Best of the Rest of the Top 40: 1972

Cafe Society
1

The year is now 1972. This year we go to #42 for our list of 25 nominees, which is certainly an interesting batch.

What’s your favorite?

Previous polls: 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971

Best #1 single polls: 1955-56 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s All-time

2

It’s ROCKET MAN. I’m not even much of an Elton John fan, but it’s ROCKET MAN.

3

For the record, it’s just “Raspberries” not “The Raspberries.”

4

The Main Ingredient or the O’Jays… this poll comes up on a day when I am streaming 70’s soul like Don Cornelius on a speed bender…

The O’Jays, I gotta imagine, wil have other opportunities, so The Main Ingredient it is.

5

I was torn between Elton John, the Hollies, and Badfinger, but went with Badfinger.

6

What a shit list. I imagine Elton will take it, but for me it was between “Betcha, By Golly, Wow” and “Go All The Way” - I went with the latter for some power pop representation.

7

Meh. I’ll take the Moodys.

8

War. I’ve always loved War. My favorite funk ensemble of the 1970’s. Not the best, not the most consistent, not the most talented, not the most innovative. But my favorite :).

9

Nights in White Satin was my choice as well - I loved that song when I was little and would get my mother to put Days of Future Passed on over and over again just because I wanted to hear the poem at the end and the gong.

(Note that although the album and single were released in 1967, it wasn’t until this year that it made the year-end chart, only making it to #103 in the weekly chart when first released. It was reissued in 1972 after the group had had several other hits, and made #2 that time.)

10

The Hollies, in a walk. That’s some straight-ahead, classically-constructed rock and roll music. I still crank it up when it comes on. I loved the Moody Blues album, but it didn’t get the blood going.

11

It’s a good song, but I have to mark it down because the singer slurs the lyrics to the point of complete incoherence. Even with the actual lyrics in front of me I can barely connect what he’s supposedly saying to the sounds coming out of the speaker. It’s like the song was specifically recorded that way with the intent to make people get the lyrics wrong.

12

“Nights in White Satin” may be my favorite song on this list, but it’s a song from a whole other era, and I feel it should get a disqualification. So I went with War.

13

Long Cool Woman is one of the coolest songs of all time.

14

In the #1 poll series we tracked all the #1s regardless of whether or not they came out in the year they hit #1 (“Red Red Wine” making #1 in 1988 after being released in 1982, for instance), and I’m sticking with that here. Nights was five years old, but this is the year it made a major impact on the pop charts, so it earns its place.

15

Lyrics, shmyrics, I sez. :smiley: Nobody bought Louie, Louie for the lyrics, which are still indecipherable to me.

16

Of course. I’m not blaming you for including it. I’m saying that I would feel ridiculous calling it the best song of 1972.

17

For trivia’s sake, the lead singer was Cuba Gooding Sr.

Myself, I went with the O’Jays. Could’ve gone with Billy Preston as well.

Question for Smapti: How are you organizing these lists?

18

They’re listed in the order in which they ranked on the year-end Hot 100.

19

So, the second biggest song that didn’t hit #1 was sung by Wayne Newton?

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry… :confused:

20

I voted for Elton John, second choice would have been Main Ingredient.