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The 100 Greatest Songs of 1979 #1 “Comfortably Numb” Pink Floyd (1 Viewer)

I don’t think I know this one. Dirty Mind from ‘80 is where I start with Prince. I’ll have to check it out. 

 
timschochet said:
47. Prince “I Wanna Be Your Lover” (from Prince) 

https://youtu.be/Rp8WL621uGM

1979 was a falsetto paradise! 
Prince was actually his second album, but this song was his breakout hit. I must have been aware of it at the time because it’s always been very recognizable to me, but I was not aware of the artist until “Little Red Corvette” exploded on MTV a few years later. 
As always, this funk gem was written and produced by the same guy who also manages to play all of the instruments. One of the very greatest musical geniuses of our all time. 
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Fixed.

 
timschochet said:
52. The B-52s “Rock Lobster” (from The B-52’s) 

https://youtu.be/n4QSYx4wVQg

Somehow I’ve never watched that video before and it’s awesome. Fred looks totally different as befits the 70s, the two girls are absolutely gorgeous, and we get a good look at just how strong the rhythm section for this band is. 
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I was thought this song had hints of Astronomy Domine from Pink Floyd.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJh9OLlXenM 

 
46. Nick Lowe “Cruel to Be Kind” (released as single) 

https://youtu.be/b0l3QWUXVho

The song was originally released as a single but, upon its surprise success, was added to his second solo album Labour of Love. 
The scenes from the wedding on the video are real; Lowe actually did get married to Carlene Carter (of the legendary Carter family) at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas; however, Dave Edmunds as the chauffeur was staged. 
Whenever I hear the phrase “power pop” this is the first song that comes to mind. 

 
timschochet said:
46. Nick Lowe “Cruel to Be Kind” (released as single) 

https://youtu.be/b0l3QWUXVho

The song was originally released as a single but, upon its surprise success, was added to his second solo album Labour of Love. 
The scenes from the wedding on the video are real; Lowe actually did get married to Carlene Carter (of the legendary Carter family) at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas; however, Dave Edmunds as the chauffeur was staged. 
Whenever I hear the phrase “power pop” this is the first song that comes to mind. 
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Big fan

 
timschochet said:
46. Nick Lowe “Cruel to Be Kind” (released as single) https://youtu.be/b0l3QWUXVho

The song was originally released as a single but, upon its surprise success, was added to his second solo album Labour of Love. 
The scenes from the wedding on the video are real; Lowe actually did get married to Carlene Carter (of the legendary Carter family) at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas; however, Dave Edmunds as the chauffeur was staged. 
Whenever I hear the phrase “power pop” this is the first song that comes to mind. 
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You're chopping away at my list of 'The Next 100 Songs of 1979.

'

 
45. The Spinners “Working My Way Back to You/Forgive Me Girl” (released as a single) 

https://youtu.be/XV_KkNhnitI

The Spinners are one of the most underrated soul groups out there, between this classic medley cover (of a Four Seasons song and a Michael Zager song)  and “Rubber Band Man” this is quite as good as soul music gets. But this tune also sounds more like an early 70s song than almost anything else on this list. It doesn’t seem to belong in 1979. Even so, sublime. 

 
timschochet said:
45. The Spinners “Working My Way Back to You/Forgive Me Girl” (released as a single) 

https://youtu.be/XV_KkNhnitI

The Spinners are one of the most underrated soul groups out there, between this classic medley cover (of a Four Seasons song and a Michael Zager song)  and “Rubber Band Man” this is quite as good as soul music gets. But this tune also sounds more like an early 70s song than almost anything else on this list. It doesn’t seem to belong in 1979. Even so, sublime. 
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Its one of the songs I distinctly remember from 1979 since it was on a jukebox in the bar next to the restaurant I worked as a busboy and it got played a lot.  I really liked it and still do.

 As you know this is a Four Seasons tune that is about a guy who cheated on a girl and is trying to get back to her but then they recorded another song called "Forgive Me Girl" that dovetails with 'Working My Way Back to You Babe' as a kind of an extended begging mix.

 
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44. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers “Don’t Do Me Like That” (from Damn the Torpedoes) 

https://youtu.be/T1aU1wbFSTs

Earlier in this thread somebody wrote they had listened to a particular Van Halen tune 10,000 times? Feels like I’ve heard this song 10,001. And it never gets old, never gets tired. Petty once revealed that he considered giving the song to J Geils Band because he felt it “had their sound.” And I can actually kind of hear that. But all the same I’m really glad that didn’t happen. 

 
krista4 said:
You had to know this would be on there.  Tim had it on his top New Wave song list and is a fan.

Not that I remember this stuff or anything...  :oldunsure:  
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I have enough to get to 100 and I only started coming to this board around the time Covid hit so I haven't seen every thread so my list/perspective won't' be tainted by previous lists.  Its a challenge to do a list after someone else has taken the first 100 songs off but its a fun challenge. 

Also I'm old enough to remember 79.  So old my social security number is 8.  Baa daa bing rimshot

 
Bracie Smathers said:
I have enough to get to 100 and I only started coming to this board around the time Covid hit so I haven't seen every thread so my list/perspective won't' be tainted by previous lists.  Its a challenge to do a list after someone else has taken the first 100 songs off but its a fun challenge. 

Also I'm old enough to remember 79.  So old my social security number is 8.  Baa daa bing rimshot
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Oh, your second 1971 list was a blast.  I expect great things here, too.  ;)

 
43. Neil Young & Crazy Horse “Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)” (from Rust Never Sleeps) 

https://youtu.be/331kyZ9OXMc

The album also features a live acoustic version of this song, “Hey Hey My My (Out of the Blue)”. Young would repeat this feat years later with the song “Rockin’ In the USA” on his album Freedom. But in this case, “Into the Black” got all the radio play. 
is this the first ever Grunge song? That’s what Kurt Cobain thought: (Eerily, he quotes lines from this song in his suicide note.) if someone that  would be especially ironic, because Young wrote the song to express his own irrelevance and that of his contemporaries with the advent of punk rock and post punk. 

 
Don't Do Me Like That is a good tune,  but not a favorite of mine. Maybe I have just heard it too many times.

I am not a big Neil Young fan, but the acoustic My My Hey Hey is a song I am really fond of.  The heavy Hey Hey My My not so much, at least in the case of the original studio version which has that god-awful guitar tone. 

 
40. Michael Jackson “Off the Wall” (from Off the Wall) 

https://youtu.be/g0ViBH7m4XA

Quincy Jones met Michael Jackson during the filming of 1978’s The Wiz which Jones wrote; Jackson requested Jones write a new song for his part as the scarecrow -infamously IMO, since the original stage song, “Born on the Day Before Yesterday”, was my favorite song from that musical ever since I saw it as a young kid and my parents bought me the soundtrack. But that fact aside, the meeting between Jackson and Jones was a pivotal moment in the history popular music and led to two of the most important and greatest albums of all time. 
I have selected three songs from this album as they are among the three biggest and best songs of 1979. The first, the title song, begins with a rather annoying wicked laugh (a preview of “Thriller” perhaps?) before revealing a brilliant mixture of disco and funk. The backup singer is the legendary Patti Austin (everyone on this record is legendary.) 

 
I’ve decided to do two more of these (not immediately- I need some time off between each one!) 

The first will be 1975 to look at how music evolved halfway between the two key years of 71 amd 79. The second will be 1985 to examine the results of the changes that 1979 helped to begin. After that I think I’m done; maybe @Bracie Smathers , who is a better writer than I am, can continue the analysis. 

 
Thanks @timschochet. Its good to look back at all the great songs from my youth.

Personally I think this list has better songs than 71. Likely due to my age as I was only 6 in 71.  This list would be right as I was forming my music tastes. 

 
timschochet said:
39. Cheap Trick “Dream Police” (from Dream Police) 

https://youtu.be/OPemyipJzAM

Rick Neilson was a very good power pop songwriter and this was one of his best efforts. The song has a soaring bass line which helps; the rhythm section and overall musicianship of this band was underrated at the time. 
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One of my first concerts was Cheap Trick on their Dream Police tour. 

Bun E. Carlos with a smoke in his mouth and a look of indifference on his face. Rick Nielsen on guitar jumping around like a manic nerd. The cool Robin Zander on vocals. Great show! I still have some guitar picks Nielsen flicked into the audience. The opening act was the Michael Schenker Group. But, who cares....we want Cheap Trick!

 
38. Pink Floyd “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” (from The Wall) 

https://youtu.be/34ZmKbe5oG4

It always surprises me when I hear this fantastic song get dissed by Pink Floyd fans. Perhaps it’s the disco beat? More likely it’s that old  snobbery where some fans of these “serious” bands are always contemptuous of any song that is a hit. I was even asked, earlier in this thread, not to include this tune among my selections from this album. To which I can only respond: if you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat? 

 
timschochet said:
38. Pink Floyd “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” (from The Wall) 

https://youtu.be/34ZmKbe5oG4

It always surprises me when I hear this fantastic song get dissed by Pink Floyd fans. Perhaps it’s the disco beat? More likely it’s that old  snobbery where some fans of these “serious” bands are always contemptuous of any song that is a hit. I was even asked, earlier in this thread, not to include this tune among my selections from this album. To which I can only respond: if you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat? 
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I am a big Pink Floyd fan, and I'm not sure if it is a top 10 song on The Wall for me, it's close. But I still agree that this song has to be in the top 100 list for 1979. Of course, my top 100 would have more Pink Floyd songs in it than I anticipate this one to have.

 
Run Like Hell and Another Brick II both featured since I last posted.  Both great songs, and ones that slayed live when done by the band in the late 80's and 1994. Run Like Hell live is almost too good to believe, with that extended intro and middle section.  I actually love the short edit of it in the film as well, as it sounds so furious, and moving the synth solo to underneath the second verse was a stroke of genius (Roger Waters, duh).

I only know Cheap Trick's hits, but I love me some Dream Police, as well as Surrender.  I listen to both of those songs somewhat regularly.

 
timschochet said:
38. Pink Floyd “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” (from The Wall) 

https://youtu.be/34ZmKbe5oG4

It always surprises me when I hear this fantastic song get dissed by Pink Floyd fans. Perhaps it’s the disco beat? More likely it’s that old  snobbery where some fans of these “serious” bands are always contemptuous of any song that is a hit. I was even asked, earlier in this thread, not to include this tune among my selections from this album. To which I can only respond: if you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat? 
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You think that's bad? I had KISS fans - KISS FANS! - get mad at me because I made the stupid comment that I thought "I Was Made For Loving You" was a pretty good record. 

KISS fans said that.

KISS fans, tim. 

The worst are Deadheads or Prog snobs, though. 

 
Uruk-Hai said:
You think that's bad? I had KISS fans - KISS FANS! - get mad at me because I made the stupid comment that I thought "I Was Made For Loving You" was a pretty good record. 

KISS fans said that.

KISS fans, tim. 

The worst are Deadheads or Prog snobs, though. 
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In all fairness , calling any Kiss song or album good is worthy of derision. ;)

 
timschochet said:
39. Cheap Trick “Dream Police” (from Dream Police) 

https://youtu.be/OPemyipJzAM

Rick Neilson was a very good power pop songwriter and this was one of his best efforts. The song has a soaring bass line which helps; the rhythm section and overall musicianship of this band was underrated at the time. 
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Tenth-grade rockaction thinks this is the bossest pick.  Still does, actually.

 
Ghost Rider said:
In all fairness , calling any Kiss song or album good is worthy of derision. ;)
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I stand by my review of the KISS song. :lol:

But you make my point for me anyway. These were two brothers who called "I Was Made For Loving You" a name I will not utter here. They LOVED KISS before that. They also hated Rush after they started having radio hits. 

I've seen this play out over and over - Metallica fans, REMs, U2 guys, etc..... It's like there's something lacking in these fans' own lives that make them want to have something to themselves so they feel hip. It's also amusing to me that the vast majority of these folks are white, middle-or-upper-class people.

 
Uruk-Hai said:
I stand by my review of the KISS song. :lol:

But you make my point for me anyway. These were two brothers who called "I Was Made For Loving You" a name I will not utter here. They LOVED KISS before that. They also hated Rush after they started having radio hits. 

I've seen this play out over and over - Metallica fans, REMs, U2 guys, etc..... It's like there's something lacking in these fans' own lives that make them want to have something to themselves so they feel hip. It's also amusing to me that the vast majority of these folks are white, middle-or-upper-class people.
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I remember some hardcore Metallica fans at the restaurant where I bussed tables in '90 and '91 getting all pissy when they gained tons of news fans thanks to the Black Album, and I get that it can be a little annoying to have these newbie fans gushing all of a sudden, when you just knew for years how great they were, but get past that petty crap and enjoy the tunes!  Good music is good music, and sometimes that good music is very mainstream and accessible, and sometimes it isn't.

 
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timschochet said:
I’ve decided to do two more of these (not immediately- I need some time off between each one!) 

The first will be 1975 to look at how music evolved halfway between the two key years of 71 amd 79. The second will be 1985 to examine the results of the changes that 1979 helped to begin. After that I think I’m done; maybe @Bracie Smathers , who is a better writer than I am, can continue the analysis. 
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I knew intuitively that 71 was a great and deep year for music, so many debut albums by groups and solo artists breaking out.

I won't lie, I hesitated on 79.  Lot of disco and AC, lot of Adult Contemporary.  Definitely not as deep.

Going second is difficult but it makes me dig deeper and parse whats available.

 
Ghost Rider said:
In all fairness , calling any Kiss song or album good is worthy of derision. ;)
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I like this one.

Ghost Rider said:
t can be a little annoying to have these newbie fans gushing all of a sudden, when you just knew for years how great they were
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First 'record' I got that wasn't a hand-me-down was the single ABC by the Jackson Five.  I was 10 and a friend of the family was going to throw out ALL of his records and told me to grab what I wanted.  I only wanted that 45 because I was a big Michael Jackson fan.  

I followed him long before Thriller and could feel the break out starting in 79 with Off the Wall.  When he blew up it was more of a validation.  I wasn't looking down on people who got swept up in the mania.  I took satisfaction recalling the friends who scoffed at me as a kid.

 
Bracie Smathers said:
First 'record' I got that wasn't a hand-me-down was the single ABC by the Jackson Five.  I was 10 and a friend of the family was going to throw out ALL of his records and told me to grab what I wanted.  I only wanted that 45 because I was a big Michael Jackson fan.  

I followed him long before Thriller and could feel the break out starting in 79 with Off the Wall.  When he blew up it was more of a validation.  I wasn't looking down on people who got swept up in the mania.  I took satisfaction recalling the friends who scoffed at me as a kid.
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Yep, be happy that a band or artist you love is getting more fans and recognition.

That said, there are several obscure artists I am currently a huge fan of, and seeing them in small, intimate venues has been great. Even had front row center for one, and that would be a lot harder to pull off if they were bigger.  Also, I have seen Muse three times, and the first time was right before they broke big here in the States, so it was a venue that holds a little over 2K, and seeing them in that intimate of a venue was insanely awesome (12-15K at both shows I have seen since).  So there are major advantages to a favorite band not blowing up in the mainstream. :yes:

 
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37. Journey “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’” (from Evolution) 

https://youtu.be/fTkHFQC3wow

Steve Perry transformed Journey, not only as a singer but as a songwriter. On 1978’s Infinity, the album during which he took over lead singer duties, he wrote “Lights”; then for Evolution he wrote this song which was the band’s first top 20 hit and suddenly Journey was off and running as a hits band. For my money, “L,T,S” might  be their best ever song, and a big part of the reason are the vocals. Perry just lets it go here and very few singers can match his sheer power. 

 
Ghost Rider said:
Run Like Hell and Another Brick II both featured since I last posted.  Both great songs, and ones that slayed live when done by the band in the late 80's and 1994. Run Like Hell live is almost too good to believe, with that extended intro and middle section.  I actually love the short edit of it in the film as well, as it sounds so furious, and moving the synth solo to underneath the second verse was a stroke of genius (Roger Waters, duh).

I only know Cheap Trick's hits, but I love me some Dream Police, as well as Surrender.  I listen to both of those songs somewhat regularly.
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There isn’t a bad song on The Wall.   Instead, it is filled with incredible songs that never seem to get old.  

 
DocHolliday said:
There isn’t a bad song on The Wall.   Instead, it is filled with incredible songs that never seem to get old.  
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I will concede that many of them only really work within the context of the album, but I love them all.  I can't imagine cutting anything from it.

 
timschochet said:
36. “Good Times” Chic (from Risqué)

https://youtu.be/Er9xGRolrT4

Edwards and Rogers again. I love the first comment from YouTube: “I’m a man, but this bass made me pregnant.” So true. 
Actually, remember the instrumentation for this song. We will be hearing from it again. 
 
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If it’s that other song most are familiar with, isn’t that 1980?

ETA: never mind, it’s that other other one. I was initially thinking “Another One Bites The Dust.”

 
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timschochet said:
36. “Good Times” Chic (from Risqué)

https://youtu.be/Er9xGRolrT4

Edwards and Rogers again. I love the first comment from YouTube: “I’m a man, but this bass made me pregnant.” So true. 
Actually, remember the instrumentation for this song. We will be hearing from it again. 
Click to expand...
This is at least 30 spots too low for 1979 according to my taste, but at least you included it.

Chic is criminally underrated. That they are not in the RRHOF is a damned travesty (Rogers got tokened in for.....something....... a few years ago, I guess because Jann Wenner was feeling generous that day). About a quarter of '80s popular music is directly because of them. Nile Rogers is a freaking composing/arranging/production genius. The singers were some of the best in the business. Tony Thompson was the love child of John Bonham and Al Jackson. And Bernard Edwards was one of the half-dozen best bassists in rock history. He was so good that bands had to use keyboards just to rip off his sound. 

They had more (& bigger) hits than Buddy Holly, and were WAY more influential. 

One thing I find interesting about Chic is that, unlike most front-line bands, they got less ornate as time went on. 

 
35. Elvis Costello & the Attractions “Oliver’s Army” (from Armed Forces) 

https://youtu.be/LrjHz5hrupA

This is said to be Bob Dylan’s favorite Elvis Costello song, and it’s easy to see why: the lyrics are whimsically obscure and chalk full of interesting ideas both at the same time, as they are in so many Dylan classics. Some of them, however, were politically incorrect (even more so now) and combined with certain statements got Costello into some trouble at the time- his defenders claimed it was more a case of Randy Newman like role playing and sarcasm- who knows? Either way, brilliant. And a great infectious melody as well. 

 
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