In lieu of a Bio feature, we got a Top Ten from the Past clocking the top ten singles from the prior year, the week ending August 20, 1977. With the exception of the Helen Reddy track, I was and am a big fan of all these songs, buying 45s of seven of them. Right now, in my head as well as my heart, "Undercover Angel" and "You Made Me Believe In Magic" are battling it out for supremacy.
The lyrics to Bob Seger's "Still The Same" are spotlighted in the Etcetera, Etc. feature. I highlighted Seger's Stranger In Town in the first part of this lookback, mentioning the five strongest songs on the album to my ears without calling them out by name. Of those five tracks, "Hollywood Nights" and "Still The Same" are my absolute faves. This week, "Still The Same" moves up one to number 14, its peak position in a fourteen-week stint on the Forty-fives. It came in at number 81 on the Big 89 of '78 year-end countdown.
After five freshman singles the previous week, "Magnet and Steel" is this week's lone debut single on the Forty-fives, coming in at number 43. During its nineteen-week chart run, Walter Egan's song peaked at number 6 for a week in October before landing at number 46 on the Big 89 of '78. An additional five singles would debut on Forty-fives for the week ending August 26, 1978.
The sole solo artist with a pair of singles on the WLS singles chart is Andy Gibb. After debuting at number 39 last week, "An Everlasting Love" jumps up to number 31 on the way to cresting at number 11 next month. After a fourteen-week bid, "An Everlasting Love" found itself at number 76 on the Big 89 of '78. Andy's other charting single, "Shadow Dancing", would end up at number 7 on the Big 89. This week, the former Number One slips three spots to number 10, eventually logging twenty-four weeks on the list of Forty-fives before dropping off in October 1978.
Makes sense that the Number One album on the Thirty-threes would have a single or two over on the Forty-fives, but Grease has three! The biggest mover on the Forty-fives this week is Olivia Newton-John's "Hopelessly Devoted To You" as the single moves up nine places from last week's debut to number 28. During its sixteen-week stay on WLS's singles chart, "Hopelessly Devoted To You" peaked at number 7 in September before ending up number 48 at year's end. "You're The One That I Want" drops one spot to number five this week before going on to spend a total of thirty weeks on the Forty-fives. In that run, "You're The One That I Want" spent six weeks at number 2 and later nabbed number 3 on the Big 89. Holding at its peak chart position of number 3 for the second week is "Grease" by Frankie Valli. The single would spend a total of five non-consecutive weeks at number 3 in a twenty-one-week chart crawl and appear on the Big 89 of '78 at number 14.
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There are a few songs on the list of Forty-fives that I had to look up because I didn't recall ever hearing them on WLS or anywhere else:
Linda Clifford - "Runaway Love" (22)Natalie Cole - "Annie Mae" (30)Chocolate Milk - "Girl Callin'" (6)
The numbers following each song title are the respective radio spins, according to Mediabase, for each song from January 1st to August 31st, 2026. Filled with curiousity, I looked up the other forty-two songs as well. The single with the most spins on monitored US radio stations is Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" with 25,935.
But it was the single with the least amount of spins that grabbed my attention: "You" by Rita Coolidge has just one spin on WKYH in Charleston, West Virgina, through the first eight months of 2026. The slow disco track moves up three from its debut position to number 39 on the Forty-fives eventually peaking at number 21 in a twelve-week run. I remember really liking the song but never bought the 45. I rediscovered the song when it was included on Rita's volume (Volume 5) of the A&M Classics 25th Anniversary Series in 1987.
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