We're down to the final Sweet Sixteen of our 1976 Hideaway 40: The Albums countdown of our favorite albums that were released in 1976. There have been a couple of questions about the countdown thus far, so let's answer them.
1) The viewer who is perpetually curious about the images and graphics used on The Hideaway wants to know where I sourced the cover art and ads. Nearly every album cover is from albumartexchange.com, and the ads are screengrabs from 2007's Rolling Stone Cover To Cover: The First Forty Years. The themed artwork that appears at the top of every post in this series is courtesy of Google's Genesis app.2) A new to The Hideaway viewer asked if it is possible to include any best-sounding copy of an album recommendations for viewers who prefer physical product to streaming. This email came in right after I finished the previous post in this countdown, where I provided my humble opinions as to which compact disc pressings sounded best to my ears on my three listening systems. Guess I'll continue to offer up my favorites through the end of the countdown. The opinions expressed are my own and may be the result of listening to a single pressing or multiple pressings in a shootout-type head-to-head format.
Here are the albums I ranked 16 through 9 on the 1976 Hideaway 40: The Albums countdown.
16
Car Wash
Rose Royce
My entry point into the Car Wash soundtrack was the title track, a song I continue to love 50 years on. Other folks must have loved it as well, as the single rose to Number One on Billboard's Hot 100. The second single from the album was "I Wanna Get Next To You", and though I had no one I wanted to get next to as a stammering kid with really bad dandruff, within a couple of years, the song would become my favorite slow jam ever. Also, within a couple of years of 1976, I finally got to see the movie Car Wash on Home Box Office. Not the best film ever made, but I saw and heard the placement of the two songs I knew within the film's context, as well as hearing more songs that attracted my attention. It wasn't until 1980 or early 1981 that I saw the Car Wash soundtrack album show up in a Columbia House clearance flyer and ordered it at a steep discount, especially for a double disker. Loved that damn thing. In 1996, twenty years after its initial release, I saw the Car Wash soundtrack CD featured in a Columbia House catalog and ordered it without hesitation. While its vinyl counterpart was sold off in the great purge of 87-88, I still have the soundtrack on CD. It is the best-sounding version of Car Wash I have ever heard.
15
Jailbreak
Thin Lizzy
It began with "The Boys Are Back In Town", one of those songs that just jumps out of the radio at ya. Loved it, bought the 45 and played it a lot. Then the song appeared in Dad's collection via Right On!, the sixth-highest-rated album I've featured on the K-Tel Kollection 1973-1984. And he played it a lot as well. My hopes of him acquiring the Jailbreak album went unfulfilled before the song cooled in both our rotations. It wasn't until one day in Al Bum's, and the owner, Blaine, was playing "The Boys Are Back in Town" and asked if I liked the song. I answered in the affirmative, and he asked if I enjoyed the album, commenting that it wasn't even the best song on it. Told him I had never heard the album; he said, "You're listening to it now!" It was Side B of Jailbreak he was playing. I stayed long enough, maybe twenty minutes or so, to hear the rest of Side B, but had missed the title track that opened Side A. It was no problem as "Jailbreak" was the B-side of my 45 of "The Boys Are Back In Town". I added Jailbreak to my small haul that day, and Blaine further cemented his place among my music mentors. The deep cut "Running Back" has become a favorite song of mine. For years, my favorite pressing of Jailbreak was that original vinyl copy I bought used that day. Then I picked up the 1991 CD pressing, and it became my favorite way to listen to the album. Around 2019, I stumbled onto pbthal's digitized vinyl treasure trove and fell in love with his transfer of Jailbreak. My friend Martin let me write about the album on his blog to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Jailbreak.
14
Endless Flight
Leo Sayer
I hope my love of music shines through here on The Hideaway. People are always surprised that I choose not to listen to music when I'm suffering a period of deep, dark depression. They say that music would seem like a natural solution, but it's not, and the simple truth is, there are no songs or albums or artists that I associate with any bad thoughts, feelings, or traumas, and I just want to keep it that way. If I ever thought a song could raise me out of the depression dungeon, Leo Sayer's "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" could be that song. I've loved it from the moment I first heard it. Bought the 45 within days and was fortunate enough to find Endless Flight in my Easter basket in 1977. The album is a favorite from top to bottom. I love Sayer's versatile voice, and his musical backing on every track sounds top-notch. The recording credits read like a who's who of studio superstars, including Steve Gadd, Ray Parker Jr., Andrew Gold, Larry Carlton, Leland Sklar, Lee Ritenour, Michael Omaritan, and several future members of Toto, just to name a few. Producer Richard Perry deserves a lot of credit for bringing all the talent together and making it all sound so good. As much as I love Endless Flight and a couple of Sayer's earlier tracks, I've never been able to get into any of his songs or albums after Endless Flight, and that's on me. Besides that original Warner Brothers vinyl copy, I've only heard a few different pressings of the album, with my favorite mastering of Endless Flight being a 1990 import CD I ordered in 2013 because it was budget-friendly and I found myself unemployed. If I ever had any pull with any of those audiophile disc makers, Leo Sayer's Endless Flight would be a top priority, though I honestly think that the mastering of that 1990 disc would be hard to beat.
13
Children Of The World
Bee Gees
Due to label shenanigans, the Gibbs were unable to record with Arif Mardin, who had been guiding them as they reinvented themselves as an R&B and dance act over their past two albums. They briefly attempted to record a new album with Richard Perry before deciding to produce themselves as they had done before working with Mardin. Actually, the production credit goes to Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb, along with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson; the five would create absolute musical magic over the next four years. While Dad enjoyed Main Course, he never added the similar-sounding Children Of The World to his collection. Heck, I didn't add the album to my collection until the late Nineties when my wife took a liking to the Bee Gees later stuff, and I realized how little of their earlier stuff I had. The undeniable power of "You Should Be Dancing" had revealed itself on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. I fell for "Love So Right" on Bee Gees Greatest album from Christmas 1979, though I did not care for the original version of "Love Me" on that same album; I loved Yvonne Elliman's cover of it. The rest of Children of The World was new to me, and somehow it became a regular in my Sunday morning album rotation, coming around every five or six weeks, just enough to endear itself. My favorite pressing of the album is the 1992 compact disc on Polydor.
12
Silk Degrees
Boz Scaggs
It's been about nine months since I featured Silk Degrees on a WLS post and confessed to not caring much about Side 1 of the album. Since then, I've invested time in critically listening to the album as a whole, from top to bottom, in my three listening environments, and have come to appreciate it very much. One thing I don't recall hearing before was the piano throughout most of the tracks. Another thing is the subtle changes in Boz's voice across the songs, often within a song. While I've always appreciated the album's musicianship, especially on my favored tracks, I've found little pieces of joy in just about every track, with David Hungate's basslines certainly foremost among them. I get it now. Not listening to the album enough, coupled with my ongoing maturity as a listener, has kept me from appreciating Silk Degrees to the fullest. My original used copy of the album was sold off in the Great Purge of 1987+1988, and I didn't grab a compact disc version until I picked up the 2007 expanded edition with three live tracks. Then there was the MoFi disc from 1990 that was supplanted by pbthal's pristine vinyl rip of the 1982 remastered vinyl a few years ago. In 2023, a newly remastered version of Silk Degrees was issued as a high-resolution digital download – this has become my preferred way of hearing the album.
11
Dreamboat Annie
Heart
Dad bought Dreamboat Annie on vinyl, though if I had to guess, "Crazy On You" and "Magic Man" would have been too hard rock for his tastes. His copy may be the one I have on my shelf, as I don't have any inkling of when I acquired it. When the band made their television debut on The Midnight Special in March 1977, I was watching. They performed "Crazy On You" and "Magic Man", if I recall correctly. By that time, those two singles, along with the album's title track, had run their respective races up and down the Hot 100, and the band was a couple of months from releasing the first single, "Barracuda", from their next album, Little Queen. It wasn't until my teens that I embraced Heart's music with open ears. The bold, muscular riffs, powerful vocals, and interesting lyrics were mana. The delicate folk songs took a little longer to find favor, but they eventually became favorites as well. Besides the banjo-infused "Dreamboat Annie" trilogy, I enjoy the deep cut "Soul Of The Sea". The niche audiophile labels have issued several versions of the album, and I've been fortunate enough to hear them all, including Mobile Fidelity's 2025 release, which I enjoyed very much, as I had the Nautilus half-speed vinyl from 1979 and the 1994 DCC gold compact disc. My preferred listening version of Dreamboat Annie is the 2013 digital release; it is a little more compressed than some of the other remasters, yet makes a wonderful demonstration disc on both the SONOS and the Klipsch systems here at The Hideaway.
10
Hotel California
Eagles
Guess which band has two of the top three best-selling albums in the United States? Michael Jackson's Thriller comes in at number two with 34 million certified units shipped, according to its most recent RIAA certification in 2021. The top-selling album, as of its most recent RIAA accounting in January 2026, is the Eagles' Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, with 40 million units shipped. Technically, that makes it the very first Quadruple-Diamond album ever. Hotel California, the band's follow-up to that compilation, is the third most-shipped album of all time here in the States, with 28 million albums shipped. Hotel California definitely ranks in my Top 10 Most-Listened-To Albums of All-Time; in my scrobbling period from 2013 through now, the album is ranked #144, behind both The Long Run (51) and One Of These Nights (93). This falling off most likely accounts for the ranking of the album here at #10 on my list. Don't get me wrong, I love this album top to bottom. Every song is an old friend still revealing truths to me fifty years into our relationship. I never skip or change the station when one of these songs comes on because it just always feels right. I believe both Dad and Uncle Sam had Hotel California on 8-track with a slightly changed playlist, though that is not how I prefer to hear it. For me, the recent Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs remasters from 2021 through 2024 of the Eagles' albums are definitive. Hearing each album as it was released along the way was like hearing them for the first time, especially One Of These Nights. As many times as I've heard Hotel California and on every level of stereo system, it was almost a spiritual reaction I had when I first heard the 2023 MFSL SACD. Goosebumps!
09
Turnstiles
Billy Joel
Joel's love letter to New York City slid into my rotation maybe ten years ago. I preferred the tracks that bookend the album in the live setting captured on Songs In The Attic, but it was the creamy filling between those two cookies that compelled me to listen to Turnstiles more often. "All You Wanna Do Is Dance" is still an outlier in Joel's catalog, yet somehow it fits here among the soft balladry of "Summer, Highland Falls" and the quiet anthem "New York State Of Mind". The gentle "James" is supposedly a conversation between friends, but I hear a father/son dynamic in the lyrics. One of a handful of tracks from Joel that I like to use when testing speakers and headphones is "Prelude"/"Angry Young Man"; the piano sounds should be strong and tight, while the quickly strummed acoustic guitar should sound clean and crisp in their attack. The proggy synthesizer still surprises me when it comes in, and I think an outside producer may have called foul. "I've Loved These Days" is still growing on me in the best way, though I don't think Turnstiles will ever be in contention for my favorite Billy Joel album. There are good things to hear from both the 2010 MFSL remaster and the 2013 remaster offered as a digital download, but our ears are most wooed by what I think is the 1998 remastered compact disc. It's not dated.
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