Monday, November 30, 2015

#1 Albums of 1978: Side-by-Side Charts

Week
Billboard
Cash Box
Rolling Stone
January 7 Rumours
Fleetwood Mac		 Rumours
Fleetwood Mac		 No chart
January 14
January 21 Saturday Night Fever
Soundtrack		 Saturday Night Fever
Soundtrack
January 28
February 4
February 11
February 18
February 25
March 4
March 11
March 18
March 25
April 1
April 8
April 15
April 22
April 29
May 6
May 13
May 20
May 27
June 3
June 10
June 17
June 24
July 1
July 8 City to City
Gerry Rafferty
July 15 Some Girls
The Rolling Stones		 Some Girls
The Rolling Stones
July 22
July 29 Grease
Soundtrack		 Grease
Soundtrack
August 5
August 12
August 19
August 26
September 2
September 9
September 16 Don't Look Back
Boston
September 23 Grease
Soundtrack
September 30
October 7 Don't Look Back
Boston
October 14 Grease
Soundtrack
October 21
October 28
November 4 Living in the USA
Linda Ronstadt
November 11 Live and More
Donna Summer
November 18 52nd Street
Billy Joel		 52nd Street
Billy Joel
November 25
December 2
December 9
December 16 52nd Street
Billy Joel
December 23 Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
Barbra Streisand
December 30
Week
Billboard
Cash Box
Rolling Stone
Labels: , , ,

5 comments :

  1. HERCNovember 30, 2015 at 10:13 AM

    What the heck ROLLING STONE? Here's how I imagine their chart would have went down:

    JANUARY-MARCH
    Rumours - Fleetwood Mac
    Foot Loose & Fancy Free - Rod Stewart
    The Stranger - Billy Joel

    APRIL-MAY
    The Grand Illusion - Styx
    Running On Empty - Jackson Browne
    Aja - Steely Dan
    Slowhand - Eric Clapton
    London Town - Wings

    JUNE-JULY
    Earth - Jefferson Starship
    FM soundtrack
    City To City - Gerry Rafferty
    Stranger In Town - Bob Seger
    Some Girls - Rolling Stones

    AUGUST
    Darkness On The Edge Of Town - Bruce Springsteen
    Double Vison - Foreigner
    Don't Look Back - Boston

    SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER
    Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Herats Club Band - soundtrack
    Who Are You - The Who
    Living In The USA - Linda Ronstadt

    NOVEMBER-DECEMBER
    Pieces Of Eight - Styx
    52nd Street - Billy Joel

    No complaints otherwise.

    Well, except for the Babs comp sneaking onto chart as Christmas gift.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MarkNovember 30, 2015 at 11:30 AM

      My crack staff tells me that Living in the USA would have directly preceded 52nd Street. I think the SNF soundtrack would have made RS #1, along with Rafferty, Stones, and Boston. My wild card pick would be Neil Young's Comes A Time because that seems very RS-ish.

      Delete
    2. HERCNovember 30, 2015 at 1:25 PM

      I wasthisclose to including Comes A Time but I remember it didn't sell as well is it could have or should have due to damage to the master tape during shipment to mixing facility. Young has always been an advocate for sound quality and he all but disowned the album, going so far as to buy 200,000 copies himself so they would not fall into fan's hands and using them to tile a barn roof on his farm. He admitted as much in a RS interview in 2014. He later was able to remaster and remix the album to his standards.

      Delete
  2. Martin MaenzaNovember 30, 2015 at 10:34 AM

    Those two soundtracks were big favorites of mine (still are) back in 1978. I owned the vinyl for both.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HERCNovember 30, 2015 at 1:52 PM

      1978 was a fantastic year for soundtrack albums though techically Saturday Night Fever was a 1977 release. The SRK covered charting soundtrack singles in his excellent Golden Age Of The Soundtrack series and in his 1978 post, he mentions the following soundtrack albums:
      Saturday Night Fever
      Grease
      Thank God It's Friday
      Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
      Foul Play
      Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
      Which Way Is Up?
      Eyes Of Laura Mars
      FM
      The Wiz

      I'd add these soundtrack albums to round out that list for 1978, all of which I have had the pleasure of owning on vinyl:
      Animal House
      Halloween
      Children Of Sanchez
      Midnight Express
      Superman The Movie
      Convoy
      American Hot Wax
      The Last Waltz

      Delete

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