The #Top100of1969

We continue our journey through pop music in the year of the Beatles' last public performance, the Stonewall riots, the Apollo 11 moon landing, and Woodstock. That's right, for the fourth installment of this project, we're going back to 1969.

As the two most dominant musical acts of the 1960s began to split (The Beatles recorded their last album and The Supremes released their last single) and several of the 1970s most iconic acts started to emerge (notably Led Zeppelin, Sly & The Family Stone, and Chicago), 1969 marks one of the more significant shifts in music.

Creedence Clearwater Revival didn't top the charts in 1969, but they stayed on them all year long. (Charlie Gillett // Getty)

This is a year chock full of songs that live on today among the most classic hits in the history of modern music. From Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Down On The Corner" at 98 to number two song "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In" by The 5th Dimension, 1969 contained many of the 20th century's most celebrated singles.

Standing above the crowd as the song of the year was "Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies. Topping the Hot 100 for four weeks in September and October, "Sugar, Sugar" had a throwback feel even for the time; in my mind, the song sounds like it could have been released in 1964 just as easily as 1969.

The Archies cap a top ten that include "Honky Tonk Women" by The Rolling Stones (fresh after replacing Brian Jones with Mick Taylor) at four, "Everyday People" by Sly & The Family Stone at five, two Tommy James hits (including "Crimson and Clover," a personal favorite, at six), "Get Back" by the Beatles at eight and "Build Me Up Buttercup" by the Foundations - another song that could have been released five years earlier - at the 10 spot.

Despite being shut out of the top 10, and even the top 20, Creedence Clearwater Revival earned the Artist of the Year honors for 1969 with three top-30 songs and the aforementioned "Corner" sneaking in at 98. "Proud Mary" and "Bad Moon Rising" form a double-feature on the list at 23 and 24, respectively. 

1969 features the final number one single released by Elvis, with "Suspicious Minds" coming in at 15th for the year. Among the countless hits on the list that I consider among my favorites are Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline," "These Eyes" by The Guess Who, "Soulful Strut" by Young-Holt Unlimited, and the Marvin Gaye classic "I Heard It Through The Grapevine."

As you can probably tell, 1969 is definitely one of my favorite years of music that I didn't live through (I'm beginning to make this distinction, as I am realizing that I appreciate songs from before I was born in a different way than I appreciate songs that have specific life memories attached to them). I truly appreciate the timelessness of many, many songs on this list.

Here's that important playlist:

The #Top100of1974

My random generator is keeping me in the same 10 year span so far...

This one is not quite at the start of the month; the fun thing about this project is my deadlines are completely arbitrary and no one really cares how often I post!

Elton John was flying high in the early 70s (Terry O'Neill // Getty)

We're looking at 1974 this month. Watergate took over the nation as Richard Nixon became the first, and to date only, U.S. President to resign the position in August (that's right, I can talk about more than just music and sports here!). Music-wise, the modernization of pop music was well underway. Like in 1970, traditional instrumentation was standard, but digital sounds were becoming more frequent and the disco era was getting so close to becoming actualized.

What makes the 1974 list most interesting to me from a statistical perspective is that there was no runaway candidate for song of the year. Based on my scoring system, the top song had the lowest overall score of any year since 1967, with only a five-point gap between it and the runner-up. (For more information on my scoring system, I'm sure I've explained it in a past Top 100 post; search the blog archive if you're really curious.)

Anyway, now for the highlights. Elton John was the artist of the year in 1974, in a close contest over John Denver, Olivia Newton-John and Gladys Knight. He also recorded the year's aforementioned top song, "Bennie And The Jets," which is a classic to this day. Sir Elton's other Top 100 hits of the year were number 77 "The Bitch Is Back" and number 80 "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me." 

This makes a rare year in which the artist of the year only has one song to reach the top 20; the fact that John's three songs on the list include two outside of even the top 50 goes to show how much variety popular American music contained in 1974. 

If I had to pick my all-time favorite years of pop music, 1974 would probably end up around the middle of the list, maybe somewhere high in the bottom half. It's not that the year produced any particularly bad music, but it didn't produce too many of those timeless, memorable songs that would typically elevate a year before I was born on such a list.

Outside of the Elton John songs, some other songs from 1974 I do enjoy include "Then Came You", number five overall from Dionne Warwick; Paul McCartney's "Band On the Run" at 17; Denver's "Sunshine On My Shoulders" which came in at 19; "Billy, Don't Be A Hero," which clocked in at number 30 for Bo Donaldson; and Steve Miller Band's "The Joker" which, despite only being the 71st most popular title of the year, has become one of that era's most popular tunes.

Here's the full playlist: 

I'm going to immediately work on and schedule next month's post, so it at least looks like I'm on top of this project for once.