Sounds on Sunday: 50 years ago – 1976-18

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.

Yes, Elton John and Kiki Dee are still in negotiations over breaking hearts at number one – and there’s little of interest in the second chart slot over the year. We need to look elsewhere for this week’s Sounds.

We’ve decided to share Madonna’s Holiday. Today – Sunday, 16th August – is Madonna’s 68th birthday, and she issued her 15th studio album in June 2026– bookmarking this year’s summer holidays. Holiday didn’t come out until 1983, so we are very much thematically linked rather than date linked today. Please bear with us.

Holiday appeared on Madonna’s self-titled first album, having done the rounds of several artists before it was offered to her. It’s a catchy number, with easy lyrics, and it topped the US Billboard Chart. It was a top ten hit in many countries, and was in and out of the UK charts, reaching the top five in 1985.

It’s hard to remember what a huge force of nature Madonna was in the late 1980s and 90s. She was Girl Power before the Spice Girls. She was a style icon. She refused to be pigeon-holed: the press struggled and then came up with “she is so good at re-inventing herself”. Inevitably, when you are avant garde, sometimes you mess up. Some of her material provoked debate: is this a liberated woman or just clickbait – or even pornography?

Madonna is one of the world’s oldest working pop stars – still singing Holiday in her concerts today. Cliff Richard, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger are still performing in their 80s. The press veers from indulging them to calling them “national treasures”. Madonna, however, tends to win less praise. It’s more astonishment: she’s still singing, dancing? Yes, she is – 44 years after her first single. Girl power.

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