Posted on 08/17/2018 5:55:21 PM PDT by SamAdams76
The summer of 1979 was a very hot and steamy summer in New England. I can almost still smell the fried food from the clam shacks as we cruised up and down the beaches in our Pontiacs, our Dodges and if we were lucky enough to have one, our Chevy Camaros. Always with the windows rolled down and the top down too if we had a convertible.
Car radios blaring, of course. A lot of us had the local FM rock stations dialed in on our five presets. Or we had our tape players, either cassette or 8-track, but the cassette format was gaining traction. Compact discs were still a few years away.
There were a lot of popular songs from that summer of 1979, with the big one being that "My Sharona" song by The Knack. Rock music was making a big comeback and pushing disco off to the side. That was also the summer that some Chicago radio DJ had a disco record burning event at Comiskey Park between games at a doubleheader and caused a riot which forced the White Sox to forfeit the second game. I believe that is still the last time a complete game was forfeited in the Major Leagues. (There was a forfeit in 1995 but that occurred in the 7th inning of that game.)
A lot of great summer songs from that summer but there is one song in particular, a classic example of a "one-hit wonder" that just defined the summer of 1979. And that would be "Driver's Seat" by an obscure British band called Sniff 'n' the Tears. For a period of about 8 weeks that summer, this song was blaring out of just about every car radio in America.
This song is a perfect time capsule from 1979. A sizable hit at the time that everybody knew but by the time the leaves started turning and kids went back to school, it disappeared from radio playlists and Sniff 'n' the Tears were never heard from again. Which was a shame because you would think that a band that could put out a song that catchy and that good would stick around for a while and put together a string of hits.
For me, this song brings back memories of Hampton Beach in NH, where we used to hang out on hot summer nights and walk up and down the "boardwalk" where we would order up fried clam plates for about $5.95 (very expensive for those times) and then as it got dark, we'd drag a cooler of iced beer and a boombox down to the water line (we were just 16 or 17, going into our senior year at high school) and hang out until either the beer ran out or until some cops came snooping around (which never failed to spook us and send us on our way).
Heard it often enough, never knew the name of the song until now.
Sniffing the driver’s seat?
Sure is. I remember it.
‘Pod.
Cool memories of your teenage alcoholic days!
Where’d you live in NE? Why Hampton Beach NH?
'79 Camaro
If you want to start a hopeless discussion, ask 10 New Englanders who serves the best fried clams? You’ll get 15 answers.
Very memorable song that has always stayed with me. I had one of those record compliations back then (K-tel?) and this song was on it. I may still have that album somewhere, but have nothing on which to play it!
With louvers, even...
I knew a girl who, somehow, owned not a Camaro but the superior Trans-Am. Bird of prey painted on the hood and everything.
No T-top.
My college roommate bought this album and played it constantly. The rest of the record is actually pretty good. We saw them when they toured after it came out.
Yeah, I remember that one. Long time now, long time. About to leave the Navy, dropped my butt in Silicon Valley and it was a rocket ride from then on out. Good times.
I grew up in the Revere area but we preferred not to hang around our local beaches for mainly two reasons.
First reason, it was easier for underage kids to score beer up in New Hampshire as they had a lower drinking age. I think it was 18 at the time and nobody in the beach area carded. Also, me and my little band of friends at the time were the nerdy types and didn’t want to hang out where we’d get hassled from other kids we knew from school. Revere Beach especially was a tough and seedy area in those days. But they did have Kelly’s Roast Beef!
'79 Pontiac Trans Am
I had an ‘83 Firebird with t-tops. 5 speed, 6 cylinder.
The YouTube video (extended version) is awesome! Hot cars and hot women.
If I said “Rock 80” would you have any idea what I was talking about?
I was interested because I just drove up that way earlier this summer. I’m from California so I like checking out other parts of the country.
But we missed Hampton Beach. Wanted to drive up the Maine coast so we went 495 from Lowell to 95 and over to the seaside highways at Portsmouth.
If I’d known about Hampton Beach I’d have gone over to the coast sooner.
It was a great day trip. I liked the area. Went as far as Portland then headed northwest through Maine to northern New Hampshire.
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