What I Would Have Played – January 24, 2012 – 1979
By now, we’re all aware of the passing of iconic Penn State football coach Joe Paterno. I recently saw the 1979 Sugar Bowl on TV, in which Paterno’s #1 Nittany Lions played (and lost to) #2 Alabama, 14-7. Today, we look back at my five favorites of 1979, in no order.
1. Joe Jackson – Is She Really Going Out With Him?
This song was not originally released in 1979 (there was a single release in 1978), but the re-release in 1979 got this song the fame it eventually saw. The song charted just outside the top 20 in the US, and became one of Jackson’s most memorable tracks in his short five-year history on the pop charts. The song was later covered by Sugar Ray (among many others) and appeared in the movie There’s Something About Mary.
2. Blondie – Heart of Glass
It’s really hard to find a band that has been at the forefront of three musical movements, but Blondie manages to fit that bill. Blondie was a huge part of the pop punk scene in New York City in the late 1970s, the disco-to-pop transition and the rap movement (with their song Rapture, which came later). The video for this song was filmed in the legendary Studio 54, and it seems (despite critical backlash at the time) to make as much fun of the disco movement as it does to glamorize the movement. For all of the resistance to Blondie’s performance of a disco record, the song hit #1 on the pop charts in 1979, and their musical variety was on display throughout their catalog, including another big 1979 single, Dreaming (bonus!).
3. Supertramp – Goodbye Stranger
Despite its release approaching the end of the decade, Breakfast in America was one of the true landmark records of the 1970s. Roger Hodgson’s band reached their pinnacle with this release, which saw four huge hits in the US. This song was a top 15 track here, and it still gets regular airplay on classic rock stations. Supertramp’s distinctive sound resonated across genres, and still does so 33 years after this album’s release. If this is not in your catalog, it needs to be.
4. Toto – 99
This song was quite the departure for Toto — not so much in the sound, because it featured a lot of the same adult contemporary sound fans of the band grew to know and love, but more for the concept behind it. This song has a very science fiction feel to it (it is said by several sources that it was a tribute to the 1971 George Lucas movie THX 1138), and the video is equally strange. I’m not quite sure what connects with me about the song, but I can’t seem to get it out of my head after hearing it.
5. Gerry Rafferty – Days Gone Down
Gerry Rafferty had a long track record of success before this song ever hit the charts, but it still rivals — if not surpasses — anything he ever recorded. The former lead singer of Stealers Wheel (known for Stuck in the Middle With You), Rafferty had a monster hit with Baker Street a year before the release of this track, and he also saw quite a bit of success with Right Down The Line on the same record (this song was rather successful itself, reaching #17 on the US charts). Rafferty was another of many artists who was more concerned with his craft than the spoils that came with it, and this resulted in some truly inspired creations throughout his career. Rafferty’s demise was a sad one, but we luckily have this masterpiece (among others) by which to remember him.
