rubber soul

It's an opinion, obviously but, some quality singles we're able to sneak in among the pap you'd always find on pop charts. Anyway this was the Top twenty on Billboard in 1972

1 "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" Roberta Flack
2 "Alone Again (Naturally)" Gilbert O'Sullivan
3 "American Pie" Don McLean
4 "Without You" Harry Nilsson
5 "The Candy Man" Sammy Davis Jr.
6 "I Gotcha" Joe Tex
7 "Lean on Me" Bill Withers
8 "Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me" Mac Davis
9 "Brand New Key" Melanie
10 "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" Wayne Newton
11 "Let's Stay Together" Al Green
12 "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" Looking Glass
13 "Oh Girl" The Chi-Lites
14 "Nice to Be with You" Gallery
15 "My Ding-a-Ling" Chuck Berry
16 "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right" Luther Ingram
17 "Heart of Gold" Neil Young
18 "Betcha by Golly, Wow" The Stylistics
19 "I'll Take You There" The Staple Singers
20 "Ben" Michael Jackson

Already not great, obviously, but you still had some decent singles by the likes of Don McLean, Nilsson, Bill Withers, Neil Young, The Stylistics, and the Staple Singers. If it were a baseball player, It'd be a decent batting average still.

Here are the top 20 for 1973

1. "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" Tony Orlando and Dawn
2 "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" Jim Croce
3 "Killing Me Softly with His Song" Roberta Flack
4 "Let's Get It On" Marvin Gaye
5 "My Love" Paul McCartney & Wings
6 "Why Me" Kris Kristofferson
7 "Crocodile Rock" Elton John
8 "Will It Go Round in Circles" Billy Preston
9 "You're So Vain" Carly Simon
10 "Touch Me in the Morning" Diana Ross
11 "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" Vicki Lawrence
12 "Playground in My Mind" Clint Holmes
13 "Brother Louie" Stories
14 "Delta Dawn" Helen Reddy
15 "Me and Mrs. Jones" Billy Paul
16 "Frankenstein" The Edgar Winter Group
17 "Drift Away" Dobie Gray
18 "Little Willy" Sweet
19 "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" Stevie Wonder
20 "Half-Breed" Cher

First off, the number one song? You have to be kidding. Yes, the quality is starting to really go down at this point. Stevie Wonder had a banner year with Innervisions, yet he can only get the no. 19 song of the year, and that from his previous album. Elton John charted high, but, let's face it, Crocodile Rock ain't Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Still, I see six decent songs that make this list, but then again, there's Playground In My Mind (Gah!)

And here is the mentioned year of 1974

1 "The Way We Were" Barbra Streisand
2 "Seasons in the Sun" Terry Jacks
3 "Love's Theme" Love Unlimited Orchestra
4 "Come and Get Your Love" Redbone
5 "Dancing Machine" The Jackson 5
6 "The Loco-Motion" Grand Funk Railroad
7 "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" MFSB
8 "The Streak" Ray Stevens
9 "Bennie and the Jets" Elton John
10 "One Hell of a Woman" Mac Davis
11 "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)" Aretha Franklin
12 "Jungle Boogie" Kool & the Gang
13 "Midnight at the Oasis" Maria Muldaur
14 "You Make Me Feel Brand New" The Stylistics
15 "Show and Tell" Al Wilson
16 "Spiders and Snakes" Jim Stafford
17 "Rock On" David Essex
18 "Sunshine on My Shoulders" John Denver
19 "Sideshow" Blue Magic
20 "Hooked on a Feeling" Blue Swede

We're down to about four quality songs now and there is no Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, or even Paul McCartney and Wings, who actually scored big with his best effort, Band on the Run, that year (in fairness, that came in at No.22). The point being, the charts were showing less and less quality with each year passing, at least on the American charts, the low point hitting in 1975 and 1976. Even in the late seventies, we had to suffer through such legendary artists like Barry Manilow, Kenny Rogers, etc. Heck, the most successful song of the seventies was You Light Up My Life to give you an idea. Yes, Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles (for those fans anyway) we're commercially successful on the singles chart but it seemed like punk rock was passing the Americans by. When it did finally gain acceptance, it had been watered down to what was known as New Wave.

And that's how the seventies ended, folks.

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