1979 (song)

"1979" is a song by American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. It was released in 1996 as the second single from their third studio album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. "1979" was written by frontman Billy Corgan, and features loops and samples uncharacteristic of previous Smashing Pumpkins songs.[2] The song was written as a nostalgic coming of age story by Corgan. In the year 1979, Corgan was 12 and this is what he considered his transition into adolescence.[3]

For the Good Charlotte song, see Cardiology (album).
"1979"
Single by The Smashing Pumpkins
from the album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
ReleasedJanuary 23, 1996 (1996-01-23)
Recorded1995
Genre
Length4:24 (album/single/video version)
4:16 (radio edit)
LabelVirgin
Songwriter(s)Billy Corgan
Producer(s)
The Smashing Pumpkins singles chronology
"Bullet with Butterfly Wings"
(1995)		 "1979"
(1996)		 "Zero"
(1996)
Audio sample
  • file
  • help
Music video
"1979" on YouTube

"1979" reached number two in Canada and Iceland, number six in Ireland, number nine in New Zealand, and number 12 in the United States. It charted within the top 20 in several other countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom. The song was nominated for the Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 39th Annual Grammy Awards, and won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Alternative Video. In 2012, it was voted the second-best Smashing Pumpkins song by Rolling Stone readers.[4]

Recording

According to statements in interviews, Corgan worked nonstop after the Siamese Dream tour and wrote about 56 songs for Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness,[5] the last of which was "1979".[6] As the Mellon Collie sessions came to a conclusion, "1979" (which evolved out of a demo called "Strolling"[7]) was just a couple of chord changes and a snippet of a melody without words. When the time came to choose the songs that were to appear on the album, producer Flood said that "1979" was "not good enough" and wanted to drop it from the record. Taking it as a challenge, inspired Corgan, and he wrote the song that night in about four hours. The next day, Flood heard "1979" once and decided immediately to put it on the album.[2] Corgan considers "1979" the most personally important song on Mellon Collie.[8]

The song features a sample of Corgan's voice repeated throughout. During recording, Corgan was singing "today" as the melody line, so he and Flood decided to record him singing to a tape. The pair electronically manipulated several samples and looped them against a drumbeat.[9]

Reception

"1979" is the Smashing Pumpkins' highest-charting single, reaching number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Mainstream Rock Tracks and on the Modern Rock Tracks charts.[10] Virgin credited the inclusion of the single's bonus tracks for driving sales.[11] The song was nominated for the Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 1997 Grammy Awards. Pitchfork Media included the song at number 21 on their Top 200 Tracks of the 90s and said "'1979' was Billy Corgan asking, 'You know this feeling?' and the second you heard that guitar line the immediate answer was, 'I do-- tell me more.'"[12]

In a 1996 Spin interview, Corgan indicated that "1979" was probably the only indication he had for what the next Pumpkins album would sound like, "something that combines technology, and a rock sensibility, and pop, and whatever, and hopefully clicks. Between 'Bullet with Butterfly Wings' and '1979' you have the bookends of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. You've literally [heard] the end of the rock thing, and the beginning of the new thing".[13]

The song was voted #13 on Triple J Hottest 100 in 1996, it was later voted #71 on the Hottest 100 of All Time in 1998, #35 on the 2009 edition and #21 on the Hottest 100 of the Past 20 Years in 2013.

Music video

The music video for "1979" was directed by the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who had previously directed the music video for "Rocket". Originally, the band approached another director (possibly Spike Jonze[2]) to film the video for "1979". His idea was that all the band members were residents in an alien hotel and they were all going to have specially made alien-elephant masks. This video would have cost over a million dollars.[14]

The video follows a day in the life of disaffected suburban teenagers driving around in a Dodge Charger. It is based on a concept Corgan created, featuring an idealized version of teenage life, while also trying to capture the feeling of being bored in the Chicago suburbs, where Corgan grew up. In the Video the Dodge Charger has Illinois license plates, although in the driving scenes the mountains of California are visible in the background shots. Originally, Corgan wanted a scene of violence, in which the convenience store was trashed by the teens at the end of the video, but Dayton and Faris convinced him to go for something tamer. Aside from Corgan appearing throughout the video in the backseat of a car, the other band members had small parts in the video; James Iha appears as a convenience store clerk, D'arcy Wretzky as an irate neighbor, Jimmy Chamberlin as a policeman, and all three of them appear together as the band in the party scene. Band manager "Gooch" plays Jimmy's partner.[14]

Upon finishing the video shoot, the band flew to New York to perform. However, all tapes of the footage were accidentally left sitting on top of a car, and were lost as the driver departed. The group later flew back to re-shoot the party scene.[14][6]

The "1979" video was highly acclaimed. It won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Alternative Video in 1996. It was one of Canadian cable television music channel MuchMusic's Countdown number-one videos of 1996. Billy Corgan considers it the Pumpkins' best video,[14] calling it "the closest we've ever come to realizing everything we wanted."[2]

The video for the 1998 song "Perfect" is a sequel to this one, and involves the same characters who are now older. The aforementioned incident with the loss of the original footage is parodied in one of the later video's final scenes, in which a cassette tape is left on top of a car and falls off as a character drives out of a parking lot at high speed, and is subsequently destroyed by another vehicle.

Track listing

UK/US CD single/UK 12" [15][16][17]

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."1979"Billy Corgan4:24
2."Ugly"Billy Corgan2:28
3."Believe"James Iha3:15
4."Cherry"Billy Corgan4:02

1996 Re-issue/Max-CD[18]

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."1979"Billy Corgan4:24
2."Ugly"Billy Corgan2:28
3."The Boy"James Iha3:04
4."Cherry"Billy Corgan4:02
5."Believe"James Iha3:15
6."Set The Ray To Jerry"Billy Corgan4:10

US 7" double A-side single [19]

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."1979"Billy Corgan4:24
2."Bullet with Butterfly Wings"Billy Corgan4:16

1979 Mixes [20]

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."1979 (Vocal Mix)"Billy Corgan5:08
2."1979 (Instrumental Mix)"Billy Corgan5:17
3."1979 (Moby Mix)"Billy Corgan6:39
4."1979 (Cement Mix)"Billy Corgan4:40

Tracks 1, 2, and 4 are remixed by Roli Mosimann. Track 3 is remixed by Moby.[21]

Charts

Licensed uses

The song is used in Clerks II and during the credits of Gran Turismo 5. It was also released as downloadable content for Guitar Hero World Tour. It was also part of the soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto IV as part of the fictional Liberty Rock Radio station until April 2018 when Rockstar Games' ten-year license to the song expired.[54]

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Italy (FIMI)[55] Gold 25,000*
United Kingdom (BPI)[56] Silver 200,000
United States (RIAA)[57] Gold 500,000^

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone
sales+streaming figures based on certification alone

gollark: Did duplication checking get turned on?
gollark: y?
gollark: But wh
gollark: But with approval voting, you can just support both, and maybe the less popular one could win or do well.
gollark: So if there's a mainstream party you like, and a less mainstream one you like more, you would normally need to chose between getting a less bad person in and getting one you like in.

See also
  • Number one modern rock hits of 1996
  • List of number-one mainstream rock hits (United States)
  • List of RPM Rock/Alternative number-one singles (Canada)

References
  1. "50 Greatest Grunge Albums". Rolling Stone. April 1, 2019. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  2. Greg Kot. "A Long Strange Trip to 1979". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 5, 2011.
  3. "Top 21 Songs About Nostalgia". Consequence of Sound. September 3, 2018. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  4. "Readers' Poll: The Best Smashing Pumpkins Songs". Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 3, 2017.
  5. Corgan, Billy; Iha, James; Wretzky, D'arcy (December 19, 1996). "Hora Prima". MTV Latin America (Interview).
  6. "1979 by Smashing Pumpkins - Songfacts". www.songfacts.com. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  7. "Smashing Pumpkins: The Secret History, by Alan Cross". Harper Collins. 2007. ISBN 9781927002209.
  8. Billy Corgan (May 29, 1998). "Billy Corgan interview" (Interview). Karl Daher.
  9. "King B's". Guitar World (January 1997).
  10. "Charts & Awards: Smashing Pumpkins". Allmusic. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
  11. Craig Rosen. "CD Single Sales Spurred by Addition of Nonalbum Cuts". Billboard (March 30, 1996).
  12. "The Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s: 50-21". Pitchfork. September 2, 2010. Retrieved October 5, 2011.
  13. Craig Marks. "Zero Worship". Spin (June 1996).
  14. The Smashing Pumpkins – Greatest Hits Video Collection (1991–2000) (DVD). Virgin Records. 2001.
  15. "Smashing Pumpkins 1979 - Nineteen Seventy Nine UK CD single (CD5 / 5") (61852)". eil.com. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  16. "Smashing Pumpkins 1979 US CD single (CD5 / 5") (65234)". eil.com. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  17. "Smashing Pumpkins 1979 - Nineteen Seventy Nine UK 12" vinyl single (12 inch record / Maxi-single) (85444)". eil.com. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  18. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 30, 2010. Retrieved September 27, 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  19. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on February 4, 2015. Retrieved September 27, 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  20. "Smashing Pumpkins 1979 Nineteen Seventy Nine Mixes UK CD single (CD5 / 5") (217070)". eil.com. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  21. "Moby Tries To Collect Debt From Pumpkins Corgan". May 28, 1997. Archived from the original on June 14, 1997. Retrieved October 5, 2011.
  22. "Australian-charts.com – The Smashing Pumpkins – 1979". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
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  31. "Íslenski Listinn Topp 40 (24.2. '96 – 1.3. '96)". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). February 24, 1996. p. 42. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  32. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – The Smashing Pumpkins". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
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  36. "Notowanie nr746" (in Polish). LP3. May 17, 1996. Archived from the original on September 6, 2019. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
  37. "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
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  41. "The Smashing Pumpkins Chart History (Adult Pop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  42. "The Smashing Pumpkins Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  43. "The Smashing Pumpkins Chart History (Dance Club Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  44. "The Smashing Pumpkins Chart History (Dance Singles Sales)". Billboard. Retrieved May 24, 2020.
  45. "The Smashing Pumpkins Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  46. "The Smashing Pumpkins Chart History (Pop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
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  54. Roemer, Dan (April 26, 2014). "Here's a list of songs removed in GTA IV's latest update". Destructoid. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  55. "Italian single certifications – Smashing Pumpkins – 1979" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved February 26, 2018. Select "Tutti gli anni" in the "Anno" drop-down menu. Select "1979" in the "Filtra" field. Select "Singoli online" under "Sezione".
  56. "British single certifications – Smashing Pumpkins – 1979". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved February 8, 2019. Select singles in the Format field. Select Silver in the Certification field. Type 1979 in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  57. "American single certifications – Smashing Pumpkins – 1979". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved November 25, 2016. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Single, then click SEARCH. 
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