SONG HITS (May and June 1978)

The May 1978 issue of Song Hits features the legendary David Bowie on the cover as the Pop Star Of The Month. His two-page bio on pages 8 and 9 briefly covers his entire career up through 1977's Heroes but none of Bowie's song lyrics appear within the issue. High Inergy garners 10 paragraphs and a giant page & a half pic as the Soul Star Of The Month. Oddly, they are not represented among the lyrics to over 60 hit songs either. Same holds true for the Country Star Of The Month, John Denver - none of his song lyrics are printed in the issue. Which begs the question: What song lyrics ARE printed in the May 1978 issue of Song Hits magazine?

There are a few really good songs in the Soul Section and even more in the Pop Section including a cluster of three chart-topping Barry Gibb compositions pages 20 and 21.

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Changes were apparent in the June 1978 issue of Song Hits:

• the cover price was raised 50% to 75 cents;
• the tagline Words To Over 60 Hit Songs was updated to Words To Over 80 Hit Songs;
• there are four artist names listed on the cover instead of three;
• the page count increased from 50 to 66;
• and the back cover was printed in color for the very first time.

Styx got the coveted cover spot of the issue as well as the first of the two Pop Star Of The Month write-ups with a spread on pages 8 and 9. The lyrics to "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)" by the group appear on page 16. Player is the other Pop Star Of The Month and their write-up on pages 18 and 19 focuses on each member individually. Not surprisingly, there are no lyrics to a Player song within the magazine's 66 pages though to be fair, there are a lot more full-page ads, especially near the back of the magazine in the Country Section. Roberta Flack is the issue's Soul Star Of The Month on pages 34 and 35. She's represented lyrically by "The Closer I Get To You", her duet with Donny Hathaway, on page 28. The Country Section begins on page 36 and then the Country Star Of The Month, Mr. Mel Tillis, gets the spotlight on pages 38 and 39. Like Player, Tillis has no song lyrics in the issue.

As you can see from the table of contents, the issue is heavy with lyrics to Country Songs and the ratio of quality to quantity is way off. I also believe there is a mistake in the Soul Songs section as the lyrics to Gene Cotton's "Before My Heart Finds Out" are both listed and printed there. This issue also contains three songs from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack album: "Night Fever", "If I Can't Have You" and "Boogie Shoes".

The first-ever full-color back cover features all twelve issues of Song Hits from 1977. If anyone wants to help, we still need the Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Aug, Oct, and Dec issues for the archive.