Five fantastic 1970s songs with fascinating backstories

Free - “All Right Now”

What a banger this song is. An absolute classic from the 1970s band Free. With its easily identifiable guitar riffs, stomping sound, and singalong chorus line you'd imagine it took a lot of time and hard work to create. 

It turns out that the song took around 15 minutes to write just after a bad gig in front of only 30 or so disinterested people in Durham. The band hadn't played well and were feeling down. Bass player Andy Fraser started to try and change the mood singing about being all right now and playing a tune on a piano. 

Paul Kossoff converted that tune to guitar chords and the song was almost done. Lead singer Paul Rodgers wrote the full lyrics the next day while he was waiting on a lift to the next gig. Fraser and the band thought it was a fun throwaway tune until Island Right cords boss Chris Blackwell insisted on releasing it as the band’s second single.

“All Right Now” was released in May 1970, shortly before Free’s third album Fire And Water. The single shot to number two in the UK charts, and four on the Billboard 100. That album became their best seller and hit number two in the UK and 17 in the US charts, boosted by the single's success. All from that simple beginning after a rubbish gig. 

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