How did this song make it to #3 in 1979? As far as I am concerned, this dog belongs on our “Songs We Love to Hate” List. But just for fun, I found a version with the lyrics so you can watch and sing along! Here’s more on the song from Wikipedia: “Coward of the County” is a country song written by Roger Bowling and Billy Ed Wheeler, and recorded…
So, lots of people have tried to cover AC/DC’s iconic “Highway to Hell,” but a rock band from the Ukraine with an attractive female lead singer doing the vocals? We found this video while searching for something else and decided it was actually quite good, and with more than a MILLION views, a lot of other people must think so as well. The band is called Sershen & Zaritskaya and…
Great live performance on the UK show “Top of the Pops” in 1979. “Only You Can Rock Me” was off UFO’s seventh studio album, Obsession, which was released in 1978 and reached #50 on the charts in 1978. Here’s more about UFO from Wikipedia: UFO are an English rock band that was formed in London in 1968. They became a transitional group between early hard rock and heavy metal and…
About all we know about this specific recording was that it was recorded by The Cars, LIVE, at Bremen Radio Studios in Germany in 1979. Although not The Cars most popular song, “Candy-O” was the title track of their 1979 album, also named Candy-O, and was written by Ric Ocasek, produced by Roy Thomas Baker, and features Cars bassist Benjamin Orr (naturally) on lead vocals. You can follow the Cars…
Here’s a great LIVE performance of a classic hit from 1979: it’s Jefferson Starship (after they were Jefferson Airplane) with “Jane” from from their album Freedom at Point Zero. The song peaked that year on the Billboard Hot 100 at #14. Some of you may only know it as the opening music to the 2001 film Wet Hot American Summer and the Netflix prequel series Wet Hot American Summer: First…
Apparently, Pinkpop was a Dutch music festival (had to look that one up) and in addition to the Police, on the stage in 1979 were The Average White Band, Dire Straits, Elvis Costello and Rush. Not a bad lineup! Here’s more on the song from Wikipedia: “Roxanne” is a song by English rock band The Police. Written by lead singer and bassist Sting, the song was released in April 1978…
“Lay It On The Line” was written by Triumph founder and co-frontman Rik Emmett and surprisingly peaked at only #86 on the US Hot 100 after their breakout hit “Hold On” which were both off their 1979 album, Just a Game. The band, which hails from Ontario, Canada, claims Rush as an early influence of their music and are considered part of the harder-edged progressive power-rock movement of the late…
Ever wonder where the idea for some hit tunes come from? Like The Knack’s 1979 hit “My Sharona?” Well, if you believe this video, it was named after a 17-year-old girl who lead singer Doug Fieger, then 25, had just met … even though he already had a girlfriend, but was still so obsessed he wrote a song about her! I’ll let the video tell the rest of the story–and…
Did you miss out seeing Boston LIVE back in the day? Yeah, me too. The great thing today though, is that you can find these great videos of concerts from back in the day, including this performance by Boston at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ in June of 1979. The music is great, but I’m not a huge fan of them switching back and forth between some handheld color…
Back in 1979, before there was an MTV, Van Halen was getting some radio airplay for “Dance the Night Away” but wasn’t really making headway with any of their new material. So, on May 18 of that year, Warner Brothers filmed the band performing three songs, “Dance the Night Away,” “You’re No Good,” and “Bottoms Up!” which ultimately was shown on the popular Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert television during the November…