By cave 
“Hey! Ho!… Let’s go”!!! With the release of The Ramones’ debut single, the road toward a music world filled with fresh punk and new wave singles and LPs lies wide open!!! “Blitzkrieg Bop” (#1) ushers in new times, straight to his or her or their indecent face! One-two-three-four, and preferably screamed as greasy and raucous as possible! I’ve been building up to this for a long time and, thankfully, there’s no way back!!
In the coming months of 1976, more and more cries for attention will rise in crescendo, mainly from amateurs who are fed up with having to follow well-trodden musical paths! Blondie, The Damned, The Clash, Nick Lowe, The Runaways, The Saints, Graham Parker — and by the very end of 1976 already The Sex Pistols and Tom Petty!
Incidentally, the entire top 3 of February 1976 is of the very highest quality! “Wild Is The Wind” (#2) is one of my favorite Bowie songs. By far the best cover he ever unleashed on us! With “Rhiannon” (#3), Fleetwood Mac officially kicks off a single marathon that will only stop once virtually all tracks from the follow-up album “Rumours” have been released in that format. After that, the top 10 gently flows on with the usual suspects we’ve already seen strolling by in recent months (Kinks/Roxy Music/Neil Young/Steve Harley/Bob Dylan).
The top 10 closes with outsider The Residents, the controversial combo that, to this day, continues to do its own idiosyncratic thing — and for which I’ve always had immense appreciation. “Swastikas On Parade” (#10) occupies the entire A-side of their second album “The Third Reich ’n’ Roll” and is essentially a medley of distorted — for some probably violated — sixties hits, transposed into their own idiom and at times barely recognizable! You had to dare to do that — and get away with it — half a century ago!!
Contrasts are not avoided, that much is clear when, one place lower, you hear “Sarabande” (#11) by Handel. The National Philharmonic Orchestra straight from the soundtrack of “Barry Lyndon”! Why shouldn’t there be room for a touch of classical music?
Further down the list we find more Canadians than usual: besides Neil Young (#7 – “Barstool Blues”), Heart (#16 – “Crazy On You”), Klaatu (#22 – “Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft”) and The Band (#38 – “Ophelia”) are also riding the February waves! Just as many talented homegrown musicians as Canadians this month. Kris De Bruyne and Raymond Van Het Groenewoud are the regulars on duty. They are joined by Ann Christy (#34 – “Ik Mis Hem Zo”) and outsider Guido en Gezellen with “De Forens” (#37), one of the more accessible songs from “Je Zit Er Mee”, the only album the folk-pop group completed.
In the lower regions this month we also see some musically less-schooled fortune seekers stirring. For the USA, that means Good Rats (#31 with “Advertisement in The Voice”) and Poli Styrene Jass Band with a double A-side single (#39 “Drano In Your Veins / Circus Highlights”). The British are represented by punk rock band Eddie & The Hot Rods with their debut single “Writing On The Wall”. In the following five years (’76–’81) they would launch nearly twenty fireworks toward the British charts. Once they reached the top 10 with “Do Anything You Wanna” in the summer of 1977!
But we’re still a long way from that!
(Jan VH)
Playlist
1 – Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop
2 – David Bowie – Wild Is The Wind
3 – Fleetwood Mac – Rhiannon
4 – Peter Frampton – Show Me The Way (Live)
5 – Kinks – The First Time We Fall In Love
6 – Roxy Music – Could It Happen To Me?
7 – Neil Young – Barstool Blues
8 – Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel – Red Is A Mean, Mean Colour
9 – Bob Dylan – Mozambique
10 – Residents – Swastikas On Parade
11 – Handel-National Philharmonic Orchestra – Sarabande End Title
12 – Lou Reed – Charley’s Girl
13 – Patti Smith – Birdland
14 – Kevin Ayers – Falling In Love Again
15 – 10cc – I Wanna Rule The World
16 – Heart – Crazy On You
17 – Bad Company – Silver, Blue & Gold
18 – Kraftwerk – Airwaves
19 – Kris De Bruyne – Hoe Uit Ik Dan Mijn Vrolijkheid
20 – Lynyrd Skynyrd – (I Got The) Same Old Blues
21 – Kevin Coyne – Don’t Make Waves
22 – Klaatu – Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft
23 – Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance – One For The Road
24 – Robert Palmer – Pressure Drop
25 – Be Bop Deluxe – Sleep That Burns
26 – T. Rex – London Boys
27 – Jane – Fire Water Earth & Air
28 – Queen – God Save The Queen
29 – Raymond Van Het Groenewoud – Mier Te Zijn
30 – Tina Charles – I Love To Love (But My Baby Loves To Dance)
31 – Good Rats – Advertisement In The Voice
32 – Loeki Knol – Algebra
33 – Tom Jans – Once Before I Die
34 – Ann Christy – Ik Mis Hem Zo
35 – Status Quo – Rain
36 – Eddie & The Hot Rods – Writing On The Wall
37 – Guido En Gezellen – De Forens
38 – The Band – Ophelia
39 – Poli Styrene Jass Band – Drano In Your Veins / Circus Highlights
40 – Candi Staton – Young Hearts Run Free