Continuing my look at the albums of 1977…
The Bee Gees’ contributions to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack marked the high point for the disco era, but the Queen of Disco also made a mark in 1977. Donna Summer released two records that year, both ambitious concept albums.
The second of those, Once Upon a Time…, is a double album chronicling the fate of a young woman who heads to the big city to find success and love, only to fall on hard times before eventually meeting her Prince Charming.
Continuing my look at the albums of 1977…
What Kraftwerk did for electronic music, the Sex Pistols did for punk. Though the English band lasted just two and a half years and released only one studio album, they are considered the godfathers of the punk movement in the UK and beyond.
That album was 1977’s Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols, an unlikely chart-topping hit in the United Kingdom. That success came despite the album being banned by major retailers and having to make up the slack through sales in independent stores. Exactly as it should be, I suppose.
Now that I’ve counted down my favorite 1977 albums, the time has come for me to highlight other albums from the year with which I’m less familiar.
Having now listened to a bunch of 1977’s most notable albums, I’m confident that my personal top ten is a great representation of the year’s best music (according to my taste, anyway). If you’re a fan of punk or electronic music, you probably feel different. Still, I did manage to hear a few new gems.
The Righteous Brothers stayed at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of April 19, 1966, with ‘(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration.’ That song would surrender its perch the following week.
At #2 was Cher’s ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down),’ a track written by Sonny Bono and released on her sophomore solo album, The Sonny Side of Chér. This was the highest-charting song of Cher’s solo career until her trio of #1 hits in the 70s with the increasingly problematic titles ‘Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves,’ ‘Half-Breed,’ and ‘Dark Lady.’
We’re throwing back to the week of April 18, 1956, and the 50s just got interesting!
While Les Baxter’s instrumental ‘The Poor People of Paris‘ held on to the #1 spot for the sixth straight week, it was about to be unseated by the song at #2.
That was Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel,’ the King’s first of 17 chart-topping hits on the Hot 100 (or the Best Sellers in Stores chart, as it was called before 1958).
Meet Me In Montauk 