The Smashing Pumpkins

"1979" is a song by the American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. Released in 1996 as the second single from their third studio album "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness", "1979" was written by frontman Billy Corgan, and features loops and samples that were uncharacteristic of previous Smashing Pumpkins songs. The song was popular with critics and fans; Allmusic's Amy Hanson called it a "somewhat surprising hit". The song was nominated for the Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the Grammy Awards, and won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Alternative Video. "1979" was the Smashing Pumpkins' highest-charting single, reaching number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Mainstream Rock Tracks and on the Modern Rock Tracks charts. It peaked at number fifty-four on the U.S. Hot Digital Songs in 2005, nine years after first being released. The song was nominated for the Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the Grammy Awards. In a 1996 Spin interview, Corgan indicated that "1979" was probably the only indication he had for what the next Pumpkins album would sound like, "something that combines technology, and a rock sensibility, and pop, and whatever, and hopefully clicks. Between ["Bullet with Butterfly Wings"] and "1979" you have the bookends of [Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness]. You've literally the end of the rock thing, and the beginning of the new thing".