CHART FLASHBACK: HOT 100 July 4, 1976

1976 marked the 200th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence establishing the United States Of America.  It was a year-long celebration, the biggest birthday party ever and it culminated on July 4th: Independence Day, the date on that Declaration.

HERC was 10 years old in 1976 and some would argue his mind is still that age today.  Some of his all-time favorite songs, movies and television shows are from 1976.  Quite a few of his most favorite comic books and Topps football and baseball cards are also from 1976.

Many classic albums, eight of which are pictured above, were released in 1976 as well but HERC didn't buy any of them until later on in life.  HERC was actively buying singles and not albums in 1976 but that doesn't mean he didn't have a few albums on the shelf thanks to birthday and Christmas gifts.  Check out his album collection circa 1976 below:

While researching another post, HERC got to wondering what the Hot 100 songs were on our nation's Bicentennial so he started flipping through the charts, trying to find the one that included July 4, 1976.  Lo and behold, there was a chart for the week ending exactly on July 4, 1976!

Fourteen new songs debuted that week; highest debut belonged to Wings with "Let 'Em In", an insanely hooky concoction from Paul McCartney.  Sir Paul also appeared at #12 with his old group and their song "Got To Get You Into My Life" which was released as a single from the 1976 compilation Rock'n'Roll Music.  McCartney and Wings also had another single on the chart, the top of the chart that is, with  HERC's favorite song at the time: "Silly Love Songs".

Other notable debuts for the week ending July 4, 1976 were "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" Elton John's duet with Kiki Dee at #66; "You Should Be Dancing" a soon to be dance floor classic from the Bee Gees at #67; "Say You Love Me" from Fleetwood Mac at #74; Boz Scaggs's "Lowdown" at #82 and "Devil Woman" by Cliff Richard at #87 - all of which would be in HERC's collection before he started the fifth grade in late August.

Without further adieu, here's as much of the Hot 100 for the week ending July 4, 1976 as HERC could find on Spotify.  As it is the singles chart, he used single edits if they were available.