Retromania 2 – 1978 and all that
For the past 12 months I have been enjoying BBC 3’s rescreening of Top of the Pops 1978. It is fascinating to see how the popular music world was 35 years ago, and unlkie ’75, ’76 and early ’77 – I actually remember most of the episodes. Like many kids of the era – TOTP was THE music programme to watch, and it informed our tastes massively. Unfortunately the BBC has decided not to screen episodes VJayed by the monsterous Jimmy Saville – which must be a bummer for bands that appeared only on those Thursdays – they must get a great kick out of showing their grandchildren their younger selves.
What is a real eye opener for viewers not of TOTP is the degree of retromania that was apparent then. The NME would have us believe that the years 76-78 were all about punk and everything else was blow away: nonsense! There was hardly and episode of TOTP that did not feature Darts, Showwaddwaddy, Racey, the Soundtrack of Grease and other Retro 1950s digging fare. The only punks that you saw were the Boomtown Rats, Buzzcocks, Elvis Costello, Sham 69 and Blondie. The Clash refused to go on. I cannot describe the original thrill of seeing Bob Geldof ripping up a picture of Jon Travolta before ripping into their seminal hit “Rat Trap” – it was one of the great scenes from TOTP. No matter how hard the NME has tried to paint them out of the picture as “Johnny Come Lately’s” to the punk scene (who wasn’t? punk was retromania for MC5 and the Stooges and 1960s Nuggets music – it was about as original then as new folk is now), they had been around for a good 18 months by then and had several appearances on TOTP in 1977. No, 1978 was a great year for family friendly music – Boney M and Brian and Michael, 10cc and the Baron Knights. I have pasted below the no.1 singles of the year. Compared with the manufactures schlock that is out these days, I would argue that many of these songs are all time classics. 1978 was a great year for hit SINGLES, but be aware – the “Smurf Song” was the no. 5 hit record of the year but the LP chart is plain embarrassing: the soundtracks of Saturday Night Fever and Grease were No1 for nearly half the year! The other best selling albums were “The Album” by ABBC, “Nightride to Venus” (Boney M) and Nat King Cole’s Greatest Hits (Retromania). The US charts for 1978 was all about the Bee Gees and Disco – punk wasn’t even an afterthought. Anyway – ’78 was great – 1979 was better!
| Date | Song | Artist | Weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 January | “Mull of Kintyre” / “Girls’ School“ | Wings | 4 |
| 4 February | Uptown Top Ranking | Althea & Donna | 1 |
| 11 February | “Figaro“ | Brotherhood of Man | 1 |
| 18 February | “Take a Chance on Me“ | ABBA | 3 |
| 11 March | “Wuthering Heights“ | Kate Bush | 4 |
| 8 April | Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs | Brian and Michael | 3 |
| 29 April | “Night Fever“ | Bee Gees | 2 |
| 13 May | “Rivers of Babylon“ | Boney M | 5 |
| 17 June | “You’re the One That I Want“ | John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John | 9 |
| 19 August | “Three Times a Lady“ | The Commodores | 5 |
| 23 September | “Dreadlock Holiday“ | 10cc | 1 |
| 30 September | “Summer Nights“ | John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John | 7 |
| 18 November | “Rat Trap“ | The Boomtown Rats | 2 |
| 2 December | “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?“ | Rod Stewart | 1 |
| 9 December | “Mary’s Boy Child – Oh My Lord“ | Boney M | 4 |
Below are my personal favorite hit singles of 1978 – I’m not trying to be cool many are cheesy – but I was 10 years old at the time!
1. Rat Trap – Boomtown Rats
2. Promises – Buzzcocks
3. Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick – Ian Dury & The Blockheads
4. Hanging on the Telephone – Blondie
5. No More Hero
6. Dreadlock Holiday – 10cc
7. Mr Blue Sky – ELO
8. Run for home – Lindisfarne
9. Love is in the air – John Paul Young
10. If you can’t give me love – Suzi Quattro
11. FM – Steely Dan
12. Take a chance on me – ABBA
13. Is she really going out with him? – Joe Jackson
14. Three Times a Lady – Commodores
15. Wuthering Heights – Kate Bush
16. Baker Street – Gerry Rafferty
17. Can’t Stand Losin’ – The Police
18. Le Freak – Chic
19. Because the Night – Patti Smith
20. Miss You – Rolling Stones
21. Grease – Franki Valli
22. Lucky Stars – Dean Freeman
23. Love is like oxygen – The Sweet
24. Come back my love – Darts
25. Oh what a circus – David Essex
26. Jilted John – Jilted John
27. Darlin’ – Frankie Miller
28. It’s a heartache – Bonnie Tyler
29. My best friends girl – The Cars
30. Blame it on the boogie – The Jacksons
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