So my (then) 10yo daughter and I were driving back from soccer practice and the song “Dream Weaver” comes on the air. And, let’s just say that she was not pleased…
“OMG, Daddy, this is horrible! What is this? Who listens to this? What is wrong with you people! What’s the name of this song??”
“Dream Weaver”
“OMG, it’s the worst song ever. I can’t even believe they play it on the radio! ‘Dream Weaver’ sucks! I know I’m not supposed to say that, but ‘Dream Weaver’ sucks! I hate this, turn it off, turn it off!”
“Naw, Sophia, it’s a classic. Perhaps one of the greatest hits from the greatest decade of music, the 1970s!”
“Turn it off, turn it off! I hate this song and anything ‘Dream Weaver’! Please, Daddy, just turn it off, OK?!?”
I’m laughing, hard… Sophia can be pretty funny and that night she was in good form.
So we pull into the driveway, open the garage door, and right there is her bike, a Razor “Dream Weaver” model.
She just freakin’ lost it.
Good times.
So that’s why I voted for the song “Dream Weaver”. Otherwise, I would have voted for “Right Back Where We Started From” which is catchy as all hell and doesn’t suffer from pretentiousness, unlike a certain song that’s running away with this year’s voting.
Although none of the songs showed up on this survey, !976 saw the release of the Eagles Hotel California album that included hits such as “New Kid in Town”, “Life in the Fast Lane” and the title track. The Ramones also put out their first album this year. Although the album didn’t produce any hits, it did have an influence on the Punk music scene at the time.
For those of you that look at this survey and say that 1976 sucked music-wise, please remember that there was some good music still being produced. as indicated by the two albums above.
Now I’m sure that there are some of you out there that think both Hotel California and The Ramones sucked and that’s fine.
Since Bohemian Rhapsody has consistently been voted the best pop song of all time (at least in the UK - maybe not in the US, since it seems it didn’t even make #1 on its original release), it was always going to walk a “best of the rest in 1976” poll. But I also really like Love Hurts and All By Myself. You Sexy Thing is decent as well.
It made #9 in its initial release - IIRC, the single was edited and cut out chunks of the song for airtime, which may have stopped it from doing better. It was reissued in 1992 after the iconic scene in Wayne’s World thrust it back into public consciousness, and peaked at #2 then.