The music of January 1976 is emblematic of the listener I had become by then, and of the one I would be forever after. I was never going to be a metalhead; neither was I going to be somebody on the prowl for the next big thing. I was a creature of the radio, and specifically of Top 40 radio. While my horizons broadened some over the years— making room for prog rock while I was still a teenager and straight jazz after I turned 40—I still remain the kind of listener I was in January 1976: I want to hear the hits, and I want to hear them again and again. The list below is from Radio and Records.
1. “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”/Paul Simon
2. “I Write the Songs”/Barry Manilow
Simon’s cool and clever wordplay is miles ahead of “I Write the Songs” composer Bruce Johnston’s sometimes-shaky “I am music” metaphor, but the latter is redeemed by these lines about the power of music to renew itself: “Now when I look out through your eyes / I’m young again even though I’m very old.”
3. “Theme From S.W.A.T”/Rhythm Heritage. We have noted before how several themes from ABC shows became radio hits in 1976, including S.W.A.T., Happy Days, Welcome Back Kotter, Baretta, and Laverne and Shirley.
And speaking of the latter, the death of Cindy Williams this week should remind us all that she and Penny Marshall are, in character, still among the most recognizable figures of the 1970s. It’s also worth remembering how Laverne and Shirley detonated in popular culture during the very period I’m writing about here. The first episode, on January 27, 1976, was #1 in the ratings that week. The show’s 15-episode first season did well enough to rank #3 for the entire 1975-1976 TV season, behind All in the Family and the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man (which debuted in the same week). For the 1976-1977 season it was #2 behind Happy Days, which preceded it on Tuesday nights. For the next two seasons, it was #1.
4. “Love to Love You Baby”/Donna Summer
7. “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”/Neil Sedaka
12. “Love Hurts”/Nazareth
13. “Convoy”/C. W. McCall
23. “Slow Ride”/Foghat
26. “Paloma Blanca”/George Baker Selection
30. “Dream On”/Aerosmith
31. “The White Knight”/Cledus Maggard
If my taste was/is small-c catholic, I came by it organically. Look at the variety among the 40 songs on this chart, and think about the willingness of mass appeal radio stations to play all of it: “Yeah, we already got Donna Summer pretending to get laid, Neil Sedaka doing a lounge number, and two CB radio novelty songs. Damn right we want Foghat and Aerosmith. And get us a polka too while you’re at it.”
5. “Evil Woman”/Electric Light Orchestra
6. “Love Rollercoaster”/Ohio Players
9. “Sing a Song”/Earth Wind and Fire
10. “Take It to the Limit”/Eagles
11. “You Sexy Thing”/Hot Chocolate
18. “Fanny”/Bee Gees
25. “Walk Away From Love”/David Ruffin
36. “Tracks of My Tears”/Linda Ronstadt
Any of these could be the best song on the list, although with the exception of “The White Knight” and Helen Reddy’s incredibly stiff version of “Somewhere in the Night,” every song has something to recommend it. Of course, the best song on the list might also be:
28. “Winners and Losers”/Hamilton Joe Frank and Reynolds. There are songs that sound better on the radio than in any other environment. Imagine that you are 15-going-on-16 and listening to your favorite DJ on your favorite radio station. He makes a wisecrack, jingles out of it, and then plays this.
You want to be on the radio someday because you want to do that.
32. “Times of Your Life”/Paul Anka. Anka sings, “Suddenly it’s hard to find the memories you left behind.” And I realize that yeah, after all these years, the memories have gotten hard to find. I can’t tell you specifically why the winter of 1976 feels to me like it does, not like I could with the winter of 1977. What is left of being 15-going-on-16 are a few strong images and the retroactive realization that something important was happening to me then.
What it was, exactly, I don’t know.
But it occurs to me that I don’t need to know. As I listen to these songs, the vibe they create all together allows me to feel young again, even though I’m very old. And some of these days, there’s nothing I want more.
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The Hits Just Keep On Comin' 
Another entry for the Back-to-Back Hall of Fame: “Wake Up Everybody” followed by “Dream On.”
Charts with subpar Pete Townshend compositions are becoming a theme around here lately.
This week in 1976, Steven Tyler is celebrating his good fortune in one apartment in Boston, while unknown Tom Scholz is recording laboriously away in the basement of another.
Take It to the Limit has the best lyrics, Fanny has the best group vocals and Love Rollercoaster has the best production. Also, Love Rollercoaster had the best timing, as roller coasters were becoming the hot thing in the booming mid-1970s amusement park business, especially with the launch of Space Mountain in Disney World in 1975. And of course Aerosmith (seen here with “Dream On”) got its own Rock and Roller Coaster in Disney World a few decades later, although rumor has it that the theming will be disappearing soon.
Speaking of favorite wise-cracking DJs, I remember hearing a jock on WLS counting the “orgasms” on the Donna Summer hit, probably John “Records” Landecker.
Neil Sedaka’s reprise of his early 60’s hit done as a slow ballad may have been inspired by Lenny Welch who did it that way first (peak chart position #34 in early 1970). I also remember a version of Neil’s that started with the bouncy version then faded down to the slow version.
I came hear to post about the Neil/Lenny connection, but Porky beat me to it, so I’ll just post the song…
“Inspired by” is probably too generous—my initial reaction, “rip-off”, might be too harsh—let’s just say Neil “adapted” the arrangement by Charlie Callelo that Lenny used.
Lenny’s version actually cracked the Top 40 (but six months before AT40 launched, so you won’t hear Casey intro it), peaking at #33, and topping out at #8 on the Billboard AC chart.
Much of this music was still on the chart when I arrived at KUKI in Ukiah in mid-March.
As for “Times of Your Life”, I’ve always thought the TV show “Mad Men” (which used it in a promo for the last season) was subtly telling us that after Don Draper’s big Esalen inspiration leading to “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke”, he later went on to give us Paul Anka for Kodak.
PS: f&@$ing autocorrect….”I came HERE….”
The commercial 45 of Neil’s 1976 Breaking Up had the opening from the original version before the slow part. The 1976 promo 45 eliminates the original version opening.
Listening to, “Winners and Losers”, brought it all back. In January 1976, I was attending the best junior high(after spending a year at the worst) and finally looking forward to high school. The world was mine.
The song “Winners And Losers” is an absolute favorite of mine, and in St. Louis was not played very often.
Paul Anka’s “Times Of Your Life” is just one of those songs that emotionally I can’t get through. If you can, well, you’re just stronger than me.