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1979
Feb 14, 2012 0:52:21 GMT -5
Post by brownjb81 on Feb 14, 2012 0:52:21 GMT -5
For those of us who listen to the classic American Top 40 shows either on the radio stations in our local area, on SiriusXM, or shows from our AT40 collection, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that music years have their own identity and 1979 was no exception. I have noticed some interesting things about the music from 1979. The first half of 1979 had the Bee Gees dominating the music charts, as they had 3 No. 1 hits during the first 6 months of 1979, plus there was a lot of disco songs on the charts and your regular mixture of pop, soul, country and etc. The second half of 1979 was dominated by Donna Summer as she was at No. 1 on the Hot 100 for much of that summer, plus a lot of British acts appeared in the Top 40, disco music began to decrease dramatically on the charts expecially after Disco Demolition Night and New Wave music was making its presence felt on the charts. Plus, there were several songs on the charts that year that reminded me that the 70's were ending and the 80's were coming:
Love Ballad--George Benson Your Precious Love--Bob Welch Got My Mind Made Up--Instant Funk Blow Away--George Harrison Hot Summer Nights--Night Goodbye Stranger--Supertramp I Do Love You--GQ Sail On--The Commodores
In a lot of ways, it felt like 1979 was 2 years into one as the first half of the year felt like it was 1979 and the second half of that year felt like it was the beginning of the 80's.
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1979
Feb 14, 2012 2:07:12 GMT -5
Post by reachinforthestars on Feb 14, 2012 2:07:12 GMT -5
"My Sharona" by The Knack reaching #1 is actually where I would split the year. The summer of 1979 was a special time as the weather was warm, disco ruled, and every night we danced. A very carefree and happy time.
At the end of summer of 1979, I started on one of my regular cross country trips and recognized how music directors were starting to change the direction of their playlists. Music would never be the same again.
Only one of the songs on your list symbolized the change in music coming. Sail On--The Commodores
As for the others: Love Ballad--George Benson (great dance record) Your Precious Love--Bob Welch (great dance record) Got My Mind Made Up--Instant Funk (disco classic) Blow Away--George Harrison (George didn't do disco) Hot Summer Nights--Night (great dance record) Goodbye Stranger--Supertramp (Supertramp didn't do disco) I Do Love You--GQ (disco slow dance favorite)
Here are the songs I felt better symbolized the change in music direction: My Sharona - The Knack Is She Really Going Out With Him - Joe Jackson Pop Muzik - M Hold On - Ian Gomm Sad Eyes - Robert John (the song that benefitted the most from program directors needing to fill in abandoned disco space) Lonesome Loser - LRB (an average song that also benefitted greatly from the need to fill dance music space) Cruel To Be Kind - Nick Lowe
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1979
Feb 14, 2012 8:30:04 GMT -5
Post by dukelightning on Feb 14, 2012 8:30:04 GMT -5
And the one of those that most portended a change in musical styles was M's "Pop Muzic". That said, it blows me away that he had no other chart hits since Robin Scott had a pulse on what was to be the music of choice in the early 80s.
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1979
Feb 14, 2012 10:38:20 GMT -5
Post by lasvegaskid on Feb 14, 2012 10:38:20 GMT -5
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1979
Feb 14, 2012 11:03:50 GMT -5
Post by dukelightning on Feb 14, 2012 11:03:50 GMT -5
Thanks much for sharing that. If I was to take one sentence out of that article it would be the next one. "The disco backlash of the early '80s resulted in the worst period of Top 40 history until the rap backlash of the early '90s". That may explain why Premiere plays 1981 so infrequently too.
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1979
Feb 14, 2012 11:22:17 GMT -5
Post by OldSchoolAT40Fan on Feb 14, 2012 11:22:17 GMT -5
Don't forget Earth, Wind & Fire's smooth ballad "After The Love Has Gone" was also a sign that the 1970s was on the way out. It was their last top 10 hit of that decade, I think (peaking at #2 in August or early September 1979, kept out of #1 by "My Sharona" by The Knack). They only had one top 10 hit after that with "Let's Groove", which was from a year that a lot of people don't agree with - 1981. After that, their presence in the top 40 was slowly fading away. Their sound just wasn't the same since 1982, me thinks.
I also agree that after disco reached its peak, the genre of music was not that great until around 1984. A lot of contemporary music and country crossover hits ruling the radio airwaves during the early 1980s - it sucked greatly!
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1979
Feb 14, 2012 11:34:40 GMT -5
Post by Caseyfan4everRyanfanNever on Feb 14, 2012 11:34:40 GMT -5
I remember the point in 1979 where disco began to fall from the top of the charts. Although other disco sounding hits were popular afterward (No More Tears, Funkytown), the beginning of the end for Disco's dominance was the week that Good Times by Chic fell to #2 and My Sharona took over. I was beginning my sophmore year in college in August 1979 in a smaller city quite removed from mainstream America. Discos and dancing were quite popular in the first month or two of that semester. But by October 1979, discos began closing or converting to country dance halls. Most of the disco hits from the summer began to fall off the top 40 in September and most were replaced by rock, pre-disco sounding soul, and new wave. There were still a few disco hits around (No More Tears, Heaven Must've Sent You were examples) but disco's domination of the upper reaches of the chart was over. From October 1979 on, disco became one of several music trends out there.
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1979
Feb 14, 2012 23:04:49 GMT -5
Post by ronnie21 on Feb 14, 2012 23:04:49 GMT -5
i was only 7 in 79 but rememeber the radio and all these songs when they were brand new.. Miss those day's!!!! things in life have changed so much since then....
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1979
Feb 15, 2012 0:12:17 GMT -5
Post by matt on Feb 15, 2012 0:12:17 GMT -5
We had a discussion on this very topic last summer on the AT40 - The 70's thread. You mentioned Disco Demolition night as one of the signs of the sudden change in mainstream tastes away from disco. I said in that thread, and will reiterate here, that one of the more interesting things to check out about 1979 is the list of #1 songs for the year. If you look at #1's through August 18, 1979, a pretty high percentage of them are disco songs, including Donna Summer, the Bee Gees, Chic, Anita Ward, Amii Stewart, Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy", etc.
To me, the #1 song on August 25, 1979 signaled the beginning of the end of the disco era..."My Sharona" took over #1 for 6 weeks and for the rest of 1979, there was a significantly lower number of disco #1's, a trend which would continue on into 1980 and beyond. Somebody mentioned an infamous line by Casey during the AT40 Disco Special on July 7, 1979--when he said something to the effect that disco was here to stay...right as disco's days were about to be numbered!
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1979
Feb 15, 2012 1:00:18 GMT -5
Post by brownjb81 on Feb 15, 2012 1:00:18 GMT -5
Those are some interesting comments about the music of 1979. I have to agree that once "My Sharona" by the Knack hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 in August 1979 ushered the end of the disco era. I also feel that "My Sharona" may have been a preview of what the music of the 80's would become. I was only 7 years old in 1979 but I do remember some of the songs from that year when they were out. There was another song that also came out in 1979 that reminded me that the 70's was ending. That song was, "Morning Dance" by Spyro Gyra. Although it was a Jazz record, it is a good song and it sounded like it could've came out in the early 80's. It is amazing that everyone has some interesting opinions about the music of 1979.
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1979
Feb 15, 2012 10:42:38 GMT -5
Post by 40fan on Feb 15, 2012 10:42:38 GMT -5
A shiny new dime if you can guess this before clicking the link: What was the most badly timed record release of 1979? (Hint: the opening track was a horrible disco treatment of a R'nR essential) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victim_of_Love_(album)
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1979
Feb 15, 2012 10:54:08 GMT -5
Post by tpanther775 on Feb 15, 2012 10:54:08 GMT -5
I never knew that Elton released a disco album. Of course none of the songe were written by him. Yeah I would say that was a badly timed release. Of course their were just a handful of disco songs that survived by doing well in the 40 until mid 1980. I think the last one was Funktown by Lipps Inc. Of course it made it to #1. But I have to agree the latter part of 1979, 1980 and 1981 their were some great songs and I like that era of music but the great songs were few and far between. I mean if you listen to some of the AT 40 shows from that era in my opinion only about 30 % of the songs stood the test of time. But thats just my opinion.
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1979
Feb 15, 2012 11:20:22 GMT -5
Post by vto66 on Feb 15, 2012 11:20:22 GMT -5
I never knew that Elton released a disco album. Of course none of the songe were written by him. Yeah I would say that was a badly timed release. Of course their were just a handful of disco songs that survived by doing well in the 40 until mid 1980. I think the last one was Funktown by Lipps Inc. Of course it made it to #1. But I have to agree the latter part of 1979, 1980 and 1981 their were some great songs and I like that era of music but the great songs were few and far between. I mean if you listen to some of the AT 40 shows from that era in my opinion only about 30 % of the songs stood the test of time. But thats just my opinion. Ahh, Elton John's "Victim of Love"!!! A true rarity. So rare that it's not even on iTunes. Such a shame (for me, anyway) as I actually like that song. Sure, it's not a typically "Elton John" kind of sounding song, but it's a pretty daring change of pace. I can only imagine how well it might have done had it been released a year or so earlier, when disco still ruled the pop-music scene.
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1979
Feb 15, 2012 12:19:55 GMT -5
Post by atruefan on Feb 15, 2012 12:19:55 GMT -5
For me, this post ties in with one from last month bemoaning the low peak of "Last Train To London." As I said in that post, I felt that it was undeservedly ignored because it was too "discoey." By the end of '79 even popular disco songs (for example "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" had a far shorter chart life than comparable disco songs just a few months earlier.
I firmly believe that several worthy disco songs from this time were ignored by PDs because of the perceived backlash. A great song like "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" by Bonnie Pointer came and went at the end of '79/beginning of '80, peaking at #40. Just a little over 6 months earlier the very similar sounding "Heaven Must Have Sent You" spent 23 weeks on the Hot 100 and peaked at #11.
As to the Elton John song, I too was disappointed that "Victim Of Love" didn't get higher than 31. I did wonder though, how interested Elton really was in the project. Without writing anything at all on the album, it almost seemed like he simply popped in one afternoon, did the vocals, and left. The production on several of the tracks (done by Pete Bellotte who co-produced nearly all of Donna Summer's 70's hits with Giorgio Moroder) was very good, but 40fan is absolutely correct when he says that the remake of Johnny B. Goode is heinous.
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1979
Feb 15, 2012 12:52:33 GMT -5
Post by matt on Feb 15, 2012 12:52:33 GMT -5
Regarding the Elton John "Victim of Love" album - it is generally considered one of the weakest in his catalogue, especially in the 70's when he was absolutely on fire. Read the album review on allmusic.com - they give it a pretty scathing review. And funny, Elton's biggest hit of 1979 wasn't even on it - "Mama Can't Buy You Love" was on the EP "The Thom Bell Sessions".
For the record, I have never heard "Victim", so I'm only going off what I've read.
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