Top 50 Songs of 1974

For those that weren’t round within the yr 1974 — or as a refresher for individuals who had been — listed below are just a few notable occasions.

In February, publishing heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped by a gaggle of radicals known as the Symbionese Liberation Army, prompting one of the largest nationwide information tales of its period. In August, President Richard Nixon resigned and President Gerald Ford instantly assumed workplace, absolutely pardoning Nixon a number of months later. In October, Muhammad Ali defeated George Foreman within the “Rumble in the Jungle” struggle in Zaire, Africa, successfully reclaiming the world heavyweight title.

During all of this, one of essentially the most fruitful batches of new music of the complete decade was ushered in. Landmark releases from David Bowie, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dolly Parton, the Eagles, Steely Dan and numerous others arrived — songs that, 5 many years later, are nonetheless performed on heavy rotation.

Below, we’re looking on the Top 50 Songs of 1974 as voted by UCR employees. To start, a handful of songs tied for the No. 50 slot…

50. Sparks, “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us”
From: Kimono My House

“My voice ain’t a ‘rock’ voice,” singer Russell Mael advised The Word at one level, talking concerning the falsetto he utilized in “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us.” “It’s not soulful, in the traditional rock way. It’s not about ‘guts.’ It’s untrained, unschooled, I never questioned why I was singing high. It just happened, dictated by the songs.” This monitor was not successful in America, however carried out remarkably properly in a number of European international locations.

 

50. Ohio Players, “Fire”
From: Fire

The sirens at first of Ohio Players’ “Fire” can solely imply one factor: crimson scorching funk is on the way in which. The opening monitor to the album of the identical title, “Fire” was a large hit for the band, going to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Soul Singles chart inside only a few months. It grew to become one of their signature songs.

 

50. Neil Young, “Ambulance Blues”
From: On the Beach

Neil Young should have identified that “Ambulance Blues,” the practically nine-minute closing monitor to On the Beach would not likely be appropriate for radio play given its size, however that was hardly the purpose of the music, nor the album as a complete. Here, Young yearns for the sooner days of his musical profession, earlier than excessive and disenchanting fame pounced on him — “Back in the old folky days / The air was magic when we played.”

 

49. Chicago, “(I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long”
From: Chicago VII

“(I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long,” penned by trombonist James Pankow, was the primary single to be launched from Chicago VII, and it actually proved the precise choice. The music went to No. 9 within the U.S. (Pankow’s different sole songwriting contribution to the album was “Mongonucleosis.”)

 

48. Raspberries, “Overnight Sensation”
From: Starting Over

Songwriters will usually say that songs will unfold in the identical manner films do, with a plot and a solid of characters. This is what occurred with “Overnight Sensation” by Raspberries, written by lead singer Eric Carmen. “It was written very theatrically,” he recalled within the liner notes to 2005’s Raspberries Greatest. “The first scene was, you can picture Abbey Road Studios, this great, huge dark room with a real high camera and this one spotlight on the singer and it was like this guy singing in his living room, thinking about the music business. … Visually, I was trying to get on a record what I was seeing in my head.”

 

47. Patti Smith, “Piss Factory”
From: 1974 Single

Thanks to a person named Sam Wagstaff, a outstanding creative curator and benefactor, Patti Smith was capable of finance the making of her very first single, the double-sided “Hey Joe” / “Piss Factory.” The former is a Jimi Hendrix cowl, however the latter was the younger punk poet’s very first unique launch. Like a quantity of her songs, it stemmed from a poem she’d been writing. “I was saying that as a young person, I still had desire — desire to do well,” she later advised Rolling Stone. “Perhaps some of the people in the factory lost all desire. I can understand how that can happen. … What ‘Piss Factory’ is about is: someone who in the midst of the dead felt alive.”

 

46. The Doobie Brothers, “Black Water”
From: What Once Were Vices Now Are Habits

Sometimes, a bit noodling goes a great distance. While the Doobie Brothers had been at work on their 1973 album The Captain and Me, Patrick Simmons was simply playing around on his guitar in between takes. “All [of a] sudden I heard the talk-back go on,” Simmons recalled to Guitar Player in 2016, “and [producer] Ted Templeman says: ‘What is that?’ I said: ‘It’s just a little riff that I came up with that I’ve been tweaking with.’ He goes: ‘I love that. You really should write a song using that riff.'” And he did: 1974’s “Black Water.”

 

45. Blue Swede, “Hooked on a Feeling”
From: Hooked on a Feeling

“Hooked on a Feeling” was first recorded and launched by B.J. Thomas in 1968, a No. 5 hit. Six years later, the Swedish rock group Blue Swede took the music even greater to the No. 1 slot with their 1974 recording, which was modeled off a 1971 cowl by Jonathan King.

 

44. Bad Company, “Ready for Love”
From: Bad Company

It’s not likely stealing if you happen to achieve this from your self. “Ready for Love,” penned by Mick Ralphs, was first launched by Mott the Hoople in 1972. Ralphs, who sang lead on the monitor, was by no means fairly comfortable together with his vocal efficiency, so when he left Mott the Hoople and shaped Bad Company, the music bought a second likelihood in 1974 with singer Paul Rodgers.

 

43. Nazareth, “Love Hurts”
From: Hair of the Dog

“Love Hurts” has been coated by a quantity of artists through the years, together with the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Joan Jett, Rod Stewart and extra. But essentially the most profitable model got here from Nazareth, who launched it as a single in 1974. It went to No. 8 within the U.S. and topped the charts in a number of different international locations.

 

42. Kraftwerk, “Autobahn”
From: Autobahn

Kraftwerk’s 20-plus minute music “Autobahn,” was launched with solely German lyrics, however the verbal language wasn’t the purpose. The total feeling of being on the highway was far more vital. “It was an environmental composition, a sound painting,” lead singer Ralf Hutter advised The Guardian in 2017. “We were touring in Germany and when we played in other cities, we didn’t have money to stay in hotels. So we were always driving on the autobahn, going somewhere and coming back at night all the time.”

 

41. Cat Stevens, “Oh Very Young”
From: Buddha and the Chocolate Box

The attention-grabbing factor about Cat Stevens is that he at all times appeared capable of impart a way of knowledge far past his age. He was solely 25 years outdated when he launched “Oh Very Young,” a No. 10 hit that pointed to the brevity of life itself: “You’re only dancin’ on this earth for a short while / And though your dreams may toss and turn you now / They will vanish away like your dads best jeans.”

 

40. Joe Walsh, “Turn to Stone”
From: So What

“Turn to Stone,” first launched by Barnstorm in 1972, was written about President Nixon’s administration, the Vietnam War and the protests it prompted. “In those days it felt like the government’s priority was not the population,” Joe Walsh advised Rolling Stone in 2016. “They had an agenda that was about something other than doing what was necessarily good for the country.” Two years later, Walsh recorded the music once more for his personal solo album, So What.

 

39. Gordon Lightfoot, “Sundown”
From: Sundown

Gordon Lightfoot solely landed one No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100: the title monitor to his 1974 album Sundown. “I think my girlfriend was out with her friends one night at a bar while I was at home writing songs,” he advised American Songwriter in 2008, recalling its writing course of. “I thought, ‘I wonder what she’s doing with her friends at that bar!’ It’s that kind of a feeling. ‘Where is my true love tonight? What is my true love doing?'”

 

38. Grand Funk Railroad, “Some Kind of Wonderful”
From: All the Girls within the World Beware!!!

If you have by no means heard the unique model of “Some Kind of Wonderful,” recorded by the R&B group Soul Brothers Six, it is extremely advisable. You’ll have the ability to inform precisely the place Grand Funk Railroad was capable of pull the energy from for his or her enormously profitable 1974 cowl of the music.

 

37. Dolly Parton, “I Will Always Love You”
From: Jolene

Much has been written about Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” however arguably essentially the most compelling story to have been born out of its creation is the one involving Elvis Presley. As the music climbed the nation charts in 1974, Presley’s supervisor, Colonel Parker, knowledgeable Parton that his shopper wished to cowl the music, however that his customary process included being given half the publishing rights. Torn however decided to stay to her weapons, Parton declined the supply. Years later, she gave Whitney Houston permission to document the music. “When Whitney’s came out, I made enough money to buy Graceland,” Parton quipped to Country Music Television in 2006.

 

36. Stevie Wonder, “You Haven’t Done Nothin'”
From: Fulfillingness’ First Finale

Joe Walsh wasn’t the one artist taking purpose at Nixon in 1974. Stevie Wonder voiced his personal opinion on “You Haven’t Done Nothin,'” which featured the Jackson 5 as backing vocalists. “Everybody promises you everything,” Wonder stated when the one was launched, “but in the end, nothing comes out of it. … I’m sick and tired of all their lies.”

 

35. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Call Me the Breeze”
From: Second Helping

Penned by J.J. Cale, there’s arguably no extra iconic model of “Call Me the Breeze” than Lynyrd Skynyrd’s. “Ronnie [Van Zant] was a big fan of J.J. Cale,” guitarist Rickey Medlocke advised UCR in 2023. “And I’m telling you, you know, in our history, and in our past, I mean, there are several songs that you get into the show and there’s several songs that you cannot forget to do. And ‘Call Me the Breeze’ is one of them.”

 

34. Billy Preston, “Nothing From Nothing”
From: The Kids & Me

Billy Preston’s “Nothing From Nothing” is noteworthy for a pair of causes. The first, of course, is that it was a huge hit, reaching the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and staying on the charts for 4 and a half months. The second is that Preston carried out it when he appeared as one of the 2 first ever musical friends on Saturday Night Live in October 1975. (The different was Janis Ian.)

 

33. Labelle, “Lady Marmalade”
From: Nightbirds

Patti LaBelle didn’t perceive the French lyrics in 1974’s “Lady Marmalade” when it was first introduced to her, however she did not care. All she knew was the music can be a giant one for her band. “For once I can say ‘yes’ and really mean ‘yes’ because we were on our way to New Orleans with Allen Toussaint back in the day before he passed,” she stated in a 2023 interview. “Once we got this ‘Lady M’ song I said, ‘We have to record this first, ’cause it’s a hit,’ and it was a hit!” (It held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for a complete week.)

 

32. Eagles, “Best of My Love”
From: On the Border

(*50*) J.D. Souther, co-writer of “Best of My Love” recalled to Acoustic Storm in 2009. “I don’t know who wrote the first lines; we wrote it in London.” It grew to become the Eagles’ very first No. 1 hit, although actually not the final.

 

31. Funkadelic, “Red Hot Mama”
From: Standing on the Verge of Getting It On

When guitarist Eddie Hazel returned to Funkadelic for the primary time in three years, it was as if the items fell into place. You can hear the aid and cohesion of the group on a music like “Red Hot Mama,” co-written by Hazel.

 

30. Bad Company, “Bad Company”
From: Bad Company

Self-titling an album is one factor, self-titling one of its tracks is one other. But that is what Bad Company did in 1974. Why? “I think because it had never really been done, as far as I knew,” Paul Rodgers advised Spinner in 2010. “I thought it was interesting to come out as a brand-new band with its own theme song.”

 

29. Elton John, “The Bitch Is Back”
From: Caribou

You actually by no means know when a superb title goes to strike you. In the case of Elton John’s “The Bitch Is Back,” it got here from Bernie Taupin’s spouse, Maxine Feibelman, who coined the phrase someday when John was in a poor temper. From there the music, a No. 4 hit within the U.S., virtually wrote itself.

 

28. Rufus and Chaka Kahn, “Tell Me Something Good”
From: Rags to Rufus

You may suppose that Rufus and Chaka Kahn’s “Tell Me Something Good” has a kind of Stevie Wonder high quality to it — and that will make sense, given he wrote the monitor. Pay particular consideration to Tony Maiden’s guitar speak field half, one of the primary cases of the device being utilized in successful music.

 

27. Rush, “Working Man”
From: Rush

Even many years after its 1974 launch, Geddy Lee nonetheless cited “Working Man” as his favourite music to play stay — and it is grow to be a fan favourite, too. It’s becoming then that this was the final music the band performed stay collectively at their last live performance in 2015.

 

26. Billy Joel, “The Entertainer”
From: Streetlife Serenade

By his personal admission, Billy Joel did not have quite a bit to say on 1974’s Streetlife Serenade — he frankly was too busy touring to provide you with a lot materials for a brand new album. Joel wrote about this strain in “The Entertainer,” a cynical kind of ode to the relentless grind that’s being a working musician in an business that strikes at lightning velocity. “I won’t be here in another year,” he sings on the finish of the monitor, “if I don’t stay on the charts.”

 

25. Kiss, “Black Diamond”
From: Kiss

Paul Stanley had virtually all the required components for “Black Diamond,” the closing monitor to Kiss’ debut album. But it was Gene Simmons who supplied the ultimate puzzle piece: the riff. “It’s all about arrangement and embellishment,” Stanley advised Guitar World in 1996. “That’s what you’re supposed to do in a band: come in and add something.”

 

24. Electric Light Orchestra, “Can’t Get It Out of My Head”
From: Eldorado

ELO first shaped in 1970, but it surely wasn’t till 1974 that they started reaching a wider viewers, thanks partly to Eldorado. The band landed their very first Top 10 hit within the U.S. with “Can’t Get It Out of My Head,” despite the fact that it did not chart of their native nation. This was nonetheless a welcome growth contemplating Jeff Lynne had purposefully written the monitor to show a degree to his father, who had advised him his songs had no tune. “So I said, ‘I’’ll show you a tune then,'” he recalled on the Ultimate Classic Rock Nights radio present in 2019.

 

23. Ringo Starr, “No No Song”
From: Goodnight Vienna

Penned by Hoyt Axton and David Jackson, “No No Song” is meant to be a humorous tackle, properly, drug habit – generally it’s a must to snicker to maintain from crying. Ringo Starr, on the time he recorded the monitor, was over a decade away from turning into sober himself, making his model much more tongue-in-cheek. In any case, it was successful, reaching No. 3 within the U.S.

 

22. Bob Dylan, “Forever Young” (Slow Version)
From: Planet Waves

Over the course of his profession, Bob Dylan has grow to be well-known for reinventing his personal songs, placing new spins on them such that the result’s one thing totally totally different. Back in 1974, he did this within the studio with “Forever Young,” two variations of which, one quicker and one slower, had been included on Planet Waves. It’s the slower model, although, that strikes extra of an emotional chord.

 

21. Big Star, “September Gurls”
From: Radio City

“I really loved the mid-’60s British pop music, all two and a half minutes or three minutes long, really appealing songs,” Alex Chilton of Big Star advised The Independent in 2010. “So I’ve always aspired to that same format, that’s what I like.” “September Gurls,” which didn’t chart on the time of its launch, is a superb instance of this.

 

20. ABBA, “Waterloo”
From: Waterloo

ABBA’s “Waterloo” was particularly written with the intention of being entered into the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, the nineteenth working of this system. This mission was profitable, however past that, it was a giant step for ABBA — “Waterloo” made it to No. 6 within the U.S., serving to convey them to a wider American viewers.

 

19. Kiss, “Strutter”
From: Kiss

Unlike “Black Diamond” above, “Strutter” was really a collaborative effort between Stanley and Simmons, who had been credited as co-writers. Using a music Simmons had written known as “Stanley the Parrot,” Stanley modified the groove a bit and wrote new lyrics. “With ‘Strutter,’ I was trying to approximate the feel of the Stones’ ‘Brown Sugar,’ to write a song that had swagger and attitude and a bravado to it,” Stanley advised Classic Rock in 2021. “Once the feel of the song changed it seemed to lend itself to a lyric which captured that swagger.”

 

18. Harry Chapin, “Cat’s in the Cradle”
From: Verities & Balderdash

It’s probably the very best identified music concerning the circle of familial life: Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s in the Cradle.” “Frankly, this song scares me to death,” Chapin as soon as stated of it, noting that he was pondering of his personal relationship together with his son, Josh, when writing the monitor.

 

17. Genesis, “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”
From: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Understandably, the music of Genesis shouldn’t be everybody’s cup of tea. But for prog rockers, it does not get far more seminal than The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Its title monitor was launched as a single, and although it didn’t chart, it was nonetheless performed usually on American radio stations — a tantalizing style of the remaining of the LP.

 

16. John Lennon, “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night”
From: Walls and Bridges

Amazingly, 1974’s “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night,” was the one music of John Lennon’s that went to No. 1 whereas he was alive. “At night he loved to channel-surf, and he would pick up phrases from all the shows,” Lennon’s then-girlfriend May Pang stated to Radio Times journal in 2005. “One time, he was watching Reverend Ike, a famous black evangelist, who was saying, ‘Let me tell you guys, it doesn’t matter, it’s whatever gets you through the night.’ John loved it and said, ‘I’ve got to write it down or I’ll forget it.’ He always kept a pad and pen by the bed. That was the beginning of ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.'”

 

15. Jackson Browne, “Late for the Sky”
From: Late for the Sky

You’d probably by no means guess it, however Jackson Browne was simply 25 years outdated when he wrote the achingly tender “Late for the Sky. “I bear in mind it very properly,” Browne told The Dallas Morning News in 2015. “I bear in mind writing the traces, ‘Now, for me, some phrases come straightforward, however I do know that they do not imply that a lot, in contrast with the issues which can be stated when lovers contact.’ That form of broke me down proper there, and it’s extremely emotional.”

 

14. Eagles, “Already Gone”
From: On the Border

Back in 1968, songwriter Jack Tempchin was the manager of an unassuming club in San Diego. He and fellow songwriter Robb Strandlund would often provide the entertainment for the club themselves, but one evening they were in the back room of the venue when they found a mysterious jug of liquid, which they proceeded to drink. “So, we had been ingesting out of this jug and we began to really feel actually good, and I stated, ‘Let’s write a rustic music,'” he recalled to Songfacts. (The jug contained hard cider, it turned out.) “So in about 20 minutes within the again room there, we wrote ‘Already Gone.’ The refrain goes woo hoo hoo as a result of I simply felt so good instantly.” Tempchin sent a tape of the song to Glenn Frey and the Eagles took it from there.

 

13. Bob Marley and the Wailers, “No Woman, No Cry”
From: Natty Dread

It’s not exactly clear what role Bob Marley played in the writing of “No Woman, No Cry,” because he gave the composer credit to a man named Vincent Ford, a friend of Marley’s who ran a soup kitchen in the neighborhood Marley grew up in. Thus, the royalty payments Ford received helped keep the kitchen afloat and feeding people in need.

 

12. The Rolling Stones, “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)”
From: It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll

“The thought of the music has to do with our public persona on the time,” Mick Jagger would recall of “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)” in the 1993 compilation Jump Back. “I used to be getting a bit drained of individuals having a go, all that, ‘oh, it is inferior to their final one’ enterprise. The single sleeve had an image of me with a pen digging into me as if it had been a sword. It was a lighthearted, anti-journalistic kind of factor.”

 

11. Joni Mitchell, “Help Me”
From: Court and Spark

Working with the jazz group Tom Scott’s L.A. Express as her backing band, Joni Mitchell made the most successful single and the only Top 10 of her career in 1974: “Help Me.” It’s not easy to distill just how influential Mitchell’s ’70s work was to other musicians, but here’s an example. “Help Me” was later referenced in Prince’s “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker:” “‘Oh, my favourite music,’ she stated / And it was Joni singing: ‘Help me, I feel I’m falling.'”

 

10. Al Green, “Take Me to the River”
From: Al Green Explores Your Mind

A lot of artists have recorded Al Green’s “Take Me to the River:” Talking Heads, Levon Helm, Annie Lennox and Bryan Ferry among them. But the definitive version, featuring the Memphis Horns, remains Green’s original 1974 cut.

 

9. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”
From: Not Fragile

Randy Bachman did not intend to make a huge hit single out of a crude joke song, but that’s what happened with “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” which he purposefully sang with a stutter in an effort to make fun of his brother and Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s manager, Gary. “He had a speech obstacle,” Bachman said in Fred Bronson’s 1988 book, The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. “We thought, only for enjoyable…we would take this music and I’d stutter and we’d ship it to him. He’ll have the one copy on the planet of this music by BTO.” Obviously, things changed and the song, complete with the stuttering, was included on 1974’s Not Fragile.

 

8. Queen, “Killer Queen”
From: Sheer Heart Attack

“It’s a few excessive class name lady,” Freddie Mercury explained of “Killer Queen” to NME in 1974. “I’m making an attempt to say that stylish individuals might be whores as properly. That’s what the music is about, although I’d want individuals to place their interpretation upon it — to learn into it what they like.” Not only did “Killer Queen” go to No. 2 in the U.K., it reached No. 12 in the U.S., Queen’s first American hit.

 

7. Linda Ronstadt, “You’re No Good”
From: Heart Like a Wheel

Hell really hath no fury like a woman scorned, especially when you place that woman in a recording studio. Linda Ronstadt was not the first to record “You’re No Good,” but her version became the definitive one. She’d already been performing the song live with her band, but her studio cut went to No. 1 on the Billboard chart.

 

6. Dolly Parton, “Jolene”
From: Jolene

Meanwhile in 1974, Dolly Parton was recording a song quite different from “You’re No Good,” one about the desperation felt when a prettier woman enters the picture. According to Parton, “Jolene” was inspired by an awfully friendly bank teller she noticed flirting with her husband when they were newlyweds. But for what it’s worth, the couple has been married for close to 60 years.

 

5. Steely Dan, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”
From: Pretzel Logic

By 1974’s Pretzel Logic, it was abundantly clear that Steely Dan, the band, really referred to its core two songwriters, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. But nevertheless crucial to the recording of the song “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” was drummer Jim Gordon (a decade before he was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison for murdering his mother) and guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, who joined the Doobie Brothers not long after.

 

4. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Sweet Home Alabama”
From: Second Helping

“Turn it up,” Ronnie Van Zant confidently says at the top of “Sweet Home Alabama.” One day guitarist Gary Rossington was messing around in the studio. “I had this little riff,” he recalled to Garden & Gun in 2015. “It’s the little selecting half and I saved taking part in it again and again after we had been ready on everybody to reach for rehearsal. Ronnie and I had been sitting there, and he saved saying, ‘play that once more.'” Van Zant added lyrics and Ed King helped write the rest of the music, resulting in one of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s signature songs.

 

3. Aerosmith, “Same Old Song and Dance”
From: Get Your Wings

There’s a whole collection of artists whose sophomore album ended up a slump. Aerosmith was not one of them. They came more into their own on 1974’s Get Your Wings, especially on “Same Old Song and Dance.” “I advised them that we must always herald some horns to convey out their rhythm and blues facet,” producer Jack Douglas recalled to Music Radar in 2012. “They positively had that sort of model and sound already.”

 

2. Elton John, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”
From: Caribou

“I wish to be extra attention-grabbing than a superb outdated ‘I really like you, you’re keen on me, my coronary heart will break if you happen to depart me,” Bernie Taupin told Esquire in 2012. “Throw in a curveball. ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.’ Put a darkish twist on them.” Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys sang backing vocals on this No. 2 hit.

 

1. David Bowie, “Rebel Rebel”
From: Diamond Dogs

If there is a stronger ode to gender-bending, unbridled glam rock than David Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel,” we do not know it. With one of the most recognizable guitar riffs in music history, it isn’t difficult to see why it became a crowd favorite, the kind of song that invites one to dance and throw caution to the wind. Who cares about the future when you can live in the present?