My Favourite 45s of the Year: 1978 Quiz

Answer: The Only Ones

Formed in London in 1976, The Only Ones occupied a particular niche at the cross-over of Punk, Power Pop and hard rock to which I've always been drawn. Chart-wise their first single, "Lovers of Today" did nothing, although it did inspire a punk band in Belfast to adopt the song's title as their band's name.

Their second single, "Another Girl, Another Planet", was dynamite!

The 50-second intro is one of the most exciting I've ever heard - it starts quietly but mounts to a real climax of guitars before Peter Perrett's rather dead-pan, nasal vocals come in. At the end you're left rather wondering what the song is about; it was strongly rumoured at the time that it was about heroin addiction, but Perrett denied this. It went to number 37 in the UK Singles Chart but didn't chart in the US.

Answer: Sylvester

I was a real fan of the New Wave music that was dominating the charts in the UK at this time, but at the same time I really enjoyed dancing and going for a bop every Saturday night - in fact, I amassed quite a collection of 12" disco singles. This one, "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" by Sylvester, was one I played every Saturday night before I went out so as to get me in the disco mood. It's notable for its energy and for its pioneering use of electronic instrumentation, and of course Sylvester was a fabulous artist, androgynous and glamorous.

It went to number eight in the UK Singles Chart and number 36 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was also ranked at number 399 in the 2021 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 Best Songs of All Time.

Sadly Sylvester died in 1988 as a result of HIV/AIDS; he left all the future royalties from his work to San Francisco-based HIV/AIDS charities.

Answer: Rod Stewart

Just like "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)", "Hot Legs" by Rod Stewart became one of my Saturday evening pre-going-out records. Now I have to say that I really didn't like Rod Stewart as he seemed to have very quickly become a caricature of himself, but this track was really good-time rock'n'roll - it could almost have been a Rolling Stones record.

Among its many delights there's a cool bass solo by Phil Chen and an excellent lead guitar solo by Billy Peek (the video features him doing a rather dodgy "duckwalk" as he mimes playing his Flying V guitar). It went to number five in the UK Singles Chart and number 28 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Answer: The Police

I loved The Police from the moment I first heard them, and I'll explain why. For many years I've been interested in Japanese culture, in which there is the concept of "ma" - the void between all things - which is the essence of the Japanese aesthetic. Thus in Kabuki (Japanese traditional theatre) it is the purposeful pauses in speech which make the words stand out. And it seemed to me that The Police were doing the same with music - the instrumentation on many of their early tracks was so sparse that the spaces between the notes became as important as the notes themselves.

Their second single, "Roxanne", is a perfect example of this. Derided by some critics as "white man's reggae" it seemed to me to be a perfect example of using the concept of "ma" in western music as Sting's bass and Andy Summers' guitar bounce phrases off each other with Sting's pained vocals on top. I loved it from the moment I heard it.

The single was released in the UK in April 1978 but failed to chart. However when it was re-issued in April 1979 it went to number 12 in the UK Singles Chart and number 32 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was also ranked at number 388 in the 2004 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Answer: Tom Robinson Band

Another British band sitting at that junction of Punk, Power Pop and hard rock that I really liked were the Tom Robinson Band. In 1977 they'd had a number five hit in the UK with their debut single "2-4-6-8 Motorway" that I'd rather disliked - I don't go for songs with "all-join-in-the-chorus" choruses! However "Up Against the Wall" was a very different type of song, intensely political and savage in its criticism of the State's attitude towards young people.

Vernon Joynson in his 2001 book "Up Yours! A Guide to UK Punk, New Wave & Early Post Punk" says: "It typified their heartfelt passion and political anger, which is so prevalent on their superb debut album ["Power in the Darkness"]". I was very lucky to see the band live twice in Belfast, and they were brilliant! "Up Against the Wall" got to number 33 in the UK Singles Chart but wasn't released in the US.

Answer: Siouxsie and the Banshees

It was clear from the amount of coverage that Siouxsie and the Banshees were receiving from John Peel and the music press in 1977 and 1978 that they were going to be huge. Their first single release, "Hong Kong Garden", had a mock-Chinese feel with a xylophone riff and ended with slashing guitar chords. It went to number seven in the UK Singles Chart but was not released in the US.
The band went on to greater things, and many music critics have credited them with a seminal role in the evolution of Goth music and fashion.

Siouxsie claimed much later that "Hong Kong Garden" tackled the issue of the racism that she had witnessed being directed by skinheads towards the workers in a Chinese restaurant. To be honest, having read the lyrics closely I don't believe that - the racist content appears to me to be anti-Chinese, for example "Junk floats on polluted water / An old custom to sell your daughter".

Answer: The Undertones

The Undertones formed in 1974 and were playing covers in various clubs and bars in the Derry / Londonderry area until they heard Punk Rock. By mid-1977 they were writing their own material, and in March 1978 they sent a demo tape to John Peel. Peel paid £200 for the band to record four tracks, which were released on Terri Hooley's Good Vibrations label. Peel reportedly burst into tears when he first played the lead track, "Teenage Kicks", and he played it twice in a row. This prompted Sire Records to buy out the band from Good Vibrations and to re-release the record; it went to number 31 in the UK Singles Chart but was not released in the US. It was voted at tenth place in John Peel's Festive Fifty for 1978, but how it's never been ranked in the "Rolling Stone" lists of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time is totally beyond me.

It really is a terrific song, a great observation of teenage dreams. Feargal Sharkey's rather plaintive, nasal voice suits the topic perfectly, and the two guitar solos are wonderfully naive. The band subsequently had a successful chart career but they never matched this, their first and genuinely iconic track.

John Peel repeatedly referred to the song as his all-time favourite; prior to his untimely death he asked that the opening line of the lyrics be engraved upon his gravestone: "Teenage dreams so hard to beat".

Answer: The Clash

I think I've already said that The Clash are my favourite rock'n'roll band of all time, and this song, "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais", illustrates just why that is. It's a perfect mixture of Punk and Reggae, starting with power chords before slowing down into a rock steady rhythm.

But the outstanding feature of the song is the content of the lyrics. Strummer starts off by expressing his disappointment at a reggae gig he'd been to at the Hammersmith Palais, which was lightweight and too pop: "Onstage they ain't got no roots rock rebel". He then goes on to advocate the coming together of black and white youth before criticising newer bands who were only looking for fame. Strummer expresses this in some of the most savage lines in modern music: "The new groups are not concerned / With what there is to be learned / They got Burton suits, huh, you think it's funny / Turning rebellion into money". Sheer genius!

The song was recognised as a mould-breaker as soon as it was released. It went to number 32 in the UK Singles Chart but was not released in the US. It was voted at seventh place in John Peel's Festive Fifty for 1978. It was also ranked at number 430 in the 2004 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Answer: Blondie

Back in 1963 Neil Levenson wrote a song called "Denise", which was taken to number ten in the US Billboard Hot 100 by a doo-wop group called Randy & the Rainbows. Fifteen years later it was picked up by Blondie, who released it as the first single from their second album, "Plastic Letters". It went scorching to number two in the UK Singles Chart but didn't chart in the US - perhaps one of the best examples of the remarkable differences between what was selling in the UK and what was selling in the US at that time.

How much of the band's success was due to Debbie Harry being drop-dead gorgeous is hard to estimate.

Answer: Patti Smith

In mid-1977 Bruce Springsteen recorded a very rough version of "Because the Night", but all he had was the tune and the title. During the next few months he made no progress with the song until Jimmy Iovine, his studio engineer, asked if he could give it to Patti Smith. Springsteen agreed, Smith wrote the lyrics, and the song was premiered by her at CBGB in New York on 30 December 1977; Springsteen joined her on guitar and vocals. It was released in March 1978.

And a great song it is too! It's recognisable immediately as a Springsteen rock song, but Smith's vocals add an extra dimension. It remains her biggest hit, going to number five in the UK Singles Chart and number 13 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was also ranked at number 358 in the 2021 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Springsteen often plays the song in concert but I don't think he's ever recorded it himself.