Throwing back to the week of April 26, 1976, we The Bellamy Brothers holding on to the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Let Your Love Flow.’ This was the song’s sole week at #1.
Just behind at #2, where it peaked, was ‘Right Back Where We Started From’ by British R&B singer Maxine Nightingale. The song had enjoyed a successful run in the UK the previous year and was released in the U.S. in January.
Continuing my look at the albums of 1977…
I have commenter RussParis to thank for today’s selection. He offered up his own list of favorite 1977 albums, naming several I’ve covered here and others I considered and at least one name that was completely new to me — Karla Bonoff. I promptly gave the album a listen and discovered what may well be a new favorite.
Bonoff is a singer-songwriter best known for songs of hers that other people recorded. Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Lynn Anderson, and Wynona Judd have all had hits with her tunes.
Continuing my look at the albums of 1977…
David Bowie had a hell of a 1977. He released the first two albums in his “Berlin trilogy,” Low and “Heroes”, experimenting with electronic music and becoming heavily influenced by German bands such as Kraftwerk. I covered both of those records in my Bowie deep dive (and I’m not a huge fan of either) so I’m not featuring them here.
By Bowie’s side throughout that period was Iggy Pop, the American punk artist he befriended years earlier. The two men lived together in Berlin while trying to kick their respective drug habits, and Bowie played a major role in the writing and recording of Pop’s first solo album, The Idiot.
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.
Meet Me In Montauk 