# Best #1 single of the year retrospective: 1972 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252 "2014-09-22T16:38:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/61 "2014-09-23T16:02:48Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > \<\< snip \>\> > Or maybe just throw all the winners from each poll into one mega-poll. (Is it possible to have 60 options in one poll? I’m not sure if there’s a hard upper limit on poll options or not - if there is, I hope it’s higher than 34, because 1974’s poll is only a few days away.) I don’t remember seeing any reference to an upper limit on polls, but I do know that **Sampiro** had one with the most options I can recall. Check out [THIS IS THE DOPER YEAR/MONTH/DECADE OF BIRTH POLL (ignore all others)](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=555733) from 03-13-2010. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/62 "2014-09-23T16:12:36Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Everything by Gilbert O’Sullivan is annoying, and it makes me physically ill to listen to “Brandy”. Wow - we agree on something! OK, “Brandy” doesn’t make me physically ill, but it’s hard for me to understand why anyone has more than a transient liking of this song. Neither the tune nor the instrumentation is particularly interesting, and the vocalist mumbles his way through the verses with the clarity of someone whose lips are covered with a thick layer of fur. Other than that, it’s not a bad song. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/63 "2014-09-23T16:13:21Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > …and it makes me physically ill to listen to “Brandy”. I have unfortunate associations with that song - I was working a factory job that summer and it got played during my mind-paralysing boredom gig until I wanted to go postal. I think “Brandy” is a pretty good story song, though I grant that repeated exposure to it would be difficult to bear. I have a story about Looking Glass, the band that is responsible for “Brandy.” Feel free to skip what follows, but I’ve always got a kick out of it. I happened to see the band in a small club a year or so after they’d had their biggest hit. They’d had one smaller one in the interim (“Jimmy Loves Mary Anne”), and somewhere along the line also released a single called “Rainbow Man.” Though the latter got only very limited AM radio airplay, I really liked it a lot and managed to chase down a copy; no small feat as the single ended up stiffing badly on the charts. Now it turns out that “Rainbow Man” was sung (and possibly written, I’m not sure), by the group’s bass player rather than by guitarist Elliot Lurie, who had written and sung their other, more successful singles. I approached the stage just as the band was taking a break, and all were there as I complimented the bass player on “Rainbow Man” and told him how much I liked the song. The moment I said this, Elliot Lurie turned his back and walked away with a look of total disgust on his face! I mean, it was really palpable. My other memory of the gig is that Looking Glass encored with a cover version of Fontella Bass’s “Rescue Me,” and that Elliot Lurie’s performance of this number (as well as his demeanor throughout the show) revealed an individual who was…shall we say…very light in the loafers. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that! But in 1973, it wasn’t something you routinely saw on display, at least not in the midwest where I was.) ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/64 "2014-09-23T16:17:53Z")
Lean on Me. Many of the others are good but Bill Withers delivered a universal truth about strength and pain, weakness and joy. We are all in this together. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/65 "2014-09-23T16:29:20Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Bah humbug! > > 'Xap. Dude. At the very least, you’ve got Mavis. A vote for I’ll Take you There would be honorable 😉 > > …and how can you deny The Reverend? 😉 Don’t you recognize a protest vote when you see one? So it’s a protest no vote. Consider it a No Prize. (Marvel was still giving those out in 1972.) To be honest, I never liked that Staples’ song and Al Green’s isn’t great, either. It’s pop soul, not bad in itself but not more worthy of voting for than the white pop of that year. If forced, I’d probably give it to “American Pie,” although that became so overplayed that for years I couldn’t stand to listen to it. I’m not sure how many people heard the full version on Top 40 radio though. The stations around here usually played just side 1. OTOH, it was voted the [number five song of the 20th century](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_the_Century)! (And the newest song in the top twenty.) Now, what about America’s guitars? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/66 "2014-09-23T18:33:46Z")
> [@DChord568](#): > > I think “Brandy” is a pretty good story song, though I grant that repeated exposure to it would be difficult to bear. Never could make out what the story was - like I said, the enunciation on the verses was rather indistinct. I suppose I could Google the lyrics now, but I couldn’t back then. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/67 "2014-09-23T19:00:41Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > To be honest, I never liked that Staples’ song and Al Green’s isn’t great, either. It’s pop soul, not bad in itself but not more worthy of voting for than the white pop of that year. Aw, man, how can that David Hood bass not make you smile and wanna get up and shake your ass? That’s one of pop music’s definitive bass grooves, man! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/68 "2014-09-23T19:01:05Z")
_A Horse With No Name_ - America was a brand new band with their own acoustic rock sound, and it was good. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/69 "2014-09-23T21:38:08Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I was thinking of doing “Best of the Decade” first with the winner from each poll, and then pitting the winners of those polls against each other. > > Or maybe just throw all the winners from each poll into one mega-poll. (Is it possible to have 60 options in one poll? I’m not sure if there’s a hard upper limit on poll options or not - if there is, I hope it’s higher than 34, because 1974’s poll is only a few days away.) I would do… A decade-by-decade runoff, followed by the Champion round (especially if you’re limited to the number of options) Then you also need to do a decade-by-decade runoff of all the songs that received zero votes. Then from that list, you need to do a “which #1 is the worst” with all the 0 vote-getters. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/70 "2014-09-23T22:51:24Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Don’t you recognize a protest vote when you see one? So it’s a protest no vote. Consider it a No Prize. (Marvel was still giving those out in 1972.) > > To be honest, I never liked that Staples’ song and Al Green’s isn’t great, either. It’s pop soul, not bad in itself but not more worthy of voting for than the white pop of that year. > > If forced, I’d probably give it to “American Pie,” although that became so overplayed that for years I couldn’t stand to listen to it. I’m not sure how many people heard the full version on Top 40 radio though. The stations around here usually played just side 1. OTOH, it was voted the [number five song of the 20th century](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_the_Century)! (And the newest song in the top twenty.) > > Now, what about America’s guitars? “…that Staples’ song”…_that Staples’ song_?!?!?!? Pistols at dawn! (I can’t believe I went for that incredibly stale messageboard-ism. Sorry about that.) I remember No Prizes and yeah, yours is duly noted. Clearly a time of change and not in the most positive direction, he says with a nod towards 1974. As for American Pie, well, I love it’s fun, story-puzzle earnestness, but it is such an outlier of a song, I tend not to think of it in a Best Of way. I mean, it’s the best American Pie (what _was_ Ms. Ciccone thinking?), and that’s a good thing. America’s guitars - not sure I follow - just a reference to my typical insertion of random, pointless guitar trivia into every thread possible? Yeah, I’m like that. All I’ve got here is a memory: looking through guitar catalogs as a teen in the 70’s, like they were a folded-up copy of _Oui_, and in an Ibanez catalog, a pic of a dude from America playing one of their Double-necks - like something I think Bobby Weir was into back then, too. And I remember thinking “whoa, cool denim overalls” and also thinking “whoa, dude has the hairiest backlit shoulders I have ever seen.” That is all. Actually no - I will see if I can find the photo, because you know some geek has made it their life’s work to scan and upload all of Ibanez’ old catalogs…I haven’t seen it in 30+ years, so we will see if memory holds… ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/71 "2014-09-23T22:58:35Z")
ETA: Oh yeah! embedded in a post on an Ibanez messageboard. Towards the very bottom. > **[Ibanez Collectors World: 2670 my original says, "2470"](https://www.ibanezcollectors.com/discus/messages/1004472/1003162.html?1194307674)** > > Ibanez Collectors World Vintage & Custom Electrics Page …and how could I forget that the denim overalls were pink??? ETA again: …still feeling quite puffy-chested about this. I can’t believe I remembered that incredibly silly photo. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/72 "2014-09-23T23:52:32Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > “…that Staples’ song”…_that Staples’ song_?!?!?!? > > Pistols at dawn! Sorry. I sleep late. > [@](#): > > America’s guitars - not sure I follow I meant their guitar _playing_. Is it any good? ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/73 "2014-09-24T00:12:13Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I meant their guitar _playing_. Is it any good? The harmonized riff that opens “Ventura Highway” is cool (even though it’s two guitars played by two different people…I do my best to play the whole thing by myself). Other than this, there are no particularly glorious guitar parts that come to mind from America’s records. But I only know their hits; maybe there’s some buried on their albums. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/74 "2014-09-24T00:46:20Z")
> [@DChord568](#): > > The harmonized riff that opens “Ventura Highway” is cool (even though it’s two guitars played by two different people…I do my best to play the whole thing by myself). > > Other than this, there are no particularly glorious guitar parts that come to mind from America’s records. But I only know their hits; maybe there’s some buried on their albums. Agreed. Interesting chords, but general strumminess all around. James Taylor can play. Jackson Browne is a complete guitar obsessive… ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/75 "2014-09-24T01:23:50Z")
“American Pie”? Good grief, people. 1971 and 1972 were two very schmaltzy years in the history of pop music. Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/76 "2014-09-24T01:49:04Z")
Seriously, “American Pie” is winning? Are you shitting me? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/77 "2014-09-24T01:58:21Z")
Heart of Gold, Lean on Me, and Horse with No Name are some of my favs. Despite the obvious American Pie, I had to vote for it. It just happens to transcend all other songs on that list to become a classic for all time, no matter how you may feel about it _now._ It touches any generation that’s ever heard it immediately—even my own kids—just as it did myself the first time I heard it as a kid. American Pie it is. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/78 "2014-09-24T01:58:32Z")
Music in 1972 was just fine, by the way, but we are now seeing an increasing divide between what makes Billboard #1 and what music we remember. 1972 included several Elton John classics, Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon, “Summer Breeze” by Seals and Croft, and more stuff that’s far better remembered than “Brandy.” ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/79 "2014-09-24T06:33:10Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Lean on Me. Many of the others are good but Bill Withers delivered a universal truth about strength and pain, weakness and joy. We are all in this together. Ruined for me by panhandlers singing this song on subway trains year after year ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252/80 "2014-09-24T12:44:57Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > OK, “Brandy” doesn’t make me physically ill, but it’s hard for me to understand why anyone has more than a transient liking of this song. D I like the tune better than you and its got a lively vocal arrangement. Story songs can grab people’s attention and the Brandy tale was evocative enough to serve as the inspiration for short stories by both George R.R. Martin and [Joan Vinge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Soldier_%28novella%29). (Hmm, in this thread I’ve written praise or defense of both “Alone Again (Naturally)” and “Brandy”. Which, oddly, says very little about my general tastes in music.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1972/699252.md?page=5)