It may be a new year but it's the same old stuff here at The Hideaway with yet another WLS survey from the middle of the stack. We're dialing the wayback machine forty years back to 1979 today. Specifically, the thirteenth day of the first month of that year. It's the station's first regular chart after the previous week's recap of the hottest hits from 1978.
Jeff Davis® is the Jock Of The Week with 1979 marking his 5th year of more than 40 at WLS. Up until recently(?) he could still be heard on weekends on WLS albeit on the FM side of the dial. I do not recall ever hearing Davis especially not if he was working the past my bedtime shift.
I'm not entirely certain that Carlos & Co. rocked Chicago's International Amphitheatre as I could not find any report of it but maybe I did not look long or hard enough. They were touring behind 1978's Inner Secrets album and it remains one of the least critically acclaimed albums in the band's six-decade history though Columbia pushed it, releasing five singles - all but a pair of songs from the album were released on a 45 - yet only two of the five charted: covers of "Stormy" and "One Chain (Don't Make No Prison)" with the latter also released as a 12 inch single that peaked at number 53 on the Disco chart.
I was able to verify that Santana played three further dates in Chicago in 1979: March 1st at the International Amphitheatre (make-up date?); August 5th at Comiskey Park for a rival station's Day In The Park event with Journey, Thin Lizzy, Molly Hatchet & Eddie Money; and on Thanksgiving Night, November 22nd, celebrating A Decade Of Music at the Uptown with label mate Eddie Money opening.
We start off with this week's Thirty-threes chart and begin as we often do with the chart debuts, those albums who weren't on the charts the week before. Or, in this case, two weeks ago.
Olivia Newton-John's Totally Hot was the lowest charting of the four debuts this week, holding down the anchor spot at number 33. The album would peak at number 5 in February and complete its chart cycle on the Thirty-threes exactly where it began, down at number 33 for the week ending May 12th. Parliament jumped on the albums chart at number 30 with Motor Booty Affair. Despite two Number Ones on Billboard's Hot Black Singles Chart, the album would only peak at number 21 for two weeks before dropping off the list at the end of March. Toto was holdin' the line at number 29 this week with their self-titled debut disc on the way to a number 6 peak in February before exiting the list at the end of June. Cruisin' in at number 28 were the Village People with their third album Cruisin'. Buoyed by the megahit "Y.M.C.A.", the album would spend nine weeks in the Top 10, peaking at number 4 in March before leaving the Thirty-threes in May as their subsequent album Go West was rising.
The Who's Who Are You took the biggest tumble this week, falling eight spots from number 15 to number 23. The album had debuted back in September 1978 all the way up at number 15, peaked at number 5 the following month and would remain on the station's albums chart until the last week in January 1979.
This week's biggest gainer, moving up from its debut at number 29 two charts ago to number 10 this week, is Briefcase Full Of Blues from brothers Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues bka The Blues Brothers. The album would peak at Number One for a couple of weeks in February but slip off the chart in June. (The act would spend the last half of 1979 filming the popular film The Blues Brothers.) Three singles were released from the album with the first — "Soul Man" — charting the highest backed by a non-album B-side. Briefcase Full Of Blues is also one of four albums on this week's list that were recorded live.
The other three albums were Aerosmith's largely forgotten Live Bootleg at number 2, Donna Summer's wonderful Live And More at number 5 and Steve Martin's A Wild And Crazy Guy at number 3. Like A Briefcase Full Of Blues, Summer's Live And More was recorded before a live audience at LA's Universal Amphitheater. And another coincidence is that The Blues Brothers were opening for Steve Martin when their album was recorded while Martin recorded his album in San Francisco and Denver.
The only artist with two albums on the list of Thirty-threes is Billy Joel. The Stranger falls one spot to number 13 this week while 52nd Street falls from the top spot to number 2 though it would reclaim Number One the very next week. Fortunately for twelve-year-old me in 1979, Dad bought the albums above by the Village People, The Blues Brothers, Donna Summer and these two from Joel. In 1979, the only album above I owned was the Steve Martin record which was de rigueur for boys my age as we would entertain one another at the bus stop, at lunch, in physical education, and at recess by reciting the album's routines to one another.
There are three hits compilations on this week's chart. The Best Of Earth Wind & Fire Vol. I up four to number 17 and the double-pocket Greatest Hits of Barry Manilow down one to number 7. Moving up one, displacing 52nd Street at Number One, is Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits Volume 2.
Which brings us to my spotlight album of the week, Chic's C'est Chic which I got as a gift for my thirteenth birthday in April 1979. I bought the 45s for "Le Freak" and "I Want Your Love" before that so hearing the full-length album versions was a real treat. Actually, the whole album is a blast from the opening, pseudo-live "Chic Cheer" chant through the dance hits "Le Freak" and "I Want Your Love" then the glacially slow chill of "At Last I Am Free" before ending with the groovy instrumental "(Funny) Bone". I am on record somewhere saying "I Want Your Love" contains one of Nile Rodgers' three greatest guitar solos, with the other two found on Sister Sledge's "Lost In Music" and Norma Jean's "I Like Love".
Next time out, we'll look at the Forty-fives and the flipside of the survey for the week ending January 13, 1979.
~1194~
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