Music Years Of My Life: 1976

  What's the most important musical year of your life?  The one year you can look back on right now with the fondest of recollections?  For me, it's always been 1976. This was the year.  Just writing it out brings back the best musical memories.  Many things happened that birthed my love of music in 1976.  What was the source of all this?  Good old terrestrial radio.  Remember AM radio? We had two AM Top 40 radio stations in our area. Every week both published a Top singles weekly chart.  There wasn't much difference between the two, but I picked them up whenever I had a chance.  These charts proved handy because I still hadn't read a copy of Billboard. Interesting note: one of those stations would give away the weekly Top 10 singles if you were the lucky caller and could name them.  I happened to win twice.

  At this stage, I knew all about the Billboard charts because I listened to Casey Kasem's American Top 40. We moved to California in 1975.  Before that AT40 was on the Armed Forces Network in Germany.  I heard it every weekend.  But when we got to the U.S., finding AT40 became more of a chore.  The only station that played the show was in San Francisco, two hours away and my radio had problems picking up its signal. Still, I did the best I could. I'd often catch the show at different points, but I always listened as long as I could.  And I kept a journal where I wrote down as many of the hits I would hear every week.  But it wouldn't be until the summer of '77 when I got my hands on a copy of Billboard that I became an avid chart watcher.  It was the first magazine I ever subscribed to (until Rolling Stone in 1978).  What a revelation Billboard was to read!  All those charts! All that music biz info!  Pretty mind-blowing for a 14-year-old.

  But back in 1976.  I turned twelve in May and AM radio was the only frequency I visited.  I knew of FM radio.  We had a local Gospel & R&B Soul channel on the top of the FM dial.  It would play R&B hits you never heard on the Pop charts.  It was another ear-opener.  I began to explore this new frequency on the dial, but I was still stuck on the AM dial for the majority of my listening time.

  I should also point out how important American Bandstand and Soul Train were to my musical upbringing.  Both came on back-to-back on Saturday mornings.  I would catch them often when I wasn't playing sports or doing something else.  Soul Train was the bigger revelation since they showed and played records that didn't always cross over to the Pop charts. 

  One fall night I was flipping through the AM dial and came upon an Album countdown show.  The only way I knew of the best-selling albums in 1976 was through my local paper, which published the weekly Billboard Top 20 albums and singles.  The show was called the National Album Countdown, a weekly Top 30, and it had just launched in '76 (ran until '85).  Because of my paper's Top Albums list, I knew of these albums and most had singles in the Top 40.  But there were others.  Names I didn't know like Bob Marley, Jeff Beck. A Bob Seger live album, Led Zeppelin's Presence.  What was this and why haven't I heard of any of it?  I still hung on to AM radio even after this, but I finally figured out how FM radio could be different than AM. Album Oriented Rock stations. Playing the songs that you would never hear on AT40.  It would be a few years before I started listening to AOR regularly, but that barely-remembered Countdown show from '76 started it all. And little did I know then, but I was hearing about the future of Classic Rock radio.

    In 1976 radio was filled with classic singles and albums by  Peter Frampton, Boston, Thin Lizzy, Blue Oyster Cult, Boz Scaggs, Steve Miller, Heart, ELO,  Abba, Thelma Houston, Bee Gees, Stevie Wonder, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Hall & Oates, Bob Seger, Queen, Spinners, KC & the Sunshine Band, Earth, Wind & Fire, Manhattans and Aerosmith. The list goes on and on. 

  Yet, everything that happened during that year had a bearing on how I became a music junkie: winning the Top 10 weekly singles, the AM radio countdown sheets, that lone R&B station in my town plus my continued pursuit of American Top 40, the National Album Countdown on the radio dial.

  What all of this did was shape my eclectic listening tastes that I still have today. 1976 was a glorious, musical year.  My love of AM Top 40 was cemented in 1976. A curiosity about what else was out there on the airwaves also began that year.  Which is why I still love most of the chart hits from the last Golden Decade of Top 40 radio.  The 1970's.

Just some of my favorite recordings of 1976:

Abba - "Dancing Queen"

Aerosmith - Rocks

Al Stewart - "Year of the Cat"

Bee Gees - Children of the World

Bellamy Brothers - "Let Your Love Flow"

Billy Ocean - "Love Really Hurts Without You"

Blue Oyster Cult - Agents of Fortune

Bob Marley & the Wailers - Rastaman Vibration

Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band - Night Moves

Boston - Boston

Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees

Brothers Johnson - "I'll Be Good To You"

Candi Staton - "Young Hearts Run Free"

Car Wash - Soundtrack

Commodores - "Sweet Love"

Daryl Hall & John Oates - "Sara Smile"

David Bowie - "Golden Years"

Deniece Williams - "Free"

Diana Ross "Love Hangover"

Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band - Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band 

Doobie Brothers - "Takin' It To The Streets"

Eagles - Hotel California

Eagles - "Take It To The Limit"

Earth, Wind & Fire - "Can't Hide Love"

Earth, Wind & Fire - "Getaway"

ELO - A New World Record

ELO - "Strange Magic"

ELO - "Evil Woman"

Elvis Presley - "Hurt"

Elton John & Kiki Dee - "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"

Elvin Bishop - "Fooled Around and Fell In Love"

England Dan & John Ford Coley - "I'd Really Love To See You Tonight"

Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action

Fleetwood Mac - "Rhiannon"

Foghat - "Slow Ride"

Four Seasons - "December 1963 (Oh What A Night)

George Benson - Breezin'

George Jones & Tammy Wynette - "Golden Ring"

Graham Parker & the Rumour - Howlin' Wind

Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes - "Wake Up Everybody"

Heart - "Crazy On You"

Hot Chocolate - "You Sexy Thing"

Isley Brothers - Harvest For The World

Jackson Browne - The Pretender

Johnny Cash - "One Piece At A Time"

Joni Mitchell - Hejira

Kansas - "Carry On Wayward Son"

Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Kate & Anna McGarrigle

KC & the Sunshine Band - Part 3

L.T.D. - "Love Ballad"

Lou Rawls - "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine"

Manhattans - "Kiss and Say Goodbye"

Marvin Gaye - "I Want You"

Maxine Nightingale - Right Back Where We Started From"

Mighty Clouds Of Joy - "Mighty High"

Miracles - "Love Machine"

Modern Lovers - Modern Lovers

Nazareth - "Love Hurts"

Norman Connors - "You Are My Starship"

Ohio Players - "Love Rollercoaster"

O'Jays - I Love Music"

Parliament - Mothership Connection

Paul Simon - "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover"

Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive

Queen - "You're My Best Friend"

Ramones -  Ramones

Roxy Music - "Love Is The Drug"

Rufus featuring Chaka Khan - "Sweet Thing"

Runaways - "Cherry Bomb"

Seals & Crofts - "Get Closer"

Spinners - "Rubberband Man"

Steve Miller Band - Fly Like An Eagle

Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life

Tammy Wynette - "'Til I Can Make It On My Own"

Thelma Houston - "Don't Leave Me This Way"

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - "American Girl"

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - "Breakdown"

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak

Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon

Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson - "Good Hearted Woman"

Wild Cherry - "Play That Funky Music"

One of the first Spotify playlists I made was on the music of 1976. 

Here's a link to it: Music of 1976