Playlist: 1979

[Warning: This Post Contains Many, Many Words Below the Cut.]

Let's go back a couple years from the last playlist. As before, the flash object below the cut is an embedded playlist of American Top 40 hits I liked, this time from 1979.

[If the embedded object does not show up or work, try this link.]

Me and 1979

So: In 1979, I was living with my mom in a suburb of Chicago, and was what was commonly known back then as a latchkey kid, which meant I spent a lot of time under my own supervision. My mother was waitressing, so was generally out of the house from before I got home from school until after I went to bed, and asleep when I was getting ready for school. Now you know why I learned to cook rather young.

That summer, I used to spend a lot of time in the apartment complex's pool. The main lifeguard always had the radio on, and a lot of the songs I remember best were popular in the summertime, though not all of them were top 40 hits, of course... I recall hearing songs from Saturday Night Fever, Grease, and The Blues Brothers, among other things.

Disco, though it would soon start waning in popularity, featured heavily on the charts in '79, and is well-represented in the list. (Disco also served as inspiration for some of the synth-pop and new-wave music of the '80s). Some fairly well-known songs now considered classic were also hits in 1979 -- some of them might make you say "Wow, this song is that old??" (in a couple cases, they were even older than I thought).

I did again keep it to one song per artist, despite some temptation to put in multiple songs by some of them (I've noted which ones below).

WARNING - there are some recording level jumps in this that make it important to keep your volume control handy. Again.

Annotated List of Songs

"Y.M.C.A" (Village People)

Everybody move your arms in the shape of letters! And yes, this song really is that old. Actually, it's older; it first charted in '78. But it was still on the AT40 charts in '79, and it's a classic—and besides, I like it better than the other choice from '79, "In the Navy".

"Hot Stuff" (Donna Summer)

I'd actually more or less forgotten about both Donna Summer and this song, until I saw it listed on the charts. Then I remembered that Donna Summer was really popular for a while—she actually had a second hit at the top of the AT40 at the same time as this song.

"Knock on Wood" (Amii Stewart)

This song, on the other hand, I actually listen to on a semi-regular basis, and it's one of the first songs I think of when discussing disco I like. Also, Amii Stewart has a terrific voice.

"One Way or Another" (Blondie)

I had a really hard time choosing between this song and "Heart of Glass", which also showed up on the charts, both of which I like a great deal. I actually picked this because it'd been longer since I heard it.

"I Will Survive" (Gloria Gaynor)

I mentioned a lot of classics were hits this year, right? I think nearly everyone in the English-speaking world has heard this song in some version or another. I'd worry it'd get stuck in my head for days, except that there are far worse earworms later on in the list.

"Le Freak" (Chic)

If you were a video media director, and you wanted to establish that you were showing a scene in the '70s, this is one of the best songs you could pick; the beginning few seconds constitute one of the most recognizable riffs in disco.

"Fire" (The Pointer Sisters)

This song was written by Bruce Springsteen, but strictly speaking it's not a cover of a Bruce Springsteen song. If it's a cover of anyone, it's Robert Gordon, who recorded it the same year The Pointer Sisters got their hands on it. And while Springsteen played it live, it wasn't until he put out a live album in the mid '80s that he technically 'recorded' it. There's a little history for ya.

"Rock With You" (Michael Jackson)

If you heard this song for the first time without seeing who it was by, I think somewhere in the middle of the first verse, you'd be thinking, "Huh, this guy's voice sounds really familiar."—and then around the chorus, it'd hit you. While his voice didn't change that much over the years, the style of song is not much like the more familiar '80s hits that really made Jackson a star... though you can hear the beginnings of his later style here.

"Shake Your Groove Thing" (Peaches & Herb)

I can always remember the way the song goes and its name, but I never, ever remember the artist until I look it up. I don't know why, since I've always liked it.

"Boogie Wonderland" (Earth, Wind & Fire, feat. The Emotions)

This is another classic disco song, by a very classic band, featuring a perhaps somewhat less remembered band as the female singers. This is another song one could use to establish the era quite successfully, but it's also been used in modern films.

"What a Fool Believes" (Doobie Brothers)

It's kinda funny, because I never think of the Doobie Brothers as being at all disco, but this song definitely has a disco feel to it. Then again, I guess they're a funk-inspired rock band overall, and funk and disco are buddies. Genres are hard to figure out sometimes, gais.

"Sultans of Swing" (Dire Straits)

I wish people would look up how to spell band names. Anyhow, so, this is obviously definitely not disco, being decidedly blues-inspired rock. This is the first Dire Straits song I ever heard, which makes sense since Wikipedia suggests this was their first single (shh, don't tell anyone, but my memory is not perfect). It's not quite their most well-known song—that'll be on the '85 list when I get around to that—but it's probably the song by them you're most likely to hear on the radio.

"The Devil Went Down to Georgia" (Charlie Daniels Band)

I mentioned on the '81 list that I'm not much of a country fan, but I do like country/rock fusion. This is the ultimate example; it's one of my all-time favorite songs. Plus I'm a big fan of fiddling, so, there's that. Also, can you believe they still bleep "son of a bitch" on the radio?

"The Gambler" (Kenny Rogers)

This, on the other hand, is the rare example of an actual country song I like a lot. It doesn't hurt that I really like Rogers' voice, and he did a number of duets that I enjoyed later, as well.

"Chuck E.'s in Love" (Rickie Lee Jones)

I sometimes think the biggest reason I still like this song is I have fond memories of it being the first pop song I learned to play correctly on the piano. Although I guess I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't liked the song to begin with. And it's sorta more jazz/pop. But it was the first song I'd first heard on the radio that I learned to play, how's that?

"Tusk" (Fleetwood Mac)

I grew up listening to Fleetwood Mac because several people in my family liked them, and I own quite a bit of their stuff now. I don't really have a (singular) favorite song by them, but this is definitely well up there.

"Is She Really Going Out With Him?" (Joe Jackson)

I believe this wins for "longest title on this list". Joe Jackson had other hits, but I'm pretty sure this is by far his most well-known song.

"Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" (Journey)

I was going to say this may've been the song that made me a Journey fan, but I think that may not be true, because "Lights" and "Wheel in the Sky" are both older. Well, let's just go with "it's one of the earlier ones I remember", and it's definitely part of why I ended up buying Escape a couple years later when I got my stereo.

"Old Time Rock & Roll (Bob Seger)

Whenever I hear this song, I picture the younger, saner Tom Cruise slide across the floor in a button-down shirt and his socks and underwear. I can't help it. (If you haven't seen Risky Business, well, you probably should.)

"Roxanne" (The Police)

I had a friend in high school named Roxanne—one of the earliest friends I made in HS, actually. She came to hate this song. I don't blame her, because while I do like it, I think if people had sung it (often badly) whenever they were introduced to me, I would have probably committed homicide.

"My Sharona" (The Knack)

You know, back in the day, I never stopped to wonder, "knack for what?" Now I actually do. Knack for getting people to parody their songs? This may not be the most parodied rock song ever, but it's got to be way up there. (It was one of Weird Al's first parodies, in fact, as "My Bologna".)

"Dance the Night Away" (Van Halen)

Although I always think of Van Halen as an '80s band, I guess they got started a couple years earlier than that. This not only wasn't their first hit, it's probably not even as well-known as "You Really Got Me". But, well, I do like it, albeit not as much as some of their later songs, so it made the cut for the list.

"Dream Police" (Cheap Trick)

I also think of Cheap Trick as an '80s band, although this is actually from their fourth (and highest-charting) album, which blows my mind. This also wasn't their only AT40 hit in '79; "I Want You to Want Me", which is from an album released in late '77, was on the charts as well.

"The Logical Song" (Supertramp)

Supertramp had not one, not two, but three AT40 hits in '79, all from the same album, which I remember my mother bought because my aunt recommended it (or maybe the other way around). I had a hard time deciding which to pick, but I think this is actually my favorite of the three. The other two songs were "Goodbye, Stranger" and "Take the Long Way Home", if you're curious.

"Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy" (Bad Company)

Trivia for the day: Paul Rodgers, the singer of Bad Company when this song was released (but alas, not when I saw them live) is also the father of two members of Bôa, who I first heard because they did the opening song of the anime Serial Experiments: Lain.

"Fat Bottomed Girls" (Queen)

I think I could probably find a Queen song on the hit list for every year from the mid '70s to the mid '90s. Which is just fine by me. But you know what I miss about the '70s and '80s? Women with curves being popular. Yeah.

"Renegade" (Styx)

I was saying the other day that picking up Tommy Shaw as a band member is probably the best thing that ever happened to Styx. It's not that the pre-Shaw Styx wasn't good; I liked Equinox just fine... but I didn't get it until after I picked up several later albums, all of which included hits by Shaw. And this song, "Blue Collar Man", and "Too Much Time on My Hands"—also all penned (and sung) by Shaw— remain three of their most well-known songs, and three of my favorites.