Here are the top 100 albums of 1979 (per Billboard magazine’s year-end charts)
and a few comments on each. (Parentheses
after the album titles indicates what format I have the album in; either CD,
vinyl, or cassette. No parentheses means I don’t own it.)
2. The Bee Gees, Spirits
Having Flown – okay, I do have two Bee Gees studio albums, but I got them
30 years ago when someone was moving – if they weren’t free, they didn’t cost
more than a dollar. (For the record, they’re Idea and Odessa, both
from the 1960s – the latter is the red felt cover that I would have hoped would
be worth a fortune nowadays; it’s not.) I saw this on CD in 2nd and
Charles for four dollars last weekend and wasn’t the least bit tempted; all the
hits are on any of their anthologies.
3. The Doobie Brothers, Minute
by Minute (CD, vinyl) – I have a theory that the reason this and several
other rock albums released in late 1978/early 1979 were the best-selling albums
ever by their respective acts because there wasn’t much else for rock fans to
buy. Disco was at its peak, and several other major rock acts (The Eagles,
Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd) were in between albums or overdue for
new ones. This album has sold more than any Doobies studio album at over three
million copies, and only Best of the
Doobies has sold more overall. Strange, because the band was falling apart
at the time (Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and John Hartman both left early in the year over disagreements about their direction).
4. The Cars, The Cars
(CD, vinyl) – This was a leftover from 1978, of course, but it continued to
sell really well right up until the summer, when the followup Candy-O was released. It’s my favorite
of their studio albums (I’m not one really one to judge, however, as I don’t
have any of the others – just greatest hits sets). This one has also outsold
all of their other studio albums, although Candy-O
and Heartbeat City aren’t that far
behind.
5. Supertramp, Breakfast
in America (CD, vinyl) – Another all-time act best seller; this has sold
over 4 million copies in America – the only other Supertramp albums to sell one
million are the live album Paris and
a greatest hits set. It’s a great album, and at least four songs are still in
heavy rotation on classic rock stations to this day.
6. Donna Summer, Live
and More – Donna was incredibly popular around this time, and I’m much more
appreciative of her work than most white middle-aged guys (I have a few of her
other albums), but this doesn’t really tempt me. Most live disco albums just play
everything a little bit faster, and the arrangements usually aren’t as full
(which is bad for disco; the strings and horns are minimized as a result). The
studio (“And More”) side has a 17-1/2 minute medley of “MacArthur Park” and
“Heaven Knows” with a third song, “One of a Kind,” which I already have on a
various artists compilation. I guess the good news about that one is DJs could
take a bathroom break when they played that one.
7. Styx, Pieces of
Eight – Another Styx album I don’t own. Interesting that Tommy Shaw wrote
and sang lead vocals on all three of the album’s hits (“Blue Collar Man,” “Sing
for the Day,” “Renegade”); it was the Dennis DeYoung show from there on out.
8. Donna Summer, Bad
Girls (CD) – Home of three more gigantic hits (“Hot Stuff,” “Dim All the
Lights,” title track), but since those are all on the first LP (it’s a double
album) I’m not sure how often the second one was played (unless you were a huge
fan of “Sunset People,” I guess). Now on one disc on CD, which is how I own it.
9. Blondie, Parallel
Lines (vinyl) – I hadn’t even heard of the band before “Heart of Glass” and
“One Way or Another” started getting airplay on WDHA (The Rock of North
Jersey), with “Heart of Glass” eventually hitting #1 during the disco era. I
don’t think the album would have been as big a hit without the club play “Heart
of Glass” generated, but it’s such a strong album that keeps listeners from
being bored (12 songs, all less than four minutes long) that it’s hard to
imagine it wouldn’t have become popular. I have two vinyl copies of the album;
the second is a picture disk with one side the original front cover and the
other a shot of Debbie Harry licking a vinyl album. It seemed like a good buy
at the time.
10. Rod Stewart, Blondes
Have More Fun – This received a collective groan from my high school (which
was nearly all white and mostly despised disco); “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” told everyone he’d completely
sold out, and the followup hit “Ain’t Love a Bitch” was interesting only for
the shock value.
11. Kenny Rogers, The
Gambler – The title track and “She Believes in Me” were the hits on this
one. Kenny Rogers and The Carpenters are two of the very few multiplatinum
albums that are completely unrepresented in my record collection.
12. The Village People, Cruisin’
– This is the one with “Y.M.C.A.” on it. And, yes, I have a Village People album
(one of my fraternity brothers gave me Live
and Sleazy after accidentally ordering it from RCA Music Service).
13. Cheap Trick, Cheap
Trick at Budokan – yet another all-time best seller for this act; this has
sold 3 million copies, mostly on the strength of “I Want You to Want Me.” Epic
would have been better off issuing “Surrender” as the second single, but the
studio version had flopped the previous year, so they went with a cover of
“Ain’t That a Shame” instead. I had planned to download this from Freegal
(there have been several rereleases with expanded track listings); I guess I’ll
have to scour the record stores instead.
14. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Stranger in Town (CD, vinyl) – another
1978 leftover, but this had two chart hits in 1979 (the mawkish “We’ve Got
Tonite” and the essential “Old Time Rock & Roll”).
15. Van Halen, Van
Halen (CD) – yet another 1978 leftover.
16. The Knack, Get the
Knack (vinyl) – This must have sold a pile of copies to make the
end-of-year chart this high, considering those charts usually reflected numbers
roughly from November 1 of the previous year to October 31; Get the Knack was released in mid-June. I
bought this on vinyl to close out my deal with RCA Music Service, and I wish
I’d made a different choice.
17. Peaches & Herb, 2-Hot!
– Two huge singles, “Shake Your Groove Thing” and “Reunited” made this a best
seller. There have been seven different women billed as “Peaches” in the act,
but only one Herb – who has worked in law enforcement a few times when they
weren’t getting gigs (or royalties).
18. Billy Joel, The
Stranger (CD, vinyl, cassette) – This came out in late September 1977. I
wonder how many other albums were in the top 20 of the year-end charts two
years running.
19. Toto, Toto – a
group of solid studio players made themselves a top-selling act, and got all
sorts of grief as a result. I’ve survived for years on a greatest hits set, but
I have nothing bad to say about them – maybe their songwriting isn’t the best,
but you can’t fault the talent playing the instruments.
20. Soundtrack, Grease
– I guess this answers the question I asked in The Stranger entry – there have been at least two.
21. Poco, Legend (vinyl)
– I’m kind of surprised this made it so high on the year-end charts; it was
definitely a best seller for the band, but it never made it past #14 on the
weekly charts. Phil Hartman designed the cover (a bunch of sources say he did
the cover art, but I’m reserving judgment on that until I can dig up my copy of
the album; designers often create the typography and placement but don’t necessarily create the art itself).
22. The Rolling Stones, Some
Girls (vinyl) – another 1978 leftover. The band famously had to redesign
the album cover after it turned out the cover designer hadn’t bothered to get
permissions from the women pictured on the cover (most of whom sued the band);
I wish I had the original cover, but I didn’t buy my copy until mid-1979 or so.
23. Dire Straits, Dire
Straits (CD) – Very successful debut for the band, who benefited (again)
from little competition at that point. Not their all-time best seller though; Brothers in Arms has sold over 9 million
copies.
24. Earth, Wind & Fire, The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire Vol. 1 (vinyl) – Man, this is a
good album. And I just realized one song (“Love Music”) isn’t available
anywhere else, so I may have to download it and put it somewhere.
25. Foreigner, Double
Vision – Critical backlash was starting to set in, as the general consensus
was “not as good as the first album.” Not that their fans seemed to mind.
26. Led Zeppelin, In
Through the Out Door – The band’s fans must have camped out at the record
stores; this released on August 25 and still made it to the top 30 in the
year-end list. I’m familiar with most of the songs but don’t have the album. (Which may be because, to this day, I feel weird about it because I misspelled the band’s name in a year-end music feature for our high school newspaper.)
27. Soundtrack, Saturday
Night Fever – Another leftover, this time from 1977.
28. Barbra Streisand, Greatest
Hits, Volume II (CD) – This is the one with “The Way We Were,” “Evergreen,”
and “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” on it – so if you’re trying to find a good
single-disc Streisand set, this would be the best choice.
29. Bad Company, Desolation
Angels (CD) – The band was on Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song vanity label, and
I’m thinking this release was timed to stay away from In Through the Out Door. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy” was the hit here,
which may have confused a few radio programmers (The Kinks had released the
nearly-identically titled “A Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy” as a single the year before).
30. Chic, C’est Chic
– This is the one with “Le Freak” on it (and the followup hit “I Want Your
Love”). “Le Freak” is a great song, but it’s available on lots of anthologies
and best-ofs. The disco backlash clobbered this band (as one essay explained to
me, white guys outside of cities didn’t react well to a genre of music whose most visible artists seemed to be mostly blacks, women, and gays), but Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards had solid
careers in production and songwriting for years after disco “died.”
31. The Jacksons, Destiny – These guys kind of lucked out.
The first single released from the album was “Blame It on the Boogie,” which
only hit #54 (although it did much better on the R&B and dance charts),
partially because the song’s original writer, Mick Jackson (who is not Michael; he’s a British
singer-songwriter) brought out a competing version at the same time, and no
doubt the similar names confused people. Michael’s film, The Wiz, also opened at the same time this released in December
1978, and was not a success; neither was Michael’s solo single release from
that soundtrack, “You Can’t Win.” But the next single, “Shake Your Body (Down
to the Ground)” got lots of play as a disco track, and crossed over, hitting #7
and bringing this album with it.
32. Heart, Dog and
Butterfly – Pretty good album for the band, with “Straight On” and the
title track among its contents.
33. Rickie Lee Jones, Rickie
Lee Jones – This was such a big deal when it came out, and the assumption
was she would be around forever. Unfortunately, Jones has become kind of the
Alanis Morrissette of my generation – she’s released a lot of music since then
(some quite good), but she’s never had the kind of commercial success this
album had.
34. George Thorogood, Move
It on Over – I had no idea he had an album this successful.
35. Olivia Newton-John, Totally
Hot – Newton-John’s career got a big boost from Grease. “A Little More Love” and “Deeper Than the Night” were the
two hits from this album.
36. Barry Manilow, Greatest
Hits – Two-album set. There are piles of Manilow compilations out nowadays,
and this one is relatively hard to come by on CD as a result. (I don’t think
it’s even available for download.)
37. Sister Sledge, We
Are Family – This may be one of the cases where a single studio album might
do just as well as a greatest hits set; the sisters only had two pop top 20
hits, and they’re both here (the title track and “He’s the Greatest Dancer”). I’ve
got a two-disc best-of, but I got it for two dollars.
38. Van Halen, Van
Halen II (CD) – “Dance the Night Away” is on this one.
39. GQ, Disco Nights
(vinyl) – Unfortunate album title, as the album isn’t all disco (their remake
of Billy Stewart’s sweet ballad “I Do Love You,” also here, was a top 20 hit). But
nothing hit after this one for them.
40. Gloria Gaynor, Love
Tracks – “I Will Survive” is on this album.
41. Linda Ronstadt, Back
in the U.S.A. (vinyl) – Another one I got as a picture disk. “Living in the
U.S.A.” and “Ooh Baby Baby” were the two big hits from this one.
42. Eric Clapton, Backless
– “Promises” was a big hit, but Clapton might have been better served holding
off on this one for a few more months – the biggest complaint I’ve seen about
this one is weak material. Another Clapton album I don’t own; I’ve got to make
better choices (his Pilgrim may be
one of the worst albums I’ve ever heard by a major artist).
43. The Blues Brothers, Briefcase
Full of Blues (vinyl) – Remember when John Belushi was the king of the
world? This hit #1, Saturday Night Live
was the most talked-about TV show, and Animal
House was a huge movie. Anyway, it was easier to get the poorly edited The Definitive Collection than this on
CD (that set has what’s getting off the movie soundtrack and their second album);
too bad Atlantic didn’t do a better job of editing Belushi’s band introductions
off that one.
44. Journey, Evolution
– I don’t have any studio albums by these guys, and I can’t stand “Lovin’,
Touchin’, Squeezin’,” which is like half a song. Strangely, the first single,
“Just the Same Way,” has Gregg Rolie on lead vocals – his wispy voice was the
reason they brought in Steve Perry.
45. Spyro Gyra, Morning
Dance (vinyl) – I liked this a lot better back then than I do now – I
probably haven’t played this album in 30 years.
46. The Village People, Macho
Man – This came out in 1978, of course. Casablanca knew what they were
doing with these guys; put out as much product as possible while the gimmick’s
still fresh. If they hadn’t parted ways with lead singer Victor Willis (who was
the one who wrote their clever double-entendre lyrics) they might have lasted a
little bit longer.
47. Gino Vannelli, Brother
to Brother (vinyl) – The big hit “I Just Wanna Stop” is here, along with
the minor followup “Wheels of Life.” His material hasn’t aged well to me, but Google
his photos sometime – man, this is a hairy guy.
48. The Charlie Daniels Band, Million Mile Reflections – The band’s biggest hit, “The Devil Went
Down to Georgia,” is here.
49. Talking Heads, More
Songs About Buildings and Food – I’d probably pick this up if I saw it
cheap, but it’s not high on my list. This hit based on their remake of Al
Green’s “Take Me to the River.”
50. Joe Jackson, Look
Sharp! (vinyl) – I heard “Is She Really Going Out With Him?” and the title
track a lot on WDHA, and then when the album showed up as two 10-inch disks
(with a button of the title logo as part of a special die-cut cover) and it
wasn’t too expensive, I figured that was a neat collectible and took the
plunge. It’s a great album and I’m looking for a reasonably-priced CD with the
bonus tracks. (Too bad I left the button in my dorm room after freshman year
ended.)
51. Nicolette Larson, Nicolette
– This was the late Larson’s moment in the sun; she did her own version of Neil
Young’s recent “Lotta Love” and turned it into a top 10 hit. She had a lovely
voice, best heard here and on some of Young’s albums (American Stars ‘n’ Bars, Harvest Moon).
52. Al Stewart, Time
Passages (vinyl) – His biggest solo album, featuring the title track and
”Song on the Radio.” Those were written with the express purpose of being hits
(note the title of the latter song); Stewart’s preferred music is based on
history (songs on this album reference Sir Thomas More, Versailles, and the abandoned
brigantine Mary Celeste).
53. Steve Martin, A
Wild and Crazy Guy (vinyl) – This album was split in half between a club
appearance at The Boarding House and Red Rocks Ampitheatre. I’d get Let’s Get Small before this one, but it
did win a Grammy for Best Comedy Album.
54. Santana, Inner
Secrets (vinyl) – It sold a fair amount of copies, but it isn’t all that
good. The singles were “Well All Right,” “Stormy,” and “One Chain (Don’t Make
No Prison),” all of which were done better by their original artists (Buddy
Holly, The Classics IV, and The Four Tops, respectively). I’ve heard “Open
Invitation” and “Wham!” are much better, but it’s been so long since I’ve
listened to the album I can’t really confirm it.
55. Chicago, Hot
Streets (vinyl) – My parents got me the latest Chicago album nearly every
year for my birthday for five years between 1974 and 1978 (unfortunately, they
somehow missed the greatest hits set). This isn’t bad, but nothing stands out,
and I don’t remember playing side two very much.
56. Neil Young, Comes
a Time (CD) – WDHA played the title track plenty when this came out, but
they somehow missed out on the single, “Four Strong Winds” (originally a hit
for Ian & Sylvia). Now overshadowed by Rust
Never Sleeps, which came out later in 1979.
57. Dan Fogelberg and Tim Weisberg, Twin Sons of Different Mothers (CD, vinyl) – Is it a mellow folk
rock album? Is it a fusion jazz album? There’s no need to decide! Seriously, I
don’t dislike this one, and I wish Weisberg had a few more albums available to
judge his work (other than a best of, all his 1970s LPs are out of print).
58. Rick James, Bustin’
Out of L. Seven – This charted about as well as James’ first album Come Get It!, but none of the singles
broke the way “You and I” did.
59. Willie Nelson, Willie
and Family Live – This was a huge seller for Nelson; it’s moved 4 million
units (of course, it’s both a double vinyl album and CD, which counts as two
sales in the RIAA’s eyes). Emmylou Harris and Johnny Paycheck both guest here. Another
one I wish I’d downloaded from Freegal.
60. Anne Murray, Let’s
Keep It That Way – Let’s not and say we did.
61. Neil Diamond, You
Don’t Bring Me Flowers – Neil got some mileage out of the title track,
which had also been on his previous album as a solo recording; the duet with
Barbra Streisand is here. (Diamond also cowrote the song, which certainly
helped his bank account.) “Forever in Blue Jeans” was also a top 20 hit.
62. John Stewart, Bombs
Away Dream Babies (CD, vinyl) – I wasn’t happy to see a 2006 clip of
Stewart on YouTube dumping all over the hit “Gold,” which drove the sales of
this album. He called it “vapid” and “empty” and said he wrote it only to please
RSO Records (I’m sure it did). I suppose it’s possible he didn’t mean it (he
was diagnosed to be with early-stage Alzheimer’s less than a year later), but I
doubt it. Anyway, this is about half of a good album (the songs “Lost Her in
the Sun” and “Midnight Wind” also hit the top 40), but the second side is less
than 15 minutes long and is a little weak. Still worth searching out (it’s
virtually impossible to find nowadays on CD, and I’m pretty sure the CD
download I did was from a pirated file).
63. Chuck Mangione, Children
of Sanchez – The followup to Feels So
Good was a two-LP soundtrack to a movie not a whole lot of people saw, but
it still sold well enough to show up here.
64. George Benson, Livin’
Inside Your Love (vinyl) – I think I got this because it was mismarked as a
single album at the record store. For some reason I remember the chorus of the
single version of “Love Ballad” having different lyrics as the album version,
for reasons unknown.
65. Earth, Wind & Fire, I Am (CD, vinyl) – Great album that would be much higher on this
list, except (1) it was released in June (as noted previously, the figures for Billboard’s end-of-year lists were usually taken from November 1 to
October 31 to allow time to calculate the results), and (2) the disco backlash
probably hurt this band more than it should have (the third single, “In the
Stone,” was one of their best songs ever, but didn’t come close to making the
top 40).
66. Little River Band, Sleeper
Catcher – A leftover from 1978, but it made this list on the strength of “Lady,”
which dominated the AC charts for the first third of 1979.
67. Raydio, Rock On
– The big hit on this one was “You Can’t Change That.”
68. The Pointer Sisters, Energy
– I’m not super comfortable with the lyrics to the big hit “Fire” off this
album, which in hindsight seem to be about date rape (or at least coercion). But
it was a huge hit for the group at the right time (Bonnie Pointer had left to
go on her own).
69. Eddie Money, Life
for the Taking – “Maybe I’m a Fool” was a moderate hit from this one.
70. Meat Loaf, Bat Out
of Hell (CD, vinyl) – Yes, this was still around in 1979. Epic released “You
Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth” as a single early in the year, which
managed to crack the top 40.
71. The Police, Outlandos
d’Amour (CD, vinyl) – “Roxanne” wasn’t a gigantic hit for the band (it didn’t
even make top 30), but it was big enough to put them on the map in the States. My
CD copy is from their box set Message in
a Box, which included the entirety of all five of their studio albums (back
before record companies realized that wasn’t such a clever idea).
72. Boston, Don’t Look
Back (CD) – Very weak second album by the band, which Tom Scholz will
admit. (Of course, he also thought nothing of taking eight years between
albums.)
73. Cheryl Lynn, Got
to Be Real – Winning The Gong Show
put her on the map, and even though the title track was her only pop hit, she
managed to generate a few albums from it.
74. Electric Light Orchestra, Discovery (CD, vinyl) – Or Disco
Very, as both band members and fans referred to this one, based on the
initial single “Shine a Little Love” (and, to a certain extent, the later
single “Last Train to London”). Fortunately for the band, “Don’t Bring Me Down”
was released right around the disco backlash was kicking up and became one of
their biggest hits.
75. Bobby Caldwell, Bobby
Caldwell (CD, vinyl) – This became a major hit based on “What You Won’t Do
for Love.” I’ve had two different copies of the vinyl album over the years, and
“Can’t Say Goodbye” has two distinctly different mixes, for those who are
fanatical fans.
76. The Allman Brothers Band, Enlightened Rogues – First album after a breakup/hiatus of three
years (mostly because the rest of the band was pissed off at Gregg for testifying
against one of their security guys at a drug trial). Their second top 40 hit, “Crazy
Love” (not the Poco song) is here. Don’t have this one, but I’m keeping an eye
out.
77. Elvis Costello, Armed
Forces (CD, cassette) – One of his biggest albums here in the States – it would
have been bigger if Costello hadn’t gotten into a bar argument with Stephen
Stills and Bonnie Bramlett, which ended with Bramlett punching out Costello
after he made some really, really stupid comments about Ray Charles (Google it
for the details).
78. The Crusaders, Street
Life (CD) – This was more of a fusion/smooth jazz band by this point, but a
good one. The title track is probably one of my favorite songs from 1979, and
even managed to crack to pop top 40.
79. James Taylor, Flag
(CD, vinyl) – Not-great followup to his 1977 album JT. His remake of The Drifters’ “Up on the Roof,” written by old
friend Carole King, was a minor hit. At least the album cover stood out on the
racks.
80. Waylon Jennings, Greatest
Hits – I may have to find a copy of this (or one of his hits sets) at a
used CD store sometime.
81. Instant Funk, Instant
Funk (CD) – The single “I Got My Mind Made Up (You Can Get It Girl)” is a
classic; too bad it’s their only hit (they did back up other artists, such as
Lou Rawls, The O’Jays, and Evelyn “Champagne” King). About 35 percent of my CD
is either the original “I Got My Mind Made Up” or various versions of same.
82. The Cars, Candy-O
– Big hit album which came out in June. “Let’s Go” was the hit from this album,
as well as “It’s All I Can Do.”
83. Bob James, Touchdown
– The title track was offered to the producers of the TV series Taxi as a possibility for the theme
song, but they went with “Angela” instead, which is also here.
84. The Babys, Head
First – “Every Time I Think of You” is a rewrite of their first hit “Isn’t
It Time,” but at least it’s something.
85. Diana Ross, The
Boss – Title track was a major hit, although it took awhile for the song to
scale the charts.
86. Ian Hunter, You’re
Never Alone With a Schizophrenic – “Just Another Night” was a minor hit for
Hunter (formerly of Mott the Hoople), but the more recognizable songs are “Ships”
(which Barry Manilow remade and turned into a major hit) and “Cleveland Rocks”
(The Presidents of The United States of America did a remake that became the theme for The Drew
Carey Show).
87. Alicia Bridges, Alicia
Bridges – Remember “I Love the Nightlife”? That was her one major hit (she
did have a couple of minor chart hits later on), but it sold a few albums.
88. Teddy Pendergrass, Teddy
– This didn’t even have a top 40 single (“Turn Out the Lights” conked out at
#48).
89. The Village People, Go
West – Final significant studio album for the group; this one contains “In
the Navy.”
90. Ace Frehley, Ace
Frehley – All four Kiss band members released solo albums in the fall of
1978; most of them wound up being shipped back to Casablanca Records a few
months later (all of them famously “shipped platinum” or 1 million copies, but
none made it above #22 in Billboard).
Frehley’s surprisingly had the most staying power, behind the infectious single
“New York Groove.”
91. Aerosmith, Live
Bootleg – This probably sold a lot less than the band expected. It might
have helped if they’d included the studio version of “Chip Away the Stone” that
was released as a single; the live version was the only one on the album.
92. Frank Zappa, Sheik
Yer Bouti – Another one that sold big despite not having a hit single, but
in this case “Dancing Fool” was his second-biggest single ever (behind “Valley
Girl”).
93. Dionne Warwick, Dionne
– This sold a pile of copies behind the singles “I’ll Never Love This Way Again”
and “Déjà Vu,” which were Warwick’s first solo top 20 singles (thus not
including her collaboration with The Spinners, “Then Came You”) in ten years. That
massive fur coat she’s wearing on the cover sure dates it, though.
94. Kiss, Dynasty –
The last big-selling Kiss album for a while, on the questionable strength of
the single “I Was Made for Loving You,” which many in the Kiss Army disdained
since it had a disco backbeat. Peter Criss actually only played on one song on
the album; Anton Vig was the drummer for the rest.
95. Amii Stewart, Knock
on Wood – another from the “who?” file; Stewart’s only top 40 single was
the #1 title track, a remake of the old Eddie Floyd R&B standard.
96. Triumph, Just a
Game – Canadian power trio that was a cross between Rush and The Who. The
single “Hold On” just barely made the American top 40, but it still gets played
on classic rock stations today.
97. Stephanie Mills, What
Cha Gonna Do With My Lovin’ – The title track was a big R&B and pop
hit. Not bad for a woman whose name had been made by portraying Dorothy in the
Broadway version of The Wiz. (The
movie version, which came out in 1978, was famously ruined when 34-year-old
Diana Ross played Dorothy.)
98. Anne Murray, New
Kind of Feeling – Same old mopey ballads.
99. Barry White, The
Man – I actually kind of like Barry White’s stuff, but by 1979 his schtick
had grown old and tired (“Your Sweetness Is My Weakness,” the only pop chart
hit from this album, would be his last one until a 1990 collaboration with
Quincy Jones).
100. Kansas, Monolith
– Major flop for the band after the multiplatinum success of their two previous
studio LPs Leftoverture and Point of Know Return, but it’s still
their most recent platinum studio album.
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