My rules:

• Only one song per artist/group
• The song must be released that specific year
• Songs from live albums not allowed
• Restricted to only 20 songs

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A lot of wonderful music was released in 1978, here are my 20 chosen songs.

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• Señor (Tales of Yankee Power) – Bob Dylan

  

  Released on his brilliant album “Street-Legal” in 1978.
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  Señor, señor
  Can you tell me where we’re headin’?
  Lincoln County Road or Armageddon?
  Seems like I been down this way before
  Is there any truth in that, señor?
  –
  Spotify:
  
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  And lets include a brilliant live version from London 1978:
  
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• Racing in the Street – Bruce Springsteen

  From his 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town. In the original vinyl format, it was the last song of side one of the album. The song has been called Springsteen’s best song by several commentators, including the authors of The New Rolling Stone Album Guide.
  –
  I got a sixty-nine Chevy with a 396
  Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor
  She’s waiting tonight down in the parking lot
  Outside the Seven-Eleven store
  Me and my partner Sonny built her straight out of scratch
  And he rides with me from town to town
  We only run for the money got no strings attached
  We shut ’em up and then we shut ’em down
  –
  
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  Check out:

  • 20 Songs Released in 1977 You Must Hear

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• Miss You – The Rolling Stones

  

  Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. It was released as a single by The Rolling Stones on Rolling Stones Records in May 1978, one month in advance of their album Some Girls, and peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
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  I’ve been holding out so long
  I’ve been sleeping all alone
  Lord I miss you
  I’ve been hanging on the phone
  I’ve been sleeping all alone
  I want to kiss you
  –
  
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• Kentucky Avenue – Tom Waits

  

  Written and performed by Tom Waits, and released on Side Two of his 1978 album, Blue Valentine. The song was also included on the 1986 compilation album Asylum Years.
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  Well, Eddie Grace’s Buick got four bullet holes in the side
  And Charlie DeLisle is sittin’ at the top of an avocado tree
  Mrs. Storm will stab you with a steak knife if you step on her lawn
  I got a half a pack of Lucky Strikes, man, so come along with me
  And let’s fill our pockets with macadamia nuts
  And go over to Bobby Goodmanson’s and jump off the roof
  –
  
  –

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  Check out:

  • Great Tom Waits Song – Kentucky Avenue

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• (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais – The Clash

  

  Originally released as a 7-inch single, with the b-side “The Prisoner”, on 16 June 1978 through CBS Records.

  Produced by The Clash and engineered by Simon Humphries, the song was recorded for (but not included on) the group’s second studio album, Give ‘Em Enough Rope and was later featured on the American version of the band’s debut studio album The Clash between the single version of “White Riot” and “London’s Burning”.
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  Midnight to six man
  For the first time from Jamaica
  Dillinger and Leroy Smart
  Delroy Wilson, your cool operator
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  Check out:

  • 20 songs released in 1974 you must hear

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• Flyin’ Shoes – Townes Van Zandt

  

  Released on his album “Flyin’ Shoes” in 1978. It was his first album of original material in five years and was produced by Chips Moman.
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  Days full of rain, sky’s coming down again
  I get so tired of these same old blues, same old song
  Baby, it won’t be long ‘fore I be tying on

  My flying shoes, flying shoes
  Till I be tying on my flying shoes
  –
  
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• Lawyers, Guns and Money – Warren Zevon

  

  The closing track on his 1978 album Excitable Boy.
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  I went home with a waitress the way I always do
  How was I to know she was with the russians, too?

  I was gambling in havana, I took a little risk
  Send lawyers, guns, and money
  Dad, get me out of this, hiyah!
  –
  
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• (I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea – Elvis Costello & The Attractions

  

  Released as a single from his 1978 album This Year’s Model.
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  Photographs of fancy tricks to get your kicks at sixty-six
  He thinks of all the lips that he licks
  And all the girls that he’s going to fix
  She gave a little flirt, gave herself a little cuddle
  But there’s no place here for the mini-skirt waddle
  Capital punishment, she’s last year’s model
  They call her Natasha when she looks like Elsie
  I don’t want to go to Chelsea
  –
  
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  Check out:

  • 20 songs released in 1966 you must hear

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• Because The Night – Patti Smith

  

  Written by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith that was first released in 1978 as a single off the Patti Smith Group album Easter. It rose to number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as number five in the United Kingdom, and helped propel sales of Easter to mainstream success—even as Smith was deciding to retire from a life of constant touring. In 1987, the song was ranked number 116 on NME magazine’s list of “The Top 150 Singles of All Time”. It remains one of the best-known songs of Smith’s catalog.
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  Take me now baby here as I am
  Pull me close, try and understand
  Desirous hunger is the fire I breathe
  Love is a banquet on which we feed
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• Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) – Buzzcocks

  

  A 1978 song written by Pete Shelley and performed by his group Buzzcocks. It was a number 12 hit on the UK Singles Chart and was included on the album Love Bites.
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  You spurn my natural emotions
  You make me feel I’m dirt and I’m hurt
  And if I start a commotion
  I run the risk of losing you and that’s worse

  Ever fallen in love with someone
  Ever fallen in love, in love with someone
  Ever fallen in love, in love with someone
  You shouldn’t have fallen in love with?
  –
  
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• Who Are You – The Who

  

  Composed by Pete Townshend, it is the title track on The Who’s 1978 album, Who Are You, the last album released before Keith Moon’s death in September 1978. It was released as a double-A sided single with the John Entwistle composition “Had Enough”, also featured on the album. The song became one of the band’s biggest hits in North America, peaking at number 7 in Canada and at number 14 in the US. The keyboard pieces on the track are played by Rod Argent.
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  Who are you?
  Who, who, who, who?
  Who are you?
  Who, who, who, who?
  Who are you?
  Who, who, who, who?
  Who are you?
  Who, who, who, who?
  I woke up in a Soho doorway
  A policeman knew my name
  He said you can go sleep at home tonight
  If you can get up and walk away
  –
  
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  Check out:

  • 21 Songs Released in 1972 You Must Hear

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• Stardust – Willie Nelson

  

  From his 1978 album “Stardust”.
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  Sometimes I wonder why I spend
  The lonely nights dreaming of a song
  The melody haunts my reverie
  And I am once again with you
  When our love was new
  And each kiss an inspiration
  But that was long ago
  And now my consolation is in the stardust of a song
  Beside the garden wall, when stars are bright
  You are in my arms
  The nightingale tells his fairy tale
  A paradise where roses bloom
  –
  
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• Heart of Glass – Blondie

  

  Written by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. Featured on the band’s third studio album, Parallel Lines (1978), it was released as the album’s third single in January 1979 and reached number one on the charts in several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
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  Once I had a love and it was a gas
  Soon turned out had a heart of glass
  Seemed like the real thing, only to find
  Mucho mistrust, love’s gone behind
  –
  
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• Four Strong Winds – Neil Young

  

  From “Comes a Time”, his ninth album released in 1978.
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  Think I’ll go out to Alberta
  Weather’s good there in the fall
  I got some friends that I could go to working for
  Still I wish you’d change your mind
  If I ask you one more time
  But we’ve been through this a hundred times or more
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  Check out:

  • 20 songs released in 1973 you must hear

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• Kingdom Hall – Van Morrison

  

  From Wavelength, his tenth studio album released in the spring of 1978. The album has a different musical sound than his previous albums, leaning towards a pop sound with prominent electric guitars and synthesizers. Wavelength was Morrison’s best selling album at the time of the original release. Mick Glossop, Bobby Tench and Peter Bardens were given credit for special assistance in production.
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  So glad to see you
  So glad you’re here
  Come here beside me now
  We can clear inhibition away
  All our inhibitions
  Throw them away
  And when we dance like this
  We will dance like we’ve never before
  –
  
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• Tonight I Think I´m Gonna Go Downtown – Joe Ely

  

  From Honky Tonk Masquerade, his second album released in 1978.
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  Tonight I think I’m gonna go downtown
  Tonight I think I’m gonna look around
  For something I couldn’t see
  When this world was more real to me
  Yeah, tonight I think I’m gonna go downtown
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• I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass – Nick Lowe

  

  Written by Nick Lowe, Andrew Bodnar, and Steve Goulding and performed by Lowe. It reached #7 on the UK Singles in 1978. The song was featured on his 1978 album, Jesus of Cool.
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  I love the sound of breaking glass
  Especially when I’m lonely
  I need the noises of destruction
  When there’s nothing new
  Oh nothing new, sound of breaking glass
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• Down in the Tube Station at Midnight – The Jam

  

  The second single taken from the album All Mod Cons by The Jam. Released on 13 October 1978, it charted at number 15 and was backed by a cover of the Who song “So Sad About Us”, and “The Night”, written by Bruce Foxton.
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  The distant echo
  Of faraway voices boarding faraway trains
  To take them home to
  The ones that they love and who love them forever
  The glazed, dirty steps, repeat my own and reflect my thoughts
  Cold and uninviting, partially naked
  Except for toffee wrappers and this morning’s paper
  Mr. Jones got run down
  Headlines of death and sorrow, they tell of tomorrow
  Madmen on the rampage
  And I’m down in the tube station at midnight
  –
  
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• Alternative Ulster – Stiff Little Fingers

  

  Single released 17 October 1978.
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  There’s nothin’ for us in Belfast
  The Pound’s old, and that’s a pity
  OK, so there’s the Trident in Bangor
  And then you walk back to the city
  We ain’t got nothin’ but they don’t really care
  They don’t even know you know
  They just want money, we can take it or leave it
  What we need
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• Sultans of Swing – Dire Straits

  

  From their eponymous debut album, which band frontman Mark Knopfler wrote and composed. Although it was first released in 1978, it was its 1979 re-release that caused it to become a hit in both the UK and U.S.
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  You get a shiver in the dark,
  It’s a raining in the park but meantime-
  South of the river you stop and you hold everything
  A band is blowing Dixie, double four time
  You feel alright when you hear the music ring
  Well now you step inside but you don’t see too many faces
  Coming in out of the rain they hear the jazz go down
  Competition in other places
  Uh but the horns they blowin’ that sound
  Way on downsouth
  Way on downsouth
  London town
  –
  
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These came close:

• Misfist – The Kinks
• Another girl, Another Planet – The Only Ones
• Talking Heads – Take Me To The River
• Teenage Kicks – The Undertones
• The Model – Kraftwerk
• Milk and Alcohol – Dr. Feelgood (single 1979)
• Roxanne – The Police
• Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen (single 1979)
• Non-Alignment Pact – Pere Ubu
• Le Freak – CHIC
• Shot by Both Sides – Magazine
• Runnin With The Devil – Van Halen
• Public Image – Public Image Ltd
• Hong Kong Garden – Siouxsie and the Banshees

Spotify Playlist:

Inspiration:

• My OCD brain
• Wikipedia
• Heartaches by the Number: Country Music’s 500 Greatest Singles,  written in 2003 by David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren
• The Heart of Rock and Soul – The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made, by Dave Marsh, 1989
• 1001 Songs: You Must Hear Before You Die, by Robert Dimery, 2015
• 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, by Robert Dimery, 2010
• robertchristgau.com – Lists (Robert Christgau website)

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• Songs You MUST Hear (by year)

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-Egil