# The '70s: Were they "groovy"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 23, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783 "2005-04-23T18:53:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/1 "2005-04-23T18:53:15Z")
Many references these days to the decade of the 1970s work in the word “groovy” somehow, like the website of [That '70s Show](http://www.that70sshow.com/) (see bottom), or the [Super Groovy '70s](http://www.supergroovy70s.com/) tribute to the decade’s music. Yet for those of us actually old enough to remember the '70s, “groovy” is an anachronism. The word had a fairly short life: it became popular around 1966 (think Paul Simon’s _Feelin’ Groovy_), and then pretty much dropped out of sight after 1971. After that, if we used the word at all, it was in an ironic sense; it certainly wasn’t the word we would say typified the decade. I remember when someone wore a fringed vest to high school around 1975, someone else said with sarcasm, “My, don’t you look _groovy_.” Anyone else of a certain age have memories of “groovy” as slang? Was it more a '60s word or a '70s word? ---
**Author:** ![FaerieBeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e95f7d/32.png) [@FaerieBeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FaerieBeth)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/2 "2005-04-23T19:09:58Z")
I think people assume the 70s were groovy because that was the adjective of choice on Scooby Doo. \< Daphne \> Groovy, Fred! \< /Daphne \> ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_First_Time)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/3 "2005-04-23T19:10:31Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Anyone else of a certain age have memories of “groovy” as slang? Was it more a '60s word or a '70s word? I remember it as more of a sixties type word. It came to be (in my little world at any rate) right about the time the beat-nik slang of the fifties was going away. Most of the seventies were not groovy at all. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/4 "2005-04-23T19:20:55Z")
In my part of the US in the seventies, “groovy” would have been considered a rather quaint reminder of the sixties. To have used “groovy” in the seventies would have been like using the fifties term “neat-o” in the sixties. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/5 "2005-04-23T19:21:05Z")
Sixties. Nobody said “groovy” in the 70’s without irony, unless they were completely clueless. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/6 "2005-04-23T19:47:01Z")
“Groovy” was popular in 1967 … for about 20 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/7 "2005-04-23T19:59:43Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Yet for those of us actually old enough to remember the '70s, “groovy” is an anachronism. The word had a fairly short life: it became popular around 1966 (think Paul Simon’s _Feelin’ Groovy_), and then pretty much dropped out of sight after 1971. After that, if we used the word at all, it was in an ironic sense; it certainly wasn’t the word we would say typified the decade. I remember when someone wore a fringed vest to high school around 1975, someone else said with sarcasm, “My, don’t you look _groovy_.” > > Anyone else of a certain age have memories of “groovy” as slang? Was it more a '60s word or a '70s word? I said it all the time in the early-1990s. I got the _strangest_ looks. (But then, that was the point.) It seems that the word has made a small comeback since then. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/8 "2005-04-23T20:37:17Z")
I remember a song called “Feelin Groovy” but I don’t remember when it was popular or even if it was. I don’t remember ever hearing a living person utter the word “groovy” at any time. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/9 "2005-04-23T20:47:42Z")
_The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)_, written by Paul Simon and recorded by Harpers Bizarre, entered the Billboard Top 40 on 18 March 1967, and stayed there seven weeks, topping at #13. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/10 "2005-04-23T21:06:31Z")
_A Groovy Kind of Love_, The Mindbenders (1966). _Workin’ on a Groovy Thing_, The 5th Dimension (1969). _Groovy Situation_, Gene Chandler (1970). ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/11 "2005-04-23T21:10:13Z")
Nothing about the '70s was groovy where I grew up. It was still the '50s written with different numbers. In fact, it was like that well into the '90s. Anyhow, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone use that word without it being severely in jest. I think the reason why you’re hearing it on TV is because shows about that era are being written by people who weren’t born yet during it. They’re not remembering what it was like. They’re imagining what it must have been like, and they’re almost always wrong. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/12 "2005-04-23T21:57:20Z")
I was in third grade in 1970 and graduated high school in 1979. I do not in all that time remember anyone saying “groovy.” That’s a totally 60s hippie term. As I recall, the slang used then was pretty much identical to the slang used now. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/13 "2005-04-23T23:56:56Z")
To my friends and me, the '70s were ‘cool’, and things stayed cool until the early to mid-'80s. ---
**Author:** ![imthjckaz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/imthjckaz/32/3223_2.png) [@imthjckaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imthjckaz)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/14 "2005-04-24T00:14:25Z")
Yes, that’s how I remember it. Things were cool, man. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/15 "2005-04-24T00:25:23Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > _A Groovy Kind of Love_, The Mindbenders (1966). > _Workin’ on a Groovy Thing_, The 5th Dimension (1969). > _Groovy Situation_, Gene Chandler (1970). “Makes you feel groovy like an old-time movie.” _Do You Believe In Magic?_, Lovin’ Spoonful _Groovin’_, Young Rascals There was a truly irritating movie with James Coburn around that time wherein it seemed like every other word he uttered was “groovy”. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/16 "2005-04-24T02:05:21Z")
> [@imthjckaz](#): > > Yes, that’s how I remember it. > > Things were cool, man. Yeah “cool”… but in a Fonzie kind of way. In the '70’s “groovy” was something your parents would say to show that they were down with “the kids”. I was between the ages of 5 to 15 in the '70’s. The word I would be most likely to use to describe that decade would be “suck”… or some variation thereof. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/17 "2005-04-24T02:12:30Z")
> [@vl\_mungo](#): > > I was between the ages of 5 to 15 in the '70’s. The word I would be most likely to use to describe that decade would be “suck”… or some variation thereof. I was 7-17 during the 70’s and you’re right. It would be a variation of “suck” that involved “ass”. ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/18 "2005-04-24T02:36:32Z")
I killed too many brain cells during that decade and still claim that I don’t recall. 70-79 had fun - probably too much. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/19 "2005-04-24T02:41:23Z")
Entered school in 1970, and we also used “groovy” only ironically. Not that we were THAT cynical and ironic to begin with; it was a nice time to grow up, even while the Bronx was burning. We played outside in the woods all the time alone, rode the subways, etc. Of course, you were wearing polyester in colors that matched your lollipops, had either a Dorothy Hamill or feathered haircut, and were seeing things in that woods or subway that grown Teamsters would faint dead away at, but hey. Childhood is magic. Now, let me tell you about the time everybody’s Mom told us young brunettes to put up our hair so Son of Sam wouldn’t get us–he liked it long, you see. It was '77 and the Yankees were winning–HEY!! Kids! KIDS ON MY LAWN!!! \ ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783/20 "2005-04-24T02:48:56Z")
I was 8-18 in the seventies. I lived in D.C. Vermont and Santa Cruz, California. I never heard “groovy” except as a joke. I think it came and went in the sixties. I do remember a couple of hippie girls who said “Oh, wow” a lot. The seventies were fun for me, at least when I got old enough to have fun. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-70s-were-they-groovy/300783.md?page=2)