The five best-selling songs from 1976 aren’t as good as you remember
With the likes of Eagles, Sex Pistols and ABBA all making waves, 1976 may well have been one of the best years for music ever.
This is when musicians were really branching out with what kind of sound they wanted to make. Rock music was king, and everybody was listening; however, now that the genre had been established, it was time for people to branch out. This led to other variations of rock, but also created some other genres where people could be experimental and stumble upon a range of different styles in the process.
It was an exciting time to be a music lover, and that was reflected in some of the amazing albums and songs that we still revel in today. Tracks like ‘Hotel California’, ‘Anarchy In The UK’ and ‘Go Your Own Way’ were all stellar moments in music, and people were buying these songs like they were going out of fashion.
While there were so many great songs getting released during this time, there were also a few duds scattered around here and there. In fact, the five best-selling songs of 1976, while we recognise them as classics, really aren’t as good as you remember. Of all the great music released in those 12 months, it’s strange to think that these few songs were the most popular, because they really don’t sound the same in the modern age.
The five best-selling songs of 1976 are overrated:
Wings – ‘Silly Love Songs’
Paul McCartney used this song as an acknowledgement that love songs will always have an important place in music. “The fact is, deep down, people are very sentimental,” he said, “If they watch a sentimental movie at home, they cry, but in public they won’t. We don’t like to show our emotions; we tend to sneer at that. And in the same way, people may not admit to liking love songs, but that’s what they seem to crave.”
The track was a hit with the public, and McCartney’s sentiment certainly carried, as people clearly connected with his lyrics and were able to channel their own emotions through the track. However, in the modern age, the song just doesn’t hold up quite as well. As far as love songs are concerned, it’s certainly not one of the best ever made, and when you consider McCartney’s musical output as a whole, this might be one of his lower-quality offerings.
Elton John & Kiki Dee – ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’
Yes, it’s ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’, or as you might know it, the song that the annoying couple sings at karaoke. The track was one of the most popular of 1976, and Kiki Dee said it was widely inspired by Motown. “Both Elton and I were big fans of those duets on Motown by the likes of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell,” she said, “And as there hadn’t been any around for a bit, we thought we’d do one ourselves.”
The success of the song speaks for itself, but let’s be real, it’s not exactly a great tune, and when you listen to it now, it feels more irritating than anything else. The duo don’t exactly sing with the charm of Motown artists, and instead, the track is just reduced to dwindling dance floors and karaoke booths.
Johnnie Taylor – ‘Disco Lady’
The ‘70s brought with them the astronomical rise of disco, a brand new genre of music which saw dancefloors filled up with punters dressed to the nines, all ready to revel in what was quickly becoming one of the most popular genres on the planet. ‘Disco Lady’ shot to the top of the charts in the middle of this new hype, and it became one of the best-selling songs of the year as a result.
Now, ‘Disco Lady’ is as good as any other disco song out there; the issue isn’t the track on its own, rather, it’s the fact that the genre just doesn’t land in the same way that it used to. Disco songs seem to merge into one with the power of hindsight, as the fundamental elements that make up tracks don’t seem to alter. It just means that listening back to tracks like this doesn’t evoke the same feelings they used to, as it all seems a little bit repetitive.
The Four Seasons – ‘December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)’
The actual meaning of this song was hidden for quite a while, as all mentions of sex were toned down so that The Four Seasons would be able to get the song on the radio; however, a few years down the line, once the numbers had racked up and popularity was dwindling, the group were open about what the song was about: “It was a song about losing your cherry,” they simply declared.
Whatever the meaning is, this is a pretty decent track. It’s catchy, gets your toe-tapping, and is one of those songs where you can just guarantee dancefloors everywhere are going to fill the minute it starts playing. However, the fact that it was one of the best-selling tracks in 1976 is shocking, paling in comparison to some of the other music that came out in those 12 months, and you have to wonder what drove people so wild.
Wild Cherry – ‘Play That Funky Music’
If you want a track that will get you snapping your fingers and nodding along, you don’t need to look any further than a song like ‘Play That Funky Music’, which is filled to the brim with an infectious rhythm and a style that is pretty tricky to dislike. The public agreed, as this Wild Cherry number was one of the most popular tracks in 1976, but it was also a complete copy.
The band’s frontman, Rob Parissi, has admitted that the track was the byproduct of his being desperate to write a hit. He would buy Billboard magazine and rip off whatever songs were doing well, rendering this song that so many of us love so much as just the result of what is essentially stealing. He said the song is based on Ohio Players’ ‘Fire’, and when you know as much, you can’t unhear it.
