This week in music: 1979 Donna Summer

(KFVS) - Let's dip into the music archives and check out the biggest selling records on this date in 1979.

The summer of '79 was the summer of disco.  In factor four of the top five songs on Billboard Magazine's Hot 100 chart were disco songs.

At number five was the "Queen of Disco"  with one of her biggest hits.  Bad Girls was skyrocketing up the charts and would end up becoming Summer's second of three number one hits in '79.

The only non-disco number in the top five was Just When I Needed You Most by Randy VanWarmer.  The song, which peaked at number four, was written by VanWarmer after his old car that he loved and used for years broke down on the way to work and by a  breakup with a girlfriend.

Checking in at number three was Anita Ward with Ring My Bell.  The song was originally intended for 11 year old Stacey Lattisaw as a song about kids talking on the telephone.  But when Lattisaw signed with another record label, Ring My Bell went to Anita Ward.  She took it straight to number one.  It was her only major hit.

Sister Sledge was in the number two spot with We Are Family. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards originally wrote the song for their group Chic, but the pair gave the song to Sister Sledge at the suggestion of their record label.  We Are Family was the signature song for Sister Sledge.  If you remember watching much baseball in '79 it was the theme song of the Pittsburgh Pirates who went on to win the World Series in '79.

We mentioned 1979 being the Summer of Disco, it was also known as the Summer of Summer, as in Donna Summer.  She had two songs in the top five.  We already mentioned Bad Girls at number five. But Summer was also in the top spot.  While the song was still considered disco, Hot Stuff was also a rocker with a guitar solo performed by former Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter.  In fact Summer's recording of Hot Stuff won her a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

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