Our survey brings us now to 1978, the year in which the dominance of disco in the pop charts reached its zenith - the Bee Gees and little brother Andy have 22 weeks in the #1 spot between them, the overwhelming majority of the rest of the 20 songs to make it to the top are disco tunes, and even the Rolling Stones went disco for their sole #1 this year.
So do up your big fluffy hairdo and get your wide-lapeled tux with the puffy shirt out of the closet, and tell us - which of these tunes is your favorite?
Yvonne Elliman gets my vote, partly because I immediately think of Donna Pescow when I hear “If I Can’t Have You…” :o ; “How Deep Is Your Love” comes in a close second. They’re my two favorite songs from the SNF soundtrack.
I don’t think there are any others on this year’s list that I would have voted for.
I personally went with Macarthur Park for this year’s vote; it’s not as good as the original by Richard Harris, and Donna Summer lacks the over-the-top bombast that Harris put into the lyrics, but it’s a great song, the disco arrangement is handled well, and it’s one of the few songs on the poll this year with lyrics that actually require you to think about what the hell it means.
This is possibly the easiest choice in the whole series. One of the all-time great summer singles amidst a pile of mostly poop. If you didn’t vote for “Miss You,” whatsamatta witchoo BOYYY???
“Le Freak” will also appear in next year’s poll as it fell out of #1, then got back to it late January 1979. So since I can vote for it next year (and probably won’t, because I think “Good Times” is a better song), gotta go with the era-defining sound of Stayin’ Alive.
