Billboard Chart Scrapers: Spiders From Mars (1976)

Third in a series.  To be considered a "chart scraper" album, an artist must have had only one album make the Billboard 200 album chart during the years 1976-85.  Said album spent no more than two weeks on the chart, placing no higher than 196.  They're all new to me.

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Spiders from Mars

Released: 1976 (Pye) Produced by: Dennis McKay and Spiders from Mars

Side One	Side Two
Red Eyes Shine a Light White Man Black Man Fallen Star Summers of Gold Prisoner	(I Don't Wanna Do No) Limbo Stranger to My Door Good Day America Rainbow Can It Be Far/Interpolating/ Running Round in Circles

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Week	Position
April 3, 1976	200
April 10, 1976	197

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No Bowie, no Ronson, no interest.

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Wikipedia
Allmusic
Discogs
The Ziggy Stardust Companion

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Cash Box Chart Scrapers: Byron Berline and Sundance (1976)

Fifth in a series.  To be considered a "chart scraper" album, an artist must have had only one album make the Cash Box 200 album chart during the years 1976-85.  Said album spent no more than two weeks on the chart, placing no higher than 196.  They're all new to me.

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Byron Berline and Sundance

Released: 1976 (MCA) Produced by: Ken Mansfield

Side One	Side Two
Lea It Hurts So Much Sweet Wanomi Laid Back Day Till I Gain Control Again	Best Friends The World I'm Living In Storm Over Oklahoma Cold in California Locomotive

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Week	Position
August 21, 1976	200
August 28, 1976	200

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Absolutely nothing about this country/bluegrass album appeals to me, but maybe it's in your wheelhouse.  For what it's worth, "It Hurts So Much" is the best track on the thing.

My dislike of country music dates back to the early '70s when my parents would drag me along to their square dance practices instead of hiring a babysitter.  But that's a matter for me and my therapist.

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^*Cash Box chart information was taken from the book The Cash Box Album Charts, 1976-1985 (Scarecrow Press, 1987)

Foreigner - I Want to Know What Love Is (1984)

 I Want to Know What Love Is
b/w Street Thunder (Marathon Theme)

Released: November 1984 (Atlantic) Written by: Mick Jones Produced by: Mick Jones, Alex Sadkin Album: Agent Provocateur

U. S. Billboard Charts:
Hot 100	1
Adult Contemporary	3
Mainstream Rock	1
R&B	85

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While I count 1976-85 as my favorite decade, that doesn't mean I like everything produced during that time.  Case in point: this song which will make me run to a radio to change the station ASAP.  I can't stand this song.  It just plods along with a too heavy synth in a minor key.  Even the background gospel choir is singing a poor vocal arrangement with a flat, bored sound that says to me, "We're just doing this for the money."  Even though I was a Foreigner fan and, for three years, looked forward to a follow-up to 4, I couldn't bring myself to even try this album (the poorly titled Agent Provocateur).  It may be a good album, but I'll never know; this single ruined it for me.  I disliked it from the get-go.  It's just plain boring.  This band should rock.

I hear this called a power balled, but I'm not hearing that.  I realize that it was a huge hit and the band's only #1 song, but that only means it still gets played on the oldies stations with regularity.  When it does, I've changed the station before the DJ finishes talking over the intro.

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