US #1s of 1978

voted for chic so fast your head would spin

stuck between "Boogie Oogie Oogie" and "Le Freak"

voted for chic so fast your head would spin

poll results now in

voted for chic so fast your head would spin

^^^this. why are we even bothering.

As it happens, "Le Freak" is the only Chic hit that leaves me stone cold. It was between "Boogie Oogie Oogie" and "If I Can't Have You", but I went for Yvonne.

voted for "Baby Come Back"

The Bee Gees, "Night Fever"

I've never liked "Le Freak" more than "Good Times," "I Want Your Love," "My Feet Keep Dancing," or a couple of others, so voting for "Miss You" was no problem; it's still my favorite Stones single.

The Bee Gees, "Stayin' Alive"
Andy Gibb, "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water"
The Bee Gees, "Night Fever"
Yvonne Elliman, "If I Can't Have You

gibb bros running the table

Any opinions on "You Don't Bring Me Flowers"? I've never actually heard it.

The Bee Gees, "Stayin' Alive"
Andy Gibb, "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water"
The Bee Gees, "Night Fever"
Yvonne Elliman, "If I Can't Have You

gibb bros running the table

Barry Gibb also wrote "Grease."

yeah, i was just commenting on the "in a row" part

stayin' alive 4EVA!!!

i love macarthur park

That's the most wtf #1 of Donna Summer's career.

Oh -- Wings' "With a Little Luck" is better than you remember.

why is that a wtf?

It's a bad song given a disco facelift, and while she's always had an interest in thee-a-tah and show tunes, it still stands out.

I mean, no way does it rank with "Heaven Knows," "Hot Stuff," "Dim All The Lights," "Last Dance," or ten others.

i think it's a very well-written, passionate song, showy though it may be :)

and i personally really enjoy the subtle contrast between the tune, and vocals, and the beat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Do14z5ycic

Voting Nick Gilder, edging out Chic. Also rans:

The Bee Gees, "Stayin' Alive"
The Bee Gees, "Night Fever"
John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, "You're the One That I Want"
The Rolling Stones, "Miss You"
A Taste of Honey, "Boogie Oogie Oogie"

Shadow Dancing sounded so much cooler back then than it does now. *shrugs*

A friend of mine commented on Nick Gilder's Hot Child In The City recently...I told him I couldn't explain why I don't ever remembering hearing more than a snippet of that song.

I'm ignoring Chic because I dunno...I just feel like it. It will get plenty of votes anyway.

Putting MacArthur Park up against Yvonne is criminal. I mean there needs to be some kind of punishment for that, I think. Still going with Yvonne, though. (yeah we know Bimble you've only posted the damn link 500 times already)

I remember "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" as just being your regular sappy ballad. Big deal.

I think it's funny how it's never possible to remember anything about "Baby Come Back" except the chorus, even after you've just played the damn thing!

Listening to the Wings track on You Tube it doesn't ring any bells for me at all, which doesn't make a lot of sense because I used to have a pretty extensive Wings compilation. I'm not sure it's that great of a song, though.

I think it's funny how it's never possible to remember anything about "Baby Come Back" except the chorus, even after you've just played the damn thing!

So not true.

Although "Hot Child In the City" might deserve it too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHUcjWV9n7Y

ohh wait! i didn't see Hot Child In The City

i love that

I like the way Andy Gibb looks in that clip.

This was a good song, too - haven't heard it in awhile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-tJBsOsboM

Wow this set of #1s just kills the 1987 list we just polled. Voted for Miss You.

decided to go for "Boogie Oogie Oogie" because it always puts me in a good mood no matter what : )

Not loving that Anne Murray ballad though. Add a couple of power chord and it could be an American Idol end of season inspirational Moment.

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers" was a staple of junior high dances

I'd forgotten how cool Boogie Oogie Oogie was until only a few months ago.

I didn't hear Miss You on the radio until the early 80's but the first time I heard that my jaw dropped to the floor and I went nuts over it. I think I taped it and played it a bunch of times in a row. It wasn't really possible to buy it as a single by that time, or I might have bought it.

this is a really hard one but I don't see myself voting against Johnny Mathis & Deneice Williams, like, anywhere. If they ran for city council I would canvas for them. they are the best singers on this poll by a good margin & the harmonies on that song are completely unbelievable imo. I predict I will be the lone vote for that song but OK whatever those harmonies are gorgeous and Johnny Mathis is a top 3 all time pop singer, so take that, Nile Rogers & Barry Gibb & all y'all

http://www.fabfourstore.com/repository/product/9BERD139E%20JPGR.jpg

I want that shirt to say "Nile, Bernard, Tony, Alfa, & Luci."

Haha, but then no one would know who the hell it was talking about, sadly!

I admit I don't have a very good recollection of this song, but you're right J0hn, they're certainly showing off some vocal chops here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM39yIKoSo4

Haha, but then no one would know who the hell it was talking about, sadly!

Exactly! (hee hee)

Although Wings were hugely popular at the time, they are underappreciated now. I have always loved 'With A Little Luck' and I find it to be an odd and disturbing song for reasons I could never pin down. For one thing, it does something very weird with time so that while the song is playing it feels like it has been going on for centuries, in a good way. I love Linda McCartney's vocals. It turned out to be the very last Paul McCartney hit I truly adored.

not sure how complete the list is but #2s from that year

Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty (#2)
Double Vision - Foreigner (#2)
Fire - Pointer Sisters (#2)
Y.M.C.A. - Village People (#2)

would pick baker street over the #1s tbh

i know all of these from hearing em except ... "Kiss You All Over"?

"Stayin' Alive" over Elliman.

(also, I only remember the chorus of about 90% of pop tunes)

"kiss you all over" is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJJQpSzDgC0

1978: when even beardy soft-rock was sexyfunk.

but i voted chic because i was feelin canonical. great year.

this whole list is a good argument for cocaine and quaaludes.

"Kiss You All Over" = pop-disco by future country hitmakers, written/produced by a glam-rock team. So interesting in theory. Not bad in reality, either.

I like the Mathis/Williams a lot too, fwiw. The Murray is okay, but she's done much better; I'd vote for "Snowbird" if it was on this list. Only song here I really can't stand is the Steisand/Diamond, though "Three Times A Lady" might come close.

no way does it rank with "Heaven Knows," "Hot Stuff," "Dim All The Lights," "Last Dance," or ten others

I'd say "Macarthur Park" at least ranks with all of those four except "Hot Stuff," though the other three are hardly her best hits. Her worst #1 was probably "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)," with Streisand. Guess I don't like Streisand very much.

I heard "If I Can't Have You" at the gym the other day & it's just timeless & awe-inspiring. I'm taking Yvonne over some pretty tough competition.

"Kiss You All Over" is kinda gross – I've always imagined the singer spitting the chorus through his beard at this poor girl.

Although Wings were hugely popular at the time, they are underappreciated now. I have always loved 'With A Little Luck' and I find it to be an odd and disturbing song for reasons I could never pin down. For one thing, it does something very weird with time so that while the song is playing it feels like it has been going on for centuries, in a good way.

Yeah, the time signatures and rhythm are slightly off – it goes static in the middle, then picks up a very slight steam in the last 1:30. I won't get points for admitting here, but I find the melody ingratiating.

There's a thread idea: What was the last totally U.S. AM Radio #1 song? It's probably not "With a Little Luck", but it's getting close.

I worked at a Top 40 radio station in '78, so I heard most of these songs over and over and over. Had a stoned-in-the-car epiphany once that "Kiss You All Over" is a mindboggling production job (not the songwriting or singing, just the SOUND of the thing.) I kinda thought the same thing about "With A Little Luck" at the time though, too. Probably the weed talking...

My favorite single of '78: "Just What I Needed" by The Cars.

Song I'd most like to hear at the moment: "Hot Child."

But I'm voting "Le Freak."

Okay, just checked out the Exile vid upthread and I realized that I never knew what they look like, or that the song trades between two lead vocalists. And yeah, that hypnotic bass line and whooshy string-synth on the verses are sorta spacy and Alan Parsons-like for a pop single.

man 1978 was REALLY GAY wasn't it

At first glance, not as sublime as I'd have assumed (tho Robert Stigwood would certainly disagree: 8 out of 19 were on RSO!) Maybe it was a better year for #2s, like single-of-the-summer "Baker Street". Too easy to choose Chic, and "Le Freak" feels more like '79 to me anyhow. Three greats from "Saturday Night Fever" split the vote, so I'm gonna go with Donna (but I'd really love to hear "Kiss You All Over" right now.)

As it happens, "Le Freak" is the only Chic hit that leaves me stone cold. It was between "Boogie Oogie Oogie" and "If I Can't Have You", but I went for Yvonne.

― mike t-diva, Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:27 PM (17 hours ago)

i'd say otm, but it leaves me between "miss you" and "night fever"

gibb bros running the table

― velko, Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:42 PM (17 hours ago)

this is otm tho, wow.

ps i hate grease

I was about ten for much of this year and hence a lot of this stuff is firmly ensconced in my subconscious. Oh, the ignominy.

I thought that Steely Dan's "FM (No Static at All)" was one of the great-sounding - as in production - hits of that year. Surprised to find out it only made it to #22.

SOMEONE LEFT THE CAKE OUT IN THE RAIN

I DON'T THINK THAT I CAN TAKE IT

CAUSE IT TOOK SO LONG TO BAKE IT

that song is terrible, never understood the appeal

Dr. Johnson is bringing it. (p.s. you got any more of that medicine, doc?)

I thought that Steely Dan's "FM (No Static at All)" was one of the great-sounding - as in production - hits of that year. Surprised to find out it only made it to #22.

It's true. Steely Dan only had three top tens.

I worked at a Top 40 radio station in '78, so I heard most of these songs over and over and over.

i worked in a college-town record store in '78, and it wasn't the cool store in town by any means and we sold lots of the albums w/these songs.

in retrospect, looking over this list again, I'll crawl out on a limb and say this was a great year for pop singles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcHlL6PR5NU

Okay I know I'm threatening to get way off topic here, but um...not bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9msXmZEh70s

Every time I think "Le Freak" is no "Good Times" I think of it apparently starting life as "aaaaaahhhh... FUCK OFF!" and that is just fine by me.

"Miss You" by about a million miles.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Since no one has yet mentioned the elephant in the room, I will say it: "Three Times A Lady" is my most hated song, then, now, and upside down forever. I hate it because I fear it, and I fear it because I abhor it, and I abhor it because hearing it makes me feel terrible, and STILL I cannot believe it actually exists. It was NUMBER ONE! Three times a lady. Help.

!

Hahaha. Oh man, chill. Rock on. Love your screen names btw.

"three times a lady" is justified by eddie murphy's buckwheat rendition of it, if nothing else.

"Kiss You All Over" is so un-American sounding (reminds me of Golden Earring or somebody), and they turned into a country band!

I remember a sportscaster in NYC (Warner Wolf?) showing a collection of action clips of the Yankees' 1978 season, using "With A Little Luck" as a backing track. It made that song work for me back then.

"Three Times a Lady" is so much better than the crap Richie went on to release that it's ridiculous.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

who voted for Anne Murray? No snark, just curious.

I'm more curious about the eight people who voted for Player.

If you add up all the Gibb brothers productions on the list... well they still lose to "Le Freak," but it's a little tighter.

i voted for Player at least once, possibly twice.

Are you sure it wasn't eight times?

'shadow dancing' deserves better

and 'le freak' is sorta boring

Good year imo.

Assigning “Boogie Oogie Oogie”, one of the most magical records of my teens, ‘meh’ status might be a The Hague-worthy crime in its own right.

eh -- I don't get that "Boogie Oogie Oogie" now.

Just the #1s.