When the United States celebrated it's Bicentennial in 1976, the U.S. Mint issued commemorative Quarters and $2 bills. K-Tel celebrated the Bicentennial in the only way they knew how - cranking out 20 song collections of popular hits on vinyl and 8-track tapes!
Block Buster features the ever-popular "20 original hits 20 original stars". Whatever your take on that tried and true slogan, we may have a couple of technicalities here today:
With only one song narrowly missing the Top 40 and two dozen others crossing over, not to mention four #1s, Block Buster just misses a 30 on the K-Tel Scale, coming in with a not-too-shabby 29.75. Let's see how it's Canadian counterpart performs:
You know how Freddie Prinze, "Chico" in Chico & the Man, always said "lookin' good"? This would not be one of the times he said it because the Canadian Block Buster variation achieves one of the lowest K-Tel Scale scores yet. A whopping nine songs failed to make the US Top 40, costing it dearly.
The playlist below features the songs from the playlist above PLUS eleven more from the Canadian version for a 30 song trip back to music from 1972-1976!
- there are only 19 original stars as War appears twice and
- one song is a cover version of a classic Beach Boys tune!
Johnny Rivers made a career out of covering other peoples songs including early rock and blues classics as well as seminal Motown tracks and in 1975, ten years after the Beach Boys took the original to the top of the charts, Rivers made it to #22 with his harmonica heavy take of "Help Me, Rhonda" featuring Beach Boy Brian Wilson, the man who wrote the song, on backing vocals. (If Brian gave his blessing, so shall HERC.) Two years later, Johnny-on-the-spot took an obscure tune originally recorded by the overlooked singer/songwriter super group The Funky Kings, increased the tempo a bit and cracked the Top 10, giving HERC his favorite Johnny Rivers song of all, "Swayin' To The Music (Slow Dancin')" aka "Slow Dancin' (Swayin' To The Music)":
As much as he likes that version, HERC returns to the original much more often. It is even slower-dancing and more passionate and one of the few songs he usually keeps in his private stash, songs that he plays only for himself and "no one else in the whole wide world."
Block Buster [1976]
| K-tel Scale: |
29.75
| |||||
| Top 40 chart peaks | |||||||
| Pop | R&B | DISCO | AC | CB | WLS | ||
| Fly, Robin, Fly | Silver Convention | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 8 |
| That's The Way (I Like It) | KC & The Sunshine Band | 1 | 1 | 18 | 1 | 1 | |
| Why Can't We Be Friends | War | 6 | 9 | 5 | 6 | ||
| Pick Up The Pieces | Average White Band | 1 | 5 | 11 | 1 | 12 | |
| Part Time Love | Gladys Knight And The Pips | 22 | 4 | 17 | 27 | ||
| Only Women | Alice Cooper | 12 | 10 | ||||
| Please Come To Boston | Dave Loggins | 5 | 1 | 7 | |||
| Air That I Breathe | The Hollies | 6 | 3 | 7 | 2 | ||
| Frankenstein | The Edgar Winter Group | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| I Want'a Do Something Freaky To You | Leon Haywood | 15 | 7 | 20 | |||
| Sky High | Jigsaw | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | ||
| Chevy Van | Sammy Johns | 5 | 5 | 5 | |||
| The Last Game Of The Season | David Geddes | 18 | 22 | 27 | |||
| Swearin' To God | Frankie Valli | 6 | 31 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 15 |
| Doctor's Orders | Carol Douglas | 11 | 9 | 2 | 10 | 7 | |
| Help Me Rhonda | Johnny Rivers | 22 | 38 | 30 | |||
| Caribbean Festival | Kool & The Gang | 6 | |||||
| Peace Pipe | B.T. Express | 31 | 5 | 3 | 40 | ||
| Slippin' Into Darkness | War | 16 | 12 | ||||
| I'm On Fire | 5000 Volts | 26 | 24 | 33 | |||
With only one song narrowly missing the Top 40 and two dozen others crossing over, not to mention four #1s, Block Buster just misses a 30 on the K-Tel Scale, coming in with a not-too-shabby 29.75. Let's see how it's Canadian counterpart performs:
Block Buster [1976]
| K-tel Scale: |
17.10
| |||||
| Top 40 chart peaks | |||||||
| Pop | R&B | DISCO | AC | CB | WLS | ||
| Bad Blood | Neil Sedaka | 1 | 25 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Sky High | Jigsaw | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | ||
| Low Rider | War | 7 | 1 | 5 | |||
| I'm Not In Love | 10cc | 2 | 10 | 3 | 2 | ||
| The Last Game Of The Season | David Geddes | 18 | 22 | 27 | |||
| Rainbows, Pots Of Gold and Moonbeams | Studebaker Hawk | ||||||
| Saving All My Love | Charity Brown | ||||||
| Oh Mama Mama | Brutus | ||||||
| Lazy Love | New City Jam Band | ||||||
| What The Hell I've Got | Michel Pagliaro | ||||||
| Get Down Tonight | K.C. & The Sunshine Band | 1 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 1 | |
| That's The Way Of The World | Earth, Wind & Fire | 12 | 5 | 13 | |||
| I Want'a Do Something Freaky To You | Leon Haywood | 15 | 7 | 20 | |||
| Part Time Love | Gladys Knight And The Pips | 22 | 4 | 17 | 27 | ||
| Can't Give You Anything (But My Love) | The Stylistics | 18 | 13 | 34 | |||
| Anna Marie | Susan Jacks | ||||||
| Cowboys To Girls | Sweet Blindness | ||||||
| Carolina In The Pines | Michael Murphy | 21 | 4 | 23 | |||
| Every Bit Of Love | Ken Tobias | ||||||
| Black Superman (Muhammad Ali) | Johnny Wakelin & The Kinshasa Band | 21 | 22 | 9 | |||
You know how Freddie Prinze, "Chico" in Chico & the Man, always said "lookin' good"? This would not be one of the times he said it because the Canadian Block Buster variation achieves one of the lowest K-Tel Scale scores yet. A whopping nine songs failed to make the US Top 40, costing it dearly.
And how can you have an album called Block Buster without the glam-rock stomper "Blockbuster"?
That's a great compilation and I'm diggin' the 8-track pic. That Blockbuster track is sweet!
ReplyDeleteI bought the 8-track of the Canadian version in the cut-out bin at a store in Kearney, Nebraska in the early 80s. There are two songs by the exact same group on this album that are under two different names. Studebaker Hawk came out with the song "Rainbows, Pots Of Gold, and Moonbeams" and then their management makes them change their name and their sound. They became the New City Jam Band and hit in Canada with "Lazy Love".
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information, sir. Love knowing stuff like that.
DeleteSome of the uncharted Canadian hits are actually pretty good stuff. Charity Brown does a sexy soul cover of a Polly Brown song, and the Brutus (featuring Walter Zwol) song is first-rate pop. Studebaker Hawk is decent MOR and the Pagliaro selection is one of the greatest Canada-only singles.
ReplyDelete