THE HOT ONES [1978]

By popular demand, HERC is proud to present K-tel's The Hot Ones!  From 1978, this double-album set has eighteen Top 40 hits, including eight Top 10s.  Three of the songs are from the previous year's Saturday Night Fever soundtrack album.  His five favorite songs from The Hot Ones are:

• "If I Can't Have You" - Yvonne Elliman
• "Flashlight" - Parliament
• "Disco Inferno" - The Trammps
• "Best Of My Love" - The Emotions
• "Thunder Island" - Jay Ferguson

The Hot Ones is one record of Adult Contemporary crossovers and the second record is made up of R&B and Disco crossovers, more or less.  HERC didn't pick this album up until 1985 but it was still sealed and mixed in with the other new albums at a going out of business Gemco department store.  

HERC's favorite record to listen to in the set was the second one, hands down.  On the rare occasion he'd play record one, he would get to the opening notes of the third song before lifting the needle and putting record two on.  HERC never ever liked The Golden Girls or their appropriated theme song.  Let's run The Hot Ones through the K-Tel Scale and see what happens.

The Hot Ones (1978)		K-tel Scale:				26.71
		Billboard Top 40s
		Pop	R&B	DISCO	AC	CB	WLS
If I Can't Have You	Yvonne Elliman	1			9	1	9
Imaginary Lover	Atlanta Rhythm Section	7			20	9	9
Thank You For Being A Friend	Andrew Gold	25			15	11	30
We Just Disagree	Dave Mason	12			19	15	25
Sometimes When We Touch	Dan Hill	3			10	4	6
We'll Never Have To Say Goodbye Again	England Dan & John Ford Coley	9			1	14	28
Before My Heart Finds Out	Gene Cotton	23			3	16
Living Next Door To Alice	Smokie	25			24	18
This Time I'm In It For Love	Player	10			20	13
The Name Of The Game	ABBA	12			9	16
Boogie Shoes	KC & the Sunshine Band	35	29			33
Let's All Chant	Michael Zager Band	36	15	1		25
Flashlight	Parliament	16	1			15	3
Disco Inferno	The Trammps	11	9	1		8	23
Best Of My Love	The Emotions	1	1	11		1	1
It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me	Barry White	4	1	5		7	17
Don't Worry Baby*	B.J. Thomas	17			2	13	19
Thunder Island	Jay Ferguson	9				6	14

HERC totally called it on the composition of the two records. The score is disappointing but expected and even swapping out the Billboard and Cashbox chart positions wouldn't have yielded much better results.  As they had done with nearly every other double disc album they put out,  K-Tel issued each record under separate cover, as The Hot Ones Vol. 1 and The Hot Ones Vol. 2.   

US

Canada

There was a Canadian version released earlier than its American counterpart -  the copyright date is 1977.  What stands out aboot this Canadian version of The Hot Ones is the lack of overlap with the tracklisting of the US album; there are only four songs in common between the two albums and the Canadian arm of K-Tel even tosses in a nineteenth track.

The Hot Ones (1978) CAN		K-tel Scale:				16.88
		Billboard Top 40s
		Pop	R&B	DISCO	AC	CB	WLS
Just The Way You Are	Billy Joel	3			1	2	2
Imaginary Lover	Atlanta Rhythm Section	7			20	9	9
Don't Worry Baby	B.J. Thomas	17			2	13	19
I'm Gonna Take Care Of Everything	Rubicon	28				31
Boogie Shoes	KC & the Sunshine Band	35	29			33
Margaritaville	Jimmy Buffett	8			1	7	8
Lady Love	Lou Rawls	24			5	20	19
Before My Heart Finds Out	Gene Cotton	23			3	16
Coming Home	Ian Thomas Band
I Just Want To Be Your Everything	Andy Gibb	1	19		8	1	1
Rock 'N Roll Is A Vicious Game	April Wine
What Would My Mama Say	Toulouse
I Need Somebody Tonight	Fosterchild
Sweet Misery	Teaze
I Can't Stand The Rain	Eruption	18		6		19
Baby Come Back	Player	1	10		20	1	4
Heaven On The 7th Floor	Paul Nicholas	6			23	5	4
Serene Serene	Greg Adams
Stay Awhile With Me	Patsy Gallant