WWTBAM Bored

Time for some more musical memories from my archives!

Tonight begins our first look at the Smokin' Seventies. As I mentioned in the intro back in December, the 1970s will be split into two lists: early '70s and late '70s. This week and the next seven weeks will be dedicated to my favorite songs between January 1970 and December 1974. A total of 82 songs will be featured in this section, which is almost exactly one-sixth of my entire Fantastic 500. That's a lot of real estate to cover, so let's not mess about any longer. On with the countdown!

#82. City of New Orleans, Arlo Guthrie (1971)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEe9DF_mUEI

#81. Changes, David Bowie (1972)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl3vxEudif8

#80. Our House, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1970)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq2X60XP5cM

#79. Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again, the Fortunes (1971)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO1LbkuPfqo

#78. Smackwater Jack, Carole King (1971)

This is the B-side to one of Carole's signature songs, "So Far Away". The A-side nearly made it onto my list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32G_bZU0VIA

#77. Put Your Hand in the Hand, Ocean (1971)

This Canadian gospel song was first recorded by Anne Murray, but this one-hit rock band took it all the way up to #2 on the Hot 100.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulh5Y71Qwk0

#76. Heaven Help Us All, Stevie Wonder (1970)

If you're keeping score, Stevie is the second act to appear twice on my Fantastic 500 so far. And if you're hoping that Stevie will appear a few more times in this series, then I can tell you that you won't be disappointed. I'm not going to tell you how many times, but we will be hearing from him again soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmkFt2HSkao

#75. Lookin' Out My Back Door, Creedence Clearwater Revival (1970)

Ah, yes... the unmistakable vocals of John Fogerty. We'll be hearing from him a few times in this series, as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aae_RHRptRg

#74. Another Saturday Night, Cat Stevens (1974)

Sam Cooke's version didn't quite make my list, unfortunately, but the song belongs in my Top 500 regardless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvTVnX5PiVQ

#73. Why Can't We Live Together, Timmy Thomas (1973)

I love the 90-second instrumental intro of this song. Hard to believe this song was recorded entirely in mono--one of the last songs not to be recorded in stereo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYx2uZRlJCk

That's only scratching the surface of the 1970s. Many more groovy hits to come next Friday!

Like most of these songs to varying degrees, with the exception of the last one. That organ reminded me too much of the old guy in the mall music store demonstrating his keyboards for sale. I also felt the same about that organ in The Beatles' "Mr. Moonlight", which, apart from the easy choices of "Revolution 9" and some of those 30/60 second snippets of tunes, is probably my LEAST favorite Beatles song (after Lennon's opening vocal run, the song spirals into tremendous yuckiness).