4 Rock Acts Who Scored Big With Disco-Flavored Hits in 1979

You can make the argument that disco’s popularity peaked with the Bee Gees-heavy soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever in 1977. But the genre didn’t fall away all at once. In 1979, songs with heavy disco overtones were still doing quite well on pop radio.

Videos by American Songwriter

In fact, acts that most would consider rock-oriented had made the decision to try their hand at songs that would work on dance floors in that calendar year. These four songs prove our point.

“Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” by Rod Stewart

The cynics among you might accuse Rod Stewart of trend-jumping to maximize his popularity over the years. We’d argue that precious few artists have what it takes to continuously score in different genres, even genres that come and go. Stewart later regretted “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”, which he co-wrote with Carmine Appice and Duan Hitchings. But not because it was disco. Too many people missed the story in the verses, focused on the chorus, and assumed Stewart was being egotistical. Listen again, and you might be surprised at how hook-filled the thing is. Stewart took the song all the way to No. 1 on the pop charts in 1979. Needless to say, he ruled dance clubs with it as well.

“Heart Of Glass” by Blondie

Speaking of acts that fearlessly took stylistic detours, Blondie never shied away from challenging their audience with new sounds. Of course, it helped immensely that they had Debbie Harry at the center of it all to orient the audience with her force of personality. In future years, the band scored No. 1 hits with reggae (“The Tide Is High”) and hip-hop (“Rapture”). Harry and Chris Stein wrote what would become “Heart Of Glass”, a pop chart-topper in its own right, a few years earlier. They only brought it to the forefront for recording when producer Mike Chapman was looking for material for their Parallel Lines album. The suave beat and Harry’s nonchalant vocal tone contrast the subtle heartache playing about the lyrics.

“Goodnight Tonight” by Paul McCartney & Wings

Wings entitled their 1979 album Back To The Egg because it was intended to be a restart for the band. As it turned out, it would be their swan song, as Paul McCartney shuttered the group in the early 80s. They had already shown they could go the disco route with songs like “Silly Love Songs” and “With A Little Luck”, although those tracks were more pop-oriented. “Goodnight Tonight”, with a sound dominated by McCartney’s burbling bass line, was aimed much more directly at the dance floor. The lyrics are minimal here. McCartney mostly lets the music do the talking, along with some throaty shouts of the refrain. It made it No. 5 in 1979, a last hurrah for this outfit at that chart level.

Critics didn’t take long upon hearing ELO’s eighth studio album to pick apart the name. Discovery was altered to “Disco-Very” in many a write-up. With “Shine A Little Love” as the lead single, the band wasn’t exactly hiding the genre’s influence. Perhaps the drumbeat goes on a bit more of a gallop than the typical disco fare. But the gloss of the production makes it sound like it would have worked in tandem with the stuff ELO did for the Xanadu soundtrack a year later. Since disco often worked strings into the formula, Lynne’s orchestra-incorporating approach fit here like a glove. ELO also scored big with the dance-friendly song “Don’t Bring Me Down” from Discovery, although that track was a bit harder-edged than the typical disco track.

Photo by Watal Asanuma/Shinko Music/Getty Images