In 1988 or 1989 I saw Talking Heads’ David Byrne walking around in NYC’s Greenwich Village. In my memory of this he was wearing his big suit from the Stop Making Sense movie. That can’t be, though, right? He wouldn’t walk around the city in that get-up, would he?
David Byrne turns 71 today. Lotsa Talking Heads on today’s playlist in his honor.
Today’s playlist celebrates the October 2 birthdays of The Human League’s Phil Oakey, The Police’s Sting, Genesis’s Mike Rutherford, Richard Hell, Badly Drawn Boy, Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard, Don McLean, The Diamonds’ Dave Somerville, Hoodoo Gurus’s Dave Faulkner, Tiffany, Mousse T, Redbone’s Lolly Vegas, Aqua’s Lene Nystrom, Foxy/OXO’s Ish Ledesma, and Abbott & Costello’s Bud Abbott.
Nineteen seventy-nine was a very good year in music. In compiling today’s Throwback Thursday playlist focusing on 1979 I had so many very good songs from which to choose. 208 songs, to be exact. That’s how many 1979 cuts bring me much joy. There are another 181 1979 tracks I also like. Somehow I was able to whittle it down to the 30 cuts below. Some years it’s a struggle to come up with 30!
Disco was at its commercial peak in 1979. So many of the disco songs that charted then remain popular today – “I Will Survive,” “We Are Family,” “Y.M.C.A.,” “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” “Hot Stuff,” “Good Times,” “Heart of Glass,” “Ring My Bell,” “Knock on Wood,” “Got To Be Real.” While the genre seemed omnipresent, there was more to 1979 music than clams on the half shell and roller skates roller skates. Hear what was going on below.
Inspired by the November 12 birthdays of Neil Young, Bay City Rollers’ Les McKeown, Blue Oyster Cult’s Buck Dharma, Booker T. Jones, Hot Chocolate’s Errol Brown, Brian Hyland, and Tevin Campbell.
Inspired by the October 19 birthdays of Fugees’ Pras, Divine, Peter Tosh, Jennifer Holiday, World Party’s Karl Wallinger, Jeannie C. Riley, George McCrae, The Doobie Brothers’ Patrick Simmons, Gloria Jones, and Patrick Cowley.
Inspired by the October 14 birthdays of Cliff Richard, Usher, The Moody Blues’ Justin Hayward, The Chicks’ Natalie Maines, All Saints’ Shaznay Lewis, Boney M’s Marcia Barrett, Thomas Dolby, Nazareth’s Dan McCafferty, Robert Parker, Bill Justis and Karyn White.