My Favourite 45s of the Year: 1976 Quiz

Answer: The Isley Brothers

A lovely song by The Isley Brothers, "Harvest for the World" is an out-and-out plea for world peace. Ronald Isley sings the song beautifully, and there's something about the rather ragged handclaps that somehow just makes you want to dance.
It went to number 63 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number ten in the UK Singles Chart; a cover version released by The Christians in 1988 got to number eight in the UK Singles Chart.

Answer: Robin Sarstedt

The great Hoagy Carmichael wrote "My Resistance is Low" in 1951, but his recording of the song failed to chart. However Harold Adamson added some lyrics, and this version was sung by Carmichael and Jane Russell in the closing sequence of the film "The Las Vegas Story" in 1952. It made number one on the UK charts and it's well worth watching on YouTube!
To the point, however - in 1976 the song was picked up by a singer named Robin Sarstedt. He came from a family of singers here in the UK: one of his brothers used the name Eden Kane and had a couple of hits in the early 1960s (including a number one with "Well I Ask You"), while another brother, Peter Sarstedt, had two top ten hits in 1969, "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?" which got to number one and "Frozen Orange Juice" which got to number ten.
So with those genes it's hardly surprising that Robin Sarstedt had a hit on his hands with this lushly-orchestrated version of a classic song. It went to number three in the UK Singles Chart, but it was a real one-hit wonder. Sadly, Robin Sarstedt died in 2022.

Answer: The Damned

So - I was in bed listening to John Peel one night when he played this record. It started with a deadpan, slightly camp man's voice quoting the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack", saying "Is she really going out with him?". Then there was just a detonation of drums and fuzzy guitar, as The Damned launched into "New Rose" - the first Punk Rock single released anywhere.
It was totally unlike anything I'd ever heard before - incredibly exciting, with absolutely no musical pretensions. It's said that Nick Lowe, the record's producer, speeded up the track after recording it but didn't bother with overdubbing the mistakes - he just wanted a pure, back-to-basics sound. Well, that's what he got!
The record failed to chart anywhere but its influence was immense, especially here in the UK. It's one of the most important singles in the history of music, and nothing was ever the same after this.

Answer: Toots and the Maytals

Toots and the Maytals had been producing high-quality reggae for years, including the wonderful "Pressure Drop", but the 1976 "Reggae Got Soul" album showed them at their best. Toots Hibbert had a wonderful, warm voice, and it came through brilliantly on this collection. The album's title track is a great song, with an infectious melody and a great horn section. And on harmonica - Stevie Wonder! It went to number 55 in the UK Singles Chart but wasn't released in the US.
Sadly Toots Hibbert died in 2020 - sorely missed.

Answer: Poco

Poco were a country rock band formed in 1968 from the wreckage of Buffalo Springfield. A prize recruit to the new band was pedal steel guitar Rusty Young, and the band stayed together in one form or another until he died in 2021. Now, even though I'm not wild about Country and Western music I've always been a sucker for pedal steel guitar. So I really liked Poco's more rock-oriented music, which for me reached its apotheosis with this six-minute masterwork, "Rose of Cimarron".
It starts with a guitar intro, and the following vocals and harmonies are excellent. After about 4':20" the lead guitar comes in with a glorious solo, but the end of the song is a thing of wonder - an extended instrumental coda with lush orchestration backing, descending piano chords and harmonica all working together - it's the kind of music that just brings to mind the wide-open skies and endless vistas of the West - Wyoming, Montana and the like.
An edited version of the song got to number 94 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart; an unedited version was released in the UK but it didn't chart. Young said that it was the Poco song he was most proud of writing: "I love everything about that song - from the very visual lyrics to the beautiful melody", he said. I couldn't agree more.

Answer: Nick Lowe

Nick Lowe had a major influence on music in the UK from the mid-1970's onwards, albeit after a rather checkered start to his career. In the early 1970s he played in a band called Brinsley Schwarz whose management had inflated ideas of their appeal. So to promote them they flew them to New York to play a one-off gig at the Filmore East, accompanied by a plane-load of journalists The gig was a total disaster and the band became a laughing stock. Leaving Brinsley Schwarz behind, Lowe joined up with Dave Edmunds to form Rockpile and also became an in-house producer with the brand new Stiff Records label.
This single, "So It Goes", was the first to be released by Stiff Records. It's a great song, tuneful and with great lyrics about the music business - "and so it goes - and where it's going, no one knows". Sadly it didn't chart anywhere, although a number of his subsequent records did - notably "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" which reached number seven in the UK Singles Chart in 1978.
The story of Stiff Records is important here, too. Formed in 1976 by Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson, the label was hugely influential. Nick Lowe produced the first Punk Rock single to be released in the UK, "New Rose" by The Damned, for the label, and in no time they'd signed such artists as Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Devo, Madness and The Pogues. In 1978 I went to a Stiff Tour gig featuring five of their artists - it was great fun!

Answer: The Sex Pistols

The second Punk Rock single to be released in the UK, "Anarchy in the UK" by the Sex Pistols was championed by John Peel, and I can remember hearing it for the first time on his radio show. Like "New Rose" by The Damned it cut across everything else that was being played at that time, although it did so with a lot more vitriol, directed at everything and everyone around the band. Lyrically it was a scream of anger, dashed with a bit of realism: "Anarchy for the USA, it's coming sometime, maybe". Love it or loathe it, it's one of the most important records of the 1970s and 1980s. It got to number 38 in the in the UK Singles Chart but it wasn't released in the US.

It was also ranked at number 53 in the 2004 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Answer: Junior Murvin

Junior Murvin wrote "Police and Thieves" in May 1976 in response to gang warfare and police brutality in Jamaica. It did well in Jamaica, so Island Records picked it up and released it in the UK in July of that year. This release happened to more-or-less coincide with that year's Notting Hill Carnival, which was disrupted by intense rioting and severe violence. Consequently the track became anthemic in minority community areas, especially in London.

Although the single was released in 1976 and an album with the same title in 1977, it didn't chart until 1980 when it got to number 23 in the UK Singles Chart after being featured on the film "Rockers". And it just so happened that Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon of The Clash were at the Carnival, heard the song there and decided to cover it on their first album, in a "punk reggae" version. Listen to it - it's great!

Answer: The Ramones

I spotted the first album by the Ramones in Good Vibrations Records in Belfast and I was so knocked out by the cover that I bought it - and was I glad that I did! The album is stuffed with absolutely classic songs such as "Blitzkrieg Bop", "Beat on the Brat" and "Judy is a Punk".

It also has my all-time favourite Ramones song, "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", which became the band's second single release. It's slightly slower and more romantic than the rest of their oeuvre, but it's wonderfully tuneful. Sadly it didn't chart anywhere. I had the great good fortune to see The Ramones on stage in Belfast in September 1978 - they were tremendous! They just stood there, clad in identical leather jackets and jeans. Every song started with a shouted "one - two - three - four" and lasted about a minute and a half. None of them bounced around the stage - they just stood there and played, very fast and very loud.

It was brilliant!

Answer: Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Richman wrote "Roadrunner" in 1970, a simple two-chord song extolling the virtues of driving around Massachusetts late at night. Richman recorded the song a number of times, both with and without his backing band, the Modern Lovers. A first version was recorded in 1972 with the Modern Lovers and included on the band's debut album in 1976. A solo second version was recorded in 1974 for Beserkley Records and released in 1976. This single had the 1974 version, named "Roadrunner (Once)", as its A-side and the 1972 version, known as "Roadrunner (Twice)", as its B-side. Complicated or what?
Anyway, the record reached number 11 in the UK Singles Chart, and was played so frequently by John Peel that it secured a place on his 1976 "Festive Fifty" list of listeners' favourite tracks. It was ranked at number 259 in the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004, and at number 77 in the 2021 list.
It's a wonderful record, deceptively simple, and very much on the evolutionary tree that led to Punk Rock and New Wave.