Sara Smile” – Hall & Oates
[new] “Shannon” – Henry Gross
[new] “Shoe Me The Way” – Peter Frampton
“Show Me The Way” – Peter Frampton
[new] “Silly Love Songs” – Wings
[new] “Sixteen” – Dr. Hook
[new] “Strange Magic” – Electric Light Orchestra
“Sweet Love” – Commodores
“Sweet Thing” – Rufus
“Take It To The Limit” – Eagles
“Tangerine” – Salsoul Orchestra
“There’s A Kind Of Hush” – Carpenters
[new] “Tryin’ To Get The Feeling Again” – Barry Manilow
“Welcome Back” – John Sebastian
[new] = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
The Times
On April 9, 1976, Alan J. Pakula’s political thriller All the President’s Men hit theaters. Starring Robert Redford as Bob Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein, the film chronicled The Washington Post’s relentless investigation into the Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation less than two years earlier.
Praised for its procedural realism, crisp typewriter-clacking tension, and Gordon Willis’s stark cinematography, the movie turned investigative reporting into high-stakes drama. It captured four Academy Awards and permanently established the film trope of secretive garage meetings with “Deep Throat.”
On April 23, 1976, Sire Records released the self-titled debut album by the Ramones, effectively firing the starting gun for American punk rock after its raucous start across the Atlantic. Recorded in just a week for around $6,400, the 14-track record clocked in at under 30 minutes of relentless downstroke bar chords, breakneck tempos, and bubblegum pop sensibilities.
Kicking off with the legendary shout “Hey! Ho! Let’s Go!” (see a live version here) on “Blitzkrieg Bop,” the record stripped away the self-indulgence of 70s stadium rock. While commercial radio initially ignored it, the album became a foundational sonic blueprint that inspired the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and the entire alternative rock movement.
On April 1, 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne formally founded Apple Computer Company in Los Altos, California. Working out of Jobs’ family garage and bedroom, the trio set out to sell the Apple I—a hand-built single-board computer designed and assembled by Wozniak. (see another annoyingly unembeddable video story here)
Priced famously at $666.66, the machine required hobbyists to provide their own case, power switch, and monitor. It marked the shift of computing from corporate mainframe backrooms into the consumer home, launching a tech revolution that transformed modern culture. (For better, or worse?)
The Take
“Disco Lady” was the first Hot 100 No. 1 hit with the word “disco” in the title (though the song was a ballad and not a disco record). The single also reached No. 25 on the UK Singles Chart.
In the finale of The Paul Lynde Halloween Special, broadcast in October 1976, Paul Lynde and the entire cast sing Johnnie Taylor’s “Disco Lady” (gender-neutralized to “Disco Baby”). It’s so awful it needs to be seen…
By some small coincidence, Sadie has her school production this week and we are told that “Silly Love Songs” by Wings is one of the songs, so here’s this music video…
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
It’s “Love Machine” by the Miracles and then the 70s are reminiscing for the rest of the month with”December 1963″ by Four Seasons.
“50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” – Paul Simon
[new] “Action” – Sweet
“All By Myself” – Eric Carmen
“Baby Face” – A Wing & A Prayer Fife & Drum Corps
“Bohemian Rhapsody” – Queen
[new] “Boogie Fever” – Sylvers
“Breaking Up Is Hard To Do” – Neil Sedaka
[new] “Can’t Hide Love” – Earth Wind & Fire
[new] “Cupid” – Tony Orlando & Dawn
“December 1963” – Four Seasons
“Deep Purple” – Donny & Marie Osmond
[new] “Disco Lady” – Johnnie Taylor
[new] “Don’t Pull Your Love” – Glen Campbell
[new] “Double Trouble” – Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Dream On” – Aerosmith
“Dream Weaver” – Gary Wright
[new] “Eh Cumpari” – Gaylord & Holiday
“Fanny” – Bee Gees
[new] “Get Up And Boogie” – Silver Convention
“Golden Years” – David Bowie
[new] “Good Hearted Woman” – Waylon & Willie
“Grow Some Funk Of Your Own” – Elton John
[new] “Happy Music” – Blackbyrds
[new] “Heavy Love” – David Ruffin
[new] “Here There And Everywhere” – Emmylou Harris
[new] “Hey Baby” – Ted Nugent
[new] “Highfly” – John Miles
[new] “Hurt” – Elvis Presley
“I Write The Songs” – Barry Manilow
[new] “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” – Terry Bradshaw
[new] “I’ve Got A Feeling” – Al Wilson
[new] “If Love Must Go” – Dobie Gray
“Junk Food Junkie” – Larry Groce
[new] “Just You And I” – Melissa Manchester
[new] “Let Your Love Flow” – Bellamy Brothers
“Lonely Night” – Captain & Tennille
“Love Hurts” – Nazareth
[new] “Love Is The Drug” – Roxy Music
“Love Machine” – Miracles
“Love To Love You Baby” – Donna Summer
[new] “Mighty High” – Mighty Clouds Of Joy
“Money Honey” – Bay City Rollers
[new] “More More More” – Andrea True Connection
[new] “New Orleans” – Staple Singers
[new] “Once A Fool” – Kiki Dee
[new] “Only Love Is Real” – Carole King
“Only Sixteen” – Dr. Hook
[new] “Ophelia” – The Band
[new] “Queen Of Hearts” – K.C. & The Sunshine Band
[new] “Right Back Where We Started” – Maxine Nightingale
[new] “Sally” – Grand Funk Railroad
[new] “Scotch On The Rocks” – Band Of The Black Watch
[new] “Shout It Out Loud” – Kiss
[new] “Show Me The Way” – Peter Frampton
“Slow Ride” – Foghat
[new] “Sweet Love” – Commodores
“Sweet Thing” – Rufus
[new] “Sweet Thing” – Rufus & Chaka Kahn
“Take It To The Limit” – Eagles
[new] “Tangerine” – Salsoul Orchestra
[new] “The White Knight” – Cleddus Maggard
“The White Knight” – Cleddus Maggard & The Citizen’s Band
“Theme From S.W.A.T.” – Rhythm Heritage
[new] “There Won’t Be No Country Music” – C.W. Mccall
[new] “There’s A Kind Of Hush” – Carpenters
“Wake Up Everybody” – Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes
[new] “Welcome Back” – John Sebastian
[new] “You Are Beautiful” – Stylistics
“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
Michael Ritchie’s “The Bad News Bears” hit theaters in late March 1976, turning the conventional, wholesome sports movie trope completely on its head. Starring Walter Matthau as the beer-swigging, pool-cleaning Little League coach Morris Buttermaker, the film brought unvarnished realism, profanity, and cynicism to youth sports. Co-starring Tatum O’Neal as ace pitcher Amanda Whurlitzer and Jackie Earle Haley as the cigarette-smoking rebel Kelly Leak, the movie was a massive commercial hit. Its unvarnished script and refusal to deliver a clichéd Hollywood ending made it a cornerstone of 1970s counter-establishment cinema.
On March 18, 1976, Nicolas Roeg’s surreal sci-fi drama “The Man Who Fell to Earth” premiered in London, marking David Bowie’s feature film acting debut. Playing Thomas Jerome Newton—an alien who travels to Earth to find water for his dying home planet, only to become corrupted by wealth, television, and alcoholism—Bowie delivered a haunting, fragile performance that felt like a natural extension of his alien pop personas.
On March 30, 1976, the fledgling Sex Pistols played their first show at London’s iconic 100 Club on Oxford Street. While the venue had spent decades as a traditional jazz and blues stronghold, this gig kicked the doors open for the burgeoning British punk movement. The raw, aggressive set caught the attention of early music journalists and fans who would go on to form the vanguard of late-70s punk, directly paving the way for the legendary 100 Club Punk Special festival later that autumn.
The Take
In 1969, while staying at the Fort Worther Motel in Fort Worth, Texas,WaylonJennings saw an advertisement in a newspaper promoting Tina Turner as a “good hearted woman loving two-timing men”, a reference to Ike Turner. Jennings went to talk to fellow country musician Willie Nelson, who was in a middle of a poker game, about writing a song based on that phrase. Joining the game, he and Nelson expanded the lyrics as Nelson’s wife Connie Koepke wrote them down. 7 years later it was a bonafide hit for the pair.
Though Roxy Music did not film a music video for their classic “Love Is the Drug”, they did mime the song for a television appearance in 1975. Ferry wore an eyepatchfor the appearance, albeit not for aesthetic reasons. He recalled:
It wasn’t a piratical fashion thing, as many people thought. The day before our taping, I was sent to the hospital to have my eye looked at. I had walked into a door or something. I remember thinking, ‘Oh, God, we’ve got to do a television show.’ Which we did despite my eye. In the video, if you look carefully, you can actually see a bandage with a dressing underneath. But the black patch looked good
And then we have a couple of great live performances with “Sweet Love” by the Commodores…
and “There’s A Kind Of Hush” by the Carpenters.
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
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” by Paul Simon and then one for “Theme From S.W.A.T.” by Rhythm Heritage this month…
“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 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.
The Take
Eric Carmen’s classic “All By Myself” was belted out around the house this week. Apparently 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. While the chorus draws from the song “Let’s Pretend”, which Carmen had written and recorded with the Raspberries in 1972
And then we have the classic “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, with its iconic music video. According to band member Brian 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.The Guardian stated it “ensured videos would henceforth be a mandatory tool in the marketing of music”.
On a technical level, all of the special effects were achieved during the recording (in camera), 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!
And then a couple of great live performances from quite different tunes of the week, with “Slow Ride” by Foghat…
and “Sweet Thing” by Rufus with Chaka Khan…
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
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.
It’s the end of another year in our journey through musical history, yes it’s…
The Chart
It’s two weeks at number one for “Fly Robin Fly” by Silver Convention before uh huh, K.C. & The Sunshine Band land “That’s The Way I Like It” at the top for a week before Staple Singers do the same with “Let’s Do It Again”.
[new] “Convoy” – C.W. Mccall
[new] “Country Boy” – Glen Campbell
[new] “Do You Know Where You’re Going To” – Diana Ross
“Eighteen With A Bullet” – Pete Wingfield
[new] “Evil Woman” – Electric Light Orchestra
“Feelings” – Morris Albert
[new] “Fly Away” – John Denver
“Fly Robin Fly” – Silver Convention
[new] “For The Love Of You” – Isley Brothers
“Fox On The Run” – Sweet
[new] “Full Of Fire” – Al Green
[new] “Heat Wave” – Linda Ronstadt
“I Love Music” – O’jays
“I Only Have Eyes For You” – Art Garfunkel
“I Want A Do Something Freaky To You” – Leon Haywood
“I Write The Songs” – Barry Manilow
“I’m On Fire” – 5000 Volts
“Island Girl” – Elton John
[new] “Last Game Of The Season” – David Geddes
“Let’s Do It Again” – Staple Singers
[new] “Love Machine” – Miracles
“Love Rollercoaster” – Ohio Players
[new] “Love To Love You Baby” – Donna Summer
“Low Rider” – War
“My Little Town” – Simon & Garfunkel
“Nights On Broadway” – Bee Gees
“Our Day Will Come” – Frankie Valli
[new] “Over My Head” – Fleetwood Mac
[new] “Part Time Love” – Gladys Knight & The Pips
[new] “Rock And Roll All Night” – Kiss
“Saturday Night” – Bay City Rollers
“Secret Love” – Freddy Fender
[new] “Sing A Song” – Earth Wind & Fire
“Sky High” – Jigsaw
“That’s The Way I Like It” – K.C. & The Sunshine Band
“The Last Game Of The Season” – David Geddes
“The Way I Want To Touch You” – Captain & Tennille
“This Will Be” – Natalie Cole
[new] “Time Of My Life” – Paul Anka
“Venus And Mars Rock Show” – Paul Mccartney & Wings
[new] “Walk Away From Love” – David Ruffin
“Who Loves You” – Four Seasons
[new] “Winners And Losers” – “Hamilton Joe Frank & Reynolds”
[new] “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 December 18, 1975, Stanley Kubrick premiered his visual tour de force, “Barry Lyndon”. Adapted from William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1844 novel and starring Ryan O’Neal alongside Marisa Berenson, the film follows the rise and tragic unraveling of an opportunistic 18th-century Irish rogue climbing the European social ladder.To recreate the authentic look of the pre-electrical age, Kubrick utilized ultra-fast Carl Zeiss f/0.7 lenses originally engineered for NASA’s Apollo Moon missions, allowing entire interior sequences to be illuminated purely by candlelight without artificial electric studio lighting. The film went on to win four Academy Awards, setting a new technical and aesthetic standard for cinematic period pieces.
In late December 1975, the BBC broadcast the opening episodes of the iconic Doctor Who serial “The Brain of Morbius”, starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor alongside Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. Written under a pseudonym by legendary script editor Robert Holmes, the story took direct inspiration from classic Frankenstein gothic horror. It pushed the boundaries of Saturday-evening family television, drew fierce debate over TV violence, and cemented Baker’s scarf-wearing incarnation as the definitive Doctor of the 1970s.
On Christmas Eve 1975, Queen played a legendary, career-defining concert at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, broadcast live on BBC television. Riding high on the massive success of A Night at the Opera and the groundbreaking single “Bohemian Rhapsody” (which spent nine consecutive weeks at UK #1 over the holidays), Freddie Mercury took the stage in a white satin jumpsuit for an electrifying showcase. The broadcast proved that Queen’s intricate studio harmonies and grand theatricality could be delivered live, cementing them as global stadium legends. You can view it here.
The Take
Glen Campbell’s “Country Boy” is a belter, and his outfit has all the shades of brown and beige you expect from the 70’s…
Linda Ronstadt’s cover of “Heat Wave” is similarly a belter and…yes that’s a lot of brown again!
We’ve had this tune in our charts before, its a 1963 Mo Town song popularised by Martha and the Vandellas. Here’s a live performance of that for comparison.
Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby” is a classic, much remixed, Disco groove, which has lasted the test of time but here’s some amusing, and harsh, commentary from the time,
“According to Peter Shapiro, a freelance British music journalist, the song was marked by [being] little more than Donna Summer simulating an orgasm over a background of blaxploitation cymbals, wah-wah guitars, a funky-butt clarinet riff, and some synth chimes.” He continued, “Love to Love You Baby” […] was extended into a seventeen-minute minisymphony at the behest of Casablanca Records chief Neil Bogart, who wanted a soundtrack for his sexual exploits… The Rolling Stone Record Guide called it “a novelty dance number. But it’s too slow for dancing and too long for the recorded multiple orgasms not to become self-parodying.”
Hot Chocolate’s “You Sexy Thing” is also new to us this week. Apparently the song was originally a B-side, “Not yet convinced that the song could be a hit, producer Mickie Most put it on the flip side of the Hot Chocolate single “Blue Night”. Some months later, Most released a re-recorded version of the song as an A-side on his RAK label.”
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.