1978: The Best Year Ever for Pop Singles?

“Grease” was the word, and “Saturday Night Fever” had no cure.

Freddie Mercury performing with Queen on December 13, 1978, in Portland, Oregon (Photo: Patrice Ackerson)

I’ve always been fairly indifferent to “1979,” the 1996 Smashing Pumpkins single (and the band’s biggest pop hit, peaking at number 12 on Billboard’s Hot 100). It probably has as much to do with my certainty that the great Pumpkin Billy Corgan set the song in the wrong 12-month period as…