# The most 70s song **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 10, 2014, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959 "2014-10-10T13:14:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/21 "2014-10-10T16:25:24Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > [Chevy Van, by Sammy Johns](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBNRfZlGatw) Well, that’s all right with me! ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/22 "2014-10-10T17:01:16Z")
When I think of purely 70’s music it’s always the funk that comes to mind. So I vote for the ultimate: Parliament - Tear the Roof off the Sucker [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImI78s638hQ) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/23 "2014-10-10T17:13:11Z")
[Ballroom Blitz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzKAJRux4ss) [Car Wash](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkxaunLybuM) [Why Can’t We Be Friends?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DmYLrxR0Y8) [Killer Queen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAf2S6ij2gk) ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/24 "2014-10-10T17:28:54Z")
The most inappropriate song of the 70’s: Short People by Randy Newman. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/25 "2014-10-10T17:32:24Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > Oh dear. Really? Disco was a late entry to the 70s - 1977 at best. > > IMHO the 70s were as rich a decade as the 60s for new pop/rock music. David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Emerson Lake and Palmer, The Sex Pistols, the Ramones etc etc. > > Heck, even Supertramp. Disco was a bland fun blight on the music landscape, played in pubs but not at the parties I went to. True, but if you’re looking for songs that _could only have been released during the 70s_, disco is as good a place as any to look. By the OP’s criterion (“if you played it to 1000 randomers the more who get that it’s from the '70s the more '70s it is”), you need a song that screams “70s!” not just to the people who were there, but also to the people who weren’t even born back then. And I think “Stayin’ Alive” is as good a choice as any. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/26 "2014-10-10T18:08:33Z")
The problem I have with “Stayin’ Alive” (or any other disco song) is that it doesn’t scream “70s!” It screams “Disco era!” which was two or three years of the 1970s. I have the same problem with Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” for the 1980s: it was in that era, and **big** in that era, but it was _Michael Jackson’s_ sound, not anything you might call the _1980s_ sound. Same with disco. ---
**Author:** ![Eddie\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Eddie\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eddie_F)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/27 "2014-10-10T18:12:14Z")
Easy: “Theme from Shaft”. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/28 "2014-10-10T18:13:24Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > The most inappropriate song of the 70’s: Short People by Randy Newman. Anyone offended by that has no sense of humour. ---
**Author:** ![Eddie\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Eddie\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eddie_F)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/29 "2014-10-10T18:14:20Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > For some reason, the theme from Shaft is what first came to mind. I guess I should start reading through these things before I post, shouldn’t I? Okay. I’ll now go with “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/30 "2014-10-10T18:15:12Z")
I think a lot depends on whether you were actually listening to music during the 70s. In my head, “70s music” = disco. I know and love a lot of non-disco from that period, but in my brainspace it doesn’t exist as 70s music. It exists mostly as classic rock, which is an amorphous chunk of music that exists across, what, parts of three decades? When you say “70s music,” I think “disco.” And when you say “disco,” I think “Stayin’ Alive.” ---
**Author:** ![Eddie\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Eddie\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eddie_F)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/31 "2014-10-10T18:16:45Z")
Just thought of another possibility: “New York Groove”. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/32 "2014-10-10T18:46:01Z")
Blue Swede’s cover of “[Hooked on a Feeling](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo-qweh7nbQ)”. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/33 "2014-10-10T19:03:21Z")
The Carpenters, Close to You. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/34 "2014-10-10T19:12:27Z")
I love 70’s rock. I am a somewhat reluctant Eagles fan. But I have to go with **Hotel California** also. Even without the iconic dueling guitar leads at the end, the song’s enduring popularity and lyrical meaning seals the deal. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/35 "2014-10-10T19:17:00Z")
My first thought was “[I’d Really Love to See You Tonight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6nURYc5gsc)” by England Dan and John Ford Coley. Or “[Baby Come Back](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn-enjcgV1o)” by Player. But I think the best answer for me is the Bee Gee’s “[How Deep is Your Love?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zWP1V9Eo0c)” Because it’s so Bee Gees and so 70s “soft rock,” so it captures two huge parts of the 70s scene. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/36 "2014-10-10T19:17:28Z")
Interesting how the 70’s had several distinct genres: Disco, Soul/R&B, what is now defined as Classic Rock, but the 80’s genre was just “The 80’s.” It’s too hard to settle on one song that defined the 70’s, but I think Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City” satisfies the above genres to some degree. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/37 "2014-10-10T19:27:44Z")
> [@Eddie\_F](#): > > I guess I should start reading through these things before I post, shouldn’t I? No, no! You’re allowed to agree with me! ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/38 "2014-10-10T19:32:14Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Interesting how the 70’s had several distinct genres: Disco, Soul/R&B, what is now defined as Classic Rock, but the 80’s genre was just “The 80’s.” Although I suppose it may have been starting up at the end of the 70s, I think of “New Wave” as the most distinctly 80s genre. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/39 "2014-10-10T19:37:38Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > No, no! You’re allowed to agree with me! No he isn’t! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959/40 "2014-10-10T19:37:46Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Although I suppose it may have been starting up at the end of the 70s, I think of “New Wave” as the most distinctly 80s genre. New Wave, and Hair Metal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-70s-song/700959.md?page=3)