Favorite Songs of 1979

For me, 1979 wasn't a very good year, either in terms of music or my life in general. There were a few musical standouts, although these really weren’t comparable to later years. One good thing about 1979 was the start of the decline of the disco era. Sure, I liked some disco songs, but enough was enough! Ironically, just as disco’s popularity began to wane, the group Electric Light Orchestra seemed to want to become a disco band. I liked their Shine a Little Love, while their Don’t Bring Me Down was just gold old-fashioned rock n’ roll, Dave Clark Five-style. Rod Stewart had a likable disco-type song in Do Ya Think I’m Sexy, and I grew to like Andy Gibb’s dance hit Shadow Dancing. But other types of music were emerging in ‘79. New wave, reggae/rock, and rap made their influence felt with Blondie (Heart of Glass), The Police (Roxanne and Message in a Bottle), and the Sugarhill Gang (Rapper’s Delight), respectively. The Knack briefly exploded into rock superstardom with their relentless My Sharona. Dire Straits impressed me with their guitar virtuosity for their enduring Sultans of Swing. Several old-time acts had good records in 1979: Elton John’s Mama Can’t Buy You Love, George Harrison’s Blow Away, and Neil Diamond’s romantic Forever in Blue Jeans (my #3 favorite song from back in 1979). My #2 favorite song was the exciting and grossly underplayed Get It Right Next Time by the talented Gerry Rafferty. The top favorite of mine, as I lived through 1979, was What a Fool Believes (which actually won the Grammy Award that year) by the Doobie Brothers This was one of those songs that I grew to appreciate the more I heard it. The happiest song of that pretty unhappy (for me) year? What else but We Are Family by Sister Sledge!