In my mind, the most '70s song of all time is Up With People.




I'm not talking about the popular songs that you hear on classic rock radio. Those ones have transcended the time of their recording and belong to the ages. I'm talking about songs that belong in the '70s. Which are your favorites?

#2 is They're Playing My Song by Robert Klein. (Skip to 9:53)

I could throw a couple of titles out there ("Convoy", "I Am Woman"); I'm just not sure if there are any specific ground rules.

"Kung Fu Fighting"

Super Bowl halftimes today really suck compared to this.

Since I don't really remember all of the 70's (sorry), I guess my picks have to be:

Rhinestone Cowboy - Glenn Campbell (really, the whole 70's pop country thing, but here you go)
Don't Go Breakin My Heart - Elton John and Kiki Dee ( I know it gets classic rock play, but c'mon)
Teenage Rampage - The Sweet (yes, they had classic rock songs, but this was so 70's)

and one more, and while it also gets play on classic pop radio, I deny it's a classic song...

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night - The Bay City Rollers.

I really wish I was older in the 70's, so my only musical memories weren't AM Pop radio from that era

#shudder

Jason

End thread.

In my mind, it's story songs like "Billy Don't Be A Hero", "Run Joey Run", "The Night Chicago Died", etc.

I don't think there is a definitive 70's sound because it was an era when top 40 radio was so eclectic you could have "The Boys Are Back In Town" by Thin Lizzy, followed by Marvin Hamlish's arrangement of "The Entertainer," followed by "Shining Star" by Earth, Wind and Fire, etc. That would never happen today, and I kind of miss it.

I'm not a 70s music hater because that's the era I grew up in. And I don't believe in guilty pleasures - if I like it, I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. My buddy does - so on a one-day, six hours of driving road trip, I made two one-hour tapes of the cheesiest 70s songs, and that was the only music we had. Drove him nuts.

That said...

Seasons In The Sun. Terry Jacks.

"Muskrat Love"---baffling,then and now.

Under this opening parameter, I would have to say that "I'd Like To Teach the World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony)" trumps Up With People.

Anything by Leo Sayer.

Too popular. But you're on the right track. I'm talking about Kiki's solo stuff.

Another example: Paul Nicholas with "Heaven On the 7th Floor."

Or Cliff Richard - you never hear him on oldies radio.

My mind was blown when I learned that for much of both acts' primes, Richard Perry would have both Leo Sayer and The Pointer Sisters record vocals for the same backing tracks, and whoever's version he liked better would get to release the song.

Now I can't hear anything by either without imagining how the other's version would sound.

What? You don't like animals or something?

Your Having My Baby by Paul Anka of course! Pure cheese. It's so cheesy even Jimbo won't own it.

Second place goes to Debbie Boone and her plaintive You Light Up My Life.

Any disco song,really---good and bad,they embody the '70s like nothing else;that,and wah-wah guitar.

Hey, let's not go overboard, now!