WLS Music Survey - October 23, 1976 (Part Two - The Forty-fives)

Today, we're covering the Forty-fives from the WLS Street Survey dated October 23, 1976. If you missed the post covering the week's Thirty-threes, click HERE.

The lyrics on the flip side of the survey are for the Bay City Rollers' cover of Dusty Springfield's "I Only Want To Be With You." The Rollers' version moves up one spot this week to number 3. Next week, the song will reach its peak position at number 2.

The Top 10 From The Past features the station's Top 10 songs from October 26, 1974. We'll always skip that Osmonds track, but the other nine songs are worth a spin. Today, we're feeling "Bitch Is Back" (sic) and "Can't Get Enough" especially. 

The year 2025 marks the 50th Anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck, though the 50th Anniversary of the song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" will happen in 2026. The single moves up two spots to number 5 on this week's list of Forty-fives. It is still as haunting to my ears as it was the first time I heard it. Pushes all my "good" buttons and still raises a hair or two on the back of my neck. Hearing it on AM radio adds to the song's eerie atmosphere with the inherent gauzy, muted sound of the format. Despite repeated futzing and tinkering, I have yet to derive an appropriately accurate parametric EQ setting that mimics the AM sound on my own, and am not yet ready to seek the internet's help. The single will peak at number 2 the following week and wind up at number 36 on the Big 89 at year's end. On the 1976 Hideaway 100 countdown we did way back in 2016, I had "The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald" way up at number 11.

It's hard to put my finger on exactly what it is that I really like about "Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang". Off the top of my dome, it's the nonsensical chorus, that guitar riff, and those synth sounds. Nor can I precisely pin down which compact disc first brought a digital version of the song into the HERChives. I'm fairly certain it was 1993 or 1994, and it was either this disc from Time-Life's Sounds of the Seventies series, or it was this disc in Rhino's Super Hits of the Seventies collection. Before that, I was putting the song on mixtapes off a Ronco album titled I Love Music which was probably released in 1976 or 1977. Do not know what happened to my 45, but it wasn't there when I looked a bit earlier. Hopefully, it's just misfiled. This week, "Wham Bam" moves up one to number 8, its peak. On the Big 89, the song is down at number 80, and I had it at number 90 on the 1976 Hideaway 100.

Slipping four spots on the list of Forty-fives to number  16 this week is "Don't Go Breaking My Heart".  The single hit Number One back in August, and I was fortunate enough to score the 45 thusly: I traded my Neil Sedaka "Bad Blood" 45 to the neighbor girl for the Elton John record. Also, at the ripe old age of 10, I had asked for a kiss from the older-by-a-couple-of-years girl as part of the trade, and she graciously gave me a little peck on the lips. For those of you keeping track of such things, this is the most-told story here on The Hideaway. "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" ended up at number 6 on the 1976 Hideaway 100 and Number One on 1976's Big 89.

When I placed "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" at number 67 on the 1976 Hideaway 100 in 2016, I noted that while I did not have the 45, I had the song "on no less than a dozen compact discs." Just checked, and now that number is nineteen compact discs despite a major downsizing in the HERChives in 2020. The first disc I acquired with "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" on it was the great Dancin' The Night Away. The single falls four to number 23 this week after peaking at number 3 in September 1976. It would finish the year at number 43 on WLS's Big 89.

From a 2016 post on The Hideaway:

"I'm on record about my love for "Summer," both the song and the season, in previous posts here on The Hideaway. For me, War's song brings back memories of everything great about the Bicentennial Summer of 1976. It's not the specific lyrics, just the laid-back vibe, though the last line of the third verse sums it up pretty well before going back to the hazy, lazy chorus one last time. The single, as heard on WLS and purchased soon thereafter, was great, but I had heard the full-length album version before courtesy of my Uncle Sam, and it didn't dawn on me that it was nearly three minutes longer than the 45 until I got my own copy of War's Greatest Hits. About 10 years ago, I was actually on a short one-hour flight to LA with members of WAR - they were wearing T-shirts and leather vests emblazoned with their distinctive logo - all I could think about was a spontaneous outbreak of "Summer" that lasted the duration of the flight, with the entire plane singing along. It happened - but only in my head."

"Summer" peaked in September at number 10 on WLS's chart, and this week it sinks three spots to number 35. We ranked it at number 18 on our 1976 Hideaway 100.

Dad liked "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" before I did, but he had been a Lou Rawls fan for years, while I thought the guy was a new artist. His baritone voice certainly benefited from the AM sound. Back in the Nineties, my better half was recognized by her peers as one of the Top 100 employees among the 240,000 at IBM. She won a trip to South Beach with the other honorees and their partners/spouses. We showed up to one of the parties a little early as they were still setting up. We sat down at a table near the dance floor to watch the setup, and the DJ began playing this song. My wife and I have a strict no dancing in public rule, but there was no one else there, so we hopped up and enjoyed ourselves. After a second song, we left to go back up to our room. So "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" will always have a special place in our hearts. Well, maybe not such a special place as I ranked it number 53 on the 1976 Hideaway 100, though thinking back on that early evening in South Beach has me wanting to move the song up quite a bit. Let me go see what she's doing.