BEST 70'S SONGS

Update:  Here's the thing. This list is SEVENTIES SONGS; Seventies music. There are genres of music like rock, metal, Motown, etc. There is no doubt that Born To Run, the song and the album are pure genius. And as a song, Jungleland or BTR cannot compare with, say, That's The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia or Undercover Angel. But TTNTLWOIG is by far a better SEVENTIES song, emblematic of Seventies music, than Thunder Road. Thunder Road is a classic that stands the test of time. But Lights or Leroy Brown  is a better Seventies song.  So no Stones or Dead or Aerosmith or Bruce. But we've added Night Fever, because it was THE disco seventies song, and disco was Seventies music. 

Remember, as the Spinners sing in Rubber Band Man: "So much love and grace and debonair in one man? Nah." 

Update: A careful and alert reader writes in support of  Hello it's Me by Todd Rundgren, Definitely a top twenty song of the seventies. Coming in right around twenty or so. 

Another reader mentions "Brandy You're a Fine Girl" which we put right at or outside the top ten. 

Another reader has the most complete list so far, including Rock the Boat, You Don't Have To Be A Star (Marilyn McCoo), Come And Get Your Love (Redbone), September (Earth Wind and Fire) , Running On Empty (Jackson Browne), and Could It Be I'm Falling In Love (The Spinners). And other readers have chimed in and we have taken all of those comments and started populating our top 25 list:

1.That's The Night That The Lights Went Out In Georgia (Vicki Lawrence not Reba McEntire); 2. Lets Get It On (Marvin Gaye);  3. Night Fever (Bee Gees); 

4 Taking Care of Business (BTO): 5. Spirit In The Sky (Norman Greenbaum);  

6. Bad Leroy Brown (Jim Croce); 7. Midnight Train to Georgia (Gladys Knights and the Pips); 8. American Pie ( Don McClean);  9. Dancing Queen (ABBA); 10. Brandy You're a Fine Girl;  11;  More Than A Feeling (Boston) ; 12 Running on Empty (Jackson Browne).; 13 Could it Be I'm Falling In Love (The Spinners):  14 Come and Get Your Love (Redbone) ;  15; You Don't Have To Be A Star (Marilyn McCoo): 16 Rhinestone Cowboy (Glen Campbell): 17 Baby Blue (Bad Finger and a great song to end Breaking Bad and the tortured life of one Walter White); 18 Rubber band Man (The Spinners): 19 Touch Me In The Morning (Diana Ross); 20 Undercover Angel (Alan O'Day); 21_Don't Leave Me This Way (Thelma Houston); 22 Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head (BJ Thomas); 23 Rock The Boat (The Hues Corporation) ; 24 Still The One ( Orleans) ; 25 Car Wash. 

 

Feeling a little creative this holiday weekend, we've been thinking about the best songs from 70's, which, along with the 60's, are the two best decades for music (sorry Madonna fans from the 1980's). 

If you want to send us your list, we will create a top ten or top twenty.  There is a clear number one, and if you need a hint, he just announced a European Tour for 2023. We will post that on Monday. 

This song, which epitomizes all that was in the 1970's, comes in for us right around 25. Not the best by far, but a prototypical song,  attached to a prototypical and iconic 1970's fun movie, with appearances by George Carlin, Richard Pryor,  and that 70's icon Professor Irwin Corey (who BTW died at age 102 in 2017). 

Coming in at NUMBER 25 on Rumpole's list, from 1976, the song and the movie.... Rose Royce's 

CARWASH!