The biggest radio hit the year you graduated high school: ’70s edition
If you graduated from high school between 1970 and 1979, a specific song was dominating the radio that spring and summer.
The following are the biggest hits for each graduating class, drawn from Billboard year-end chart data.
Which one takes you back?
Image Credit: A&M Records / Wikimedia Commons.
Class of 1970: “Close to You” — The Carpenters
The Carpenters spent four weeks at No. 1 with a Burt Bacharach and Hal David song that Karen Carpenter’s vocal made definitive. It established the group as one of the era’s most commercially dominant acts and set the tone for the softer side of the decade.
Image Credit: Allan Warren / Wikimedia Commons.
Class of 1971: “Maggie May” — Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart spent five weeks at No. 1 with a song drawn from a real relationship he had as a teenager. The acoustic guitar and mandolin arrangement, combined with his conversational delivery, made it sound like a confession rather than a record.
Image Credit: Public Domain / Wikipedia.
Class of 1972: “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” — Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack spent six weeks at No. 1 with a song she had originally recorded in 1969. Its use in the film Play Misty for Me brought it to a wider audience. The Class of 1972 graduated to a record of such quiet authority it felt inevitable.
Image credit: CBS Television / Wikimedia Commons
Class of 1973: “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” — Tony Orlando & Dawn
Tony Orlando & Dawn spent four weeks at No. 1 with the decade’s most optimistic chart-topper. The song about a man returning home sold over three million copies and became one of the most recognizable hooks of the entire era.
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
Class of 1974: “Annie’s Song” — John Denver
John Denver wrote “Annie’s Song” in ten minutes on a ski lift and took it to No. 1 for two weeks. It became one of the decade’s most enduring love songs and confirmed Denver as one of the era’s defining voices.
Image Credit: Heinrich Klaffs / Wikimedia Commons.
Class of 1975: “Island Girl” — Elton John
Elton John spent three weeks at No. 1 at the absolute peak of his commercial power. The Class of 1975 graduated in the year Elton released four albums and owned the radio more completely than almost any other artist of the decade.
Image credit: Jim Summariaa / Wikimedia Commons
Class of 1976: “Silly Love Songs” — Wings
Paul McCartney wrote “Silly Love Songs” partly in response to critics who dismissed his post-Beatles output as lightweight. It spent five weeks at No. 1 and finished 1976 as the year’s biggest single. The Class of 1976 graduated, with McCartney making his argument at full volume.
Image Credit: Capitol Records.
Class of 1977: “I Just Want to Be Your Everything” — Andy Gibb
Andy Gibb launched his solo career with four weeks at No. 1 in 1977. He was 19 years old, the youngest Gibb brother stepping out on his own just as his siblings were at the height of their commercial dominance.
Class of 1978: “Shadow Dancing” — Andy Gibb
Andy Gibb launched his solo career with four weeks at No. 1 in 1977. He was 19 years old, the youngest Gibb brother stepping out on his own just as his siblings were at the height of their commercial dominance.
Image Credit: Amazon.
Class of 1979: “My Sharona” — The Knack
The Knack spent six weeks at No. 1 and finished as 1979’s biggest single. The song arrived as critics were declaring rock dead, and its hard-driving guitar felt like a deliberate answer to that claim. The Class of 1979 graduated to a song that won the argument.
Image credit: CZmarlin / Wikipedia
Wrap up
Ten graduating classes, ten entirely different radio landscapes. That range is the point. That is the 1970s in ten songs.
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