December 1978

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  1
British new wave music-hall rocker Ian Dury releases his biggest hit single, "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick." It will reach Number One in the U.K. and sell 2 million copies worldwide without entering the U.S. chart.
 2
3
Mommie Dearest, Christina Crawford's tell-all book about her mother, Joan Crawford, is the current bestseller.
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Sid Vicious, out on bail from Riker's Island Detention Center in New York after being charged with the murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, smashes glass in the face of Patti Smith's brother Todd during an altercation at New York rock club Hurrah.

Retired General William Westmoreland states that medical progress made during the Vietnam War saved more lives than were lost, emphasizing advances in blood transfusions and treatment of malaria and trench foot.
 7
 8
Johnny Rotten's new band, Public Image Ltd., releases its debut album, First Issue; "Public Image" will become an underground hit.
 9
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Studio 54 co-owner Ian Schrager is busted for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. IRS agents also found Hefty bags containing nearly a $1 million in cash.

The Vietnam War saga The Deer Hunter, starring Christopher Walken, Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep, premieres.
 15
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Parliament, part of George Clinton's subversive- message funk empire, enters the soul LP chart with Motor-Booty- Affair. The album, which yields the hit single "Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalpha- disco betabioaquad- oloop)," Number One for four weeks starting January 1979, will rise to #2 on the chart. It caps off a highly successful year for Clinton, who has already had two Number One singles with Parliament's "Flashlight" (Number One for three weeks starting March 4) and Funkadelic's "One Nation under a Groove" (Number One for six weeks starting September 30), and a Number One soul LP in Funkadelic's One Nation under a Groove (Number One for four weeks starting October 28).

Patrice Rushen, a jazz-fusion keyboardist, starts a successful pop-funk crossover, as her single "Hang It Up" enters the soul singles chart. It will rise to #16.

Bob Dylan ends his three-month U.S. tour in Miama, Florida.

James Brown makes his third and last soul singles chart entry of the year with the title cut of his latest album, "For Goodness Sake, Take a Look at Those Cakes." The bawdy ode to one variety of girl-watching will peak at #52.
17
Stiff Records' "Be Stiff Route 78" tour opens its American run at New York's Bottom Line club. The lineup includes Lene Lovich, Rachel Sweet, Jona Lewie, Wreckless Eric and Mickey Jupp.
 18
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 20
The "Treasures of Tutankhamen" exhibit, featuring gold and other valuable relics form the burial chamber of the Egyptian prince, opens at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Over 1.2 million people will see the exhibit, which also inspires Steve Martin's Top 20 musical tribute (debuted on Saturday Night Live), "King Tut."
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Public Image Ltd., the band featuring ex-Sex Pistol John Lydon and ex-Clash member Keith Levene, plays its first concert, at London's Rainbow Theater.
 26
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Chris Bell, a founding member of Memphis-based pop-rock band Big Star, is killed at age twenty-seven in an auto accident. Big Star, which formed in 1971, performed and recorded a rock & roll style that later became known as power pop. Ironically, the group disbanded in 1975, only a few years before later power pop groups like the Knack would be successful.

The most auspicious debut in years is made by a "skinny-tie band" called the Cars, a Boston-based band formerly known as Cap'n Swing. Their first LP is the first new wave record to gain acceptance on FM-AOR radio, which is still enamored of arena bands like Boston and Kansas. The Cars turns platinum on this date.
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After months of testimony including a taped interview with Cuba's Fidel Castro, the House Assassinations Committee determines that John F. Kennedy's death was probably the result of a conspiracy, citing substantial evidence of more than one shooter.
31
Bill Graham closes Winterland Theater in San Francisco to rock concerts following a swan-song by the Grateful Dead and the Blues Brothers.

As a full-fledged Iranian revolution seems likely after weeks of politically destabilizing protests by religious fundamentalists, U.S. Ambassador William Sullivan urges all American families to leave Iran.

Most popular music, books and film - 1978; the Bee Gees' "Night Fever" (pop single); Saturday Night Fever (Original Soundtrack) (pop album); Funkadelic's "One Nation Under a Groove" ((R&B single); Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson's "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" (C&W single); Richard Bach's Illusions (fiction); James F. Fixx's The Complete Book of Running and Edith Holden's The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady (tie for nonfiction); Grease (film).
  


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