C.W. McCall's "Convoy" may have been one of the biggest British hits of 1976, but it was also among the laughable, as the pseudonymous Laurie Lingo and the Dipsticks proved when they retaliated against its success with "Convoy GB," a record that highlighted the sheer pointlessness of driving round Britain's less-than-super highway system jabbering on about smokies, big buddies, and 10-4s. Certainly the Top of the Pops team appreciated the joke -- their version of "Convoy GB" is just as funny as the original and, if it isn't the best track on Volume 52, that's only because summer 1976 was a remarkable time for the U.K. chart. It's a historical truth that punk pounced upon Britain when the music scene was at its weakest in years -- and so it might have been. But
David Bowie's so-quirky "TVC 15," Wings' bass-pounding "Silly Love Songs,"
Diana Ross's superlative "Love Hangover," and veteran Hank Mizell's reactivated "Jungle Rock" were all high on the chart, to be celebrated with TOTP versions that not only replicate the originals' virtues, they accentuate them. So, "Silly Love Songs" is even bassier, "TVC 15" is even wackier, and "Love Hangover" all but gives disco a good name. And so on. Of course, there's some lowlights --
ABBA's "Fernando" loses every trace of the original's emotion and winds up merely mawkish, while
the Rolling Stones' "Fool to Cry" was mawkish to begin with. "Silver Star" and "Disco Lady" are utterly disposable, and "Let Your Love Flow" is all but liquefied by its soul-less recreation here. But, as mid-'70s Top of the Pops albums go, Volume 52 is one of the best. ~ Dave Thompson