# Best #1 single of the year retrospective: 1979 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2014, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562 "2014-10-06T17:14:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/41 "2014-10-06T23:31:46Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Can we just _stop_ with the “this was a crappy year/No vote”-type comments? > > This theme was getting old in 1963, it’s tired now, and with another 30-odd polls to go before Smapti gets caught up, it will have moved beyond parody. > > Yes, we get it. You\* didn’t like disco. Or soul. Or soft rock. Or pre-Beatles top-40. Or rockabilly. Your status as one of the Cool Kids is assured, and we all bow down to your superior hard rockin’, new wavin’, alternative listenin’, punky taste. > > \*The royal “you”. AMEN! I was one of the few people who voted for the Doobie Brothers “What a Fool Believes”. I could make a case for nearly every song on the list, particularly My Sharona, but I’ve always felt like the Doobies were under-rated so they get my vote here. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/42 "2014-10-07T01:01:52Z")
Without seeing the poll results so far, for me it came down to “Heart of Glass,” “My Sharona,” or “Don’t Stop 'Til You Get Enough.” (I also like “Too Much Heaven,” but we get it – enough Bee Gees). I went with “My Sharona,” the very definition of a one-hit wonder. It still rocks! (and yet, wouldn’t be out of place in 1963, either). ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/43 "2014-10-07T01:15:25Z")
“Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” because Bob and Ray made it their own, disgusting thing on SNL? “My Sharona” because it was so stupid? Or “Pop Muzik” because it managed to be even more stupid? Stupidity wins, though middle-aged men in suits sitting with their legs spread and pointing at their crotches was great. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/44 "2014-10-07T01:44:16Z")
What? No love for Donna Summer? Even I like Hot Stuff. Mine is the only vote so far. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/45 "2014-10-07T02:12:56Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > We get it. Every year has its detractors. Point is well taken, so much so that it doesn’t need to be made anymore. We get it. Every year has its supporters. Point is well taken, so much so that it doesn’t need to be made anymore. Guess there’s nothing more to say, huh? 🙂 > [@](#): > > I’m not saying “fluff whatever shows up”, just trying to get people to understand that thirty more threads full of comments of “this year sucks” on top of the past twenty threads saying “this year sucks” is boring and repetitive… truth be told, looking forward to the prospect of reading the same thing for 30 more threads just, uh… sucks. 😃 Two things: 1. Different people are going to find different years sucky for different reasons. Why should I abstain from saying 1978 sucked, just because someone else said 1977 sucked? Why does their opinion about 1977 and someone else’s about 1976 make mine about 1978 repetitive? This is bullshit. But if it bores you, then to quote Blondie, ya spell, ya read, D-O-O-R. 2. The top-40 charts by this time had long been the province of what mid-teens and younger were listening to. People in college and older, and most kids in their late teens, I’ll bet, were listening to album rock stations in the 1970s. Consequently, the list of #1 hits in the 1970s (and probably forever after) did indeed get pretty sucky. The real action musically, if you were 17 and up, was elsewhere. So people are going to call songs on this list sucky. Sorry about that. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/46 "2014-10-07T03:17:00Z")
YOU’RE GODDAMN RIGHT I voted for “My Sharona.” That guitar solo made me seek out MORE incredible guitar. It inspired me to stop listening to AM radio/top 40 as I turned the dial down to the end where the scary ROCK stations were, and for a few months, every day after school I filled my head with the sounds of now Classic Rock bands such as the Stones, The Who, Skynyrd, Queen, Heart, Pink Floyd, Allman Bros, and so many more, hearing many of the songs for the first time. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/47 "2014-10-07T05:42:55Z")
What happened to the Stones “Emotional Rescue”? Another number 2 or 3 song? Or am I a year early here? Anyway, I voted for Blondie. “Heart Of Glass” is an utterly seminal song with a wickedly unforgettable hook. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/48 "2014-10-07T05:47:57Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > What happened to the Stones “Emotional Rescue”? Another number 2 or 3 song? Or am I a year early here? Anyway, I voted for Blondie. “Heart Of Glass” is an utterly seminal song with a wickedly unforgettable hook. Emotional Rescue was 1980. But I doubt that song made #1. “She’s So Cold,” from the same album, maybe…but even that, I doubt. The whole album was overshadowed by _Tattoo You_ and “Start Me Up” in 1981. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/49 "2014-10-07T05:50:36Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > What happened to the Stones “Emotional Rescue”? Another number 2 or 3 song? Or am I a year early here? You are correct on both counts. “Emotional Rescue” was a 1980 release that peaked at #3. Incidentally, while we’re on the subject, I think “Emotional Rescue” is one the Stones’ cheesier songs. ---
**Author:** ![eulalia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eulalia/32/457_2.png) [@eulalia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eulalia)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/50 "2014-10-07T08:54:20Z")
For me it was Blondie, Doobies, or Herb Alpert. I went with _Heart of Glass_, but maybe I should have picked _Rise_, because it’s got no votes at all, and it did win a Grammy after all. Seems like instrumentals get no love, or maybe it’s just too jazzy for you guys. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/51 "2014-10-07T09:46:29Z")
**Blondie** - _Heart Of Glass_. Sleek and forward-looking - it definitely sounds more 80s than 70s to me. Nice guitar work and a memorable, kind of ethereal melody. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/52 "2014-10-07T10:05:43Z")
Blondie found a sweet spot in the late 1970s, at the intersection of disco, New Wave, and 1970s mellow rock (Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne, etc.). It was easy to like Blondie if your tastes ran in any of those directions. IMHO, they had a bunch of songs that were better than the three that hit the #1 spot - songs like “One Way or Another” and “Hanging on the Telephone.” _Parallel Lines_ was a terrific album. Speaking of New Wave, by 1979 I was listening to a lot of The Police and The Cars. Again, their absence from these lists speaks to the reality that the good stuff, even when it made the charts, wasn’t getting to #1 very often. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/53 "2014-10-07T15:00:03Z")
For some reason I really dislike “Heart of Glass.” I went with “I Will Survive.” I actually find this a boring list. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/54 "2014-10-07T16:12:40Z")
I’m probably going to be the only on voting for Robert John’s “Sad Eyes”. I always loved the song, despite the “My wife is home, so I gotta leave now” vibe. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/55 "2014-10-07T16:25:37Z")
Not a tough call - _I Will Survive_ pretty much walks away with it. Almost the perfect storm of voice, moment, and tempo reaching up for the moment and finding it. Nothing else comes close. _Heart of Glass_ is okay but no more than that, And whoever voted for the Pina Colada song - I will find you, and I will hurt you. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/56 "2014-10-07T16:37:48Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > Why must you make people broadcast their shame? > > It wasn’t me. I already announced my vote when I gave y’all some Weird Al to listen to. Hey, _I_ admitted to voting for _In the Year 2525_. And _Monster Mash_. And _Disco Star Wars_. ---
**Author:** ![Eddie\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Eddie\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eddie_F)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/57 "2014-10-07T17:10:39Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Can we just _stop_ with the “this was a crappy year/No vote”-type comments? > > This theme was getting old in 1963, it’s tired now, and with another 30-odd polls to go before Smapti gets caught up, it will have moved beyond parody. > > Yes, we get it. You\* didn’t like disco. Or soul. Or soft rock. Or pre-Beatles top-40. Or rockabilly. Your status as one of the Cool Kids is assured, and we all bow down to your superior hard rockin’, new wavin’, alternative listenin’, punky taste. > > \*The royal “you”. I find such comments add a great deal to the conversation. And should they continue into further threads (a very likely possibility), well, you know, I don’t think the Straight Dope Message Board employs armed guards to seek out its users and force them to read all of the posts on its boards (at least _I_ don’t see any jackboots whilst looking over my shoulder). ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/58 "2014-10-07T17:13:47Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > And whoever voted for the Pina Colada song - I will find you, and I will hurt you. Whoever voted for it should be punished by being forced to listen to it. ---
**Author:** ![Eddie\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Eddie\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eddie_F)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/59 "2014-10-07T17:16:55Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Whoever voted for it should be punished by being forced to listen to it. Oh, come _on_, it ain’t _that_ bad. (Note: As stated earlier, this song was not among the songs I considered voting for in this year’s poll.) ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562/60 "2014-10-07T17:50:30Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Can we just _stop_ with the “this was a crappy year/No vote”-type comments? > > This theme was getting old in 1963, it’s tired now, and with another 30-odd polls to go before Smapti gets caught up, it will have moved beyond parody. > > Yes, we get it. You\* didn’t like disco. Or soul. Or soft rock. Or pre-Beatles top-40. Or rockabilly. Your status as one of the Cool Kids is assured, and we all bow down to your superior hard rockin’, new wavin’, alternative listenin’, punky taste. > > \*The royal “you”. Bullshit. These polls have the purpose of divining posters’ **personal opinions** about music. That’s exactly what’s being expressed here. I’m not interested in projecting any “status” — for your benefit or anyone else’s. My views on music are very passionately held, and there’s nothing anyone else could say about them that would alter them in any way. If you’re so mortally offended at others expressing strong views about music, then you’re better off not venturing into these threads at all. P.S. You’re doing exactly the same thing in your last paragraph that you find so offensive when others do it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1979/700562.md?page=4)