What song held the number one spot for the longest in 1979?
Although plenty of people innovated music before by bridging the gap between different styles and genres, the 1970s feel like the moment when it all came together.
People had been fighting to break new ground and cross over into new areas long before this decade, but something snapped across these years as more creative minds realised that pushing forward meant leaving certain traditions behind. One of the first people to address this was actually Quincy Jones, when he looked at the landscape of the 1950s and 1960s jazz era and realised that where people were falling short was their inability to break the mould.
“People were telling us not to mix jazz with rock, that myopic mentality,” Jones said to Uncut. “That’s bullshit. Miles, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Hancock and myself used to talk about this, how you should try everything.”
In the ‘70s, Jones’ “try everything” mentality became central to the new wave boom, where acts like Blondie and Talking Heads proved that it was all about bringing together pieces of everything. But this also worked because people like Debbie Harry saw new wave as more of a movement than an actual genre. A mindset also shared by Chris Stein, who once said all it really was was a lot of excellent musicians coming together from all corners, all approaches, to make something great-sounding.
“I actually think it’s just a lot of new bands coming out at once, a lot of new blood from people who weren’t in the business before and just coming out now,” he said. “It’s making an impact and snowballing because it’s more than one band, it’s like a great amount of bands. That’s actually what new wave is.”
So, what song was number one for the longest in 1979?
In 1979, the charts were chocker with eclectic new acts, with Blondie crossing streams with the likes of Donna Summer, the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, the Eagles and more. Pop, funk, rock and disco were all sharing the limelight, showing that this truly was the year when a mix of everything that people wanted. But nothing proved this more than the track which spent the most weeks at number one – The Knack’s ‘My Sharona’.
A part of the new wave boom, The Knack didn’t just smash the record that year because they represented parts of everything people were currently listening to. ‘My Sharona’ specifically borrowed elements from other well-known songs, like Smokey Robinson’s ‘Going to a Go-Go’, while drummer Bruce Gary changed parts of the song to make it sound more like surf music, using a snare and flam to give it more of a specific-sounding rhythm.
There were several other things to – things countless people have noticed that add to the list of reasons the song became so popular. And that’s that, no matter who listens, it almost always reminds them of something. Whether it’s ‘My Generation’ or something closer to blues rock bands like the Spencer Davis Group, ‘My Sharona’ did it all at the tail-end of an era priming itself for a new type of innovation that would define the entirety of the 1980s, and then some.
Even Kurt Cobain once said that he was proud to be the “1990s version of The Knack”, while Krist Novoselic praised their style, saying, “The first pop song with verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus… If it’s done right, it’s just so beautiful. It’s so right on.”
