1978 in Music

Turned away at the velvet rope On New Year's Eve 1977, a guitarist and a bassist are denied entry to Studio 54, where they've been invited by a singer who forgot to leave their names at the door. They take a cab back to the bassist's apartment and start jamming. The riff that emerges has a lyric unprintable on a record. They change one word. The single ships in September and becomes the best-selling single in their label's history to that point, hitting number one in December. The origin story, two musicians venting their humiliation into a groove, becomes one of disco's most repeated tales.

Written by moonlight at an upright piano An eighteen-year-old writes a song in a single evening, sitting at an upright piano in her flat with the curtains open and a full moon outside. She has never read the novel that inspires it, only seen a television adaptation. The label delays the single because she is unhappy with the cover art. When it finally comes out in January 1978, it climbs to number one in the UK within three weeks, making her the first woman to top the British chart with an entirely self-written song. She is nineteen years old.

Forty thousand dollars and three weeks A debut album is tracked in three weeks for forty thousand dollars. The guitarist has built his main instrument from parts: a maple neck for eighty dollars, an ash body for fifty. About half the record is played on a secondhand guitar he bought right before sessions. The album contains a ninety-second solo that redefines electric guitar technique, layering two-hand tapping over tremolo picking and controlled feedback. It ships in February and sells ten million copies.

A track passed through the wall A producer is working on two albums simultaneously in the same building. One artist has recorded a song but cannot finish the lyrics. The producer carries the tape down the hall to another artist, who rewrites the words completely and turns it into her biggest hit. It peaks at number thirteen on the Hot 100. The songwriter's own version will not surface officially for decades. Both albums, released weeks apart in the spring, rank among the finest rock records of the year.

Every instrument, every note, one person A nineteen-year-old records his debut album entirely alone, playing every instrument: guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, percussion, and synthesizers. The first track contains forty-six layered vocal lines. Sessions stretch across three studios in three cities over five months. He is exhausted by the end. The album sells modestly, but the method, total self-sufficiency in the studio, will become his signature for the next four decades.

Harmonica in the shower A country singer records an album of pop standards from the 1930s and 1940s in ten days, using a mobile recording truck parked in a friend's driveway in the Hollywood Hills. The band plays in the living room. The harmonica player records his parts standing in a tiled bathroom shower for natural reverb. The singer's label does not want to release it. It becomes one of the best-selling country albums of all time and stays on the charts for a decade.

Two rival gang leaders in the same jail cell Two gang leaders from opposing political factions meet in a Kingston jail cell and decide that music can stop a civil war. They organize a concert at the National Stadium. Thirty-two thousand people attend. During the encore, the headliner calls both the prime minister and the opposition leader to the stage and joins their hands above his head. The gesture makes headlines worldwide. Within two years, one of the organizers is dead, shot forty times by police, and the country's political violence is worse than before.

The worst band he ever worked with An Australian producer known for glam-pop hits takes on a New York band whose singer initially refuses to work with him. He breaks from their live approach entirely, recording each member individually after grueling rehearsals. The bassist throws a synthesizer at him during one session. The producer spends days on a single drum pattern for a track that fuses disco and punk into something neither camp will claim. The album reaches number six in America and tops the UK chart.

Bedroom synthesizer, bedroom label A musician in London records a single on a small Japanese synthesizer and a four-track tape machine in his bedroom. He presses it himself and founds a label to release it. The same year, a record shop owner in Ladbroke Grove starts another label structured as a cooperative, and two men in Manchester launch a third from the back of a nightclub. None of them have significant capital. Within five years, all three labels will have reshaped British pop music entirely.

The last album with his drummer A band's drummer has deteriorated so badly that recording nearly halts. His timing is uneven, his energy inconsistent. After the guitarist threatens to fire him, he cleans up and lays down all drum parts in about ten days. The album ships in August. The drummer dies less than three weeks later, at thirty-two, from an overdose of medication prescribed for alcohol withdrawal. His replacement, recruited from another band, is announced in November.

Dusk till dawn in Montego Bay The first major outdoor reggae festival runs for eight days in Montego Bay, with six nights of concerts from dusk until dawn. An average of sixteen thousand people attend each day. The lineup stretches across the entire spectrum of Jamaican music. The festival is designed partly to boost tourism, partly to celebrate a genre that has conquered the world. It will run annually for nearly two decades.