Music meme
Okay, I don't usually play these things, but I'm in a susceptible mood. I caught this one over at Tom the Dog's You Know What I Like?. Here's what you do:
First, go to http://www.musicoutfitters.com/
Enter the year you graduated high school into the search engine.
Click on the "Top 100 Hits of XXXX" link, and copy the list.
Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate and underline your favorite. Do nothing to the ones you don't remember or don't care about.
Tom added italicizing the ones he simply doesn't remember, which, upon looking at the list I pulled, makes perfect sense.
Ladies and gents, presenting the truly sucktastic year 1979. No wonder I feel as if I passed most of it in a coma. There are so many I simply don't recall, but then again I don't believe I listened to a top 40 format after hitting my teens. Even several of the ones I've marked as ones I liked are wobbly choices. I was much more likely to be listening to Elvis Costello's first two albums and music from 5-15 years earlier.
It's... I don't know... alarming how many of these seem to be gay band or female impersonator standards:
1. My Sharona, The Knack
2. Bad Girls, Donna Summer
3. Le Freak, Chic
6. I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor (I'm having The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert flashbacks)
7. Hot Stuff, Donna Summer
8. Y.M.C.A., Village People (It's too kitschy to really hate.)
9. Ring My Bell, Anita Ward
11. Too Much Heaven, Bee Gees
14. Makin' It, David Naughton
15. Fire, Pointer Sisters
17. A Little More Love, Olivia Newton-John
18. Heart Of Glass, Blondie
19. What A Fool Believes, Doobie Brothers
20. Good Times, Chic
22. Knock On Wood, Amii Stewart
23. Stumblin' In, Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman
24. Lead Me On, Maxine Nightingale
25. Shake Your Body, Jacksons
26. Don't Cry Out Loud, Melissa Manchester
27. The Logical Song, Supertramp
28. My Life, Billy Joel
30. You Can't Change That, Raydio
32. I'll Never Love This Way Again, Dionne Warwick
33. Love You Inside Out, Bee Gees
34. I Want You To Want Me, Cheap Trick
35. The Main Event (Fight), Barbra Streisand
36. Mama Can't Buy You Love, Elton John
37. I Was Made For Dancin', Leif Garrett
38. After The Love Has Gone, Earth, Wind and Fire
39. Heaven Knows, Donna Summer and Brooklyn Dreams
41. Lotta Love, Nicolette Larson
42. Lady, Little River Band
44. Hold The Line, Toto
45. He's The Greatest Dancer, Sister Sledge
46. Sharing The Night Together, Dr. Hook
48. In The Navy, Village People (see #8)
50. The Devil Went Down To Georgia, Charlie Daniels Band (I honestly don't know how to place this one, so I'll stick with indifference.)
51. Gold, John Stewart
52. Goodnight Tonight, Wings (Wings had new music that year? Huh!
53. We Are Family, Sister Sledge
54. Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy, Bad Company
55. Every 1's A Winner, Hot Chocolate
56. Take Me Home, Cher
57. Boogie Wonderland, Earth, Wind and Fire
58. (Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away, Andy Gibb
59. What You Won't Do For Love, Bobby Caldwell
60. New York Groove, Ace Frehley
61. Sultans Of Swing, Dire Straits
62. I Want Your Love, Chic
63. Chuck E's In Love, Rickie Lee Jones
64. I Love The Night Life, Alicia Bridges (See #6)
65. Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now, McFadden and Whitehead
67. Renegade, Styx
68. Love Is The Answer, England Dan and John Ford Coley
69. Got To Be Real, Cheryl Lynn
70. Born To Be Alive, Patrick Hernandez
71. Shine A Little Love, Electric Light Orchestra
72. I Just Fall In Love Again, Anne Murray
73. Shake It, Ian Matthews
74. I Was Made For Lovin' You, Kiss
75. I Just Wanna Stop, Gino Vannelli
77. Ooh Baby Baby, Linda Ronstadt
78. September, Earth, Wind and Fire
79. Time Passages, Al Stewart
80. Rise, Herb Alpert (I didn't even know Herb was putting out anything new by then...)
81. Don't Bring Me Down, Electric Light Orchestra
82. Promises, Eric Clapton
83. Get Used To It, Roger Voudouris
84. How Much I Feel, Ambrosia
85. Suspicions, Eddie Rabbitt
86. You Take My Breath Away, Rex Smith
87. How You Gonna See Me Now, Alice Cooper
88. Double Vision, Foreigner
89. Every Time I Think Of You, Babys
90. I Got My Mind Made Up, Instant Funk
91. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, Michael Jackson
92. Bad Case Of Lovin' You, Robert Palmer
93. Somewhere In The Night, Barry Manilow
95. Dance The Night Away, Van Halen
96. Dancing Shoes, Nigel Olsson
97. The Boss, Diana Ross
98. Sail On, Commodores
99. I Do Love You, G.Q.
100. Strange Way, Firefall
Damn you for making me go through that...
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Comments
1) OMG, David Naughton?!?!? There's a name I haven't heard in 20 years! ::shiver::
2) There are TWO....count them TWO Peaches and Herb (PEACHES AND HERB?!?!?) songs on this list. Which brings on yet another....::shiver::
3) So there's three. I'm traumatized. I'm allowed. I swear I can't get over how much disco there is in this list. I'm grateful to whatever forces got us long past this episode.
Tom: I believe you've hit on it. By the time we're graduating high school we're being relentlessly pitched to, and we've developed defenses -- we can consider it to be obstinate armor or sophisticated filters, and it's probably a mix of both. When we're 9 we're generally not aware of an enormous, commercial marketing machine, nor dissecting the material to see how formulated and/or derivative it might be. Instead, it's the soundtrack for our lives, a fairly personal, subjective thing, and all of the sorrows and joys in the songs ring deep and true to us. Later on, with newer music, we become aware of the intended manipulations and become resentful of it.
Of course, the disco days were still upon us then. Dr Hook is one of my least favorite memories. The Knack...at #1? And yet, what I was listening to back then: The Cars!! Mother!! Make it stop!
Yeah, sure, Supertramp and Dire Straits. The discovery of something called MTV that showed rock videos! All the time!! Wow! Or was that in '82?
Other songs like Billy Joel's MY LIFE I recall, but I no longer remember if I liked it or not. And then there's the abomination known as Donna Summers.
Gads. The horror....the horror...
No wonder I gave up on radio.
Grant --
I'd have to agree with all of your likes, Mike. I suppose of this list "The Logical Song" might be my favorite too, but it's not one I really like all that much. But, you've got not Billy Joel's best, not ELO's best, not Dire Straights' best, etc.
Oh God, I just noticed that 1979 had Ace Frehley as a solo artist!
1976 coming up soon (or sooner or later) over on my blog.