This American Songwriter opinion piece rounds up three rock songs released in 1978 that the writer says are so good they wish they could travel back in time to hear them anew. The author frames the late 1970s as a distinctive period in which the decade's sound was beginning to evolve towards the iconic 1980s era while still remaining authentic to its roots.

The three picks are Foreigner's "Double Vision", the title track of the band's second album and their highest-charting single at the time, written by Lou Gramm and Mick Jones; Meat Loaf's softer "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad", their first US Top 20 single from the debut album Bat Out of Hell, penned by Jim Steinman; and Boston's "Don't Look Back", the title track of the band's second record and their second Top 5 single, written solely by Tom Scholz. The article notes that after "Don't Look Back", Boston waited eight years before scoring another big radio hit, their only No. 1, "Amanda", in 1986.