The 1976 Festive 50 kicked off a series of annual charts that ran until John Peel’s death in 2004. An “all-time listeners’ favourites” chart, it actually only features two tracks from 1976: Racing Cars and Poco (the former of which had incarnations as a novel, a film and a top 20 hit). The chart harks back to John Peel’s early years on pirate radio as well as the early BBC shows, and combines the best of classic '60s music with some very lengthy prog rock epics. It took the majority of five Peel shows to broadcast the chart and the same number of CDs would be required for any home-made compilation. With the coming of punk and new wave, the charts changed radically in that respect - however, some tracks from the '76 list (including the predictable number one from Led Zeppelin) continued to place over the next few years.
The "FM" column in the list below shows the format the tracks can be collected in. Our preference is always to display the 7" if that version is available, with a 12" single as a second choice. "LP" will appear if the track is LP only. Click any band name to see our full stock list by that artist, or the "In Stock" button to view that specific item.