VARIOUS ARTISTS - JON SAVAGE'S 1976 SOMETHING WAS GOING TO HAPPEN

A vinyl-only two-album set featuring the revered pop culture pundit's choice of singles from a year that culminated in the release of the first punk 45s. Here's Jon himself with the background. OK, here's the situation. The Top 10 best-selling singles of 1976 included just one banger - Abba's 'Dancing Queen' - and a variety of horrors topped by the Brotherhood Of Man ('Save Your Kisses For Me') and Elton John and Kiki Dee ('Don't Go Breaking My Heart'). At #7, after a couple of smooth US rockers, was another horror: 'Fernando' by Abba. Down a bit at #16 was perhaps the most egregious example of a bad year: the Wurzels' 'The Combine Harvester (Brand New Key)'. For this compilation, same rules as usual: singles only, roughly chronological by UK release dates. Slight liberties have been taken with Roxy Music and Buzzcocks, but both existed in some real form during 1976. As usual, around two-thirds are records I listened to at the time and that meant something to me, while the remainder I found more recently, filling in my understanding of the year. 'Shack Up' is a good example: I heard it through A Certain Ratio and found the Banbarra original in the bins shortly afterwards.

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