It’s a generational thing, the radio

The audience for pop music and, by connection – at least at one time – AM radio, seems to run in cycles that last maybe five years or so. My time, when pop meant the most to me and my radio, ran from 1964 to 1969, bursting out of the gate with I Want to Hold Your Hand, ending with the embarrassing Sugar Sugar.

By 1978, pop had moved on to a generation still in grade school while I was graduating college. It made for a rough ride if you were trapped in a car with only an AM radio, or hanging in a bar with a hit-bound jukebox as a soundtrack. It was an endless loop of Blue Bayou and white people neutering  Motown – anybody up for Rita Coolidge’s The Way You Do The Things You Do? I didn’t think so. You Light Up My Life. Andy Gibb. Chuck Mangione. Eric Clapton, light years from Cream, with the dreary Wonderful Tonight. Copacabana. The Stars War Theme. The Wiz. Grease. Saturday Night Fever.

Thankfully, as you get older your horizons widen, as do your options. Albums and FM radio become the coin of the realm. And while regular radio was no place to seek refuge, if you looked hard enough, or were interested enough, 1978 was a pretty decent year. Looking back with 40 years of hindsight, this was a hip Hackensackian’s top 40 for 1978.

1.     Racing in the Streets (Bruce Springsteen)

2.     Shot By Both Sides (Magazine)

3.     Because the Night (Patti Smith)

4.     Miss You (Rolling Stones)

5.     Number One (Rutles)

6.     Public Image (Public Image Ltd)

7.     Ca Plane Pour Moi (Plastic Bertrand)

8.     I Need to Know (Tom Petty)

9.     Pump It Up (Elvis Costello)

10.  Jocko Homo (Devo)

11.  Senor (Bob Dylan)

12.  Take Me To The River (Talking Heads)

13.  Disco Inferno (Trammps)

14.  Lawyers Guns and Money (Warren Zevon)

15.  On the Air (Peter Gabriel)

16.  Badlands (Bruce Springsteen)

17.  Roxanne (Police)

18.  Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood (Santa Esmeralda)

19.  Stay/The Load Out (Jackson Browne)

20.  Every 1s A Winner (Hot Chocolate)

21.  I Wanna Be Sedated (Ramones)

22.  And So It Goes (Nick Lowe)

23.  The Big Country (Talking Heads)

24.  Navvy (Pere Ubu)

25.  David Watts (Jam)

26.  Good Times Roll (Cars)

27.  Look Out For My Love (Neil Young)

28.  Breakdown (Tom Petty)

29.  Hanging on the Telephone (Blondie)

30.  Punky Reggae Party (Bob Marley)

31.  Running On Empty (Jackson Browne)

32.  Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen)

33.  One Nation Under A Groove (Funkadelic)

34.  Sultans of Swing (Dire Straits)

35.  Baker Street (Gerry Rafferty)

36.  Love Is Like Oxygen (Sweet)

37.  Take Me I’m Yours (Squeeze)

38.  Wavelength (Van Morrison)

39.  FM (Steely Dan)

40.  Walk And Don’t Look Back (Peter Tosh)