Best Songs of 1978

One of the more intriguing aspects of this list-making process through the years of my life has been seeing how my tastes have ebbed and flowed with the popular consciousness of the times. As we move deeper into the ’80s, and thus further away from my toddler years, pop music begins to dominate my lists. Then somewhere around my early 20s (aka the late-’90s), it falls away.

This, the year of my birth, includes a handful of contemporary hits, but for the most part, it is steeped in—if not underground music, than at least—music on the fringes. Or, given the slowness of the era, popular songs that would not hit their peaks until a year or so later.

In my document of 1978, you will find an assortment of things that informed what would become the popular music of my preteen and high school years. In that sense, I have worked backwards from what I knew and loved growing up to discover these songs. While tracing a musical tree like this does not always lead to finding things you love, in this case, as I pieced together the latter half of these 100 tracks over the past half-decade, I have found more than a handful of songs and artists to love.

Listening to them now, forty years after they were first released, it is hard to place these songs in context of my own life. The best I can do is to recall the plastic toy saxophone I had growing up, and recognize how this instrument’s pervasiveness in 1978 surely inspired toymakers and parents alike. Surely there is some circular logic going on in my now-distinct affinity for the instrument in the songs of this era.

If nothing else, as I compiled these tracks, I felt like I was constantly digging for some kind of saxophone gold that may not have actually existed. Or if it did, it existed only in the sound of one song found almost halfway through this list. Rather than spoil the surprise of listening (or browsing) by naming it, I will give you a hint: it is a song I think I first encountered on the soundtrack to Good Will Hunting, as I neared my own halfway mark—or what was, at the time of this writing, my halfway mark.

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify and Apple Music. Sadly all 100 tracks aren't available, but you get the general idea. Track notes to come eventually or maybe never.

Show Grid

I Need to Know

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

You’re Gonna Get It

Gone Gator / MCA

Notes
Whole Wide World

Wreckless Eric

Wreckless Eric

Stiff

Notes
Another Girl, Another Planet

The Only Ones

The Only Ones

Epic

Notes
Part Time Punks

Television Personalities

Where’s Bill Grundy Now?

Kings Road

Notes
Survive

The Bags

Survive 7"

Dangerhouse

Notes
Non-Alignment Pact

Pere Ubu

The Modern Dance

Blank

Notes
I Wanna Be Sedated

Ramones

Road to Ruin

Sire

Notes
Pump It Up

Elvis Costello

This Year’s Model

Radar

Notes
So It Goes

Nick Lowe

Jesus of Cool

Yep Roc

Notes
Statue of Liberty

XTC

White Music

Virgin

Notes
Take Me to the River

Talking Heads

More Songs About Buildings and Food

Sire

Notes
Hong Kong Garden

Siouxsie and the Banshees

The Scream

Polydor

Notes
Heart of Glass

Blondie

Parallel Lines

Chrysalis

Notes
Just What I Needed

The Cars

The Cars

Elektra

Notes
Surrender

Cheap Trick

Heaven Tonight

Epic

Notes
Runnin’ With the Devil

Van Halen

Van Halen

Warner Bros.

Notes
Big Shot

Billy Joel

52nd Street

Columbia

Notes
Who Are You

The Who

Who Are You

MCA

Notes
Bicycle Race

Queen

Jazz

Elektra

Notes
Double Vision

Foreigner

Double Vision

Atlantic

Notes
Hold the Line

Toto

Toto

Columbia

Notes
Grease

Frankie Valli

Grease

Polydor

Notes
Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?

Rod Stewart

Blondes Have More Fun

Warner Bros.

Notes
I Don’t Wanna Lose You

Daryl Hall & John Oates

Along the Red Ledge

RCA

Notes
Fire

Pointer Sisters

Energy

Planet

Notes
I Will Survive

Gloria Gaynor

Love Tracks

Polydor

Notes
No Limit

Breakwater

Breakwater

Arista

Notes
Mary Jane

Rick James

Come Get It!

Gordy

Notes
The Groove Line

Heatwave

Central Heating

Epic

Notes
Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)

The Jacksons

Destiny

Epic

Notes
I’m Every Woman

Chaka Khan

Chaka

Warner Bros.

Notes
Soft and Wet

Prince

For You

Warner Bros.

Notes
One Nation Under a Groove

Funkadelic

One Nation Under a Groove

Warner Bros.

Notes
Take Me to the Next Phase, Pts. 1 & 2

The Isley Brothers

Showdown

T-Neck

Notes
Ain’t We Funkin’ Now

The Brothers Johnson

Blam!!

A&M

Notes
Le Freak

Chic

C’est Chic

Atlantic

Notes
Got to Be Real

Cheryl Lynn

Cheryl Lynn

Columbia

Notes
Lotta Love

Nicolette Larson

Nicolette

Warner Bros.

Notes
Every Kinda People

Robert Palmer

Double Fun

Island

Notes
Wavelength

Van Morrison

Wavelength

Warner Bros.

Notes
I Don’t Care

Elton John

A Single Man

MCA

Notes
Thank You For Being a Friend

Andrew Gold

All This and Heaven Too

Asylum

Notes
From Maine to Mexico

Leon Russell

Americana

Paradise

Notes
Baker Street

Gerry Rafferty

City to City

Parlophone

Notes
Badlands

Bruce Springsteen

Darkness on the Edge of Town

Sony

Notes
Because the Night

Patti Smith Group

Easter

Arista

Notes
Walk on By

The Stranglers

Walk on By 7"

United Artists

Notes
Where Were You?

Mekons

Where Were You? / I’ll Have to Dance Then (On My Own)

Fast Product

Notes
Teenage Kicks

The Undertones

Teenage Kicks

Sire

Notes
Next to You

The Police

Outlandos d’Amour

A&M

Notes
What Do I Get?

Buzzcocks

What Do I Get? 7"

United Artists

Notes
To Be Someone (Didn’t We Have a Nice Time)

The Jam

All Mod Cons

Polydor

Notes
Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad

The Clash

Give ’Em Enough Rope

Epic

Notes
Is This Love

Bob Marley & The Wailers

Kaya

Island

Notes
Baltimore

Nina Simone

Baltimore

CTI

Notes
African Violet

Terry Callier

Fire on Ice

Elektra

Notes
Use Ta Be My Girl

The O’Jays

So Full of Love

The Right Stuff

Notes
September

Earth, Wind & Fire

The Best of Vol. 1

Columbia

Notes
What a Fool Believes

The Doobie Brothers

Minute by Minute

Warner Bros.

Notes
Kiss You All Over

Exile

Mixed Emotions

Curb

Notes
Still the Same

Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band

Stranger in Town

Capitol

Notes
Can We Still Be Friends

Todd Rundgren

Hermit of Mink Hollow

Bearsville

Notes
Street Hassle

Lou Reed

Street Hassle

Arista

Notes
Outdoor Miner

Wire

Chairs Missing

Harvest

UK release
Days

Television

Adventure

Elektra

Notes
Follow You Follow Me

Genesis

‘and then there were three’

ATCO

Notes
Forever in Blue Jeans

Neil Diamond

You Don’t Bring Me Flowers

Columbia

Notes
That’s the Way the World Goes Round

John Prine

Bruised Orange

Asylum

Notes
Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys

Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson

Waylon & Willie

RCA

Notes
The Gambler

Kenny Rogers

The Gambler

Capitol

Notes
Two More Bottles of Wine

Emmylou Harris

Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town

Warner Bros.

Notes
Take Me to the River

Levon Helm

Levon Helm

ABC

Notes
Beast of Burden

The Rolling Stones

Some Girls

Virgin

Notes
Sultans of Swing

Dire Straits

Dire Straits

Warner Bros.

Notes
Fire on the Mountain

Grateful Dead

Shakedown Street

Arista

Notes
Promises

Eric Clapton

Backless

RSO

Notes
Love the Way

Jorge Santana

Jorge Santana

Tomato

Notes
A Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy

The Kinks

Misfits

Arista

Notes
I’ve Had Enough

Wings

London Town

Capitol

Notes
Thunder Island

Jay Ferguson

Thunder Island

Asylum

Notes
Thank You Friends

Big Star

3rd

PVC

Notes
When You Walk Through Me

Ultravox

Systems of Romance

Island

Notes
Perspective

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

Atlantic

Notes
Romeo Is Bleeding

Tom Waits

Blue Valentine

Asylum

Notes
Baby, Stop Crying

Bob Dylan

Street-Legal

Columbia

Notes
Rainfall

Bruce Cockburn

Further Adventures Of

Island

Notes
Lawyers, Guns and Money

Warren Zevon

Excitable Boy

Elektra

Notes
Lotta Love

Neil Young

Comes a Time

Reprise

Notes
I Don’t Know Why

O.V. Wright

The Bottom Line

Hi

Notes
Close the Door

Teddy Pendergrass

Life Is a Song Worth Singing

Philadelphia International

Notes
What You Won’t Do for Love

Bobby Caldwell

Bobby Caldwell

Clouds

Notes
Three Times a Lady

Commodores

Natural High

Motown

Notes
Love Don’t Live Here Anymore

Rose Royce

Rose Royce III: Strikes Again!

Warner Bros.

Notes
To Sir With Love

Al Green

Truth N’ Time

Right Stuff

Notes
I Love the Nightlife (Disco ’Round)

Alicia Bridges

Alicia Bridges

Polydor

Notes
Boogie Oogie Oogie

A Taste of Honey

A Taste of Honey

Capitol

Notes
Don’t Lose Your Love

Don Brown

Shut the Door

First American

Notes
It Looks Like Love

Goody Goody

Goody Goody

Atlantic

Notes
Angela

Bob James

Touchdown

Tappan Zee

Notes
Jack and Jill

Raydio

Raydio

Arista

Notes