Editing 1979 in music (section)

==Events==

===January–February===
* [[January 1]]
** [[Bill Graham (promoter)|Bill Graham]] closes San Francisco's [[Winterland Ballroom]] following a New Year's Eve performance by [[the Blues Brothers]] and the [[Grateful Dead]].
** During a New Year's Eve concert in [[Cleveland, Ohio]], [[Bruce Springsteen]] is injured when a firecracker is thrown onstage from the audience.
* [[January 4]] – The [[Star-Club]] in [[Hamburg]], Germany, known for its connections to the early days of [[the Beatles]], reopened.
* [[January 6]] – ABC's ''[[American Bandstand]]'' featured the debut of the "[[Y.M.C.A. (song)|Y.M.C.A. dance]]" using the hand gestures forming the letters YMCA during a broadcast with the [[Village People]].
* [[January 9]] – The [[Music for UNICEF Concert]] in held in New York City at the [[United Nations]], starring the [[Bee Gees]]. Highlights are aired the following evening on NBC.
* [[January 13]] – Singer [[Donny Hathaway]] dies after falling 15 stories from his hotel room in New York City. According to Hathaway's record company, [[Atlantic Records|Atlantic]], the singer had been having some psychological problems.
* [[January 15]] – [[MCA Records]] purchases [[ABC Records]] for a reported $20 million.
* [[February 2]] – [[Sex Pistols]] [[bassist]] [[Sid Vicious]] is found dead from an [[overdose]], a day after being released on bail from [[Rikers Island]] prison.
* [[February 7]]
** [[The Clash]] kicked off their first concert of their first American tour at the Berkeley Community Theatre outside [[San Francisco]]. [[Bo Diddley]] opened the show.
** [[Stephen Stills]] becomes the first major rock artist to record digitally, laying down four songs at [[The Record Plant]] in Los Angeles. None of the songs are released, and [[Ry Cooder]] becomes the first major rock artist to release a digitally recorded record.
* [[February 10]] – [[Rod Stewart]]'s "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" hit No. 1 on the [[Billboard magazine]] charts, and stayed there for 4 weeks.
* [[February 11]] – 43 million viewers watch "[[Elvis (1979 film)|Elvis!]]" on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], a made-for-TV movie starring [[Kurt Russell]] as Elvis.
* [[February 14]] – Following her 1972 [[sex reassignment surgery]], musician [[Wendy Carlos]] legally changes her name from Walter. She reveals this information in an interview in the May 1979 issue of ''[[Playboy]]'' magazine.
* [[February 15]]
** [[Minnie Riperton]] appears on the Grammys as a presenter with [[Stephen Bishop (musician)|Stephen Bishop]]. 
** The [[21st Annual Grammy Awards]] are presented in [[Los Angeles]], hosted by [[John Denver]]. The [[Bee Gees]] collect 4 Grammys for the ''[[Saturday Night Fever]]'' [[Saturday Night Fever (soundtrack)|soundtrack]], including [[Grammy Award for Album of the Year|Album of the Year]], while [[Billy Joel]]'s "[[Just the Way You Are (Billy Joel song)|Just the Way You Are]]" wins both [[Grammy Award for Record of the Year|Record of the Year]] and [[Grammy Award for Song of the Year|Song of the Year]]. [[A Taste of Honey (band)|A Taste of Honey]] win [[Grammy Award for Best New Artist|Best New Artist]].
* [[February 23]] – [[Dire Straits]] begin their first U.S. tour in Boston.
* [[February 24]]
** [[Friedrich Cerha]]'s completion of [[Alban Berg]]'s [[opera]] ''[[Lulu (opera)|Lulu]]'' is premiered at the [[Palais Garnier|Opera Garnier]] in Paris.
** Singer [[Johnnie Wilder, Jr.]] of [[Heatwave (band)|Heatwave]] is paralyzed from the neck down in a car accident in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio.
* [[February 26]] – [[B.B. King]] becomes the first blues artist to tour the Soviet Union, kicking off a one-month tour there.

===March–April===
* [[March 2]]–4 – [[Weather Report]], The CBS Jazz All-Stars, the [[Trio of Doom]], [[Fania All-Stars]], [[Stephen Stills]], [[Billy Swan]], [[Bonnie Bramlett]], Mike Finnegan, [[Kris Kristofferson]], [[Rita Coolidge]] and [[Billy Joel]], plus Cuban acts [[Irakere]], [[Pacho Alonso]], [[Elena Burke]], Los Papines, [[Tata Güines]] and [[Orquesta Aragón]] play at the historic three-day [[Havana Jam]] festival at the [[Karl Marx Theater]], in [[Havana]], [[Cuba]].
* [[March 5]] – [[MCA Records]] dissolves [[ABC Records]].
* [[March 10]] – [[James Brown]] performs at the [[Grand Ole Opry]].
* [[March 15]] – [[Elvis Costello]] gets into a heated argument with members of [[Stephen Stills]]' touring entourage at a [[Holiday Inn]] in [[Columbus, Ohio]], United States. After Costello makes disparaging and racist remarks, he is punched by [[Bonnie Bramlett]]. Costello suffers a wave of negative press coverage after the incident is made public.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wawzenek|first=Bryan|title=That Time Elvis Costello Incited a Brawl With Racist Remarks|url=https://ultimateclassicrock.com/elvis-costello-racist-remarks/|access-date=January 24, 2022|website=Ultimate Classic Rock|language=en}}</ref>
* [[March 27]] – 
**[[Eric Clapton]] marries [[Patti Boyd]], ex-wife of Clapton's friend [[George Harrison]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Doggett|first=Peter|author-link=Peter Doggett|title=You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2009|isbn=978-0-06-177418-8|page=261}}</ref>
**[[Simple Minds]] make their first television appearance, performing the songs "Chelsea Girl" and "Life in a Day" on BBC's ''[[The Old Grey Whistle Test]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/simple-minds/1979/the-old-grey-whistle-test-bbc-television-theatre-london-england-63c4beef.html |title=Simple Minds setlist at The Old Grey Whistle Test |publisher=setlist.fm }}</ref>
* [[March 31]] – The [[Eurovision Song Contest 1979|Eurovision Song Contest]], the biggest music festival in the world, takes place for the first time in a country outside Europe – [[Israel]]. The show is broadcast live from [[Jerusalem]] to Europe and a few countries in Asia. The big winner of this night is [[Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest|Israel]] for the second time in a row. The winning song is "[[Hallelujah (Milk and Honey song)|Hallelujah]]" sung by the group [[Milk and Honey (Israeli group)|Milk and Honey]], including [[Gali Atari]]. A few months after winning the song had been translated into more than 82 languages, and broke a new record by entering the Guinness Book of Records as the most translated song in the world.
* [[April 2]] – [[Kate Bush]] begins [[The Tour of Life|her first, and for 35 years, only tour.]] She becomes the first artist to use a [[wireless microphone]], enabling her to sing and dance at the same time.
* [[April 6]] – [[Rod Stewart]] marries [[Alana Stewart|Alana Hamilton]].
* [[April 7]] – 110,000 people attend the California Music Festival at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. Performers include [[Aerosmith]], [[The Boomtown Rats]], [[Cheap Trick]], [[Ted Nugent]] and [[Van Halen]].
* [[April 12]] – [[Mickey Thomas (singer)|Mickey Thomas]] replaces [[Marty Balin]] as the lead singer of [[Jefferson Starship]].
* [[April 13]] – During a concert by [[Van Halen]] in [[Spokane, Washington]], [[David Lee Roth]] collapses from exhaustion. A local doctor treats him for a stomach virus and advises him to "calm down".
* [[April 22]] – [[The New Barbarians]] and [[The Rolling Stones]] perform two concerts in [[Oshawa]], [[Ontario]], Canada, to benefit the [[CNIB]], as part of [[Keith Richards]]' 1978 sentence for heroin possession.
* [[April 27]] – [[Ozzy Osbourne]] is fired as lead singer of [[Black Sabbath]]. He is replaced in May by [[Ronnie James Dio]].

===May–August===
* [[May 1]] – [[Elton John]] becomes one of the first Western pop musicians to perform in Israel.
* [[May 2]] – [[The Who]] play their first concert following the death of drummer [[Keith Moon]]. The band performs with new drummer [[Kenney Jones]] at London's [[Rainbow Theatre]].
* [[May 4]] – Release as a single of [[Gary Numan]]'s "[[Are "Friends" Electric?]]" with [[Tubeway Army]]; it becomes the first [[synth-pop]] single to reach number one in the [[UK Singles Chart]].
* [[May 8]] – [[Iron Maiden]], [[Samson (band)|Samson]], and [[Angel Witch]] share a bill at the [[KOKO (music venue)|Music Machine]] in [[London Borough of Camden|Camden, London]]. Critic [[Geoff Barton]] coins the term "[[New Wave of British Heavy Metal]]" in a review of the show for ''[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]]'' magazine.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=If You Want Blood (and Flashbombs and Dry Ice and Confetti) You Got It |journal=[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]] |date=19 May 1979 |last=Barton |first=Geoff |author-link=Geoff Barton |pages=28–29 }}</ref>
* [[May 12]] – [[Disco]] music occupies eight of the top ten spots of the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] chart, for two weeks. The charts are led by [[Peaches and Herb]]'s R&B ballad single "[[Reunited (song)|Reunited]]".
* [[May 14]] – [[Kate Bush]] plays the final date at the [[Hammersmith Odeon]] on her first-ever tour, which also turned out to be her last tour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/may/13/kate-bush-only-tour-live |title=Kate Bush's only tour: pop concert or disappearing act? |work=The Guardian |date=13 May 2010}}</ref> 
* [[May 19]] – Three of the four ex-[[The Beatles|Beatles]] perform on the same stage, as [[Paul McCartney]], [[George Harrison]] and [[Ringo Starr]] jam with [[Eric Clapton]], [[Ginger Baker]], [[Mick Jagger]] and others at a wedding reception for Clapton at his [[Surrey]] home.
* [[May 21]] – [[Elton John]] plays the first of eight concerts in the Soviet Union, making him the first western solo pop artist to tour there.
* [[June 1]] – The [[Alternative Tentacles]] record label is established by [[Dead Kennedys]] frontman [[Jello Biafra]].
* [[June 8]] – [[Marianne Faithfull]] marries Ben Brierly of [[The Vibrators]].
* [[June 9]] – The [[Bee Gees]] equal [[Bing Crosby]], [[Elvis Presley]], and The [[Beatles]], with a record six consecutive number-one singles in the U.S. in less than a single calendar year with "[[Love You Inside Out]]".
* [[June 16]] – [[Donna Summer]] becomes the first female to have the #1 single "[[Hot Stuff (Donna Summer song)|Hot Stuff]]" and album ''[[Bad Girls (Donna Summer album)|Bad Girls]]'' for a second time.
* [[June 28]] – [[Bill Haley (musician)|Bill Haley]] makes his final studio recordings at [[Muscle Shoals, Alabama]].
* [[June 30]] 
**[[Donna Summer]] becomes the first female artist to have 2 of the top 3 songs, [[Hot Stuff (Donna Summer song)|Hot Stuff]] at #1 & [[Bad Girls (Donna Summer song)|Bad Girls]] at #3, on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. They will stay in the top 3 together for 4 weeks. In fact, all of the top 5 songs that week are entirely by women, both in Billboard and in Cashbox.
**[[Tubeway Army]] reach number 1 on the UK Singles Chart with "[[Are 'Friends' Electric?]]" and become the first British act to have a [[synth pop]] hit single. The song will remain at number 1 for four consecutive weeks.<ref name="Tubeway Army">{{cite web|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/17680/tubeway-army/ |title=Tubeway Army |publisher=Official Charts }}</ref>
* July
** [[EMI]]'s first non-classical [[digital recording]], of UK jazz-funk duo [[Morrissey–Mullen]] covering the [[Rose Royce]] hit "[[Love Don't Live Here Anymore]]", is recorded at [[Abbey Road Studios]] and later released as a limited edition vinyl [[Extended play|EP]].
** [[George Martin]]'s [[Associated Independent Recording]] opens its [[AIR Montserrat]] [[recording studio]] on the Caribbean island of [[Montserrat]]; the first album recorded here is [[Climax Blues Band]]'s ''Real to Reel''.<ref>{{cite web|title=AIR Studio Ruins|website=[[Atlas Obscura]]|date=2018-06-06|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/air-studio-ruins|access-date=2023-10-13}}</ref>
* [[July 1]] – The [[Walkman|Sony Walkman]] goes on sale in Japan.
* [[July 7]] – The Bee Gees play to a sold-out crowd at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium as part of their ''[[1979 Spirits Having Flown Tour|Spirits Having Flown]]'' tour.
* [[July 10]] – [[Chuck Berry]] is sentenced to four months in prison for [[Tax avoidance and tax evasion#Tax evasion|tax evasion]] by a Los Angeles judge.
* [[July 12]] – "[[Disco Demolition Night]]", an anti-disco promotional event held by a Chicago rock station at Comiskey Park involving exploding disco records with a bomb, causes a near-riot between games during a baseball major league doubleheader, forcing the cancellation of the second game.
* [[July 14]] – [[Donna Summer]], for a third time in an eight-month period, scores a #1 single with "[[Bad Girls (Donna Summer song)|Bad Girls]]", (staying atop the charts for five weeks); and #1 album of the same name, which also tops the Billboard 200 for six weeks.
* [[July 21]] 
**With ''[[Bad Girls (Donna Summer album)|Bad Girls]]'' (both single and album), Donna Summer's success continues as she becomes the first female artist to sit on top of 3 major Billboard charts: the Billboard Hot 100, the Hot Soul Singles chart, and the Billboard 200. Disco dominates the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, with the first six spots (beginning with Donna Summer's  "Bad Girls"), and seven of the chart's top ten songs ending that week.
**[[Tubeway Army]] reach number 1 on the UK Albums Chart with "[[Replicas (album)|Replicas]]".<ref name="Tubeway Army" />
* [[July 28]] – [[Aerosmith]] and [[Ted Nugent]] headline the [[World Series of Rock]] at [[Cleveland Stadium|Municipal Stadium]] in [[Cleveland, Ohio]]. Also on the bill are [[Journey (band)|Journey]], [[Thin Lizzy]], [[AC/DC]] and the [[Scorpions (band)|Scorpions]]. Following the concert, Aerosmith guitarist [[Joe Perry (musician)|Joe Perry]] quits the group after an argument with bandmates.
* [[July 31]] – 250,000 turn out in [[Central Park]] for a free concert by [[James Taylor]] in a campaign to restore [[Sheep Meadow, Central Park|Sheep Meadow]].
* August – [[Elton John]] and lyricist [[Bernie Taupin]], having reunited after a three-year break, eventually record their first compositions since then, to be released a year later as ''[[21 at 33]]''.
* [[August 6]] - [[Bauhaus (band)|Bauhaus]] releases debut single "[[Bela Lugosi's Dead]]", considered to be the first [[Gothic Rock]] release.
* [[August 18]] – [[Nick Lowe]] and [[Carlene Carter]] are married at Carter's Los Angeles home.
* [[August 24]] – [[Prince (musician)|Prince]]'s first hit single "[[I Wanna Be Your Lover]]" is released in the US, reaching number one on the RnB and number 11 on the Hot 100, selling more than one million copies in the US.
* [[August 25]] – "[[My Sharona]]" by [[The Knack]] hits #1 on the Billboard charts.  This is the first time in over a year that a song hits #1 that is not either a disco song or a ballad, signalling the potential resurgence of rock.

===September–December===
* [[September 1]] – [[INXS]] perform in public for the first time, at the Oceanview Hotel in Umina, New South Wales.
* [[September 2]] – [[U2]] enters the studio for the first time to record a locally released single.
* [[September 13]] – [[ABBA]] begins [[ABBA: The Tour]] in [[Edmonton]], [[Alberta]], leading off a month of dates in North America.
* [[September 16]] – [[The Sugarhill Gang]] release ''[[Rapper's Delight]]'' in the United States, the first [[rap]] [[Single (music)|single]] to become a [[Top 40]] hit on the [[Billboard Hot 100]].
* [[September 17]] – [[Court of Appeal for Ontario|Ontario Court of Appeals]] rejects a government appeal against the previous year's sentencing of [[Keith Richards]], which allowed him to avoid jail time for his 1977 arrest in Toronto for heroin possession.
* [[September 19]]–23 – [[Musicians United for Safe Energy]] (MUSE) stages a series of five ''No Nukes'' concerts at [[Madison Square Garden]]. [[Jackson Browne]], [[Crosby, Stills & Nash]], [[Bruce Springsteen|Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band]], [[Bonnie Raitt]], [[Tom Petty]], [[James Taylor]] and [[Carly Simon]] are among the participants.
* [[September 22]]
**[[Gary Numan]] hits number 1 on the UK Albums Chart with ''[[The Pleasure Principle (Gary Numan album)|The Pleasure Principle]]'', only two months after his [[Tubeway Army]] album ''[[Replicas (album)|Replicas]]'' had topped the chart.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/17942/gary-numan/ |title=Gary Numan |publisher=Official Charts}}</ref>
**''[[The NewMusic]]'', a Canadian weekly music and culture program, makes its début on [[Citytv]].
* [[September 27]] – [[Elton John]] collapses on stage at the [[Universal Amphitheatre]] in [[Los Angeles County, California]] while performing "Better Off Dead". He refuses to stop the show and resumes playing fifteen minutes later.
* [[October 10]] – [[Joe Perry (musician)|Joe Perry]] officially leaves [[Aerosmith]].
* [[November 3]] – [[Donna Summer]] becomes the first female artist to have 5 top 10 hits in the same year.
* [[November 16]] – [[Infinity Records]] is shut down and absorbed into parent company [[MCA Records|MCA]].
* [[November 17]] – [[Donna Summer]], for a second time, has two songs ("[[Dim All the Lights]]", #2, & "[[No More Tears (Enough is Enough)]]" with [[Barbra Streisand]], #3) in the Top 3 of the Billboard Hot 100, and the first female to have 5 top 5 hits in the same year.
* [[November 24]] – With "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)" hitting the top spot, [[Donna Summer]] becomes the first female artist to score 3 #1 singles in a calendar year on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
* [[November 26]] – [[Bill Haley & His Comets]] perform at the [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane]], London, in a [[Royal Command Performance|command performance]] for Queen [[Elizabeth II]]. This was Haley's final recorded performance of "[[Rock Around the Clock]]".
* [[November 30]] – [[Pink Floyd]] releases ''[[The Wall]]''. It is one of rock's most well-known [[concept album]]s and one of the [[List of best-selling albums|best-selling albums of all time]]. It is also the last album recorded with the line up of [[David Gilmour]], [[Roger Waters]], [[Nick Mason]] and [[Richard Wright (musician)|Richard Wright]].
* December – [[Iron Maiden]] is signed by [[EMI]]. They hire [[Dennis Stratton]] as a second guitarist.
* [[December 3]] – In [[Cincinnati]], a stampede for seats at [[Riverfront Coliseum]] during a [[The Who|Who]] concert kills 11 fans and injures 26 others.  Band members were not informed of the deaths until after the show.
* [[December 26]] – [[Iron Maiden]] drummer [[Doug Sampson]] is replaced by ex-[[Samson (band)|Samson]] drummer [[Clive Burr]].
* [[December 26]]-29 – The [[Concerts for the People of Kampuchea]] are held over four nights at the [[Hammersmith Odeon]] in London to raise funds for victims of war in [[Cambodia]]. [[Queen (band)|Queen]], [[The Who]], [[The Clash]], [[Wings (band)|Wings]], [[Elvis Costello]] and members of [[Led Zeppelin]] all take part.
* [[December 31]] – The eighth annual [[Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest|New Year's Rockin' Eve]] special airs on ABC, with appearances by [[The Oak Ridge Boys]], [[Village People]], [[Chic (band)|Chic]], [[Blondie (band)|Blondie]] and [[Barry Manilow]].

===Also in 1979===
* The Welsh Philharmonia becomes the Orchestra of [[Welsh National Opera]].
* [[Michael Schenker]] leaves [[Scorpions (band)|Scorpions]] during their tour in France and is replaced by [[Matthias Jabs]].
* [[Stevie Wonder]] uses [[digital audio]] recording technology in recording his album ''[[Journey through the Secret Life of Plants]]''.
* Disco reigns supreme this year, with several number-one hits from The [[Bee Gees]] and [[Donna Summer]]. Several artists who were not regarded as disco acts, scored major successes by releasing disco-oriented singles or albums, including [[New wave music|new wave]] band [[Blondie (band)|Blondie]] with their first US number-one single "Heart of Glass", [[Rod Stewart]] with "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?", and symphonic rock band [[Electric Light Orchestra]] with their UK No. 1 LP ''[[Discovery (Electric Light Orchestra album)|Discovery]]''.