Top 40 Hits of the Disco Era 07/07/79

[Matt Cameron]

Holy schmoly! I just obtained the vinyl version (and a lovely CD copy) of this show, and after listening straight through to the end, I found myself mysteriously wearing gold medallions and a bad leisure suit!! ;D I started listening to AT40 in '78, so I remember this show from when it originally aired. The top 3 were:
3. "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees
2. "Night Fever" by the same guys at #3
1. "Le Freak" by Chic
Either you loved this stuff or you hated it. I was in the former category. They managed to put all the Top 40 songs, the top 3 slow-dance songs, and at least 5 other extras (including "Disco Duck") into the show.
This special contains one of the show's better-known mistakes, as Casey plays "San Francisco(You Got Me)" by the Village People, noting that it spent 7 weeks at #1 on the Disco chart, but never hit the Hot 100 because "it was never released as a single". Well, actually it was. The single hit the "Bubbling Under" chart, but never made the leap to the Hot 100.

[Deleted]

reading about a show called the Top 40 Disco Hits while listening to Friday Night 80's makes me think I got scoreboard!

[mstgator]

This was the first AT40 special I got on CD... it's still one of my favorites.

[Matt Cameron]

I had a lot of fun listening to this special. I also got the 2nd Christmas Special from '73, the second Disappearing Acts Special from '75, two shows from '78 when the Bee Gees held down #'s 1 and 2 at the same time, and the 08/01/81 show, when "Jessie's Girl" hit #1. Needless to say I've been listening to some great tunes this week!

[Indycolt]

The Disco show is one of my favorites as well! And I was right there listening to the original when it first came out in 1979. Thats why its nice to have a copy on CD-R now! How many of you have the Townsend Coleman "Replacement" show? the details are available in Rob Durkees book.

[Matt Cameron]

I read about that version in Rob's book. I'd love to hear it if anyone has a copy.

[mstgator]

I've got a copy of the Townsend Coleman version... it's a fun listen, and amazing that he was able to pull it off so well while broadcasting live.

[TomBest]

The Townsend Coleman show is classic just for the music alone. To fill in the time, he played the longer "album" or 12' "dance" versions of many of the songs. AT40 pretty much played just the "single" versions. So for a show to replace a disco special, it ended up being a much more of a disco show than a normal countdown.

[Indycolt]

Tom,
That show is still fun to listen to,and you're right: with the inclusion of so many "dance versions",it really did end up being more of a Disco show than the station might have hoped for. As a listener,I certainly appreciated the longer versions!