It’s the golden age of New Wave, from heavy hitters like Blondie (“Picture This”, while not a US hit encapsulates everything great about them) and Elvis Costello to emerging artists such as Nick Lowe (a year away from his only US hit) and Talking Heads (opted for their elegiac single rather than the obvious one from that year) and a few true weirdos: XTC, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Devo (whose chaotic Stones cover is the very definition of smashing “post” and “punk” together.)
Still, those selections comprise but a small portion of what the year had to offer—you can make ’78 look especially cool by spotlighting The Undertones, The Ramones, even a reformed Walker Brothers (with the wondrous, Bowie-aping “Nite Flights”), but it’s not the whole story. Far more telling is Olivia Newton-John, the only artist who appears more than once here with the John Travolta duet “You’re The One That I Want” (honestly the only thing I love about Grease) and her late-in-the-year, less-remembered smash “A Little More Love”, which nearly rivals ABBA (don’t worry, they’re here too) in ultra-catchy power-rock shlock.
Actually, let’s talk about schlock (some might alternately describe it as “trash”.) I suppose I’m more susceptible to it from this period for it includes the first songs I’d remember hearing on the radio in the immediate years to come. The epic sax solos of “Baker Street” and “Time Passages”, Michael McDonald’s inimitable backing vocals on “You Belong To Me”, the faux-exotic, extra-cheese samba that is “Copacabana”—all of them talismans from my early childhood, none of them at odds of ever seeming remotely hip (at least until Yacht Rock became a recognized, categorized thing in the 2000s.)
Disco only further plays into this: sure, one can unironically praise the crisp, gleaming funk of “Every 1’s A Winner” or lush elegance of “I Want Your Love” or unstoppable drive of “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”; however, one then must also consider “I Love The Nightlife (Disco ‘Round)” where Alicia Bridges’ campy intonation surely inspired generations of drag performers or (speaking of camp) Boney M’s inexplicable “Rasputin” (aka, “Russia’s Greatest Love Machine”), which threads both the ridiculous and the sublime more seamlessly than even Santa Esmeralda did in ’77.
As usual, Kate Bush is an entirely different matter. If you listen to her debut single “Wuthering Heights” (not the ’86 remake on The Whole Story, my own introduction to it) or watch the music video above, you might be tempted to lump her in with all that schlock (and camp) and call it a day. But no, there’s something present within the song, within her essence, even, that transcends the very notion of schlock—an ingenuity projecting sincerity even in the most theatrical of presentations. It blows my mind that this was a four-weeks-at-number-one-hit in the UK and yet, it makes total sense that so many listeners could instantly give themselves over to it. Bush’s salvo is one-of-a-kind in how it simultaneously looks forwards and backwards, utilizing elements from the past to formulate what still feels like a whole new language.
1978: Let Me In Your Window
- Elvis Costello & The Attractions, “Pump It Up”
- ABBA, “Angeleyes”
- Patti Smith, “Because The Night”
- Kate Bush, “Wuthering Heights”
- Gerry Rafferty, “Baker Street”
- Olivia Newton-John, “A Little More Love”
- Blondie, “Picture This”
- Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Hong Kong Garden”
- Boney M., “Rasputin”
- Alicia Bridges, “I Love The Nightlife (Disco ‘Round)”
- Nick Lowe, “I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass”
- XTC, “This Is Pop?”
- Neil Diamond, “Forever In Blue Jeans”
- Warren Zevon, “Werewolves of London”
- Toto, “Georgy Porgy”
- Carly Simon, “You Belong To Me”
- Al Stewart, “Time Passages”
- The Walker Brothers, “Nite Flights”
- Sylvester, “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”
- Chic, “I Want Your Love”
- Sweet, “Love Is Like Oxygen”
- Devo, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
- John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John, “You’re The One That I Want”
- The Undertones, “Teenage Kicks”
- Talking Heads, “The Big Country”
- Barry Manilow, “Copacabana”
- Hot Chocolate, “Every 1’s A Winner”
- Cheap Trick, “Surrender”
- Ramones, “I Wanna Be Sedated”
- Exile, “Kiss You All Over”
- Donna Summer, “Last Dance”
Haunted Jukebox 