"1979" is a song by the American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. Written by Billy Corgan, it was the second single from the band's third album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995). The song was nominated for the Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the Grammy Awards, and won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Alternative Video. According to Corgan, the song is about making the transition from youth to adulthood.citation needed
The song features loops and samples, which were previously used (to a lesser extent) on album tracks such as "Hummer", but never before on a single; Corgan calls it "not the typical Pumpkins song."[1] The song was popular with critics and fans, becoming a "somewhat surprising hit."[2] It proved so popular that it later spawned a second single, "The 1979 Mixes", featuring remixes of the song. It was featured in the box set The Aeroplane Flies High and appeared on the band's greatest hits album Rotten Apples.
"1979" was the first Smashing Pumpkins single with obvious electronic influences. The electronic elements of "1979" were explored more in depth in soundtrack songs "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" and "Eye," and continued in select tracks on the follow-up to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Adore. As James Iha said in 1996, "The future is in electronic music. It really seems boring just to play rock music."[3]
History
According to statements in interviews, Corgan worked nonstop after the Siamese Dream tour and wrote about 56 songs for Mellon Collie,[4] the last of which was "1979". As the Mellon Collie sessions came to a conclusion, "1979" 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. This, however, inspired Corgan to finish it in four hours.The next day, Flood heard "1979" once and decided immediately to put it on the album.[1] Corgan considers "1979" the most personally important song on Mellon Collie.[5]
Controversial Milwaukee band The Frogs have stated at concerts and on their website that the main guitar riff from "1979" was influenced by the riff in their song "Pleasure".[6] Frogs guitarist Jimmy Flemion gave Billy Corgan a demo containing "Pleasure" in 1993. Flemion and his brother Dennis are good friends with Corgan, and Dennis was the touring keyboarding for the Pumpkins during the 1996–1997 tour, following the heroin overdose by Jonathan Melvoin.[7]
"1979" is one of the most frequently performed songs by the Pumpkins, having been played at most of the Pumpkins' concerts since 1995.[8]
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". This team later directed the music videos for "Tonight, Tonight", "The End is the Beginning is the End", and "Perfect". The video stars Larry Capelli and Giuseppe Andrews, the latter of whom reappeared in the "sequel" to the "1979" video, "Perfect".
The video follows a day in the life of disaffected teenagers living in suburbia. It is based on Corgan's idealized version of teenage life, while also trying to capture the feeling of being bored as a teenager.citation needed Originally, Corgan wanted a scene of violence, in which the convenience store scene at the end of the video was trashed by the teenagers, but Dayton and Faris convinced him to go for something more tame.citation needed The band members had bit parts in the video; James Iha appears as a convenience store clerk, D'arcy Wretzky as an irate neighbour, and Jimmy Chamberlin as a policeman. Band manager "Gooch" plays Jimmy's partner.
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 reshoot the entire video again.
Originally, the band approached another director (possibly Spike Jonze[1]) 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.
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, calling it "the closest we've ever come to realizing everything we wanted."[1]
Track listing
- "1979" (Billy Corgan)
- "Ugly" (Corgan)
- "The Boy" (Corgan)
- "Cherry" (Corgan)
- "Believe" (James Iha)
- "Set The Ray to Jerry" (Corgan)
- 1979 Mixes single track listing[11]
- 1979 (Vocal Mix)
- 1979 (Instrumental Mix)
- 1979 (Moby Mix)
- 1979 (Cement Mix)
Tracks 1, 2 and 4 are by Roli Mosimann. Track 3 is by Moby, who remixed the song pro bono.[12]
Charts
"1979" was the Smashing Pumpkins' highest-charting single, reaching number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the Modern Rock Tracks and on the Mainstream Rock Tracks. "1979" peaked at number 54 on the U.S. Hot Digital Songs in 2005, nine years after first being released.
| Chart[13][14] |
Peak
position |
| Australian Singles Chart |
16 |
| UK Singles Chart |
16 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 |
12 |
| US Mainstream Rock Tracks |
1 |
| US Modern Rock Tracks |
1 |
| US Top 40 Mainstream |
10 |
| US Hot Dance Music/Club Play |
17 |
| US Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales |
47 |
| US Adult Top 40 |
30 |
|
Cover versions
U-Melt has covered the song on numerous occasions.[15] Toronto band Jacksoul recorded the song for their 2006 cover album My Soul.[16] Matchbox Twenty lead singer Rob Thomas recorded a cover, which was released exclusively on iTunes.
Samples
References
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