7 of the 70s: 4/3/14 (1976)...

Hey gang, it's throwback Thursday time, and right now I'm serving up seven more nuggets from 1976, this time all songs from or used by television shows...

John Sebastian - "Welcome Back"
from the album Welcome Back (1976)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
Songwriter: John Sebastian

The former Lovin' Spoonful leader gave us one of the best sitcom themes ever with this easy-going track you can't help not singing along to.

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Rhythm Heritage - "Theme From S.W.A.T."
from the album Disco-Fied (1976)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
Songwriter: Barry DeVorzon

The show this was named/composed for had already been cancelled by the time this went to #1, but you couldn't stop this sonic sibling of the "Shaft" theme.

Pratt & McClain - "Happy Days"
from the album Pratt & McClain featuring Happy Days (1976)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5
Songwriters: Charles Fox, Norman Gimbel

Hello sunshine, goodbye rain indeed. Another awesome period homage for the show that showed That 70s Show how it's done.

Barry DeVorzon & Perry Botkin, Jr - "Nadia's Theme (The Young & The Restless)"
from the album Nadia's Theme (The Young & The Restless) (1976)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8
Songwriters: Perry Botkin Jr, Barry DeVorzon

This classic instrumental has a convoluted history - originally recorded as "Cotton's Theme" for the movie Bless The Beasts and the Children in 1971, the song was redone for the Young & The Restless soap opera two years later. Then in 1976, ABC used the track in their coverage of Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci (hence the new title), though she never used this in her routines. Nonetheless the song this time made the top-ten with Olympic fever fueling it.

Donny & Marie Osmond - "Deep Purple"
from the album Donny & Marie: Featuring Songs from their TV Show (1976)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14
Songwriters: Peter DeRose, Mitchell Parrish

My sister and I were transfixed every week by the Donny & Marie Show, and this cover of the Nino Tempo/April Stevens 60's hit was like an ode to Donny's favorite color.

Rhythm Heritage - "Baretta's Theme (Keep Your Eye On The Sparrow)"
from the album Disco-Fied (1976)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20
Songwriters: Morgan Ames, Dave Grusin


Later seasons of the show added Sammy Davis Jr's vocals to the mix, though his version stopped one notch short of the Hot 100.

Cyndi Grecco - "Making Our Dreams Come True"
from the album Making Our Dreams Come True (1976)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #25
Songwriters: Charles Fox, Norman Gimbel

God, 1976 was such an awesome year for TV music. Perfectly produced for one-speaker AM radio, this song remains in every good drag queen's lipsynch wheelhouse.

Soul Train Gang - "Soul Train '75"
from the album Don Cornelius Presents The Soul Train Gang (1975)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #75
Songwriters: Don Cornelius, Dick Griffey

This record replaced the Philly International classic "T.S.O.P. (The Sound Of Philadelphia)" as the theme to the iconic soul party show. Member Gerald Brown would go own to become a brief member of Soul Train-founded group Shalamar.

I'll return later with eight more from 1986...