Now Yearbook 1977

 Did say the other week new music releases were coming think and fast but this one slots in well with the overall theme of this blog well being more than a list all  your purchases and in run post because it takes me right back to my childhood, just a teen, in a radically changing musical environment. 

There is a cheap folded wrap around version but I opted for the book form editions as it gives you short entries about each featured track and even a little about the years main events which is why I buy these editions.

They are more like end of year pop annuals with hits and much talked about tracks included better for being centred around when it charted and in 1977 many of our favourites from the last four to five years lost momentum as the New Wave such as Elvis Costello, Jam and Stranglers crashed in but it wasa  year with very broad tastes which suited me fine.

Kicking off Disc 1 with a timeless anthem from Queen with ‘We Are The Champions’ as the "old wave" rose to the challenge of the new and followed by the huge instrumental rock of ‘Fanfare For The Common Man’ by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. The song that would open ‘Live Aid’ years later is next up from Status Quo with their signature ‘Rockin’ All Over The World’, and 1977 saw ‘Way Down’ from Elvis Presley go to #1 in the wake of his death. Classic pop-rock from 10CC with ‘Good Morning Judge’ is followed by a trio of ballads from Electric Light Orchestra with ‘Telephone Line’, Leo Sayer with his trans-Atlantic chart topper ‘When I Need You’, and David Soul actor in tv's Starsky and Hutch with another UK and US #1 ‘Don’t Give Up On Us’. Hot Chocolate enjoyed their first #1 with ‘So You Win Again’ and is followed by a superb run of dance-pop from Candi Staton, Patsy Gallant, Donna Summer, Boney M. and The Rah Band. More pop-rock from Suzi Quatro, Smokie and a hit from the soundtrack of the tv series ‘Rock Follies’ lead toward the emotionally charged closing tracks on the first disc – from Elkie Brooks with ‘Pearl’s A Singer’, Liverpool Express and ‘Every Man Must Have A Dream’, and the #1 ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ from the concept album for the upcoming musical ‘Evita’ by Julie Covington along with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

Disc 2 opens with an amazing run of punk and new wave classics: The Stranglers with ‘No More Heroes’, Ramones with ‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’, The Clash with their debut ‘White Riot’, and The Jam with their first Top 20 hit ‘All Around The World’. The Boomtown Rats debuted with ‘Lookin’ After No.1’ and defining hits are featured from Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, Mink DeVille and Elvis Costello with the peerless ‘Watching The Detectives’. A genre defying hit from the Tom Robinson Band leads into a sequence of hits that includes singer-songwriters Paul Simon, Boz Scaggs and Bryan Ferry, rock smashes from Boston and Santana, and to close the disc softer rock from Thin Lizzy and beautiful ballads from Racing Cars with ‘They Shoot Horses Don’t They’, and Yes with ‘Wonderous Stories’, where prog actually charted on the singles chart!

The charts in 1977 were fantastically diverse, and one of the biggest genres of hits was Disco and it is that that owns  Disc 3.

Arguably one of pop music’s defining moments came in 1977 with Donna Summer’s #1 ‘I Feel Love’ with it’s production showcasing the role of the synthesiser. European disco smashes found huge success: Baccara topped the charts with ‘Yes Sir, I Can Boogie’, along-side massive tracks from Belle Epoque and the debut ‘Daddy Cool’ for Boney M. – who a year later would become the biggest selling singles act of 1978. Meco re-worked the ‘Star Wars’ theme into a US disco chart topper, and The Trammps, Heatwave, The Emotions, Rose Royce, Thelma Houston and chart newcomers Chic all feature here in a stellar run of floor-filling hits. Marvin Gaye had a massive track with ‘Got To Give It Up – Pt.1’ and Gladys Knight & The Pips continued their run of hits with ‘Baby, Don’t Change Your Mind’. The disc finishes with 3 of 1977’s greatest soul tracks: Deniece Williams took ‘Free’ to #1, and the Commodores released an all-time classic, with ‘Easy’ from the album known as Zoom in the uk, featuring Lionel Richie on vocals, whilst Detroit R&B vocal group The Floaters scored their only UK hit in style with ‘Float On’ reaching #1 in August.

The final disc opens with 1977’s biggest seller – the first single to sell over two million copies, all time personal favourite – and the years’ Christmas #1, ‘Mull Of Kintyre’ from Paul McCartney & Wings. Two more #1s follow: Manhattan Transfer with ‘Chanson D’Amour’, and the second chart-topper in the year for David Soul with ‘Silver Lady’. Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Sam’ continues the run of ‘easy-listening’ pop that also includes #1 ‘Angelo’ from Brotherhood Of Man’, sublime tracks, ‘The Things We Do For Love’, from 10CC, ‘Oh Lori’ from Alessi Brothers, and the Boz Scaggs penned ‘We’re All Alone’ by Rita Coolidge, plus pop gems from Carole Bayer Sager and Meri Wilson all feature. Kenny Rogers hit #1 with ‘Lucille’, Billy Ocean enjoyed his second #2 smash with ‘Red Light Spells Danger’, while The Dooleys and Andrew Gold made their chart debuts.

Rock ‘n’ roll was enjoying a revival and two contemporary groups both enjoyed massive success - Showaddywaddy continued their run of hits with ‘Dancin’ Party’, and Darts arrived with a medley of ‘Daddy Cool’ and ‘The Girl Can’t Help It’….and the collection finishes with two instrumental hits, ‘Portsmouth’ from Mike Oldfield reached #3 in the first week of the year, whilst unexpectedly ‘The Floral Dance’ became a massive seller for the Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band, spending the last four weeks of 1977 at #2 behind ‘Mull Of Kintyre’ which lead to the Terry Wogan version too.

Now Yearbook 1980

Phew what a hot week so far.

It just seems like ages ago but just two weeks ago we got the Extra set of the 1981 volume and this Friday we have a whole new volume that's going backwards.

It isn't the first time 1980 was compiled into a NOW compilation as when in 1993 NOW was marking its twentieth year they launched a series of two cd compilations of which the 1980 one was one of four (the thers being 1981 through to three) I bought because at the time there wasn't anything quite like it on cd.

Even in 1980 as far as I can recall being in my mid teens there wasn't a Chart Hits or Super Hits of 1980 issued by K Tel or Ronco.

1980 was a year that in terms of music styles was very broad which I felt was a good thing because I like a wide variety of music and don't appreciate things being too samey.

Going to a four cd (and there's bound to be an Extra issued soon) lets that diversity out compared to NOW 1980 although technically I think the mastering on the earlier set keeps more of the difference in volumes in.

The version of this release I bought was in a book form with short factual pieces about each track including chart position and small reproductions of the singles artwork with pockets for each disc although they were unlined so I put the discs in small cd inner sleeves to prevent scuffs and scratches.

Soul and Disco music which was still big in the UK is well represented with Upside Down,Behind The Groove, On The Radio, Funky Town and the classic smoochers With You I'm Born Again and One Day I'll Fly Away.

The emerging synthesizer sounds that were to become more more prevailent the next year rightly are included here such as Gary Numan's I Die You Die which wasn't included on lp versions of his Telekon album, Elona Gay by the at times magnificient OMD, Sleepwalk by Ultravox, Spandau Bellet's Too Cut A Long Story Short which did come out on cassette single, Living By Numbers by New Music and Echo Beach.

Rock was well represented by Ace Of Spades by Motorhead to which I did have the ten inch single of, Rainbow's All Night Long who's objectifying lyrics were criticized in the NME which I still own on 45, Going Underground by the Jam, the Quo's What You're Proposin', London Calling, Emotional Rescue by a fully functioning Rolling Stones and Another One Bites The Dust by Queen mixing funk with rock.

Pure Pop as I'd call it is well represent with Abba's The Winner Takes It All, Jona Lewie's Stop The Cavalry, the brilliant Atomic by Blondie and So Good To Be back Home Again by the Tourists who became the Eurythmics later on.

Ska and Reggae befitting the whole explosion around the Two Tone scene is represented by the more pop like Don't Stand So Close To Me, Too Much Too Young by the Selecter, Baggy Trousers, one schoolchildren can easily relate to, by Madness and Food For Thought by Birminghams UB40.

On Sept 2nd, the Extra top up set arrived offering an additional sixty six tracks from the likes of Kate Bush, Cliff Richard, Roxy Music, the Undertones and John Foxx with his unforgettable Underpass plus many soul and funk gems.

With that we'll see what the next Yearbook shall be!

These sets are just great "timepieces" that take us back to they were doing for some of us the exam taking Fifth Form and the Lower Sixth and are well worth getting.

Travelling back through sound II

The series that never seems to stop continues on from where we left back in February  with a new volume issued on Friday that sees us going further back in time and no doubt the extra edition shortly afterwards.

Anyone who was around in 1981 knows this was one of the finest ever years for popular music and specifically the top twenty singles chart with many new and exciting sounds from new artists on a weekly basis even if in truth some of their influences had been about a year or so before.

The year was also different from the point of view that music videos to hit recordings while existing for a couple of years before really took off with long form arty productions from both newer acts such as Duran Duran and Adam and The Ants to evergreen chart fixtures such as Cliff Richard with his very topical Wired For Sound .

We were wired for sound as the Walkman, the portable headphone based tape player introduced in late 1979 really took off with cheaper versions so many of us walked and roller skated to portable stereo sound of our own choosing.

That's why this set is so much a must having either in the deluxe with booklet form or the slightly cheaper all card four cd set.

Back then we bought our copies of Chart Hits '81 and other albums on Ronco and K Tel that came out around every three months or so filled with hits but with compromised sonics and edits get it all in and increasingly they were on tape too.

This is five lp records worth of hits that cover everything from songs from stage shows such as Cats with Memory, Ska from The Specials with Ghost Town, the electronic New Wave sounds of the Human League with Don't You Want Me, Rockabilly revival with Shakin' Stevens with Green Door and Rock This Town by the Stray Cats and Soul from the Four Tops and Smokey Robinson.

The world of hard rock was represented by Rainbow, the band lead by Richie Blackmore with I Surrender and the combination of Motorhead with Girls School with a remake of the Johnny Kid and the Pirates number Please Don't Touch while such staples of previous years such as the Electric Light Orchestra  with Hold On Tight, The Pretenders with the Ray Davies song I Go To Sleep and The Jam with That's Entertainment also feature.

Today this is the most complete anthology of the whole of that years amazing mixture of sounds we heard on Radio One and on Top Of The Pops

July 1st saw the release of Extra, the now familiar package of an extra three discs worth of hits that is part of this series bonus touches expanding the scope of the initial selection with some less obvious choices.

This adds tracks like the original single of My Own way by Duran Duran rather than the remake for the Rio album this group have effectively disowned, Me And Mr Sanchez by the much talked about but ultimately not the the next big thing Blue Rondo A La Turk, the forgotten The Elephant's Graveyard by the Boomtown Rats, Ant Rap, the last hurrah of Adam And The Ants before they split and a good selection of classy soul from Diana Ross and Randy Crawford amongst others.

Not so classy but unavoidable stuff included the Birdie Song by the appropriately named The Tweets popular with the under tens and  number of not so popular at the time tracks that remind me of the KTel and Ronco albums which had a few like Tears For Fears's Suffer The Children and Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield, a massive US hit that did nothing here as much as I loved it and the brilliant Joan Of Arc by OMD that did well and Barry Manilow's Bermuda Triangle that was a "guilty secret" by a guy who is a brilliant performer.

So we round of 1981, a magnificent year in pop but, pop pickers, what will be the next year to get the Now Yearbook treatment?

Travelling back through sound

Way back at the start of the original blog we did talk about about interests and hobbies because that was where cthekissfan started up on Friends Reunited and the Tammy concept on blogger started.

It was about sharing something outside of what schools I went to and the short details of what happened after that which that site was all about and I might add missed cos it was a simple concept.

Thus it wasn't so surprising one of early posts was about my favourite Beatles album cos music connects to many experiences.

One is memories and that is where this post comes in because the people behind the Now That's What I Call Music concept have moved to doing some year specific megaboxes from the years I was in school or other learning environments.

This is handy because back then the compilations we bought were by KTel and Ronco, tended to not very good quality and it wasn't until the end of 1983 the first NOW album came out.

In 1982 I know exactly what I was doing and more to the point any number of the songs featured will connect to what I was doing with my school friends as I did my Economics and History lessons.

It was an "landmark" year for me, one that major events took place in the life of this country and the popular music of that year is anything but forgettable

This volume gathers up 84 major hits by the major acts in just one year which is I have to say better than those early decade wide "100 hits" boxes for having a clear focus.

It takes in tv connected hits such as Star Maker from the TV series Fame as kids we all watched and A Little Peace from that years Eurovision plus a very wide selection genre wise of that years hits.

A great replacement for those old lps I and my friends had as there is near enough five lps worth.

Around a month later a supplementary volume "Extra" was issued that over three cds offered another 62 tracks from that year.

It wasn't just minor hits but some major ones such as XTC's Senses Working Overtime, Captain Sensible's Happy Talk and Haircut 100's Nobody's Fool apart from Hi-Fidelity from the tv show "The Kids From Fame" and the cover of What by Soft Cell.

That pushed the number of lp equivalents up to about eight making for a really comprehensive selection of music from that year.

This one is in some ways a bit less essential because the original 1983 NOW which was mainly a best of year album was reissued on cd as was early 1984's NOW 2 which took in the last couple of months songs.

1983 saw me navigating leaving school with some amazingly bad careers advice and trying to find my way through to being post school leaver, trying to sort a career out.

The real plus for this set is more the songs by artists on the then CBS and WEA groups which were not included in Now and Now 2 as they were to set up a rival series in 1984.

It is a great reminder of just how many great songs were out there from teen sensations like Wham and Kajagoogoo to respected old timers such as Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, Robert Plant and Joan Armatrading.

They decided to issue a second special edition with another sixty songs from 1983 across three discs which took in such hits as Manic from the Flashdance soundtrack that I wore the chrome tape out of and Snot Rap as featured on the Kenny Everett show on BBC1.

1984 was the Year of the Pig as the Now series marched on from strength to strength making three double lps all of which have been reissued on cd with the odd track missing in a year that saw soul music start to change and rap influences come into play on songs such as I Feel For You.

The Hits people who managed the CBS and WEA groups gave us two compilations that covered this period and no they're not on cd so while we have more or less the NOW sets, this is good for the missing stuff by ZZ Top, Miami Sound Machine and the Eurythmics who being on RCA didn't feature on the Now albums regularly.

Band Aid's highly memorable very much in the news Do They Know It's Christmas closes the main set.

There was a Extra three cd set with another 60 hits included too which helps fill those gaps with gems like Nellie The Elephant, Hole In My Shoe by Neil from the comedy show The Young Ones I liked during this era and Everything Must Change.

It was very much the era of daytime Radio One listening with characters like Steve Wrights Mr Angry who'd feature between the music that many of lapped up.

Liverpool's controversial Frankie Goes To Hollywood were the break out musical act and all three singles are featured in the sets.

The sets achieve the goal of taking you back in that time and are likely to be added to in time with the 1980 and 1981 sets being ones I'd look forward to.