NEW YEAR'S ROCKIN' EVE '79

 We're finishing off this year with a Dick Clark New Year's celebration for the year 1979. In 1978 the health of popular rock music was on a downward spiral. There were still good bands and musicians, but you had to search them out because for the most part they weren't getting played on the radio much, and I'm talking about musicians like Little Feat, XTC, Squeeze, Elvis Costello, Television, The Cars, Magazine, Talking Heads, and The Tubes, to name just a few, but when it came down to the final New Year's Eve show on ABC, we were subjected to some of the worst music ever. Disco had taken over big time, and it was enough to make you gag! This is the kind of music that made me start listening to jazz on a full-time basis!

Dick Clark was the grandmaster of the show, as he had done before, and would continue to do for many years!

Here is the rockin' lineup for this show:

 The Village People!

 Tanya Tucker!!

Barry Manilow!!!

Rick James!!!! 

and Chuck Mangione!!!!!

And Dick had the nerve to call it a "New Year's Rockin' Eve!" Besides Rick James, nothing in that group of names even suggests something "Rockin!"

 The hosts weren't too rockin' either! Lauren Tewes of 199 episodes of "Love Boat" fame, and "CHiPs" star in 138 episodes, Erik Estrada!!

  And the whole thing was boldly sponsored by Dr. Pepper!! 

 The guy in the striped shirt and short shorts is too much!

 Dr. Pepper shelled out the big bucks for big names like Jimmy Walker..........

 .............And Fred Flinstone!!

 Well, this has sure been a big year in the death of celebrities department, but if you think about it, it really makes sense considering how we have become a society bombarded with entertainment  not just in the movies or on TV, but in music and sports too!

Here's a quick comparison of just a few of the biggest celebrities who passed away in 1978 and 2016. I think you'll get my point!

in 1978 we lost: 

Bob Crane (Hogan's Heroes) age 49

Keith Moon (The Who) age 32

Bandleader Louis Prima age 67

Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen age 75

Western character actor Chill Wills age 75

André Morell (Quatermass) age 69

Leo Genn (Psycho-Circus, Die Screaming Marianne) age 72

Singer Bob Luman age 41

Edward D. Wood Jr, (Plan 9 From Outer Space) age 54

Robert Coogan (Sooky) age 53

Western actor Tim McCoy age 86

Painter Norman Rockwell age 84
One of the greatest comic artists of all time Basil Wolverton age 69

 The countdown to Midnight, but it wasn't even live, what's up with that?

Now while that was quite a substantial list of talent, there's just no comparison to some of the names we lost in 2016! In 2016, we lost people who were at one time or another in their life # 01 at what they did! (Because of the rise in the popularity of music over the years, there are a lot more musicians on this list!

Musicians David Bowie age 69

Merle Haggard age 79

Glen Frey (The Eagles) age 67

Paul Kantner (Jefferson Airplane) age 74

Maurice White (Earth, Wind and Fire) age 74

Prince age 57

Vanity age 57

Bernie Worell (Funkadelic) age72

Leon Russell age 74

Beatles record producer George Martin age 90

The Greatest Muhammad Ali age 74

All time great golfer Arnold Palmer age 87

Astronaut John Glenn age 95

and from movies and TV:

Patty Duke age 69

Gary Shandling age 66 

Gene Wilder age 83

 The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Robert Vaughn age 83

The Queen Of Outer Space Zsa Zsa Gabor age 99

Noel Neill (Lois Lane) age 95

and last but not least, 

Carrie Fisher age 60

 and her Mom

Debbie Reynolds age 84!

Out of all the 80 gazillion people in the world, there are names on that list whose talents will NEVER be duplicated, and we lost them all in one year, but don't worry, next year will probably be even worse because we all gotta go sometime!

Happy 2017!!!!