20 pop classics from the 1970s that should not be called soft-rock

“Piano Man” by Billy Joel (1973)

Billy Joel wrote better songs than “Piano Man” in his career, but he never wrote a more important one. It was the title track from his second album, and it helped both earn him some money (it was Joel’s first top-20 single) and establish his public persona. Another song on Piano Man, “The Ballad of Billy the Kid,” had a somewhat uneven braggadocio that only partly worked.

The sympathetic portrait of bar rats who come to listen to the title character play and sing in "Piano Man" has a cinematic breadth that bewitches. The accordion and harmonica that are layered upon the reassuring piano give it scope. Joel’s voice give it warmth.

How autobiographical is it? Doesn’t really matter. Joel wrote plenty of songs that dove deep into his personal backstory but he always made sure the song came first. So perhaps there is no
real-estate novelist named Paul or a waitress practicing politics, but Joel makes us see them anyway. “Vienna” and “New York State of Mind” would be even better songs drawn from his deep well of personal experience, and both came out in the 1970s, but it’s hard to ignore “Piano Man.” It was the birth of a legend.

“Help Me” by Joni Mitchell (1974)

“Help Me” is the only number-one song Joni Mitchell ever had on a major chart. It hit the top of the Billboard Adult Contemporary list in 1974. It was also her only top-ten song on the Billboard Hot 100 and her highest-charting song in her native Canada. And it’s not even my favorite song from her magnificent album Court and Spark. That would be “Raised on Robbery.” But that song is a little too rock & roll for this list so I’ll “settle” for “Help Me.”

It's pretty to easy to settle for such shimmering pop. Mitchell builds on a simple acoustic strum and gradually layers in some Tom Scott sax and Larry Carlton electric guitar. She does of her one-of-kind vocal gymnastics, running up and down the scales without ever losing the sense of a pop melody. That’s not easy to pull off and it is at the heart of much of Mitchell’s most accessible work.

Later on, the songs on Court and Spark would turn a bit darker but this is just the second track, and she’s staying light and breezy. And still, there is a hint of danger. It’s right there in the song’s title. “Help me, I think I’m falling in love again” is a deceptively brilliant opening line that captures the complexity of the mystery train perfectly. You know, the very way that good songwriters do.