7 of the 70s: 9/17/14 (1976)

Hey gang, it's time to go back to the 70s, and this week I've got seven more nuggets from 1976, the year tobacco ads are banned in Australia's TV and radio airwaves...

Johnnie Taylor - "Disco Lady"
from the album Eargasm (1976)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
Songwriters: Don Davis, Harvey Scales, Al Vance

After a decade of a moderately successful career singing classic soul, Taylor "dirtied" up his music a little, and in the process scored both the first "platinum" single (given for selling over a million copies) and the first #1 pop hit with "Disco" in its name.

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Andrea True Connection - "More, More, More (Part 1)"
from the album More, More, More (1976)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4
Songwriter: Gregg Diamond

This 70s porn star really did recapture her own destiny by recording one of the best disco songs of the decade, with possibly the best instrumental break in the genre I can think of.

Vicki Sue Robinson - "Turn The Beat Around"
from the album Never Gonna Let You Go (1976)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10
Songwriters: Gerald Jackson, Pete Jackson

This classic percussive disco hit topped the dance charts twice; for Robinson and then for Gloria Estefan eighteen years later.

The Wing and A Prayer Fife & Drum Corps - "Baby Face"
from the album Baby Face (1976)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14
Songwriters: Harry Akst, Benny Davis

This "oldie" (the song was written in 1926) gets the disco treatment, which starts out like a children's pageant before devolving into the funkiness of the "you got the cutest little..." part.

Candi Staton - "Young Hearts Run Free"
from the album Young Hearts Run Free (1976)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20
Songwriter: Dave Crawford

This ode to sowing your wild oats in your youth was sung by a woman would return to her gospel roots in the 80s and actually being tied with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.

Lady Flash - "Street Singin'"
from the album Beauties Of The Night (1976)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27
Songwriters: Adrienne Anderson, Barry Manilow


This trio of backup singers for Barry Manilow had their short time in the spotlight with this disco hit co-written and produced by their "boss". Member Debra Byrd is a vocal coach on American Idol...

Tavares - "Don't Take Away The Music"
from the album Sky High (1976)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #34
Songwriters: Freddie Perren, Kenny St. Lewis, Christine Yarian

This slice of disco heaven became the brothers' second consecutive top-10 single in Britain (after "Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel"...