HITLINE [1979]

The deeper we dive into the Kollection, the more HERC realizes that his decision to run the albums down by matrix number might not have been the best way to go.  Things are a little off, both chronologically and logically.  For years (or at least since the early Seventies), the geniuses in the K-Tel Headquarters would market a few single disc compilations followed at year's end by a double disc compilation of those previously released tunes, a best of album if you will. Then they would split that album in half and market it as two separate albums.  Geniu$!  Today's album Hitline is just such a double album for the year 1980 but catalog number-wise, it falls near the end of the 1979 year so many of the songs have yet to be covered here on K-Tel Kollection - but they soon will be.

Take a look at the tracklist of Hitline in the Spotify playlist above - it is packed with hits among its 24 tracks.  Beginning with not one but BOTH of the chart topping songs by Michael Jackson from Off The Wall, the album that came before Thriller.  The other thing HERC immediately noticed while looking at Hitline's tracklist is the number of songs with the word "YOU" in the title: 9.  (That seems like a lot, doesn't it?)  And lastly, the first record in the set is more upbeat and danceable while the second one is more laid back and mellow for the most part.  HERC did not own many 45s of songs from Hitline but he had the five albums pictured below, which do contain songs from Hitline:

HERC sees maybe three songs that missed the Top 20 and maybe one or two that missed the Top 40 altogether.  There are definitely three and possibly as many as six Number Ones because HERC doesn't know the charts as well he thinks he does but he's predicting a possible new entry into the Top 10 highest scoring albums here on the K-Tel Kollection with a score of 32.  Let's run Hitline through the K-Tel Scale and see what it says.

HITLINE [1980]		K-tel Scale:				32.65
		Billboard Top 40s
		Pop	R&B	Disco	AC	CB	WLS
Rock With You	Michael Jackson	1	1	2	21	1	38
We Are Family	Sister Sledge	2	1	1	30	2	5
You Can't Change That	Raydio	9	3		25	10	10
Dance With You	Carrie Lucas		27	6
Hold On To My Love	Jimmy Ruffin	10	29		32	14
Working My Way Back To You / Forgive Me Girl	The Spinners	2	6	8	5	3	3
Stomp	Brothers Johnson	7	1	1		8	20
Ladies Night	Kool & the Gang	8	1	5		4	8
Don't Let Go	Isaac Hayes	18	11	3		17	18
Makin' It	David Naughton	5		11		5	2
Heaven Must Have Sent You	Bonnie Pointer	11		8		10	33
Don't Stop Til You Get Enough	Michael Jackson	1	1	2		1	7
Escape (The Pina Colada Song)	Rupert Holmes	1			8	1	2
Yes, I'm Ready	Teri DeSario with KC	2	20		1	3
Please Don't Go	KC & the Sunshine Band	1			27	3	5
Dancin' Shoes	Nigel Olsson	18			8	17
Where Were You When I Was Falling In Love	Lobo	23			1	16
Just When I Needed You Most	Randy Vanwarmer	4			1	5	12
Romeo's Tune	Steve Forbert	11			13	11
Stumblin' In	Suzi Quatro & Chris Norman	4			4	6	11
Gold	John Stewart	5				6	12
Lonesome Loser	Little River Band	6			15	7	6
Back On My Feet Again	The Babys	33				29
Bad Case Of Loving You	Robert Palmer	14				10	11

All but one song made the Top 40 and two other songs missed the Top 20 with sixteen songs hitting the Top 10 with four of those going all the way to the top.  And as HERC noted, the first record (the first dozen songs) shows lots of crossover on the more upbeat R&B and Disco charts while the second record predominantly crossed over to the more mellow Adult Contemporary chart.  Overall, a very respectable 32.65 on the K-Tel Scale and good enough to land the #10 spot on this site's Top 10 chart.

Hitline was also released as two separate records, labelled Vol. I and Vol. II with identical tracklisting to the records featured in the double album package.  The 8-track tape versions (above) featured slightly rearranged track listings to accommodate the limitations of the tape while the cassette versions (below) featured yet another arrangement of the songs to minimize the silence on each side of the tape.

Hitline was simultaneously released in Canada with yet another tracklisting as seen on the 8-track label below.  The Canadian Hitline and American Hitline both had twenty-four songs but they only have these three songs in common:

• "Lonesome Loser" - Little River Band
• "Back On My Feet Again" - The Babys
• "You Can't Change That" - Raydio

The vinyl running order was used in the K-Tel Scale below and it surprisingly has more than just a few of HERC's favorite songs. In addition, unless HERC is mistaken, there are only three songs from obvious Canadian artists instead of the usual five or more which generally tend to torpedo Canadian albums on the K-Tel Scale.

HITLINE [1980] CAN		K-tel Scale:				26.17
		Billboard Top 40s
		Pop	R&B	Disco	AC	CB	WLS
Break It To Them Gently	Burton Cummings
This Is It	Kenny Loggins	11	19		17	8
Cruel To Be Kind	Nick Lowe	12			36	12	15
Hold On	Ian Gomm	18			10	25
Ring My Bell	Anita Ward	1	1	1		1	1
All The Tea In China	Susan Jacks
Too Bad	Doug and the Slugs
Dream Police	Cheap Trick	26				27	8
Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'	Journey	16				15	2
Boogie Wonderland	Earth, Wind & Fire	6	2	14		5	12
Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad	Meat Loaf	11	COU		31	9	11
The Devil Went Down To Georgia	Charlie Daniels Band	3	1			4	2
Heart Of Glass	Blondie	1				1	2
Sad Eyes	Robert John	1			10	1	2
When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman	Dr. Hook	6			5	5	7
Time Passages	Al Stewart	7			1	9	16
Pretty Girls	Melissa Manchester	39			26
I'll Never Love This Way Again	Dionne Warwick	5	18		5	5	5
My Sharona	The Knack	1				1	1
One Way Or Another	Blondie	24				22	31
Back On My Feet Again	The Babys	33				29
Heartbreaker	Pat Benatar	23				19	6
Lonesome Loser	Little River Band	6			15	7	6
You Can't Change That	Raydio	9	3		25	10	10

That's actually one of the higher scores for a Canadian version.  Instead of a separate Spotify playlist for the Hitline Canadian Edition, HERC combined it with the US playlist near the top of the post for a 40 song Hitline United Nations Super Playlist below.

Next time out, HERC tracks through the last of his 1979 K-Tel albums, Starflight.