In honor of St. Patrick's Day:

Thin Lizzy, "Jailbreak" (Vertigo/Mercury, 1976)

Top 40 radio was far more miss than hit in the Bicentennial year. The monster called disco was starting to take over the airwaves, which was fine if you wanted to, uh, shake your booty to mindless lyrics warbled over a mechanical beat. And if it wasn't disco, it just might have been affronts to the ear like the Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight" or the song that made me stop listening to the radio and investing heavily in LPs, Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

There were a few bright spots. I often cite Blue Oyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" as my favorite of the year, and perhaps of the decade. Hearing those shimmering minor chords coming out of the speakers always was (and still is) a treat.

Not too far behind was the sole American hit by the Irish band Thin Lizzy, "The Boys Are Back in Town." Just a simple chord progression played by two guitars, but what a riff! And Phil Lynott's assured, street-smart vocal (the Dublin equivalent of Lou Reed, I guess, though I had no idea who Lou Reed was back then). And that call-and-response chorus. Here was an island of rock 'n' roll for anyone drowning in a sea of disco!

The song's parent album, "Jailbreak," represented Thin Lizzy's breakthrough in the United States, climbing to No. 18 on the hit parade. While the success of "The Boys Are Back in Town" (No. 12) certainly fueled sales, the album is full of memorable tunes. If anything, the opening title track features an even better riff than "Boys," and the bravado of its lyrics sets a tone that carries throughout the set. And "Cowboy Song," the second single taken from the album (it quickly died on the vine) features some tremendous guitar playing that intersperses Lynott's vision of the American West.

The guitars are courtesy of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson, who ended up playing with Thin Lizzy for three years to give some rare stability to a band that often juggled its lienup beyond the rhythm section of Lynott on bass and Brian Downey on drums. They're the pair who got things started back in '69, starting in their native Ireland before moving to the more music-savvy environment of London.

Unknown to many new fans who bought copies of "Jailbreak," it actually was the band's sixth album, and Thin Lizzy actually cracked the British Top 10 in 1973 with a reworking of the Irish folk song "Whiskey in the Jar."

Long-term success eluded the band in the United States, though. The followup to "Jailbreak" appeared later in '76, but "Johnny the Fox" failed to crack the Top 50. The next three albums also scraped the minor reaches of the charts, and by the end of the '70s, Thin Lizzy was just a memory as far as folks on this side of the Atlantic were concerned.

In Britain, it was a different story, with a string of top-selling albums carrying through the rest of Thin Lizzy's career.

By 1983, band members had parted ways. Around that time, it was reported that Lynott, who bore a strong resemblance to Jimi Hendrix, was to portray the late guitarist in a film version of his life. But nothing came of that, and in early 1986, Lynott went Jimi's way. He was just 34.

Today, Thin Lizzy is revered among fans of '70s hard rock. And many listeners who know nothing about the rest of the band's work still crack a smile when they hear the opening chords to "The Boys Are Back in Town."