Best Songs of 1977

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify and Apple Music. Sadly all 100 tracks aren't available, but you get the general idea. Track notes to come eventually or maybe never.

Show Grid

Like a Hurricane

Neil Young

American Stars ’N Bars

Reprise
via TK library: 7/6/2011

Notes
“Heroes”

David Bowie

“Heroes”

RCA
via TK library: 2/8/2016

Notes
Lust for Life

Iggy Pop

Lust for Life

RCA
via TK library: 12/31/2010

Notes
Anarchy in the U.K.

Sex Pistols

Nevermind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols

Warner Bros.
via TK library: 7/2/2011

Notes
(I’m) Stranded

The Saints

(I’m) Stranded

Sire
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
Career Opportunities

The Clash

The Clash

Epic
via TK library: 1/8/2011

U.K. version
In the City

The Jam

In the City

Polydor
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
Fall Out

The Police

Fallout / Nothing Achieving

A&M
via past experience library: 12/1/2003 (12/25/1994)

UK release
You’re No Fun

The Scruffs

“Wanna’ Meet the Scruffs?”

Power Play
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
Let It Go, Let It Flow

Dave Mason

Let It Flow

Columbia
via TK library: 9/29/2019

Notes
Baby Hold On

Eddie Money

Eddie Money

Columbia
via TK library: 1/9/2015

Notes
Give a Little Bit

Supertramp

Even in the Quietest Moments

A&M
via TK library: 4/27/2013

Notes
Watch the Moon Come Down

Graham Parker & The Rumour

Stick to Me

EMI
via TK library: 5/14/2013

Notes
Dancing in the Moonlight (It’s Caught Me in Its Spotlight)

Thin Lizzy

Bad Reputation

Mercury
via TK library: 11/16/2019

Notes
Watching the Detectives

Elvis Costello

My Aim Is True

Stiff
via TK library: 8/22/2008

Notes
Three Little Birds

Bob Marley & The Wailers

Exodus

Island
via TK library: 10/1/2008

Notes
Slip Slidin’ Away

Paul Simon

Greatest Hits, Etc

Columbia
via TK library: 6/13/2007

Notes
Just the Way You Are

Billy Joel

The Stranger

Columbia
via TK library: 12/1/2003 (12/28/1997)

Notes
Jolanta

Earl Klugh

Finger Paintings

Blue Note
via TK library: 11/17/2019

Notes
Birdland

Weather Report

Heavy Weather

Columbia
via My Mother’s Fleabag (1999) library: 10/28/2018

Notes
Fantasy

Earth, Wind & Fire

All ’n All

Columbia
via TK library: 11/17/2003 (6/8/1996)

Notes
Best of My Love

Emotions

Rejoice

Columbia
via TK library: 4/29/2013

Notes
Do Your Dance

Rose Royce

Rose Royce II: In Full Bloom

Whitfield
via TK library: 2/11/2008

Notes
Everybody Dance

Chic

Chic

Atlantic
via TK library: 5/18/2013

Notes
I Feel Love

Donna Summer

I Remember Yesterday

Casablanca
via TK library: 7/27/2012

Notes
Metal on Metal

Kraftwerk

Trans-Europe Express

Capitol
via TK library: 2/12/2012

Notes
Ghost Rider

Suicide

Suicide

Red Star
via TK library: 8/16/2018

Notes
Wide Boys

Ultravox

Ultravox!

Island
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
Strange

Wire

Pink Flag

Harvest
via the R.E.M. cover library: 4/22/2013

1978 US release
Neat Neat Neat

The Damned

Damned Damned Damned

Stiff
via TK library: 10/21/2017

Notes
Rockaway Beach

Ramones

Rocket to Russia

Sire
via TK library: 3/4/2011

Notes
Orgasm Addict

Buzzcocks

Orgasm Addict 7"

United Artists
via TK library: 2/26/2015

Notes
Blank Generation

Richard Hell & The Voidoids

Blank Generation

Sire
via TK library: 8/6/2018

Notes
See No Evil

Television

Marquee Moon

Elektra
via TK library: 2/2/2011

Notes
Sugar and Spice

Split Enz

Dizrythmia

Chrysalis
via TK library: 5/12/2018

Notes
Forever Young

Sparks

Introducing Sparks

Columbia
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
Sleepwalker

The Kinks

Sleepwalker

Arista
via past experience library: 11/7/2007

Notes
Hot Legs

Rod Stewart

Foot Loose & Fancy Free

Warner Bros.
via TK library: 12/15/2012

Notes
Gamblin’ Man

Bonnie Raitt

Sweet Forgiveness

Warner Bros.
via TK library: 10/29/2014

Notes
C’est La Vie

Emmylou Harris

Luxury Liner

Warner Bros.
via TK library: 11/2/2019

Notes
Ramblin’ Fever

Merle Haggard

Ramblin’ Fever

MCA
via TK library: 11/2/2019

Notes
East Bound and Down

Jerry Reed

Smokey and the Bandit

MCA
via TK library: 9/21/2018

Notes
Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)

Waylon Jennings

Ol’ Waylon

Capitol
via TK library: 9/29/2019

Notes
Southern Nights

Glen Campbell

Southern Nights

Capitol
via TK library: 10/14/2019

Notes
Ten Years of This

Gary Stewart

Your Place or Mine

RCA
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
Here You Come Again

Dolly Parton

Here You Come Again

RCA
via TK library: 10/12/2019

Notes
I Never Go Around Mirrors

Willie Nelson

To Lefty From Willie

Columbia
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
Richland, Washington

James Talley

Ain’t It Somethin’

Capitol
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
All I Want Is You

Barry Louis Polisar

My Brother Thinks He’s a Banana

Rainbow Morning Music Alternatives
via Juno (2008) library: 1/8/2008

Notes
Help Me Somebody

NRBQ

All Hopped Up

Red Rooster
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
Let This Be a Lesson to Ya

The Gregg Allman Band

Playin’ Up a Storm

Capricorn
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
One More Time

Lynyrd Skynrd

Street Survivors

MCA
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
Pacific Ocean Blues

Dennis Wilson

Pacific Ocean Blue

Caribou
via TK library: 11/17/2019

Notes
I Was Only Telling a Lie

James Taylor

JT

Columbia
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
American Girl

Roger McGuinn

Thunderbyrd

Columbia
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
Poor, Poor Pitiful Me

Linda Ronstadt

Simple Dreams

Asylum
via TK library: 10/14/2019

Notes
Heard It in a Love Song

The Marshall Tucker Band

Carolina Dreams

Capricorn
via TK library: 9/29/2013

Notes
Smoke From a Distant Fire

Sanford & Townsend

Smoke From a Distant Fire

Warner Bros.
via TK library: 12/1/2011

Notes
Cheeseburger in Paradise

Jimmy Buffett

Son of a Son of a Sailor

Dunhill
via the ether library: 12/28/2010

Notes
Short People

Randy Newman

Little Criminals

Warner Bros.
via TK library: 5/10/2010

Notes
I Can’t Hold On

Karla Bonoff

Karla Bonoff

Columbia
via TK library: 9/29/2019

Notes
Waitin’ for the Night

The Runaways

Waitin’ for the Night

Mercury
via TK library: 11/3/2019

Notes
Barracuda

Heart

Little Queen

Portrait
via TK library: 2/12/2008

Notes
Oh Bondage, Up Yours!

X-Ray Spex

Oh Bondage, Up Yours! / I Am a Cliché

Virgin
via TK library: 8/13/2016

Notes
X Offender

Blondie

Blondie

Private Stock
via TK library: 11/2/2019

Notes
Psycho Killer

Talking Heads

Talking Heads ’77

Sire
via the ether library: 7/3/2008

Notes
Zombie

Fela Kuti

Zombie

Celluloid
via TK library: 1/13/2019

Notes
I Don’t Love You Anymore

Teddy Pendergrass

Teddy Pendergrass

Philadelphia International
via TK library: 10/12/2019

Notes
Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)

Joe Tex

Bumps & Bruises

Epic
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
Peg

Steely Dan

Aja

MCA
via my dad, the De la Soul sample library: 11/10/2003 (12/25/2001)

Notes
Footsteps in the Dark (Parts 1 & 2)

The Isley Brothers

Go for Your Guns

T-Neck
via TK library: 1/18/2010

Notes
You Gotta Make It Through the World

Van Morrison

A Period of Transition

Warner Bros.
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
Feel the Need

The Detroit Emeralds

Feel the Need

Westbound
via TK library: 7/17/2019

Notes
Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band

Meco

Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band

Millennium
via Star Wars library: 11/16/2019

Notes
Stayin’ Alive

Bee Gees

Saturday Night Fever

RSO
via TK library: 12/18/2011

Notes
Easy

Commodores

Commodores

Motown
via TK library: 3/26/2009

Notes
Wonderful Tonight

Eric Clapton

Slowhand

RSO
via TK library: 4/7/2011

Notes
Dreams

Fleetwood Mac

Rumours

Reprise
via TK library: 11/15/2003 (2/6/1998)

Notes
Float On

The Floaters

The Floaters

ABC
via TK library: 11/2/2019

Notes
Loving You

Al Green

The Belle Album

Hi
via past experience library: 8/16/2018

Notes
The Closer I Get to You

Roberta Flack

Blue Lights in the Basement

Atlantic
via TK library: 8/16/2018

Notes
Vitamin U

Smokey Robinson

Deep in My Soul

Tamla
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
Lovely Day

Bill Withers

Menagerie

Columbia
via TK library: 11/5/2003 (7/15/1999)

Notes
Strawberry Letter 23

The Brothers Johnson

Right on Time

A&M
via the Shuggie Otis original by way of the Tevin Campbell cover (1991) library: 9/7/2013

Notes
Galaxy

War

Galaxy

MCA
via my dad library: 7/23/2008

Notes
Flash Light

Parliament

Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome

Island
via TK library: 1/15/2011

Notes
Slide

Slave

Slave

Cotillion
via TK library: 2/11/2008

Notes
(Every Time I Turn Around) Back in Love Again

L.T.D.

Something to Love

A&M
via TK library: 2/11/2008

Notes
Time Loves a Hero

Little Feat

Time Loves a Hero

Warner Bros.
via TK library: 10/5/2019

Notes
Guilding the Lily

Jesse Winchester

Nothing But a Breeze

Bearsville
via TK library: 11/12/2019

Notes
Running on Empty

Jackson Browne

Running on Empty

Asylum
via 103.7 The Mountain library: 1/12/2010

Notes
Come Sail Away

Styx

The Grand Illusion

A&M
via Freaks and Geeks (2001) library: 2/12/2012

Notes
Jet Airliner

Steve Miller Band

Book of Dreams

Capitol
via TK library: 8/18/2010

Notes
Southern Girls

Cheap Trick

In Color

Epic
via TK library: 11/10/2014

Notes
Mr. Blue Sky

Electric Light Orchestra

Out of the Blue

Jet
via TK library: 5/16/2010

Notes
Cold As Ice

Foreigner

Foreigner

Atlantic
via TK library: 3/15/2015

Notes
We Are the Champions

Queen

News of the World

Elektra
via TK library: 3/2/2011

Notes
Mull of Kintyre

Wings

Mull of Kintyre

Capitol
via TK library: 8/16/2014

Notes
Solsbury Hill

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

Atco
via TK library: 11/10/2003 (12/25/2001)

Notes
Dancing

John Martyn

One World

Island
via TK library: 3/25/2018

Notes

Etcetera

Best Songs of 1977

Like a Hurricane

Neil Young

American Stars ’N Bars

“Heroes”

David Bowie

“Heroes”

Lust for Life

Iggy Pop

Lust for Life

Anarchy in the U.K.

Sex Pistols

Nevermind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols

(I’m) Stranded

The Saints

(I’m) Stranded

Career Opportunities

The Clash

The Clash

In the City

The Jam

In the City

Fall Out

The Police

Fallout / Nothing Achieving

You’re No Fun

The Scruffs

“Wanna’ Meet the Scruffs?”

Let It Go, Let It Flow

Dave Mason

Let It Flow

Baby Hold On

Eddie Money

Eddie Money

Give a Little Bit

Supertramp

Even in the Quietest Moments

Watch the Moon Come Down

Graham Parker & The Rumour

Stick to Me

Dancing in the Moonlight (It’s Caught Me in Its Spotlight)

Thin Lizzy

Bad Reputation

Watching the Detectives

Elvis Costello

My Aim Is True

Three Little Birds

Bob Marley & The Wailers

Exodus

Slip Slidin’ Away

Paul Simon

Greatest Hits, Etc

Just the Way You Are

Billy Joel

The Stranger

Jolanta

Earl Klugh

Finger Paintings

Birdland

Weather Report

Heavy Weather

Fantasy

Earth, Wind & Fire

All ’n All

Best of My Love

Emotions

Rejoice

Do Your Dance

Rose Royce

Rose Royce II: In Full Bloom

Everybody Dance

Chic

Chic

I Feel Love

Donna Summer

I Remember Yesterday

Metal on Metal

Kraftwerk

Trans-Europe Express