Not necessarily your favorite 70’s song, or the kitschiest, but the one that when you hear it now, it best takes you back to that time. If that makes sense.
For me, it is “Smoke from a Distant Fire”, Sanford-Townsend Band.
"Only The Good Die Young" by Billy Joel.
First song I heard on the radio when I unpacked my stuff in my dorm room in my New York City college days, 1977.
Up til that time I’d only listened to classical, jazz and show-tunes.
I’ll have to think on that. But there was really not just on '70s. I mean, the '60s lasted to 1974 really. The music at the end of the decade was quite different from the beginning. Even the middle had a unique feel.
I was born in ‘74, so thinking of the 70’s reminds me of being 4 years old. Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street” is probably the song that most “sends me back” to being a little kid. The Eagles’ “The Long Run” also is another one that can do that as well under the right conditions, but that song got so much classic rock radio airplay through the 80’s that the effect is not quite as strong.
“Dancing In The Moonlight” King Harvest up until 1975 or so.
“Stay Free” The Clash after that.
“Hotel California” pretty much sums up the 70s. Big venue rock band sings a song about drugs, drink, and debauchery. Yep, that’s the 70s.
Hmm. Maybe the song that sums up the 70s should be a disco song, though?
Okay, this is getting weird. I heard a DJ refer to this song yesterday, but couldn’t recall the song. This morning, I heard the song on a different station. Now this.
runs in circles What is happening??? :eek:
I just can’t answer this question, but if I approach it in this manner, as you have, I also get Baker Street. Chicago’s Saturday in the Park, the Beatles’ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Barry Manilow’s Copacabana, Jim Croce’s…no, I just can’t answer this question.
I know. Of course! It should have been more obvious to me right away: “Time” on Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” album. If anything got me out of my small Texas town and out here into the wide world, thinking about these lines did, because all around me were people who had missed the starting gun:
“Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun”
I can’t make it just one song. The 70s were my teen years; everything we did was to the music on the radio. Some that immediately come to mind, and take me back:
Show Me The Way–Peter Frampton
Sweet City Woman–The Stampeders
Convoy–C.W. McCall
Undercover Angel–Alan O’Day
Rhinestone Cowboy–Glen Campbell
Chevy Van–Sammy Johns
Sunny Days–Lighthouse
Shake Your Booty–K.C. and the Sunshine Band
I Like Dreaming–Kenny Nolan
I’ll stop now, before I list too many.
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was 1967.
I imagine DB has confused the original with Elton John’s 1970s cover version.
Maybe they meant the Elton John version with John Lennon.
Just so it’s not Barry Manilow doing The Beatles. :eek:
Layla (released Dec., 1970)
Takes me right back to summer camp in Austin, '71 - '74, everytime I hear it.
I go straight back to the '70s if ever I hear “The Night Chicago Died.” Or maybe “Billy Don’t Be a Hero.” The 70s were very Paper Lacy for me, apparently. 
Oh, you all know I lurves me the cheesy songs.
OK, I changed my mind: “Never Been Any Reason” by Head East. I mean, look at these guys.
The Prelude cover of Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush
Kansas’ Carry On My Wayward Son (and the entire Leftoverture album)
Styx’s Come Sail Away (and the entire The Grand Illusion album)
Ted, did we go to high school together??? 
There are three distinct divisions of the 70s for me. The following really take me back:
Undergraduate in small town PA: “Layla”
Grad school in Cincinnati: “Rhiannon”
Early career in Houston: “Sultans of Swing”
:smack: How could I have forgotten this one? Thanks for reminding me, Friar Ted.