MUSIC EXPRESS [1975]


Another awesome week, another awesome album.


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:



Music Express [1975]
K-tel Scale:
36.40
Top 40 chart peaks
PopR&BDISCOACCBWLS
Love Will Keep Us Together
The Captain And Tennille
1111
Swearin' To God
Frankie Valli
63149715
Get Down Tonight
K.C. & The Sunshine Band
111111
Philadelphia Freedom
The Elton John Band
13211
Cat's In The Cradle
Harry Chapin
1611
Mandy
Barry Manilow
1111
I'm Not In Love
10cc
21032
Poetry Man
Phoebe Snow
51515
Chevy Van
Sammy Johns
555
Run Joey Run
David Geddes
412
Rocky
Austin Roberts
922118
Jackie Blue
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
311
The Rockford Files
Mike Post
10161012
Sky High
Jigsaw
3454
Brazil
The Ritchie Family
11131510
Get Dancin'
Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes
1032310
Long Train Runnin'
The Doobie Brothers
892
My Eyes Adored You
Frankie Valli
1212
Dynomite
Tony Camillo's Bazuka
1029128
Black Superman (Muhammad Ali)
Johnny Wakelin & The Kinshasa Band
21229

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.



The Canadian configuration of Music Express (above) makes the same bold claims on the cover as its American counterpart and at least one of them is true: counting the artists listed on the front cover not including the circle pictured ones nets a twenty count.


Music Express [1975]
K-tel Scale:
22.40
Top 40 chart peaks
PopR&BDISCOACCBWLS
Love Will Keep Us TogetherThe Captain And Tennille1111
Philadelphia FreedomThe Elton John Band13211
Swearin' To GodFrankie Valli63149715
Help Me, RhondaJohnny Rivers223830
Tonite Is A Wonderful Time To Fall In LoveApril Wine
WildfireMichael Martin Murphey3121
Run Joey RunDavid Geddes412
TrainShooter
Here Today, Gone TomorrowWednesday
Why Can't We Be Friends?War6956
RockyAustin Roberts922118
Poetry ManPhoebe Snow51515
Jackie BlueThe Ozark Mountain Daredevils311
The Rockford FilesMike Post10161012
The Way We Were/Try To RememberGladys Knight & the Pips116210
You Beat Me To The PunchCharity Brown
Holdin' On To YesterdayAmbrosia1718
Powerful PeopleGino Vannelli
Keep Our Love AlivePatricia Dahlquist
New OrleansThe 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
PopR&BDISCOACCBWLS
The Rockford FilesMike Post10161012
Lady MarmaladeLaBelle11712
RockyAustin Roberts922118
Lovin' YouMinnie Riperton13412
Black Superman (Muhammad Ali)Johnny Wakelin & The Kinshasa Band21229
Get Dancin'Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes1032310
DynomiteTony Camillo's Bazuka1029128
Fly, Robin, FlySilver Convention11118
MistyRay Stevens14816
WildfireMichael Martin Murphey3121

5 comments:

  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.

    Love this site!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But will you be streaming the K-tel edits straight from the vinyl or the complete versions?

      Delete
  2. geez, 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

    ReplyDelete
  3. This 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.

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  4. I 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