Just a few weeks back, I was checking to see if there were any movies playing in the theater worth the time, money and effort. One of the very first film posters to greet my eyes was Smokey and the (mothertruckin') Bandit! I asked my better-half, the Frog to my Bandit and the Snowman to my Fred if we could go. She said "No" so I missed seeing Burt Reynolds, Jerry Reed, Jackie Gleason and that lady that played Forrest Gump's Momma on the big screen once again. But that's alright, that's okay, I can watch the film another day as I have it on both Special Edition DVD and wonder-if-my-player-still-works HD-DVD.
The album on the top-left is the official soundtrack album, featuring music as heard in the film along with "incidental" CB dialogue. It spent ten weeks on the Bubbling Under chart, never to break onto the Top 200 LPs and Tapes chart. In a twelve week run on the Hot Country LPs chart, Smokey and the Bandit peaked at number 10. The album on the bottom-left is the obligatory contractual cash-in album from Reed's label, RCA. It features three songs from the soundtrack album above, substituting a newly recorded single version of "East Bound And Down" for the soundtrack version, as well as seven other previously released tracks from Reed's extensive back catalog. East Bound and Down spent eleven weeks Bubbling Under the Top LPS chart and sixteen weeks on the Hot Country LPs chart, also peaking at number 10. There is little doubt the two competing albums cannibalized one another's sales. Both albums were also affected by the massive outpouring of grief and demand that followed Elvis Presley's untimely death in August 1977, in both promotion and production.
I count six songs in the table below that were featured in or based on soundtracks to movies from 1976-1977 with several more appearing in films within the past forty years but there is no "East Bound and Down" to be found. The single spent five weeks climbing the Hot Country Singles chart before spending a record sixteen weeks Bubbling Under the Hot 100. The single eventually peaked at number 2 on the Hot Country Singles chart in a four-month run. Despite this lack of popular success, I loved the song and bought the 45 the day I first found it in 1977 and eventually acquired the two albums as well. Fun Fact: The top two grossing films of 1977 - Star Wars and Smokey and the Bandit - opened on the same day, May 25, 1977.
| Week | Billboard | Cash Box | Record World |
January 1
| Tonight's The Night | You Don't Have To Be A Star | |
| Rod Stewart | You Don't Have To Be A Star | Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. | |
January 8
| You Don't Have To Be A Star | Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. | You Make Me Feel Like Dancing |
| Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. | Leo Sayer | ||
January 15
| You Make Me Feel Like Dancing | Car Wash | |
| Leo Sayer | Car Wash | Rose Royce | |
January 22
| I Wish | Rose Royce | I Wish |
| Stevie Wonder | Stevie Wonder | ||
January 29
| Car Wash | I Wish | Car Wash |
| Rose Royce | Stevie Wonder | Rose Royce | |
February 5
| Blinded By The Light | ||
| Torn Between Two Lovers | Manfred Mann's Earth Band | Torn Between Two Lovers | |
February 12
| Mary MacGregor | Mary MacGregor | |
February 19
| Blinded By The Light | Torn Between Two Lovers | Blinded By The Light |
| Manfred Mann's Earth Band | Mary MacGregor | Manfred Mann's Earth Band | |
February 26
| New Kid In Town | ||
| Eagles | Torn Between Two Lovers | ||
March 5
| Mary MacGregor | ||
March 12
| Evergreen (Love Theme From A Star Is Born) | Evergreen (Love Theme From A Star Is Born) | |
| Barbra Streisand | Barbra Streisand | Evergreen (Love Theme From A Star Is Born) | |
March 19
| Barbra Streisand | ||
March 26
| Rich Girl | Dancing Queen | |
| Rich Girl | Hall & Oates | ABBA | |
April 2
| Hall & Oates | Dancing Queen | |
| ABBA | Rich Girl | ||
April 9
| Dancing Queen | Rich Girl | Hall & Oates |
| ABBA | Hall & Oates | ||
April 16
| Don't Give Up On Us | Don't Give Up On Us | Don't Give Up On Us |
| David Soul | David Soul | David Soul | |
April 23
| Don't Leave Me This Way | Hotel California | Hotel California |
| Thelma Houston | Eagles | Eagles | |
April 30
| Southern Nights | Southern Nights | Southern Nights |
| Glen Campbell | Glen Campbell | Glen Campbell | |
May 7
| Hotel California | ||
| Eagles | |||
May 14
| When I Need You | When I Need You | When I Need You |
| Leo Sayer | Leo Sayer | Leo Sayer | |
May 21
| |||
May 28
| Sir Duke | Sir Duke | |
| Stevie Wonder | Stevie Wonder | Sir Duke | |
June 4
| I'm Your Boogie Man | Stevie Wonder | |
| KC & the Sunshine Band | |||
June 11
| I'm Your Boogie Man | Dreams | I'm Your Boogie Man |
| KC & the Sunshine Band | Fleetwood Mac | KC & the Sunshine Band | |
June 18
| Dreams | Got To Give It Up (Part 1) | Got To Give It Up (Part 1) |
| Fleetwood Mac | Marvin Gaye | Marvin Gaye | |
June 25
| Got To Give It Up (Part 1) | Gonna Fly Now | Dreams |
| Marvin Gaye | Bill Conti | Fleetwood Mac | |
July 2
| Gonna Fly Now | Undercover Angel | Undercover Angel |
| Bill Conti | Alan O'Day | Alan O'Day | |
July 9
| Undercover Angel | Da Doo Ron Ron | |
| Alan O'Day | Da Doo Ron Ron | Shaun Cassidy | |
July 16
| Da Doo Ron Ron | Shaun Cassidy | |
| Shaun Cassidy | |||
July 23
| Looks Like We Made It | I'm In You | Undercover Angel |
| Barry Manilow | Peter Frampton | Alan O'Day | |
July 30
| |||
August 6
| I Just Want To Be Your Everything | I Just Want To Be Your Everything | |
| Andy Gibb | Andy Gibb | ||
August 13
| I Just Want To Be Your Everything | ||
| Andy Gibb | |||
August 20
| |||
August 27
| Best Of My Love | Best Of My Love | |
| Best Of My Love | The Emotions | The Emotions | |
September 3
| The Emotions | ||
| I Just Want To Be Your Everything | |||
September 10
| (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher And Higher | Andy Gibb | |
| Rita Coolidge | |||
September 17
| I Just Want To Be Your Everything | Don't Stop | |
| Andy Gibb | Fleetwood Mac | Best Of My Love | |
September 24
| Best Of My Love | The Emotions | |
| The Emotions | Star Wars Theme / Cantina Band | ||
October 1
| Meco | ||
| Star Wars Theme / Cantina Band | Star Wars Theme / Cantina Band | ||
October 8
| Meco | Meco | |
October 15
| |||
October 22
| |||
October 29
| |||
| You Light Up My Life | |||
November 5
| Debby Boone | ||
November 12
| |||
| You Light Up My Life | |||
November 19
| Debby Boone | ||
| You Light Up My Life | |||
November 26
| Debby Boone | ||
December 3
| |||
| Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue | |||
December 10
| Crystal Gayle | ||
December 17
| |||
December 24
| How Deep Is Your Love | ||
| How Deep Is Your Love | Bee Gees | ||
December 31
| Bee Gees | ||
YEAR END
| Tonight's The Night | You Light Up My Life | You Light Up My Life |
| Rod Stewart | Debby Boone | Debby Boone |
Do not get me started on the nonsensical way Billboard tabulates their year-end charts and how a song that was Number One for exactly one week in 1977 ended up as the Number One Song of the Year while a song that spent a record-setting ten weeks at the top of the chart ends up not being the Number One Song of the Year for 1977 or 1978.
Fun flick. I first saw it in November 1977 at our local one-screen movie theater, where all tickets were $2. (Within 7 years, they tore it down and put a Wendy's.) Also - you may not have counted it, as it wasn't in a movie, but "Da Doo Ron Ron" was featured on an episode of "The Hardy Boys"... (and even at 11 I thought it was lame.)
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