The 10 Most Popular Songs Of 1976
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(CBSDFW.COM) - Today we are counting down the 10 most popular songs from 1976 as determined by Billboard Magazine.
That year, Governor Jimmy Carter defeated President Gerald Ford to be the 39th President of the United States. The country itself celebrated its 200th birthday on July 4th. The first laser printer was introduced by IBM. And yours truly turned 22 years old that year after graduating from SMU and was headed to the University Of Texas At Austin for the next 2 years to attend graduate business school (MBA).
Now, in descending order, the top 10 hits of the year:
10. "A Fifth Of Beethoven" (Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band)
9. "Love Is Alive" (Gary Wright)
8. "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" (Paul Simon)
7. "Love Machine" (The Miracles)
6. "Kiss And Say Goodbye" (The Manhattans)
5. "Play That Funky Music" (Wild Cherry)
4. "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" (The Four Seasons)
3. "Disco Lady" (Johnnie Taylor)
2. "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" (Elton John & Kiki Dee)
And…the #1 song for 1976 was………..Silly Love Songs by Wings, the group headed by former Beatle bass guitarist/keyboardist Paul McCartney. The song stayed on the charts at #1 for five weeks.
But there was another song that year later made famous on TV. The pop-rock group Orleans from New York charted three songs on the charts, their first in 1975 called "Dance With Me". At the ABC Television Network, ABC Entertainment President Fred Silverman (who had left CBS) started putting together a winning prime time schedule and propelled the network to #1 status by 1978. That prompted ABC to use promotional slogans such as " Let Us Be The One". But it was Orleans' song, "Still The One" whose theme and partial lyrics were used to promote ABC as America's #1 TV network, something that had eluded them since it was formed in 1948. Written by Johanna and John Hall and peaked at #5 in 1976, watch "Still The One," above.
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