I read that damn column, twice. What the hell is a “pompatus”? Does Cecil think “pompatus” sounds like “puppetutes”? It doesn’t.
Regards,
Shodan
Wow, what a steaming pile 1974 was. Went with Stevie again, because it’s a good (as opposed to great) song, though still far ahead of about 95% of this list, which is thoroughly mediocre.
It’s vomitous. And I can’t believe I participated at the time - I liked many of these songs! Then again, I was 11 years old…
“Rock you Baby” was co-written by KC… of later KC and the sunshine band. THe haunting melody and great falsetto of a guy who was a backup singer and happened to be in the studio at the right time.
It’s along with Love Unlimited the precursor and beginning of the disco era. A genre defining song… still today its absolute perfection… setting a course away from soul… into something a little different. The song sold millions…
No, but apparently Steve Miller, who stole the word for the song, thought it sounded alike (or, more realistically, just approximated what he’d heard and came up with a totally separate word).
Good og this is awful. Unlike many folks here, I loved many, if not most of the songs from the 1970-1973 lists. But this is just bad, bad, bad. I don’t even like Stevie’s entry, which is saying something. I voted for Rock the Boat, mainly because I still enjoy bopping along with it when my husband plays SiriusXM’s 70s on 7 in his car. Rock on with my bad self, indeed.
Some people call me Maserschmidt
Because I speak of the vomitous of love…
This list is a bit of a mystery, as I think there were decent songs that should have made it to #1, like Maria Muldaur’s sexy Midnight At The Oasis, with it’s great guitar work, the moody Rock On by David Essex, Please Come To Boston by Dave Loggins, The Hollies’ *The Air That I Breathe, *and Aretha’s Until You Come Back To Me. Every one of these songs was better than pretty much anything that made #1.
Perhaps part of the reason the sappy stuff was so popular was that Vietnam essentially ended in 1973, Nixon was on his way out (gone by August), and the nation was so tired that it went into a stupor.
Every year has its good songs and bad songs. However, 1974 was different because, on the whole, the good songs were just tolerable and the bad songs were audio ipecac.
Anyway, I ended up picking “Bennie and the Jets”. I initially considered “You Haven’t Done Nothing” – Stevie Wonder’s kiss-off to Tricky Dick – but it loses a bit when it’s removed from the context of 1974. Runners up were Barry White’s “I Can’t Get Enough of Your Love”, Clapton’s “I Shot the Sheriff”, and McCartney & Wings’ “Band on the Run”.
lol. Now that’s stuck in my head.
I’m having second thoughts about skipping over Billy Swan’s “I Can Help”. In an era of Beatles knockoffs, it’s actually one of the best, I think.
Exactly what motivated me. An awesome year for pop and rock music. Bring it on, baby.
Well, by 1974 I was strictly an FM listener, and for the second consecutive year I recognize very few of the songs.
This thread has been great fun, and I’ll keep following it, but I probably won’t vote again.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go get over myself.
What an extraordinarily mediocre year for music! I had to go with Barry White, because… Barry White. Plus, nothing on the entire list rises to the level of really great music. Some of it is undeniably beautiful, some is catchy, but none are great IMHO.
Not just a great song, but from a great album that mined the world of singer-songwriters for great tunes and tasty licks from every session player in town, including Amos Garrett’s guitar. David Nichtern wrote that song and another, and she covered Dolly Parton, Dr. John, Wendy Waldman, Dan Hicks, Kate McGarrigle, and a couple of old-timers. She, like Linda Ronstadt, led the pack of wonderful singers who interpreted others’ works. You know, sort of like Sinatra and that guy who is singing duets with Lady Gaga.
That’s the softer sounds of the 70s we listened to and celebrated. No OOGA-CHOOGAs.
I will shout it from the mountaintops: “Band on the Run” is a fantastic song, at least among the top 10 post-Beatles songs any of the four did. It got my vote. I enjoy “Cat’s in the Cradle,” and “The Joker” has a groove. “Bennie and the Jets” is a bit long, sure, but it’s damn catchy.
I refuse to be ashamed of my musical tastes. 
The most number 1 hits of any year in Billboard Hot 100 history! I went with Billy Preston, but I do like the disco songs here and “Feel like Making Love” is the only Roberta Flack song I like. Seems like a blend of all the 70’s musical styles, from folk to rock to disco to ballads.
I have to admit, though, for reasons I can’t quite place, “Time in a Bottle” makes me want to break something.
For me, it came down to a tie between “Dark Lady” and “Whatever Gets You Through the Night.” I cast my vote for “Dark Lady.”
Dig it. Make a mixtape with it and “Black Magic Woman”…
(In the actual 1974, I only listened to classical music and some jazz. The only radio station I tuned into was Cleveland’s WCLV 95.5 FM, the classical music station. They played the whole series of Leonard Bernstein’s Charles Eliot Norton lectures from Harvard, “The Unanswered Question,” plus they play the recording of the revival production of Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha. Good times.)
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.