WLS Music Survey – March 11, 1978 (Part One - The Thirty-threes)

March 1978. I had just a few months left as an elementary school student. My lunch box of choice off the shelf before sixth grade started in August 1977 was the Thermos-brand NFL box with the NFC team helmets on one side and the AFC team helmets on the other side. My allowance and lawn-mowing money were spent on the usual pre-teen vices: trading cards, candy, comic books, Hot Wheels, and music (45s and albums). This week's WLS Music Survey from March 11, 1978, is a time portal straight back to those days.

Uncle Lar' was holding down the morning shift on WLS, reading school closures and sharing Animal Stories with Little Snot-Nosed Tommy, in between the tunes. Lujack would go on to sign a twelve-year contract with WLS in 1984 at $500K per year. Even though he left the station after three years, they continued to pay him until 1992 to keep him from signing with a competing station. Loved listening to Superjock while I was in range of WLS from 1976-1981.

Touring after the January release of Endless Wire, the Canadian troubadour Gordon Lightfoot brought his act to the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University, with Lynn Kellogg opening. 

Chicago's Marian Catholic High School won a concert by Foghat on February 22nd, during the band's Stone Blue Tour. They'd return to the Chicago area for three nights at the International Amphitheatre with Starz opening.

Samantha Sang, touring behind her Brothers Gibb-penned hit "Emotion" (number 3 this week on the Forty-fives chart), made an appearance at the Ivanhoe Theater. In two weeks, the top 5 spots on Billboard's Hot 100 would be filled with Gibb-written hits.

Roberta Flack was touring behind her Blue Lights In The Basement album and her soon-to-be smash hit duet with Donny Hathaway, "The Closer I Get To You". The single would debut on the Forty-fives the following week.

Though he would reportedly pull out of the tour in May, Bill Withers was opening for Flack in early 1978. Promoting 1977's Menagerie and the hit "Use Me", which peaked at number 29 the previous month at WLS.

Back Stateside after a brief but triumphant tour of Europe, legendary folk singer and social activist Pete Seeger is coming to the Auditorium Theatre on St. Patrick's Day.

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Moving over to the Thirty-threes chart, we find five debut albums this week, with Journey's Infinity coming in lowest at number 32. It was the first (and lowest) of four different debut dates the album would log over the next forty-two weeks, while peaking at number 4. Just above it is Natalie Cole's Thankful at number 31, lifted by the presence of the single "Our Love", moving up two spots from number 15 last week. Thankful peaked at number 25 during its seven-week stay on the chart. Draw the Line lands back on the list of Thirty-threes at number 28, the same spot it had landed upon its original debut on the December 31, 1977 list. The Aerosmith album had peaked in mid-February 1978 and was off the chart a week before re-entering this week. The following week, the album failed to make the list but re-entered a third time on March 25th, at number 33. It would prove to be Draw The Line's eleventh and final week on WLS's album chart.

Bootsy Collins and his Rubber Band come in at number 24 with Bootsy? Player Of The Year with the album's "Bootzilla" also debuting at number 43 on the Forty-fives. The album would go on to spend a dozen weeks on the list, peaking at number 14. Parliament scored the highest debut on the Thirty-threes with Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome at number 23. "Flashlight", the album's lead single and arguably the greatest funk song ever, was moving up the list of Forty-fives at number 26 this week. Among the many notable features of "Flashlight" (sic) is Bootsy Collins' drumming. The album would stay on WLS's Thirty-threes chart for eleven weeks, peaking at number 18.

There are four live albums on the Thirty-threes list. Barry Manilow's Live falls two places to number 29 this week. Next week, it will drop a single spot to number 30 before disappearing off the chart for the first time. During its eventual fifty-two non-consecutive weeks on the station's chart, the album would leave and re-enter the chart three times. Live peaked at number 2 for four weeks in July 1977. The second Alive album from KISS falls two spots this week to number 15. Alive II had debuted at number 27 more than fourteen months ago in January 1977, then placed lower and lower each week on the albums list until it fell off the week of February 12th. Ten months later, in December 1977, Alive II jumped back on the Thirty-threes at number 18, rising up to a peak of number 3 the first week of 1978. Coming full circle after twenty-six weeks on the chart, the album landed once again at number 27 for the week of April 22, 1978, before falling off the list for good. Jackson Browne's Running On Empty is at number 16 this week, down two places from last week. The album would spend fifteen of its twenty-six weeks on the WLS chart in the Top 10, peaking for two weeks at number 3 in May 1978. In its third week on the list of Thirty-threes, Double Live Gonzo had cracked the Top 10, rising up to number 7. That would prove to be the album's peak position, and it would hit that spot again near the end of April during its sixteen-week run.

The two soundtrack albums on the Thirty-threes list this week are Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, up six positions to number 17 this week. The album's titular single is number 12 on the Forty-fives chart. The John Williams album would only spend ten weeks on the station's albums chart, peaking at number 16 just two charts later. Enjoying the sixth of its twenty-three weeks at Number One on the Thirty-threes is Saturday Night Fever. Three of the album's singles were over on the Forty-fives this week, all three of them in the Top 11, including the Number One single. Saturday Night Fever would spend thirty-two of its forty-six-week run in the Top 10. It remains an unequalled phenomenon.

Two artists each have a pair of albums on WLS's Thirty-threes. In addition to the previously mentioned Live at number 29, Barry Manilow is up eight spots to number 13 with Even Now. This week marks the album's second week on the list, and by April, it will peak at number 2 for the first of four non-consecutive weeks. The album's first single, "Can't Smile Without You", moves up nine spots this week to number 16 on the Forty-fives chart. Even Now would spend a total of thirty weeks on the station's albums list. The other double-dipper on the albums chart is Teen Dream, Shaun Cassidy. His self-titled first album debuted at number 25 on the Thirty-threes in July 1977 and sits at number 20 this week. It would peak at number 2 behind Fleetwood Mac's Rumours for five weeks in the Fall of 1977. Shaun Cassidy (the album) would leave the chart at the end of April 1978, after forty-four consecutive weeks. It was my younger sister's favorite album for months... until Cassidy's second album, Born Late, was released just a few months after Shaun Cassidy. That second album is down one spot to number 11 this week after debuting at number 21 in December 1977. Born Late peaked at number 3 for a couple of weeks in January 1978 during its twenty-six weeks on the Thirty-threes. For twenty-two weeks, Shaun Cassidy had both Shaun Cassidy and Born Late on the chart simultaneously.