The 1970’s were a whirlwind of change. From the hangover of the late 60’s to the lull and depression of the early part of the 70’s to the “ok, let’s loosen up and have some fun” attitude of the middle to latter part of the decade, it certainly was a decade of ups and downs that would lead to a never-ending party known as the 1980’s.
Check out everything that was from this decade, year by year. From the sporting events to world events, the top TV shows, songs, movies and more.
As you’re going back in time, think about some of the things in our lives today that you don’t see appearing here because…. they didn’t exist yet. Things like the top selling computers, tablets, laptops, microwaves, cable provider, wireless company, music video of the year etc.
Let us know some of the things that come to mind below.
For more great memories from any of the years that made up the decade, click a year below and we’ll transport you back in time to see everything you may remember or have forgotten… who loves ya baby!
TOP SONGS
1 Knack My Sharona
2 Donna Summer Bad Girls
3 Chic Le Freak
4 Rod Stewart Da Ya Think I’m Sexy
5 Peaches and Herb Reunited
6 Gloria Gaynor I Will Survive
7 Donna Summer Hot Stuff
8 Village People Y.M.C.A.
9 Anita Ward Ring My Bell
10 Robert John Sad Eyes
TOP R&B SONGS
Got To Be Real Cheryl Lynn
September Earth, Wind & Fire
Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop) Parliament
Bustin’ Loose Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers
I Got My Mind Made Up (You Can Get It Girl) Instant Funk
He’s The Greatest Dancer Sister Sledge
Disco Nights (Rock-Freak) G.Q.
Reunited Peaches & Herb
I Wanna Be With You The Isley Brothers
Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now McFadden & Whitehead
We Are Family Sister Sledge
Ring My Bell Anita Ward
Bad Girls Donna Summer
Good Times Chic
Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough Michael Jackson
(Not Just) Knee Deep – Part 1 Funkadelic
Ladies Night Kool & The Gang
Still Commodores
I Wanna Be Your Lover Prince
Do You Love What You Feel Rufus And Chaka Khan
Rapper’s Delight – Sugarhill Gang
GRAMMY WINNERS
Album of the Year: Billy Joel – 52nd Street
Best New Artist: Ricky Lee Jones
Best Pop Duo or Group: “Minute By Minute” Doobie Brothers
Best Pop Female Vocal: “I’ll Never Love This Way Again,” Dionne Warwick
Best Pop Male Vocal: “52nd Street,” Billy Joel
Best Rock Duo or Group: Heartache Tonight, The Eagles
Best Rock Female Vocal: Hot Stuff, Donna Summer
Best Rock Male Vocal: Gotta Serve Somebody, Bob Dylan
Record of the Year: “What A Fool Believes,” Doobie Brothers
Song of the Year: “What A Fool Believes,” Doobie Brothers
TOP MOVIES
1. Kramer vs. Kramer $106,260,000
2. The Amityville Horror $86,432,520
3. Rocky II $85,182,160 ($200,182,160 worldwide)
4. Apocalypse Now $83,471,511 ($150,000,000 worldwide)
5. Star Trek: The Motion Picture $82,258,456 ($139,000,000 worldwide)
6. Alien $80,931,801 ($203,630,630 worldwide)
7. The Muppet Movie $76,657,000
8. 10 $74,865,517
9. The Jerk $73,691,419 ($100,000,000 worldwide)
10. Moonraker $70,308,099 ($210,308,099 worldwide)
OTHER RELEASES
The Warriors, China Syndrome, Love At First Bite, Meatballs, Main Event, All That Jazz, The In-Laws, 1941, And Justice For All, Being There, The Rose, North Dallas Forty, The Wanderers, Bermuda Triangle, The Black Hole, Prophecy, When A Stranger Calls
ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS
Winners in CAPS
Best Picture:
KRAMER VS. KRAMER, Apocalypse Now, All That Jazz, Norma Rae, Breaking Away
Best Actor:
DUSTIN HOFFMAN for Kramer Vs. Kramer, The China Syndrome – Jack Lemmon, All That Jazz – Roy Scheider, And Justice For All – Al Pacino, Being There – Peter Sellers
Best Actress:
SALLY FIELD for Norma Rae
TV SHOWS
1 60 Minutes CBS 28.4
2 Three’s Company ABC 26.3
3 That’s Incredible! 25.8
4 Alice CBS 25.3
6. M*A*S*H
6 Dallas 25.0
7 Flo 24.4
8 The Jeffersons 24.3
9 The Dukes of Hazzard 24.1
10 One Day at a Time 23.0
11 Archie Bunker’s Place 22.9
12 Eight Is Enough ABC 22.8
13 Taxi 22.4
14 House Calls CBS 22.1
15. Real People NBC
16 Little House on the Prairie 21.8
17 Happy Days ABC 21.7
18 CHiPs NBC 21.5
19 Trapper John, M.D. CBS 21.2
20 Charlie’s Angels ABC 20.9
21. Barney Miller
22 WKRP in Cincinnati CBS 20.7
23 Benson ABC 20.6
24. The Love Boat
25 Soap 20.5
26 Diff’rent Strokes NBC 20.3
27 Mork & Mindy ABC 20.2
28 Fantasy Island 20.1
29 Tenspeed and Brown Shoe 20.0
30. ABC Sunday Night Movie
Other Shows: Vega$, Knots Landing
EMMY AWARD WINNERS:
Best Drama – Lou Grant
Best Actor (Drama) – Ed Asner, Lou Grant
Best Actress (Drama) – Barbara Bel Geddes, Dallas
Best Actor (Comedy) – Richard Mulligan, Soap
Best Actress (Comedy) – Catherine Damon, Soap
Supporting Actor – Stuart Margolin, The Rockford Files
Supporting Actress – Nancy Marchand, Lou Grant
SPORTS:
Kentucky Derby Winner: Genuine Risk – Trainer: L. Jolley – Jockey: J. Vasquez
FOOTBALL:
Super Bowl XIII was between the Pittsburgh Steelers 35 – Dallas Cowboys 31. The game was played on January 21, 1979, at the Orange Bowl in Miami, the fifth and last time that the Super Bowl was played in that stadium
Pro MVP: QB Terry Bradshaw
College Football: #1 Alabama
Heisman Trophy: Charles White USC, RB
Rose Bowl: Played in Pasadena, California, on January 1, 1979. It was the 65th Rose Bowl Game. The USC Trojans, champions of the Pacific-10 Conference, defeated the Michigan Wolverines, champions of the Big Ten Conference, 17–10. USC running back Charles White and Michigan quarterback Rick Leach were named the Players of the Game.
Orange Bowl: Oklahoma 31, Nebraska. 24
Cotton Bowl: Houston Vs. Notre Dame Joe Montana in the Chicken Soup game, Montana had the flu and led the Fighting Irish in a comeback to win 35-34 under Dan Divine
Sugar Bowl: Alabama 14 Penn State 7
BASKETBALL:
NBA Championship: Seattle Supersonics Vs. Washington Bullets
Winner: Seattle in 5
Seattle Head Coach: Lenny Wilkins
Washington Head Coach: Dick Motta
MVP: Dennis Johnson, Seattle
NCAA National Champions: Michigan State
BASEBALL:
World Series: Pittsburgh Pirates Vs. Kansas City Royals
The 1979 World Series was the 76th edition of Major League Baseball’s championship series and the conclusion of the 1979 Major League Baseball season. A best-of-seven playoff, it was played between the National League (NL) champion Pittsburgh Pirates (98–64) and the American League (AL) champion Baltimore Orioles (102–57), with the Pirates becoming the fourth team in World Series history to come back from a three games to one deficit to win the Series in seven games. Willie Stargell was the series MVP and Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” was the team’s theme song.
National League
MVP: Willie Stargell (Pirates), Keith Hernandez (Cardinals)
Rookie of the Year: Rick Sutcliffe (Dodgers)
American League
MVP: Don Baylor (Angels)
Rookie of the Year: John Castino, Minnesota and Alfredo Griffin of the Toronto Blue Jays
TOP NEWS STORIES:
The ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) television network is launched on cable television at 7pm Eastern Time on September 7th, 1979. The network was created by Bill and Scott Rasmussen along with Ed Eagan as a channel dedicated to true sports fans. History of Sports Home. ESPN launched with the airing of a live episode of their signature program Sports Center, anchored at the time by George Grande and Lee Leonard.
Within a year the network became a 24/7 television service and within a few more years it gained rights to broadcast games for the NBA. ESPN was soon purchased by ABC in 1984 and it blossomed into the powerhouse network it has become today, a popular source for sports news and exclusive sports events
Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ is released near the end of the year and would go on to be recognized as the first ‘rap song’ to cross over into the mainstream and introduce the world to ‘rap music’. The song was recorded in a single take. There are three versions of the original version of the song: 14:35 (12″ long version), 6:30 (12″ short version), and 3:55 (7″ shortened single version) The single sold over 2 million copies in the United States making it double platinum
Reagan defeats Carter 43 million to 35 Million
China institutes one child per family rule
Gold hits 880 dollars per ounce
Inflation rate hits 13.5%, Prime rate hits 21%, Misery Index attributed to Jimmy Carter.
400 cases of “Toxic Shock Syndrome” caused by certain kinds of Tampons
Eleven fans are killed and dozens are injured at a WHO Concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio
Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” is released
Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin sign the first peace treaty between an Arab nation and the Jewish state
Sid Vicious, a former member of the Sex Pistols dies due to a heroin overdose during the trial for murdering his girlfriend
The first commercial cellular network was launched by NTT
Sony releases the first WALKMAN for 200 bucks
American Airlines Flight 191 crashed and exploded in a field near O’Hare International Airport in Chicago
Quote: Ronald Reagan to Jimmy Carter during a TV debate “There you go again… Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
“Donahue” becomes one of the most widely watched TV talk show in America
The cordless phone and front-wheel-drive compact cars were new.
Three Mile island Nuclear Accident causes worldwide panic
China institutes the one child per family rule,
USSR Invades Afghanistan
Margaret Thatcher is elected Prime minister in the UK.
The first Snowboard is invented in the USA.
The Sahara Desert experiences snow for 30 minutes
Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country
President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and Vice President Saddam Hussein replaces him in Iraq
The bombing by the IRA in England continues with Lord Mountbatten and three others assassinated.
Following the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Iran becomes an Islamic Republic and 63 Americans are taken hostage in the American Embassy in Tehran
The United States and Soviet Union reach an agreement during the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks during June of 1979
The Voyager 1 spacecraft was launched in September of 1977 with the mission of gathering information on Jupiter and exploring the outer edges of the solar system. On March 5th of 1979 Voyager 1 made its closest approach to Jupiter and made observations about the moons, rings, radiation, and magnetic fields of the solar system’s largest planet
President: James Earl Carter, Jr.
Vice President: Walter F. Mondale
Population: 227,224,681
Life expectancy: 73.7 years
Dow-Jones
High: 1000
Low: 759
Federal spending: $590.95 billion
Federal debt: $909.1 billion
Inflation: 13.5%
Consumer Price Index: 82.4
Unemployment: 5.8%
Yearly Inflation Rate 11.2%
Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average 838
Interest Rates Year End Federal Reserve 15.25%
Average Cost of new house $58,100.00
Average Income per year $17,500.00
Average Monthly Rent $280.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 86 cents
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.15