EP. 129 We Build The Ultimate April 1976 Playlist

April 1976 is one of those weeks where the radio dial feels like an entire universe. We pull up the Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 from the first week of April 1976 and react in real time, from songs we wore out as kids to deep cuts we barely recognize until the title jogs the memory. Along the way we talk about what Top 40 radio edits left out, why certain hooks became permanent, and how a track can rise, fall, or hang on for dear life depending on what the culture wanted that week.

The chart run turns into a time capsule: disco energy rubbing shoulders with classic rock, soft rock, country crossover, and the kind of pop that only the 1970s could make feel normal on the same list. We hit big landmarks like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Dream On,” and “Dreamweaver,” plus the #1 that still gets everyone singing. If you love building playlists, you’ll have plenty of prompts to make your own “April 1976” set and test which songs still sound alive today.

Then we zoom out from singles to albums and dig into a handful of 1976 releases that shaped careers and changed trajectories: Rush taking a massive risk with “2112,” Kansas landing their defining moment with “Leftoverture,” Paul McCartney and Wings firing back with “Silly Love Songs,” Bob Seger breaking through with “Night Moves,” and Journey in the fascinating pre-Steve Perry years on “Look Into The Future.” We close with some current show plans that tie the old music to the live stage right now.

If this kind of music history and real-listener commentary is your thing, subscribe on your podcast app, watch on YouTube, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more people can find the show.

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Transcript

Welcome And Subscribe

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Hey there. Welcome into the Bed Mainer program. Thanks for being here. Hey, if you guys um if you guys didn't get enough a couple weeks ago when I covered albums from 1976, then strap in because I've got more. All right. I'm going to cover the Billboard Top 40 from the first week of April, and then I'm going to squeeze in a few more albums. Ones that I did not purposely leave out, but they need to get recognized. So we're going to cover that. Before we do, though, this one's going to be rough. It is. It's going to be rough today, all right? So just bear with me, all right? Before we get into all that goodness, though, uh, I'm going to really try to keep this short and sweet. This program is available wherever you get your podcasts. It's also available on YouTube. Just search the Ben Maynard program and subscribe. Lastly, follow me on my socials, on Instagram, simply Ben Maynard Program, all one word, or on the TikTok at the Ben Maynard program. So there are plenty of ways to take in the show for your dancing and listening pleasure. Oh, and away we go. So, all right. I lied to you guys last week and I owe you an apology. Yes. I I think if if you guys watch any, if you follow me on TikTok, you saw a couple videos I put out. First, I was going to put out a uh Friday night live. We were going to do a live stream last last Friday. And um that didn't happen because I didn't have everything prepared. And then also uh I followed that up by saying, uh, no, maybe not a maybe not a live stream, but we're gonna get a show out there. And and it didn't happen. Didn't get an episode out last week. So I apologize for that. Um and there's some circumstances, some reasoning as to why it didn't happen. We had some family stuff going on last week, and uh I I don't I don't know if I should get into it. Um so let's just I guess let's just leave it at that. We didn't get a we didn't get an episode in last Friday or Saturday. And then of course last Sunday was Easter Sunday, and we had uh we had some company over. So yeah, so just you know it it unfortunately it happens, and I didn't get a chance to let everybody know that there wasn't gonna be an episode. So, anyhow, back to 1976. How about that? All right, and uh the the uh the Billboard Top 40. Now, before I run it down for you, I'm going to admit that in April of 1976, I was still 10 years old. All right, we were celebrating the company or the company, the country's bicentennial in 76. And uh I was in the fifth grade and uh having a lot of fun as a 10-year-old. So I'm not gonna be familiar with every song here on the top 40, but the ones that I am familiar with, I know I'm gonna have something to say. So um let's see, let me get all this stuff in the right order because I just screwed it up already and I recognized it just before we hit the record button. All right, now so here we go. Um so starting with the Billboard Top 40, uh, you guys know that the chart is the Billboard Hot 100 and the radio stations, the the hit radio stations, top 40 radio stations, whatever you want to call them, they play the top 40, and that is well, certainly back in 1976, they were playing the top 40. And uh these were the tunes that they were running down, and Billboard has a chart for everything. So this is what was going on on the Billboard Top 40. At number 40, opening up the the uh the chart, climbing five spots from the week before, it was the Ohio players with now the way this is printed out, I don't know if it's just FOP or if it's F-O-P-P and it's an acronym for something. That's how familiar with that song I am. Not too familiar, right? Uh at number 39, climbing five spots from the week before. I would say probably most of these songs are on the ascend. So I haven't even really skimmed over it that closely. I looked over it a little bit, but uh, but at number 39, again, climbing five positions is Lorelei from Sticks. Now, um, I don't remember which album this is off of. It might be at this time, it might be off of the uh Equinox album. I can't recall. And you would think I would know because when we did 1976 a couple weeks back, I covered Crystal Ball, but I don't know Crystal Ball wasn't on that. So, or I'm not Crystal Ball, but Lorelei, I don't believe, was one of the tracks on the Crystal Ball album. So I think this is off of Equinox, but that's a really cool song. I I like it a lot. It's an Up tempo song and very much in the sticks vein. It's uh it's sung by Dennis DeYoung. Just like I said, a really, really cool song. I had never heard that name Lorelei before. But since I became familiar with this song, I've heard Lorelei many, many, many times. Uh let's see, moving up to spots to number 38, He's a Friend by Eddie Kendricks. Remember 10 years old, not familiar with that one. And at number 37, Living for the Weekend slash Stairway to Heaven from the OJs. Not too familiar with that one. Uh this one here at number 36 from ABBA. And I I like ABBA, but I can't say I go ultra deep into ABBA. So I'm not sure I'd have to hear this one, but it's uh I do, I do, I do, I do, I do. I don't know. Maybe, maybe not, not sure. Uh, let's see at number 35, climbing four positions is you'll lose a good thing from Freddie Fender. And I believe not too long ago, I talked about Freddie Fender. I remember on a previous episode covering a little bit of Freddie Fender from uh from the Billboard Top 40 chart. Let's see, at number 34, climbing three positions, looking for space from John Denver. I like me some John Denver. I'm not familiar with that one at all. Not familiar with that one. Uh, let's see. At number 33, climbing three positions, Love Fire from Jigsaw. Now, I don't I don't know this song. The reason why I'm going to stop down on this one a minute is this is the follow-up single to the band's first single in '75, and that was Sky High. That song I do know. And I had the single, I had the 45 for that one way back when in 1975. So I just kind of to myself, I'm like, okay, I like that one. Why not? At number 32, inseparable from the great Natalie Cole. Not familiar with that one though. Well, this one at 31 I am. Slowride from Fog Hat. What a great song. Now I can guarantee this that the top 40 radio stations were not playing the album version of that song with that great guitar solo. No way. They were playing an edited version. There, yeah, definitely. Um man, what a great song. At number 30, only love is real from Carol King. The 10-year-old and me, I don't think I'm familiar with that one. Some of these I would really I'd have to hear, and it's oh yeah, I know that one. Uh at number 29, holding in a holding pattern at number 29 is 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover from Paul Simon. Everyone knows that one. You know, hop on the bus, Gus. You don't need to discuss much, just drop off the key lee and get yourself free, you know. All that good stuff. That's a good sign. That's actually a good track. But I don't know if I want to be singing about 50 ways to leave my lover. I think I'd rather be singing like uh um uh finding a hundred ways to uh basically to say I love you. Uh let me see. Moving right along at number 28. I love this one, and what a great television show, especially when you're 10 years old. The theme from SWAT. The theme from SWAT by Rhythm Heritage. Uh, I had that single too. I just wore that single out. And that was such a great theme that what was it, 20 some odd years ago, when they made the SWAT movie with Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, and all that. And these guys had just got the SWAT team together. And what are they doing in the in the truck driving down the down the road? I think they started singing the theme from SWAT. Yeah. So those guys got it down. Uh number 27. Dropping, though, dropping nine spots from the week before. Love hurts from Nazareth. And dropping nine spots, that probably hurt a little bit too. But what a good song. What, what, what, what, what, what a good song. Yep, it's a great one. Um you know, just that gotta have that ballad, right? By these hard-rocking guys. Everybody, everyone knows Hair of the Dog. Come on. And then they follow up with Love Hurts. Uh let's see, number 26 climbing two spots on the chart is Good Hearted Woman from Whalen and Willie. Now, these guys did a lot together. I'm not familiar with this song, um, not at all. But they did a lot over the years. Um climbing 10 spots from 35 all the way up to 25, making a big leap. The silvers and boogie fever. I don't know if you guys remember, but okay. Remember, this is 1976, okay? There's a lot of disco on the chart at this time. We're like smack in the middle of disco. And uh there's a lot of disco on the charts. Good stuff, though. I I have to admit, I really like that song. So much so that I had that album from the Silvers. They were a family and they were very much like um, I guess very much like the Jacksons or the Jackson 5, um, and uh all lined up on the on the on the front cover of the album. Uh they had another song uh that that followed up Boogie Fever. That was Hotline.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Hotline, Hotline.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

You don't want to hear it, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Call in on the hotline for your love, for your love.

Big Climbers And Classic Hits

Singing Break And Podcast Growth

SPEAKER_01 12:43

And then the hand clap, of course. You guys don't need to hear any more of that. You really, really don't. But uh yeah, Boogie Fever from the Silvers jumping 10 spots to 25. Then at 24, there's a kind of hush all over the world from the carpenters. I don't think I'm familiar with that one. So moving right along to 23 is action, not the one you're thinking, not action, not that one, okay? It's action from sweet or the sweet. Um, I'm not the I don't think I'm I I know that one. I don't think I do. Uh so at number 22 in a holding pattern from Tony Orlando and Don Cupid. And I'm not familiar with that one either. I I know, you know, uh knock three times on the ceiling if you want me, uh tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree, you know. I know those. I don't know. At 21, dropping. Wow, this one's kind of like dropping like a lead balloon, falling 15 spots. Love machine from the miracles. In 76, I wonder if that was post. It had to be, it had to be post-smoky because it's just the miracles. So, yeah, I would think so. Uh, let's see at number 20. Junk food junkie from Larry, I think it's Grocey, as in like Crocey, but with a G Grocey. That's what I'm gonna say anyway. That's how familiar with this one I am. Geez. Uh number 19, Tangerine from the Sol Soul Orchestra. Wow, no, don't even know that one. Don't even know that one. At number 18, I do know this one. Climbing seven spots from uh previous week at number 25. This week at 18, show me the way from Peter Frampton. And you guys know from a couple weeks ago, we did talk about Peter Frampton's Frampton Comes Alive. I'm assuming that this is the version from Frampton Comes Alive. Only uh I'm assuming it because those are the ones that were played on the radio all the time. The live version of uh Show Me the Way, the live version of Um Uh Do you feel like Do you feel like we do? Um what was the other one? Gosh, now I can't even remember. But we always heard the live versions on the radio, so I'm assuming that is the live version. It doesn't say here in my my notes, but at number 17 from a band we did talk about a couple of weeks ago, from Queen, but not off of A Day at the Races, the album that preceded that one off of A Night at the Opera. Everyone knows this one. The biggest song in the catalog. Well, yeah, I guess it probably is now. I'd have to you have to look at the stats, but Bohemian Rhapsody huge song, great song, but it but it was so funny is that it was a big song in the 70s and and and into the 80s, but certainly nothing like it is now. And if you are my age or close to it, or maybe like my kids' age, um I you know what movie just made this song just explode. And that was, of course, Wayne's World. Yes, everyone should know that one. Um, so yeah, big song, and it's making a making a move up the chart at this time. It it's uh moving up a couple spots. Uh dropping, dropping um 12 spots from the previous week at number four, and now at number 16, we did talk about this band as well. The Eagles, off of one of the biggest selling albums in the history of time, space, and everything else, right? Take it to the limit. A tremendous song and great vocal performance by the uh one and only Rest in Peace, Randy Meisner. Man, what a great song. At number 15, Sweet Love from the Commodores. I am not familiar with that one. And I'm not familiar with the one at number 14 as well. That is Deep Purple, not from Deep Purple, no, Deep Purple from Donnie and Marie Osmond. I wonder if this was kind of a rocker. I don't know. Because Donnie was a let's see, let's see, how did it go? Uh Marie was a little bit country and Donnie was a little bit rock and roll. I think that's how it went. Something like that. Yeah, I'm not familiar with that one. And I think the one at number 13 from Dr. Hook, only 16. I think I'm a little familiar with that one. I'd have to re I'd have to hear it because there is one song I'm thinking of that is only 16, and and I'm not sure if that's the one. At number 12, another one from a group of brothers that I absolutely love, but I'm not familiar with this one. The song is Fanny, Be Tender with My Love from the Bee Gees. Great, great, great guys. Great stuff. At number 11, yes, I know this one. That is such a cool song. You guys, I should have reminded you, but you know already. You should have pen and paper out. You should be jotting these down and putting this playlist together. Put it together. Everyone likes to stream. You know, I don't even know where my I think I left my cell phone somewhere else. Usually I have it in the studio, at least so I can see if someone needs to get a hold of me. Whatever. Doesn't matter. But Golden Years, what a great song from David Bowie. And you should be um, you should be jotting all this stuff down, creating your own playlist. And you could just call it April 1976. Come on. All right, we're cracking the top 10. A band out of Australia had their own television show, too, Saturday morning television show, the Bay City Rollers. I'm not sure if I know this tune or not, but um it's money, honey. You know, they probably they probably performed this one on their TV show. I'm sure they did. Um at number nine, moving up five spots from the previous week from Maxine Nightingale. You guys know this one. This one's so good. Right back where we started from. You know that one. I don't please don't make me sing it. Come on. Oh, you know what I want to do? Hold on a second here. Wait a minute. Let's go. Hmm. I'm looking at my my screen here, gang. And let me see. I'm looking at some stuff here. Oh no, it's gonna be right there. Yeah, that's the good stuff. I, you know, not only did I not get a new episode out last week, but you know, I'm trying to work on a few things. Uh, trying to do uh a couple of different things to get some more exposure to the podcast. And I'm stopping right down in the middle of the Billboard Top 40 from the first week of April 1976 to tell you all this. Whatever. But no one, let me see here. I'm like I said, I'm looking at the screen and the laptop's all the way across the room here, so uh it's hard for me to see from here. But um let's try uh ah, yeah, let's try this one. Uh what do you guys think? What do you guys think? Should I sing the song or not? Oh okay then.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Oh, okay, it's fine. You guys can show it up now. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Uh pretty good, huh? Not bad. I know. How corny, right? Anyways. All right, so number nine, right back where we started from.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

You know, it's all right, and it's gone.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

Wait, wait.

Top 10 Run And Number One

SPEAKER_00 22:00

It's all right and it's coming on. We gotta get right back to where we started from. Right, gang.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Yeah, right. All right. Here's another good one. Classic, classic country tune at number eight. Let your love flow from the Bellamy Brothers. Classic. Love that song. Hey, here's another classic. Okay, moving up one spot from uh to number seven. And I believe because the album that this um song came off of was originally released in or not originally, but was released in 1973. So I think this was a re-release of the song, and it's Dream On from Aerosmith, because uh on their debut album from '73, it didn't really do that well. The album didn't sell very well. The uh the single, which was Dream On, didn't sell really well or didn't do very good. So I think coming off the uh heels of uh Toys in the Attic, which was released the previous year and really kind of catapulted um Aerosmith, it really moved them along, and now they were gaining much more traction. I believe that's why Dream On was re-released. And uh because, you know, I mean that those things happen from time to time. So uh so we have Dream On at number seven, one of the most recognizable and one of the biggest songs from the band as well. Now, this one I'm not familiar with at number six. It's from Rufus and Shaka Khan, and it's Sweet Thing. I don't know that one. This one I do know. I'm not gonna sing it, but it's at number five. It climbs five spots from the week before. It's Disco Lady from Johnny Tyler or Johnny Taylor, not Johnny Tyler. Johnny Tyler was the guy, it was was uh um oh, doggone it, just lost his uh uh Billy Bob Thornton. It was that was his character in Tombstone. So no, but this is Johnny Taylor, not Tyler. At number four, All by Myself from Eric Carmen. I don't know if this is his first solo song or his first you know single as a solo artist, but if you're not familiar, Eric Carmen was the lead singer of The Raspberries, you know, Go All the Way, which was which had come out I think uh uh in 73, I think it was. Uh that is a great song. I all by myself a cool song, too. It's a little bit, you know, sappy. It's a ballad song, a love song. Nothing wrong with that. I like all those. At number three, Lonely Night from The Captain and Tanil. I am not familiar with this one. I am familiar, however, with the song at number two, which climbed one position from the week before. It's from Gary Wright, and guess which one it is? A little Dreamweaver. Absolutely. Mm-hmm. Dream, what a what a great song. I think that was the follow-up to um oh, what was the one before that? Uh crap. I don't know. I'm gonna waste a bunch of time here thinking about it, so I won't. But um, yeah, Dreamweaver, what a great song, though. Great, great song. And rest in peace, Gary Wright, too. And then the song at number one. Number one. Wait, wait, wait, hang on. Let's try something here. This is gonna be so stupid, though, but listen.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Oh, that's that's terrible.

Why More 1976 Albums Matter

Rush 2112 And Taking Risks

Kansas Leftoverture And Wayward Son

Wings And Silly Love Songs

Bob Seger Night Moves Deep Cut

Journey Before Steve Perry

Upcoming Shows And Live Plans

Final Plug And Sign Off

SPEAKER_01 26:05

That's terrible. That's not a good drum roll. That's not for this. Um, so stop it. You take your drum and and and get out, okay? Take your drum and leave. See you next time. The song at number one is December 1963. Oh, what a night. That's probably how you really know the tune. Oh, what a night from the four seasons. At this time, I believe, and I know that Frankie Valley did not um did not sing the lead on this one. And I believe that had something to do with some vocal issues he was having at the time. I could have it wrong, but I thought that's what it was all about. And as you can see, it's the four seasons, not Frankie Valley and the four seasons. So um, yeah. Anyway, so that's our top 40 for the year 1976. First week in April 1976. So, yeah, I do have some more albums, not because I I uh neglected these or over um or or overlooked them, uh, but you know, I just didn't have enough time to get everything in. And there's a lot of great albums from the year 1976. And the way I put that list together a couple weeks back was pretty random. I just was like, I'm looking up albums released in 76. Okay, boom, boom, boom. Yeah, I know that one. Well, you know what? I probably should throw in a couple of them that I'm not too familiar with, um, you know, so that I'm not just um um kind of, I don't know, what's what's the what's the term? Boy, it really is Friday, isn't it? I can't even get my bearings here, can't even put a thought together. But um anyway, so I did throw some in that I'm not too familiar with, and I think as a matter of fact, I may have like five of them here, and I may only be really familiar with I don't know, two, something like that. So the first one is uh from Rush. It was released in March of 1976, and it's the the the album that put them on the map. It's 2112, their fourth studio album. At this time, Rush had released three albums, and their debut album, which I think was just titled Rush. I don't recall. Oh, uh uh um no, Caressa Steel was the third album. I don't remember, I don't know, I don't recall the name of the second album, but um oh, it was Fly by Night. That's right. That's right. Those were not big sellers. So the band was really up against it from the record company. They're about ready to get dropped, and through some negotiating between the band management and the record company, they were allowed to put together another album. They were given another shot at getting this thing going. So, you know, what is what is this is great, too. This is this is ballsy, it really, really is. Because what did the band do? They put out an album that had six songs, and the first song on the album takes up the entire first side, which is the title track 2112. Who does that? Who does that? Well, Rush does, and Rush did, and it seemed to work because, like I said, it was this album that really kind of catapulted the band and uh really started them on their way. And uh, what a tremendous uh career that Rush ended up having. I mean, one of the one of the greats uh in the progressive hard rock category. And um what they're out on tour, they're out on tour this year. Getty and Alex have come back together. They brought in uh another drummer to certainly not take the place of Neil Peart, but somebody has to play the drums, right? And in fact, they even brought in a fourth musician to play keyboards. And I can't remember the the young woman's name that's playing drums. But um, by all accounts, so far, through rehearsals and everything else, she's doing just great. The band made an appearance on a Canadian award show a week and a half ago, I believe it was. That stuff's all over the it's all over YouTube and everything, so you can check it out and you can um judge for yourself just how well she did or didn't do. But um yeah, uh after after several years, um, I guess Getty and Alex finally said, you know what, it's time to go out and celebrate this music. We're gonna go out and celebrate our former bandmate and friend in Neil. And uh let's let's give it one more run. So good on them. You know, if they can still do it and do it well, why not? It's when it's when bands go out and just are hanging on and just can't get it done, but are still out there doing it and charging a lot of money uh for people to come see them. That's when it's bad. So uh next up from Kansas, their fourth studio album, their biggest selling album, and that's Leftover Chure. I believe I saw somewhere that this album has sold about, I think like six million copies. I can't recall, but it was released towards the back end of the year, October 21st, of 76. Um, the lead singer, Steve Walsh at the time, and he was the lead singer in the band for quite a stretch. He's no longer in the band, hasn't been for a while, and he retired because he said he could not perform at the level that he expects out of himself. He just couldn't do it anymore. There's no shame in it. The band continues without him. Yes, it's certainly not all original members. I think there's like one, maybe two original members now, but nonetheless, at this time in 1976, uh being their fourth album, Steve was having a little bit of uh writer's block. So uh he didn't contribute a lot of the writing on this album. He co-wrote, I think, four tracks with um Carrie Livgren, but that was about it. But nonetheless, a great album. The the band's signature song, say it with me, carry on Wayward Son. Come on. I mean, and what a great song, too. Oh man. And just great vocals. Great, great vocals. Um, and a band out there still doing it. I think they're uh gosh, I think they're out touring this summer with uh are they out with deep purple, uh, maybe I can't remember, I can't recall, but out there getting it done. So why not? Um as long as you're doing it well, again, as long as you're doing it well, and that leads us to this next album released in March of 76 by an artist still getting it done at like 83 years old. Sir Paul McCartney. This was Paul McCartney and Wings at the speed of sound. It's the fifth album by Wings. Uh again, like I said, it was released in March. The um it had a couple of um singles released uh off of it. Uh Let Em In. The the track, the track listing on here is uh side one, track one, let them in. Um The Note You Never Wrote, She's My Baby, Beware My Love, and then uh closes out side one with Winno Junko, or maybe it's Wino Junko. I don't know. Then uh side two opens up with the big, the big hit off of the album, and that is silly love songs. I love that song, love it so much. Then Cook of the House, Time to Hide, Must Do Something About It, Sand Fairy Ann, and it closes with Warm and Beautiful. But I want to get back to Silly Love Songs. I had the single uh when I was a kid, great song, and it was funny. That song was that song was written in response to something that John Leonard had said uh regarding regarding Paul McCartney. He had said something to the effect of like Paul just writes a bunch of silly love songs, and I think he used those three words, silly love songs. And so Paul says, Well, I'm gonna show you. And he wrote that one, and it was a big hit off the album. Great stuff. Um, and next one. Uh, what do we have? Oh, two more, two more albums, two more albums. Let me see something here really quick, really, really quick. I know you guys listening, you can't see what I'm doing, but I just want to see something. Well, that didn't help. All right, let's do it again. That's all right, whatever. Whatever, no big deal. Moving along, the next one, classic artist. Um I should check, but I'm almost positive rock and roll hall of famer, too. And I talked about this guy. I did an episode earlier. Well, it's I guess it's probably been almost a year now. Did uh did an episode on this guy and gave you my top 10 from this artist, Bob Seeger and the Silver Bullet Band. This is the ninth studio album from Bob. Night Moves. Great album. This actually, it's funny, you know, and I talked about it last year too. Bob had been releasing albums. I think the first one was in the well, well, it was in the 60s. I don't recall the exact year, uh, like 68, 69, I think it was, something like that. So this is the ninth album, but this is the first one where he actually includes the Silver Bullet Band. Most of these guys had been playing with him for uh a bit, not the whole time, not on all the nine albums, but but I think the two albums previous to this one, these guys were all playing uh with him. But this is the first one that actually credits the silver bullet band. Um there were there were three singles released off of the album. Oh, I didn't say that this one was released in October of 1976, but there were three singles released, and two of them hit the top 40. Uh, we'll run down the track listing. Rock and Roll Never Forgets, one of the singles. Night Moves, another single. Uh, a rock radio song, The Fire Down Below, played on Rock Radio, great song. Uh, track four on side one is Sunburst, then side two opens up with Sunspot Baby, and then just a killer, killer. Let me say it again. Killer song, Main Street. I love that song. Main Street. Uh, that's uh track two on side two, then come to Papa, Ship of Fools, and the album closes out with Mary Lou. I would say Night Moves is probably the biggest single off of that album. The album to this date, or to the last time it was certified, sold like six million copies. So certainly one of uh Bob Seeger's biggest albums. Uh, the last one I'm gonna talk about for the year 1976, the last album. I had to save it for last, and you guys will know why. It's from Journey, it is their second studio album released in January of 76. It is Look Into the Future. This one is if you are a hardcore Journey fan, if you go all the way back, you know that this is pre-Steve Perry. This is the second studio album. Um for this album, the the the members of the band, they kind of tone down the progressiveness uh from the previous album, their debut, even though there's there's a lot of progressive um um elements, let's say, in in this album. Um, but they wanted to keep it a little more, I guess put a little more focus to it. Uh nonetheless, no matter what, the album didn't sell. Okay, it did not sell. The debut album didn't sell. The um this second album, Look Into the Future, didn't sell. At the time, um, just before, just before they went into uh start recording this album, uh, guitarist George Tickner, he was an original member of the band. He left, left the band to uh, I don't know, seek out bigger and better things, I suppose. Um, so that just left the four members, uh, Greg Raleigh, Neil Sean, Ross Valerie, and Ainsley Dunbar. So Journey was down to four members. And the uh the the title track or the the track listing on side one is I remember I mentioned, sorry, I didn't mean to stop and cut myself off in the middle of my thought, but if you remember, I was talking about this uh a couple weeks ago that this is the this is the 70s, and certainly in the in early, mid-70s, even to the late 70s, bands weren't putting out 10, 11, 12 tracks a lot of times. Um this album has eight tracks on it, and it starts out with On a Saturday Night. I think it's a fantastic song. It's all too much. Okay, that's a that's a uh a George Harrison cover or cover of a George Harrison song. Anyway, she makes me feel all right, another good song. And then side one closes out with You're on Your Own. Side two opens up with Look into the Future. I think that's a fantastic song. It's the longest song ever recorded live, or not recorded live, but ever recorded in the studio by Journey. The entire uh uh history of the band, the longest song at eight minutes and 10 seconds. So um, yeah, go figure. But but you see where they were at this time, and that song Look into the Future, it it is very progressive. Um, Midnight Dreamer, and then I think my favorite song is the the last song on the album, and that's I'm gonna leave you. That's a seven-minute one. I think it's a great song. And I think, let me see, if I remember, I can't I came to recognize or came came to know that song through the box set that Journey put out. I think it was in 19 um 1992, I think it was, and that was Time Three, and and and what it was is the it was there were three discs, and it it covered the the um the band's career up to that time. Uh it the first disc started out uh with I think it had it covered material from the first three albums that were pre-Steve Perry, and then it went into the first I think it went into Infinity Evolution and Departure, and then the second disc covered um a lot of tracks from Captured, and I think even some tracks from the Escape album. I think that's how it went. I can't recall. And then track uh disc three was Frontiers raised on radio, um, and a couple other there was some couple live tracks on there um from the raised on radio tour. I can't recall just off the top of my head, but my first exposure to I'm gonna leave you. Was on disc one of Time Three. And as soon as I heard it, I was like, whoa, this is really, really cool. This is a good song. But it doesn't have the the look, the stuff with pre-Steve Perry, not that it wasn't good, it never gained a lot of national attention. It just didn't. It got regional play, radio air play, uh with in the band is from the Bay Area. So it got play around there and not a lot on a national level. So look, it had to be a change made. And that's when Steve Perry was brought in. There are some there are some journey fans out there, and and look, you're entitled to your opinion who say Journey was, you know, Journey was ruined when Steve Perry joined the band. Well, I guess if you want to say that, you know, and like I said, you're entitled to your opinion. However, if Steve Perry had never joined the band, then we might not have ever heard anything else from Journey after what was the third album? Next. Yeah. We may not have heard anything after that. Okay, because it's not like they were they were setting the world on fire. They weren't. But then they brought in this guy by the name of Steve Perry, long, beautiful hair, good-looking guy, could just sing like uh just I mean a bird, as you guys know. If you've been listening to this podcast, if you've been listening to me for any length of time, you know Steve Perry's my favorite all-time singer. So I'm I can't say anything bad about him, not technically, or not, I shouldn't say uh technically, but not talent-wise, not at all, no way. The absolute best. Um but there was something about that about him joining the band. There was something there was a chemistry. And if you look at the albums, those first three albums that he was on the the writing chemistry came from him and Neil Sean. It really did. And there was there were there were a lot of tracks. Uh those three albums, there were there were there were tracks on there that Steve and Greg co-wrote, did uh uh uh co-lead vocals, they traded off on on lead vocals on the songs, um, that kind of stuff. And there were tremendous songs, great songs. And I think they had a bit of a chemistry as well. And when when Greg and Neil and Steve wrote together, it was it was a a magic, it really was. But I think that sauce kind of came from Neil and Steve. But as soon as Steve joined the band, forget it, man, it just took off. And they, you know, they didn't have to look back. They started selling albums, started getting a lot of radio play, not to the level where they reached once Jonathan Kane joined the band, but they were on, they were a national band, they were playing festivals, headline tours, all that stuff. So, you know, I'm sorry that there's some journey fans out there that say the band was just never the same uh after Steve Perry joined. And yeah, you're right. They never were the same because they changed. They changed and they became an absolute dynamo band. They were just not even dynamo. Let's just say they were like JJ Walker, since we're in 76 right now, dynamite. Oh, you young ones, you don't get it, but everyone my age, you understand. You understand. So, yeah, so there that's that's my rundown. I guess I'm not gonna say part due. I use that one for the drunk show, forget it. But that's my rundown part two of 1976. You guys know I love this stuff, and so that's why I wanted, I was like, you know, I still got all this stuff from 76. We gotta get it out, gotta put it out there. Because celebrating at 51 doesn't have the same ring as kind of like celebrating this stuff at 50, you know? But I don't know. So that's that. Uh I hope you guys have some good plans for the weekend. I'll tell you what I have going on, and then I'm gonna cut you loose in a little bit. Tomorrow, speaking of journey, oh my goodness, tomorrow I am going to see Steve Agerry. I'm gonna go see the Steve Auderi band. Um, they're playing, I'm not locally. I'm gonna have to travel about 90 minutes to get there, but it's gonna be worth it. If you guys remember, it's been almost two years now. I had Adam Holland, his lead guitarist, on the podcast. And Adam was great. And Adam and I, we still stay in touch. We, you know, text every once in a while. It's not like we're, hey, bud, how's it going? You know, and we're in communication all the time. But uh, from time to time I'll text him, and he's texted me a few times about shows and that type of stuff. But uh I bought tickets and I um I thought, you know what, I'm gonna let Adam know. So I texted him, hey dude, I got tickets for uh the show. I'm gonna see you guys, come see you guys on Saturday. He says, dude, you should have let me know. I would have got you tickets. So I was like, ah, no, no, no. I would never ever do that. But I did ask, I said, hey, listen, I know it's a big, big ask, but can you know, would it be okay if Catherine and I showed up early to um, you know, just to meet you face to face and maybe meet you and Steve and the rest of the band. And he's like, You want to come to Soundcheck? What time is it? And he gave me the time. I was like, I'll be there. So I'm really looking forward to that. Um I'm looking forward to the show, and I know that Steve is um going to be doing certainly obviously he's gonna be doing journey material, he's gonna be doing some of the Steve Perry stuff, of course, because that's the stuff that most everyone knows. But what really I'm I'm I'm gonna dig about this is he's gonna be covering stuff from his era of the band. He's gonna be performing stuff off of the arrival album, off of the um uh generations album. It's soundcheck. I may like scream one out and hope that they play something off of Red 13. They probably won't, but I'm gonna holler it out anyway. Um, so it's gonna be nice to hear him perform some stuff from his era. And then I'm really looking forward to anything that he plays off of his solo album that came out uh um, oh gosh, it's like three years ago now. Maybe it was almost four years ago. Gosh, I can't even believe it. Uh, Seven Ways Till Sunday. So I'm looking forward to it. It's gonna be a good time. It's gonna be a good time. We're gonna have a have a really good time. I'm really looking forward to the show. It's gonna be something else. And uh, so that's what's on tap for tomorrow. And um I have a short weekend because I got to work nights next week. So I and I gotta go in Sunday night. Fun, right? No good. But what's really cool is next week, the following Saturday, that's that'll be what, the 18th. I'm gonna go out and see another former guest of the podcast, friend of the program, Olivia Harms. She's performing at Cowboy Festival. So we're gonna go out and see her perform. I'm gonna meet her, get to meet her mom, and I'm hoping to meet her husband as well. I'm sure he's gonna be there. So uh it'll be really, really cool to to see her and shake her hand and cheer her on. So I know I've got some good stuff coming up. Uh, I hope you guys do too. I'm sure you do. Um, what do you guys think? Oh lame. That is so lame. So lame. Jeez. Anyway, um, I know. So stupid. I'll try not to do that too much. I'll save all that idiotic stuff for like Friday Night Live. Uh speaking of which, I'm gonna try to put out a uh a Friday Night Live next week. I think we'll try to do a live stream, just have a little bit of fun. It's you know, we don't get to cut it up too much. Um, but yeah, maybe we'll try to do that next week. We do have some good stuff coming up. I am I'm I am working on some stuff here. Um one cool thing fell out. I don't think I and the bummer is I don't think it's gonna get rescheduled. It's just a feeling I have. But it would have been so, so, so cool. I had it all lined up. All lined up, whatever. Doesn't matter. Anyways, look, you guys were done. So I appreciate you guys being here, all right? Again, just go find the podcast. It's wherever you get your podcasts, all right? And it's on YouTube. So wherever you go search it, just search the Ben Maynard program and subscribe, okay? Do that for me, all right? And then follow me on my socials. Instagram, it's the Ben Maynard program, all one word, or on the TikTok at the Ben Maynard program. We're done. We're out of here. You guys have yourselves a great one. All right. I will see you next time. Yeah? Got it? Hey, knock it off. Anyways, you guys be good, okay? Thanks again. This is the Ben Maynard program. Tell a friend.