STARBURST [1978]

The very first K-tel post HERC wrote on HERC's Hideaway was about the fabulous Music Machine, which still occupies the penthouse suite of The K-Tel Scale Ranking Top 10 chart with the only score of 37 (or more) to date.  In that post, HERC mentioned that another one of his favorite K-tel albums was Starburst, which gets its own post here today.  With eighteen tracks spread across two records, Starburst was definitely a tastemaker album for HERC, influencing both his tastes at the time (which were largely influenced by Chicago's WLS) and continuing to inform and influence the music he listens to today.  Looking back, this was also HERC's most played K-Tel album, garnering more spins than any other.  All of the eighteen tracks were Top 20 hits with eleven going Top 10 and three of those rising to the top of the chart.  HERC is predicting at least a 30 on the K-Tel Scale based on the number of Top hits as well as crossover potential on other charts.

Starburst (1978)		K-tel Scale:				32.58
		Billboard Top 40s
		Pop	R&B	DISCO	AC	CB	WLS
Shadow Dancing	Andy Gibb	1	11		8	1	1
Hot Child in The City	Nick Gilder	1				1	1
Shame	Evelyn "Champagne" King	9	7	8		8	17
Boogie Nights	Heatwave	2	5	36		2	1
Every Kinda People	Robert Palmer	16			22	13
It's A Heartache	Bonnie Tyler	3			10	3	5
Handy Man	James Taylor	4			1	2	3
Emotion	Samantha Sang	3			5	1	1
Smoke From A Distant Fire	The Sanford-Townsend Band	9			34	9	20
Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad	Meat Loaf	11			31	9	11
My Angel Baby	Toby Beau	13			1	10	20
Too Much, Too Little, Too Late	Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams	1	1		1	2	1
I'm Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight	Atlanta Rhythm Section	14				16
Dance With Me	Peter Brown with Betty Wright	8	5	4		8	11
You And I	Rick James and the Stone City Band	13	1	3		15	13
Get Off	Foxy	9	1	18		17	6
I Can't Stand The Rain	Eruption	18		6		19
Baby Hold On	Eddie Money	11				5

A 32.58!  That's good enough to land in the Top 10 scores thus far at #8.  Those crossover hits helped, with an additional four #1s from the R&B and AC charts.  As they almost always did with their double albums, each record was individually released in 1979 as Starburst Volume 1 (TU-2650-1) and Starburst Volume 2 (TU 2650-2).  While Volume One retained the original artwork and coloring, the 2 Record Set phrase on the front cover was replaced by Volume One.  Volume Two (below) saw the title Starburst colored blue with Volume Two appearing where 2 Record Set had been on the original.

Listen to the Spotify playlist below to hear most of the songs from Starburst.

"My Angel Baby" is not currently available on Spotify

If you were paying super close attention while watching the commercial above, you probably caught on that it is for the Canadian version of Starburst.  As you can see from the K-Tel Scale scorecard below, there are a few Canadian songs that failed to crossover to the US charts.  And below the scorecard is a Bonus Playlist featuring 24 of the songs from both the Canadian and US versions of Starburst in one playlist.

Starburst (1978) CAN		K-tel Scale:				28.26
		Billboard Top 40s
		Pop	R&B	DISCO	AC	CB	WLS
Shadow Dancing	Andy Gibb	1	11		8	1	1
If I Can't Have You	Yvonne Elliman	1			9	1	9
You And I	Rick James and the Stone City Band	13	1	3		15	13
Take Me Away	Prism
Baby Hold On	Eddie Money	11				5
(Love Is) Thicker Than Water	Andy Gibb	1			18	1	2
All I Wanna Do	Doucette
I'm Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight	Atlanta Rhythm Section	14				16
Arms Of Mary	Chilliwack
It's A Heartache	Bonnie Tyler	3			10	3	5
Handy Man	James Taylor	4			1	2	3
After The Lovin'	Engelbert Humperdinck	8			1	5	6
Every Kinda People	Robert Palmer	16			22	13
Too Much, Too Little, Too Late	Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams	1	1		1	2	1
Dance With Me	Peter Brown with Betty Wright	8	5	4		8	11
Shame	Evelyn "Champagne" King	9	7	8		8	17
The Groove Line	Heatwave	7	3			10	6
Use Ta Be My Girl	The O'Jays	4	1		21	5	8