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!
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| 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:
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