1979 (song)

Infobox Single
Name = 1979

---

Artist = The Smashing Pumpkins
from Album = Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
B-side =
Released = January 23, 1996
Format = Vinyl record (7" and 12"), CD and cassette
Recorded = 1995
Genre = Alternative rock
Length = 4:24
Label = Virgin Records
Writer = Billy Corgan
Producer = Flood, Alan Moulder and Billy Corgan
Certification =
Last single = "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"
(1995)
This single = "1979"
(1996)
Next single = "Zero"
(1996)
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Type = studio
prev_track = "In The Arms of Sleep"
prev_no = 18
this_track = "1979"
track_no = 19
next_track = "Tales of a Scorched Earth"
next_no = 20

"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.Fact|date=August 2008

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."Kot, Greg. "A Long Strange Trip To 1979", "Chicago Tribune". (available [http://www.starla.org/articles/mtc1.htm online] ).] The song was popular with critics and fans, becoming a "somewhat surprising hit." [cite web
url = http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=33:5mcyxd7b1op0
title = Song Review
author = Hanson, Amy
publisher = All Music Guide
accessdate = 2007-02-10 ] 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." [Graff, Gary. "Smashing Pumpkins—Rave of the Future," "Guitar World". December 1996.]

History

According to statements in interviews, Corgan worked nonstop after the "Siamese Dream" tour and wrote about 56 songs for "Mellon Collie", [cite interview
last = Corgan
first = Billy
subjectlink = Billy Corgan
last2 = Iha
first2 = James
subjectlink2 = James Iha
last3 = Wretzky
first3 = D'arcy
subjectlink3 = D'arcy Wretzky
title = Hora Prima
program = MTV Latin America
date = 1996-12-19] 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. Corgan considers "1979" the most personally important song on "Mellon Collie". [cite web
url=http://www.spfc.org/online/qualityposts.html?content_id=542
title=Listessa Interviews Billy Corgan, 1998/05/29
accessdate=2007-06-08] 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". [cite web
url = http://www.nndb.com/music/558/000039441/
title = Smashing Pumpkins
publisher = NNDB
accessdate = 2007-02-10 ] 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. [cite web
url = http://www.thefrogsarchive.com/bio.html
title = THE FROGS BIOGRAPHY
publisher = thefrogsarchive.com
accessdate = 2007-02-10 ] "1979" is one of the most frequently performed songs by the Pumpkins, having been played at most of the Pumpkins' concerts since 1995. [cite web
url=http://splra.org/database/showsong.php?id=1
title=1979
work=SPLRA.org
accessdate=2007-02-18]

=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.Fact|date=August 2008 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.Fact|date=August 2008 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.cite news | title = Commentary for "1979" music video | publisher = The Smashing Pumpkins 1991–2000: Greatest Hits Video Collection| date = Virgin Records, 2001)]

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) 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."

=Track listing=
*Single track listing [cite web |url=http://www.amazon.com/1979-Smashing-Pumpkins/dp/B0000073W4 |title=Amazon.com |accessdate=2008-09-18 |author=Amazon.com]
#"1979" (Billy Corgan)
#"Ugly" (Corgan)
#"The Boy" (Corgan)
#"Cherry" (Corgan)
#"Believe" (James Iha)
#"Set The Ray to Jerry" (Corgan)
*"1979 Mixes" single track listing [cite web
url=http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jbfwxqqjldfe
title=1979: Mixes
publisher=allmusic.com
accessdate=2007-04-11 ]
# 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". [" [http://web.archive.org/web/19970614024458/http://www.mtv.com/news/gallery/s/smashing970528.html Moby Tries to Collect Debt From Pumpkins' Corgan] ." MTV, 1997/05/28. Retrieved on 2007/19/23.]

=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.

Cover versions

U-Melt has covered the song on numerous occasions. [ [http://www.umelt.com/setlists.shtml U-MELT -Setlists ] ] Toronto band Jacksoul recorded the song for their 2006 cover album "My Soul". [ [http://jacksoul.com/music.html jacksoul - music ] ] Matchbox Twenty lead singer Rob Thomas recorded a cover, which was released exclusively on iTunes.

=Samples= multi-listen start multi-listen item|filename=1979.ogg|title="1979"|description="1979" from "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"|format=Ogg multi-listen end

=References= reflist|2