I give each record reviewed on Popular a mark out of 10. This is a poll where you can indicate which ones you would have given 6 or more to – pick as many as you like, and discuss the year in general in the comments box if you want.
Loading ...My highest mark for 78 went to Kate Bush (10) – my lowest to the Brotherhood of Man (2).
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The phantom number ones in the NME chart of 1978 were; Blondie ‘Denis’ (2 weeks) and Showaddywaddy ‘I Wonder Why’ (1 week).
A really good (but not quite great) year for singles, not reflected in the No 1s of a year dominated (at least in terms of weeks at the top) by Grease and Boney M.
Still, any list that includes Wuthering Heights (a definite 10 for me), Uptown Top Ranking and Take A Chance can’t be all bad…
And I do have a soft spot for the Rats and Rod.
It’s surprising that one of the biggest acts of the year – ELO – never got higher than 6.
Some other faves from 78 (the first year I started buying singles)
– Clash “White Man in Hammersmith Palais”
– Jam “Down In A Tubestation”
– Rachel Sweet “B.A.B.Y” (well, partly beacuse I had a crush on her)
– Evelyn King “Shame”
– ELO “Blue Sky”
– Tonight “Drummer Man”
– Jacksons “Blame It On The Boogie”
– Elvis “…Chelsea”
– Blondie “Picture This”
– Sylvester “You Make Me Feel”
– Abba “Summer Night City”
Yeah, it’s one of those years where the sheer popularity of one or two things crowds diversity out on a list like this. I have a lot more time for Grease’s 16 weeks at the top than other 16-week runs I could mention, but even so it’s a more skewed picture than usual.
Yes, there was no denying the phenomenon. I always quite liked You’re The One and Frankie Valli would have made for a deserving Number One.
8 ticks – personal best, but it’ll be surpassed soon enough…
I only ticked 4, I think this was a poor year for number ones. Then again, I only knew just over half of the songs, so maybe there’s some hidden gems.
“Night Fever” was the worst single from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Unbelievable that it’s the only number one in the UK. (There were like 5 or 6 that hit the summit in the US).
us #1s 1978
bee gees – how deep is yr love
player – baby come back
bee gees – stayin alive
andy gibb – love is thicker than water
bee gees – night fever
yvonne elliman – if i can’t have you
wings – with a little luck
johnny mathis and deniece williams – too much, too little, too late
john travolta and olivia newton john – you’re the one that i want
andy gibb – shadow dancing
rolling stones – miss you
commodores – 3 times a lady
frankie valli – grease
a taste of honey – boogie oogie oogie
exile – kiss you all over
nick gilder – hot child in the city
anne murray – you needed me
donna summer – macarthur park
barbra streisand and neil diamond – you don’t bring me flowers
chic – le freak
yikes, usually when i compare the two i prefer the american chart overall (note but i’m an american) but my fave individual #1 is at least half the time maybe more something that topped the brit chart but not the american one, and before i looked i might’ve guessed that would be the case again (esp w/ ‘uptown top ranking’ up there) but ye gods the american chart. the chic is the only thing i’d could put alongside althea&donna-abba-kate bush.
oops i kn0bbed that up by only ticking what i would give ten to X(
I only picked out five. Looking ahead, I should think that 1979’s figure will be at least double that.
Glancing down that list, 1978 was a rum old year for chart-toppers. The changes brought about by punk obviously hadn’t yet filtered through to the top of the charts.
OMG where to begin with the awesomeness of 1978? I voted for eight of the songs here, and of the US #1s I would happily vote for fourteen. SUCH a great year…
Other songs I remember from the time:
Cheap Trick – “Surrender”
Earth Wind & Fire – “September” & “Fantasy”
Electric Light Orchestra – “Mr. Blue Sky” (the whole version, from the album, can make me cry, also Hello Arcade Fire)
Walter Egan – “Magnet And Steel”
Olivia Newton-John – “A Little More Love”
Parliament – “Flash Light” (first synth bass in a song?)
Gerry Rafferty – “Baker Street” (I happen to like the sax and guitar) & “Right Down The Line”
Chris Rea – “Fool (If You Think It’s Over)”
Patti Smith – “Because The Night”
Talking Heads – “Take Me To The River”
Van Halen – “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” & “Runnin’ With The Devil”
John Paul Young – “Love Is In The Air”
Warren Zevon – “Werewolves of London”
Not forgetting Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman” and “Shame” by Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King, or Cheryl Lynn’s “Got To Be Real” or Chic…
Also gloriously looming on the horizon – first singles from Adam and the Ants, Human League, Scritti Politti and I can’t forget Thomas Leer, Flying Lizards, The Rutles or Nick Lowe’s “I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass.” WHEW! The amazing thing is that 1979 is going to be even better (insert Westwood-type bomb here).
Here are the same charts for 1978 seen upside-down, ie the singles that only got to number 40 that year;
21 Jan Jam Jam Jam – The People’s Choice – 1 week
18 Feb Sweet Sweet Smile – The Carpenters – 1
15 Apr Hey Senorita – War – 1
23 Sep Where Did Our Love Go? – Manhatten Transfer – 1
25 Nov Homicide – 999 – 1
None of these have overcome their comparative neglect at the time to pass into popular memory.
‘homicide’ has slightly (much moreso than ‘rat trap’ stateside at least i’d bet) vaguely vaguely sorta yes?
My top fifty non-chart-topping UK Top 40 hits of 1978:
1 Clash – (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
2 Sylvester – You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)
3 Elvis Costello & The Attractions – (I Don’t Wanna Go To) Chelsea
4 Rose Royce – Love Don’t Live Here Anymore
5 Blue Oyster Cult – (Don’t Fear) The Reaper
6 Earth Wind & Fire – September
7 Electric Light Orchestra – Mr Blue Sky
8 Jam – Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
9 Buzzcocks – What Do I Get
10 Rose Royce – Wishing On A Star
11 Electric Light Orchestra – Sweet Talkin’ Woman
12 Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King – Shame
13 Chaka Khan – I’m Every Woman
14 Public Image Ltd – Public Image
15 Funkadelic – One Nation Under A Groove
16 Earth Wind & Fire – Got To Get You Into My Life
17 A Taste Of Honey – Boogie Oogie Oogie
18 Yvonne Elliman – If I Can’t Have You
19 Chic – Everybody Dance
20 Ian Dury & Blockheads – What A Waste
21 Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Radio Radio
22 Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)?
23 X-Ray Spex – The Day The World Turned Day-Glo
24 Undertones – Teenage Kicks
25 Jam – David Watts / A Bomb In Wardour Street
26 Bill Withers – Lovely Day
27 Earth Wind & Fire – Fantasy
28 Bee Gees – Stayin’ Alive
29 Blondie – Denis
30 Nick Lowe – I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass
31 Sylvester – Dance (Disco Heat)
32 Crown Heights Affair – Galaxy Of Love
33 Plastic Bertrand – Ca Plane Pour Moi
34 Blondie – (I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear
35 Jacksons – Blame It On The Boogie
36 X-Ray Spex – Germ Free Adolescence
37 Siouxsie & The Banshees – Hong Kong Garden
38 Rezillos – Top Of The Pops
39 Voyage – From East To West
40 Buzzcocks – Love You More
41 X-Ray Spex – Identity
42 Jilted John – Jilted John
43 Tavares – More Than A Woman
44 Herbie Hancock – I Thought It Was You
45 Alicia Bridges – I Love The Night Life (Disco Round)
46 Hi Tension – Hi Tension
47 Phil Hurtt – Giving It Back
48 Buzzcocks – Promises
49 Musique – In The Bush
50 Stargard – Theme From Which Way Is Up
A wonderful year for the singles charts… but the best was yet to come.
The NME critics’ poll for 1978 is mightily good, despite it’s odd omission of a number 50;
1. Ever Fallen in Love – The Buzzcocks
2. Public Image – Public Image
3. What a waste – Ian Dury
4. Miss You – Rolling Stones
5. Radio Radio – Elvis Costello
6. I Don’t want to go to Chelsea – Elvis Costello
7. Hong Kong Garden – Siouxsie & the Banshees
8. White man in Hammersmith Palais – The Clash
9. Shot Both sides – Magazine
10. Sign of the times – Bryan Ferry
11. Shame – Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King
12. Hit me with your rhythm stick – Ian Dury
13. Rising Free – Tom Robinson Band
14. Satisfaction – Devo
15. Ambition – Subway sect
16. Take me to the river – Talking Heads
17. It’s the new thing – The Fall
18. I love the sound of breaking glass – Nick Lowe
19. What do I get – The Buzzcocks
20. Germ free adolescents – X ray spex
21. I am the fly – Wire
22. Because the night – Patti Smith
23. Damaged goods – Gang of four
24. Mr know it all – Gregory Isaacs
25. Night People – Alan Toussaint
26. Mighty Real – Sylvester
27. Private plane – Thomas Leer
28. Where were you – The Mekons
29. Hard workin man – Captain Beefheart
30. Down at the doctors – Doctor Feelgood
31. Little way different – Errol Dunkley
32. Don’t come close – The Ramones
33. Dangerous woman – Tapper Zuki
34. Love don’t live here any more – Rose Royce
35. Surrender – Cheap trick
36. Dry up your tears – The bold one/Clint Eastwood
37. Stayin’ alive – Bee Gees
38. Badlands – Bruce Springsteen
39. Tommy gun – The Clash
40. Jilted John – Jilted John
41. Human fly – The cramps
42. Natty never get weary – Culture
43. Picture this – Blondie
44. Shank block bologna – Scritti Politti
45. Which way is up – Starguard
46. Statue of liberty – XTC
47. Tomorrow night – Shoes
48. News of the world – The Jam
49. D.I.Y. – Peter Gabriel
Melody Maker didn’t do a poll, but did declare ‘Shame’ as their single of the year.
Sounds also did a critics’ top ten that year;
1) Because the night: Patti Smith
2) Public image: Public Image
3) White man in hammersmith palais: Clash
4) Miss you: Rolling Stones
5) Hong kong garden: Siouxsie & the Banshees
6) Teenage kicks: Undertones
7) Down in the tube station at midnight: Jam
8) Shot by both sides: Magazine
9) Night fever: Bee Gees
10) Tommy gun: Clash
(never much cared for ‘Because the Night’, myself. Indeed, I’d rather listen to ‘Rat Trap’)
Record Mirror did a list that year, too;
1 Patti Smith Because of the Night
2 Jam Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
3 Magazine Shot By Both Sides
4 Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King Shame
5 Gerry Rafferty Baker Street
6 Steel Pulse Ku Klux Klan
7= The Normal TVOD/Warm Letherette
7= Boomtown Rats Rat Trap
9 Elvis Costello I Don’t Want To Go To Chelsea
10 Boney M Rivers Of Babylon
10= Dire Straights Sultans Of Swing
10= Billy Joel Just The Way You Are
And the German number ones…
Mull Of Kintyre – Wings
Smurf Song – Father Abraham
Rivers Of Babylon – Boney M
You’re The One That I Want – JT & ONJ
Dancing In The City – Marshall Hain
Rasputin – Boney M
Mexican Girl – Smokie
Substitute – Clout
You’re The Greatest Lover – Luv’
YMCA – Village People
Justice for Rasputin and Substitute rather outweighed by 17 weeks at the top for Rivers Of Babylon.
1978 no.1s in Holland…
If I Had Words – Scott Fitzgerald & Yvonne Keeley
Denis – Blondie
Stayin’ Alive – Bee Gees
Rivers Of Babylon – Boney M (9 weeks)
You’re The One That I Want (9 more, no escape…)
You’re The Greatest Lover – Luv’
Grease – Frankie Valli
Hopelessly Devoted To You – ONJ
Dreadlock Holiday – 10CC
Get Off – Foxy
Trojan Horse – Luv’
Paradise By The Dashboard Light – Meat Loaf
Norway went with
Darling – Baccara
It’s A Heartache – Bonnie Tyler (12 weeks)
Mil Etter Mil – Jahn Teigen
Rivers Of Babylon
YTOTIW (18 bleedin weeks)
Smurfesangen – Geir Borresen
big ups to holland for that FOXY love
And big ups to Bonnie Tyler for the time she threw an egg at Noel Edmonds on Swap Shop for his fabourite misheard lyric: “It’s A Hard Egg”. Bonus points if she’d actually hit him. Her 70s singles rather more likeable and less overblown than one the bunny prevents me mentioning.
And Norway put Jahn Teigen at number one? Need I remind anybody what that song was famous for?
You’ll never be so wrong. Not in a lifetime.
Lest we forget…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZJ75BLo0WE
But I do prefer their ’68 entry, Stress by Odd Borre.
Um, don’t mind me, but is it true some people are voting not to give Kate Bush more than 6 out of ten? Althea and Donna also? Heck, I even gave that Abba one more than 6…
Probably the same people who voted for MBC and Figaro.
Or those Grease fans… weirdos. Abba would only have got a 5 from me, tho. All a matter of taste, and relativity. What would people have given Summer Night City if it had kept their run going?
I voted for both Grease-related entries so careful with the “weirdo” business there.
#13 – Bah, Patti Smith’s “Because The Night” got accidentally deleted from my list. It should have been at #5.
Re 24, a definite 10.
And I don’t know how I missed Shot By Both Sides from my list. The best debut single since, oh, Wuthering Heights…
(actually I think they may have been released around the same time).
Amazing, simply amazing.
This is the first time my votes have been so closely aligned with the majority.
This can only mean that the end is near for the 1970s!!
Conrad, it’s a 9 for me, close to perfection. But such a slow burner, it baffled me at the time; the giant dynamo took a while to lure me in. Snap for most of Abba’s ’79 45s.
“What would people have given Summer Night City if it had kept their run going?”
Summer Night City > Take a Chance on Me IMHO
Weirdly, the four I voted for have become the Top 4. Should I admit that? ‘Night Fever’ is only just a six, and even then possibly only because I was in the right mood when I voted.
This being my birth year, I can’t claim to have appreciated any of this at the time, but I can see there’s a lot of very good music that didn’t top the chart (some mentioned in other comments) as there always is. For reasons I can’t quite recall, I was discussing the parallel lists of UK and US chart-toppers on Usenet somewhere and boy did the US get the dirty end of the stick there, Chic aside. At least the UK Number Ones aren’t consistently awful, and even the bad ones are mostly well-known.
Oh and I may have asked this before, but is ‘Summer Night City’ one of those records that sounds massively better on disc than on the radio?
NME Readers’ poll for 1978, ‘Best single’ category;
1. The Clash – White Man In Hammersmith Palais
2. PiL – Public Image
3. The Boomtown Rats – Rat Trap
4. The Jam – Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
5. Siouxsie & The Banshees – Hong Kong Garden
6. Magazine – Shot By Both Sides
7. The Rolling Stones – Miss You
8. Patti Smith – Because The Night
9. Jilted John – Jilted John
10. Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street
Aha! Found out the missing single from the NME critics’ list;
In that all-important number 50 position, ‘Power’ by Lester Bowie. I bet that DJ Punctum knows it!
Again, the Melody Maker readers’ poll for 1978 is following a different script to the NME one;
1. Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street
2. Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear The Reaper
3. Genesis – Follow You Follow Me
4. The Rolling Stones – Miss You
5. Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights
6. Patti Smith – Because The Night
7. Thin Lizzy – Rosalie
8. Joe Walsh – Life’s Been Good
9. Black Sabbath – Never Say Die
10. ELO – Mr Blue Sky
Response to a letter in this week’s Radio Times, about the possibility of BBC4 showing Top Of The Pops from 1978:
“the BBC tells cause it has no immediate plans to show 1978 series, but is keeping that decision under review.”
What does anyone think? A tiresome bluff or a serious threat?
#35 perhaps if all ten of us wrote to the BBC…
Do people actually send letters to the Radio Times? “Ooh, isn’t John Barrowman lovely, he certainly brightens up my day..” etc. I suspect not, I suspect that whenever the BBC wants to do something or raise something, they get someone to write in and say “oh, is it true?” and then a spokesman can say “A man told another man that that is probably not what’s going to happen”.
Which means, this particular thread is going to end up with less comments than 1977’s one, by the time 2014 is here.
First TPL entry for 1978, and it’s the one everyone thought I missed out in 1977.
@34 Blimey. MM readers there showing a quite uncanny ability to predict the track-list for the triple CD “Driving Rock Hits of the Seventies”.
Of course the BBC has no immediate plans to show 1978 next year, it’s still early September. They didn’t make their 1977 plans known until towards the end of October.
# 37, #40 Why so rude?
Your comments don’t add anything helpful at all.
1. Yes, people write to the Radio Times, and yes the Radio Times publish some of those letters and yes the people working at the Radio Times seek answers to the questions correspondents raise
2. It’s not uncommon for the BBC to have plans for a few months ahead..
Yes, but BBC4 won’t have confirmed the shape of their weekly schedule this far in advance and quite often they’ll parry long term questions with “no immediate plans” which doesn’t rule anything in or out. Besides which, these repeats really don’t rate as well as everyone thinks.
#42. So, having publicly mauled the premise of my question, you are now able to explain that the BBC4 statement could be either a tiresome bluff (“BBC4 … will parry long term questions”) or a serious threat (“these repeats really don’t rate as well as everyone thinks”). That is what I said in the first place.
Really, when I asked “What does anyone think?”, I meant “Does anyone have any additional insight or information?”
#41,I wasn’t being rude..
I was alerting people to the distinct possibility that the letter might have been ‘internally raised’ to raise the possibility that the Top of the pops repeats may get packed in, so as to ascertain the outcry.
I don’t doubt that they don’t have the schedules set as yet, but if someone wrote in asking “oh, will Eastenders still be broadcast next year?” I doubt the reply would be “we have no plans as yet, but”
See, the word “decision” in “we are keeping that decision under review” seems to suggest they have decided.
On the schedules being raised – working at a TV station researching for the programming/scheduling team at the minute in fact – the BBC should have a pretty good idea what their schedules will look like in January right now. We’re working on the final bits of our January schedule at the moment, after which they’ll get kicked around for a bit to see what we think of them/run some numbers to see if we think they will work, leading to a confirmation 6 weeks out (i.e. middle of November).
In other words, someone may well have “decided” what is happening before they get some analysis/polishing over the coming 4/6 weeks – pending an actual finalised decision.
#44. Thanks for the clarity. I agree with what you say in #44, and in particular it’s good to know someone else other than me would consider that the use of the word “decision” is important.
#45. Likewise.
I really do hope that 1978 gets shown, as it’s my Year Zero – the year I started buying records, and really paying attention to what was in the charts, as opposed to merely what was at No 1. After a brief flirtation with the new Smash Hits, I transferred my allegiance to Record Mirror upon learning that it contained each week’s Top 75. Besides, the public has a right to be reminded of hits by the likes of Marshall Hain, Yellow Dog, City Boy and, er, Plastic Bertrand.* Even though what might have been an unforgettable performance by Legs and Co as Smurfs appears to have been wiped.
(*first 45 purchased, actually)
Yes, my year zero too. I’d be heartbroken if they stopped now.
from the TOTP Facebook page:
Great news that the 1978 season of TOTP will be shown in 2013 on BBC4, starting off with ‘The Story Of 1978’ documentary and then into the 5th January 1978 edition of the programme!
@47 – and let’s not forget “Driver’s Seat” by Sniff ‘n’ the Tears, “Car 67” by Driver 67, and the Motors’ two hits. 1978 was a vintage year for automobile-related chart pop.