Playlist: B&V Kicks Off 2026, Per Usual, Looking Back 50 Years, Rock Songs Of… 1976

*Image above from the Smithsonian taken from the internet and likely copyrighted

Here we are in another new year, 2026. The end of one year and beginning of another is always a time for reflection. Many people use New Year’s as a hopeful look forward, many with “resolutions” to help change the trajectory of their lives. Diets, exercise regimens, “being more positive” are all things I’ve heard people aspire to at the New Year’s dawn. Rather than join my gym, er a gym, maybe start walking.  It’ll save you the cancellation fee in March and save me fighting crowds to get on the elliptical. Here at B&V we take a different approach to the New Year. We kick off every year by looking backwards… way backwards, 50 years.

A few years back, inspired by the great rock music of 1971, we did a playlist featuring rock songs from the great albums that came out in that august year. Since then, we’ve kicked off every year with 50 year “look-back” playlists: 1972, 1973, 1974 and last year 1975. And while I’ve always been familiar with the rock music from those years, it was more from a retrospective point of view. I don’t have a lot of concrete memories of the early 70s. I was, as Tom Petty sang, “a boy in short pants.” I was too busy playing with G.I. Joe to stay focused on the latest McCartney album. Music was my younger brother’s hobby and he was more of George fan.

But for 1976, it’s different. I was finally getting a little older and more cognizant of the world around me and I guess that includes music. I was still about 18 months to two years away from my rock n roll awakening, when I became a music obsessive. I usually only turned on the radio to listen to Royals games (Amos Otis!). I was getting, by osmosis, exposed to rock n roll through the shared wall between my brother and my room.

Despite being younger he was already into music. By ’76 I was able to ride my 10-speed bike over to the Oak Park pool where there was always rock music blasting from a tinny speaker hanging precariously from the clubhouse wall (a concrete shed). I hear songs now and they still take me back to the pool in the summer staring longingly yet clueless at the blonde lifeguard with her sun-bleached hair in a ponytail. “Help, I’m…uh, drowning…” Ah, my tan in those days.

When I perused some of the events of ’76 I can actually remember a lot of it. Carter beat Ford in the fall of that year to the surprise of no one except my father. Ford had pardoned criminal thug Richard Nixon thus ending Ford’s political career. My dad was crushed. Back then you’d get 2 Olympic Games in 1 year, both Winter and Summer. The Winter Olympics introduced the world to America’s sweetheart, Dorothy Hamill. Of course that had the sad side effect of my mother getting the same haircut. The Summer Olympics of course introduced us to decathlon medal winner Bruce Jenner… I wonder whatever happened to that guy?

Apple Computers was founded in ’76. Machine-gun toting Patty Hearst, a name that loomed large in my childhood imagination, was convicted. Mao died in China. Most importantly, the U.S.A. celebrated their bicentennial, their 200th birthday. Imagine an entire country draped in red, white and blue for a year. The summer of ’76, my family piled into my parents and my grandparents cars and we drove from KC to Cape Cod to visit my aunt. I think they had 2 cars for comfort but mostly to separate my brother and me. We had toy walkie talkies to communicate (poorly) between the cars. It was a great trip and we walked the Freedom Trail to all the Revolutionary War historic locales.

My dad, to give my mom a break, would take us to Ranchmart Theater to the movies to see The Bad News Bears, Rocky, and Silver Streak. My friends and I snuck into The Omen, which my tattered childhood psyche now regrets. I slept with the light on for a while. I remember the Kris Kristofferson/Barbara Streisand version of A Star Is Born, mostly from the posters but Kristofferson was so fucking cool in that movie. It’s the definitive version of that flick for me.

Music in ’76 was some of the best ever recorded. But you can’t help but feel that music was on a cusp in ’76. So many new styles were bubbling under the surface. Punk rock was just emerging with LPs from the Ramones and Patti Smith. Disco was starting to rear its ugly head – I had to at least sprinkle a little bit of that in the playlist. Reggae was having a moment. There were a number of debuts of artists whose rock n roll careers would dominate my listening for the next… well, 50 years. I did notice that my choices contain a preponderance of title tracks. Oh well.

Without further ado, here are our favorite songs from 1976. As always we only choose songs that come from LPs released in the calendar year in question. I do occasionally miss the one off single. If a song was released on a ’75 album and it became a hit in ’76, you won’t find it here. I started off with close to 150 songs so to cut this thing down I have to draw the line somewhere. This list isn’t meant to be definitive and if you have a great song from ’76 that I left off, drop it in the comments and I’ll add it on the dreaded Spotify. Listen straight thru, or hit random…season to taste. Skip the ones you don’t like. My comments on the songs/LPs below.

• Boston, Boston, “Foreplay/Long Time” – Nothing takes me back to the Oak Park pool in summer of ’76 like Boston! I hear this and I’m right back there, tunes coming out of the crappy pool speaker…Everybody, and I mean everybody, loved Boston’s debut.
• Aerosmith, Rocks, “Back In The Saddle” – When the Rock Chick told me this was one of her favorite Aerosmith tunes, I knew I would marry her. “A lusty cowboy song…”
• AC/DC, High Voltage, “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll) – From their international debut (it debuted in Australia in ’75). Bag pipes and Bon Scott… it’s a shame the world got so short a time with Bon.
• Queen, A Day At The Races, “Tie Your Mother Down” – One of Queen’s heaviest tunes. A bit confusing but I’ve always liked it.
• Lynyrd Skynyrd, Gimme Back My Bullets, “Gimme Back My Bullets” – The title track from their ’76’s LP which may be their weakest album from the original lineup. I do dig this song tho.
• Peter Frampton, Frampton Comes Alive, “Show Me The Way (Live)” – An album so ubiquitous that it was my Grandmother who purchased it for me as a birthday present.
• Bob Dylan, Desire, “Hurricane” – Dylan proving he still had a classic album in him.
• Bad Company, Run With The Pack, “Silver, Blue & Gold” – My college roommate Drew’s favorite BadCo album. I could have gone with the title track but this one was always big on FM radio.
• David Bowie, Station To Station, “Golden Years” – This album was seen as transitional but I always loved it. It foreshadowed what was coming in Berlin.
• T. Rex, Futuristic Dragon, “New York City” – This track features on our Playlist: Songs About New York City. I’ve never figured out why the woman is carrying a frog?
• Sweet, Give Us A Wink, “Action” – I had forgotten about this one!
• Lou Reed, Coney Island Baby, “Coney Island Baby” – Had an ex reach out years ago and ask me if I’d ever heard this album. I’m still not clear on the significance of that? A happy Lou Reed song?
• Genesis, A Trick Of The Tail, “Squonk” – Great track from, I believe, their first  post-Peter Gabriel album.
• Carol King, Thoroughbred, “Only Love Is Real” – Carol had been so good for so long at this point, I’d listen to anything from her.
• Al Green, Full Of Fire, “Full Of Fire” – Al put out two LPs in ’76 but I’m only featuring one of them.
• Jerry Garcia, Reflections, “It Must Have Been The Roses” – I’ll defer to my Dead Head friend, David, but I think this track ended up in quite a few Dead setlists?
• Laura Nyro, Smile, “Sexy Mama” – This was, I believe at the time, a comeback LP for Nyro.
• The Brothers Johnson, Look Out For #1, “I’ll Be Good To You” – I have no idea where it was, but I remember hearing this tune.  Always thought the LP cover was cool. Fabulous soul.
• Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak, “The Boys Are Back In Town” – I liked this song before I even liked music.
• Kiss, Destroyer, “Shout It Out Loud” – I was never on the Kiss train but I think we all know this track, first of two on our ’76 list.
• Rush, 2112, “Overture/Temple of Syrinx” – From Rush’s breakthrough album. Many an air guitar was played to this track during my jr high/high school years.
• Judas Priest, Sad Wings Of Destiny, “Dreamer Deceiver” – From a slightly obscure album that’s always been a favorite of mine and my friend Stormin’.
• Wings (Paul McCartney), Wings At The Speed Of Sound, “Silly Love Songs” – Famously written in response to John Lennon saying that all McCartney wrote were “silly love songs.” Nice clapback with a number 1 song.
• Marvin Gaye, I Want You, “I Want You” – Marvin’s sexiest tune and that’s saying something.
• Doobie Brothers, Takin’ It To The Streets, “Takin’ It To The Streets” – Who’d have thought Michael McDonald who starts off his string of hits with this quasi political song would become the Admiral of yacht rock?
• Stephen Stills, Illegal Stills, “Buyin’ Time” – This track always felt like “Love The One Your With” rewarmed up. Years of drug use was starting to take a toll on ol’ Stephen.
• Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Live Bullet, “Turn The Page (Live)” – From yet another landmark live LP from ’76. Seger finally became the star he should have years prior.
• The Rolling Stones, Black And Blue, “Memory Motel” – I can’t express in words how much this track means to me.
• Boz Skaggs, Silk Degrees, “Lowdown” – People forget how big Silk Degrees was in ’76.
• Billy Joel, Turnstiles, “Prelude/Angry Young Man” – I will never understand why this album didn’t break Joel huge. We had to wait for The Stranger for that…
• J. Geils Band, Blow Your Face Out, “Detroit Breakdown (Live)” – An oft overlooked gem of a live album that should have done for the J. Geils Band what Live Bullet did for Seger.
• Led Zeppelin, Presence, “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” – This is perhaps Zeppelin’s heaviest record. I love this bluesy reckoning of a song.
• Rainbow, Rising, “Starstruck” – Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio, together? What’s not to love about early Rainbow?
• The Runaways, The Runaways, “Cherry Bomb” – I’ve always considered the Runaways a bit of a “guilty pleasure,” but this is a kick ass song.
• Ramones, Ramones, “Blitzkrieg Bop” – Punk begins to take hold! From their great debut album.
• Blue Oyster Cult, Agents Of Fortune, “Don’t Fear The Reaper” – BOC’s classic tune seems timeless all these years later.
• Bob Marley & the Wailers, Rastaman Vibration, “Johnny Was” – I could have picked almost anything from this record but I think this is a great pop song, regardless of it’s being a reggae song.
• Warren Zevon, Warren Zevon, “Carmelita” – Perhaps my favorite Zevon song about a junkie and his girlfriend.
• Steve Miller Band, Fly Like An Eagle, “Fly Like An Eagle” – “Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, into the future…” indeed.
• Cliff Richard, I’m Nearly Famous, “Devil Woman” – I never knew it was Cliff Richard who sang this song.
• Lou Rawls, All Things In Time, “You’ll Never Find A Love Like Mine” – I talked myself out of George Benson’s “Masquerade,” a stone-cold classic, because it’s 8 minutes long, but there was no way I was leaving out the great crooner Lou Rawls.
• Rod Stewart, A Night On The Town, “Tonight’s The Night” – Ah, Rod. While his days of writing songs with Ronnie Wood were over, I still dig this one. Great saxophone.
• Alice Cooper, Alice Cooper Goes To Hell, “I Never Cry” – Alice Cooper, the singer, continues his solo career, working the ballad vibe he found on “Only Women Bleed.”
• The Alan Parsons Project, Tales Of Mystery And Imagination, “The Raven” – I had a lot of stoner friends in school who loved this track. I do too.
• James Taylor, In The Pocket, “Shower The People” – J.T. with one of his signature tunes.
• Peter Tosh, Legalize It, “Legalize It” – What a great year for reggae. Peter Tosh calling for pot to be legalized…
• R.E.O. Speedwagon, R.E.O., “Keep Pushin'” – Before they became corporate sellouts… a rather inspirational track that I’ve always turned to in times of trouble.
• Jefferson Starship, Spitfire, “With Your Love” – These guys had so many more hits than I ever realized. My brother dug the Starship of the early/mid 70s.
• Gordon Lightfoot, Summertime Dream, “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald” – Speaking of my brother, he’d kill me if I left this one off the list.
• Wild Cherry, Wild Cherry, “Play That Funky Music White Boy” – Ah, another classic tune I’d forgotten about.
• Graham Parker & the Rumour, Howlin’ Wind, “White Honey” – Having discovered this track I’m thinking I might need to deep dive into Graham in earnest. I’ve always overlooked him.
• Linda Ronstadt, Hasten Down The Wind, “That’ll Be The Day” – I wanted to go with the title track, a Zevon cover, but I couldn’t resist this one.
• Eric Clapton, No Reason To Cry, “Hello Old Friend” – One of his better tunes.
• Manford Mann’s Earth Band, The Roaring Silence, “Blinded By The Light” – I think this version of the Springsteen tune is the only number 1 Bruce has had which is baffling?
• Hall & Oates, Bigger Than Both Of Us, “Rich Girl” – Reminds me of a girl I knew long ago.
• The Modern Lovers, The Modern Lovers, “Roadrunner” – Jonathan Richman’s fabulous band and a fabulous album.
• Bunny Wailer, Blackheart Man, “Blackheart Man” – More reggae! This one is slightly overlooked outside the reggae world, but I love this album.
• Rose Royce,  Car Wash: Original Soundtrack, “Car Wash” – I had to nod my head, at the very least, to disco. This song was everywhere… even I knew this song and I didn’t listen to the radio in ’76.
• Stills Young Band, Long May You Run, “Long May You Run” – A brief stab at rivaling Crosby Nash, they at least had this one classic tune. I like that it’s about a car.
• Stevie Wonder, Songs In The Key Of Life, “Sir Duke” – From his genius double LP. I love Stevie.
• Bee Gees, Children Of The World, “You Should Be Dancing” – A disco song that’s really on the nose. These guys were on the verge of world domination. Alas, I don’t dance.
• Lou Reed, Rock And Roll Heart, “I Believe In Love” – So do I, Lou, so do I.
• Tom Waits, Small Change, “Tom Traubert’s Blues” – More genius from Tom Waits, later ably covered by Rod Stewart.
• J.J. Cale, Troubadour, “Cocaine” – Listening to this, the original, I realize what a great J.J. Cale cover band Clapton leads.
• Thin Lizzy, Jimmy The Fox, “Don’t Believe A Word” – The second entry of two albums from these guys in ’76, what a year for Thin Lizzy.
• Electric Light Orchestra, A New World Record, “Livin’ Thing” – Derivative of the Beatles as always but this one is damn catchy.
• Kansas, Leftoverture, “Carry On Wayward Son” – Perhaps the most famous track from the lads who come from just down the road in Topeka.
• Elton John, Blue Moves, “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word” – For personal reasons I have always felt that this is the saddest song ever recorded.  The lyric “What’ve I gotta do to make you love me? What’ve I gotta do to make you care?” haunts me.
• Bob Seger, Night Moves, “Night Moves” – Seger followed up his breakthrough live LP with his best (to date) LP, Night Moves. “Strange how the night moves, With autumn closing in…”
• Black Sabbath, Technical Ecstasy, “Dirty Women” – I went a little deep for this track but I saw Sabbath play this song on the tour for 13 and I’ve been partial to it ever since.
• Styx, Crystal Ball, “Crystal Ball” – As time goes by I find myself more and more a fan of Tommy Shaw’s tunes with Styx. I think this was his first hit with the band?
• Climax Blues Band, Gold Plated, “Couldn’t Get It Right” – Another song that seems like it’s always been around on the radio.
• Graham Parker & The Rumour, Heat Treatment, “Hotel Chambermaid” – Another great LP from Parker and the Rumour. I picked this one because I liked the Rod Stewart cover.
• Patti Smith, Radio Ethiopia, “Pissing In A River” – I can’t believe Patti’s LP Horses turned 50 last year. This is such a great tune.
• Robert Palmer, Some People Can Do What They Want, “Man Smart Woman Smarter” – Backed by most of Little Feat, this track always grabbed me. I thought it was Little Feat for a while.
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, “American Girl” – Ah, the good stuff, from Petty’s debut album. This album started a life long love affair for me of Petty’s music.
• Kiss, Rock And Roll Over, “Calling Dr. Love” – Gene Simmons is a buffoon but this track was a fan favorite amongst my Kiss loving friends.
• George Harrison, Thirty Three & 1/3, “Crackerbox Palace” – Great song from a criminally overlooked gem of an album.
• ZZ Top, Tejas, “Arrested For Driving While Blind” – I would not recommend this to anybody. You could get away with this kind of behavior in the 70s, I suppose. It was, as they say, a different time. Take an Uber, folks.
• Joni Mitchell, Hejira, “Coyote” – I only know this track because she played it with the Band at The Last Waltz concert.
• Jackson Browne, The Pretender, “The Pretender” – After three stunning LPs, Browne finally hit it big with this 3x platinum album. So many great songs but I went with the title track.
• Eagles, Hotel California, “Hotel California” – The Eagles biggest record. Joe Walsh was firmly in place and they just delivered on this album.
• Wings (Paul McCartney), Wings Over America, “Maybe I’m Amazed (Live)” – I’ve always felt this live version of “Maybe I’m Amazed,” a track from his solo debut, was the definitive one.
• Genesis, Wind And Wuthering, “Your Own Special Way” – From Genesis’ second album of the year. I’ve always felt this was a pointer to Phil Collins mid tempo/ballad domination of the 80s.
• Blondie, Blondie, “Rip Her To Shreds” – At first blush, this sounds like a “Mean Girls” track but it’s actually a critique of newspapers/magazines and how brutal they are to women and their fashion choices.

These songs are our favorites from 1976. However, I had to cut over 60 tracks from other great albums that came out that year. If there’s a big song or you have a favorite from ’76 that I missed drop it in the comments and if it fits I’ll add it. These are “our” playlists not “my” playlists after all. If you don’t like my picks I can only hope that you put your own playlist together. So much great music from that Bicentennial year.

Thinking about that whole “Bicentennial” thing induces a bit of shock on my part that we’re now celebrating our 250-year anniversary in America. At least we enjoyed 249 years of democracy before greed and corruption brought us down. As I read recently, “2025 was one of the longest decades in our lives.” Hopefully you all had a safe New Year’s Eve – I’ve always considered it “amateur night – and have a great, prosperous new year in ’26.

We’ll be up in the B&V lab in ’26, cranking tunes and sharing our findings with all of you. Be good to each other in this new year.

Cheers!