Sounds on Sunday: 50 years ago – 1976-11

FIFTY YEARS AGO we were humming along to the hits of 1976. Some have magnificently stood the test of time; others have not. Join us on Memory Lane as we review them on their golden anniversaries.

The Real Thing stayed at number one for three weeks with You to Me Are Everything (see SOS 11). This gives us a chance to wander off the top spot and look at a song which “only” made number two in the charts – Wings, with Silly Love Songs.

It’s not often that a singer or band that we were listening to in 1976 is still making new music today – but it’s true in this case. Fifty years ago, we were listening to Paul McCartney – and we are still listening to him today.

Wings was the band McCartney set up after the Beatles broke up, and it had a consistent chart presence. It also had what was probably more than a fair share of criticism. The main gripe was that McCartney on his own or with the new band wasn’t as good as McCartney in the Beatles – and it usually came from music journalists who hadn’t written as much as a rhyme on a Valentine’s card.

This song turns the tables, as McCartney defends his right to sing “silly love songs” by writing… Silly Love Songs. 10cc had released Silly Love two years before, and that is probably the better song on the theme, but the Wings number is none the worse for being simple and straightforward.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the “songs called silly” debate, Wings was very much part of the soundscape 50 years ago. And this number two single may not be a Beatles classic, but it is a better listen that many releases that reached the top position. Give it a try.

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