1974 brought a bounty of wretched songs capitalizing on the streaking craze.*
Even before Ray Stevens had his hit with “The Streak” (fairly loathsome, but mainly just annoying), there was possibly the worst song ever to ever get airplay, “Streakin’ Part Two” by The Streakers, which featured genius lyrics like
It won’t do no harm if you do a little streakin’ in the dorm
Many others tried to cash in during this sorry period, including Rick Springfield, Randy Newman and Flesh Gordon & The Nude Hollywood Argyles, who gave us “Superstreaker” (the B side of their single was “Naked”).
Released April 1969, sorry (and even the 1970-release Beatles singles were actually recorded in '69, 1970 just brought in the Spectorization)
Speaking of which,
Cover of a 1968 release (Richard Harris) previously covered by Waylon &^%$#@ Jenkins (!!!) and the Four Tops AND Tony Bennet and Andy Williams and a bunch of others. This thing got covered up the wazoo.
…
My speculation on WTF went wrong with the 70s is that people coming down from whatever they were on in the 60s tried to ease the crash with Quaalude.
My experience was quite the opposite. I have a mild distaste The Things We Do for Love, but I truly loath I’m Not in Love. It seems like I heard that damn song constantly in the late 1970’s-early 80’s. I didn’t care much for it the first time - I despised it at after unavoidable listen #51.
The twin forces working towards destruction of rock n’ roll in the 1970s were the grotesquely sappy pop hits previously mentioned, and disco/funkaholism, as exemplified by the pride of Steubenville, Ohio - Wild Cherry.
Play that funky music, white boy Play that funky music right Play that funky music, white boy Lay down the boogie and play that funky music 'til you die*, heh heh 'Til you die, yeah (What?) Hear, hear, heh
*but nowhere near soon enough.
“Big boys don’t cry…big boys don’t cry…big boys don’t cry…”
OK, then, “Let It Be” from the same album. And the release date is what matters. It’s not like at 12:01 New Year’s Day, 1970, the music and culture of the Sixties stopped. The very early Seventies were a continuation of the late Sixties by many measures: still anti-war protests, still long hair and bell-bottoms, still same musical trends. For that matter, the very early Sixties were much more like the Fifties than the late Sixties, musically and by every other measure.
There was a lot of crappy music in the Seventies, the decade that saw, Og help us, disco. But there was a lot of dreck in the Sixties (“Honey,” “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy,” “Puppy Love”), the Eighties (“Mickey,” “We Built This City,” anything by Boy George but especially the rhetorical “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?”), and the Nineties (“Barbie Girl,” “MMMBop,” “I Knew I Loved You”), not to mention the crappy songs from the last 20 years.
This “song” did hit the lower rungs of the Top 40, so it meets the OP’s criteria. It’s a spoken word recording with a constant background chant that goes “things get a little easier once you understand.” The dialogue consists of various teenagers arguing with their parents. Near the end of the record, the singing stops abruptly. A police officer informs a teenager’s father that the teenager has died of an overdose. The father immediately starts sobbing.
The message behind the song is completely incoherent. Is it trying to tell us that teens should listen to their parents? Or is it telling us that parents should go easy on their teens?
Hey, “It’s Magic” and “Sky High” are two of the greatest songs of their time.
And yes, I’ve heard of young children hearing “It’s Magic” on an oldies station and saying, “That’s the Ozempic song.” I’ve also heard of more than one person who thought the title line was “Whoa, ho, ho, it’s my dick, you know, never believe it’s not so.” I’m not one of them, but it does kinda sorta sound like it.
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