Quite a few music commentators say that the 1970s produced some of the best and some of the worst pop and rock music of the last century. (Heck, we do here often at AudioPhix.)
If you look at it that way, the seventies could be labeled as one of the weirdest decades in popular music, after all, there were so many novelty songs, the so called rock became the overproduced heaven, quite a few lyrics could make you cringe (even then), and what is there to be said about the disco craze?
Yet, so many truly awful songs made it big, and you will probably be able to stumble upon them to this day (or you can make the search for them intentional, if you will). And if you like quite a bit of cheese in your musical sandwiches, the bellow eight will certainly fit the bill.
These 1970s hits are some of the worst songs you will ever hear
Captain & Tenille - “Muskrat Love” (1972)
These days, Captain & Tenille are considered one of the progenitors of yacht rock, but it surely makes you wonder if the duo would bring a single rodent they sing about on their yacht, captain’s seafaring cap and all. The tune might be catchy, but the lyrics are as awful as they can get.
Donny Osmond - “Young Love” (1973)
Donny Osmond, solo or with the family band, was all wrapped up in pop formulas dominant at the time and the clean-as-a-whistle teen idol image his PR pushed. And it was all like sugar candy, when you bite it, it amounted to almost nothing, like this cover of a 1950s hit.
Clint Holmes - "Playground in My Mind" (1973)
With crime and drug abuse on the rise and war in Vietnam still raging at the time, getting back to childhood innocence also became popular, and this song went all in on that respect. It has gone a bit too far in that respect, but at the time, audiences didn’t care, as it did quite well in the charts.
Tony Orlando & Dawn - “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree” (1973)
The early to mid seventies was the time when the term country pop seems to have been coined, presenting both its interesting side (Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”) and its corny side, so well (?) presented in this supposed ditty of a song that you couldn’t escape tuning into any random radio station at the time. As annoying as it was then.
Ray Stevens - “The Streak” (1974)
In his prime, Ray Stevens was considered a good songwriter, but with a penchant for novelty-style (read: dumb) lyrics, all on show here, with a song that made it to No. 1. It seems streaking was quite popular fad those days, but what is funny here, doesn’t seem to be, particularly these days.
Paper Lace - “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero” (1974)
Anti-war songs were big at the time, and most of them deserved the recognition they got, particularly if they had substantive lyrics. Yet this one doesn’t reach that level, which still didn’t prevent it from getting high in the charts, possibly due to its poppy tune.
John Travolta - “Let Her In” (1976)
Travolta is a good to great actor, but his singing attempts weren’t even able to reach the average level. And when you give him a sappy ballad like this one, his limitations as a singer come to the fore. Yet, his popularity was at its prime when this one came out, so it reached No. 10 nonetheless.
Barbra Streisand - “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” (1978)
Barbra Streisand fans seem to love her melodramatic side, but this duet with Neil Diamond was over the top in that department, even by her standards. It is a big question whether she herself is able to listen to this one these days.