(Credits: Far Out)
Sat 16 August 2025 22:30, UK
Given how diverse and exciting the musical landscape was in 1978, the charts on both sides of the Atlantic were telling a rather different story.
The punk movement had propelled itself into the mainstream with the release of Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks the year before, disco was a thriving and refreshing scene that people were tapping into, and pop had discovered its new saviours in Swedish superstars ABBA. If you look at the charts from that year, some of those trends were evident, but frankly, the tastes of the record-buying public were genuinely bizarre.
In the UK, not only did the year kick off with a reggae hit that was recorded as a joke in Althea & Donna’s ‘Uptown Top Ranking’, but we were treated to another faux-Jamaican number one from 10cc with ‘Dreadlock Holiday’ later in the year, and Boney M hit the top of the charts twice with two Caribbean-influenced double A-sides.
If that’s not a strange enough trend for you, then also consider that ‘Wuthering Heights’, one of the greatest number ones of all time, was dethroned by Brian and Michael’s ‘Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs’. To add insult to this, we also managed to take Britain’s ABBA-on-a-budget, Brotherhood of Man, to number one for a third time; a feat that we shouldn’t be celebrating as an achievement for our island.
On the other side of the ocean, things weren’t any more ordinary. The Bee Gees were at the peak of their powers, so was the fourth Gibb brother, Andy, who scored two number ones for a combined total of nine weeks at the summit despite garnering zero attention in his country of birth. Not only was this a headscratcher, but our American friends decided that Donna Summer’s version of ‘MacArthur Park’, one of the most detested songs ever written, was deserving of three weeks at the top.
But despite all of these unusual chart-toppers, what spent the most weeks at the top of both the UK and US charts in 1978? There are two different answers between the two nations, but they’re both linked to one man, who was evidently having the best year of his life.
What spent the most weeks at number one in 1978?
Yes, the charts were dictated by one individual, and strictly speaking, he’s not even a musician. That’s right, the success of two Hollywood blockbusters starring John Travolta were what sent single buyers into a frenzy, and songs from these respective films ended up having the longest stints at the top of the charts in both the UK and US.
In the UK, fans favoured the music of Grease, which generated two number one hits in ‘You’re The One That I Want’ and ‘Summer Nights’, both of which were performed by Travolta and his co-star, Olivia Newton-John. While ‘Summer Nights’ managed an impressive seven weeks at the top, and has subsequently stayed on every shitty wedding playlist since, its counterpart managed to stay at the top for nine weeks in total.
In the US, Grease still managed to generate two number ones, with ‘You’re The One That I Want’ spending a single week there, while the eponymous track by Frankie Valli had two weeks. However, it was Saturday Night Fever, the other smash hit that Travolta starred in, that produced the biggest single of the year.
‘Night Fever’, as performed by the Bee Gees, stayed at number one for eight weeks in the States, and was one of three songs by the band that was made for the original soundtrack to reach number one in the US that year. Impressively, during the spell that ‘Night Fever’ endured at the top, both ‘Stayin’ Alive’ and ‘How Deep is Your Love’ were still in the top 10, having both been at the top earlier in the year.
While it isn’t unusual for Hollywood to have an influence on the singles chart, it is odd that the two biggest songs of the year were from two separate films starring the same actor, but the real question is, where would you pledge your allegiance? As far as I’m concerned, if ‘Wuthering Heights’ had held on for a few weeks longer, we wouldn’t have to ask.
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