3 Pop Songs From 1979 That Felt Like the Last Night of the 70s

Tons of songs across punk, power pop, and new wave reached the pop charts in 1979. And many of those hits had a finality to them, a sort of sound that really signaled the end of the decade. Let’s look at just a handful of songs that fit that bill, shall we?

“My Sharona” by The Knack from ‘Get The Knack’

This power pop song was one of the very last major pop hits of the 1970s, so I think it deserves a spot on this list. There isn’t a sense of finality to this song, but considering how enormous a hit it was, it really does capture the sound of pop at the end of the 70s.

“My Sharona” by The Knack made it all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also topped charts in Australia, Canada, and elsewhere.

“Let’s Go” by The Cars from ‘Candy-O’

Rock and roll, new wave, futuristic instrumentation… “Let’s Go” by The Cars managed to capture so many musical elements of decades past while still predicting the kind of sound that would become the standard in the 1980s. Listeners were ready for something new, which led this unique offering to the Top 20 of the pop charts.

“Let’s Go” by The Cars was a No. 14 hit on the Hot 100 chart. The song did even better on the pop charts in Canada and Australia.

“Train In Vain” by The Clash from ‘London Calling’

This punk song by The Clash wasn’t released as a single until 1980. But it made its first appearance in the world via London Calling in 1979. When I think of the moment punk rock stepped out of its first wave and into the next wave, which would dominate the early 1980s, I think of this funky, new wave-leaning punk jam “Train In Vain”.

This entry on our list of pop songs from 1979 brought punk to the pop charts. It peaked at No. 23 on the Hot 100 once it was released as a single in 1980. The tune was also a popular club hit that peaked at No. 30 on the Dance Club Songs chart in the US.

(Photo by MpiRock/MediaPunch via Getty Images)

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