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Plethora of Pop’s Rate-A-Record
1978: Here Come The “Blues” Again
Crossing the Disco round with Country
In 1978, the final year of my undergrad life, Billboard Magazine deemed the #1 Pop song:
“Shadow Dancing,” by Andy Gibb. It isn’t a bad song, but how it outranked the #2 song — The Bee Gees’ “Night Fever” — I just can’t say. Meaning, I just don’t know what to say, only that some things just aren’t “just.”
The Disco Inferno still raged on in ’78 in those years before the new wave of heartache would decimate so many Americans including several close friends of mine. Saturday night would bring hundreds of thousands of Americans to their favorite disco to “dance disco heat.” Peruse the Hot 100 for that year and try to count the number of disco hits included. I will mention only one more before we get to “ratin.’”
#5: “Kiss You All Over,” by Exile who, after scoring so big on the Pop charts, would revert to their natural country band ways. Still, it must have felt good to lose out to “Staying Alive” by just one little notch. This was almost country crossing a forbidden dance floor, back in the pre-electric glide days.
I also have to shout out loud about a mainstream pop song that once I saw it here again, I’ve been singing all along the pathway Max…