Three weeks after NOW Yearbook EXTRA '86 was released, NOW Yearbook '78 joined it on the shelves and in the bins on April 28, 2023. Released in four formats, NOW Yearbook '78 marked the second time the Yearbook series flashed back to the Seventies after covering 1979 in 2022. With 85 tracks spread across the four discs and digital download versions, NOW Yearbook '78 is tied with NOW Yearbook '79 for the most songs. The vinyl version of NOW Yearbook '78 featured 46 tracks on pink vinyl. The album debuted at Number One on the Official Compilations Chart during the first of its nineteen weeks across four runs. Let's load these four discs into our CD changer and see what we have here.
CD ONE kicks off with four successive personal favorites beginning with Electric Light Orchestra's "Mr. Blue Sky" (UK #6) at the pole position followed by the timeless "Baker Street" (UK #3) in its 4:00 single edit. Two UK Number Ones in "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" and "Take A Chance On Me" round out those first four songs. After them, I am all ready to proclaim NOW Yearbook '78 among my favorites in the series thus far. It was a powerful reminder of my time as a sixth and then seventh grader in 1978.
Three additional Number Ones immediately follow the ABBA song including "Dreadlock Holiday" which always reminds me of Elvis Costello's "Watching The Detectives". The tracklist evolves from its glorious pop/rock beginning into a brief reggae stretch before swerving into a disco/soul groove with songs by Donna Summer, Chaka Khan, Chic, and Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You" (#4) from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Then there are a couple proto synthpop tracks like Marshall Hain's "Dancing In The City" (#3) which thoroughly caught my attention during this listen and I find myself humming it for the rest of the day and into the night before giving it another listen just before turning in for the night. Bonnie Tyler's "It's A Heartache" (#4) is one of a couple guitar-oriented songs before the disc ends with a couple of keyboard-led tracks, closing out with songs by Wings and Kate Bush.
Nearly a dozen songs by UK punk royalty make up the beginning of CD TWO including seminal tracks by The Jam, The Buzzcocks, The Clash, and Siouxsie & The Banshees. By the time we get to track 11, things cool down a bit with "Because The Night" (#5) before getting edgy with "My Best Friend's Girl" (#3), "5.7.0.5." (#8), and the single edit of Sweet's "Love Is Like Oxygen" (#9).
After the Sweet track, there's a disappointing effort from Elton John followed by a run of songs heard today on classic rock stations. Billy Joel's "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" (#35), the rarely heard short version of "Who Are You" (#18), and the single edit of "Life's Been Good" (#14). "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" failed to chart in the UK when the 45 was released in 1976 but when the album version was released as a single in 1978, it climbed up to #16. The single edit is included on CD TWO which doesn't feel right given the facts but the disc closes out with "Forever Autumn" (#5) which sounds and feels like a good choice.
CD THREE is a star-studded salvo of disco tracks including another outstanding four-pack kicking things off with Chic's "Le Freak" (#7), "Boogie Oogie Oogie" (#3), the Tavares version of "More Than A Woman" (#7) another Saturday Night Fever track, and "I Love The Nightlife (Disco 'Round)" (#32) sounds more R&B than disco given the company but I love it so it gets a pass.
As the parade of disco tracks on CD THREE continues, Donna Summer returns with the disco fairytale "I Love You" (#10) and Eruption puts their imprint on the soul classic "I Can't Stand The Rain" (#5). I'm jolted out of my disco stupor by Hot Chocolate's "Every 1's A Winner" (#12), an all-time personal favorite. Though I've included the image of the UK 45 above, the full-length album version of "Every 1's A Winner" is included on NOW Yearbook '78. After nineteen disco tracks, CD THREE closes with two slow jams including the song that several folks consider the greatest slow jam ever, Heatwave's "Always and Forever" (#9).
After three somewhat strong discs, we've come to CD FOUR which I usually refer to as "the junk drawer" of the set. There are a couple of singles from the Grease soundtrack, including Oliva Newton-John's pretty "Hopelessly Devoted To You" (#2). Bill Withers classes the tracklist up a lot with his ode to a "Lovely Day" (#4) and John Paul Young is always welcome with the lite disco of "Love Is In The Air" (#5). Barry Manilow's "Copacabana" (#22) probably wouldn't have fit anywhere else on this collection so we're glad to hear it here following the two previously mentioned tunes. One of these days, I want to dive into country jazz to discover if there are any other songs like Crystal Gayle's superb "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" (#5). Surely there are some jazzy tracks by Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson as well as country tracks by Norah Jones and Ray Charles. CD FOUR ends with three novelty songs that lack any appeal for this listener.
I really enjoyed today's listen to NOW Yearbook '78. There are many songs I like and even love. (According to my notes when I listened to it first back in May 2023, I also really enjoyed it over three days commuting to and from work.) I didn't mention it earlier but if I had to choose a favorite track, it would be track 2 from CD TWO: The Undertones getting their "Teenage Kicks". The song may have been played more than a dozen times total within that 2023 listen and today's run-through. We like what we like.
NOW Yearbook EXTRA '78 was released on June 9, 2023. The album features 66 songs across 3 discs. After featuring nine of 1978's thirteen Number One hits on NOW Yearbook '78, there is a lone Number One – THE 1978 Christmas Number One – as the last song on EXTRA '78. The three missing chart-toppers are two of the six Top 10 singles from Grease ("Summer Nights" & "You're The One That I Want") and Kate Bush's masterful debut "Wuthering Heights".
Queen nabs the pole position with "Bicycle Race" (#11) though there is no clear theme or discernible genre for the first four tracks of CD ONE. Then a quartet of fifties-sounding pop songs capped off by John Travolta's "Greased Lightnin'" (#2) in its original uncensored album version. Two female-voiced country soft rockers seem out of place but give way to a dozen R&B/disco songs like the smooth bounce of Raydio's "Jack And Jill" (#11) before the disc ends appropriately with Donna Summer's surprisingly low-charting "Last Dance" (#51).
Meat Loaf's power ballad "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad" (#32) is the starting point for CD TWO though it is quickly outshined by the next track, Billy Joel's soft and tender pledge of love "Just The Way You Are" (#19). Chris Rea's gravelly-voiced "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" (#30) is the high point for this listener of seven indistinguishable tracks that are broken up by a disc-closing run of thirteen punk-ish, new wavey songs featuring Ultravox, Squeeze, The Clash, The Jam and Elvis Costello's twitchy rave-up "Pump It Up" (#24).
CD THREE is the usual assortment of odds and sods from big stars (Blondie, Donna Summer, and Barry Manilow), international one-hit wonders (Samantha Sang and Izhar Cohen & Alphabeta), and novelty songs from The Barron Knights and Father Abraham & the Smurfs. My three picks from the disc are "Stumblin' In" (#41) featuring the raspy voice of Smokie dueting with Leather Tuscadero; Earth, Wind & Fire's funky Grammy-winning cover of "Got To Get You Into My Life" (#33) from the soundtrack to the ill-conceived Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band; and the glittering grooves of seventeen-year-old Evelyn "Champagne" King's eternal disco classic "Shame" (#39).
As good as NOW Yearbook '78 is, the EXTRA set is not bad but thin. I haven't tried but I don't think I could round up a solid single disc of even a dozen tracks from the sixty-six songs collected on NOW Yearbook EXTRA '78. Fortunately, Paul English's NOW Yearbook EXTRA Plus '78 Spotify playlist lifted my spirits right back up, handily showing up NOW Yearbook EXTRA '78.
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