# Best #1 single of the year retrospective: 1974 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 26, 2014, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628 "2014-09-26T09:32:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/81 "2014-09-27T12:25:18Z")
A top albums retrospective like this one wouldn’t be as interesting, IMO, since very few people will have heard most of the albums in any given year well enough to judge them all. Often, he list is clogged up with movie soundtracks and Broadway cast recordings and multi-artist collections like the _Now That’s What I Call Music!_ series that can’t be judged as a single work by a single artist. Also, a lot of the time, an album will make #1 for a week or two upon release based on purchases by diehard fans - for example, this year alone we’ve had #1 albums by Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Weird Al, and even Barbra Streisand (the current #1), all of which I guarantee get essentially no airplay whatsoever and which you probably wouldn’t know a single song from unless you sought out those albums. (And you think picking from 36 songs is bad? Last year there were 45 albums at #1.) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/82 "2014-09-27T12:26:17Z")
Before opening this thread, I hadn’t known the name of the group that recorded the unfortunate “Billy Don’t Be a Hero.” Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods, huh? Was one of the Heywoods named Jablome, by any chance? Inquiring minds want to know! IMHO, “The Joker” isn’t a bad song - to steal from Paul Simon, it’s alright in a sort of a limited way for an off-year. But it had been overplayed before the decade was out, let alone after 40 years of overplaying on album rock/classic rock stations. Not only do I not need to hear this song one more time, ever, but if about 200 (mostly partial) listenings could be deleted from my memory banks, that would be a kindness. Similarly “I Shot the Sheriff,” and “Band on the Run.” ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/83 "2014-09-27T12:55:29Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > A top albums retrospective like this one wouldn’t be as interesting, IMO, since very few people will have heard most of the albums in any given year well enough to judge them all. Often, he list is clogged up with movie soundtracks and Broadway cast recordings and multi-artist collections like the _Now That’s What I Call Music!_ series that can’t be judged as a single work by a single artist. Also, a lot of the time, an album will make #1 for a week or two upon release based on purchases by diehard fans - for example, this year alone we’ve had #1 albums by Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Weird Al, and even Barbra Streisand (the current #1), all of which I guarantee get essentially no airplay whatsoever and which you probably wouldn’t know a single song from unless you sought out those albums. > > (And you think picking from 36 songs is bad? Last year there were 45 albums at #1.) First of all, remember that albums were big 20-40 years ago, but they’ve pretty much died now. Most people don’t buy the CDs anymore; they either download individual songs from iTunes or whatnot, or get music on demand from one of a number of outlets, or go to YouTube, or whatever. So judging the worthwhileness of a similar thread about the top albums by the album hits of 2013 is like judging Paul McCartney’s career by his post-1980 output. But if you go back to the mid-1960s, you don’t get 45 #1 albums. The problem is really the opposite: you get _too few_ #1’s to be nearly as interesting as the #1 singles list. But you do see some stuff there that doesn’t show up on the list of #1 singles, like three albums by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass at #1 for a total of 18 weeks in 1966. (Jeez, my dad listened to a lot of TJB back then - and as a result, so did I.) And the fact that in 1966-67, the first two Monkees albums topped the charts for 31 consecutive weeks gives one a better idea of the extent to which kids were listening to the Monkees at that time than the singles charts do. (Hell, I was one of those kids, and even so, that fact blows my mind.) And by 1968, we get Cream’s _Wheels of Fire_, Hendrix’ _Electric Ladyland_, the Doors’ _Waiting for the Sun_, and Big Brother and the Holding Company’s _Cheap Thrills_ all going to #1 for multiple weeks - the Sixties are largely missing from the 1968, but the times are well represented on the album side. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/84 "2014-09-27T13:12:13Z")
None of these songs came close to ever being considered for my playlist. No wonder I hated my sophomore year of high school. Yeesh! ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/85 "2014-09-27T18:58:40Z")
Well, since Harry Chapin of all people seems to be leading at the moment, I’ll just leave [this 1992 Northern Irish PSA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NswpCTliqxo) here as an interesting example of how effectively one can recontextualize a song without actually changing any of the lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/86 "2014-09-27T19:18:33Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Since you were an FM listener in 1974, were you mainly listening to album-oriented-rock? If so, what albums from that year did you think were any good? I ask this because the consensus among many rock critics that the general aura of suckiness that plagued Top 40 single releases that year spread over into rock albums as well. By '74 I was listening primarily to my record collection, not spending a huge amount of time on radio, but for music on the radio my two preferred stations were the “Progressive Rock-Album Oriented-Hippie” station, and the Classical Music station. Guessing 70% Rock, 30% classical, time-wise. In big name pop/rock of that era my tastes were focused on ELP, Zappa, Stones, Who, Duane Allman. I _am_ TC and I authorized this message. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2014, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/87 "2014-09-28T02:58:51Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I’m unfamiliar with the Aretha and Loggins songs, but IMHO the other three you mentioned wouldn’t have improved the list much. I’m not gonna friend a cactus or put a camel to bed, thanks (Muldaur), and “The Air That I Breathe” would have fit in all too well with the Sappy Parade that so many 1974 hits take part in. Aretha Franklin’s [“Until You Come Back to Me”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaTo5iqTH5s) (incidentally, co-written by Stevie Wonder) is a good song but even if it had hit #1, it would’ve done little to improve the list. There’s just too much dreck on it. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/88 "2014-09-29T11:32:29Z")
> [@Lobot](#): > > Reddy is Australian, not Canadian. I just now realized that I have always thought Helen Reddy and Anne Murray were the _same person_. (I give thanks to a post Leaffan’s South Park mini-rant thread for sparking this realization). ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/89 "2014-09-29T15:22:01Z")
So many songs to hate. Can you youngsters imagine living in 1974 when decent FM radio stations weren’t available in rural areas and you had to listen to these songs over and over and again on AM radio? Man, I remember babysitting the neighbors’ bratty kids on Dec. 31, 1974 and listening to the entire top 100 songs of the year. Even then I hated this drivel. And that night, on WLS, Seasons in the Sun was the #1 song of the year. I hated that song so much. 1974 would have been even more awful if “Playground in my Mind” (aka my name is Michael, I got a nickel) had been released in '74 instead of '73. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/90 "2014-09-29T17:14:04Z")
> [@AllShookDown](#): > > 1974 would have been even more awful if “Playground in my Mind” (aka my name is Michael, I got a nickel) had been released in '74 instead of '73. Dude! I had no idea what song Playground in my Mind was until you included that quote. AAAAHHHHHHGGGGGGG!!! Oh, man, what a hateful song. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/91 "2014-09-29T19:03:07Z")
“Band on the Run”, it’s two songs in one! ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/92 "2014-09-29T20:10:37Z")
Interesting that, as of now, every song here was chosen by less than 10 percent of respondents. And quite a few got 2, 1 or 0 votes. That says something…I’m just not sure what. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/93 "2014-09-29T20:27:09Z")
> [@DChord568](#): > > Interesting that, as of now, every song here was chosen by less than 10 percent of respondents. And quite a few got 2, 1 or 0 votes. > > That says something…I’m just not sure what. It would seem that even 40 years divorced from that era, the opinions of those who lived through it are just as divided as they were back then. Honestly, I’d _love_ to know whether there’s some actual reason as to why the top spot on the Hot 100 was so constantly in flux from 1974-1976 - whether it was the sheer volume of records coming out, or the growing genrefication of the pop scene, or an artifact of the way Billboard collected sales and airplay data at the time, or what. A big reason I decided to do this series was to find out what the previous generation (by which I define anyone who was aware of pop music prior to 1990 or so) thinks of the songs that were the biggest hits in their day. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/94 "2014-09-29T22:07:13Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > “Band on the Run”, it’s two songs in one! I think it’s actually three songs in one, stitched together a la “Day in the Life.” It’s actually a pretty decent song, but the lyrics are terrible: jailer man, and sailor Sam? Seriously? If McCartney put some more thought behind the lyrics it would go from meh, to fabulous. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/95 "2014-09-30T13:32:23Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > It would seem that even 40 years divorced from that era, the opinions of those who lived through it are just as divided as they were back then. > > Honestly, I’d _love_ to know whether there’s some actual reason as to why the top spot on the Hot 100 was so constantly in flux from 1974-1976 - whether it was the sheer volume of records coming out, or the growing genrefication of the pop scene, or an artifact of the way Billboard collected sales and airplay data at the time, or what. A big reason I decided to do this series was to find out what the previous generation (by which I define anyone who was aware of pop music prior to 1990 or so) thinks of the songs that were the biggest hits in their day. It was a transition period between radio and television technologies and the TV culture of the 70’s. AM radio and it’s Top 40 format was at its peak before the exodus to FM radio in the late 70’s. Remember, an evening of family TV viewing was the norm. Families gathered as a group in front of the TV daily for news and entertainment. Colour TV had just surplanted B&W TV and all the major networks had switched over. Local and network stations began to capitalize on this new media for young people and their tastes, especially music. Music venue programs, comedy hours and variety shows were all extremely popular and featured family friendly artists, novelty acts, or visually appealing, shocking, etc… Weekly music programs such as TOTP, American Bandstand, America’s Top 40, Soul Train, etc… also reached new audiences and could introduce new artists/songs on a weekly basis through live/staged performances, or even promo clips (early music videos) Comparatively, there was still very limited airplay available, so the high turnover was a result of new songs being introduced to the masses weekly by all these “new” media sources. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/96 "2014-09-30T14:39:26Z")
I have a couple of anal corrections to this post… > [@Sparky812](#): > > It was a transition period between radio and television technologies and the TV culture of the 70’s. > > AM radio and it’s Top 40 format was at its peak before the exodus to FM radio in the late 70’s. I would say that exodus was already well underway by 1974, though not complete everywhere. And the changing of Top 40 stations from the AM to the FM band was just a change of locale. The nature of the programming itself remained exactly the same. Now you simply had Top 40 (soon to be rechristened CHR, for Contemporary Hits Radio) and AOR (Album-Oriented Rock) co-existing on the same band. > [@](#): > > Colour TV had just surplanted B&W TV and all the major networks had switched over. Local and network stations began to capitalize on this new media for young people and their tastes, especially music. Well, not “just.” As this Wikipedia excerpt makes clear, the transition to all-color programming took place seven or eight years earlier, and by 1972, the public had caught up in terms of being able to actually watch all TV shows in color: > [@](#): > > - All three broadcast networks were airing full color prime time schedules by the 1966–67 broadcast season, and ABC aired its last new black-and-white daytime programming in December 1967. Public broadcasting networks like NET, however, did not use color for a majority of their programming until 1968. The number of color television sets sold in the U.S. did not exceed black-and-white sales until 1972, which was also the first year that more than fifty percent of television households in the U.S. had a color set. This was also the year that “in color” notices before color television programs ended, due to the rise in color television set sales, and color programming having become the norm.\* > [@](#): > > Music venue programs, comedy hours and variety shows were all extremely popular and featured family friendly artists, novelty acts, or visually appealing, shocking, etc… > > Weekly music programs such as TOTP, American Bandstand, America’s Top 40, Soul Train, etc… also reached new audiences and could introduce new artists/songs on a weekly basis through live/staged performances, or even promo clips (early music videos) > > Comparatively, there was still very limited airplay available, so the high turnover was a result of new songs being introduced to the masses weekly by all these “new” media sources. What you say is true to some extent. But don’t forget that: • Musical outlets on TV were relatively plentiful in the 1960s also. Besides _The Ed Sullivan Show_, after 1964 other variety shows (e.g. _The Hollywood Palace_, _Jack Benny_, _Red Skelton_, etc.) also regularly featured rock acts. Then there was _Shindig!_ and _Hullabaloo_ — not to mention _Where the Action Is_, which aired every weekday as opposed to just once a week. And there were still some locally produced (and sometimes syndicated) shows going then as well (e.g., _Upbeat_, _Shivaree_, _Lloyd Thaxton_, etc.). • Radio remained the dominant way of breaking NEW songs to the audience. The TV shows, whether in the 60s or 70s, tended to feature artists performing their contemporary (i.e., already established) hits, as opposed to breaking brand new ones. So TV appearances might enhance the popularity of a song, but “new songs being introduced to the masses weekly” — not so much. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/97 "2014-09-30T15:52:56Z")
While I’ll defer to, well, EVERY SINGLE POSTER HERE who said this year sucked(!) it didn’t for me. And while I hate to admit it, I think I know every song here. I think that’s because it was the first year I stared listening to the radio (I was 12) and my sister was 18 and she was listening to the radio about 23 hours a day. So this is a very nostalgic year for me, and I can also hear these songs and see myself in her room. I voted for the woman I had a crush on, as did every red blooded American male. I just can’t actually type the title of the song out and remain a male. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/98 "2014-09-30T16:54:08Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Dude! I had no idea what song Playground in my Mind was until you included that quote. > > AAAAHHHHHHGGGGGGG!!! Oh, man, what a hateful song. Glad I could help. I hope you don’t have an earworm now. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/99 "2014-10-24T16:22:39Z")
Time in a Bottle, but wish I could have also voted for Will It Go Round In Circles. I expected to see Band on the Run as leader, but it’s currently tied (with TiaB) 3rd after Cats in the Cradle and Benny and the Jets, all good tunes. Ah, the memories! ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628/100 "2015-02-04T06:08:55Z")
This poll is proof that people will always love the sound track of their first hump in the back seat. No other way to classify some of these votes. 1974 - the year “Off” became the default setting for a car radio. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1974/699628.md?page=4)