Whenever I decide to make a list of my favorite songs or albums, there is an immediate adrenaline rush. I get excited about revisiting favorites and discovering new-to-me music. Then, once the extra energy has burned off after I've rounded up the usual suspects and tacked on a few extras just in case, the trudgery begins. After all the listening sessions, the ranking begins. Hard choices are made, and the second-guessing complicates the whole process. Then comes the writing up, and the design process gets underway. It all leads to today - the first of five posts to reveal the 1976 Hideaway 40: The Albums. (Well, technically it's the third of seven posts or the fifth of nine, but whatever.) Here are eight albums from 1976 I've ranked from number 40 to number 33...
40
Disco-fied
Rhythm Heritage
This was the first album nine-year-old me purchased with my own funds. Why? I went to buy the 45 for Rhythm Heritage's "Theme From S.W.A.T.", my favorite song at the time, but it could not be found. I searched throughout the 45s section and even into the album bins just in case someone like me had stashed one there. The department salesman came over and asked me what I was looking for, and I told him. He said the album was a better value than the single, handing me Disco-Fied. My ready-to-leave-the-mall parents agreed on the value part, so I coughed up the coin and took it home. I've listened to it so often that I still have it memorized fifty years later. Do I love it? Nope. Still love the Theme From S.W.A.T.", which I did eventually find on 45, and it was the four-minute version to boot. Disco-Fied is here for nostalgia and all those other warm, cozy feels.
39
Black and Blue
Rolling Stones
Never got into Black and Blue as an album. Liked "Fool To Cry" but a weekend spent with the album courtesy of a Stones-obsessed classmate who said I would like it since I liked Undercover, but it was just not the same. Flash forward forty years and change, and I have two friends in my ear, telling me what an underrated masterpiece Black and Blue is. A 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition of the album dropped in November 2025. One of those friends shared the shiny new Steven Wilson mix with me, "Hot" glitch and all. These events, combined with my continuing evolution as a listener, resulted in lots of spins for Black and Blue circa 2025; it has grown on me. There is something about this vibrant new mix that appeals to my sensibilities, landing it here at number 39.
38
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
(1981 US Reissue)
AC/DC
I don't know. Maybe this one shouldn't be here. It's a technicality, but it is my list. After falling hard for Back In Black (all thanks to Robbie for introducing it to me), everyone was hungry for more AC/DC. The label had one in the chamber: the original 1976 album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap was never released here in the United States, so they updated the tracklisting, applied fresh Hipgnosis cover art, and proceeded to rake in the moolah. I loved this album in 1981, but since then, my affection has dwindled down to just the title track. It's a beast! Some albums on this list are growing in favor; unfortunately, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap is not one of them.
37
Mother's Finest
Mother's Finest
The newest-to-me album in the 1976 Hideaway 40 is Mother's Finest's second self-titled long player. The band was never on my radar, though, looking back, there had been a few blips. Lead singer Joyce Kennedy had a solo track on The Breakfast Club soundtrack in 1985, "Didn't I Tell You". Then there was the inclusion of the 12" version of the band's 1977 track "Dis Go Dis Way, Dis Go Dat Way" on the 2016 compilation, Grand 12-Inches 14. Finally, my friend Mark posted a "Random Ad" on one of his blogs for the 1981 Mother's Finest album, Iron Age. Three blips, and then I acquired a nice collection of Wounded Bird discs during the Pandemic that I've been very slowly going through when I stumbled upon the 2010 Mother's Finest double-disc set featuring three albums, including their unreleased second album! Oooh, Lordy! This thing has blown my doors clean off. So much rock side by side with so much funk and a singer who can sound like the ultimate hybrid of Betty Davis and Chaka Khan. I've only been listening for a few months, and I keep coming back for more.
36
Presence
Led Zeppelin
After an initial spin when I acquired it, Presence sat on the shelf for a couple of years. Then I got this choice housesitting gig in the foothills. The house was on the side of a small hill, and the pool looked out over the city. I packed up a few randomly selected albums to take over, along with my Sharp boombox. Spent the two days off I had getting too much sun out by the pool with tunes blasting. One night after work, I went swimming after pressing play on the second side of Presence. Page's phased guitars came fading in, then the wailing of Plant before Jonsey and Bonzo brought the stomp. "Nobody's Fault But Mine" blew me away that night, with the lights of the city twinkling below. Soon, I had dubbed a tape of Presence with the sides of the album switched so that "Nobody's Fault But Mine" played first. And that's how I learned to appreciate Presence. All out of whack.
35
Breezin'
George Benson
My first exposure to the vocal stylings of George Benson came via WLS, where they played "This Masquerade" a bit. It didn't exactly stop me in my tracks, but I did take notice of how different it was from all the other music getting airplay on a Top 40 station in 1976. Dad may have intentionally ordered The George Benson Collection album in early 1982, but knowing him, it was more likely he misplaced or threw away his Selection Of The Month card, and the album was auto-shipped. However, I don't think it was part of his musical preferences. The album showed up in our house after I fell for two other Benson tracks ("Give Me The Night" and "Turn Your Love Around"), so I snuck it into my room for more than a couple of listens before taping my favorites, including "This Maquerade" but not "Breezin'", on one side of a TDK SA90. Then, I was able to check out Breezin' from the library, one of the first compact discs available there, and fell for the first two tracks as a preferred segue. To this day, if I hear one, I have to hear the other.
34
Rock And Roll Over
KISS
I've made no bones about how I wanted to listen to KISS simply because I was not allowed to by my folks. The band looked like they had emerged from the Marvel comics I was infatuated with in 1975-1978. I was too young and dumb to know how misogynistic a lot of music lyrics were, so I fell for "Calling Dr. Love", "Hard Luck Woman", and other KISS tracks I heard on WLS. Though it would be another three or four years before I would own any KISS albums, I picked up a half dozen of my favorite KISS tracks on K-tel compilations. With the ultimate irony being that most of those were gifted to me by Mom and Dad. The band's sound seemed custom-built for AM radio's sonic limitations: it is sludgey, boomy, and hooky. Now that I know "better", I still have a soft spot for Rock And Roll Over that runs deeper than I thought.
33
The Roaring Silence
Manfred Mann's Earth Band
The cover art for The Roaring Silence is unsettling. There have been other similarly composed covers, with lips and mouths in unexpected places – Talk Talk's The Party's Over comes to mind. Not sure if I heard "Blinded by the Light" first on WLS or saw it performed on The Midnight Special – I could look it up, but who has time for that – though I can say with no uncertainty that I loved the song. WLS played the edited 45 version, which was even further edited for inclusion on K-tel's Hit Machine. The Midnight Special performance featured the longer, spacey solo mid-song, which would prove to be the full-length album version. I didn't pick up The Roaring Silence until I grabbed the 1998 expanded CD with the other Springsteen cover, "Spirits in the Night", and the single edit of "Blinded By The Light" sometime in the early 2000s. I listen to the whole disc on rare, random occasions; mostly, I just play tracks one and eight like I am doing right now because "Mama, that's where the fun is."
🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
We'll count down the albums at 32-25 soon
as the 1976 Hideaway 40: The Albums rolls on.
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