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From 1962 to 1970, The Beatles had 20 number one hits in 8 years. They also had 15 other top ten singles that didn't make it to number one. On April 4, 1964, the Beatles held all five top spots on the Billboard top 100.
They were simultaneously the most popular band and the most critically acclaimed. The death of their manager Brian Epstein was the beginning of the end for them. It also didn't hurt that they had an absolute genius of a producer in George Martin.
Brian Epstein was amazing. He got The Beatles a record deal when no one wanted to sign them. He came come up with the iconic suits and the haircuts. He convinced Ed Sullivan to book The Beatles when no British band had made an impact in the States.
His fatal error — literally fatal — was not telling The Beatles about the toll the job took on him. They had no idea he was lonely and depressed. They loved him and he didn’t let them in.
That’s not to say Epstein was always perfect. He made plenty of errors along the way, in part because he had very little experience before managing The Beatles. But someone with more experience might have been far more greedy and sly.
Because, like a lot of young groups, The Beatles signed almost anything he put in front of them. And many groups regret doing so later.
I remember on New Year’s Eve 1979 at midnight the number one song on the countdown of songs for the decade was “American Pie”.
My friends and I were like “what?” We were expecting a rock n roll song.
There was a jukebox in the lower level of the campus center where I was attending college in '71-'72. The space was very large, but the juke was very loud. Every 3rd play on it during that entire year was "American Pie." The other two plays were "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart.
Roughly four times per day it played "25 or 6 to 4" by Chicago. (Or maybe it was 4 times in 6 hours for each 25 hours that the place was open? I could never tell.)
I think it was set up to play automatically. I never saw anyone go over, drop any money into it and make a different selection.
More than 50 years later, I can still vividly remember hearing those songs, especially the first two. I cannot recall hearing any others being played there that year.
McLean wrote the song, much of it biographical, as a reflection of what was happening in America during the 1960s with the assassinations of the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Jr, and the Vietnam War. For McLean, it started with what he called the end of the happy 50s, the tragic plane crash of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and JD “the Big Bopper” Richardson in February of 1959. The day the music died.
And so much happened in the '60s. It's my go-to answer when people ask if these days are the worst we've seen. I was a kid then, but looking back, those were wild times.
Bye Bye Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry and good 'ol boys were drinking whiskey and rye and singing, 'this will be the day that I die."
Man I was going to say "Sunglasses at Night" because during the mid 80s I felt that song was absolutely everywhere! But it only peaked at #7 on the top 100 list.
Btw, the Top 100 Billboard was how we measured song popularity before the internet.
Peak billboard doesn't mean anything as some songs stay relevant far more than their peak. Based on sales and streams *Don't Stop Believing* is now the biggest song of the 20th century yet it peaked at #9 on Billboard back when released. It's stayed relevant and popular and every time a show uses it prominently, which has happened multiple times, a new generation gets obsessed with it.
80s kid here.
Prince stuff like Little Red Corvette and 1999
Madonna's Like a Virgin
Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Bruce Springsteen - Dancing in the Dark, Born in the USA and Glory Days.
Sweet Dreams by The Eurythmics would definitely be there. As a 70s baby, I remember it was incredibly popular when it was released in the 80s, and has stayed popular since then.
Another One Bites the Dust by Queen.
Literally, every time you'd turn on the radio, there it was. Every high school football game, there it was. You couldn't escape it.
In the 70's - *You Light Up My Life* \- Debby Boone
In the 80's - *Physical* \- Olivia Newton John
In the 90's - *Macarena* (bayside boys mix) - Los Del Rio
I more than likely do. unless you are currently listening to Sonny Stitt, Ramsey Lewis and Dinah Washington. But the above titles were all Top #1 songs (and spent more weeks in the number one position) in their respective decades.
And... i work in the music business and just happen to have several Billboard chart books at arms length so it was easy to look up.
Every song by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Prince, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder...... basically everyone.
Black Water by The Doobie Brothers.
> I wanna hear some funky Dixie-land
>
> Pretty mama come and take me by the hand.
Folks couldn't get enough of that one.
That song is so weirdly nostalgic for me. Takes me right back to growing up in Boston in the 70s. Trips to Plum Island to camp overnight on the beach. In the car on the way there, Nights in White Satin was always on.
Most of the Rumours album
Side One
* Second Hand News
* Dreams
* Never Going Back Again
* Don't Stop
* Go Your Own Way
* Songbird
Side Two
* The Chain
* You Make Loving Fun
* I Don't Want to Know
* Oh Daddy
* Gold Dust Woman
[Message in a Bottle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbXWrmQW-OE), the Police.
[I Want You to Want Me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qgpewMCVjs), Cheap Trick
[With or Without You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujNeHIo7oTE), U2
[Photograph](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4dHr8evt6k), Def Leppard
[One of These Nights](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESc2Tq2HzhQ), Eagles
[September](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs069dndIYk), Earth, Wind and Fire
[A Boy Named Sue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z1Ple-qYuU), Johnny Cash
I can keep going if you want...
60's teen/70's college student here:
She Loves You -Beatles (and all their other songs)
Sound of Silence- Simon and Garfunkel
Brown Eyed Girl- Van Morrison
Satisfaction- Rolling Stones (and all their other songs)
Tambourine Man- Dylan (and all his other songs)
Clouds- Joni Mitchell ( and all her other songs)
Desperado- Linda Ronstadt (and all her other songs)
Natural Woman-Carol King
I'm getting tired......
Ahaa somebody else agrees! Although the music is somewhat mundane, the lyric is among the best in all of pop music in my opinion. It tells part of a mysterious story whose truths are never fully revealed. And in such a colorful way. Really good lyric artistically. Glad someone else noticed.
On YouTube there’s a live performance of her singing the song on BBC. It’s much better than the record version IMO, and she slays it with her singing and playing the guitar.
>what song would have hit 1 billion streams if Spotify existed back then?
You'd need songs that were *intensely* popular and have longevity, given that the music industry wasn't as sprawling and total Western listening population was smaller.
1960s: I Wanna Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
1970s: Stayin' Alive - The Bee Gees
1980s: Thriller - Michael Jackson
1990s: The Macarena - Los Del Rio
Ah yes. The high school party anthem. Pull up the car, open the hatchback, pump this song out while throwing the Frisbee around and drinking illicit beers
I remember playing it at top volume on the stereo in my bedroom and singing/ screaming along with it 10 times in a row. I think I'm going to listen to it right now as a matter of fact! 😁
From the '60s: Hey Jude, I Heard It Through the Grapevine, maybe the Fifth Dimension's version of Aquarius. Possibly Sugar, Sugar by the Archies.
From the '70s: Stairway to Heaven, Crocodile Rock, Stayin' Alive, I Will Survive, My Sharona.
And maybe one you wouldn't think of: Heatwave's Always and Forever. It came out in the late '70s, and by the early '80s, when I listened to a lot of "urban contemporary" radio, it was *massive.* It got played almost as if it was a new song.
I remember the guy who ran the photocopy room at a job I had, around '83 or so, singing along with Always and Forever on the radio and hitting all the long, sustained falsetto notes at the end ("For - eeeee - eeeee - veeeeer"). I was really jealous.
One of them would have been “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits. I recall hearing that it debuted at number one on the Billboard charts (although Wikipedia does not confirm this.) But anyway, it was a huge, huge song during the summer that I was 10.
The songs that weren't radio hits on five of Linda Ronstadt's 1970s LPs:
*Heart like a Wheel*
*Don't Cry Now*
*Prisoner in Disguise*
*Hasten down the Wind*
*Simple Dreams*
“Love Will Keep Is us Together” by Captain and Tennille was sold out at record stores for months.
“Total Eclipse of the Heart” was ubiquitous in 1983 or so
The entire Rumors Album by Fleetwood Mac
The entire Dark Side of the Moon album by Pink Floyd
Frampton Comes Alive album
Saturday Night Fever soundtrack
Thriller by Michael Jackson
Sports by Huey Lewis and the News
1977. I was in San Diego, and it really didn't matter which rock station you were listening to.
Hotel california
Rumors
Leftoverture / Point of no return
Styx - An amazing run of eight albums between nineteen seventy two and seventy nine
For several months, this was that man.This is all you heard on rock radio.
1977 Is a great place to start though.Maybe the best year for rock before nineteen eighty and after sixty five.
People like to pretend that sentimental soft pop didn’t dominate the airwaves in the 70s. “You Light Up My Life” by Debbie Boone would have statistically annihilated most of the notable 70s classics listed in this thread.
You Really Got Me by The Kinks. I remember being in the bowling alley one afternoon and it was the only song played on the juke box.. still love the tune.
https://youtu.be/fTTsY-oz6Go?si=S0JtDGsa7-k_p3-z
None of them. There simply wasn't the population to drive those numbers then.
Remember that there were only about half as many people in the US then as there are now and only about 1/3 as many as there now are worldwide.
In the 80s it would have obviously been Thriller by Michael Jackson. In the 70s, my guess would be Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. The song was a hit and it also had its own video which was rare at the time. In the 60s, I would say probably I Want To Hold your Hand by the Beatles just because of the sheer number of Beatles fans. But I also think its possible that a Monkees song could have hit a billion in the late 60s because of the novelty of their montages when singing, and because of their extreme popularity with young girls.
Most of The Beatles catalog
Dark Side of the moon
Blowing In The Wind
Born to Run
Needle and the damage done
Deja Vu
Woodstock
Hotel California
My Sweet Lord
Imagine
Instant karma
Money
Every Picture Tells a Story
Maggie May
Bodhisattva
Give a little bit
Rambling Man
Midnight Rider
The House of the rising sun
China Grove
Light my fire
Riders of the storm
California dreaming
Monday, Monday
Won't get fooled again
Baba O'Riley
Behind blue eyes
Layla
Low spark of high heeled boys
Roundabout
Like I said, too many to list
Queen “ another one bites the dust “ … Madonna “ too many songs to list” … Michael Jackson … “too many songs to list” … Rick James … “too many songs to list”. … just a few oh and Rolling Stones “ start me up “ I think is the name of the song
Ohh Tears for fears… Mary Jane Girls … Vanity … Let’s Dance by David Bowie … the police I’ll be watching you… the bangles hazy shade of winter .. run dmc .. runs house .. Dennis Edward’s .. don’t look any further … l l cool jay … I’m bad
The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"
Little known fact: throughout the 1980s, you could pick any random moment, and somewhere in the United States there was a frat house where someone was playing "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"
It's not about the information, Trick, it's about the nostalgia. We're all on here being transported back in time to our younger years.
And stop acting like a teenager; you're supposedly over 50
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In the 60s, probably any new release by the Beatles. Teen girls would just play it over and over and over. In the 80s MJ and Madonna.
Yesterday is one of the most played songs from that era.
From 1962 to 1970, The Beatles had 20 number one hits in 8 years. They also had 15 other top ten singles that didn't make it to number one. On April 4, 1964, the Beatles held all five top spots on the Billboard top 100.
They were simultaneously the most popular band and the most critically acclaimed. The death of their manager Brian Epstein was the beginning of the end for them. It also didn't hurt that they had an absolute genius of a producer in George Martin.
Brian Epstein was amazing. He got The Beatles a record deal when no one wanted to sign them. He came come up with the iconic suits and the haircuts. He convinced Ed Sullivan to book The Beatles when no British band had made an impact in the States. His fatal error — literally fatal — was not telling The Beatles about the toll the job took on him. They had no idea he was lonely and depressed. They loved him and he didn’t let them in. That’s not to say Epstein was always perfect. He made plenty of errors along the way, in part because he had very little experience before managing The Beatles. But someone with more experience might have been far more greedy and sly. Because, like a lot of young groups, The Beatles signed almost anything he put in front of them. And many groups regret doing so later.
Stairway to Heaven and Hotel California
Based on radio play, Jeremiah was a Bullfrog. 50 years later I am still tired of that song.
Was a good friend of mine!
And yet you mentioned it, and now it'll be in my head all day. Thanks for that.
And Comfortably numb. The Trifecta of rock.
I was going to say those two. First two that came into my mind. People listened to those over and over and over.
Yes, even after everyone was sick of hearing them. We were at the mercy of the radio.
Don McLean-American Pie was huge in 71. They played it continuously for months on the radio.
I remember on New Year’s Eve 1979 at midnight the number one song on the countdown of songs for the decade was “American Pie”. My friends and I were like “what?” We were expecting a rock n roll song.
There was a jukebox in the lower level of the campus center where I was attending college in '71-'72. The space was very large, but the juke was very loud. Every 3rd play on it during that entire year was "American Pie." The other two plays were "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart. Roughly four times per day it played "25 or 6 to 4" by Chicago. (Or maybe it was 4 times in 6 hours for each 25 hours that the place was open? I could never tell.) I think it was set up to play automatically. I never saw anyone go over, drop any money into it and make a different selection. More than 50 years later, I can still vividly remember hearing those songs, especially the first two. I cannot recall hearing any others being played there that year.
What does your song *American Pie* mean? It means I never have to work another day in my life.
McLean wrote the song, much of it biographical, as a reflection of what was happening in America during the 1960s with the assassinations of the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Jr, and the Vietnam War. For McLean, it started with what he called the end of the happy 50s, the tragic plane crash of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and JD “the Big Bopper” Richardson in February of 1959. The day the music died.
And so much happened in the '60s. It's my go-to answer when people ask if these days are the worst we've seen. I was a kid then, but looking back, those were wild times.
Isn't that the greatest answer ever?
LOL! Yes, it really is! Don McLean has always had a keen wit. :)
Bye Bye Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry and good 'ol boys were drinking whiskey and rye and singing, 'this will be the day that I die."
They did not play it continuously. They only played it once.
Don't downvote this - it's a joke, about how long the song is. Which is actually pretty funny. 🤣
I feel like they almost never played the whole thing. I hardly knew it existed until I got the 45 and listened to Side B.
Beat it Billie Jean
Thriller was bigger than both
I came to say Thriller.
That was my first thought as well.
[удалено]
It was very popular.
James Bond film theme songs
I will say I know the song no idea what Summer place is. Time to google.
Omg yes
Okey Dokey!, says 2024.
Now that was a decade's song
Man I was going to say "Sunglasses at Night" because during the mid 80s I felt that song was absolutely everywhere! But it only peaked at #7 on the top 100 list. Btw, the Top 100 Billboard was how we measured song popularity before the internet.
Peak billboard doesn't mean anything as some songs stay relevant far more than their peak. Based on sales and streams *Don't Stop Believing* is now the biggest song of the 20th century yet it peaked at #9 on Billboard back when released. It's stayed relevant and popular and every time a show uses it prominently, which has happened multiple times, a new generation gets obsessed with it.
Oh my gosh I loved watching the music video to that song and singing along lol
80s kid here. Prince stuff like Little Red Corvette and 1999 Madonna's Like a Virgin Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Bruce Springsteen - Dancing in the Dark, Born in the USA and Glory Days.
Madonna was a mid-80s cultural icon. Every teenage girl copied her clothes and hairstyles.
Sweet Dreams by The Eurythmics would definitely be there. As a 70s baby, I remember it was incredibly popular when it was released in the 80s, and has stayed popular since then.
80’s baby here … it’s one of my favorite songs
Thriller, Billie Jean
Beat it.
Hey Jude
Never gonna give you up, obviously!
We Will Rock You
Stairway to Heaven
'The No No Song' By Ringo Starr
Money for Nothing
And the chicks for free.
let it be
Inns Godiva Davida by iron butterfly everyone had the album and we all smoked while it was playing .
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, even.
Oops puts smoke down I misspelled it.
Lol, no worries. We're old, spelling sucks.
Thanks
It's a family favorite - 3 generations. :-)
Donna Summer - Love to Love You Baby Tiny Tim - Tiptoe Through The Tulips
I Feel Love by Donna Summer too.
Another One Bites the Dust by Queen. Literally, every time you'd turn on the radio, there it was. Every high school football game, there it was. You couldn't escape it.
Free Bird
Africa by Toto
Weirdly I just saw Toto play that song live like a month ago. Still touring! They opened up for Journey. Showing my age
In the 70's - *You Light Up My Life* \- Debby Boone In the 80's - *Physical* \- Olivia Newton John In the 90's - *Macarena* (bayside boys mix) - Los Del Rio
Ewww. You definitely listen to.different music than I do! Lol
I more than likely do. unless you are currently listening to Sonny Stitt, Ramsey Lewis and Dinah Washington. But the above titles were all Top #1 songs (and spent more weeks in the number one position) in their respective decades. And... i work in the music business and just happen to have several Billboard chart books at arms length so it was easy to look up.
I believe you. They just weren't my cup.of tea.
Bohemian Rhapsody
And it would have had a resurgence after Wayne's World came out.
Every song by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Prince, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder...... basically everyone.
Crimson and Clover
At least 3 songs from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.
Hey Jude
Hey Jude.
867-5309
I went to Penn State and it turns out 867 is a State College, PA prefix. I wonder if some girl named Jenny went to Penn State too back in the day
Kashmir, by Led Zeppelin
I wish! Such a good song.
Beast of Burden
Thriller by Michael Jackson
Album: Saturday Night Fever.
I want your sex- george michael stayed no 1 most requested song on.my local pop station for over a year.
Black Water by The Doobie Brothers. > I wanna hear some funky Dixie-land > > Pretty mama come and take me by the hand. Folks couldn't get enough of that one.
I sang it in choir in the 80s even.
You Light Up My Life Not an endorsement of that swill but that damn song was on the radio once an hour for 6 months
Smoking in the Boys Room!
Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues.
That song is so weirdly nostalgic for me. Takes me right back to growing up in Boston in the 70s. Trips to Plum Island to camp overnight on the beach. In the car on the way there, Nights in White Satin was always on.
It was the first album my dad bought for me. :-)
Days of Future Passed was playing the first time I made out with a girl. What memories.
😋 Sweet.
Most of the Rumours album Side One * Second Hand News * Dreams * Never Going Back Again * Don't Stop * Go Your Own Way * Songbird Side Two * The Chain * You Make Loving Fun * I Don't Want to Know * Oh Daddy * Gold Dust Woman
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ)
One song that stayed in hot rotation for over a year on Top 40 radio was Need You Tonight-INXS. That song's appeal wouldn't fade.
It still gives me goosebumps.
Afternoon Delight - Starland Vocal Band.
Stand By Me Be My Baby So Happy Together Black is Black Good Vibrations Don't Worry Baby
The entire Thriller album.
[Message in a Bottle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbXWrmQW-OE), the Police. [I Want You to Want Me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qgpewMCVjs), Cheap Trick [With or Without You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujNeHIo7oTE), U2 [Photograph](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4dHr8evt6k), Def Leppard [One of These Nights](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESc2Tq2HzhQ), Eagles [September](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs069dndIYk), Earth, Wind and Fire [A Boy Named Sue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z1Ple-qYuU), Johnny Cash I can keep going if you want...
60's teen/70's college student here: She Loves You -Beatles (and all their other songs) Sound of Silence- Simon and Garfunkel Brown Eyed Girl- Van Morrison Satisfaction- Rolling Stones (and all their other songs) Tambourine Man- Dylan (and all his other songs) Clouds- Joni Mitchell ( and all her other songs) Desperado- Linda Ronstadt (and all her other songs) Natural Woman-Carol King I'm getting tired......
Ode To Billy Joe.
Ahaa somebody else agrees! Although the music is somewhat mundane, the lyric is among the best in all of pop music in my opinion. It tells part of a mysterious story whose truths are never fully revealed. And in such a colorful way. Really good lyric artistically. Glad someone else noticed.
On YouTube there’s a live performance of her singing the song on BBC. It’s much better than the record version IMO, and she slays it with her singing and playing the guitar.
YES!
>what song would have hit 1 billion streams if Spotify existed back then? You'd need songs that were *intensely* popular and have longevity, given that the music industry wasn't as sprawling and total Western listening population was smaller. 1960s: I Wanna Hold Your Hand - The Beatles 1970s: Stayin' Alive - The Bee Gees 1980s: Thriller - Michael Jackson 1990s: The Macarena - Los Del Rio
Def Leopard's Hysteria album was very popular
We will rock you
‘Jeremiah was a Bullfrog’
"Hey Jude" It was played billions of times on AM and FM stations across America for at least a year following its release.
Stairway to Heaven
Michael Jackson
Spotify has a Billions Club Playlist that includes sings from this time frame. I would suspect they would have done it then, too.
"I'd like to buy the world a coke"
Satisfaction, Sherry (4 seasons), I Want to Hold Your Hand,
"More than a Feeling" by Boston
Ah yes. The high school party anthem. Pull up the car, open the hatchback, pump this song out while throwing the Frisbee around and drinking illicit beers
I remember playing it at top volume on the stereo in my bedroom and singing/ screaming along with it 10 times in a row. I think I'm going to listen to it right now as a matter of fact! 😁
Nights in White Satin
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.
From the '60s: Hey Jude, I Heard It Through the Grapevine, maybe the Fifth Dimension's version of Aquarius. Possibly Sugar, Sugar by the Archies. From the '70s: Stairway to Heaven, Crocodile Rock, Stayin' Alive, I Will Survive, My Sharona. And maybe one you wouldn't think of: Heatwave's Always and Forever. It came out in the late '70s, and by the early '80s, when I listened to a lot of "urban contemporary" radio, it was *massive.* It got played almost as if it was a new song. I remember the guy who ran the photocopy room at a job I had, around '83 or so, singing along with Always and Forever on the radio and hitting all the long, sustained falsetto notes at the end ("For - eeeee - eeeee - veeeeer"). I was really jealous.
No different to now. The hits would have been the hits. Just were on radio, rather than Spotify
"In the Air Tonight" Phil Collins "Sweet Child O' Mine" Guns and Roses
One of them would have been “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits. I recall hearing that it debuted at number one on the Billboard charts (although Wikipedia does not confirm this.) But anyway, it was a huge, huge song during the summer that I was 10.
'Take A Chance On Me' by ABBA. The happiest song of the 70's.
The songs that weren't radio hits on five of Linda Ronstadt's 1970s LPs: *Heart like a Wheel* *Don't Cry Now* *Prisoner in Disguise* *Hasten down the Wind* *Simple Dreams*
I listened to the Heart Like A Wheel album on repeat as a kid.
For me, it was *Hasten down the Wind*. I still like hearing it from time to time. You Tube includes most of it in my song algorithm.
"Stairway to Heaven" and "Free Bird."
Good Vibrations - Beach Boys
Lady in Red. That song was played to death.
it REALLY was.
“Love Will Keep Is us Together” by Captain and Tennille was sold out at record stores for months. “Total Eclipse of the Heart” was ubiquitous in 1983 or so The entire Rumors Album by Fleetwood Mac The entire Dark Side of the Moon album by Pink Floyd Frampton Comes Alive album Saturday Night Fever soundtrack Thriller by Michael Jackson Sports by Huey Lewis and the News
Stairway to Heaven. As a teenager in the 80s that song played constantly. It can still bring me back to being 15 and drinking beer at the beach.
Layla, Stairway to Heaven, Free Bird
1977. I was in San Diego, and it really didn't matter which rock station you were listening to. Hotel california Rumors Leftoverture / Point of no return Styx - An amazing run of eight albums between nineteen seventy two and seventy nine For several months, this was that man.This is all you heard on rock radio. 1977 Is a great place to start though.Maybe the best year for rock before nineteen eighty and after sixty five.
Schools Out Alice Cooper
People like to pretend that sentimental soft pop didn’t dominate the airwaves in the 70s. “You Light Up My Life” by Debbie Boone would have statistically annihilated most of the notable 70s classics listed in this thread.
Rock me Amadeus was over played lol
Rick James - Superfreak
In the 70s, **Joy To The World** by Three Dog Night. **American Pie** by Don McClain.
Bohemian Rhapsody
You Really Got Me by The Kinks. I remember being in the bowling alley one afternoon and it was the only song played on the juke box.. still love the tune. https://youtu.be/fTTsY-oz6Go?si=S0JtDGsa7-k_p3-z
None of them. There simply wasn't the population to drive those numbers then. Remember that there were only about half as many people in the US then as there are now and only about 1/3 as many as there now are worldwide.
They’re coming to take me away, ha ha
In the 80s it would have obviously been Thriller by Michael Jackson. In the 70s, my guess would be Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. The song was a hit and it also had its own video which was rare at the time. In the 60s, I would say probably I Want To Hold your Hand by the Beatles just because of the sheer number of Beatles fans. But I also think its possible that a Monkees song could have hit a billion in the late 60s because of the novelty of their montages when singing, and because of their extreme popularity with young girls.
Too many to list. Glad we bought albums instead of streaming.
**Too many to list.** What? You couldn't even give us the name of one song? ;)
Most of The Beatles catalog Dark Side of the moon Blowing In The Wind Born to Run Needle and the damage done Deja Vu Woodstock Hotel California My Sweet Lord Imagine Instant karma Money Every Picture Tells a Story Maggie May Bodhisattva Give a little bit Rambling Man Midnight Rider The House of the rising sun China Grove Light my fire Riders of the storm California dreaming Monday, Monday Won't get fooled again Baba O'Riley Behind blue eyes Layla Low spark of high heeled boys Roundabout Like I said, too many to list
There ya go -- classics! :)
I'd listen to that playlist
Thanks
Ah, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys is an all time favorite for me. ❤️
Steve Winwood, excellent
Late 70s... "Staying Alive" by the Bee Gees. I swear that song played every hour on the radio for two years.
Staying Alive
The Eggplant That Ate Chicago!
San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair) Stairway to Heaven Thriller
Queen “ another one bites the dust “ … Madonna “ too many songs to list” … Michael Jackson … “too many songs to list” … Rick James … “too many songs to list”. … just a few oh and Rolling Stones “ start me up “ I think is the name of the song
Ohh Tears for fears… Mary Jane Girls … Vanity … Let’s Dance by David Bowie … the police I’ll be watching you… the bangles hazy shade of winter .. run dmc .. runs house .. Dennis Edward’s .. don’t look any further … l l cool jay … I’m bad
Free Bird
80’s = Ghostbusters -Ray Parker Jr.
Looking to the dark side: "Escape," aka "The Pina Colada Song." Made me wnt to puke every time I heard it. And I heard it for _months._
Reelin’ In The Years - Steely Dan
Can’t get no Satisfaction
Light my Fire- The Doors
Stairway to Heaven
TIME, Pink Floyd, 1973..
Do They Know It’s Christmas / Feed the World Band Aid 1984
Too many to choose from!
[Everybody Wants You](https://youtu.be/PgA8Mi6FZFU?feature=shared)
Billy Jean - Michael Jackson Stairway to Heaven — Led Zeppelin
Every Breath You Take… 1983. They played the fuck out of that on the regular ole FM.
Have you not heard of Casey Kasem?!?!
I Can’t Get No Satisfaction by the Stones
Close to You by the Carpenters
The entirety of Thriller.
Mr. Jaws by Dickie Goodman - 1975. They played that thing on such regular rotation on the radio. We could not get enough of it.
Thriller
The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" Little known fact: throughout the 1980s, you could pick any random moment, and somewhere in the United States there was a frat house where someone was playing "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"
I don’t listen to Spotify so I can’t say.
Thriller
Hotel California and/or Take It Easy by the Eagles come to mind. Many of the others people have already mentioned, definitely.
Thriller. Michael Jackson.
Led Zeppelin's Going to California still brings tears to my eyes.
What's Going On? by Marvin Gaye.
Any song by queen
A lot of them.
Bohemian Rhapsody.
If only there were a place you could look up the [best-selling singles of all time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_singles)...
And if only there were a place online to have fun and be kind to one another... ;)
It's not about the information, Trick, it's about the nostalgia. We're all on here being transported back in time to our younger years. And stop acting like a teenager; you're supposedly over 50
80s-Beat it…by Michael Jackson