Ongoing History Daily: The Smashing Pumpkins hit that almost wasn’t

After The Smashing Pumpkins released the Siamese Dream album in 1993, Billy Corgan went on a songwriting tear, composing almost 60 songs for the next album, which would become Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

The last song he wrote was called “Strolling,” which featured a couple of chord changes, a few lyrics and that’s it. When he brought it into the studio, Flood, the producer on the album, told him it just wasn’t good enough and that it should be dropped from the album.

Billy took that as a challenge and went away that night to re-jig the whole thing. In four hours, he was finished, returning with a song now called “1979.”  It became the Pumpkins’ highest-ever charting single and is regarded as one of the most important songs of their career.