Album ads from December 1977

 

Top Albums of December 3, 1977

Let's take a look at what was topping the album charts on December 3, 1977:

	Billboard	CashBox	Record World
1	Simple Dreams Linda Ronstadt	Simple Dreams Linda Ronstadt	Rumours Fleetwood Mac
2	Rumours Fleetwood Mac	Rumours Fleetwood Mac	Simple Dreams Linda Ronstadt
3	Aja Steely Dan	Aja Steely Dan	Elvis in Concert Elvis Presley
4	Live Commodores	Elvis in Concert Elvis Presley	Street Survivors Lynyrd Skynyrd
5	Foot Loose & Fancy Free Rod Stewart	Shaun Cassidy Shaun Cassidy	Aja Steely Dan
6	Street Survivors Lynyrd Skynyrd	Greatest Hits, Vol. II Elton John	Moody Blue Elvis Presley
7	Point of No Return [sic] Kansas	Street Survivors Lynyrd Skynyrd	Shaun Cassidy Shaun Cassidy
8	You Light Up My Life Debby Boone	Point of Know Return Kansas	You Light Up My Life Soundtrack
9	In Full Bloom Rose Royce	Star Wars Original Soundtrack	You Light Up My Life Debby Boone
10	Let's Get Small Steve Martin	Foreigner Foreigner	Star Wars Original Soundtrack

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Exclusive MFD meta-analysis of the above charts:

1. Simple Dreams (29 pts)
2. Rumours (28 pts)
3. Aja (22 pts)
4. Street Survivors (16 pts)
5. Elvis in Concert (15 pts)
6. Shaun Cassidy (10 pts)
7. (tie) Commodores Live & Point of Know Return (7 pts)
9. Foot Loose & Fancy Free (6 pts)
10. (tie) You Light Up My Life (Boone), Greatest Hits Vol. II, & Moody Blue (5 pts)
13. (tie) Star Wars & You Light Up My Life (soundtrack) (3 pts)
15. In Full Bloom (2 pts)
16. (tie) Let's Get Small & Foreigner (1 pt)

Music ads from 1977

 

Music ads from 1977

 

MFD Random Five #47

In which I shuffle through some music files and listen to the first five songs from the years 1976-85 that randomly pop up.

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1. "Miss Me Blind" by Culture Club (1984, Epic)
   The song that made me a Culture Club fan and still my favorite CC tune. Tasty vocal harmonies, easy to dance to, fuzzy guitar solo that has a nice shape followed by that hooky break about 3:15 in. 


2. "Soft Touch" by Doc Severinsen (1977, Columbia)
   I wrote about Severinsen's 1977 Brand New Thing album back in 2014. Here's what I wrote about this tune then: "A beautiful ballad played flawlessly by Severinsen.  Richard Tee's accompaniment is perfect: adding stuff where he should, laying back when he should.  Doc's solos focus on melody over technique and that's just what is called for here."


3. "Carrie" by Cliff Richard (1980, EMI)
   A minor US hit for Richard (it peaked at #34 on the Billboard Hot 100). This minor key pop-rocker doesn't do much for me.


4. "I Told U So" by David Sanborn (1982, Warner Bros.)
   And my day just got better tenfold. This lead track from the excellent Backstreet album immediately relaxes me and puts me in a better mood. How good is it? Well, after this shuffle is finished, I'll probably spin the whole album at least once (well, maybe not track 3). 


5. "Windpower" by Thomas Dolby (1982, EMI)
   Great song from a favorite album. Released as a single in Europe, this thing is definitely unique synthpop - Morse code intro, relentless synth toms, atypical song structure, out-of-place horn licks, flute obligato, and hooks a'plenty. The album mix shuffled around today, but there's also a 6 minute "Extended Play" version which is wonderful jumble to the above song elements.

The Dance Decade 1973-1983

So I'm perusing past issues of Smash Hits magazine and come across the following ad:

You have my full attention now, Smash Hits. Since I was in Texas and not England in 1983, it's not surprising that I didn't hear of this compilation when it was originally released. I could nitpick and complain that 1973-1983 is eleven years and, therefore, more than a decade, but no time for that - I gotta see a track list and quick. You can see the Discogs listing by clicking here or below is the best photo of the box set back cover I could find:

click to enlarge

That's a damn fine compilation plus many tunes with which I was previously unfamiliar. Here's a playlist (in dire need of updating) if you want to judge/discover for yourself:

Charting the Charts: Donna Summer - Once Upon a Time (1977)

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Here's a look at how the 1977 Donna Summer album Once Upon a Time fared on the album charts in various publications:

1977
Date	Billboard 200	Billboard R&B (60)	Cashbox 200	Cashbox R&B (75)
Nov 19			95	50
Nov 26	48	31	80	33
Dec 3	40	21	54	24
Dec 10	36	14	43	17
Dec 17	31	13	35	14
Dec 24	29	18	30	11
Dec 31	29	18	26	8

1978
Date	Billboard 200	Billboard R&B (60)	Cashbox 200	Cashbox R&B (75)
Jan 7	27	18	25	7
Jan 14	26	18	24	7
Jan 21	26	24	31	10
Jan 28	30	24	35	12
Feb 4	29	21	37	13
Feb 11	43	25	48	14
Feb 18	89	26	59	18
Feb 25	130	26	59	22
Mar 4	130	26	60	22
Mar 11	126	29	72	23
Mar 18	120	32	75	26
Mar 25	115	32	85	29
Apr 1	111	32	102	32
Apr 8	109	32	118	32
Apr 15	104	35	132	36
Apr 22	104	44	167	37
Apr 29	104	50	195	38
May 6	99	51	200	46
May 13	97	53		55
May 20	95	58		61
May 27	93			75
Jun 3	89			68
Jun 10	104			66
Jun 17	104			65
Jun 24	108			65
Jul 1				70
Jul 8			195	71
Jul 15			191
Jul 22			189
Jul 29			188

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Bracketology: Donna Summer Singles, Sweet 16

I've created this bracket of 16 of Donna Summer's Top 40 singles between the years 1976-85 (sorry, "This Time It's for Real") and we'll match them against each other, round by round, until a winner emerges. I hope you'll play along as I'm sure your bracket will turn out differently from mine. I based the seedings on Billboard Hot 100 chart peaks.

• 1 vs 16: "Bad Girls" (#1 for 5 weeks in 1979) vs. "The Woman in Me" (#33 in 1983)
• 2 vs 15: "Hot Stuff" (#1 for 3 weeks in 1979) vs. "Cold Love"  (#33 in 1981)
• 3 vs 14: "MacArthur Park" (#1 for 3 weeks in 1978) vs. "There Goes My Baby" (#21 in 1984)
• 4 vs 13: "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)" (#1 for 2 weeks) vs. "Love is in Control (Finger on the Trigger" (#10 in 1982)
• 5 vs 12: "Love to Love You Baby" (#2 for 2 weeks in 1976) vs. "I Feel Love" (#6 in 1977)
• 6 vs 11: "Dim All the Lights" (#2 for 2 weeks in 1979) vs. "On the Radio" (#5 in 1980)
• 7 vs 10: "Last Dance" (#3 in 1978) vs. "Heaven Knows" (#4 in 1979)
• 8 vs 9: "She Works Hard for the Money" (#3 in 1983) vs. "The Wanderer" (#3 in 1980)

Fill out your bracket(s) with your personal favorites and check back for the semifinal round.

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Blog post #800

MFD Random Five #45

In which I click the shuffle icon on the terminal iTunes app and listen to the first five songs that pop up from the years 1976-85.

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1. "To All the Girls I've Love Before" by Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson (1984, Columbia)
   An inauspicious start to this post. Hard pass.


2. "Johnny B. Goode" by Peter Tosh (1983, EMI)
   This song doesn't really need covering and this reggae version doesn't come close to the energy of the original.  The reggae groove is okay but there's strange synths and below-average noodling guitar solo. Meh.


3. "Here Comes II (new version)" by INXS (1983, ATCO)
   A mediocre ending to the Dekadance EP, this song can't decide what it wants to be: moody ballad or rocker. Plus Hutchence doesn't give himself a chance to let go. I can't muster much enthusiasm for this Random Five thus far.


4. "Away from Home" by Klark Kent (1980, A&M)
   Kent (a.k.a. Police drummer Stewart Copeland) put out a few singles before the Police hit it big. Not surprisingly, they sound like Stewart's contributions to Police albums. Copeland "re-purposed" the melody from this song's chorus (a simple descending arpeggio) for "Bombs Away" from Zenyatta Mondatta. 


5. "Nervous Wreck" by Radio Stars (1977, Chiswick)
   Average power pop/early New Wave, this quirky thing is enjoyable enough, but compared to the rest of this Random Five, it's a two minute, four chord masterpiece.

Two Hit Wonders 1976-85 [7 of 16]

*to qualify as a MFD two hit wonder, the artist or group can have placed only two singles in the Billboard Top 40 and those two singles must have entered the Top 40 during the years 1976-85.  Many of these artists are occasionally mistaken for a one hit wonder or have hit other charts in Billboard, but each hit the Top 40 only twice. In no particular order, here's four of the 64 that I found:

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PETER BROWN
Born on 7/11/53 in Blue Island, Illinois. Disco singer/keyboardist.

Title	Top 40 Debut	Chart Peak
Do Ya Wanna Get Funky with Me	10/8/77	18
Dance With Me (w/Betty Wright)	5/6/78	8

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EDDY GRANT
Born Edmond Grant on 3/5/48 in Plaisance, Guyana; raised in London. Rock-reggae singer. Member of The Equals.

Title	Top 40 Debut	Chart Peak
Electric Avenue	5/21/83	2
Romancing the Stone	6/30/84	26

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MAXINE NIGHTINGALE
Born on 11/2/52 in Wembly, England. Acted in productions of Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell and Savages.

Title	Top 40 Debut	Chart Peak
Right Back Where We Started From	3/13/76	2
Lead Me On	7/7/79	5

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PETE TOWNSHEND
Born on 5/19/45 in London. Lead guitarist/songwriter of The Who.

Title	Top 40 Debut	Chart Peak
Let My Love Open the Door	7/5/80	9
Face the Face	12/21/85	26

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Data and artist descriptions taken from The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 7th edition (2000).