Thanks to this thread and the others like it, I’ve gone back and listened to some of this cheezy 70s lite rock. What a blast from the past! Now I have a tummy ache. 
But seriously, some of these songs I’ve probably only ever heard coming out of a cheap AM radio; they actually do benefit at least a little from being heard in stereo, on decent speakers/headphones.
Yes, I think of punk rock as more of a palate cleanser, without which the new wave (Blondie, Talking Heads, The Cars) and New Romantic (Duran Duran famously set out to be “Sex Pistols meets Chic”) chart-toppers of the early-to-mid 80s might not have happened.
Sweet Moses Malone that is a weak list.
I almost abstained until I stumbled upon Fame (which isn’t even Bowie’s top tune of '75).
Here’s a quiz. What two things do the following songs have in common?
I’ll give you the first: they are all better (IMHO, of course) than every song in the poll.
Born To Run
Bohemian Rhapsody
Walk This Way
Kashmir
Tangled Up in Blue
Wish You Were Here
Thunder Road
Low Rider
Rhiannon
Sweet Emotion
Love is the Drug
50 Ways To Leave Your Lover
Make Me Smile
Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Sara Smile
Tush
Golden Years
mmm
If it’s none of them were #1 records, that’s incorrect. “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” hit #1 in early 1976.
That’s not what it is.
mmm
Ooh! Ooh! I know! They all came out in 1975 but weren’t #1 songs!
Wow 75 was a bad year. Only 1 song I really like and few I kind of like. Mean Mr. Mustard’s list is pretty awesome though.
I couldn’t begin to pick one. Cheesy as most of that collection is, they’re the soundtrack of my childhood and I have soft spots for far too many of them.
Well put.
“Make Me Smile” came out in 1970. Unless there’s a non-Chicago song named “Make Me Smile.”
…and apparently there was. Cockney Rebel from 1975: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FFBTljZDGY
I’m going with Linda Ronstadt’s *You’re No Good. *It’s not her best song, but I can’t remember what years the others were in. Anyway, the less said about 1975, the better.
In a way, Chicago’s “Make Me Smile” did top the charts in 1975…as part of Chicago IX: Greatest Hits.
Me too, with the addition of America’s Sister Golden Hair.
Re: Fame - I listened to it again to be sure of my feelings about it David Bowie performs “Fame” on Soul Train
Like Shagnasty said, when it started playing it was an instant push a pre-select button on the radio, any pre-select button, even if it mean going to NPR’s God-Hating Flag Burning Hour or Feeling Guilty About Not Feeling Enough White Guilt.
The song is whiny (in the mold of Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue) and musically it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. (It isn’t David Bowie I don’t like, it’s the song: Changes, Diamond Dogs, Rebel Rebel, Suffragette City and 1984 I like.)
To me, Fame seems to have been written to be played as ridiculously-dressed bored-looking models walk the runway with a “Don’t look at me, you’re not good enough to look at me. And don’t think about me, you’re not good enough to think about me either.” expression.
If (insert current top sex symbol here) said she’d spend as long I wanted in bed with me and the only condition was Fame would be playing on continuous repeat, I’d be thankful I have a premature ejaculation problem - naw, I’d go home and take a cold shower.
But personal taste, by definition, is highly personal.
(p.s. I own the America Album Hat Trick which contains Muskrat Love)
Wow. I’ve tried not to be *that *guy, who says that god what a shit year, but god what a shit year.
Even Bowie’s *Fame *is one of his weaker soulless efforts. I think it’s winning just because “Oh, David Bowie. Why not?”
Good Lord, those must be bad lists. I may just have to stop opening these threads when we hit 2000.
It’s less different music for different purposes, than different music for different tastes.
You mention liking - no, loving - 1960s-era Bee Gees, while I find songs like “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” and “I’ve Just Got To Get A Message To You” painfully maudlin. And I’d agree that “Laughter in the Rain” sparkles, no question - like sugar sprinkled on top of corn syrup. Some like it, some don’t.
I should have expanded a little on the meaning of my statement.
What I mean is that many folks’ taste runs to just one general type of music…it has to be “deep,” “meaningful” or some such thing. And that’s fine; I like music like that too. But they tend to be the ones who disdain anything that smacks of plain old pop music, which means the only songs from the Top 40 they appreciate are those that have already won their stripes in more “progressive” or “underground” circles.
I remember when “underground” or “progressive rock” first hit in 1966-67. (Those terms used to be synonymous, until the latter one morphed into “prog rock” and was applied more specifically to bands filled with music school graduates who felt that playing 25 notes when 5 will do is a virtue.)
I spent a few months in the thrall of all the incredible possibilities that had been opened up in terms of lyrics, musical structure, new and diverse influences from other styles and cultures, instruments beyond guitar/bass/drums, etc. During that period of time, I thought I was just too cool for Top 40 music, and imagined myself smugly superior to those who were still getting those slight pop songs on their tinny AM radios.
Fortunately, that phase only lasted a short time. Yes, I absolutely continued to be enthralled by the underground, but I still listened to Top 40 on my car radio, and realized that these songs, slight though they may have been by comparison, still had a purpose and could bring great pleasure…just of a different kind.
I’ve always felt that rock and pop music is a pretty big tent, and that there’s room for great variety within it.
It’s a view I continue to hold today, as I have a great fondness for the Top 40 hits of my youth. To be sure, I have my limits, as anyone does, and there are definitely some really bad Top 40 songs (e.g., many of them here and a few years on either side of this one).
But I’m glad I don’t reject any genre or style of music out-of-hand.
This shows what kind of year it was. Pure dee shite. Worse, even, than 1974.
I am absolutely incapable of not singing along to “Black Water” whenever I hear it.