Fully immersed in the Sound Of The Eighties discs, I had no idea that more Sounds Of The Seventies discs would be released in 1997. Yet, there I was flipping through Signals, one of the dozens of Christmas catalogs that used to choke up our mailbox, and I came across a 6CD set titled '70s Dance Party. Fortunately, my wife hadn't gotten me a Christmas gift yet, so she graciously agreed to order the set for me. It was under the tree on Christmas Day 1997. Or 1998.
The front of the sleeve pictured above is a poor edit of another image, but you get the gist. Inside the sleeve, the six discs below were packed. The series numbers picked up right where A Loss For Words left off, and they had the unmistakable Sounds Of The Seventies logo on both the front and back of the CD artwork. Each of the six discs has eighteen tracks, some of which had appeared on previous Sounds Of The Seventies discs. The first five discs have copyright dates of 1997 and were manufactured by Polygram Special Markets, while disc six was manufactured by Warner Special Products and has a copyright date of 1990.
1972-1974, the first of the six discs of '70s Dance Party, features eight Number Ones with all but one of the eighteen tracks going Top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. According to the disc's liner notes, three of the songs charted in 1973, fourteen of the songs charted in 1974, and one track hit in 1975. All tracks throughout the discs in the set are the radio edit versions, to the best of my knowledge. 1972-1974 is a good overview of the danceable songs from that period, and we have enjoyed listening to it ever since we found it under the tree that one Christmas Day.
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The second disc is 1975-1976. There are ten Number One songs on the disc, and only two songs missed the Top 10. According to the liner notes, ten of the songs are from 1975, and the remaining eight are from 1976. 1975-1976 is an even better listen than 1972-1974 to our ears. Dennis Drake mastered the entire '70s Dance Party series, so the sound is primo.
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1976-1977 is the third disc in the '70s Dance Party set. There are eight Number Ones on the disc, with only two of the eighteen tracks missing the Top 10. The liner notes tell us that eight of the songs are from 1976, while the remaining ten songs are from 1977. This may be my favorite disc in the set. Listening to it reminds me of the K-Tel albums from that time period, as well as the forty-fives I had begun buying.
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The fourth disc is 1978-1979. Four of the songs missed the Top 10, and another four songs made it all the way up to Number One. The disc leans heavily towards 1978, with 67% of the tracks charting that year. This is my favorite disc in the '70s Dance Party set. I have a playlist made up of longer versions of the songs from 1978-1979 that I enjoy listening to quite a bit. As I typed that, I wondered why I hadn't yet done the same thing for the other discs in the series. Hmmmm.
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1979-1981 is the fifth disc in the set. It has five Number Ones, and just three of the eighteen tracks missed the Top 10, though they were all Top 20. According to the liner notes in the disc's booklet, 45% of the tracks charted in 1979, 33% charted in 1980, and 22% charted in 1981. Depending on my mood while listening, sometimes I skip "Desire". Really enjoy the other tracks, and we all know I'm a little generous with my ratings.
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Which brings us to the sixth and final disc from our little '70s Dance Party. 1979 is the only disc devoted to a single year. It is also the only disc of the six with a copyright date of 1990 instead of 1997. The disc has eleven Number Ones, and only one of its songs missed the Top 10. If the tracklisting looks familiar, it's because 1979 is 1979, the ninth disc in the Sounds Of The Seventies series as featured in this post. The artwork has been changed, but the tracklist remains the same.
Of note to collectors, the six discs of the '70s Dance Party are available with two differing rear inserts. One insert reads SOUNDS OF THE SEVENTIES in large print on the spines of the insert as seen directly above, while the alternative insert seen further up the page reads '70s DANCE PARTY <<disc title>> in large print. Based on Discogs sales figures and pricing, neither variation is particularly scarce.
Two years after the '70s Dance Party, another Sounds Of The Seventies disc was mailed out. With a series number that continued accordingly, Feel Good '70s emerged in 1999 with twenty tracks; all but three appear on previous discs in the series. Despite this repetition of material, collectors and completists have made this scarce disc desirable.
Even more scarce and commanding the highest prices in the entire Sounds Of The Seventies series is this alternate version of Feel Good '70s pictured above. With the other Time-Life subscriptions I had coming in at the time, my copy of Feel Good '70s never showed up in my mailbox, but I was none the wiser. Since I have never owned either version of this disc, I will refrain from rating it.
In 1998, Time-Life Music's Sounds Of The Seventies made its first appearance on retail shelves with three discs, available individually or as 3 compact disc set. Each disc has twelve cuts found on other discs in the Sounds Of The Seventies series. Also, each of the three discs was manufactured for Time-Life Music by a different record label: Super '70s by EMI-Capitol Special Markets; Classic '70s by Sony Music Special Products; and '70s Gold by PolyMedia.
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