Cheap Entertainment Weekly: The Greatest Hits 1978 (Music) (Various Artists) Price

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Customer Reviews of Entertainment Weekly: The Greatest Hits 1978

And the hits had just stopped coming in the year 1978
If all I knew about American music from the end of the 1970s came from these "Entertainment Weekly" collections I would be inclined to think that this was a low point in the history of American music. For whatever reason (I have to think it has something to do with contracts that prohibit a lot of groups from having their songs included in collections like this one) the pickings are slim for "Entertainment Weekly: The Greatest Hits 1978," just as they were for the previous year. It was not until the final three tracks, with "Because the Night" by the Patti Smith Group, Jefferson Starship's "Count on Me" and Boston's "Don't Look Back" that we finally got to groups, albums, and songs that I already owned.

Before that it was a lengthy list of song I do not have and do not want, unless it would be to go back and have the original Fleetwood Mac's original version of "Sentimental Lady." Player's "Baby Come Back" is probably the most familiar of the rest, but for the most part I am sitting here trying to remember Evelyn "Champagne" King, a Taste of Honey, and Nick Gilder. But then in 1978 I was in graduate school and seriously into FM radio like all college students are supposed to be. Plus I was working which meant I could buy any album I wanted (and even then I know that Boston was the only album from this group I had; the rest I held off on until they were available on CDs). Maybe you were in high school during this period and these songs are more meaningful to you, but this collection does not even hold a candle to what was out there in the first half of the decade, even limited to what is available on these "EW" collections.

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Reflective of it's time, I guess
Mediocrity was pretty much the order of the day on the singles chart in 1978, and this collection pretty much reflects such. Raydio's "Jack and Jill," and A Taste of Honey's "Boogie Ooggie Ooggie" are the only flat out stinkers here and at the other end of the spectrum Patti Smith's "Because the Night" is the only ture gem. Nothing else here is essential, although both Paul Davis's "I Go Crazy," and Bob Welch's "Sentimental Lady" add a little pleasant counterweight to this otherwise disco heavy collection. Missing from this disc are "Just What I Needed" and "My Best Friend's Girl" from The Cars, and Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" which spent 6 weeks peaking at #2 in the summer of 1978.

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Good stuff, but the track listing above is wrong!
If you were alive, young and in love back in '78(as I was), all these AM radio hits will bring back memories of a wonderful time. All the Entertainment Weekly Greatest Hits releases have been solid. They could squeeze on another song or two, of course. (There's 12 on this disc.) "Baker Street" would have been especially nice, from the summer of '78! WARNING! "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow is listed above, but is NOT included on the disc!!! Looks like they replaced it with "Sentimental Lady" by Bob Welch. So if you want "Copa" look elsewhere. Otherwise, it's a fine "Greatest Hits" release!