I’ll go with:
Led Zeppelin
The Eagles
Bee Gees
Earth, Wind and Fire
Heart
Billy Joel
The Guess Who
April Wine (had to include a little CanCon with the last two nominees)
Definitely ELO, as earlier nominated. I’ll add:
Alan Parsons Project
The 1970s were the decade for fusion. So:
**Return To Forever
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Weather Report
Spyro Gyra
**
And more on the rock end:
Steely Dan
Can’t believe no-one has mentioned Sparks. Fucking quality band!
Paul McCartney and Wings
I know he’s already been nominated several times but here he is again:
David Bowie
Here’s a list of his albums from 1970-1979:
The Man Who Sold the World (1970)
Hunky Dory (1971)
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
Aladdin Sane (1973)
Pin Ups (1973)
Diamond Dogs (1974)
Young Americans (1975)
Station to Station (1976)
Low (1977)
“Heroes” (1977)
Lodger (1979)
That’s a pretty epic discography for one decade.
I’d like to throw out two nominations from Québec.
Harmonium represents the complete history of progressive rock in three albums, from folk-based trio to jazz-influenced sextet to full orchestral prog majesty, all done within three years. Some delightful samples -
Harmonium - the opening track from the eponymous first album.
Vert - the opening track from the second album ‘Si on avait besoin d’une cinquieme saison’.
Comme un fou - the second cut from the third album ‘L’Heptade’
And Beau Dommage - ‘Harmonie du soir à Châteauguay’ is still one of the most recognizable songs in Québec (along with Harmonium’s ‘Pour un instant’).
Harmonie du soir.
Un incident à Bois-des-Filion.
Tout simplement jaloux.
I’ll toss Renaissance into the mix; always been a sucker for a female voice singing about ethereal concerns.
I’m amazed at the people who come into threads like this and post obscure bands that no one has ever heard of before.
I believe the title is “The best band/artist of the 1970s” not “Obscure 1970s fucking bands with no airplay that you happen to like 'cause you’re special.”
Jesus.
Queen
It’s also not “The best selling band/artist of the 1970s”. If we wanted to know the best seller of the 1970s, we could simply look that up on Wikipedia and then it wouldn’t be much of a thread would it.
No, but if “best” doesn’t correlate with sales then what does it correlate with?
Abba no doubt old-sold Neil Young in the 70s, but at least both were major recording artists.
I’d choose Neil, but wouldn’t disagree at all if Abba won out. Some of these other picks are baffling.
To be fair though the OP nominated Gentle Giant, a pretty obscure band to start with. It’s not really a surprise that others followed that lead.
Gino Vannelli
Allman Brothers Band
Chicago
Deodato
Kenny Rankin
Roy Buchanan
Like two people have already mentioned, David Bowie and Neil Young are the kings of the 70’s. Both Have quantity and quality.
Best selling. Just because X outsold Y doesn’t mean I think X is better than Y. The marketplace may dictate your tastes, but it has nothing to do with mine.
What if The Mantovani Strings outsold both Abba and Neil Young; would that make Abba or Neil worse?
If you can’t wrap your head around the concept of de gustibus then what use is chit chatting with people about their opinions? No one here is under the impression that everyone has to objectively agree with them on their choices.
Indeed. The OP also didn’t specify exactly what sense of “best” he had in mind (probably deliberately), except to say
Presumably, Wiki or YouTube links wouldn’t be necessary if we could only nominate artists with whom everyone was already familiar.
Personally, I’m open to the possibility that the truly best band/artist of the decade could be a relatively obscure one with whom I’m not personally familiar, although I might argue that they’d have to be someone who would have been more widely popular if more people had gotten the chance to hear them.
Ramones
Neil Young
Van Morrison
Joe Venuti
Randy Newman
David Bowie
Bob Marley & The Wailers
Fela
Keith Jarrett