HIGH ENERGY [1979]

While the DISCO titled K-Tel compilations ended with Disco Nights, the music certainly continued as evidenced by side one of High Energy: six Top 5 songs on the disco chart, seven Top 6 songs on the R&B chart and four Number Ones on the pop chart.  High Energy, indeed.  The second side was K-tel's usual blend of Top 40 fare with both soft rock and hard rock.  HERC bought this album with his own hard-earned allowance back in 1979 and has since acquired two more copies - it is definitely in his Top 5 K-tel Albums of All Time.  HERC's brief research turned up nearly a dozen testimonials from fans saying High Energy was their very first album ever! YouTube user michael riggans likes the album so much he made an all new digital homage from songs in his own library, substituting two songs for two he didn't have and forgetting a third track all together.  One of HERC's fave YT users Brandon aka BillboardTopHits1980 posted his authentic vinyl rip of High Energy in what seems to be an ongoing flood of vinyl rips from his fifty album collection, which he lists in the comments to his own videos.   If you're interested in hearing his rips, HERC advises you head over there pronto as several have been served with takedown notices shortly after they have posted and are no longer available.

High Energy [1979]
K-tel Scale:
31.00
Billboard Top 40s
PopR&BDiscoACCBWLS
Heart of GlassBlondie112
Knock on WoodAmii Stewart16511
I Will SurviveGloria Gaynor141911
Shake Your Groove ThingPeaches & Herb54254
I Got My Made Up (You Can Get It Girl)Instant Funk20112226
Le FreakChic11111
Hot NumberFoxy2142630
Disco Nights (Rock Freak)GQ12131114
FirePointer Sisters2142122
Double VisionForeigner259
Love Takes TimeOrleans111312
Love Will Find A WayPablo Cruise62856
Stay The NightFaragher Brothers
You Never Done It Like ThatCaptain & Tennille10141021
I Just Wanna StopGino Vannelli421429
RenegadeStyx16186

High Energy scores very well with its only weak spot being the zero points earned by the Faragher Brothers.  Still, a 31.00 is good enough to land at number 10 in the K-Tel Scale Top 10 Rankings. 
The album was also released on 8-track and cassette and can be found in orange, black and cream colored variants though the cream colored one might have been white when it was issued 35 years ago and yellowed with age.  The only cream colored 8-track of High Energy HERC has come across is the Canadian version.
High Energy [1979] CAN
K-tel Scale:
22.29
Billboard Top 40s
PopR&BDiscoACCBWLS
Love Takes TimeOrleans111312
Sharing The Night TogetherDr. Hook6414
I Just Wanna StopGino Vannelli421429
Love Will Find A WayPablo Cruise62856
What You Won't Do For LoveBobby Caldwell961026
Whispering RainMurray McLauchlan
Every Time I Think Of YouThe Babys13820
LadyLittle River Band10107
RenegadeStyx16186
Hot Child In The CityNick Gilder111
Hold The LineToto556
You Never Done It Like ThatCaptain & Tennille10141021
Hold OnTriumph38
Light My Fire / 137 Disco HeavenAmii Stewart36
Keep On Dancin' Gary's Gang1513323
I Only Wanna Get Up And DanceThe Raes

As part of their thirty-fifth-anniversary celebration in 2002, K-Tel re-issued 10 of their classic album compilations on compact disc with a two-volume High Energy being one of them.  Like every other album in the celebratory series, each volume had ten tracks for a total of twenty tracks compared to the original album's sixteen.  HERC scared up the track listing for each volume and ran them through the K-Tel Scale because that's he does.

High Energy [2002] Vol. 1
K-tel Scale:
30.50
Billboard Top 40s
PopR&BDiscoACCBWLS
Knock on WoodAmii Stewart16511
I Got My Made Up (You Can Get It Girl)Instant Funk20112226
FirePointer Sisters2142122
RenegadeStyx16186
I Just Wanna StopGino Vannelli421429
Call MeSkyy261327
Let's Get SeriousJermaine Jackson912919
Love Machine, Pt. 1The Miracles1520116
I Like Dreamin’Kenny Nolan3437
You Never Done It Like ThatCaptain & Tennille10141021
High Energy [2002] Vol. 2
K-tel Scale:
28.18
Billboard Top 40s
PopR&BDiscoACCBWLS
Le FreakChic11111
Boogie ShoesKC & the Sunshine Band352933
I'm Every WomanChaka Khan211301923
Hot NumberFoxy2142630
Thunder IslandJay Ferguson9614
We Are FamilySister Sledge2113025
Double VisionForeigner259
Disco Nights (Rock Freak)GQ12131114
Love Takes TimeOrleans111312
Heart of GlassBlondie112

Tune in next time when HERC will feature Power Play,
the first of four albums before year's end.
HERC has informed us that he has 80 albums total 
(we've covered 33) planned out, which 
should take us through September 2016!

1 comment:

  1. The first album I ever bought (also with my hard-earned allowance). 4000+ albums later, and this one still rates as one of my favorites, if only for the nostalgic value.

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