When you think of the 70's, what are the top three bands that come to mind?

BeeGees Blue Oyster Cult and Seals and Croft

I dunno, it’s sort of hard to say really, it’s already been noted that there was a great diversity of music both in genre and within genres as well.

I just picked three bands sorta randomly that say “70s Music” to me out of the many bands and singers that equate to music of the 70s to me

Led Zeppelin
Van Halen
Rolling Stones

Tripler
I wanted to add Iron Butterfly, but they were from the 60s

What I remember hearing growing up in the 70s, not necessarily what I would think of NOW, having gone back and learned more about the music of the era. Much of this was when music on AM radio stations was still a thing, and I listened to that and whatever top-40 station others had on.

Queen - not the greatest number of songs, but the ones they had really stood out.

Bee-Gees - just were everywhere in the mid-to-late 70’s.

Fleetwood Mac - The early Buckingham-Nicks era was obviously huge.

You had a rough childhood, didn’t you? :wink:

Steely Dan
Fleetwood Mac
Pink Floyd

Led Zeppelin
Three Dog Night
Electric Light Orchestra

The Who
Led Zeppelin
Peter Frampton

Patti Smith Group
Talking Heads
The B-52s

Cause I was listening to a different kind of band.

American.

I had never heard of the Australian band. I took a listen to a few tracks, but did not care for them. Still, I always appreciate being introduced to something new regardless of how I end up feeling about it. Thank for the intro.

ABBA

Sex Pistols

Midnight Oil


Early 70s: Grand Funk RR, Three Dog Night, Chicago (Transit Authority)
Late 70s: KC and the Sunshine Band, The Crusaders, Mink DeVille
Of course there were many more to list but these were the first ones to pop into my head.

In the order they popped into my head:

Led Zeppelin
Jethro Tull
The Moody Blues

I briefly considered Steppenwolf, but really, they were mostly done by the 70s.

  1. (currently) Earth, Wind, & Fire. They’re having a concert locally, and I remarked to the Beloved Man, just hearing them makes me feel like it’s the 70s again.

  2. Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn. I came up in a rural area, and it seemed like they were on every radio in the 70s.

  3. Kiss. You couldn’t really get away from the Kiss Army in school. You want to talk to your buddy about math homework or that afternoon’s baseball game or how cute Lisa is, but he’s staring rapturously at his Kiss trading cards.

ELP
Yes
Chicago

All three did had their best work in the 70s and faded pretty badly afterwards.

So many seventies bands had distinct “periods”.

Chicago, f’rinstance, was a hard rock brass band with heartfelt lyrics when founder Terry Kath was at the helm. When he died, Peter Cetera pulled them in a different direction… unfortunately, Cetera had always wanted to be a "Lite Yacht Rock"crooner (he did a duet with Amy Grant, just sayin’…).

And someone upthread called the Rumors-era Fleetwood Mac “early”. Ha!
Their previous bluesy stuff (esp. when Peter Green was “leading” the band) was wonderful.

So…Grand Funk RR, Three Dog Night and Chicago?

#2 is not a group.

They put out an album together every year between 1971 and 1979, so yeah, they’re a group.

Hmmmm…
Eight albums in the top 10 country charts released on a regular basis, 12 singles in the country top 5, several compilation albums.
Looks like I’m overruled. :grin:

Geez, ya think they could’ve at least come up with a band name… Lynnie/Twitty?