20 essential hard rock classic songs from the 1970s

I grew up in the 1970s. The radio was always on – AM early in the decade and FM by the end. I pedaled my bike to the record store to buy 45s, and then when I was old enough, drove my car to the same store to buy albums. If rock & roll was spawned in the ‘50s, and exploded into rebellious adolescence in the ‘60s, the ‘70s was when it hit full maturity – and then began its long, slow slide into middle-aged spread. It was the best of times and the beginning of the worst of times.

Rock & roll was not going to vanish. Neil Young declared it in 1978. “Hey hey, my my – Rock and roll will never die.” But it was going to change. That seems unavoidable. I thought it might be fun to trace that rise and shift through a selection of crucial songs from the decade, and I thought to do it as I have before, by looking at a broad cross-section of pop music that has stood the test of time.

But it’s too big for me. Too many songs mean too much to me. So today, we’ll keep it simple. We’ll look at rock. Basic hard rock. Even doing that will lead to some variation. There was classic, guitar-based blues rock and more progressive rock. There were folk influences and dance influences and other influences too numerous to name.

20 hard rock classics from the 1970s that still makes for essential listening today

Maybe at another time, we can take a closer look at those types of songs. For today, there will be a smattering of hybrids – an arty song here, a folky song there. But it's mostly just hard rock today.

Rock & roll flourished in the first part of the 1970s. If a few of the seminal influences – the Beatles, and Velvet Underground – had broken up, the seeds were entrenched. New bands from the UK were arriving to join the veterans, and in the USA, a different brand of hard rock was emerging. It did not completely shun the blues roots, but it came out of the heartland with a big sound that tipped a hat toward pop and folk roots while still playing loud and fast.

By the end of the decade, the bloom was coming off the rose as big stadium concert sounds ready-made for FM airplay sterilized some of the original grit. That would invariably lead to a pushback in new forms.

But the entire decade, from beginning to end, yielded a treasure trove of classics.

“Lola” by the Kinks (1970)

Ray Davies had been simultaneously inventing punk and reclaiming old musical hall traditions throughout the 1960s. He hit the new decade by jamming them together as only he could, in a song about an innocent young man’s encounter with an alluring creature “who walked like a woman and talked like a man.”

“Paranoid” by Black Sabbath (1970)

The Boys from Birmingham had the driving bass of Geezer Butler, the unstoppable riffs of Tommy Iommi, and the heaven-sanctioned voice of all things metal in Ozzy Osborne. From their second album, which also contained core metal numbers “War Pigs” and “Iron Man.”

“I’d Love to Change the World” by Ten Years After (1971)

There will always be a place in rock & roll for someone who can shred on blues guitar at lightning speed while still maintaining melodic and tonal perfection. That’s just what Alvin Lee does on this bluesy/spacey hit. Some thought they were going more pop after the riotous “I’m Going Home” from Woodstock launched TYA in the USA. I know and love pop. This ain’t it.

“Crash Course in Brain Surgery” by Budgie (1971)

In a just universe, the foundational metal trio from Cardiff would have a place alongside Metallica, who covered this song on the Garage Inc. album in 1998. Metallica’s version is heavier. Budgie’s original, with Burke Shelley’s squealing tenor and bludgeoning bass, is better.

“Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin (1971)

Nobody was quite sure how the greatest female blues singer of the day would perform a folk rock song written by outlaw country forefather Kris Kristofferson. Country singer Roger Miller had a decent hit with it on the country charts in 1969. As it turns out, the Full Tilt Boogie Band sent guitar, piano, and organ swirling around Joplin’s astonishing vocals and the record soared to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Joplin didn’t live to see it. She died three months before the release.

“Highway Star” by Deep Purple (1972)

The planets aligned for Machine Head. Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar and Jon Lord’s organ careened off each other while Ian Paice and Roger Glover pummeled the beat, and Ian Gillan shrieked above it all. The world’s loudest band cranked out their best collection of hard rockers, kicked off by the titanic “Highway Star.”

“Money” by Pink Floyd (1973)

Were those really cash registers that opened the song? They seamlessly blended into the famous bass line that quickly followed. Then came the guitar and the keys – and then some more of those cash registers. Riding atop it all were some of the most cynical lyrics about greed and capitalism that you could find in a rock song. They even said “bull***t” right in the middle. Throw in a cool sax solo and mirroring guitar and you began to understand that progressive rock wasn’t just for twelve-minute psychedelic exploration. It could create hit songs too.

“Over the Hills and Far Away” by Led Zeppelin (1973)

As even people stranded on remote islands for the last fifty years know, Led Zeppelin released the most famous rock song of the decade – perhaps of all time – in 1971. I suppose I could have chosen “Stairway to Heaven” in this spot. I just think this is a better song. Better acoustic opening, better hard rock middle. Maybe Stairway ends better, but I’m not even sure of that.

“Band on the Run” by Paul McCartney & Wings (1973)

McCartney scored big right out of the gates after the Beatles broke up. But after a couple of mediocre albums with his new band Wings, critics were expressing doubts. Red Rose Speedway sold well, but its only hit was “My Love,” among the weakest songs the great tunesmith had ever attached his name to.

Band on the Run, released at the end of 1973, erased that. (True, Robert Christgau didn’t like it, but he was just about the only one who didn't.) At the center of McCartney’s rediscovered blend of pop and rock was the five-minute mini-opera title track.

“It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (But I Like It)" by the Rolling Stones (1974)

The Beatles may have broken up, but the Stones weren’t going anywhere, as Mick defiantly proclaimed in 1974. This was the fulcrum that moved the Stones away from guitarist Mick Taylor to the new kid, Ronnie Wood. And it still stands as one of rock's genuine anthems.

“Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen (1975)

For those of you who keep track of such things, you may have noticed a preponderance of Brits on this list so far. That’s about to change, beginning with the man who went from being something like the fifteenth singer/songwriter to being anointed as “the next Dylan” to becoming the Boss – the king of American rock & roll for the next several decades. His first two albums had served as warnings. This song – the title track from album three – fulfilled the promise.

“Walk This Way” by Aerosmith (1975)

Some people thought they were the American Yardbirds. Others heard Zeppelin. To me and many others, it always seemed obvious that Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were Boston’s answer to the Glimmer Twins. It didn’t really matter. By the time of their third album, Toys in the Attic, which featured “Sweet Emotion” and this song, which was destined to join rock and roll and hip hop a decade later, everyone knew they were just Aerosmith.

“Crazy on You” by Heart (1976)

Like the American version of all those Zeppelin acoustic/electric hybrids, it begins with Nacy Wilson’s lively acoustic guitar before Roger Fisher delivers the simple descending riff that would become the band’s signature. Then Ann Wilson, one of the best singers in rock & roll, got to work.

“Cherry Bomb” by the Runaways (1976)

They were a little too young. They were a little too early. They were the wrong gender for a punk band in the mid-‘70s. Had they come along five years later, the Runaways would have been enormous, and “Cherry Bomb” would have been a smash. As it is, it will have to settle for being among the most elemental rockers of the decade.

“American Girl” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1976)

Tom Petty took the Byrds and punked them up just enough to create a new uniquely American rock & roll sound. He wasn’t drawing from the Stones or Zeppelin. “American Girl” was American music (even if the Brits did recognize it first.) A few years later, the song showed up in the Oscar-winning Silence of the Lambs and its position was secure.

“Because the Night” by Patti Smith (1978)

The story goes that Springsteen had a song that he couldn’t finish. He was in the middle of the tortuous Darkness on the Edge of Town sessions and his producer, Jimmy Iovine, asked if Patti Smith could take a shot at it. Bruce agreed. Patti finished writing the lyrics and showed everyone that women could rock just as hard as the boys. (As if the Wilson sisters, among others, hadn’t been doing that already.)

“Radio Radio” by Elvis Costello and the Attractions (1978)

From Costello’s second album, and his first with the Attractions. “Radio Radio” hits hard musically and hits hard lyrically. The righteous anger of a brilliant young songwriter lashing out against the arbiters of rock & roll. “I want to bite the hand that feeds me. I want to bite that hand so badly.” Costello would continue biting hands for decades to come.

“Eruption” by Van Halen (1978)

The first thing you heard on Van Halen’s debut album was “Running with the Devil.” The grinding guitar and shrieking vocals became a staple of FM radio play. Then, if that inspired you to buy the album, you got 90 seconds of the most amazing guitar-god shredding you were going to hear in 1978. Or virtually any other time. Van Halen scared the headliners they opened for back in those days because none of them could do what Eddie Van Halen could do. It only took 90 seconds to see that.

“Highway to Hell” by AC/DC (1979)

What Eddie Van Halen was to the lead guitar, AC/DC’s Malcolm Young was to the rhythm guitar. With producer Mutt Lange making the mix tighter and cleaner than ever, those riffs were the DNA of hard rock. Vocalist Bon Scott died six months after the release.

“Overkill” by Motorhead (1979)

The title track from Motorhead’s second album is pounded along by Phil Taylor’s double bass drum attack. Of course, it also has Fast Eddie's lightning guitar and Lemmy’s iconic bass and voice, but those drums simply obliterate anything and everything. The evolution of what had once simply been thought of as heavy metal into the speed and thrash metal that would make the genre among the most popular forms of music in the world.

More music news and analysis: