Arista album discography: 1976-78

Arista's open to the rest of 1976 was with one of its biggest coups: the signage of Lou Reed. Reed had earlier put out a string of successful albums for RCA . . . that is, until 1975, which saw the debut of Metal Machine Music, a critically savaged (and less than healthy) mixture of industrial music, noise rock, and contemporary sound art that RCA (according to some sources) returned to stores by the thousands after a few weeks. Though his next album, Coney Island Baby had fared better in the critical eye (far better in some cases) it still underperformed and Reed was on the verge of bankruptcy. Clive Davis successfully helped ail his financial health and signed him to his label . . . Arista. Although his first album for the label, Rock and Roll Heart, didn't do all that well, he next released Street Hassle, the first commercially released pop album to employ binaural recording technology, which put his music back on familiar ground. Interestingly, although Lou Reed is credited as a pioneer of punk music, he never wanted anything to do with the genre and despised any and all attempts at connecting him to that genre, stating in an interview:

I'm too literate to be into punk rock . . . The whole CBGB's, new Max's thing that everyone's into and what's going on in London—you don't seriously think I'm responsible for what's mostly rubbish?

From his then-freshly released album, Barry Manilow released "This One's for You" (#29), "Weekend in New England" (#10) and, in 1977, the #1 smash "Looks Like We Made It". The #10 song from the album is notable as it is among those tunes that just barely gives out its title, only hinting at it via the lyric "Time in New England took me away..." Going back to his roots as a writer of commercial jingles, Manilow won two Clio Awards in 1976 for his work for The Coca-Cola Company (Tab) and Johnson & Johnson (Band-Aid). For those who don't know what the Clio Awards are, they're the Oscars of the world of advertising.

Eric Carmen followed up his major hit success ''All By Myself'' with hits "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" (#11) and ''She Did It'' (#23) during this period, and had two of his songs ("That's Rock and Roll", "Hey Deanie") covered by then-rising teen idol Shaun Cassidy, who kept Carmen's chart boat afloat for a while.

Meanwhile in Detroit, Ray Parker Jr., with Vincent Bohnam, Jerry Knight, and Arnell Carmichael formed a group with the tongue-in-cheek name of Raydio. After securing a record deal with Clive's Arista, the group scored their first big hit in early 1978 with "Jack And Jill", which was taken from their self-titled debut album. The song peaked at #8 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, and reached #11 in the UK Singles Chart, earning a gold record in the process. "Is This a Love Thing" peaked at #27 in the UK in August 1978.

Arista somehow seemed to be a retreat for '60s rock musicians during this period; this part of the discography has albums by Martha Reeves (from the Vandelles!), Don McLean, the Grateful Dead, and even the Kinks!


The albums in this series used the blue label with A and ARISTA in white and everything else in black. Again, in late 1976, Arista went to a black label with A and ARISTA and blue and everything else in grey. Promotional copies had a white label with black print.

AL 4100 Lou Reed/Rock And Roll Heart
AL 4101 Anthony Braxton With Muhal Richard Abrams/Duets 1976
AL 4102 The Alpha Band
AL 4103 Volunteers
AL 4104 Barry De Vorzon/Nadia's Theme (The Young And The Restless)
AL 4105 Martha Reeves/The Rest Of My Life
AL 4106 The Kinks/Sleepwalker
AL 4107 NBC's Saturday Night - The name of this album (and the show itself) were coined because ABC had its own (short-lived) SNL, with Howard Cosell. When it was cancelled, NBC (and this album) appropriated the SNL acronym and its meaning, and used it ever since.
AL 4108 Larry Coryell/The Lion And The Ram
AL 4109 The Glitter Band/Makes You Blind
AL 4110 Nova/Vimana
AL 4111 The Best Of The Drifters
AL 4112 A History Of Bell U.K. 1970-1975
AL 4113 Bandit
AL 4114 Showaddywaddy
AL 4115 Slik
AL-4116 Airto/Promises Of The Sun
AL 4117 Gino Cunico
AL 4118
AL 4119 The Hollywood Stars
AL 4120 Happy The Man
AL 4122 The Brecker Brothers/Don't Stop The Music
AL 4123 Dickey Betts & Great Southern
AL 4124 Eric Carmen/Boats Against The Current
AL 4125 The New Commander Cody Band/Rock 'N Roll Again
AL 4126 Danny Peck/Heart And Soul
AL 4127 Aalon/Cream City
AL 4128 Eric Andersen/The Best Songs
AL 4129 Shirley Brown
AL 4130 David Sancious And Tone/Dance Of The Age Of Enlightenment ‎
AL 4131 Ben Sidran/The Doctor Is In
AL 4132 Urszula Dudziak/Midnight Rain
AL 4133 Mike Mainieri/Love Play ‎
AL 4135 Outlaws/Hurry Sundown
AL 4136 Melissa Manchester/Singin'
AL 4137 Point Blank/Second Season
(prefix changes here)
AB-4138 Stomu Yamashta's Go/Go Too
AB 4139 Randy Edelman/If Love Is Real
AB 4140 Dwight Twilley Band/Twilley Don't Mind
AB 4141 Rick Danko
AB 4142 Lily Tomlin On Stage
AB 4143 Donovan
AB 4144 Mandrill/We Are One
AB 4145 The Alpha Band/Spark In The Dark
AB-4146 The Headhunters/Straight From The Gate
AB 4147 Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson/Bridges
AB 4148 Baby Grand
AB 4149 Don McLean/Prime Time
AB 4150 Nova/Wings Of Love
AB-4151 Roy Hill
AB 4152 The Muppet Show
AB-4153 Garnet Mimms Has It All
AB 4154 The Pets/Wet Behind The Ears
AB 4155 Bob Weir/Heaven Help The Fool
AB 4156 Larry Coryell and Steve Khan/Two For The Road
AB 4157 Harvey Mason/Funk In A Mason Jar
AB 4158 Bay City Rollers/Greatest Hits
AB 4159 Joe Brooks/You Light Up My Life
AB-4160 Jerry Garcia Band/Cats Under The Stars
AB-4161 Pharoah Sanders/Love Will Find A Way
AB-4162
AB 4163 Raydio
AB 4164 Barry Manilow/Even Now
AB 4165 Striker
AB-4166 Kevin Lamb/Sailing Down The Years
AB-4167 The Kinks/Misfits
AB 4168 Dickey Betts & Great Southern/Atlanta's Burning Down
AB 4169 Lou Reed/Street Hassle
AB-4170 Eddie Kendricks/Vintage '78 - Former member of the Temptations.
AB-4171 Patti Smith Group/Easter
AB 4172 Strawbs/Deadlines
AB 4173 Loudon Wainwright III/Final Exam
AB 4174 Gene Page/Close Encounters
AB 4175 John Williams/The Fury (Original Soundtrack Recording)
AB 4176 John Miles/Zaragon
AB 4177 Norman Connors And The Starship Orchestra/This Is Your Life
AB 4178 Ben Sidran/A Little Kiss In The Night
AB 4179 The Alpha Band/The Statue Makers Of Hollywood
AB 4180 The Alan Parsons Project/Pyramid
AB-4181 Anthony Braxton/For Trio
AB-4182 Michael Stanley Band/Cabin Fever
AB 4183 Commander Cody/Flying Dreams
AB 4184 Eric Carmen/Change Of Heart
AB 4185 The Brecker Brothers/Heavy Metal Be-Bop
AB 4186 Melissa Manchester/Don't Cry Out Loud
AB 4187 Quazar
AB 4188 Afro-Cuban Band/Rhythm Of Life
AB 4189 Gil Scott-Heron And Brian Jackson/Secrets
AB-4190 Al Stewart/Time Passages
AB 4191 Happy The Man/Crafty Hands
AB 4192 The Muppet Show 2
AB 4193 Jack Tempchin
AB 4194 Bay City Rollers/Strangers In The Wind
AB 4195 Mandrill/New Worlds ‎(LP, Album)
AB 4196 Fiesta
AB 4197 The Mind Of Gil Scott-Heron
AB 4198 Grateful Dead/Shakedown Street
AB 4199 The Hudson Brothers/The Truth About Us

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