Sex Pistols chart with “Anarchy in the U.K.”

Anarchy in the U.K. The Sex Pistols

Writer(s): Paul Cook, Steve Jones, John Lydon, Glen Matlock (see lyrics here) Released: November 26, 1976 First Charted: November 27, 1976 Peak: 33 UK, 1 CL, 1 CO, 5 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.2 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 27.04 video, 82.03 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: During the mid-‘70s, a stagnant economy, labor strikes, and the “perpetually drizzly weather that has always afflicted the country” TB contributed to general dissatisfaction amongst British youth and “things seemed to assume a permanent greyness.” TB The Sex Pistols “contempt for their dreary culture and moribund music scene” TB put them at the forefront of the British punk scene. Then band had generated buzz with their live shows and “the groundswell that was clearly building..for snotty, amateurish rock bands.” TC EMI signed the band and their first single, “Anarchy in the U.K.,” as released in late 1976. It is “what the beginning of a revolution sounds like.” RS500 Its “wit and anger make it the great political protest song of our times.” MC It certainly generated controversy – British radio banned it and EMI “pulled the single and dropped the band, which just made them more notorious. ‘I don’t understand it,’ Rotten said in 1977. ‘All we’re trying to do is destroy everything.’” RS500 The Sex Pistols “were not only sincere in their desire to make rock that smashed rock, but…they were absolutely equal to the task.” MA They “essentially…reinforced what the garage bands of the ‘60s had demonstrated – you don’t need technique to make rock & roll.” TC Actually, though, while “Anarchy” certainly displayed combative lyrics by opening with “I am an anti-Christ” and ending with “Destroy!” it was otherwise “comparatively familiar, highly competent hard-rock.” TB Steve “Jones made his guitar sound like a pub brawl, while [Johnny] Rotten snarled, spat, [and] snickered” RS500 with an “evil cackle.” RS500 This is a band, which despite its reputation for not being able to play, “understood perfectly how to make rock and roll effects in the recording studio.” MA Resources: TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Page 735. MA Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New York, NY; New American Library. Pages 72-3. MC Neil McCormack (3/13/09). Telegraph.co.uk “100 Greatest Songs of All Time” RS500 Rolling Stone (4/7/2011). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 165. WK Wikipedia PW Paul Williams (1993). Rock and Roll: The Best 100 Singles. New York, NY: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc. Page 168. Related Links: First posted 4/9/2020; last updated 10/2/2022.

 

Kansas “Carry on Wayward Son” released

Carry on Wayward Son Kansas

Writer(s): Kerry Livgren (see lyrics here) Released: November 23, 1976 First Charted: December 11, 1976 Peak: 11 US, 7 CB, 6 GR, 8 HR, 5 RR, 1 CL, 51 UK, 5 CN, 58 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 0.4 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 259.14 video, 459.32 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “The now-familiar a cappella intro for ‘Carry on Wayward Son’ was the sonic hook that would help Kansas score their first major hit, a feat that was a long time coming for the band. Like many groups in the time period, Kansas toured and recorded relentlessly, supporting three albums that sold modestly despite their growing live following.” UCR Steve Walsh, the band’s singer, ran into writer’s block while the band was working on their fourth album, 1976’s Leftoverture. However, guitarist Kerry Livgren shared a song he wrote just two days before the band started recording. SF The band was polishing songs they already had and not looking for new ones. When they heard Livgren’s idea for “Carry on Wayward Son,” “they knew the songwriting gold that they had on hand and went straight into the recording studio without even pausing to rehearse the track.” UCR It became the album’s lead track and the group’s first top-40 hit. The song is about “a man embattled with the voices and visions in his head.” UCR Livgren said it was “partially about himself and the struggles and pressures he was facing at the time when the band's career was on the line.” SF While the song “expresses spiritual searching,” SF Livgren said it “was not written to express anything specifically religious.” SF He did, however, become an evangelical Christian in 1980. SF The song is notable for its “very distinctive intro” SF with a cappella vocals. It “is driven forward by guitar riffing, organ swells and solos from nearly every member in the band.” UCR Even though the song ran nearly five and a half minutes, it felt “comparatively restrained” UCR “next to some of the proggier moments on Leftoverture.” UCR Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Kansas SF Songfacts UCR UltimateClassicRock.com (6/20/2013). “Top 100 Classic Rock Songs” WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 7/15/2022; last updated 12/28/2022.

Joni Mitchell Hejira released

Hejira Joni Mitchell

Released: November 21, 1976 Peak: 13 US, 11 UK, 22 CN, 38 AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 0.50 US, -- UK, 0.54 world (includes US and UK) Genre: folk

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Coyote [5:01] (1/77, --) Amelia [6:01] Furry Sings the Blues [5:07] A Strange Boy [4:15] Hejira [6:42] Song for Sharon [8:40] Black Crow [4:22] Blue Motel Room [5:04] Refuge of the Roads [6:42] All songs written by Joni Mitchell. Total Running Time: 24:48

Rating: 3.716 out of 5.00 (average of 21 ratings) Quotable: “With its vivid imagery, poetic scope, and emotional insight, Hejira stands as a perfect melding of instrumental virtuosity and confessional storytelling.” – Robert Dimery (editor), 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

The Birth and Legacy of Hejira “In 1976, after spending years in the limelight, singing and playing hippie-friendly anthems like ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ and ‘The Circle Game’ for people who came of age in the ‘60s, Joni Mitchell needed time off to reflect and reassess.” PM “After redefining the possibilities of singer-songwriter music in the early 1970s, Mitchell set herself an even more ambitious challenge with Hejira.” 500 She drove “across America by herself, and the time away gave birth to the songs on Hejira.” PM “The name stems from the prophet Muhammad’s journey of exile from Mecca to Medina.” RD The word “hejira” loosely translates to “traveler” in Arabic. PM “Getting to the point where she could make an album this singularly brilliant might have been a lonely enterprise, but it was worth it for the rest of us.” 500 “With its vivid imagery, poetic scope, and emotional insight, Hejira stands as a perfect melding of instrumental virtuosity and confessional storytelling.” RD The album “is the last in an astonishingly long run of top-notch studio albums dating back to her debut.” AM “This excellent album is a rewarding listen.” AM “Many…consider it the finest album in her discography.” PM The Writing She “expressed a new depth and maturity in her lyrics that perfectly fused with the challenging new music she was composing.” PM “Setting her restless-soul visions to slippery instrumentals…she weighed the costs of dedicating her life to fearless self-expression where others might have settled for mere happiness.” 500 “None of these cuts are traditionally tuneful in the manner of Mitchell’s older folk efforts; the effect here is one of subtle rolls and ridges on a green meadow rather than the outgoing beauty of a flower garden” AM or “travelogues of despair and illumination.” PM This “is the only Mitchell album on which every tune is written on and for the guitar.” RD “Mitchell’s guitar-playing that had previously comprised of little more than folk strumming attained a mastery of expressing, phrasing and tone that has lost none of its power or innovation with the passage of time. Rhythmically complex, daring and beautiful.” PM Jazz Meets Folk Joni “had the nerve to follow her muse into a smoky, jazz-drenched dive, a journey that led to her most supple and graceful album.” RD “Supported by a stellar who’s who of modern jazz musicians including Jaco Pastorius, Tom Scott and Larry Carlton,” PM this is “her ultimate jazz-folk statement.” 500 It is “the most overtly jazz-oriented of her career up to this point – hip and cool, but never smug or icy.” AM “While Pastorius’ genius fully flowered in the fusion supergroup Weather Report, he never played more beautifully than in the confines of a stripped down, tightly constructed five-minute Mitchell epic…His supple melodic lines serve as a burnishing counterpoint to her increasingly rich soprano.” RD The Songs “Coyote is a fast guitar-strummed number that has precedents as far back as Clouds’ ‘Chelsea Morning.’” AM That song, Black Crow, and the title track are “ energetically restless fast-tempo selections.” AM “Arrangements are sparse, yet surprisingly varied, the most striking of which is the kaleidoscopically pointillistic one used on Amelia.” AM The song “traces an arc of romantic discovery with references to previous tunes ‘Woodstock,’ ‘Both Sides Now,’ and ‘Cactus Tree.’” RD “Mitchell’s verses, many concerned with character portraits, are among the most polished of her career” AM such as “the decrepit Delta crooner of Furry Sings the Blues.” AM Song for Sharon “utilizes the static, pithy vocal harmonies from Ladies of the Canyon’s ‘Woodstock.’” AM “The ambivalent speaker…has difficulty choosing between commitment and freedom.” AM . Blue Motel Room in particular is a prototypic slow jazz-club combo number, appropriately smooth, smoky, and languorous.” AM “Refuge of the Roads features woodwind touches reminiscent of those in ‘Barangrill’ from For the Roses.” AM

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by David Cleary RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 357. PM PasteMagazine.com (6/3/2024). “The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time” 500 Rolling Stone (2020). 500 Greatest Albums of All Time WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 4/8/2008; last updated 10/15/2026.

Nov. 19, 1976: studio album of Evita released

First posted November 14, 2010. Last updated September 4, 2018.

Evita (studio/cast/soundtrack) Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice (composers)

Studio Album Released: Nov. 19, 1976 First Stage Production: June 21, 1978 Soundtrack Released: Nov. 12, 1996 Sales (in millions): US: 1.0 C, 5.0 S UK: 0.3 SR, 0.6 S IFPI: 2.0 S World (estimated): 1.3 C, 18.0 S Peak: US: 105 C, 2 S UK: 4 SR, 11-S Canada: -- Australia: -- SR Studio Album C Cast Album S Soundtrack

Quotable: --

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Genre: show tunes

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Album Tracks – Studio/Cast Album:

1. Cinema in Buenos Aires, 26 July 1952
2. Requiem for Evita / Oh What a Circus
3. On This Night of a Thousand Stars / Eva and Magaldi / Eva Beware of the City
4. Buenos Aires
5. Goodnight and Thank You
6. The Lady's Got Potential **
7. Charity Concert / I’d Be Surprisingly Good for You
8. Another Suitcase in Another Hall
9. Dangerous Jade *
10. A New Argentina
11. On the Balcony of the Casa Rosada / Don’t Cry for Me Argentina
12. High Flying, Adored
13. Rainbow High
14. Rainbow Tour
15. The Actress Hasn’t Learned the Lines (You’d Like to Hear)
16. And the Money Kept Rolling (In and Out)
17. Santa Evita
18. Waltz for Eva and Che
19. She Is a Diamond
20. Dice Are Rolling * / Eva’s Sonnet *
21. Eva’s Final Broadcast
22. Montage *
23. Lament

* Unique to cast album
** Unique to studio album

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Album Tracks – Soundtrack:

Disc 1:

1. Cinema in Buenos Aires, 26 July 1952
2. Requiem for Evita
3. Oh What a Circus (ANTONIO BANDERAS / MADONNA)
4. On This Night of a Thousand Stars (JIMMY NAIL)
5. Eva and Magaldi / Eva Beware of the City (MADONNA / JIMMY NAIL / ANTONIO BANDERAS)
6. Buenos Aires (MADONNA)
7. Another Suitcase in Another Hall (MADONNA)
8. Goodnight and Thank You (MADONNA / ANTONIO BANDERAS)
9. The Lady's Got Potential (ANTONIO BANDERAS)
10. Charity Concert / The Art of the Possible (MADONNA / JIMMY NAIL / ANTONIO BANDERAS) **
11. I’d Be Surprisingly Good for You (MADONNA / JONATHAN PRYCE)
12. Hello and Goodbye (MADONNA / JONATHAN PRYCE / ANDREA CORR) **
13. Peron’s Latest Flame (MADONNA / ANTONIO BANDERAS) **
14. A New Argentina (MADONNA / ANTONIO BANDERAS / JONATHAN PRYCE)

Disc 2:

1. On the Balcony of the Casa Rosada 1 (JONATHAN PRYCE)
2. Don’t Cry for Me Argentina (MADONNA)
3. On the Balcony of the Casa Rosada 2 (MADONNA) **
4. High Flying, Adored (ANTONIO BANDERAS / MADONNA)
5. Rainbow High (MADONNA)
6. Rainbow Tour (ANTONIO BANDERAS / GARY BROOKER / MADONNA)
7. The Actress Hasn’t Learned the Lines (You’d Like to Hear) (MADONNA / ANTONIO BANDERAS)
8. And the Money Kept Rolling (In and Out) (ANTONIO BANDERAS)
9. Partido Feminista (MADONNA) **
10. She Is a Diamond (JONATHAN PRYCE)
11. Santa Evita
12. Waltz for Eva and Che (MADONNA / ANTONIO BANDERAS)
13. Your Little Body Is Slowly Breaking Down (MADONNA / JONATHAN PRYCE) **
14. You Must Love Me (MADONNA) **
15. Eva’s Final Broadcast (MADONNA)
16. Latin Chant **
17. Lament (MADONNA / ANTONIO BANDERAS)

** Unique to soundtrack.

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Singles/Hit Songs:

• Don’t Cry for Me Argentina (JULIE COVINGTON) ^c (11/12/76) #1 UK
• Another Suitcase in Another Hall (BARBARA DICKSON) ^c (2/7/77) #18 UK
• Don’t Cry for Me Argentina (SHADOWS) ^c (12/78) #5 UK
• You Must Love Me ^s (11/2/96) #18 US, #10 UK, #15 AC, gold single
• Don’t Cry for Me Argentina (MADONNA) ^s (12/28/96) #8 US, #3 UK, #21 AC
• Another Suitcase in Another Hall (MADONNA) ^s (3/29/97) #7 UK

Click here for the chart codes for singles/hit songs.

Review: Like they had with Jesus Christ Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber presented Evita first as a studio album and then developed it into a stage production. It wasn’t a monstrous hit in the U.S. like the studio version of Superstar had been, but in the UK, it spawned a #1 hit with Don’t Cry for Me Argentina and a top 20 hit with Another Suitcase in Another Hall. R-C For the opera based on the real-life Eva Peron, Webber “naturally drew upon Latin themes, at least of an ersatz sort (On This Night of a Thousand Stars aped Pérez Prado’s 1955 hit ‘Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White’), to add to his taste in pop/rock and affection for Puccini.” R-C For his part, Rice “had a big, rich story to tell about a social-climbing peasant who achieves the highest rungs of power, only to succumb to early death.” R-C He used “the fictional Che (based on Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara), to challenge Evita’s ruthlessness. The subject matter attracted the criticism that it glamorized a fascist, but Rice’s very point was to present a cautionary tale about the deceptive appeal of such a person.” R-C “The choice of Julie Covington, who could negotiate the musical range of the title role and sing without warmth, was perfect; no stage successor matched her willingness to make Evita unsympathetic C.T. (Colm) Wilkinson's Che was her match, and the rest of the cast sang effectively.” R-C Twenty years later, Madonna took the lead in the film version. She gambled on it establishing her “as a proper movie star and respected actress.” R-S She “gives a startlingly accomplished and nuanced performance,” R-S but it “is impossible to listen to her without getting the impression that she is trying really hard to be credible.” R-S As such, the soundtrack “remains curiously unengaging,” R-S although it is “an exquisitely produced and expertly rendered” R-S “audio document of the entire film, since there is no dialogue in the movie.” R-S “Even with the faults, Evita has its merits, including the written-for-film ballad You Must Love Me, and is worth investigating. It just isn't the definitive work that it wishes to be.” R-S Review Sources: R-C William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide (cast album) R-S William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide (soundtrack)

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Awards:

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Related DMDB Link(s):

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