{"id":564884,"date":"2026-04-04T22:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T22:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564884\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T22:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T22:02:10","slug":"3-underrated-rock-songs-from-1979-that-sound-even-better-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564884\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Underrated Rock Songs From 1979 That Sound Even Better Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year 1979<\/a> was a pretty solid one for rock music, and plenty of songs in that genre could be considered underrated nowadays. I think the following three songs, specifically, could stand to get more love in the modern day. Let\u2019s revisit a few classics, shall we?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy Can\u2019t I Touch It\u201d by Buzzcocks<\/p>\n

If you remember this song but can\u2019t quite place the band, that\u2019s probably because you heard it in the sixth season of Entourage. But if you were a young punk in 1979, you likely heard this song on the streets. I honestly think everything Buzzcocks ever made could be seen as underrated, considering many of their punk rock contemporaries gained international acclaim. But \u201cWhy Can\u2019t I Touch It\u201d is particularly underrated.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still surprised that \u201cWhy Can\u2019t I Touch It?\u201d was released as a mere B-side in 1979. I\u2019m also surprised that it\u2019s a non-album single that didn\u2019t quite make it to an album. Either way, the song, along with its A-side \u201cEverybody\u2019s Happy Nowadays\u201d, reached No. 29 in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cDance The Night Away\u201d by Van Halen<\/p>\n

This hard rock jam from Van Halen was a pretty huge hit back in 1979. And yet, I don\u2019t think it gets enough love as the outfit\u2019s other classics. This pop metal classic can be heard on Van Halen II, and it was allegedly inspired by Fleetwood Mac\u2019s 1977 folk rock tune \u201cGo Your Own Way\u201d. I don\u2019t really hear the similarities, and that\u2019s probably a good thing. Both songs really stand on their own, and \u201cDance The Night Away\u201d is a particularly fun tune.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoodbye Stranger\u201d by Supertramp<\/p>\n

This progressive pop-rock song from the band Supertramp is one of Rick Davies\u2019 best. And yet, I don\u2019t really hear it on classic rock radio nowadays. That\u2019s pretty unfair, in my opinion. \u201cGoodbye Stranger\u201d is one of the most underrated and excellent rock songs to come out of 1979, complete with an addictive hook and interesting lyrics from the view of a drifter. The use of the Wurlitzer electric piano in tandem with the Hammond organ was both of its time and an interesting choice. Oddly enough, this song was a Top 20 hit in the States but only had minor success in the band\u2019s native UK.<\/p>\n

Photo by Koh Hasebe\/Shinko Music\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The year 1979 was a pretty solid one for rock music, and plenty of songs in that genre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2616,2617,88,216,2156],"class_list":{"0":"post-564884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1970s","9":"tag-classic-rock","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-rock-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}