Whether we are “in” Love or not, there is no dodging this month made for Love. And apparently, it stretches back to the oldest of “Oldies” music. Says a 2024 article from The Harvard Crimson, “In fact, the oldest known love song is that of Shu-Sin, which was discovered in the library of Ashurbanipal in Mesopotamia and dates back to 2000 BCE.”
BFYP’s 1970s Oldies are no exception, so we’re giving love a capital “L” all month. In our February Featured Radio Survey, there are no less than a dozen Love-themed songs in the Top 30, and half of those tout the word “Love” in their titles. So, Rock & Roll fans, you can’t escape the LOVE we feel for our top Oldies tunes … 50 Years Ago this Month …
What was your fave DJ playing when you turned on your tinny transistor radio 50 Years Ago? Did your fave artist make the news? Read on and enjoy the memories of what and who you were listening to … 50 Years Ago this Month!
February 7th: So, remember in December 2025 when I told you about the Brooklyn, New York, pirate radio station that snuck onto the airwaves? It was a brief escapade—and it was today in 1976 that the FCC raided the station and shut them down. Never fear, the operators, John Calabro and Perry Cavalieri were persistent, if not legal. It didn’t take ‘em long to find another, more elusive wayward station, in WFAT … and when that was raided in 1979 … WFOT. All were short-lived, but talk about tenacious!
February 20th: Stomped in Love! On this date 50 Years Ago, Kiss added their big ol’ bootprints to the sidewalk outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. They didn’t have anything on the charts this month, but hit the bottom of Radio lists by end of March with “Shout It Out Loud” to become Kiss’s second song to break the Top 40. Think it isn’t about Love? Au contraire mon chéri, Kiss made self-Love a thing with this tune! ♪ … It doesn't matter what you do or say | Just forget the things that you've been told | We can't do it any other way | Everybody's got to rock and roll, whoo, oh, oh … ♪
February 28th: And what, pray tell, was Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards this day in 1976? Of course: “Love Will Keep Us Together." Although co-writers, Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield thought it would be a hit for them 1973, as did brother/sister team, Mac and Katie Kissoon, it was another duo, Captain & Tennille (Daryl Dragon & Toni Tennille) who found the groove with it. The tune gave them their first of many #1 hits. Though ultimately divorced, Ms. Tennille was by the Captain’s side when he passed in 2019. Love, did indeed, keep them together.
Although I don’t have an original February 1976 music survey in my BFYP Collection, I found a couple of fun ones at ARSA (not a secure site). From music artists to the Radio stations who played their hits and misses, where were you spinning the dial 50 Years Ago?
Were you flyin’ high in Love
or the sky, in mile-high Denver, Colorado? KTLK
(not a secure site at ARSA) had recently surpassed popular KIMN in
ratings and DJ John Edwards loved taking you to new heights in KTLK’s
10p.m. to 2a.m. slot. Believe it or not, in 1969 when KTLN changed its call
letters to K-TALK / KTLK, they thought engaging the local teens in
chit-chat and music would be fun and innovative. Not in the ‘70s!
Listeners loved the music, not so
much the talk and it eventually surpassed then-dominant Top 40 station KIMN,
especially when KTLK took on the Disco format of the late 1970s. “Denver’s
Double K-1280” published a full Top 40 for its listeners—and nevermind that
their two Ks were not doubled together.
Let’s
shiver our way over to the Northeast for our Featured Radio
Survey, WTAC (ARSA
survey, not a secure site) in Flint, Michigan. I had to laugh when I noticed
one of their Hit Bound tunes, “Deep Purple” by “The Lovely Donny & Marie
Osmond.” Someone at the station was obviously enamored of them (or at least,
Marie)! And with good reason. “Deep Purple” ultimately became the 42nd-biggest
hit of 1976 in the U.S.
DJ Peter Cavanaugh (1941-2021)
was just getting started as a DJ and made a name for himself by striking
up friendships with AC/DC (Australia) and The Who (England), premiering them in the
U.S. They were connections that followed him as he moved up the Radio ladder,
to serve in management, even though he’d scored a BA in political science. Radio
is more fun!
WTAC thrived throughout the
decade as "The Big 600." That lasted 'til 1981 when Top 40s petered
out and it flipped to Country.
Having some fun with research, I found that in the first month, January) 2026, there may have been current songs about Love, but you can’t tell from their titles. Not a one with Love in the title … kinda sad, don’t you think? Since Love dominates our lives in mates, family and friends, check out the two tantalizing Love tunes for your February 1976 musical memories …
Wow. Every year in the 1970s gets more and more difficult to choose a Song of Note—there are so many iconic classics in every Top 20! This month, from “Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover” (Paul Simon) at #1 on our Featured Radio Survey, to “Theme From S.W.A.T.” (Rhythm Heritage) rounding out the top 20 (of 30) tunes, it was a daunting jaunt through time.
I try to take into account the general mood of the month, so Valentine Y Love rules February, and I finally settled on two, absolute opposites … from the pain of love in Nazareth’s “Love Hurts,” sitting at #5 on the chart, to the Miracles exclaiming love’s exuberant joy in “Love Machine,” at #6, we’ve got ya covered.
Scottish band, Nazareth, struck a painful chord with “Love Hurts” that resonated with so many, and still does! By far, theirs is the most popular version of the song, originally recorded by The Everly Brothers in 1960 and covered by others before Nazareth gave it a hard Rock vibe. From the lead singer to the lead guitarist, you can feel their pain. ♪ … Love is like a flame | It burns you when it's hot | Love hurts...... ooh, ooh love hurts … Oh, yes, sometimes it does …
On the other end of the Love spectrum, however, following right on its heels on the WTAC music chart, “Love Machine,” by the Miracles, expressed the other side of Love—pure joy! And I gotta say, my pure joy came when I pulled up the YouTube video and found the Miracles dominating the stage flaunting extravagant 1970s Disco style, in matching “Pepto Bismal”-pink suits! Oh, the memories! ♪ … I'm just a love machine | And I won't work for nobody but you | A hugging kissing fiend … ♪
Believe it or not, my Rock & Roll friends, this is NOT the end of our February 1976 Rockin’ the Love memories! There is a little more to come, but this is the bulk of it. Enjoy … and come back for more with images and a little sprucing up, in a couple of days.
Rock February 1976 and … Let’s Rock the Love!
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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 PastTM series, available on Amazon: Book 1 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The First Five Years 1954-1959TM (eBook only; coming soon in updated print edition) and Book 2 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The Swinging SixtiesTM (eBook & print). Coming soon-ish … Book 3 – The Psychedelic Seventies!TM
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Enjoy!
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