Customer Reviews

Billboard Top Hits: 1979

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This excellent compilation contains four massive disco smashes, one stunning piece of power pop, three soulful ballads and one great country story song. The heavy presence of disco is to be expected since this dance style still rules the charts in 1979. I Will Survive and Y.M.C.A. became ageless club anthems, Ring My Bell is famous for its atmospheric syndrum effects and Heart Of Glass crossed the boundaries between new wave and disco in a big way. Escape (The Pina Colada Song) was a novelty hit and it still irritates me, but Just When I Needed You Most, Sad Eyes and Fire are great emotional ballads that have stood the test of time very well. The Devil Went Down To Georgia is still an amusing country song with some superb instrumental breaks. Nine great songs out of ten tracks make this one of the better Billboard compilations, reflecting all of the relevant styles that made 1979 such a great year for music.

Ah, 1979. It was the last year that disco ruled the pop charts, new wave began its rise, rap had its first Top 40 hit ("Rapper's Delight"), and every newscast began with a countdown of the number of days hostages had been held in Iran. As a 9 year old, I heard these songs everywhere, from "My Sharona" played round the clock on the radio, to "Sad Eyes" and "Just When I Needed You Most" played during slow skate at the local roller rink. I saw most of these songs lip synced to on "Solid Gold" (remember that show?), where Dionne Warwick's hair got shorter every week. I thought Charlie Daniels was one bad dude when he was talking about the Devil coming down south, where I lived at the time! Who knew then that "Y.M.C.A." would become the most played song in the history of the universe? And though I've listened to it for 25 years without tiring of it, I still don't have the foggiest clue what Debbie Harry is singing on "Heart of Glass?!" Needless to say, this CD sums up one year better than just about any other Billboard collection to date. Memories usually don't come this cheap!!! As we said in 1979, "Na Noo, Na Noo."

I bought the cd just for that one song you cannot find anywhere else. Randy VanWarmer, Just When I Needed You Most. You cannot find this one anywhere, unless you have it on an old record.

I was 10 years old in 1979, and I remember listening to a lot of these songs on the radio, especially "Escape"(Pina Colada Song). It was one of my favorite songs back then.
This greatly eclectic mix of genres will bring back some great memories of a year that spurned some great music.
Disco was fading, but Blondie got her hooks into it with "Heart of Glass", which starts this disc off right.
"My Sharona", the one hit wonder of The Knack is on here, along with a few 70's party standards for fast dances, "I will survive", "YMCA", and "Ring my bell".
The slower songs are sad love songs: "Just when I needed you most" and "Sad Eyes".
This is fun album to have on and sing along with(karoake here i come...)in the car, or at home in the background at a party.
I've actually recognized it being played at clubs, between bands.
I am highly recommending this for 70's music fans! It's one of the greatest if not the best compliation album I've heard for that decade.

Eileen Famiglietti

I got this for the hard-to-find hit by the late Randy Vanwarmer, "Just When I Needed You Most"--a nice, miserable ballad that swam against the tide of disco-heavy pop radio. "My Sharona" and "I Will Survive" are the opposite of hard-to-find, but were two of the defining hits of the year.

The buyer might need to know that these are the 45 versions, which in 2 cases are significantly different from their LP, FM-radio counterparts. "Heart of Glass" is missing the timeless lyric: "Once I had a love, and it was a gas/Soon turned out to be a pain in the ass." My parents cracked up at that in the car the first time they heard that. Maybe more crucially, "Devil Went Down to Georgia" has the "son of a gun" lyric, not the "son of a bitch" one infinitely preferable considering my foul mouth.

An even bigger caveat emptor: this is the wrong mix of "Ring My Bell". Maybe Rhino corrected it later, but on my version a scratchy percussion sound missing, and those quirky little "poom!" sounds don't kick in till about 3/4 of the way in.

I loved 1979 more than any other year. I accept there's only 10 hits to a disc in this series, but since three of these are not the best versions I have to give this only three stars.

I always will call 1979 the year that music got close to the light, as it was the one year when the walls came down, and genres crossed into one another.

This 10 track retrospective is a good example of the diversity that topped the charts in '79. From Disco Classics (I Will Survive, Ring My Bell), to the camp from the openly gay Village People (Y.M.C.A.), to country (The Devil Went Down to Georgia), to a reworked track from Bruce Springsteen via the Pointer Sisters (Fire).
You have here a taste of what went on back in '79.

The dramatic ballad, another 70's staple is also featured here with Sad Eyes, and Just When I Needed You Most, and another 70's icon the "songs that defy description" is featured here with Escape (The Pina Colada Song).

There was much more to 1979, but this collection is a good primer.

Ken

Absolutely one of the greatest summations of music ever to be recorded on a single disk. Buy it.

Nice to have all these hits on one CD. All original versions with the single edit of "My Sharona."

My daughter loved hearing the songs from her high school graduation year. Fun memories. CD arrived very fast.

The product was delivered on time and worked just fine. My family and I really enjoy the songs on the CD