happen so...... but as is the case in this type of thread. we can all make cases for our preferred year - based not on how important it was in the history of music , but on our personal taste and what it meant to us. (so on our personal history)

personally i hated the 88-93 era... because i didnt like the style of music being created. but in reality that period was good, it saw the madchester, indie, dance, grunge styles emerging.

YES!!!! Belting year and 1998 - All these songs bring back so much memories of my childhood and when I started getting into music. The standout track for me of this year though was Savage Garden - To Moon and Back

1999-2001 weren't all that bad for Pop music. 2003 is my favourite though as I discovered Rock/Nu-Metal music

Another previously unmentioned but very good year: 1963...

She Loves You - The Beatles
Louie Louie - The Kingsmen
It's My Party - Leslie Gore
Be My Baby - The Ronettes
Another Saturday Night - Sam Cooke
Blowing' In The Wind - Peter Paul & Mary (or Dylan)
Blue Bayou - Roy Orbison
Brown Eyed Handsome Man - Buddy Holly
Busted - Ray Charles
Can't Get Used To Losing You - Andy Williams
Come On - Rolling Stones
Da Doo Ron Ron - The Crystals
Diamonds - Jet Harris & Tony Meehan
Dominque - the Singing Nun
From Me To You - The Beatles
Geronimo - The Shadows
He's So Fine - The Chiffons
If I Had A Hammer - Trini Lopez
In Dreams - Roy Orbison
In My Room - Beach Boys
I Only want To Be With You - Dusty Springfield
I Wanna Be Your Man - Rolling Stones
I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
Little Deuce Coupe - Beach Boys
Ring Of Fire - Johnny Cash
Up On The Roof - The Drifters
Walking The Dog - Rufus Thomas
Walk Like A Man - The Four Seasons
You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry & The Pacemakers

... and that is a very abridged list of hit singles from 1963.

I'm relieved to see the OP choice as 1979. Also has to be my year of choice. Police had their most number ones, the jam were coming in with the Eton rifles, bee gees arguably at their best, some other great disco tunes like ami Stewart knock on wood, also new wave, blondie parralel lines and eat to the beat, Gary numan and tubeway army, both massive in this year.

Has to be 1979 easily. So many different genres very successful. A year that changed music quite a bit ready for the 80s.

Oh yes that would make another worthy addition to my list as would Truly, Madly, Deeply.

I'd have to go with 1979 as well, it had such a mix of pop, rock, easy listening, new wave, punk, reggae/ska and they are all still played regularly today. There are even some NWOBHM which kick started an entirely new heavy metal sub genre

There were a few stinkers as well but that just adds to the variety on offer.

Interesting point to note about this song is that it is actually from 1996, (when it reached number one in Australia) and recorded in 1995, it just didn't peak on the UK charts until 1998 after various rereleases, much like republica - ready to go which was also recorded in 1995 but didn't peak until 1997.

my 'problem' with '79 is that its greatness was built on a couple of previous years creativity.
imho it was the fruition of what both punk and disco had started earlier.

I'm with you and the OP. 1979 without question for me. Two-Tone, The Mod Revival, New Wave, Disco (Jackson's Off The Wall album for starters but we've got Donna Summer, Edwin Starr, The Gibson Brothers as well as Amii Stewart as you mention) and just plain fantastic pop tunes such as:-

Dave Edmunds - Girl's Talk
Pop Musik - M
The Logical Song - Supertramp
My Sharona - The Knack
We Don't Talk Anymore - Cliff Richard
Wings - Coming Up (the song that inspired John Lennon to return to the studio?)

....and the year that gave us the epic "Are 'Friends' Electric?" My favourite song of the year.

1979 the year that started with YMCA at number 1. Yeah, let's not....

There were some great New Wave and Two-Tone tracks in 1979, but I'm sorry, any year that was dominated by that soulless abomination of a genre known as Disco cannot be the greatest year ever!

It's difficult to choose just one year, but I'll go with those posters who said 1966.

p.s.

Johnny_Cash (the poster, not the singer) I think that 1956 was a great year too.

Disco was pretty much over by 1979 though there were a few hanging on, pure pop and new wave were dominant forces then (UK).

Just took a look at the 1979 charts for the whole year - it's pretty amazing really, yes there were some disco stinkers but hey its just opinion.

We had, in no particular order

The Police
The Jam
Elvis Costello
ELO
Blondie
Roxy Music
Squeeze
Dave Edmunds
Ian Dury
Boomtown Rats
Pink Floyd
Michael Jackson
Madness
Queen
Gary Numan (Tubeaway Army)
ABBA
David Bowie
Pretenders
Fleetwood Mac
XTC
Thin Lizzy
Status Quo
Supertramp
The Stranglers


It's just a bloody fantastic list - in my opinion of course, that year resonates due to my age maybe.

Cannot? What, just because you don't like it? Wow. Hate to tell you but discos were massively popular in 1979 and the feeling of throwing some shapes to a well crafted and produced choon was hard to beat. I'm sure many of the classic disco songs of that era still fill floors today, with the younger as well as the older.

Disco wasn't all Disco Duck and YMCA, some of it was Don't Stop Till You Get Enough.

Even though I'm not a disco fan I agree with you, the late 70's weren't defined by any single genre and that's what made it so great.

Exactly, And anyway, disco didn't dominate 1979. It was part of the landscape.

eh?.... 'pure pop'?... dominant?... the term wasnt coined until the 90's and that was to describe the manufactured acts.

new wave was certainly dominant, as was rock, disco and reggae in its forms (including two tone ska).

disco over?.... heart of glass, i will survive, ymca three of the biggest ever disco tracks heralds from 79..

Disco was in its last throws, still producing huge hits I agree but the genre was spent.

Heart of Glass was disco but didn't have that cheese factor that disco generally suffered from.

I used the term "pure pop" loosely - I just meant pop that didn't sit with any particular sound - just good radio tunes - like "cool for cats" and "pop musiK" etc. Lets not get pedantic eh?

Pure Pop For Now People was the tagline for Nick Lowe's 1978 album Jesus Of Cool, so the "pure pop" tag was in use by 1979 (the album was also called Pure Pop For Now People in the USA).

1966!

why not just call it 'pop'?..


maybe but it was not used and attributed to and style until the 90's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco#...sh_and_decline

So just to reiterate 1979 did have some disco hits - some were huge but the genre was a spent force and new wave/post punk/pop were in ascendance - though this was short lived as the New Romantics took hold of the charts a year or so later.

And 1979 was a great year for singles - greatest? - I don't know but it's up there.

As most have already said 1979 wasn't all about disco. It was amongst the disco backlash and other genres were emerging such as new wave and post punk, mentions to the Eton rifles by jam, the police, Gary numan / tubeway army, blondie, elvis Costello, supertramp, not an ounce of disco in any.

i dont think anyone said it was all about disco.... it clearly wasnt.

New wave wasn't 'emerging' in 1979. It pre-dates the British Punk explosion of 1976. Punk was already on the fade in 1978. Of course Punk didn't go away, like most everything, it went underground. The second wave consolidated around 1981 and unlike the '77 wave was almost exclusively an indie label thing. I don't remember any of it breaking the top 40 other than "Dead Cities" by Scotland's The Exploited and "Too Drunk To F__k" by the Dead Kennedys. Maybe the Anti-Nowhere League? Memory is hazy.

There were definite Funk & Disco (and later, Electro) influences in plenty of New Wave music - Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, B-52's, Blondie (!!), Devo, A Certain Ratio, New Order, Devo, Orange Juice etc. etc.

The Disco backlash was mostly centred around the 'Disco Sucks' movement which seems to have been a mostly white, uptight bunch of redneck, AOR fans living in fear of gayness because Disco was being (inaccurately) portrayed as a gay genre.