Worst of the 70’s? I’ll go with Tony DiFranco and the DiFranco Family.
Worst of the list? 10cc in a cake walk. I would need 15 minutes and Wikipedia to name a single song / record / album they ever put out.
Betcha keep their album on the wall to hide a nasty stain that’s lying there, eh?
That just proves that they’re the closest thing to an obscure band on the list. As others have said, don’t judge them by the hits. In their original formation (with Kevin Godley and Lol Creme in the band), on albums like Sheet Music and How Dare You, they were an extremely accomplished and witty art-pop outfit. Adherents to the punk credo that rock ‘n’ roll can’t be cerebral will dismiss them as clever-clever, but only Steely Dan and Sparks could touch them in the wit department.
I’ll buy all that.
If you ask me, a poll called “Worst Band of the 70’s” that then goes on to list 9 of the best bands of the 70’s, and one that I’m just not that familiar with, is putting one on the spot, n’est pas?
For some reason, the sound of Yes rubbed me the wrong way; maybe it was just the usually very alto lead vocal. On the other hand, the instrumental work was top notch. I forgot to mention in my thread about throwing away books with callous abandon the book of Steve Howe acoustic guitar solos I used to have. Although most of the selections really weren’t arranged for solo guitar, it was worth it just for “The Ancient”. Damn, I miss that book. I only got rid of it because I had learned “Mood For A Day” and “The Ancient”, and thought I’d never forget how to play them!
Regarding progressive rock, I tended to prefer ELP and especially Genesis, before they went pop. That reminds me–we need a poll for which 1970s band went on to become the worst 1980s band…there can only be one answer…
Heart? 
Actually I like These Dreams
Starship
That was exactly the problem with Yes, that it was all about the top-notchiness of their instrumental work (and complexity of arrangements, etc.). That is why The Sex Pistols had to happen.
To each age, its art. To that art, its freedom.
Ironically enough, I’ve always thought that your screen name sounded like the title of a Yes song. 
“Art for art’s sake; money for god’s sake” --10cc
Abba eos…
What the hell???
Did you actually mean “What was the BEST band of the 70’s”? Because at least half that list could qualify.
And none of them are even CLOSE to the genuine worst. Without even thinking very hard:
Bay City Rollers
Hamilton Joe Frank and Reynolds
ABBA
Wings
The Osmonds
The Partridge Family
Tony Orlando and Dawn
The Archies
Edison LIghthouse
Brownsville Station
Three Dog Night
BAchman Turner Overdrive
REO SPeedwagon
America
Bread
Starland Vocal Band
Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods
You left out Screaming Lord Sutch and his Heavy Friends.
I’ve got to go with Orleans mostly because they did that song that sounds like a bad Coke jingle, IE “Still the One”. (I was honestly embarrassed for John McCain when he used that as a campaign song because it’s such a terrible song. The man had no taste in music. Even more embarrassing is that they actually got upset he was using it instead of pretending that somebody else wrote that abomination.)
ABBA? Really? My tastes tend to veer towards punk and post-punk, but those guys knew how to write great melodies. Fantastic pop band.
Maybe I haven’t been exposed to enough Bay City Rollers, but I haven’t heard anything particularly objectionable in their music, yet they’ve been mentioned numerous times. I’m not sure what I’m missing.
A headache.
They are unmitigated complete pop crap!
Oh yes, The Bay City Rollers achieved a special sort of suckiness that has possibly never been equaled before or since. They almost managed to produce the sort of merely inoffensive and bland, teenybop pop rock that always clogs the pop charts, but there was just something weirdly wrong about their sound. I think it was that the tempos were always a bit off, in a way that was almost creepy: everything was just very slightly too slow. And, if you lived in Britain in the early '70s, because they were a huge hit with the pre-teen girl demographic, you just could not escape them. The suffering was horrendous!
I had a devastating teenage breakup with a girl that I’d had a massive crush on for a year. Two months after we broke up, she founded a petition and letter writing group to bring the Bay City Rollers to my home town for a concert. I knew then that it would never have worked out between us…
I thought it was the fact that (in America) they had a Saturday morning show wedged in between Sigmund and Sea Monsters and H.R. Puffinstuff. Not to mention the ridiculous semi-matching tartan jump-suits they wore.