Billboard Number One Songs of 1978 Quiz

Answer: Player

Peter Beckett, a guitarist from Liverpool, met fellow musician John Charles Crowley at a Hollywood party. They realized that they had similar musical tastes and decided to form a band. Lead vocalist Crowley explained in a Billboard Magazine interview that he liked the name Player because it sounded ambiguous.

After recruiting other members they recorded an LP for the Haven label but the label folded after the album was recorded. Crowley and Beckett composed "Baby Come Back" and knew it would be a hit.

The Haven label owners took the project to RSO records and they released the album. A follow-up titled "This Time I'm in it For Love" peaked at number ten but subsequent releases didn't fare well. LTD's song "Back in Love Again" was number five the same day. K C and The Sunshine Band had number two success in October, 1977, with "Keep it Comin" Love" and The Commodores had a top five in 1977 with "Easy".

Answer: Yvonne Elliman

Hawaii native Yvonne Elliman relocated to London after high school graduation. She was singing in a club when Andrew Lloyd Webber heard her and tabbed her to sing Mary Magdalene's part in "Jesus Christ, Superstar". After four years with the play she relocated to New York and married.

She was in Florida and ran into Eric Clapton, who invited her to sing backup on his tour. After the tour was done Yvonne singed with RSO but her first LP did not produce a hit. The Bee Gees were scoring "Saturday Night Fever" and had her in mind when they wrote "How Deep is Your Love".

When they elected to sing the song themselves, Yvonne got to do "If I Can't Have You". It was the fourth number one from the movie soundtrack and the fourth consecutive number one written by the Bee Gees. Yvonne kept Roberta Flack's "The Closer I Get to You" at the number two spot the same week. Samantha Sang had a number three hit in March, 1978, with "Emotion" and Bonnie Tyler took "It's A Heartache" to number four in June, 1978.

Answer: Too Much, Too Little, Too Late

In the midst of all the disco number one hits "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" was a top-selling ballad. Johnny first had chart success in 1957 with "Wonderful, Wonderful". Although he had a string of hits and his album "Johnny's Greatest Hits" was on the charts for 490 weeks, the highest he had ever been was number four with "The Twelfth of Never".

He hadn't even been on the charts since 1974 so his manager suggested that he try a duet to jump-start his career. Deniece had backed Stevie Wonder on tour and had a number 25 hit with "Free".

She was shocked when invited to sing with Johnny, but the song became the first number one for either of them. "Sometimes When We Touch" was a top five for Dan Hill in March, 1978. Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand paired up for the number one "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" in December, 1978, and "Hopelessly Devoted to You" was a solo effort by Olivia Newton John that made it to number three in September, 1978.

Answer: A Taste of Honey

In 1971 Perry Kibble and Janice Marie Johnson were out of work and decided to form a band. They derived the name A Taste of Honey from the song of the same name and began playing local joints. They graduated to doing military bases throughout Europe and Asia for a few years while they fine-tuned their act.

A mutual friend connected them with Capital Records and they were signed in 1978. Johnson and Kibble wrote "Boogie Oogie Oogie" and the group ended up winning a Grammy for Best New Artist. The song also was the 40th number one for Capital, the first label to achieve that feat.

A Taste of Honey recorded a rendition of Kyu Sakamoto's hit song "Sukiaki" in English in 1981 and had a hit with that song as well. Little River Band saw chart action in November with the number three "Reminiscing". Ambrosia had a number four the week of November 11th with "How Much I Feel" and The Emotions took "Best of my Love" to number one in 1977.

Answer: Hot Child in the City

"Hot Child in the City" took 20 weeks to slowly climb the charts after the record was released on June 10th. In a Rolling Stone interview Nick related that he was inspired by the young girls parading around Hollywood Boulevard with their pimps. Nick relocated from Britain to Canada when he was 10 years old. Ten years later he teamed up with Jimmy McCulloch and formed the band Sweeny Todd.

After working hard for six years Nick left the band and headed to Los Angeles. Gilder eventually was paired with producer Mike Chapman and he recorded three tracks in as many days for Chrysalis Records. "Hot Child in the City" was one of them.

Initially Chapman didn't think it would be a hot single, but Chrysalis execs prevailed. "I Just Wanna Stop" was number four by Gino Vanelli in December of 1978. "Whenever I Call You Friend" was taken to number 5 in November by Kenny Loggins and "Shadow Dancing" was an Andy Gibb number one on June 17, 1978.

Answer: Exile

The core of the group played steadily during the sixties around their home town of Richmond, Kentucky. They changed their name to The Exiles in 1965 and continued doing cover tunes at club dates. They grew to be a 6-piece band and eventually got a spot with Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars performing their own songs while they backed other artists such as Brian Hyland and Tommy Roe.

They began shopping demo tapes of their own material and garnered interest at Warner/Curb and their name was shortened to Exile.

After they hit number one with "Kiss You All Over" they could only follow up with number 40 and 88 songs. In the meantime country artists were singing their original material so after a spell playing in clubs they reemerged as a country band and signed with Epic. Foreigner had chart success with "Hot Blooded" in September and "Double Vision in November, both reaching number three.

The Commodores were number four behind Exile with "Three Times a Lady" and had a top five in 1977 with "Couldn't Get it Right"

Answer: MacArthur Park

"MacArthur Park" was Donna's first number one hit. It had previously hit number two for Richard Harris in 1968. Songwriter Jimmy Webb got the idea to compose a cantata that would take up an entire side of an album while he was helping produce the Fifth Dimension's "The Magic Garden" LP.

When the project was completed he polished the cantata off it and auditioned the piece for The Association, who turned it down. Jimmy then produced it for Richard Harris. Donna Summer had already been steadily climbing the charts when she recorded the song on a double LP titled "Live and More", with three sides being live and the fourth side including an extended studio version of "MacArthur Park".

The long album cut was edited to 3:53 for single release. The effort produced her first number one, with more to come. "Last Dance" topped out at number three the same year. "Dim All the Lights" stopped at number two and "On the Radio" made it to number five.

Answer: Grease

Frankie had tasted his first number one chart success 16 years prior to recording "Grease", when he recorded "Sherry" as the front man for the Four Seasons. He had overcome incredible odds, battling gradual hearing loss in the seventies. He elected to have three delicate and risky procedures done which restored most of his hearing. Prior to that he had to sing his parts by memory without the benefit of being able to fully hear the rest of the band.

Barry Gibb composed the song and approached Frankie to record it. Frankie had never seen the movie but he was aware the Broadway show had been a success so he immediately agreed.

The movie score produced another number one in 1978. In June the team of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John took "You're the One that I Want" to the top spot.

Ray Parker, Jr. did the "Ghostbuster's Theme", The Bee Gees had a major hit with the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack and "Beverly Hills Cop" theme was an instrumental recording by Harold Faltermeyer called "Axel F".

Answer: Three

As a band the boys topped the charts in December, 1977, with "How Deep Is Your Love" and it was still number one the week of January 7th. They reached number one status in February with "Staying' Alive" and again in March with "Night Fever". As writers they were on the top several times.

They wrote Yvonne Ellerman's number one "If I Can't Have You". Their younger brother Andy had two number one hit composed by his bigger brothers, "(Love is) Thicker Than Water" in March and also the June top hit "Shadow Dancing".

The brothers had four consecutive compositions hit number one, a feat previously accomplished by the songwriting team of Lennon/McCartney. "Stayin' Alive" was the composed when the boys were asked to write a song with the words "Saturday Night" in the title for the eight minute dance scene in the movie.

When they sent a demo of "Stayin' Alive" it was initially met with rejection because the title didn't contain the words "Saturday Night". The group insisted that there were already too many songs with "Saturday Night" in the title and that it also sounded trite.

Answer: Chic

The high fashion American band with a French name was on fire towards the end of the disco era. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards met in New York and had a clear vision of what their band should be. They gathered musicians together who shared the same concept.

The group of two girls and three guys wasn't really suited for rock so they set their sights on disco. They preferred to be a recording ensemble rather than play local clubs and after shopping demos and getting numerous rejections, Atlantic agreed to sign the group.

Their third single was "Le Freak" and it propelled Rodgers and Edwards to stardom as well as providing them with the opportunity to produce or write for other artists such as Diana Ross, Duran Duran, Madonna, David Bowie and many others. Pointer Sisters hit the top five the following February with "Fire". Donna Summer & The Brooklyn Dreams took "Heaven Knows" to the top five in March, 1979, and 10cc had a 1977 hit with "The Things We Do for Love".