This song reached number 12 in the US and went to number 16 in the UK. A nice beat, rhythm guitar and some interesting vocal effects kick off this mid-’90s hit for the band from Chicago, Illinois. It seems quite simple. The title is a year, so obviously this song is about the year 1979. If it was, I probably wouldn’t be writing about it.

So what does 1979 mean and why? The Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan wrote the song. Incredibly, he has absolutely nothing to do with 1979. There is no mention of Superman the Movie, Bungee Jumping, Trivial Pursuit, M*A*S*H, or Threes Company. This is simply a coming of age song. About what it’s like when you’re just entering adulthood and just out of your teens. This song is just about growing up. On the VH1 Storytellers television show, Corgan said, “Sometimes when I’m writing a song, I see an image in my head. For some reason, it’s from the dark memory that I have.” The memory that accompanies this song is from when he was around 18 years old. He was driving down a road near his house on a rainy night and was waiting at a traffic light. He says the image “emotionally connotes a sense of waiting for something to happen, and not being there yet, but it’s just around the corner.” Nice story. So what year did Billy Corgan turn 18? 1985! (1985 is a Bowling For Soup song) So why 1979? The year is barley mentioned in the actual song. Maybe he used 1979 because it sounds good, maybe he just picked a year at random. He possibly he was trying to connect with 34 year olds. When the song was released, a 34-year-old man would have been 18 in 1979.

Perhaps another reason. Billy Corgan once joked, “We wrote this song for Michael Jackson, but we found out he couldn’t do the Moonwalk.” Michael Jackson turned 21 in 1979. I’d like to know what you think. Please feel free to comment below.