The year 1979 delivered an expansive range of musical styles all fighting for prominence. Many of them were relatively new to the scene, at least compared to power pop, a recognized genre for several years by then.
And yet, power pop certainly made its presence felt, even if it sometimes got lumped in with New Wave. Here are four hit singles from that year that should satisfy your power pop cravings.
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“Getting Closer” by Paul McCartney & Wings
You could make a good argument that Paul McCartney is the father of power pop, considering the bevy of sharp, peppy, ridiculously catchy songs that he and John Lennon churned out for The Beatles. In 1979, McCartney was trying to bring some of that uptempo energy back to Wings. The band had gone in more of a middle-of-the-road direction on their previous few releases. The idea that the Back To The Egg album would be a new start for the band was baked right into the title. As it turned out, it was their last album before Macca resumed his solo career. But you can hear the evidence of the sound they were seeking in the firecracker single “Getting Closer”.
“Up The Junction” by Squeeze
Squeeze didn’t receive much attention from US radio until a bit later in their career. That’s when they had a few songs hit the charts from their 1987 album Babylon And On. But they were reliable hitmakers in their native Great Britain almost right from the jump. This brilliant single from the 1979 album Cool For Cats made it all the way to No. 2 in the UK. As always with this group, the lyrics came from Chris Difford and the music from Glenn Tilbrook. The words of “Up The Junction” manage to mix deadpan humor with moments where the intense loss the narrator has suffered comes into sharp focus. Meanwhile, the music is tight and effortlessly melodic, continuously rising to exciting peaks without losing momentum.
“My Sharona” by The Knack
This one certainly was lumped in with New Wave when it rose to the top of the charts in 1979. But we also hear a lot of power pop in “My Sharona”, from the precision of the musical backing to the melody that drills into your brain with relentless force. Doug Fleger and Berton Averre wrote the song. There was indeed a Sharona, a girlfriend of Fleger who helped inspire much of the writing on Get The Knack, the Ohio band’s debut LP. You could argue that “My Sharona” is one of those singles that’s almost too big for a band that’s just starting. The Knack soon fell out of the public eye when they couldn’t match its catchy intensity on subsequent releases.
“Cruel To Be Kind” by Nick Lowe
Nick Lowe was already well-known in music industry circles for the excellent production work he’d done on the first few albums of Elvis Costello. His 70s band Brinsley Schwarz had also proven influential. They helped birth the so-called “pub rock” scene in the UK. His debut solo album, Jesus Of Cool, wowed critics in 1978. When Lowe returned with his sophomore release, Labour Of Lust, the following year, he was joined by the band Rockpile. They also backed fellow member Dave Edmunds on his 1979 LP Repeat When Necessary. “Cruel To Be Kind” was a song written in the Brinsley Schwarz days. Given a turbocharged rhythmic treatment, it became Lowe’s biggest ever US hit.
(Photo by Watal Asanuma/Shinko Music/Getty Images)