Ranking each year of music in the 1970s from worst to best

1972 (63 points)

1. First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
2. Alone Again (Naturally)
3. American Pie
4. Without You
5. The Candy Man
6. I Gotcha
7. Lean On Me
8. Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me
9. Brand New Key
10. Daddy Don’t Walk So Fast

1972 had the most top-tier songs (score of 8 and above) of any year on my list. But they couldn’t overcome several weaker entries. The only truly awful song came in at number ten – Wayne Newton's treacly piano ballad “Daddy Don’t Walk So Fast.” By the trick of some smirking music god, it finished one spot ahead of Al Green’s magnificent “Let’s Stay Together,” which was number eleven for the year.

Had the two spots been reversed, 1972 would have actually tied for the top spot in this survey rather than settling for the silver medal. The two songs at the top of the year are OK - sweet, sentimental tunes – radically different from each other but scoring about the same to my ear. After them, there is an embarrassment of musical riches from Don McLean’s epic narrative to Harry Nilsson’s epic orchestration and, finally, Bill Withers’ epic voice. You also get the best James Brown not performed by James Brown in Joe Tex’s “I Gotcha” and Melanie’s proto-emo pop gem “Brand New Key.”

1970 (70 points)

1. Brid ge Over Troubled Waters
2. Close To You
3. American Woman
4. Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head
5. War
6. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
7. I’ll Be There
8. Get Ready
9. Let It Be
10. Band of Gold

The greatest year in the decade for major hits was the first year of the decade. That’s not surprising in hindsight. Rock & Roll was still fresh, as represented by one of the few pure rock songs to appear in this piece, “American Woman.” A second rocker, Rare Earth’s “Get Ready,” was a bit of an odd duck – the 20-plus minute free jam was trimmed to a radio-friendly 2:52 with supplemental crowd noise blended in. Awkward but reasonably effective.

You also get some of the biggest acts in the history of modern music – the Beatles, Diana Ross, the Jackson 5 – all turning in very good efforts. You get the best tenth-place song of any year by a wide margin. Freda Payne’s “Band of Gold” sounds as good today as it did in 1970. Even the weaker numbers, soft rockers from B.J. Thomas and the Carpenters deliver the goods without getting overly sappy or maudlin. And it is all anchored by Simon & Garfunkel’s soaring chart-topper, “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” Yep, 1970 was a good year for pop.

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