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The list on this page is for all #1 hit Pop singles for 1976 using proprietary methods. The results in this chart are not affiliated with any mainstream or commercial chart and may not reflect charts seen elsewhere.
When reviewing 1954 Best Original Song a while back, I made a forceful argument the Oscar that year should have easily gone to "The Man That Got Away," the brilliant and iconic Judy Garland tune from the first remake of A Star Is Born.
The second A Star Is Born remake, the soapy and decidedly inferior 1976 version with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, managed to achieve what the Garland-James Mason vehicle couldn't by scoring the Original Song victory. The difference in quality between "The Man That Got Away" and the winning track, "Evergreen," could not, however, be more stark.
For while the Garland number was a true powerhouse, finding its performer at the very top of her game, not only in simply singing the song but also acting out the performance, the Streisand-Kristofferson record is a prime example of the sort of lukewarm adult contemporary cheese that flooded the airwaves around this time. It's not a flat-out bad song, certainly not on the level of one of the Maureen McGovern winners, but it's oh-so syrupy and undistinguished. It's not even a great showcase of Streisand's typically tour-de-force vocal chords.
So no, "Evergreen," which scored Oscars for both Streisand and composer Paul Williams, did not deserve to triumph here, certainly not against one of the all-time great movie themes, Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" from the Best Picture-winning Sylvester Stallone smash Rocky.
With sparse yet perfect lyrics by Carol Connors, perhaps best-known as the lead singer of the '60s pop group The Teddy Bears (which also included a pre-Ronettes Phil Spector), "Gonna Fly Now" sends the John G. Avildsen picture soaring in its memorable training sequence. In light of the success of the Creed, I recently revisited the first Rocky and, while I don't think the film has aged terribly well in many regards, "Gonna Fly Now" still holds up beautifully. I would be awfully surprised if it wasn't runner-up here, given the Academy's admiration for the film.
As for the remaining three nominees, "Ave Santini," the theme from the Gregory Peck-Lee Remick horror flick The Omen, is reasonably eerie stuff, but not quite on the same level as The Exorcist's "Tubular Bells" or even Lalo Schifrin's underrated (and also Oscar-nominated) theme from The Amityville Horror. Henry Mancini's "Come to Me," from The Pink Panther Strikes Again, is a listenable Tom Jones tune but definitely not among the more memorable Mancini pieces. The final nominee, "A World That Never Was," from the uber-obscure Half a House, marked the final Oscar appearance by the Paul Francis Webster-Sammy Fain team, who scored prizes in this category for "Secret Love" and "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing." Much like the Streisand and Jones tracks, it's very much emblematic of the ho-hum soft rock of this era.
In terms of snubbed songs this year, there are two biggies - Rose Royce's delightful "Car Wash," from the eponymous film, and Aretha Franklin's exquisite "Something He Can Feel," the Curtis Mayfield-composed record written for the not-so-exquisite Irene Cara vehicle Sparkle.
There seems to a bit of difference. Mr Maestro seems to have a bit of less patience for certain sappy song given the dog tribute Hit was in the bottom 5 compared to Todd ranking it in the bottom 5 as the first pick for starters.
Afternoon Delight: the least sexiest song about sex ever. For me, the best songs about having sex are Sexual Healing, Rock The Boat and Red Light Special, because they just have a good atmosphere compared to this POS. Plus, they all sound great as well.
Disco Duck was my pick for the worst song, but everything you said about it was right on the money. I especially liked the Donald Duck part. And as for Shannon, dedicating a song to a dead pet is a nice idea, but when the execution is way off, it becomes a huge mess.
What are our opinions on the following songs?
Silly Love Songs by Wings
December, 1963 (Oh! What A Night) by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
A Fifth or Beethoven by Walter Murphy
Sara Smile by Hall and Oates
Fly Robin Fly by The Silver Convention
More, More, More by Andrea True Connection
You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate
All By Myself by Eric Carmen
Lowdown by Boz Scaggs
Show Me The Way by Peter Frampton
Say You Love Me by Fleetwood Mac
Welcome Back by John Sebastian
Island Girl by Elton John
Let Em In by Wings
Got to Get You Into My Life by The Beatles
That same year, a man by the name of Steve Jobs formed the Apple Computer Company, gambling was legalized in Atlantic City, New Jersey and the space shuttle Enterprise was first rolled out of its hangar for the world to see.
The following ten tunes are some of the purest love songs to populate the Top 40 charts in 1976, with eleven of them achieving Top 10 status. Scroll down, press play, and fill your ears with the love of 1976.
So there you have it; ten great love songs of 1976 in the order of their appearance on the Top 40 charts of that year. Each song has been vetted and listened to (again and again) with the lyrics read and scrutinized to weed out any troubled love like breakups, infidelity, done-me-wrong or lost love lyrics, leaving only happy fuzzy snugly 1976 love songs.
Todd: Nope. Not today. [Walks off...] Nope. Not doin' it. [...and comes back with the lists] Okay, Billboard's Top 100 Year-End Lists. [Starts flipping through] Just gonna pick one at random here... [pulls out the list] ...uh...okay. [Starts playing "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac[1] on his piano]
Todd (VO): Yeah, that's the way I like it. I've gone through all these lists, and '76 would probably rank up there with 1965 and 1983 as one of the best years ever for pop music. There is so much great funk, soul, classic rock, R&B, singer-songwriter ballads, hard rock, early disco, and even crossover country music that it is absolutely ridiculous. I could make a Top 30 out of this list and still have to make some really painful cuts. And it's not just that there's a lot of good stuff; it's that all the good stuff is amazingly good. This is the year that brought us "Dream On," "Give Up the Funk," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "The Boys Are Back in Town," "Love Rollercoaster," "Evil Woman," "Rock and Roll All Nite." Dear God, this year rocks!
Todd (VO): [Clips of Ke$ha - "BlahBlahBlah"] Where the worst songs of 2010 were aggressively obnoxious [Glenn Medeiros - "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You"] and the worst songs of 1987 were bland and insipid, [Clip from The Donny and Marie Show, with the two singing "Deep Purple"[21]] the worst songs of 1976 are kitschy and lame. And if you've got more of a stomach for 70s cheese than I do, you're not gonna like my picks for this list very much. But you know what?
Todd: When a year can give you Elton John and P-Funk, there's no making excuses for turds like the ones I'm about to reveal to you. So wake up everybody, we're gonna take it to the limit one more time! We're counting down...
Todd (VO): Yeah, the post-Brian years were definitely not good to these guys. Now their own contribution to this year was a lousy, lackluster cover of Chuck Berry's "Rock and Roll Music," and you can consider that the unofficial #11 of this list. But the Beach Boys were able to cause bad music to happen indirectly as well, and by sheer coincidence, the bottom two songs on this list are Beach Boys-related.
Todd: Now maybe it's a little unfair to hold things like this against the guys who gave us "Good Vibrations" and "God Only Knows," but quite frankly, someone has to take the blame for this. So, that out of the way, let me tell you about a guy named Henry Gross.
Todd (VO): [sarcastic] Oh, boo-hoo-hoo, the doggy's dead. I'm a 12-year-old girl apparently. No, I cannot believe this sappy-ass shit was the best thing he could think of to write a song about, especially considering that Carl's brother [picture of...] Brian Wilson was going through a well-publicized depression and drug-induced mental breakdown. God, you think they ever spoke?
Todd: Okay, now you wanna know the worst thing the Beach Boys did to the 70s? Yeah, I'll tell ya. They hired a guy named Daryl as their touring keyboardist. Daryl worked with them for a while and later brought in his future wife Toni when they needed a second keyboardist. Now with those connections, they were able to launch their own successful career as recording artists and together, they were among the most successful, and worst, acts of the decade. They were... the Captain & Tennille.
Todd: If this were any other music group, I'd call this their worst song; with the Captain & Tennille, I'm not even sure this would make their bottom 5. I mean, they had a song called "Muskrat Love," and it was literally about muskrats in love. Now if there's one thing that makes this song in particular unbearable...
Todd (VO): ...it's that the original song was about playing the field to make sure you have someone to compare your future mate to before you settle down, and that worked just fine for Ol' Smokey, but be damned if I'm gonna take romantic advice from a woman who wound up with a guy that spent his entire adult life dressed like a cast member of The Love Boat. Now if they were going to cover any Smokey Robinson song, it should've been "Tears of a Clown" 'cause that's what he looked like.
Todd (VO): Simply put, I hate this man's voice. It resonates at just the right frequency to piss me off. It is one of the most wretched things I have ever heard, but I can't really explain why. I don't have this reaction to any other soft-rocker in the universe. [Pictures of...] Phil Collins? Fine. Bryan Adams? Fine. Richard Marx? Fine. Mi...heh...but you know what? I probably would stand up for Michael Bolton before I stuck up for Peter Cetera. My mind just squeals in agony every time I have to hear his horrible dog whistle of a voice encased inside this Xanax of a song.
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