When it comes to music, everything is eras (just ask Taylor Swift). Whether you’re talking about the British invasion, the punk movement, or the rise of hip-hop, there are certain inflection points that mark a sea-change. In the 1970s, radio evolved in a direction that cemented the classic rock radio format. And within that genre, there’s one year that holds the whole thing together: 1976.
Classic rock radio has its roots in a 1964 Federal Communications Commission decision. Previously, AM and FM radio stations under the same ownership were allowed to broadcast the same programming at the same time (“simulcasting”). Under the new rule, each station would have to have original programming. Naturally, there were legal challenges, and it wasn’t until 1967 that the split was official.
“Truckin’” (Uploaded to YouTube by Grateful Dead)
This led to radio stations branching into completely different formats. One strain would come to be called Album-oriented radio and later, Album-oriented rock (AOR). For a while, stations had a more freeform method of programming, with DJs picking the songs. This led to more airplay of newer and harder rock acts, like The Grateful Dead or Steppenwolf. Around 1970, programming started to become tighter, with stations dictating playlists and a more hits-forward approach. By the mid-1970s, most of the play decisions were in the hands of programming directors.
What’s interesting in the long run is that a number of songs that were popular in this era have never left AOR or “classic rock” radio. While the format has slid to include popular metal acts of the 1980s (Metallica, Guns ‘N’ Roses) or alternative acts of the 1990s (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains), the spine of the format continues to be songs that were popular in the middle of the 1970s. And no year plays on repeat more heavily than – you guessed it – 1976,
All of these songs were released as singles during that foundational year.
1975 album tracks that were 1976 singles
Note: These lists are roughly chronological by release date.
“Crazy on You” by Heart (Uploaded to YouTube by TopPop)
“Crazy on You” and “Dreamboat Annie” – Heart
“Squeeze Box” – The Who
“Slow Ride” – Foghat
“Rhiannon” and “Say You Love Me” – Fleetwood Mac
“Fox on the Run” – Sweet
“Evil Woman” – ELO
“Love Hurts” – Nazareth
“Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” – Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band
“Bohemian Rhapsody” – Queen
1976 Releases
“Hurricane” – Bob Dylan
“Show Me the Way,” “Feel Like We Do,” and “Baby, I Love Your Way” – Peter Frampton
“Station to Station” and “Golden Years” – David Bowie
“Beth,” “Detroit Rock City,” “Shout It Out Loud,” and “God of Thunder” – Kiss
“Takin’ It to the Streets” – Doobie Brothers
“The Boys Are Back in Town” and “Jailbreak” – Thin Lizzy
“Overture/The Temples of Syrinx” and “A Passage to Bangkok” – Rush
“Achilles’ Last Stand” – Led Zeppelin
“Blitzkrieg Bop” – Ramones
“Back in the Saddle” – Aerosmith
“It’s A Long Way to the Top” and “TNT” – AC/DC
“Cherry Bomb” – The Runaways
“Poor Poor Pitiful Me” – Warren Zevon
“Don’t Fear the Reaper” – Blue Oyster Cult
“Fly Like an Eagle,” “Take the Money and Run,” and “Rock’n Me” – Steve Miller Band
“More Than a Feeling” (Uploaded to YouTube by Boston)
“More Than a Feeling,” “Peace of Mind,” “Foreplay,” “Long Time,” “Rock and Roll Band,” and “Smokin’” – Boston (radio basically played most of the album)
“Blinded by the Light” – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
“Rich Girl” – Hall and Oates
“Still the One” – Orleans
“Do Ya” – ELO
“Carry on Wayward Son” – Kansas
“Rock and Roll Never Forgets” and “Night Moves” – Bob Seger
“American Girl” – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
“Calling Dr. Love” and “Hard Luck Woman” – Kiss
“Hotel California,” “New Kid in Town,” and “Life in the Fast Lane” – Eagles
“Tie Your Mother Down” and “Somebody to Love” – Queen
“X Offender” and “Rip Her to Shreds” – Blondie
“Let Your Love Flow” – The Bellamy Brothers
December 1976 Single for Impending 1977 Album
“Go Your Own Way” – Fleetwood Mac
“Go Your Own Way” (Uploaded to YouTube by Fleetwood Mac)
As you can tell, 1976’s releases, aside from being generally huge, have stuck around in the pop culture firmament. Listen to classic rock radio for an hour or two, and it’s almost a guarantee that you’ll hear one, if not three or four, of these tunes.
Why, you may ask? Are they just that good? Well, many of them are. And many of them became emblematic of classic rock as a whole: big guitars, lots of hooks, vocal heroics, memorable beats, and so on. That’s not to say that the rest of the 1970s, for example, didn’t have a ton of hits from the likes of Foreigner and Meat Loaf; however, the latter years of the decade were dominated by an influx of disco and teen-directed acts while R&B hits that might have played on AOR in its first years were siphoned off onto other radio formats.
But considering when the format calcified into its new iteration, these crossover years and their tracks became the pillar of what we generally refer to as classic rock. They’ve stuck around for 50 years. And if there continues to be radio, they’ll probably stick around for 50 more.
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Comments
We all find comfort in what we knew best in our own period. Do baby boomers miss the Ink Spots? Did Conway Twitty do it for EStreet / Springsteen listeners? If you love music you appreciate much of it tho perhaps not all. Mancini was much underrated. Cross Generation music is its own ticket to a higher QOL!!
I like the article that Troy Brownfield wrote, entitled The Spine of Rock ‘N’ Roll. The songs that he listed I was about 18 years of age. Troy mentioned the artists, including Heart, Boston, The Eagles, and Fleetwood Mac. Even though, the Beatles did not exist at the time in 1976. The Beatles had Got To Get You in My Life that was a single and was recorded 10 years earlier. The Beatles Rock ‘N’ Roll Album made it to the album chart I just remember the songs that came on the radio. Troy, thanks a lot for writing this article.
1976 was a terrible year for music, The list is a stark portrayal of how record labels co-opted counter-culture radio and by extension the counter culture itself. It was the Monkees all over again.
At the pioneering FM stations of the late Sixties, jocks chose their own playlists, pushing their audience into ever-expanding musical realms. The record labels and radio chains turned that idea into AOR, a mass-appeal “format” they could profitably exploit. The rebellious Jefferson Airplane became the Starship, pumping out pop dreck like “We Built This City.”
Yet when one music genre fades into banality, another rises. The Ramones were a harbinger of the harder, faster, and distinctly anti-establishment Punk revolution.
I think it was a wonderful article, and I concur that 1976 was the backbone year of this classic rock era. I agree 100% with whoever wrote this. Great job.
Boston is the greatest rock and roll band of all time!!! Bar none!!!!!!! Rip Brad and Sib.
I don’t believe your author of this article was very objective in his/her findings. I lived through the era of 1968 to 1981 of classic rock music and if you go back in time you will learn the critical years were 1969/70, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1978, & 1979/80. There was some years like 1971, 1973, & 1977 where there were some glimpses of brilliance yet overshadowed by either the advent of disco or popular novelty hits at the time. I think if you really study this out you’ll find out 1974 was your best year for rock music. The hell with what the critics think. Their opinions are full of $hit anyway. I guess it is like professor told my class back in 1979 that everyone’s opinion is like their @$$h0le & is prone to stink. I base my opinion from my research into my 12 semester hour Senior Project of the History of American Rock Music & the Recording Industry completed in 1992 toward the requirements of my B. S. Degree at The University of Alabama which I completed in 1993. BTW, I was awarded a grade of an A on that project and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a 3.76 GPA. Roll Tide Roll!