Editing 1979 in music (section)

===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.