The number one song of 1978 in the US, according to Billboard's Year-End Hot 100, was "Shadow Dancing" by Andy Gibb, while in the UK, Boney M.'s "Rivers of Babylon" was the best-selling single, and in Australia, "You're the One That I Want" by John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John topped the charts, showing different regional hits.
Boney M. had the best selling single of 1978 with "Rivers of Babylon/Brown Girl in the Ring", which spent five weeks at number-one in May and June.
Chris Norman and Suzi Quatro Chris Norman and Suzi Quatro are best known for their 1978 soft-rock duet "Stumblin' In", which became a massive international hit and remains a staple of classic radio.
The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack was the best-selling album of 1978, and spent 24 consecutive weeks at number one.
Featuring shouty Sham 69, the cool rebellion of Ian Dury, Elvis Costello and Blondie, the media-savvy clowning of The Boomtown Rats, Kate Bush's debut with Wuthering Heights, alongside Brotherhood of Man's perky Figaro, Dan Hill's sentimental Sometimes When We Touch and the high camp of Boney M's Rasputin.
"Mary's Boy Child" is the only song to be Christmas number one for two artists – Harry Belafonte in 1957 and Boney M. in 1978 – although "Do They Know It's Christmas?" has been Christmas number one four times, for three generations of Band Aid, and for the LadBaby parody in 2022.
Summer of 1978 seemed to be a great one for fun films, crowd pleasers Foul Play, Grease, Heaven Can Wait, National Lampoon's Animal House and The Cheap Detective were all released that summer!
💃🎶 Grease (1978) became the highest-grossing musical of its time… but here's a strange fact: 🎥 Strange Fact: Olivia Newton-John was so unsure about playing Sandy that producers actually held a screen test with John Travolta to see if their chemistry worked.
Chic's song Le Freak was the number one song on Billboard's Hot 100 charts on the week of December 23, 1978. The legendary disco/funk band dropped a mega-smash with Le Freak. Not only did the song stay at the top spot for two weeks, it jumped back to that slot three different times.
Rock was reemerging, disco was still out there, punk was in full swing, new wave was moving beyond CBGB's and getting massive radio time, everything we know of as yacht rock today was a current hit then, the early seeds of the Athens, GA sound as well as the Minneapolis sound were both being laid, Elvis Presley had ...
This is a list of Billboard magazine's Top Hot 100 songs of 1979. The Top 100, as revealed in the year-end edition of Billboard dated December 22, 1979. "My Sharona" by The Knack (singer Doug Fieger pictured) was the number-one song of 1979.
One venture in particular was the Global Positioning System (GPS). After almost a decade of experimenting and testing by the U.S. Navy, GPS made its official debut in 1978 with the NAVSTAR satellite.
In 1978, the first designer jeans were introduced and immediately became popular, designers like Calvin Klein, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Fiorucci advertising their name on the back of the fashionable cigarette-leg, usually dark blue denim jean of the time.
1978 Best Selling Albums Based on Worldwide Sales
Popular musicians and songs:
In 1973, the retail price of LPs increased to $6.98. In 1976, the retail price of LPs increased to $7.98. In 1978, the retail price of LPs increased to $8.98. In 1984, the retail price of LPs increased to $9.98.
There's no single "number one" album due to different metrics (sales, critical acclaim, cultural impact), but Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982) is consistently cited as the best-selling album worldwide and a landmark pop record, while The Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) often tops US sales charts. Other contenders for "best" often include Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, and recent critical favorites like Adele's 21.
40 Years Later: Was 1978 The Greatest Year In Music? : World Cafe With a list of debut albums from Kate Bush, The Cars, Devo, Dire Straits, The Police, Buzzcocks, Van Halen and more, '78 has huge ground to stand on.