Rock Radio 50 Years Ago ♪ APRIL 1976

 Country, Classical, Opera? Heck No, Let’s Rock & Roll!

There’s no disputing that this era was musical history in the making. And it all played out on Rock Radio music charts. Those Top Ten-Twenty-Thirty-Forty lists of the Seventies especially, told the history of Rock & Roll, while foretelling the future of it.

Bubblegum Pop evaporated into edgier lyrics and stretched to include instruments in other musical realms. By the middle of the ‘70s, a subtle battle between Disco and early head-banging tunes slid up and down the charts, reflecting events of the day, surrounded by the ever-present love songs. Every month brought more mind-altering music and wild-‘n’-crazy DJs to test the limits of former boundaries and what Radio stations would allow.

This month’s Featured Radio Survey heads into the decade’s end flaunting ever-growing raw talent on the charts. For better or worse, those on the inside were often fueled by the Seventies’ banner of “Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll.” The rest of us gobbled it up and craved more. We weren’t disappointed.  

Even those who were too young to understand it or care, found the early progressive Rock as the years tore on, never letting go of the essence of Rock & Roll—innovation. Welcome to APRIL 1976 as we Spring into memories or learn anew, true tales behind the mic …Enjoy 50 Years Ago this Month …   

º APRIL 1976 Radio News & Muse ♪ 

What was your fave DJ playing when you turned on your tinny transistor radio 50 Years Ago? Oh, I’m well aware that many of you readers, like me, have forgotten many details of “back in the day.” And then there are those who love Rock & Roll, but aren’t blessed with the memories, so let’s look back together …

You might find a KRIZ 1230/Phoenix, Arizona, Top 30 survey interesting (the ARSA link is NOT secure; enter at own risk). The April 17^th – 30^th, 1976, “Hits” list flaunts WINGS’ new “Silly Love Songs” at #2, while their album, Wings at the Speed of Sound, is firmly entrenched at #1 of their Top 10 Albums.

Or were you around in the ‘70s to enjoy the dulcet tones of DJ Dennis Elliot on the short-lived WPEZ in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania?  

Movin’ on, a note about music of the day …  
There is nothing I can say about this month’s Song of Note that hasn’t already been said … over … and over … and over. There are great, classic Rock & Roll songs and then there are GREAT songs that transcend all musical genres. I’ll still do my best to make it informative and interesting.  

In the news …   

April 1^st – April 30^th: No one disputed Paul and Linda McCartney’s love when they co-wrote the April 1976 hit, "Silly Love Songs." For an April 1^st US release date, it didn’t waste any time climbing the charts. By April 16^th its album At the Speed of Sound by WINGS reached #6 on WPEZ’s “Albums” Top 20, without the song’s appearance yet in the singles; but KRIZ listeners must have been crazy about love, speeding it up to #2 by April 17^th on their singles “Hits” Top 30 and the album already at #1. With a whole month of accolades under its belt, “Silly Love Songs” is finally released on April 30^th in the UK.
       Rumor has it, McCartney hasn’t had the heart to sing it again on stage since Wings’ breakup in 1981. That’s too bad. It’s really something we all need to remember … ♪ … You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs | But I look around me and I see it isn't so, oh no | Some people want to fill the world | With silly love songs | And what's wrong with that? …  ♪    

That’s all I have for you today! Just a little tease, with more coming asap … 

Rock APRIL 1976 with a little … avant-garde rhapsody!  

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LinDee Rochelle is a writer and editor by trade, and author by way of Rock & Roll. Two books (of three planned) are published in her Blast from Your Past^TM series, available on Amazon: Book 1 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The First Five Years 1954-1959^TM (eBook only; coming soon in updated print edition) and Book 2 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The Swinging Sixties^TM (eBook & print). Coming soon-ish … Book 3 – The Psychedelic Seventies!^TM 

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