First of all, you'll notice the name change. I just decided it was time, especially since these entries haven't had anything to do with Casey Kasem for a long time. It was perfect for the past, but something new is required for the future. And there may be more new stuff to come. Stay tuned.
But for now, let us return to 1979. The year Canada saw the brief reign of Joe "Who?" Clark, as well as a doubling of its number of NHL teams from three to six. Amid all of this, here are a few of the accompanying sounds.
199 - "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth," Meat Loaf
The third hit from Bat Out of Hell was this clearly Phil Spector-influenced song about love and lust, best known for the spoken word intro where Rory Dodds and Ellen Foley breathily discuss a scenario involving a hot summer night and a wolf with red roses. I wonder how this is incorporated into the Bat stage musical currently playing in Toronto. I would definitely be willing to see that, just to see what they made of the most blatantly theatrical
194 - "Little People," Rob Liddell (CanCon!)
Here's a first: a song that I have not been able to track down in any form. And I don't know much about it. The song seems to be an instrumental, with Liddell playing piano accompanied by the Ralph Cruickshank Orchestra, whoever they are. And the single was released on a label called Berandol, which mainly released orchestral music and educational records. So that's all I can tell you. If I ever hear it, I'll let you know.
191 - "Wheels of Life," Gino Vanelli (CanCon!)
The Montrealer followed up his #1 and U.S. Top Five "I Just Wanna Stop" with this ballad about love helping one face the future. It's his usual solid work, and I find the theme relevant at this moment in time.
190 - "Heartaches," Bachman-Turner Overdrive (CanCon!)
BTO's final Canadian hit was this rocker about getting dumped. It's okay, but it's another song that uses a certain word in a way where you can't tell if he means "genes" or "jeans," with the latter interpretation being more than a little creepy.
And by the way, half of the band name's hyphenated portion wasn't in the group at the time, and you'll learn what he was doing soon.
186 - "The Dream Never Dies," The Cooper Brothers (CanCon!)
Despite being from Ottawa, this band made inroads in the southern rock genre in the late 70s. In addition to its impact at home, their biggest hit got to #48 in America. It's a loping number about holding on to ambition, and it kind of sounds like the Allman Brothers Band with Crosby Stills Nash and Young singing the choruses. I remember it and I like it.
185 - "3 Dressed Up as a 9," Trooper (CanCon!)
The Vancouver band appears three times on this list, beginning with this song about a woman who dresses like she's more attractive than she is. Now I just looked up a picture of them back then, and I would say that they are about threes themselves and weren't even trying to upgrade, so... And I would also say that I can hear their influence on Loverboy very clearly on this one.
184 - "Rolene," Moon Martin
Oklahoman John David Martin wrote Robert Palmer's "Bad Case of Lovin' You," which went to #1 here and ended up #35 for the year. His biggest hit as a performer was this power-pop/rockabilly come-on. Goodness and plenty of it.
183 - "I'm the Man," Joe Jackson
Jackson had broken through on all three charts we cover here with "Is She Really Going Out with Him," but only Canada got behind his next single. It's a speedy punk tune on which Jackson portrays a corporate huckster who sells a gullible public mindless fads. He was right beside Elvis Costello in the "brainy punk" department early on, but he's been forgotten as years have gone on.
181 - "Arrow Through Me," Wings
1979 was arguably Macca's worst post-Beatles year artistically, and it included this limp lite-funk about heartbreak. A big old Mad magazine "Blecccchhh!:"
177 - "Sweet Lui-Louise," Ironhorse (CanCon!)
This is what Randy Bachman was doing at this time. This band's biggest hit is basically a rewrite of "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet," complete with stuttering chorus. Pointlessness embodied.
176 - "Sing for the Day," Styx
Welcome back, the Bob Seger of Chicago. This proggy track about living in the now missed the U.S. Top 40 by one, but got on this list here. It's like they decided they wanted to be Jethro Tull for a minute there.
172 - "Jane," Jefferson Starship
The Mackey Thomas era of these guys actually started with promise in the form of this solid rocker about a woman playing hard to get. It all went back to shit in the end, but this one you can enjoy without embarrassment.
168 - "Please Come Back to Me," The Good Brothers (CanCon!)
Led by twins Brian and Bruce Good and their younger sibling Larry, these guys from the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill managed 22 country hits here from 1976 to 1994. Their biggest pop success came with this rock-edged baby-come-back effort. I could only find a 2003 live version, but that was pretty damn, well, good. And the family remains vital in the music biz, as Bruce's sons Travis and Dallas lead Toronto indie-country-rock veterans The Sadies.
167 - "The Boys in the Bright White Sports Car," Trooper (CanCon!)
These guys again, this time with a tune about a couple of working class guys cruising in one of the fancy vehicles of the era. I always picture a Pontiac Trans Am, complete with the gigantic eagle on the hood. This song first came out in 1976, but the hit version was a re-recording for their megaselling hits collection Hot Shots, which I'm sure is playing as we speak somewhere in Canada, in a basement or garage where men between the ages of 50 and 65 gather to talk cars and drink beers that are no longer in fashion, like Labatts 50 or Old Vienna.
165 - "Whispering Rain," Murray McLauchlan (CanCon!)
Scotland-born, Toronto-raised country-folkie McLauchlan was a 70s CanCon fixture. The last of his seven Top 40 hits was this evocative song about loneliness and isolation. His was a voice I'm glad government regulations allowed me to hear.
151 - "Message in a Bottle," The Police
It didn’t hit in America, but this was Sting and the boys' first home #1 and a sizable hit here. You all know it: frantic ska about a Robinson Crusoe type who sends a note into the ocean and is disheartened by a lacknowledge of response until suddenly, "a hundred billion bottles" show up on his beach. The modern equivalent, I suppose, would be a YouTube video going viral. I assume this story had a happier ending than many viral video stars do.
149 - "Get Up and Boogie," Freddie James (CanCon!)
Originally from St. Louis, James moved to Montreal in 1975, and from there he produced his biggest hit, this female-fronted call to dance. Solid, funky disco. James remains a fixture on the Montreal club scene, fronting a soul/funk cover band. This actually makes me want to see them, should I ever end up around that way.
148 - "Armageddon," Prism (CanCon!)
The Vancouverites' most enduring hit was this mini-epic that seems to indicate that Elvis Presley is going to come back to life and that will portend a nuclear holocaust which will take place where then-California governor Jerry Brown and his then-girlfriend Linda Ronstadt are the President and First Lady. The song is hard rock with some soul horns, bookended by appropriately apocalyptic martial dirges. The full version clocks in at nearly eight minutes, and it's an amazing listen. So self-serious, yet so absurd. I name it both Canada's 1979 Uneasy Rider and a Certified CanCon Classic.
141 - "Here Comes the Night," Nick Gilder (CanCon!)
Gilder's follow-up to the cross-border #1 "Hot Child in the City" was this glammy strutter about a fashionable seductress. It's pretty good, and if you seek it out, you can judge for yourself whether or not The Smiths stole the opening of this for "Girlfriend in a Coma."
135 - "Nobody," Doucette (CanCon!)
Montreal guitarist Jerry Doucette had two hits singles. The first, 1977's "Mama Let Him Play," has become a Canadian classic rock staple. His less remembered other hit was this kinda catchy pop rocker about the woman he can't live without. Decent enough.
134 - "I Will Play a Rhapsody," Burton Cummings (CanCon!)
The ex-Guess Whoer had his fourth Top 40 with this piano-driven rewrite of Elton John's "Your Song." He didn't disguise it cleverly enough.
132 - "Girls Talk," Dave Edmunds
The Welsh veteran didn't do much in the States with this version of a terrific Elvis Costello lust song, but it was Top Five in Britain and Top Twenty here. Notable for one of Big E's greatest turns of phrase: "You may not be an old-fashioned girl, but you're gonna get dated.
131 - "It's All I Can Do," The Cars
The Boston New Wavers just missed the Top 40 at home with this cool rock song about waiting on an unpredictable woman, but we put it in the Top Twenty. We're cool like that.
123 - "The Moment That it Takes," Trooper (CanCon!)
More from these guys, this time a breakup ballad. They rock better than they do this stuff.
112 - "Peter Piper," Frank Mills (CanCon!)
Another follow-up to a massive international hit. In the case of Montreal pianist Mills, the hit was "Music Box Dancer," and the follow up was this tingly, jaunty number inspired by the famous pickled pepper picker. No pipes on it, but a brief bit of electric organ. If only Run DMC had sampled this for their song of the same name.
111 - "Rhumba Girl," Nicolette Larson
And again. Montana native Larson scored big with a cover of Neil Young's "Lotta Love," but less so with this version of a song by Jesse Winchester, a fellow Yank who moved to Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft. Nice little song about a lady who dances seductively. Okay.
96 - " I Only Wanna Get Up and Dance," The Raes
92 - "A Little Lovin' (Keeps the Doctor Away)," The Raes (CanCon!)
British marrieds Robebie and Cherrill Raes moved to Canada in the late 70s, and soon landed nother only a deal to make disco records, but also a CBC TV variety show that ran for two seasons. Their two biggest hits were these; the former about boogieing, the latter about the health benefits of romance. The second one is the better song, and the couple shows a little Captain and Tennille-style chemistry. I'm not sure if I remember their show though, but I think I'll see if there's any of it on YouTube. The second season in particular had some interesting guests.
71 - "Dancer," Gino Soccio (CanCon!)
More Montreal disco, and another one credited to the producer instead of the female singers who go on about the power of moving your body. I'd like it if I was sent back in time to the middle of Studio 54 at its most decadent, but otherwise, I don't care.
59 - "Boogie Woogie Dancin' Shoes," Claudja Barry (CanCon!)
Jamaican-born Canadian Barry would have success on the American dance charts well into the 80s, but her biggest pop success was this Top Ten about her magical footwear. It's catchy, but I think a big part of that was the melody hook that sounds suspiciously like the one from The Music Explosion's 1967 garage rock classic "Little Bit o' Soul." But there has been no claim, so maybe I'm not hearing right.
And now, a very stable Top Ten.
10 - "Bad Girls," Donna Summer
The cross-border #1 disco classic about willing women. Toot toot, beep beep.
9 - "Reunited," Peaches and Herb
Again, a Can-Am charttopper. I'm sure it felt so good, but getting the Triple Crown would have felt better.
8 - "I Was Made for Lovin' You," Kiss
Almost Top Ten in the U.S., barely Top 50 in Britain, but us hosers made it a Number One. We loved us some Kissco.
7 - "A Little More Love," Olivia Newton-John
ONJ goes sexy rock chick, hits Top Five on our three charts. I'm still left cold. I liked her better mellow.
6 - "Goodnight Tonight," Wings
Ah, the days when Macca could turn on a Casio Latin beat and that would be enough to go Top Five. Sorry Paul, I will say it. Awful.
5 - "Knock on Wood," Amii Stewart
The disco speedball version of the Eddie Floyd soul classic just missed a Triple Crown. Britain blew it on this one.
4 - "Lead Me On," Maxine Nightingale
M. Night...ingale's second of two big hits. Fantastic soul balladry. Mood music to the max.
3 - "My Sharona," The Knack
The monster of lust-rock. Embedded in all our heads. Missed the Triple Crown by the margin of Britain. I would have thought the cover model's see-through Top would have got it there.
2 - "Heart of Glass," Blondie
Finally, a Triple Crown winner. And few have ever been more deserving than this swirling dervish that brought punk attitude to disco. A pop masterpiece.
And Canada's favorite song of 1979 was...
1 - "The Logical Song," Supertramp
The 'Tramp's pop poem of disillusionment was a solid Top Ten in America and Britain, but up here it was a monster, topping the charts for two weeks and winding up on top for the year. And the parent album, Breakfast in America, is one of the band's two Diamond-selling albums here. I don't know why, but Canada loves it some Supertramp.
And there you go. Keep watching for more.
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