I hide in my music: 10 Essential Albums of 1976

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on June 27, 2026)

Forget America 250-I think I’m having a Bicentennial Minute:

Okay, that was only 30 seconds…here’s a Bicentennial Minute:

And that’s the way it was, back in 1976. America celebrated its 200th birthday, a couple of scruffy-looking nerds named Steve founded Apple Computer, the unmanned Viking 1 landed on Mars, a peanut farmer named Jimmy beat incumbent Gerald Ford for the presidency, Rocky was the top-grossing film, Happy Days was the TV ratings winner, and Billboard’s #1 song of the year was:

Of course, there was a lot more going on with music outside of the sales-driven pop charts; arena rock was at its zenith, disco and funk were fighting for the lead in the clubs, and the burgeoning punk scenes in New York and London were threatening to tear it all down.

Hard to believe that was 50 flippin’ years ago. So it goes.

Here are my top 10 album picks of 1976, with an additional 10 appended (to temper the hate mail that I’m going to get anyway).

And just remember kids…it’s only rock ‘n’ roll.

Boston – Boston

I remember the first time I heard Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” wafting from my car radio. Nighttime, miles from nowhere. I was driving my 1976 Subaru DL sedan (paid for in cash with Alaska pipeline loot) from upstate New York to Fairbanks (it’s a long-ass drive). Those fat power chords, soaring lead vocals and precise harmonies shot straight through my Nucleus Accumbens and lit my 20 year-old Amygdala up like a Christmas tree. And that was just the first single from a debut that turned out to be pretty, pretty good overall.

Choice cuts: “More Than a Feeling”, “Foreplay/Long Time”, “Hitch a Ride”, “Smokin'”.

Frampton Comes Alive! – Peter Frampton

I’m convinced that there was a law on the books in the late 70s that required every record collector to own a copy, regardless of whether or not they actually were an avid Peter Frampton fan. Personally, I’ve never begrudged the success of this 2-LP set (8x Platinum sales in the U.S.), because I happen to think he is one of the guitar greats, and have been a fan since his Humble Pie days. Granted, some cuts have been run into the ground by classic rock radio, but Frampton Comes Alive! remains one of the best live albums of all time.

Choice cuts: “Show Me the Way”, “It’s a Plain Shame”, “All I Want to Be (Is by Your Side)”, “Wind of Change”, “Shine On”, “Do You Feel Like We Do”.

Private Eyes – Tommy Bolin

Although his recorded legacy spans less than a decade, guitarist-songwriter Tommy Bolin’s place in the rock pantheon is assured. Between 1968 and his untimely death at 25 in 1976, he co-founded the Colorado-based hard rock band Zephyr, played sessions on seminal jazz-fusion albums by Billy Cobham (Spectrum) and Alphonse Mouzon (Mind Transplant), and was a full-fledged member of The James Gang (Bang, Miami) and Deep Purple (Come Taste the Band).

Private Eyes was Bolin’s followup to his excellent first solo album Teaser (released the previous year). A strong set of songs, showcasing Bolin’s eclectic guitar chops (incorporating samba, reggae, country, jazz, fusion and hard rock) and his distinctive vocal phrasing. Sadly, just 3 months after Private Eyes was released Bolin died of a drug overdose, following a concert where he opened forJeff Beck (Beck once credited Bolin’s playing on Billy Cobham’s Spectrum album as the inspiration for his own foray into fusion). Gone too soon.

Choice cuts: “Sweet Burgundy”, “Post Toastee”, “Shake the Devil”, “Gypsy Soul”, “You Told Me That You Loved Me”.

Quantum Jump – Quantum Jump

This genre-defying debut didn’t make a huge splash, but is chock full of memorable tunes. Fronted by vocalist-keyboardist Rupert Hine (who composed the bulk of the music with lyricist David MacIver), it’s a unique fusion of funk, jazz, rock and prog, with tight arrangements and top-flight production. MacIver’s playful and enigmatic lyrics recall Steely Dan. Hine (who died in 2020) went on to release a number of solo albums; he also composed TV and movie soundtracks and became an in-demand studio producer (Tina Turner, Rush, Howard Jones, Suzanne Vega, Thompson Twins, et.al.).

Choice cuts: “The Lone Ranger”, “No American Starship”, “Over Rio”, “Alta Loma Road”.

Shake Some Action – The Flamin’ Groovies

While they started out as a proto-punk garage band, this San Francisco outfit made a profound transformation after they traveled across the pond to Wales in 1972 to work with producer Dave Edmunds (two songs from those 1972 sessions ended up on Shake Some Action, the remainder of which wasn’t recorded until 1976, with additional production by Greg Shaw). The result was an album power pop aficionados consider the gold standard. Nary a weak cut.

Choice cuts: “Shake Some Action”, “Yes, It’s True”, “You Tore Me Down”, “Please Please Girl”, “I’ll Cry Alone”.

Smile – Laura Nyro

One of the great American songwriters, Laura Nyro remains underappreciated as a recording artist. Granted, to the public at large her most well-known compositions will always be associated with the artists who made them hits (e.g. “Wedding Bell Blues”, “Save the Country”, and “Stoned Soul Picnic” by the Fifth Dimension, “And When I Die” by Blood, Sweat, & Tears, “Eli’s Coming” by Three Dog Night, “Stoney End”, “Flim-Flam Man”, and “Time and Love” by Barbara Streisand), but she has been cited as an inspiration by the likes of Carole King, Todd Rundgren, Joni Mitchell, and Elton John.

Smile marked a second wind of sorts for Nyro, who had taken a 4-year breather from the music business. Many of the songs have a relaxed, warm jazzy-pop vibe, some are more textural, with quiet interludes that incorporate traditional Asian instrumentation (reminiscent of Jade Warrior). Nyro’s vocals are heavenly throughout.

Choice Cuts: “Children of the Junks”, “Money”, “Midnite Blue”, “Stormy Love”, “Smile (With Mars at the End)”.

The Ramones – The Ramones

“Hey ho, let’s go!” …and we’re off to the races. Recorded in a week, The Ramones’ debut crams 14 songs into 29 minutes, which was indicative of the brief yet brain-rattling sets the band had been performing in New York clubs like CBGB and Max’s Kansas City (get in and get out before the audience knows what hit ’em). Not unlike AC/DC, the band came steamrolling out of the gate with their formula, ignored trends and held fast until the rest of the world caught up with them. The album only sold around 6,000 units in its first year of release (!) but eventually reached gold status in 2014. However, the influence of this album cannot be overstated. Two words: Punk rock.

Choice cuts: “Blitzkrieg Bop”, “Beat on the Brat”, “Judy is a Punk”, “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”, “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue”, “Let’s Dance”.

The Runaways – The Runaways

This may be tough to fathom now, but the idea of an all-female rock band, who actually played their own instruments and wrote their own songs, was still considered a “novelty” in the mid-70s. In 1975, a music industry hustler and self-proclaimed idol-maker named Kim Fowley had an epiphany. If he could assemble an all-female rock band with the ability to capture the appeal of The Beatles by way of the sexy tomboy ethos of glam-punk queen Suzi Quatro, he could conquer the charts and make a bazillion dollars.

Ladies and gentlemen…the fabulous Runaways.

Depending on which camp is doing the talking in any tell-all book you may read or documentary you might watch, it was either due to, or in spite of, Fowley’s dubious manipulations that Cherie Currie (lead singer), Joan Jett (guitar and vocals), Sandy West (drums), Lita Ford (lead guitar) and bass player Jackie Fox (and her eventual replacement Vicki Blue) did make quite a name for themselves, and high-kicked a breach in rock ’n’ roll’s glass ceiling with those platform boots, empowering a generation of young women to plug in and crank it to “11”. Their 1976 debut album has held up quite well.

Choice cuts: “Cherry Bomb”, “You Drive Me Wild”, “Rock and Roll”, “American Nights”.

Year of the Cat – Al Stewart

Fun fact: The wispy-voiced troubadour who sang about “strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre” once took guitar lessons from King Crimson founder Robert Fripp. OK, they were teenagers at the time, and were destined to go off in very different musical directions…but that happened. Stewart toyed with different genres early in his career, eventually settling on the London folk club scene in the mid-60s as a solo artist.

By the time he released The Year of the Cat (his seventh album) he had developed a more sophisticated hybrid of folk, soft rock, and light orchestral prog. While I wouldn’t call it a “concept album”, every song tells a story (it’s very cinematic, like an omnibus of character studies). Beautifully produced and arranged by Alan Parsons.

Choice cuts: “Lord Grenville”, “On the Border”, “Broadway Hotel”, “One Stage Before”, “Year of the Cat”.

Third World – Third World

While they wouldn’t fully find their voice until their outstanding 1977 followup 96 Degrees in the Shade, this is still a strong debut from this innovative reggae outfit, who seamlessly incorporated hard funk, sweet soul, smooth jazz and world beat into their sound (recalling similar cross-genre bands like War and Osibisa). I had the pleasure of catching them in 1980 at The Old Waldorf in San Francisco; it was one of the best live shows I’ve ever attended.

Choice cuts: “Satta Massagana”, “Slavery Days”, “Brand New Beggar”, “Got to Get Along”, “Sun Won’t Shine”