This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1977. This year was the peak of vinyl sales in the United States, with sales declining year on year since then.

Specific locations

Specific genres

Events

January–February

March–May

June–August

September–December

Also in 1977

Bands formed

Bands reformed

Bands disbanded

Albums released

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Release date unknown

Billboard Top popular records of 1977

Billboard's year-end Hot 100 for the year 1977, printed on December 24, 1977, was based on Hot 100 charts from the issue dates of November 6, 1976 through October 29, 1977. The decision to include the last two months of 1976 resulted in Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night" being listed as no. 1 record of 1977, despite seven of its eight weeks at #1 occurring in 1976 (keep reading). The completed Billboard year-end list for 1977 is composed of records that entered the Billboard Hot 100 between November 1976 and December 1977. Records with chart runs that started in 1976 and ended in 1977, or started in 1977 and ended in 1978, made this chart if the majority of their chart weeks were in 1977. If not, they were ranked in the year-end charts for 1976 or 1978. If their weeks were equal, they were listed in the year they first entered. Appearing in multiple years is not permitted. Each week thirty points were awarded to the number one record, then nineteen points for number two, eighteen points for number three, and so on. The total points a record earned determined its year-end rank. The complete chart life of each record is represented, with number of points accrued. There are no ties, even when multiple records have the same number of points. The next ranking category is peak chart position, then weeks at peak chart position, weeks on Hot 100 chart, weeks in top forty, and finally weeks in top ten. The chart presented here depicts the top 30 singles of 1977. In contrast with the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1977, this chart does not truncate or split chart runs between years. It does not add two months from 1976, delete two months from 1977 and then call itself the "Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1977", which it is obviously not. The true number one record of 1977 is Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life", which spent the last 18 weeks of the year accumulating 362 points. The seven additional weeks it scored from 1978 were not even needed for the top prize. Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night" scored only 73 points in 10 weeks during 1977, so based on its 223 points from 13 weeks in 1976, its 296 total points made it the number one record of that year, not 1977. All chart rankings represented below for the Top Soul Singles, Top Country Singles, Top Easy Listening Singles, and Top CashBox pop singles were all calculated in the same manner. The chart can be sorted by Artist, Song title, Recording and Release dates, Cashbox year-end ranking (CB) or units sold (sales) by clicking on the column header. Additional details for each record can be accessed by clicking on the song title, and referring to the Infobox in the right column of the song page. Billboard also has chart summaries on its website. Sales information was derived from the RIAA's Gold and Platinum database, the BRIT Certified database and The Book of Golden Discs, but numbers listed should be regarded as estimates. Grammy Hall of Fame and National Recording Registry information with sources can be found on Wikipedia. Archived issues of Billboard from November 1976 to March 1978 and Hot 100 Year-End formulas were used to complete the 1977 year-end chart.

Chronological table of US and UK and Japan number one hit singles

Japanese Oricon number one singles and artist   (weeks at number one)

Top 40 Chart hit singles

Other Chart hit singles

• "Alison" – Elvis Costello • "American Girl" – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (# 40 UK) • "Baby, What a Big Surprise" – Chicago (#4 US) • "Ballade pour Adeline" – Richard Clayderman • "Barracuda" – Heart • "Black Is Black" – La Belle Epoque • "Black Betty" – Ram Jam • "Blue Bayou" – Linda Ronstadt • "Brick House" – Commodores • "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" – The Carpenters • "Carry On Wayward Son" – Kansas • "The Chain" – Fleetwood Mac • "Closer to the Heart" – Rush • "Cold as Ice" – Foreigner • "Come Sail Away" – Styx (#8 US) • "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" – Chic • "Dancing in the Moonlight (It's Caught Me in Its Spotlight)" – Thin Lizzy • "Daybreak" – Barry Manilow • "Disco Inferno" – The Trammps • "Do Anything You Wanna Do" – Eddie and the Hot Rods • "Do You Wanna Make Love" – Peter McCann • "Don't Believe a Word" – Thin Lizzy • "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" – Crystal Gayle • "Don't Stop" – Fleetwood Mac • "Dreams" – Fleetwood Mac (#1 US) • "Easy" – Commodores • "Egyptian Reggae" – Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers • "Emotion"- Samantha Sang • "(Every Time I Turn Around) Back in Love Again" – L.T.D. • "Exodus" – Bob Marley & The Wailers • "Fanfare for the Common Man" – Emerson, Lake & Palmer • "Feel the Need" – The Detroit Emeralds • "Feels Like the First Time" – Foreigner (#4 US) • "Fly At Night" – Chilliwack • "Foreplay/Long Time" – Boston • "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" – The Adverts • "Give a Little Bit" – Supertramp • "Go Your Own Way" – Fleetwood Mac • "God Save the Queen" – Sex Pistols • "Heard It in a Love Song" – The Marshall Tucker Band • "Heaven on the Seventh Floor" – Paul Nicholas • "Heroes" – David Bowie • "Hey Deanie" – Shaun Cassidy • "How Much Love" – Leo Sayer • "I Go Crazy" – Paul Davis • "I Like Dreamin'" – Kenny Nolan • "I Want You to Want Me" – Cheap Trick • "In the City" – The Jam • "Isn't It Time – The Babys • "Isn't She Lovely" – Stevie Wonder/David Parton • "It's So Easy" – Linda Ronstadt • "Jamming/Punky Reggae Party" – Bob Marley & The Wailers • "Jet Airliner" – Steve Miller Band • "Lay Down Sally" – Eric Clapton • "Lido Shuffle" – Boz Scaggs • "Life in the Fast Lane" – Eagles • "Like a Hurricane" – Neil Young • "Lonely Boy" – Andrew Gold • "Lookin' After No. 1" – The Boomtown Rats • "Love Is the Answer" – Utopia • "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" – Andy Gibb • "Lovely Day" – Bill Withers • "Magazine Madonna" – Sherbet • "Magic Fly" – Space • "Margaritaville" – Jimmy Buffett • "Marquee Moon" – Television • "Modern Love" – Peter Gabriel • "Motorhead" – Motörhead • "My Heart Belongs to Me" – Barbra Streisand • "Native New Yorker" – Odyssey • "No More Heroes" – The Stranglers • "Nobody Does It Better" – Carly Simon (#2 US) • "Oh Lori" – Alessi Brothers • "On the Border" – Al Stewart • "Peaches/Go Buddy Go" – The Stranglers • "Peg" – Steely Dan • "Pretty Vacant" – Sex Pistols • "Psycho Killer" – Talking Heads • "Right Time of the Night" – Jennifer Warnes • "Road Runner" – Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers • "Rock Bottom" – Lynsey De Paul and Mike Moran • "Rockaria!" – Electric Light Orchestra • "Rockin' All Over the World" – Status Quo • "Runaway" – Bonnie Raitt • "Sam" – Olivia Newton-John • "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" – Ian Dury • "She Did It" – Eric Carmen • "She's Not There" – Santana • "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" – Ramones • "Short People" – Randy Newman • "Silver Bird" – Tina Rainford • "So in to You" – Atlanta Rhythm Section • "Solsbury Hill" – Peter Gabriel • "Something Better Change/Straighten Out" – The Stranglers • "Sound and Vision" – David Bowie • "Spanish Stroll" – Mink DeVille • "Surfin' USA" – Leif Garrett • "Swayin' to the Music (Slow Dancing)" – Johnny Rivers • "Swingtown" – Steve Miller Band • "Telephone Line" – Electric Light Orchestra • "That's Rock and Roll" – Shaun Cassidy • "The Things We Do for Love" – 10cc • "This Is Tomorrow" – Bryan Ferry • "Tie Your Mother Down" – Queen • "Tryin' to Love Two" – William Bell • "Tulane" – Steve Gibbons Band • "Uptown Top Ranking" – Althea & Donna • "Waiting in Vain" – Bob Marley & The Wailers • "Walk This Way" – Aerosmith • "Watching the Detectives" – Elvis Costello • "We Are the Champions" – Queen • "We Will Rock You" – Queen • "We're All Alone" – Rita Coolidge • "What Can I Say" – Boz Scaggs • "What's Your Name" – Lynyrd Skynyrd • "What's Your Name, What's Your Number" – Andrea True Connection • "White Punks on Dope" – The Tubes • "White Riot" – The Clash • "Wonderous Stories" – Yes • "Year of the Cat" – Al Stewart • "You and Me" – Alice Cooper • "You Made Me Believe in Magic" – Bay City Rollers • "You Make Loving Fun" – Fleetwood Mac • "Your Love" – Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. • "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" – Rita Coolidge • "Your Song" – Billy Paul • "You're in My Heart" – Rod Stewart • "You're My World" – Helen Reddy

Notable singles

Other notable singles

• "Frozen Ones" b/w "Man Who Dies Every Day" - Ultravox

Published popular music

Punk rock, new wave music, and mod revival

1977 marks the beginning of the punk rock movement. Several albums associated with the development of punk music were released, including Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols by the Sex Pistols, The Clash by The Clash, Damned Damned Damned by The Damned, the Dead Boys' Young, Loud and Snotty, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers' L.A.M.F., the Ramones' Rocket to Russia, Richard Hell and the Voidoids' Blank Generation, and Wire's Pink Flag. The year saw the release of debut albums by bands associated with punk rock, though also with other new music genres, such as the mod revival and new wave music, including In the City by The Jam, My Aim Is True by Elvis Costello, Suicide by Suicide, Marquee Moon by Television, and Talking Heads: 77 by Talking Heads. It also saw the release of Iggy Pop's Lust for Life, his second record as a solo artist.

Classical music

Opera

Jazz

Musical theatre

Musical films

Births

Deaths

Awards