Billboard didn't publish a Rock chart until 1981. Until then, Rock singles like the ones below had to blend in with the other popular songs on Billboard's Hot 100 and fight for airplay. Most of these were played quite often on WLS, HERC's radio station of choice back in the day and at the jukebox outfitted places HERC used to haunt in 1978, ie two pizza places. Sadly, the songs did not get a lot of play at the roller rink or at least not as much as the some of the songs featured on prior 45s posts. All of them are still favorites today, more than 35 years after first hearing them, and none of them elicit a skip reflex when they come on. If this is your first time viewing a HERC's 1978 45s post, welcome in and please feel free to catch up as he lists his 100 favorite singles from 1978: Country 45s, Funk 45s, Soft Rock 45s and Summer 45s all feature 58 songs in total. Here are 18 more towards those 100:
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New York Groove does it to me every time. It wasn't until a few years ago that I discovered that it is actually a cover of a 1975 tune by the British glam-rock band Hello. The original version is pretty cool too.
ReplyDeleteAce's version is a straight up read of Hello's. Would like to say his was only solo album I bought when they came out but I would be lying - I bought two that day and the other two a week later.
DeleteMore recently, Sweet covered it and mashed it up with Jay Z's "Empire State Of Mind" which I kind of dig.
Another version that caught my ear was featured on premiere episode of NYC 22 from way back in 2012. Hear snippets
Even more recently, Ace himself performed the song with The Roots on The Tonight Show. Couldn't find any video of that performance, though.