Bonus Tracks: 1970s

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[1970-1974 Best Songs]
[1975-1979 Best Songs]

 

Mama Told Me (Not To Come) - Three Dog Night (1970)
25 Or 6 To 4 - Chicago (1970)
Vehicle - Ides Of March (1970)
Let It Be - The Beatles    (1970)
Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who (1971)
Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress) - The Hollies (1972)
Kodachrome - Paul Simon (1972)
Do It Again -Steely Dan    (1973)
One Of These Nights - Eagles (1975)
Ballroom Blitz - Sweet (1975)
Killer Queen - Queen (1975)
Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen (1975)
50 Ways To Leave Your Lover - Paul Simon (1976)
Love Is Alive - Gary Wright (1976)
Golden Years - David Bowie (1976)
Dream On - Aerosmith (1976)
Dancing Queen - Abba (1977)
Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder (1977)
Somebody To Love - Queen (1977)
Jet Airliner - Steve Miller Band (1977)
Boogie Oogie Oogie - A Taste Of Honey (1978)
Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty (1978)
Blue Bayou - Linda Ronstadt (1978)
Running On Empty - Jackson Browne (1978)
Hot Stuff - Donna Summer (1979)
The Logical Song - Supertramp (1979)
Hold The Line - Toto (1979)
Boogie Wonderland - Earth Wind & Fire (1979)
Heart Of Glass - Blondie (1979)

Dance The Night Away - Van Halen (1979)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1977, #19

Ready for a peak into the 1980s? Enter Van Halen. Pretty Woman was a bigger hit, but Dance The Night Away established the sound for a thousand big-haired 80s rock bands. Sadly, almost none of them sounded as good as this.

Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac (1977)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1977, #19

During the recording of the album Rumours, Stevie Nicks had broken up with Lindsey Buckingham, who wrote Go Your Own Way with Stevie as the subject. Meanwhile, Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie endured their own marriage collapse.

The album is filled with deeply personal songs they all were writing - to each other, but out in public. Go Your Own Way is the best example: poignant and fitting.

There's something special about music that raw - exposed like an open wound. I couldn't imagine having to play an instrument on stage next to somebody singing about how I've torn their heart out. It's brave.

At Seventeen - Janis Ian (1975)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1975, #19

I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth...

And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone
Who called to say "come dance with me"
And murmured vague obscenities
It isn't all it seems at seventeen...

A brown eyed girl in hand me downs
Whose name I never could pronounce
Said: "Pity please the ones who serve
They only get what they deserve"
The rich relationed hometown queen
Marries into what she needs
With a guarantee of company
And haven for the elderly...

So remember those who win the game
Lose the love they sought to gain
In debentures of quality and dubious integrity
Their small-town eyes will gape at you
In dull surprise when payment due
Exceeds accounts received at seventeen...

To those of us who knew the pain
Of valentines that never came
And those whose names were never called
When choosing sides for basketball
It was long ago and far away
the world was younger than today
when dreams were all they gave for free
to ugly duckling girls like me...

We all play the game, and when we dare
We cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the phone
Repenting other lives unknown
That call and say: "Come on, dance with me"
And murmur vague obscenities
At ugly girls like me, at seventeen...

Love Is Like Oxygen - Sweet (1978)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1978, #23

Love Is Like Oxygen has about as "tight" a chorus as you'll ever hear. The piano, guitar, bass and drums sync on every note.

Not a lot more to say about it. Just listen - it's Sweet.

September - Earth, Wind, & Fire (1979)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1979, #78

My favorite part of the song September is that "the 21st night of September" was my wedding day. We played this song as the last one at our reception, and it was the perfect finale.

Earth Wind & Fire were a musical powerhouse, and September is their best hit song. The horns are sharp. The chorus is catchy. It's a can't-miss, feel-good song for any party. People know it well enough to have that familiarity, but not so well that they'll be bored.

It's even better if you play it on just the right day.

Hotel California - Eagles (1977)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1977, #19

For most bands, the super-famous song (think Stairway to Heaven, Tom Sawyer by Rush, Jump by Van Halen) is the one that "real" fans of the band hate - it's far from their best, but it's the only one ever played on the radio - usually over-played. Meanwhile, tons of great songs never make the airwaves.

Hotel California is the exception.

It's ubiquitous - it's been played on the radio a billion times. Everyone knows it - everyone loves it. Yet it's unquestionably the Eagles best song. Actually, it's one of the best songs ever made.

It's so good even Eagles fans love it.

Shake Your Groove Thing - Peaches and Herb (1979)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1979, #31

Disco Sucks.

Well, alright... Disco mostly sucks.

Disco mostly sucks because of Disco songs trying to be more than Disco. They try to be high art, or the music is self-indulgent, or too serious. Disco can only be good when it knows it's Disco.

It unclear whether Shake Your Groove Thing was written by Herb, or by Peaches, if it was written before they broke up, or after they were Reunited, but they made an excellent song. It's a song that knows it's just Disco: fun and light. It's got a funky beat that's easy to dance to, where you can put on some loud clothes, jump on a multi-colored floor and look out for the mirrored ball above your head.

This song really is about as good as Disco gets.

Thank God. Now we can move on.

Dust In The Wind - Kansas (1978)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1978, #39

Never has a more beautiful song told you what a worthless speck you are.

Mandy - Barry Manilow (1975)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1975, #35

Barry Manilow? Mandy?? Oh, vomit!

Isn't this everything you hated about the Seventies? There were men with perms in mustard yellow leisure suits, clogs, fondue sets, the AMC Pacer, and ESPECIALLY sappy Seventies love ballads!

The problem is that you secretly like it.

You sold the Pacer years ago, gave the fondue set to Goodwill, threw out the clogs and burned the leisure suit, along with every picture of you with permed hair. But the day you discovered Napster, you downloaded Mandy. Then, you renamed it so nobody would see it.

It's okay. Every other song of the genre may be sappy junk, but Mandy is a genuinely great song. The piano line, the melody, the lyric, and the chorus are all as good as these kinds of songs get, and it deserves its place in the top 100.

I won't tell if you don't.

What A Fool Believes - The Doobie Brothers (1979)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1979 - #19

Want to learn how to write songs? Study this one - it gets everything right. Start with the hook:

She had a place in his life. He never made her think twice

The long, powerful high notes demand attention. The lyric is efficient - just fourteen syllables to perform a setup ("aww, how romantic...") followed by a knock-down ("Damn, that's harsh.")

The rest of the lyrics are just as effective. You can almost have a conversation with this song. A friend is telling you a story. He starts with the setting and the main characters, all in one line:

He came from somewhere back in her long-ago...

Really? Who is he?

A sentimental fool can't see - tryin' hard to recreate what had yet to be created.

Ah, did it work?

Only to realize, it never really was.

She wasn't into him?

He never made her think twice.

As for music, the cool jazz sounds is a nice foundation, but the real instrument here is Michael McDonald's booming, rangy vocals. Only that kind of voice really could justice to such impeccable lyrics.