Category Archives: Songs from 1976

Album: Disco Inferno, 1976

Justification: There are a lot of songs  I initially loved for ironic reasons, which then metaphorically took off their librarian glasses, shook their hair out and caused me to double take and stammer “B-b-but good heavens, ‘Yes Sir, I Can Boogie’ by Baccara, you’re beautiful!”

And this is yet another one of them.

It’s a look you can take from day to night!

For 20-odd years, this song was a joke to me. I would do this at karaoke with my friend Maria, I would occasionally put it on mixtapes (or at least keep adding that introduction so every few songs would get that amazing “DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DAAA” intro before going into, say, Pavement) and I would cite it as an example of crassly opportunistic bandwagon-jumping while somehow failing to notice that it’s legitimately fucking amazing.

That’s not to say that it doesn’t work both ways: it was one of two songs that was on both the playlists I made for my birthday do last Saturday (“Terrible, Terrible Party” and “The Awesome Party List”): because you can both revel in the fact that this was a piece of glorious kitsch reputedly inspired by a scene in The Towering Inferno and also acknowledge that brass cuts through like a freight train (supposedly because the noise reduction was accidentally turned way up during recording – when noticed during mixing, switching it off caused the whole song to leap out of the speakers). Needless to say, when I dropped this a few weeks back when DJing at RollerDisco, shit very much got real.

It was a reasonable hit on initial release, but really crossed over after its inclusion on the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever in 1978. Since then it’s been used in dozens of films and TV shows, generally in a jokey and/or ironic way. Which may bother some bands, I suppose, but then again, just look at those outfits: NOTHING could ever bother these people.

SONG YOU SHOULD HAVE REDISCOVERED THIS TIME IN 2010:There’s never been a July 10 entry! Heavens. OK, have one from 8 July 2011, in the form of the Kinks and ‘Victoria’.

AND HERE’S THE LAST FIVE…

488. Ween: Push th’ Little Dasies (29 June)

489. Lloyd Cole & the Commotions: Jennifer She Said (4 July)

490. Headless Chickens: Donde Esta la Pollo (5 July)

491. Visage: Fade to Grey (6 July)

492. Modest Mouse: Satellite Skin (9 July)

Album: Shake Some Action, 1976

Justification: The Flamin’ Groovies always confused me, since they seemed like they should have been a sixties band rather than a proto-punk band. That’s because they were a sixties band and this – their best known song – was the title track from their fifth album. And what a killer song it is too.

Most people these days know it thanks to the Clueless soundtrack, and I really wish I could claim that my knowledge of the song came from somewhere much cooler. But it was actually the Shock Records compilation of the same name, which was and is awesome and has been responsible for several other entries. Like this one.

The band have reformed in various ways in recent years, according to Wikipedia. And let’s face it, they’d know.

SONG YOU SHOULD HAVE REDISCOVERED THIS TIME IN 2011: The Dresden Dolls were setting out their metaphorical wagon with ‘Coin Operated Boy’.

AND HERE’S THE LAST FIVE…

400. Lloyd Cole: No Blue Skies (14 Dec)

401. Jean Michel Jarre: Oxygène (part IV) (15 Dec) 

402. The Damned: Smash It Up (19 Dec)

403. Echo & the Bunnymen: Bring on the Dancing Horses (21 Dec) 

404. Not From There: Frisco Disco (23 Dec)

Album: Oxygène, 1976

Justification: You know what? This is the first song from 1976 we’ve had. Amazing.

That’s not simply because 1976 was a musical wasteland, although that’s not entirely inaccurate – this was why punk turned up, after all – but also because there aren’t many videos floating around from this era. Fortunately there’s this cheesy performance of a piece that I thought was terrible when I was a kid but now adore both musically and culturally – the latter because it was what brought the burgeoning electronica scene of Europe to worldwide mainstream prominence (along with several other performers, notably Kraftwerk), and the former because now when I hear it I realise that it’s a variation on the riff to ‘Popcorn’, the Gershon Kingsley classic*. And the cultural journey doesn’t end there: French pop subversive Sebastian Tellier returned to the riff on his debut album.

SONG YOU SHOULD HAVE REDISCOVERED THIS TIME IN 2010: The Stranglers’ gorgeous ode to smack, ‘Golden Brown’.

AND HERE’S THE LAST FIVE…

396. Jack Ladder & the Dreamlanders: Cold Feet (6 Dec)

397.  Michael Penn: No Myth (7 Dec)

398. Yeasayer: O.N.E (8 Dec) 

399. Mint Royale: Don’t Falter (13 Dec)

400. Lloyd Cole: No Blue Skies (14 Dec) 

*If you’re unfamiliar with the work of Kingsley, particularly that of his collaborative efforts with Jean-Jacque Perrey as Perrey & Kingsley, stop what you’re doing and start YouTubing ‘em. Every piece of instrumental music Sesame Street used in the 70s? Basically them.