Super Hits of The 70s: Have A Nice Day, Vol. 22

And "new wave" starts to rear its head! Voted Knack, no hesitation.

"My Sharona" has got to be the only track shared between the HAND series and Just Can't Get Enough.

"Love Is in the Air" was one of my dad's favourite songs, so even though it pains me more than you can imagine not to vote for "Every 1's a Winner", John Paul Young gets my vote.

Elton John's drummer had an actual solo hit?

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/cryptosicko/playlist/3m3rRSJL8dnpWgbig6WXMb?si=434Gxj-STRaNX0xTEd42kA

My Sharona is awesome and probably win in a landslide. I’m a bit burnt out on it though. Thinking about Driver’s Seat or Lotta Love.

Lotta Love

"Every 1's a Winner" will win. I like it, might like Alan Vega's version better. Yet another great-in-Boogie Nights song: "Driver's Seat." (Didn't know it until the movie.) "Lotta Love" is nice. I don't feel strongly enough for a vote here, though.

Lotta Love easy for me.

But! I want to give a shout-out to Sad Eyes. I just checked and it doesn't appear to have been mentioned on the "Songs where the singer/protagonist comes off as a serious dick without meaning to" thread, but it really epitomizes the sentiment for me. Dude's telling lover their affair is over cause his wife is coming home, all the while assuring lover that he really loves her, they had a beautiful thing going etc. etc., but hey babe, you knew it had to end...and don't look at me while you cry, okay?

I do hope the (quite nice) falsetto shrieks on the fade out are from the lover and wife stomping on his balls.

It turns out that Nige's solo hit is OK; assume that's Elt on piano? "Sad Eyes" was also quite nice, but I didn't listen to the lyric. Hot Chocolate has a killer riff, but the song doesn't quite match it.

So this is a straight fight between The Knack, JPJ and "Driver's Seat". I was shocked to discover the latter just missed the UK Top 40 (it was all over the radio IIRC) - probably going with that.

shit so many great songs

i’m gonna go Stumblin In bc Chris Norman & Suzi Quatro sound so GOOD together...but Gold comes v close

Man I hate that Nicolette Larson song-voting Sad Eyes. Obvs the Knack song could win nearly any compilation it's on.

Yes, nearly...

Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits Of The '80s, Vol. 1

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Will never understand the idea that "My Sharona" is great power-pop, or even that it has anything to do with power-pop. It's such a pushy, clunky song. The best power-pop is graceful.

Agree with all of that. The best thing about this song is that it inspired Weird Al's "My Bologna."

I actually like it better now than I did at the time but yeah

Wow, these hit me hard because they were what was on the radio when I first started listening as a little kid so they're amongst the first pop songs I knew. I really like everything here save for the rather dull "Dancin' Shoes" (which is basically "Ol' 55" with new lyrics) and "My Sharona" which is iconic but annoying.

"Hot Child in the City" is one of these songs that was on the radio ALL THE TIME in 1978; I've never heard it since.

"Gold", like last installment's "Magnet and Steel", gave me and everyone else anxiously awaiting a follow-up to Rumours a sorta-Fleetwood Mac song to tide us through. It even sounded more like something written by Stevie Nicks than by a Kingston Trio alumnus.

John Paul Young is one of those acts many Americans wrongly think is a one-hit wonder. He was big in his native Australia with nine Top 20 hits.

I'm surprised to learn the previously-unknown-to-me Rex Smith was a Tiger Beat teen heartthrob at the time. I'd
always imagined "You Take My Breath Away" was sung by a 40-something yacht rocker.

I'm probably not the only one who didn't listen closely to "Sad Eyes" and thought it was about someone far from home on a military assignment/medical residency/whatever that was about to end. If not for "she's coming home today", it would have been.

Amazing that Vanda/Young gave us both "Love Is In The Air" AND Powerage in the same calendar year.

They were nothing if not versatile, despite only working with Glaswegians named Young.

I'm surprised to learn the previously-unknown-to-me Rex Smith was a Tiger Beat teen heartthrob at the time. I'd
always imagined "You Take My Breath Away" was sung by a 40-something yacht rocker

I remember circa 1979 when I was about 11, my best friend's older sister (16 or 17) won a radio contest to have a date with Rex Smith. This was when "You Take My Breath Away" was huge on the radio. She was absolutely over the moon with excitement over this. Can't remember how the date went, or whether she even talked about it.

What I didn't know till now was that Rex Smith was a hard rocker prior to his pin-up phase; he was the brother of a guy in the pop metal band Starz.

Just noticed that the Spotify "Gold" is a Nicks-less rerecord. Here's a neat promo video with the original single edit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPjhHcLpfr4

My Sharona is a fuckin masterpiece so that

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