December 1979

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  1
2
Stevie Wonder performs at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, performing material from his recent Journey through the Secret Life of Plants LP, accompanied by the National Afro-American Philharmonic Orchestra. The remainder of the three-hour concert features Wonder's more conventional recent hits.
 3
Eleven Who fans are trampled to death in the rush to gain admittance for general or festival (unreserved) seating to the Who's concert this evening at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum. As is typical in festival-seating concerts, thousands of fans had arrived early for the show, all hoping to get into the Coliseum as quickly as possible to get the best seats they could. Since they could be admitted through only two doors, a crushing human bottleneck formed; the eleven people died when the doors were finally opened and the mob stampeded for the doors. Coroner's reports ruled that the eleven died from "suffocation by asphyxiation due to compression" and "suffocation due to accidental mob stampede." The mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, will cancel the Who's concert scheduled there in two days. Multiple suits will be filed by the families of the deceased against the city of Cincinnati, Riverfront Coliseum, the Who and the Cincinnati concert's promoters. Electric Factory (run by Larry Magid, who in the late Sixties ran one of the first East Coast rock ballrooms, Philadelphia's Electric Factory). Festival seating itself will be almost universally blamed for the tragedy (except by Walter Cronkite, who on tonight's CBS Evening News blames it on "a drug-crazed mob of kids"), but festival seating will continue to be used in concerts around the country.
 4
President Carter announces his intention to run for reelection, facing Democrats Edward Kennedy and Jerry Brown and Republicans Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and George H.W. Bush.
 5
"Pop Muzik" by M (Robin Scott) turns gold. The Number One disc epitomizes the Euro-pop sond with its dance rhythm and high-tech gloss.
 6
Australian metal rockers AC/DC's big breakthrough comes with its fifth U.S. album, Highway to Hell, which turns gold on this date. It is the last LP recorded with original vocalist Bon Scott, who dies just two months later from choking on his own vomit after an all-night drinking binge.
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Michael Jackson's Off the Wall -- containing four Top Ten singles -- goes platinum.

Kool and the Gang receive a gold record for "Ladies Night," the third Top Ten hit of their career.

A Gallup Poll shows President Carter's approval rating at 61%, up from 39% a month ago -- the largest leap in popularity ever recorded -- in response to his initial handling of the Iranian crisis.
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Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall," from their new double-LP The Wall, hits Number One on the U.K. pop chart before subsequently finding similar success in the U.S.
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 21
The Eagles, Chicago and Linda Ronstadt perform at a benefit show for the presidential campaign of California governor Jerry Brown, who also happens to be Ronstadt's boyfriend. The show, at the San Diego Sports Arena, is followed by a similar benefit at the Aladdin Theater in Vegas. The two shows raise over $450,000.
 22
The first of four benefit concerts for the people of Kempuchea are held at London's Hammersmith Odeon. Paul McCartney, the Clash, Queen, Ian Dury, Elvis Costello, Rockpile, the Who, the Pretenders, the Specials and Robert Plant lend their talents to the cause.
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Kurtis Blow releases rap's first holiday hit, "Christmas Rappin'."
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Ian Dury and the Clash headline the second of four concerts for the people of Kampuchea, in London.

A pro-Communist regime backed by an estimated Soviet force of 30,000 overthrows Afghanistan president Hafizullah Amin. Nations ranging from China and the U.S. to neighboring Pakistan are outraged. Later reports will show that the coup was engineered with little Afghan involvement; this will lead to economic sanctions against the U.S.S.R., a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and a Vietnam-like conflict in Afghanistan for the Soviet Union.
 28
The Who, the Pretenders , the Specials and others perform at the third of four concerts for the people of Kampuchea.
 29
At the last of four benefit concerts for the people of Kampuchea performers include Paul McCartney and Wings, Elvis Costello, Rockpile with special guest Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, and an all-star "Rockestra."
30
Emerson, Lake and Palmer, the art-rock supergroup beloved by millions of fans and hated by most rock critics, announce their breakup. Keith Emerson and Greg Lake would put ELP back together again in 1985, with drummer Cozy Powell, and in 1992, with original drummer Carl Palmer returning.
 31
The Jefferson Starship's New Year's Eve concert at X's night club in San Francisco is broadcast over radio to much of the Western world.

Most popular music, books and film - 1979: the Knack's "My Sharona" (pop single); the Eagles' The Long Run (pop album); Chic's "Good Times" (R&B single); Eddie Rabbitt's "Every Which Way But Loose" (C&W single); Richard Bach's Illusions (fiction); James F. Fixx's The Complete Book of Running (nonfiction); Kramer vs. Kramer (film).
  


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