By Jan 
It was to be expected, and it had already been hinted at a little! Warren Zevon’s self-titled album was going to make waves throughout the year! “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” (#1) is the second track from it to become the favourite of the month! For Warren, “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” remained an album track, but a little over a year later Linda Ronstadt released the song as a single in the US, and its hit potential really came to the fore with her version. Her interpretation climbed to #27 on the Billboard Hot 100 at the beginning of 1978! Around the same time, Zevon himself scored his only US Top 40 hit with “Werewolves of London”! The song peaked at #15.
Kevin Ayers, something of a British counterpart to Zevon, had also brought a refreshing album to the table (“Yes, We Have No Mananas, So Get Your Mananas Today”), from which “Mr. Cool” (#2) was lifted as a single a little later!
At #3, Debbie is eagerly waiting with “In The Sun”, brimming with disarming delight!! Just imagine how many Blondie gems the coming hit-list years will bring!
We can actually classify #4 and #5 as one-hit-wonder bands. Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear The Reaper” is the ultimate classic, a unique oddball in the mix, while “I Think We’re Alone Now” by The Rubinoos still gives us goosebumps and makes us bounce like teenagers, even half a century later. Tiffany would breathe new hit life into the song some ten years later, resulting in a #1 smash on both sides of the Atlantic!
Rarely have I seen so many Yanks (19 out of 40) running around this chart! It’s quite a change from the dominance of the British pop heroes. But most likely very temporary and purely coincidental.
Down at the bottom of the list, it was once again a matter of scraping the barrel to make the cut! For now, we’re still managing, but the next two months will really be the ultimate bottleneck when it comes to finding enough worthy candidates to complete the lists with a total of 40 songs. After that, the improvisation and dynamism of the punk generation will gradually kick in, eventually exploding into an abundance of fireworks!
Anyway, on we go!!
By the way, we’re picking up the pace a little in these slightly too pleasant temperatures! July/August is always the period when I make the switch and start publishing the lists from 50 years ago somewhere around the middle of the month, rather than at the end of the month or the beginning of the following one. That leaves us with fewer timing problems towards the end of the year, when the year-end lists start following each other at breakneck speed during the final two weeks.
If you haven’t got the faintest idea what I’m talking about above, that’s absolutely no problem for me. Just carry on with your nap [😉].
(Jan VH)
Playlist
1 – Warren Zevon – Poor Poor Pitiful Me
2 – Kevin Ayers – Mr. Cool
3 – Blondie – In The Sun
4 – Blue Öyster Cult – Don’t Fear The Reaper
5 – Rubinoos – I Think We’re Alone Now
6 – Rolling Stones – Cherry Oh Baby
7 – Bryan Ferry – The Price Of Love
8 – Ramones – Listen To My Heart
9 – Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel – Here Comes The Sun
10 – Van Der Graaf Generator – My Room
11 – Jonathan Richman & Modern Lovers – New England
12 – Wild Tchiptoulas – Meet De Boys On The Battlefront
13 – Junior Murvin – Police & Thieves
14 – Bots – Menens
15 – Dave Edmunds – Here Comes The Weekend
16 – Troggs – I’ll Buy You An Island
17 – Poco – Rose Of Cimarron
18 – Graham Parker & The Rumour – Soul Shoes
19 – Can – I Want More
20 – Vangelis ft. Jon Anderson – So Long Ago, So Clear
21 – Flamin’ Groovies – Don’t You Lie To Me
22 – Oliver Onions – Sandokan
23 – Earthquake – Hit The Floor
24 – Billy Joel – James
25 – Sundown – Lord Of The Dance
26 – Eric Carmen – Sunrise
27 – Heavy Metal Kids – From Heaven To Hell And Back Again
28 – Southside Johnny & Asbury Jukes – Got To Get You Off My Mind
29 – David Bowie – Stay
30 – Hawkwind – Kerb Crawler
31 – Chicago – If You Leave Me Now
32 – Peter Tosh – Legalize It
33 – Alan Parsons Project – Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether
34 – Stephen Stills – The Loner
35 – Funkadelic – Let’s Take It To The Stage
36 – Neil Diamond – Dry Your Eyes
37 – Kiss – Detroit Rock City
38 – Bob Seger – Travelin’ Man
39 – Roger McGuinn – Take Me Away
40 – Status Quo – Mystery Song
NOV – Tjens Couter – Le Javatrot