Album Airplay/40-July 2, 1976
1. Steve Miller “Fly Like an Eagle”
He hadn’t put out an album in nearly three years and by this point no one was waiting, it appeared he’d fallen off the radar screen. After 1973’s smash “The Joker,” all we got was crickets.
“Fly Like an Eagle” was different from what came before, short songs all radio friendly. It is this album and 1977’s “Book of Dreams” that have sold tickets for Miller ever since.
The initial radio track was “Take the Money and Run,” which immediately hooked the listener. It had an upbeat sound foreign to today’s depressed era. We get hedonism today, but very little optimism.
From there the label went to “Rock’n Me” to the title track and it was truly astounding, Miller had come back with a vengeance, truly bigger than ever.
2. Steely Dan “The Royal Scam”
Steely Dan had an up and down career commercially. The initial LP was an instant smash, as a result of the singles “Do It Again” and “Reelin’ in the Years.”
Despite being the favorite of the cognoscenti, the follow-up “Countdown to Ecstasy” had no hit singles and not much commercial impact.
But then came “Pretzel Logic,” which had “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” which was ubiquitous, this sleeker, more jazz-oriented Dan was bigger than ever.
However, 1975’s “Katy Lied” failed to produce a hit single and is talked about very little these days, but I love that album.
I know every lick of 1976’s “The Royal Scam” because I drove from Utah to Connecticut with it in the Blaupunkt, along with five other brand new albums. At this late date “Kid Charlemagne” is well-known, but back then not so much. My favorite cut on the album is “Don’t Take Me Alive”:
“I’m a bookkeeper’s son
I don’t want to hurt no one
Well I crossed my old man back in Oregon
Don’t take me alive”
A bookkeeper is anything but a desperado, and with a specific state mentioned, the story becomes 3-D.
Of course, this is the album with “Everything You Did,” where the desperadoes themselves are mentioned:
“Turn up the Eagles the neighbors are listening”
3. Jeff Beck “Wired”
Jeff was riding high after the surprise success of “Blow By Blow, “Wired” was not as good, yet Beck still had relevance, but more on the turntable than the radio, I’m surprised by this high chart position, I don’t remember hearing this stuff on the radio.
4. James Taylor “In the Pocket”
The second collaboration with Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman, “In the Pocket” was a little less upbeat. But there are some amazing tracks. I used to point everyone to “Shower the People” all these years later, it was a hit, but ultimately it was deep and truthful, it was this insight we wanted from our artists:
“Once you tell somebody
The way that you feel
You can feel it beginning to ease
I think it’s true what they say
About the squeaky wheel
Always getting the grease”
But the true height of the album comes on the second side, the trilogy of “Captain Jim’s Drunken Dream” to “Don’t Be Sad ‘Cause Your Sun Is Down” to “Nothing Like a Hundred Miles”
“There’s nothing like a hundred miles between me and trouble in my mind”
Ain’t that the truth.
Then again, used to be when you drove that distance you were truly disconnected, not anymore.
But the piece-de-resistance is:
“Up here I’m a whisky bum but down there I’m a king”
You’re a king in one place, but it doesn’t mean anything when you take the fish out of water.
5. Chicago “X”
Really? By this point they were really a Top 40 band. Where they had a presence with Peter Cetera’s “If You Leave Me Now.” The days of the hard-charging debut were gone, the edges had been shorn off.
6. Carly Simon “Another Passenger”
It had her version of the Doobie Brothers “It Keep You Runnin’,” and “Radio & Records” was the Bible, but I never heard this album on the coasts, where I lived.
7. Marshall Tucker Band “Long Hard Ride”
They’d moved in a more country direction, but they still had a presence on AOR.
8. Aerosmith “Rocks”
They were truly back in the saddle, with a monster album that followed up “Toys in the Attic.” From there it was downhill until the Geffen days.
9. Gordon Lightfoot “Summertime Dream”
This is the one with “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” but despite his folk pedigree, by this point AOR rocked harder and Gord was seen as a Top 40 act, where he had some big successes.
10. Wings “At the Speed of Sound”
The worst of the three, the trilogy from “Band on the Run” to “Venus and Mars” to this. “Venus and Mars” is unduly overlooked, it might be lighter than “Band on the Run,” but it’s a great summer album, I love it.
All the attention was on “Silly Love Songs,” but it was the album tracks that make this LP. “Beware My Love” and “Time to Hide and “Warm and Beautiful.”
McCartney had peaks, but he has never been consistently this good since.
11. Firefall “Firefall”
They had their moment, but if you weren’t there, you don’t know, never mind remember.
12. “Southside Johnny” “I Don’t Want to Go Home.
Springsteen had broken through and he tried to pull Southside Johnny over the transom, however…
It was really a good bar band, a really good bar band, but that was it. This was the debut, the title track especially is very good, but with all the hype and the ultimate disappointment, despite more albums, the general public moved on from Southside Johnny.
13. Rolling Stones “Black and Blue”
I don’t think you could get away with that title today, never mind the bondage billboard.
This was a hodgepodge, trying out different replacements for Mick Taylor before they settled on Ronnie Wood and surprised everybody with 1978’s “Some Girls.”
I never liked the single “Fool to Cry,” but there are two great tracks on this album, “Memory Motel” has been resurrected as a result of the live duet with Dave Matthews, but “Hand of Fate” still has not gotten the recognition it deserves.
14. Grateful Dead “Steal Your Face”
The last LP on the band’s own label, it was neither a gigantic seller nor a big radio presence, despite this high chart number. Then again, it had just been released on June 26th.
15. Blue Oyster Cult “Agents of Fortune”
This is the one with “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” but in truth, it was all downhill from the debut, which was MARVELOUS!
16. Doobie Brothers “Takin It to the Streets”
This was the first LP with Michael McDonald, and although good, it was a complete change from what had come before. Tom Johnston was barely on it, and then left the group. The band soldiered on and then surprised everybody by resurfacing with “Minute by Minute” two albums later, in 1978
17. Boz Scaggs “Silk Degrees”
To say this was unexpected…
You have no idea how big this album was unless you were conscious back then. It was the favorite of women, they bought it and played it in their apartments and…you heard it everywhere.
One can argue it’s so good because of David Paich’s songwriting chops. Expectations were high for the follow-up, “Down Two Then Left,” however…sans Paich, it just didn’t hit the mark, and Boz never reached anywhere near these heights again. But for a moment there…
18. George Benson “Breezin'”
This is when he gained mainstream success, you can attribute the subsequent infiltration of soft jazz to this album, even though Benson had cred, a lot of dreck followed him. With this album, George became a household name.
19. Thin Lizzy “Jailbreak”
This is the one with “The Boys Are Back in Town.” And after that they dropped off the radio and never returned.
20. Todd Rundgren “Faithful”
The first side proved Rundgren’s chops as a producer, player and engineer, but side two of the LP, the one with the originals, was the heart of the album. “Love of the Common Man” and “The Verb ‘To Love'” are excellent.
21. Peter Frampton “Frampton Comes Alive!”
He’d already come alive on AOR, the summer of ’76 is when he penetrated Top 40.
22. Heart “Dreamboat Annie”
Unknown act on an unknown label produced by an unknown producer in Vancouver, far from the beaten track. But all you had to do was hear it. Kinda like “More Than a Feeling” later in the year.
This album had actually come out in 1975, but it was still being played. The one-two punch of “Crazy on You” to “Magic Man”…who were these people!
They had a soft side, but really they were straight ahead rockers, overnight they were part of the firmament. I’ve got a half-speed mastered vinyl album of this recording, it’s FANTASTIC, which is surprising, you wouldn’t expect such clarity considering the people who made it and where they made it.
23. Andy Pratt “Resolution”
I bought it, but really it was about the 1973 Columbia debut with “Avenging Annie,” he never reached those heights again, either in quality or sales.
He came from a rich family…
24. Jethro Tull “Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die”
After the blues-influenced debut with Mick Abrahams the audience loved Tull, but the critics never did. Even at this late date, the act was getting airplay, especially with the title track of this LP, but they’d burned out the audience with “A Passion Play,” which was a redo of the concept of the previous breakthrough “Thick as a Brick,” but not as good. You can only stunt once, do not repeat yourself.
And then, in 1987, an album that whose tracks were picked by focus group, was all over the airwaves. It was “Crest of a Knave” that won the metal Grammy everybody thought Metallica deserved.
Ian Anderson didn’t even go to the ceremony, but somehow he’s been tarred by the inanity of the Grammy voters. I mean it wasn’t his fault.
Tull still gets no respect, but it deserves it. But the same critics who pooh-poohed the band refuse to induct it into the Rock Hall. Wankers…
25. Spirit “Farther Along”
The band had broken in two, and despite a good track here and there, neither the latter-day Spirit nor Jo Jo Gunne really had any commerciality.
Once again, as is the case with a lot of the unsuccessful records in this chart, this album had just been released, and stations were giving it some spins before they dropped it.
26. Jay Ferguson “All Alone in the End Zone”
Did you know he became a soundtrack composer when the hits dried up?
Jo Jo Gunne had broken up. This album was not highly anticipated and it did not sell. No one foresaw the success of “Thunder Island” the following year.
27. City Boy “City Boy”
The act had some success in the U.K., got some reviews over here, I actually bought it, but it’s the backstory that makes this album interesting.
Clive Calder, Ralph Simon and Mutt Lange left South Africa where they’d been cutting soundalike records and dropping them before their official releases to come to London and play in the big leagues. Produced by Mutt, this was the beginning of the juggernaut, not that anybody knew it back then.
28. Billy Joel “Turnstiles”
It had come out in May, and if you think Billy meant much on rock radio after “Piano Man,” you’re misinformed or delusional. He did get some airplay with “The Entertainer,” and “Los Angelenos” from the second Columbia LP, but by the time of this third, Billy was making his bones on the road. It wasn’t until he hooked up with Phil Ramone on the following year’s “The Stranger” that he became the Billy Joel revered today.
“Turnstiles” suffers from Billy’s production and less than crystal clear engineering…the sound may not be right, but there are some FANTASTIC songs on this. This is the LP with “New York State of Mind,” which may be a standard now, but was not a single back then. And it also has “Summer, Highland Falls” and “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway,” and I’d say I’d have liked to have seen Billy rerecord “Turnstiles” with Ramone, but in reality he did, on 1981’s “Songs in the Attic.” There they truly come alive, it’s Billy’s best work.
29. Santana “Amigos”
It was over, sans the original band most people were not paying attention.
30. Tubes “Young and Rich”
A grave disappointment after their Al Kooper-produced debut the previous year, but it does include “Don’t Touch Me There.”
31. Charlie Daniels “Saddle Tramp”
This was back when he was still a rocker, before “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and the turn to country. He’d had “The South’s Gonna Do It” from two albums before, from “Fire on the Mountain,” but I don’t remember this album having any presence on rock radio.
32. Jerry Jeff Walker “It’s a Good Night for Singin'”
I think even Jerry Jeff would be surprised he’s this high on the chart.
33. Fleetwood Mac “Fleetwood Mac”
Other than the Frampton album, this is the biggest LP on the chart. But it took a long time to percolate in the marketplace, yet despite being released nearly a year and a half earlier, this music was still regularly played on the radio.
34. Ben Sidran “Free in America”
Clive Davis had actually given him a major label deal. But Clive couldn’t make Ben a household name.
35. Harry Nilsson “…That’s the Way It Is”
The way it was was Harry had blown out his voice on 1974’s “Pussy Cats” and although that album sold on his name…
Once bitten, twice shy.
36. Bob Marley & the Wailers “Rastaman Vibration”
He didn’t live up to the hype, true Jamaican reggae had not gone mainstream. Johnny Nash and Paul Simon had hits, but Bob Marley was not a household name. But he ultimately became one, with the release of “Live” in the U.S.
“One good thing about music
When it hits, you feel no pain”
37. Leon & Mary Russell “Wedding Album”
Leon had seemed to lose the plot, we read about him, but we didn’t listen to him.
38. Chris Hillman “Slippin’ Away”
I bought this album, other than Andy Somers, I don’t know anybody else who did. It’s actually pretty good!
39. Toot & the Maytals “Reggae Got Soul”
I did hear the title track on the radio, but Toots never really broke big up here.
40. Sons of Champlin “Circle Filled with Love”
All you’ve got to know is this album came out on Ariola America, after the band was on Capitol and Columbia. Bill had his greatest success with Chicago.
