Music Monday - 1979 a year for the Ladies

As all of you that read my blog you will know I was interested in music throughout my teens in the 1970's, basically I went from Glam to New wave throughout this period of my life. Ok my taste has matured and I actually like a lot of stuff from all era's but its your teen/early 20's that shape what you like.
Well I reckon 1979 was quite a significant period for Ladies fronting groups and this week I'm going to give you 3 from that period to choose from.

1. The Pretenders - Formed by Lead singer Chrissie Hynde at the tail end of the punk movement in 1978 and they had their first UK chart hit in 79 with the Ray Davis composition "Stop your Sobbing" which only reaced No34. The group went on to have many other hits including 3 number one's and 6 others reacing he top ten.
They also had their first chart topper later the same year with "Brass in Pocket".
Although the group are actually thought of as British Hynde is actually American born and raised in Ohio and didn't move to the UK until 1973.
The early group members were British with James Honeymoon-Scott on Lead Guitar and Bassist Pete Farndon joining Hynde.
For their first release they never had a drummer so session muscician and driving instructor Gerry Mackduff played on the origional recording of "Stop your Sobbing". He was eventually replaced by Martin Chambers.
In fact Hynde is the only origional member of the group left today both Honeymoon-Scott and Farndon died of Drug overdoses in the early eighties.

Ok you have guessed the song we are posting is "Stop your Sobbing".

2. The Tourists - This is another group that had its first chart success in 1979 and was formed by muscicians Pete Coombs and Dave Stewart. They soon recruited Annie Lennox a Scottish classical singer who had dropped out of her course at the Royal academy of music.
They also recruited Malaysian Bassist Eddie Chin and drummer Jim Tooney.
They only existed for about 2 years before Stewart and Lennox moved away to form the Eurythmics and gain fame and fortune.
For the record the Tourists only had 5 songs make the UK chart with only two of them making the top ten. However I thought they were pretty good and actually saw them play once at Bridlington Spa.
Their highest chart hit was a cover version of the 1964 Dusty Springfield Classic "I only want to be with you", for the record it had been covered 3 years earlier in 1976 by The Bay City Rollers.
The Tourists also reached the Australian top ten with this song but it only made No83 in the US so I'd better give my American friends a 2nd chance today.

One peice of trivia surrounding this song - All 3 acts Springfield, Rollers and The Tourists reached the exact same chart position No4 with this song, amazing.

3. Blondie - When talking about ladies fronting rock groups in the late seventies we can't leave out Debbie Harry & Blondie.
Although they first charted a year earlier (4 times) they had their first UK No1 with Heart of Glass in 1979. Their first ever chart success was actually in 1977 in the Australian chart when X-Offender reached No5.
They went on to have a string of hits, 5 No1's & and numerous other chart successes until they broke up in 1982. They have since reformed and returned to the UK in 1999 with another No1 Maria. The group have had too many to mention succesful albums.
The group is American from New York and the origional members are Chris Stein (Guitar), Clem Burke (Drums), Jimmy Destri (Keyboards) & Gary Valentine (Bass). Of course then there is Debbie who was actually a former Waitress and playboy bunny. Her first group was an all girl band called the Stilletoes which broke up in 1973.

The song I'm posting is the groups 2nd UK no1 of 1979 "Sunday Girl" believe it or not this song was never released as a single in the US, I reckon somebody at Chrysalis records ended up looking for a new job.

So watch the clips below and tell me which group/song you prefer ?

Ok post a day late, not my fault Youtube wouldn't post last night.