Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights

“Wuthering Heights” is a song by Kate Bush, released as her debut single in January 1978. It became a #1 hit in the UK singles chart and has remained her biggest-selling single. The song appears on her 1978 debut album, The Kick Inside. The B-side of the single was another song by Bush named “Kite” – hence the kite imagery on the record sleeve. “Wuthering Heights” came 32nd in Q magazine’s Top 100 Singles of All Time, as voted by readers. It is also #14 on Rate Your Music’s Top Singles of All Time.

The guitar solo is played by Ian Bairnson, best known for his work with Alan Parsons. It is placed rather unobtrusively in the mix, and later engineer Jon Kelly would regret not making the solo a little louder in the mix. The song was significantly re-mixed and given a new lead vocal in 1986 for Bush’s greatest-hits album The Whole Story. This version also appeared as the B-side to her 1986 hit “Experiment IV”.

Toto – Hold the Line

“Hold the Line” is a song written by David Paich and recorded by American rock group Toto. The song was the band’s first single, and was featured on their debut eponymous album. It reached #5 in the US Billboard Charts during the winter of 1978–79. The song has been a live staple at Toto shows. Lukather played the song live with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band during the summer of 2012. Bobby Kimball plays it every time during his live performances with his own band since 2009.

Eddie Money – Two Tickets to Paradise

“Two Tickets to Paradise” is a song by American rock singer, Eddie Money, from his 1977 album Eddie Money. It was released as a single in June 1978 and reached number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100. Money wrote the song about his girlfriend at the time. His girlfriend’s mother wanted her to marry a doctor or a lawyer, not a musician. Money wrote the song as plea to take her away.

Bruce Springsteen – Streets Of Fire (Live)

Recovering from legal troubles and the stress of the breakthrough success of Born to Run, Springsteen released a somewhat less commercial album in Darkness on the Edge of Town. In terms of the original LP’s sequencing, Springsteen continued his “four corners” approach from Born to Run, as the songs beginning each side (“Badlands” and “The Promised Land”) were martial rallying cries to overcome circumstances, while the songs ending each side (“Racing in the Street”, “Darkness on the Edge of Town”) were sad dirges of circumstances overcoming all hope. Unlike Born to Run, the songs were recorded by the full band at once, frequently soon after Springsteen had written them.