What's the "Seventies-est" song?

You’ll hate me for this as you will have oohh oohh oohh stuck in your head.

Love Rollercoaster

How about Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water?

Back Stabbers, by the O’Jays. Gamble and Huff at their Philly Soul finest.

It is a bit difficult to name just one song, because there were so many styles.

Representing (British style) punk: Pretty Vacant, Sex Pistols. It’s hard to overstate the impact that the Sex Pistols had in Britain. A lot of big names suddenly became dinosaurs, almost overnight.
Synth/sequencer pop: I Feel Love, Donna Summer. Seminal. As the Wikipedia article says, Brian Eno came running into the studio with this record, declaring “'I have heard the sound of the future”, and he was right.
West Coast soft rock: Don’t Stop, Fleetwood Mac
Cheesy novelty records, a big thing in the 70s: Kung Fu Fighting, Carl Douglas
AOR that your parents would like: the aforementioned We’ve Only Just Begun. Or maybe I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing, New Seekers

This is so true. The thing is most people think 70s = Disco. But Disco didn’t become mainstream till after “Saturday Night Fever.” In fact the movie was inspired by an article in a paper about the emerging disco scene. Of course Disco was around forever, just called by another name.

If you look the beginning of the 70s was dominated by slow, soft rock. The biggest sellers included “the Carpenters.” If you look at female artists you see this very cleary. The biggest female artist for the first half was “Helen Reddy,” the biggest female artist for the second half was “Donna Summer” But you didn’t see much of Helen in the later 70s nor did you see much of Donna in the first half.

Who was the biggest female of the 70s. Olivia Newton-John, who you can cleary see survived by changing her style. From the slow laid back “Have You Never Been Mellow” of the first half to the “A Little More Love,” disco of the later 70s. Diana Ross also managed to be behind Helen for the first half and behind Donna for the second half of the decade and still come out ahead overall.

The late 60s were a transition time in music and provide a lot of different styles this can be clearly seen in beginning of 1969 when the Number 1 songs were

[ul]
[li]Crimson & Clover[/li][li]Everyday People[/li][li]Dizzy[/li][/ul]

These are three very different styles of music

From my Top Pop Singles Chartbook (bassed on Billboard’s Hot 100) the top artists for the 70s are

Male
[ol]
[li]Elton John[/li][li]Paul McCatney (Solo only)[/li][li]Stevie Wonder[/li][li]John Denver[/li][li]James Brown[/li][li]Neil Diamond[/li][li]Elvis Presley[/li][li]Marvin Gaye[/li][li]Rod Stewart[/li][li]Barry Manilow[/li][/ol]

Female
[ol]
[li]Olivia Newton-John[/li][li]Diana Ross[/li][li]Donna Summer[/li][li]Helen Reddy[/li][li]Linda Ronstadt[/li][li]Aretha Franklin[/li][li]Barbra Streisand[/li][li]Carly Simon[/li][li]Anne Murray[/li][li]Roberta Flack[/li][/ol]

Group/Duo
[ol]
[li]The Bee Gees[/li][li]The Carpenters[/li][li]Chicago[/li][li]The Jackson 5 / The Jacksons[/li][li]Three Dog Night[/li][li]Gladys Knight & The Pips[/li][li]Tony Orlando & Dawn[/li][li]Earth, Wind & Fire[/li][li]Eagles[/li][li]Spinners[/li][/ol]

Another song that floods my childhood memories as being uniquely 70s.

Undercover Angel

Allll Righttttt…

I totally forgot about that song. My dim memory of it was with a female singer, but it was probably me misremembering it.

Bill Withers - Ain’t No Sunshine - R and B

KC Sunshine Boys - That’s the Way I Like It -Disco

Barry Manilow - Mandy - Easy listening

Sugarloaf - Green Eyed Lady - Pop

Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water - Rock

Black Sabbath -Paranoid - Heavy Metal

Play That Funky Music by Wild Cherry

Almost forgot

Rare Earth - Hey Big Brother and I Just Want to Celebrate

they came out of the 70’s ecology/save the earth movement that continues today.

That performed in chem suits and gas masks

one of their albums

Oo-ooh, child, things are gonna get easier

So I’d like to know where you got the notion… Rock the Boat!

Here’s an antidote.

it can’t be a hit… like floyd or zepp cause that gets played throughout. I think it has to be something you rarely hear that just says bell-bottoms…
i gotta nominate “Sunshine” by Jonathan Edwards… it has that f the man thing… that sunny day… i’ma free man… etc etc white dude with a acoustic… i’m gonna conquer the world…just me and my martin…

That was pretty damn good. Leaves a nice aftertaste too. Thanks.

Good Girls Don’t by The Knack is the ultimate 70s song after Stairway and Freebird.

Probably Interstate '76 Theme

Even though it was written in the 90’s by the founder of Third Eye Blind.

:dubious:

The correct answer is Baker Street.

Stephen Stills “Love the One You’re With”

Millionaire rock guitar player/singer gives himself permission to cheat on his SO when he’s on the road because he is a millionaire rock guitar player/singer.

“One Toke Over the Line”…Brewer and Shipley
“Sweet City Woman”…The Stampeders
“Moonlight Feels Right”…Starbuck
“Kung Fu Fighting”…Carl Douglas (the absolute grooviest cheese! LoL)
“The Night Chicago Died”…Paper Lace

I was trying to think of the cheesy 70s songs, not necessarily rockers that still sound good today…or possibly the ones which caught the “pop” essence of the 70s, not the fabulous songs by bands like Cream, Zep, Stones, Doors, Quicksilver Mess. Service, Grateful Dead,
Doobie Bros, The Who, etc…etc…etc…after all, I’m an old dawg rock n roller…LoL

Good topic, however!

Wouldn’t think of it. It was the first one that popped into my mind.