WLS Music Survey - September 4, 1976 (Part One: Thirty-threes)

This post was originally supposed to feature the WLS Survey from the week ending August 28, 1976. We pencilled it in on the schedule, adjusted the publication dates, and then set out to do my scans. Turns out that week is one of the few surveys we're missing from 1976. We pivoted to the following week, September 4, 1976. Didn't change the publication dates, and here we are.

Those of you playing along at home know that this particular survey is actually incredibly bright neon yellow. What you're seeing here is an automatic color adjustment made by my printer/scanner on its basic settings. It's an accident, but we'll take it as it is so much easier on the retinas. According to the interwebs, Fred Winston is happy on his farm in Michigan. 1976 would have been his sixth year on the Chicago airwaves.

The Rollers were touring in the US behind their US compilation album Rock N' Roll Love Letter and ahead of their soon-to-be-released album Dedication. Their cover of Dusty Springfield's "I Only Wanna Be With You" debuts this week on the list of Forty-fives. The classic lineup pictured on the album cover above was not the same as the band's 1976 touring lineup, but it wouldn't have mattered to many of their screaming fans.

Their funky "Pick Up The Pieces" had topped the pop and disco charts in 1975. Average White Band were touring behind their 1976 album Soul Searching. Their tourmates included Wild Cherry and Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, although there is no indication that either group joined AWB on their Chicago stop.

It makes sense that the Queen of Soul would tour with the King of Soul. James Brown was touring behind two of the three albums he would release in 1976 and coming off a taping of The Midnight Special in early August, while Aretha had been touring behind her Sparkle soundtrack album with Al Wilson as her opening act. Sparkle sits at number 27 this week on WLS's list of albums.

Electric Light Orchestra were touring behind 1975's Face The Music and their 1976 compilation Olé ELO, which sits at number 23 on the list of Thirty-threes this week. A peek at their setlist for the show indicates they performed nine of the eleven tracks on Olé ELO. The group was about three weeks away from taping an episode of The Midnight Special.

Heart had played three non-consecutive dates in Waukegan, Illinois, in August 1976 before their scheduled date in Mount Prospect, Illinois. Waukegan is about an hour north of Chicago, while Mount Prospect is a little less than that. Heart had two singles on WLS's list of Forty-fives: "Crazy On You" and "Magic Man". Their album Dreamboat Annie was Number One on WLS's album chart for the past two weeks and would notch another couple of weeks at the top spot before it slowly drifted down the list.

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There are three "greatest hits" compilations of predominantly Sixties artists on the list of Thirty-threes this week:

• Though it has the same title as a 1969 compilation, The Monkees Greatest Hits, which sits at number 26 this week on the WLS chart, is a different album - it's a re-issue of the 1972 album Re-Focus. Why was it on the chart? The Monkees were enjoying a resurgence in popularity with the syndication of their television show in 1975.
• Endless Summer from the Beach Boys had something of an endless chart run on WLS since its 1974 release. It had spent thirty-six weeks on the station's albums list before this week, where it is number 12, and would go on to spend another thirty weeks after. Why now? The group rode back in on the nostalgia wave of the early Seventies and reestablished themselves as a concert draw. They even have two singles on the Forty-fives list this week.
• The Beatles' label decided to throw the group into the nostalgia wave with Rock 'N' Roll Music sitting this week at number 4. There is one track that had appeared on their Red album and three tracks from their Blue album, both of which had been released in 1973, so there were still a couple dozen tracks to discover on Rock 'N' Roll Music for the new-ish Beatles fan. "Got To Get You Into My Life", the single released from the 1976 compilation, is at number 22 on this week's Forty-fives.

Three "greatest hits" compilations from Seventies artists are also on the Thirty-threes chart this week:

• Moving up ten spots to number 23 is the previously mentioned Olé ELO from Electric Light Orchestra, though it is listed simply as Ole on this week's survey. The album had debuted at number 33 the previous week and would peak at number 13 in another four weeks. Four of the album's tracks had charted on WLS's Forty-fives. I still think Side 2 of Olé ELO is one of the best side twos ever.
• Diana Ross' Greatest Hits moves up four spots to number 24 this week. It would peak in three weeks at number 21 and then drop off the chart three weeks later. Did not know this album existed until doing research for this post. It might have been the Diana Ross compilation that was in vogue in 1976, though it was probably rendered obsolete once CDs arrived and Motown began creating all sorts of compilations and anthologies.
• Did anyone have a clue in 1976 that Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) by the Eagles would someday be the biggest selling album of all time in the United States, with nearly 40 million in album sales and "streaming equivalents". The album had been on the Thirty-threes list for twenty-six weeks and was down to number 17 this week, with another thirty-eight weeks to go. Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) had spent nineteen weeks in WLS's Top 10, including four consecutive weeks at Number One.

Our featured album this week is Silk Degrees. Boz Scaggs and his single "Lowdown" are racing up the list of Forty-fives this week while the album bumps up a couple of notches to number 13. I remember liking the song but not seeking it out in stores. Neither Dad nor my Uncle Sam saw fit to invest in Silk Degrees, and it remained just off my radar even as the second, bigger single "Lido Shuffle" climbed the charts. When I finally picked up a gently used copy of Silk Degrees on a whim at Bookman's one day after school around the spring of 1983, I was not fully prepared for what I would hear. After a patchy first side, the full-length album version of "Lowdown" that opens Side 2 was a revelation. "It's Over" was a nice Philly-influenced track, though the following reggae-tinged track "Love Me Tomorrow" quickly became skippable. But then the sound shifts again with "Lido Shuffle" and we're rocking out again. The side's closer, "We're All Alone," is familiar because of Rita Coolidge's superior cover; we'll give Boz credit for writing the track. Once the needle left the record, we started it again. And that's how we butcher continue to listen to and enjoy Silk Degrees: skip Side 1 entirely and enjoy three of the five tracks on Side 2. We do this with ease using the compact disc or the files in our digital library.