The singles listed on the Forty-fives section of the WLS survey dated January 24, 1976, are simply top-notch. I've thoroughly enjoyed listening to them over the past few days. (As well as the last 48 years.) I'd like to share six of my favorites from the list.
I don't recall ever hearing it played on WLS, so it was something of a surprise to see Dylan's "Hurricane" debuting on the Forty-fives at number 45. The single spent three weeks on the list, peaking at number 38 in its third and final week. My earliest memory of the song was
soundtracking Wooderson's entrance into The Emporium with Pink and Mitch in tow in 1993's
Dazed and Confused. The song has since become a rediscovered classic for me and, as Mrs. HERC and my lucky neighbors can attest, "Hurricane" gets quite a bit of airplay here at The Hideaway, both indoors and out.
links to the full 8:32 version
"Get Down Tonight" falls two to number 44 in its twenty-first and final week on the list. The song hit Number One in late September 1975 and wound up at number 16 on the Big 89 of 1975 year-end listing. I've always believed that this song was a close cousin to Kiss's iconic party anthem "Rock And Roll All Nite" and both songs can be traced directly to Daft Punk's "Get Lucky".
Linda Ronstadt and her band
performed "Heat Wave" on the episode of
The Midnight Special dated February 21, 1975, though the performance was one of several filmed in January of that year. The group had only recently added the song to their concert setlist and it would turn out to be one of the first songs recorded for their new album.
Prisoner in Disguise hit the streets in September 1975 and "Heat Wave" debuted on WLS's Forty-fives list in October 1975, peaking at number 5 in November. On 1975's Big 89, the single sat at number 67. This week would be the song's fifteenth and final one on the Forty-fives list. The album and this song in particular got lots of spins in our house.
"Golden Years" would not peak much higher than this week's number 40. It was the third and final Bowie single to land on the Forty-fives in the Seventies. Dad jumped on "Golden Years" as soon as he heard it counted down on American Top 40 one weekend on WLRW. Did he run right out and buy the Station to Station album with that song? No. My Dad, never known for his patience, bought the 45 because the album wasn't due out until the following week. He never did buy the album.
The biggest mover on WLS's Forty-fives this week is Paul Simon's "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover". The song moves up thirteen spots to number 22 this week and will hit Number One two weeks later. On the Big 89 of '76, "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" ended up at number 15. Simon didn't list all fifty ways to leave in the song so it was up to us kids on the playground to come up with the rest of them though I feel we were more about making the rhyme than making sense.
Falling two spots to number 15 on the Forty-fives is Jigsaw's three-minute epic "Sky High". The song had peaked at number 5 just before Christmas 1975 which was good enough to come in at number 58 on the year-end countdown. My love for this song is immense and I have a ton of great memories associated with it so it always brings a smile to my face when I hear it. My original 45 had a defective label so one time when I was sliding it back into its sleeve, the brittle unglued label caught and ripped off the entire bottom portion with the title and credits. It basically disintegrated when I picked it up so I couldn't just reattach it. I borrowed Dad's label maker, printed and stuck this label on it:
Read about the Thirty-threes from January 24, 1976 HERE Read more about My Favorite Songs of 1976 HERE Read jb's take on many of these songs HERE
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