Hot 100 - 1976 style

The BBC are currently showing a batch of “Top of the Pops” TV shows from 1976. I heard someone being interviewed who expressed the opinion that all music from 1976 was complete rubbish as the whole year was a no-man’s land between Glam Rock and Punk. I think she was talking rubbish. Perhaps many of the acts featured on TOTP in 1976 veered towards middle-of-the-road crooners and lightweight Disco and pop groups like Sailor but I was buying a lot of music then so it couldn’t have been all bad. Every single year since pop was invented has contained a mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous. However, saying all that I was paying little attention to the Bay City Rollers or Showaddywaddy in the 1970s. I was too busy visiting junk shops in search of Rocksteady/Ska 45s or attending concerts at the Empire Pool Wembly to see the likes of David Bowie and Alice Cooper.

The February 28th 1976 issue of New Musical Express contained a free poster listing the best-ever pop singles up to that date. I presume the list was compiled from votes sent in by readers? I find the list quite sweet in its concentration on 1960s mainstream chart pop. I suppose everyone’s list of 100 tunes released before 1976 would be different. I would take the Kinks out of their list and include the Fugs, the VU, the Staple Singers, more Beach Boys, some Ska, Sinatra’s My Way, at least 4 tunes by Irma Thomas, Round Round by JK, etc etc……………….