K-Tel's Music Express [1975] makes the bold statement ALL TOP 10 HITS right there on the cover. 20 ORIGINAL HITS 20 ORIGINAL STARS, too? Now they're just showing off. Alas, both statements prove to be a bit misleading after a little research is done. No matter which U.S. singles chart is consulted, not a one featured all twenty songs in the Top 10.
However, if you use the Beatles 1 Paradigm which stipulates that multiple charts from multiple countries can be aggregated and positions shared amongst them, then all of these songs made the Top 10 on one or more charts. It is a technicality but there are only nineteen original artists (count them on the front cover above) on this album - Frankie Valli has two songs "My Eyes Adored You" and a very special K-Tel "slice'n'dice" edit of the song below:
However, if you use the Beatles 1 Paradigm which stipulates that multiple charts from multiple countries can be aggregated and positions shared amongst them, then all of these songs made the Top 10 on one or more charts. It is a technicality but there are only nineteen original artists (count them on the front cover above) on this album - Frankie Valli has two songs "My Eyes Adored You" and a very special K-Tel "slice'n'dice" edit of the song below:
Music Express [1975]
| K-tel Scale: |
36.40
| |||||
| Top 40 chart peaks | |||||||
| Pop | R&B | DISCO | AC | CB | WLS | ||
Love Will Keep Us Together
|
The Captain And Tennille
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Swearin' To God
|
Frankie Valli
| 6 | 31 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 15 |
Get Down Tonight
|
K.C. & The Sunshine Band
| 1 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 1 | |
Philadelphia Freedom
|
The Elton John Band
| 1 | 32 | 1 | 1 | ||
Cat's In The Cradle
|
Harry Chapin
| 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | ||
Mandy
|
Barry Manilow
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
I'm Not In Love
|
10cc
| 2 | 10 | 3 | 2 | ||
Poetry Man
|
Phoebe Snow
| 5 | 1 | 5 | 15 | ||
Chevy Van
|
Sammy Johns
| 5 | 5 | 5 | |||
Run Joey Run
|
David Geddes
| 4 | 1 | 2 | |||
Rocky
|
Austin Roberts
| 9 | 22 | 11 | 8 | ||
Jackie Blue
|
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
| 3 | 1 | 1 | |||
The Rockford Files
|
Mike Post
| 10 | 16 | 10 | 12 | ||
Sky High
|
Jigsaw
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | ||
Brazil
|
The Ritchie Family
| 11 | 13 | 1 | 5 | 10 | |
Get Dancin'
|
Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes
| 10 | 32 | 3 | 10 | ||
Long Train Runnin'
|
The Doobie Brothers
| 8 | 9 | 2 | |||
My Eyes Adored You
|
Frankie Valli
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ||
Dynomite
|
Tony Camillo's Bazuka
| 10 | 29 | 12 | 8 | ||
Black Superman (Muhammad Ali)
|
Johnny Wakelin & The Kinshasa Band
| 21 | 22 | 9 | |||
With six Pop #1s from the Hot 100 and 8 #1s on the Cashbox (CB) Top 100 chart, Music Express is packed and stacked with primo pop. Extensive crossover charting on the Adult Contemporary (AC) chart also boosted the album's score on the K-Tel Scale making it the new Number One scoring album in the official rankings.
Music Express [1975]
| K-tel Scale: |
22.40
| |||||
| Top 40 chart peaks | |||||||
| Pop | R&B | DISCO | AC | CB | WLS | ||
| Love Will Keep Us Together | The Captain And Tennille | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Philadelphia Freedom | The Elton John Band | 1 | 32 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Swearin' To God | Frankie Valli | 6 | 31 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 15 |
| Help Me, Rhonda | Johnny Rivers | 22 | 38 | 30 | |||
| Tonite Is A Wonderful Time To Fall In Love | April Wine | ||||||
| Wildfire | Michael Martin Murphey | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Run Joey Run | David Geddes | 4 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Train | Shooter | ||||||
| Here Today, Gone Tomorrow | Wednesday | ||||||
| Why Can't We Be Friends? | War | 6 | 9 | 5 | 6 | ||
| Rocky | Austin Roberts | 9 | 22 | 11 | 8 | ||
| Poetry Man | Phoebe Snow | 5 | 1 | 5 | 15 | ||
| Jackie Blue | The Ozark Mountain Daredevils | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||
| The Rockford Files | Mike Post | 10 | 16 | 10 | 12 | ||
| The Way We Were/Try To Remember | Gladys Knight & the Pips | 11 | 6 | 2 | 10 | ||
| You Beat Me To The Punch | Charity Brown | ||||||
| Holdin' On To Yesterday | Ambrosia | 17 | 18 | ||||
| Powerful People | Gino Vannelli | ||||||
| Keep Our Love Alive | Patricia Dahlquist | ||||||
| New Orleans | The Stampeders | ||||||
Fully half of the album's twenty songs failed to make the Top 10 on U.S. charts and seven of those even failed to find the Top 40, resulting in ZERO points per song and a fairly weak K-Tel Scale score. Disappointing coming after last week's high-scoring Canadian K-Tel album became the first one from the Great White North to top the leaderboard.
As it had done with other albums, K-Tel returned to the well and issued a truncated, ten song CD version of Music Express in 1996. As he's stated before, K-Tel CDs are not eligible for the leaderboard and its his site so its his rules. He included the disc's stats below.
Music Express [1996]
| K-tel Scale: |
34.30
| |||||
| Top 40 chart peaks | |||||||
| Pop | R&B | DISCO | AC | CB | WLS | ||
| The Rockford Files | Mike Post | 10 | 16 | 10 | 12 | ||
| Lady Marmalade | LaBelle | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 2 | |
| Rocky | Austin Roberts | 9 | 22 | 11 | 8 | ||
| Lovin' You | Minnie Riperton | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | |
| Black Superman (Muhammad Ali) | Johnny Wakelin & The Kinshasa Band | 21 | 22 | 9 | |||
| Get Dancin' | Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes | 10 | 32 | 3 | 10 | ||
| Dynomite | Tony Camillo's Bazuka | 10 | 29 | 12 | 8 | ||
| Fly, Robin, Fly | Silver Convention | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |
| Misty | Ray Stevens | 14 | 8 | 16 | |||
| Wildfire | Michael Martin Murphey | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
I run an online radio station called, Vinyl Voyage Radio (http://www.vinylvoyageradio.com). I host a show dedicated to K-Tel called "Adventures in Vinyl." This month (August 2014), we will be streaming Music Express in its entirety.
ReplyDeleteLove this site!
But will you be streaming the K-tel edits straight from the vinyl or the complete versions?
Deletegeez, acts like april wine, the stampeders and gino vanelli never made the american top40? but captain & tennille did??? all too obvious that those who charted the top 40 "ONLY" paid attention to the american acts. it was like they think america's crap is even better than canada's gold. Shame really, they'll never know the gold they missed by being so over-patriotic. that's insane! just my opinion. great site, keep up the good work
ReplyDeleteThis was one of the few albums my older brother ever purchased. Shortly thereafter he turned his back on popular music and became a sci-fi geek. The only other LPs he purchased were the Star Wars soundtrack and a Steve Martin comedy album. Such a shame. At a certain juncture, then, this wound up in my collection, though it went unplayed.
ReplyDeleteI love this album and think it is a true classic. I was born in 1971 and this was one of the first albums I remember receiving and believe it or not, I've listening to it my entire life. It really just gets better with age.
ReplyDelete