Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth. In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.
We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 1976, the year I turned two and featuring the birth of my sister. Given my young age, I have no knowledge of these songs from their original release. Only 17 of the Hot 100 are familiar to me now, with only seven of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.
#97: Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots – Disco Duck
iTunes stats: N/A
Disc jockey Dees, who was working in Memphis at the time, wrote and recorded this novelty song that spent ten weeks in the top ten and peaked at #1 for one week in October of 1976.
#96: Kiss – Rock and Roll All Nite (Live)
iTunes stats: 19 plays
This live version of the band’s 1975 tune peaked at #12 in early 1976 and became the first of six of the band’s songs to crack the Top 20 during the decade.
#89: Peter Frampton – Baby, I Love Your Way (Live)
iTunes stats: N/A
The live version, released as a single from the massive hit Frampton Comes Alive!, topped out at #12.
#87: Thin Lizzy – The Boys Are Back in Town
iTunes stats: N/A
The 272nd best song of all time, per Rolling Stone’s 2021 edition of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, the tune reached #12 in the spring of 1976.
#85: Foghat – Slow Ride
iTunes stats: 20 plays
Named the 45th Best Hard Rock song of all time by VH1 in 2009, Foghat’s highest charting single peaked at #20 in the winter of 1976.
#64: Bay City Rollers – Saturday Night
iTunes stats: N/A
The song became the band’s only #1 hit in the US and the first Billboard #1 of the Bicentennial.
#58: John Sebastian – Welcome Back
iTunes stats: 37 plays
The theme song to Welcome Back, Kotter rocketed to #1 after just five weeks on the chart.
#51: Aerosmith – Dream On
iTunes stats: 21 plays
First released as a single in 1973, the album version was re-released in late 1975, joining the Hot 100 in January of 1976 and finally hitting #6 in April.
#45: KC and the Sunshine Band – That’s The Way (I Like It)
iTunes stats: 17 plays
The band’s second #1 hit, it spent two non-consecutive weeks at the top of the charts at the end of 1975.
#40: Eric Carmen – All By Myself
iTunes stats: 12 plays
The first single from Carmen’s debut solo album, it peaked at #2 and was certified gold in April of 1976.
#37: Gary Wright – Dream Weaver
iTunes stats: N/A
I know this song primarily from an inside joke at the workplace, but the actual tune reached #2 in early 1976.
#30: Ohio Players – Love Rollercoaster
iTunes stats: 18 plays
Covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1996, the original, with the urban legend that the recording captured the scream of someone being murdered, reached the top of the charts.
#26: KC and the Sunshine Band – (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty
iTunes stats: 12 plays
Released in May of 1976, the song became the group’s third #1 hit.
#23: Nazareth – Love Hurts
iTunes stats: 25 plays
Originally recorded by the Everly Brothers in 1960, Nazareth’s cover became the most successful version of the song, reaching #8 on the charts.
#18: Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
iTunes stats: 27 plays
The song, which charted a second time in the early 90s thanks to its inclusion in the first Wayne’s World film, peaked at #9 despite initial mixed reactions to its multiple musical genres.
#5: Wild Cherry – Play That Funky Music
iTunes stats: 17 plays
Covered by Vanilla Ice in 1990, the original, listed at #93 on Billboard magazine’s “All-Time Top 100 Songs” in 2018, reached #1 in September of 1976.
#4: The Four Seasons – December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)
iTunes stats: 27 plays
The final Four Seasons’ single to reach the top of the charts, it spent three weeks at #1 in March of 1976.