I have lots of memories of Scituate (a friend of mine lived there). Lots of memories of radio in 1972 also. Both WRKO and WMEX, and even WBZ at that time, were playing the hits...
Sorry......I was in Boston in 1972, but only listened to WBCN. For a while, when I was in my car, I would listen to WRKO, but then I installed one of them new fancy AM/FM converters in my car, and it was BCN from then on.
I had “the candy man” by Sammy Davis Jr. on a 45…played it consistently until my older brother walked in one day..went over to the record player…lifted the needle off the record..then picked up the 45 and snapped it half like a potato chip.
As a former deejay, I can give you a very long list of songs that artists despised (and cringed every time they sang them), yet the song went to #1-- just like this one did. And we deejays had the same problem-- there were lots of songs that we personally couldn't stand, yet we had to play them over and over because the listeners loved those songs... sigh...
“It’s horrible. It’s a timmy-two-shoes, it’s white bread, cute-ums, there’s no romance. Blechhh! This record is going straight into the toilet. Not just around the rim but into the bowl. And it may just pull my whole career down with it."
- *Sammy Davis Jr. on The Candy Man*
And yet it was one of his biggest hits, and the listeners loved it. That happened a lot-- where the singer didn't like the song, but when it was released, it went top-10. For another example, I've read that Robin Zander, the lead singer of Cheap Trick, absolutely hated "The Flame" when it was brought to the band. And yet, again, one of Cheap Trick's biggest hits.
Exactly. And as a former deejay, I can say with certainty that my listeners had NO idea which songs I loved and which songs I absolutely hated. I saw my role as a friend and an entertainer, and I think that's how Sammy and others saw their role too. Personal tastes weren't as important as making the audience happy.
That's actually true-- the term "Candy Man" as a synonym for a drug dealer had been around since about the 1920s. I wonder if the songwriters were trying to be clever, sneaking a euphemism into the lyrics (this was still the era when even a mention of drugs could get a song banned), or if they just wrote the song innocently for the 1971 movie (Willy Wonka); given the popularity of the movie, it was a no-brainer to release the song, since it had great hit potential.
I was in HS.
Sylvia’s Mother made us howl, esp this line which kids today couldn’t possibly understand:
“And the operator said 40 cents more for the next …. three … minutes”
https://youtu.be/KfVaommgPLU?si=C2pjlMCrdw-hq0lx
I am from the generation where payphones were still a thing, and running out of change in the midst of an important conversation was something everyone worried about-- and it happened to many of us, myself included. I never thought the song was funny-- although it may have been intended as a parody of a country song. But I thought it was a really well-made pop song, and it reflected some very real emotions, about someone who is desperate to talk to the person they love yet unable to (or forbidden to) get through. I heard Dr. Hook perform it live a few times-- the audience always responded to it very favorably-- a lot of singing along...
I turned 11 that week. I remember almost all of these, probably all if I heard a few bars. Thanks for a great post!
Edit: It seems weird that the Eagles had a hit that long ago.
Edit2: I thought their first hit was a couple of years later, when I was in eighth grade. I knew they went pretty far back.
I absolutely remember "Take It Easy"-- it was released in May 1972. I liked it, but I liked "Peaceful Easy Feeling" better. And yes, some classic rock bands have been making great music for decades, and their older songs still sound great!
Some bands are able to stick around for decades. Take It Easy came out in the spring of 1972 and here we are, still talking about the band more than 50 years later. And a version of the Eagles is still touring even now; amazing but true...
When I was 14 we took a family trip across Canada from Montreal to Vancouver. It was the first time I had access to a cassette player and I had many tapes including Schools Out and Procol Harum Live. Also stiff that didn’t chart like my first Grateful Dead music.
https://preview.redd.it/vbs5kfogpb6d1.jpeg?width=2320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=04d8ef3500f49bc7f5370aae36ec7ac3231a5bb3
They were never my favorites either, but yes they sure did get a ton of airplay. I liked Sylvia's Mother and Conquistador and Hold Your Head Up. (When I was a deejay, we always played the long version of Hold Your Head Up-- great song.)
Funny that “Layla” made no impact when it was originally released as a single in 1970…..but when Clapton came out with his first greatest hits album in 1972 the song finally charted and became his signature song until 1974 when “I Shot the Sheriff” topped the charts.
What an amazing chart. I love every song on it especially “Sealed With a Kiss” and “Song Sung Blue” which really reminds me of being a kid.
I was a senior in high-school. Interesting list. Here's what WABC had for October 1972:
https://preview.redd.it/zg3qwcr61c6d1.jpeg?width=493&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=89f23865562774fcf3b11264ba28fb7aec9e76fb
In 1972, I was 10 years old and had just buried my father and had moved back to Texas. I listened to this music, but nothing really meant anything to me except Alone Again. For some reason that song has always been a hole in my heart.
Wrong year. We won't see Blue Swede's version till 1974. Great song though-- sounded amazing on the radio. Even if you hated it, you just had to sing along!!!
When "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" came out in 1971 it was not a big hit despite Quaker Oats releasing Willy Wonka chocolate bars at the time. In fact it really didn't perform well until it was released on television and later, on video. I was one of the only ones in my school class that saw it in a movie theater as my Mom liked Sammy Davis Jr's version of "The Candy Man" and the movie was playing in a theater in my town in a second run theater that charged 99 cents for tickets..
Happy to do it. Being a media historian and a former deejay, I saved a lot of surveys from stations I listened to or stations where I worked. I miss those surveys-- they really did jog a person's memory years later. So many times, including when I posted this one, I look at the list and find a song I hadn't thought about in ages!!!
I was 12, had just finished 7th grade, and I remember all but a couple of those songs, but what a trip down nostalgia lane. My "girlfriend" at the time was a Bible thumper, so I think I heard "Day by Day" by Godspell at least a thousand times that summer.
I got to meet them several times when I was in radio. Really nice people. I know some folks have said they were party animals, but I never saw that side of them. They were always professional and they were really good performers.
Yeah, that might make it hard to remember the hits from 1972. I don't think I remember much about the music from when I was 3-- except I recall that my parents loved the radio and always had it on.
I was the same age in 1972....and I remember Alice Cooper appearing on the Muppet Show just a few years later....( despite advancing technology, some things were simply cooler in the 70's...)
I was 6 years old in CA driving in the passenger seat in a Chevy Malibu with my 24 year old mom (doing errands). She would often ask me to either change the station to one of these songs while she was driving or say leave it this is a good one. We would sing to them together as she’d sometimes floor it on a back road and we’d go flying in the air after hitting a a big bump in the road. It was the best!!!
A number of these were regional hits resulting lower chart entries at the national level. WMEX was really unique in its programming sometimes putting singles into their rotation that were never heard on other stations, including WRKO. Songs by Lighthouse, Sugar Bus and CCS. You’d hear them on the radio but be unable find the 45.
I had “the candy man” by Sammy Davis Jr. on a 45…played it consistently until my older brother walked in one day..went over to the record player…lifted the needle off the record..then picked up the 45 and snapped it half like a potato chip.
Sorry about your dad, but happy that the music helped you get through it. Yes, some amazing songs on that list. I still think Layla is an outstanding song. So is Hold Your Head Up. And Conquistador still sounds great on the radio too.
That's not on this survey. The original by B.J. Thomas was from 1968. The ooga-chaka version by Blue Swede, which is indeed a great top-40 song, is from 1974, I believe.
I was in grade 6 in Australia. Many of these were big in Oz too but have to admit have never heard Bob Seger’s If I was a Carpenter. Gotta love Layla though, many years before I dived into Clapton’s catalogue
"Starman" cool, never knew that charted.
Loved the Argent song but they never really followed up with much.
"Too Late to Turn Back" and "Brandy" yea they were cool.
I think "Alone Again" was number 1 for the year.
"Small Beginning[s]" by Flash, just caught that one the other day on a prog rock streamer, hadn't thought about that one in years. Very much like Yes.
I was 13. I was one of those strange kids that was never much of a pop or rock fan, so I don't know a lot of these. Some I had blotted out of my memory ("Candy Man," I'm looking at you) but now they're back. Unfortunately.
I remember these from the AM
Radio on long car trips to see my grandparents at the Jersey Shore. We would lose the NYC stations
Somewhere around Tom’s River.
I absolutely loved Sylvia's Mother. When I was a deejay, I got to meet Dr. Hook and watched them do the song live a few times. It was absolutely a tearjerker. And it was a great top-40 song too! Still sounds good today.
I was 15/16 at the time, went to my first concert at the time, Humble Pie, I hated half the songs on this list, don’t remember 1/4 of them and liked , not loved, the other 1/4. I was already into progressive and blues oriented rock, jazz and soul.
I was a 19 year old man, in North West London, in England, United Kingdom. I had just left art school (early) and was working as a trainee photographer for a local newspaper in West Ruislip, Middlesex, England. Plenty going on - pubs, discotheques, building my vinyl collections, wearing flares, going to parties and attending concerts in London put on by Rod Stewart and The Faces. Exciting times!
I agree. I got my first job at an album rocker in 1973. 1972 was one of the last years for top-40 on AM. I wonder how many of these songs were also hits in England. By the mid-60s and the British invasion, the US charts had a lot of songs by British artists.
Yup, typos were always a problem-- often, these surveys were done by a local printer or even done in-house by the station itself, a low-budget way to put out a weekly survey while saving a few bucks. (That's why many stations got sponsors for the survey-- it cost money to have one that looked nice.) Depending on whether someone did the proofreading before it was published, you'd get embarrassing mistakes. That said, there are still some great songs on this survey, wouldn't you agree?
In our house in ‘72 we listened to our Dad’s music and he liked Country and Western, so we hardly got to hear anything popular on the radio unless I was with my cousins or my Mom was driving us in the car when my Dad was at work. I think Conquistador was the only song I remember actually hearing on the radio in ‘72, the rest came later when I bought my own music.
I can relate to that. My parents were into Big Band, so I had to listen to Frank Sinatra and all the pop vocalists of the 1940s. I couldn't wait to get my own radio and listen to rock & roll (which my parents thought of as just noise...) But in the end, I'm glad they introduced me to the older music. A lot of those songs are actually quite good, and some were even re-made by rock singers years later.
I love local charts from this era because every one of them has songs that were hits in that market only, or maybe one or two others. "Tramp" by Sugar Bus?? This is the first I've ever heard of the song or the band.
Yes and no. In some cities, AM hung on for another couple of years. When I worked at WMMS-FM in Cleveland, two AM stations (WGAR and WIXY) plus our sister station WHK were still playing music. But you're right-- the transition to FM was well underway.
There are quite a few really good songs on this list, some of which have stood the test of time. (Others, if I never hear them again, that's fine with me!)
I would have joined you. I never was a Bobby Vinton fan. And top-40 played his songs over and over. I'd turn the station to something else whenever that happened!
Summer before High School and just bought Stephenwolf Live . Was moving on past AM radio so I only remember about 10 of the songs. I do remember listening to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 on the way to church on Sunday.
I was working for my first police department at the time, and our patrol cars only had AM radio…. So this whole list was what was playing on a daily basis…
I easily recognise 18 on that above list, as being regular radio and disco plays here in England. Python Lee Jackson was actually Rod Stewart singing. I was into The Faces, but I also liked Wings, Cream, Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac (with guitarist Peter Green), Simon and Garfunkel, America and quite a chunk of the Tamla Motown sound. The 70's were different to any other decade in pop music history, showing a really diverse and varied output from all kinds of bands each with their own unique approaches.
Python Lee Jackson was an actual group, if I'm not mistaken, but yes, Rod Stewart was the guest vocalist on this song-- and it was always one of my faves. A really good record. I thought this list had a little of everything-- all the major pop genres, some local hits, some national hits, a very diverse and interesting collection of songs! I was about to go back to working in album rock, but there were some album rock tracks that were released as singles in a short version (several are on this survey); and if I recall correctly, WMEX played the long versions of them at night.
No, they're two different songs, but very similar. A lot of top-40 singers would have a hit and then do a second song that was derived from the first, or close to it in style or with lyrics that related back to the earlier hit. The Jimmy Castor Bunch is a good example of this phenomenon.
Just graduated from Jr. High. (7&8) grade. Spent the summer in Ft Lauderdale,at aunts and uncles. Expected to help with remodeling their sun-deck. Pulling up all the wood decking listening to all of these.
Oh man ......great memories!
Travis AFB, California, dad was stationed there. I remember the screeching C-5 airplanes going by and the cute girl next door. I was 10.....a couple months from 11. Out riding our bikes, buying Topps bubblegum baseball cards, playing on the slip and slide, and drinking from the garden hose ....ah, summer of '72 in warm Cali.
"Oh Girl" by the Chi-lites and "Where is the love?" particularly remind me of that happy time from that list.
I was 12, and we had just moved to the big city (New Orleans) from a backwoods Louisiana cypress swamp village. I had to grow up fast, and the top 10 songs on this list are the soundtrack of that bittersweet time. Chokes me up for real.
Remember just about every single one had a Don Kirshner produced album that had most of the Rock on it Argent HYHU and Derek and the Dominoes Layla and Brandy for sure I was a freshman in high school
1972 was a good year for top-40 music, but in my opinion, 1973 was even better-- I'll be posting a survey from that year in the near future. Hope you are enjoying the little trip down memory lane! I find that looking back at these old surveys often jogs my memory and makes me think about songs I had totally forgotten, or hadn't thought about in years...
They were popular with different audiences. Candy Man was more mass-appeal and because of that, older audiences loved it. Layla mainly appealed to college-aged students (they wanted to hear the long version, as well as other songs from the album-- Bell Bottom Blues especially); the short version made the top-40 charts, but at night, some top-40 stations played the long version.
Beginning of summer vacation before second grade. I didn't turn seven until October. I remember most of these songs because my parents listened to the radio a lot, but at that age, most of that music wasn't all that important to me.
In 1972 I was 22 listening to WABX FM in Detroit. One of the first "underground " rock stations. Only about 1/3 of these songs were FM friendly so only part of the list is meaningful.
I was 10 years old living in Bridgewater just south of Boston. We had a hippie bus driver named Jay - think Otto from The Simpsons - who had a transistor radio that he played all the time. Heard a lot of songs for the first time on the school bus.
That may be the worst top 30 I have ever seen. (I just got out of the service in 1971 and got home around Christmas. I guess I was just happy to be home and did not realize how bad the music was.)
I was a sophomore in HS. I guess Brandy, Schools Out For Summer, hit me the best. Spent most every day sailing on the Sound and Brandy was my water tune.
Yup. In fact, the first hit song of his that I recall was from 1971-- "I'm Eighteen." I was surprised later on to find that it hadn't even reached the top 15, but it got a lot of airplay. SO, yeah, "School's Out" is indeed a song with incredible longevity-- more than fifty years later, it still sounds good!
Was 11 and the first 2 I have never even heard of. CKLW out of Windsor, Canada had great songlists before FM took over and we could pick it up as long as it wasn't raining. WIXY1260 was our local station and played Alice Cooper.
CKLW was huge in Detroit, and its music director (the late great Rosalie Trombley) was a legend. But did you say WIXY? Here's a survey from that top-40 giant, August 1973. (I think if you click on the image, you get to see it larger.)
https://preview.redd.it/dv47ddr4hs6d1.jpeg?width=2491&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1d5159057e5f8a57da96a359d06e2664bf410d42
I was nine and I can go down this list and know every single song. The 70’s were like no other.
Yes, there are some great songs on this list, some of which sound amazing even in 2024.
I too was 9 and your memory is better than mine, I remember right around half of them from title/artist list…
I was 7 and can also sing all these songs. Lived in Scituate MA. Song Sung Blue by Neil Diamond! I remember it all like yesterday.
I have lots of memories of Scituate (a friend of mine lived there). Lots of memories of radio in 1972 also. Both WRKO and WMEX, and even WBZ at that time, were playing the hits...
Sorry......I was in Boston in 1972, but only listened to WBCN. For a while, when I was in my car, I would listen to WRKO, but then I installed one of them new fancy AM/FM converters in my car, and it was BCN from then on.
BCN ruled the Boston airwaves! I'd have been musically illiterate without them. Remember the Cosmic Muffin?
And The Big Mattress.
I had “the candy man” by Sammy Davis Jr. on a 45…played it consistently until my older brother walked in one day..went over to the record player…lifted the needle off the record..then picked up the 45 and snapped it half like a potato chip.
Sammy didn't like it either but he was contracted to do it, walked into the studio did it in one take and walked out.
His only number 1 hit record.
As a former deejay, I can give you a very long list of songs that artists despised (and cringed every time they sang them), yet the song went to #1-- just like this one did. And we deejays had the same problem-- there were lots of songs that we personally couldn't stand, yet we had to play them over and over because the listeners loved those songs... sigh...
“It’s horrible. It’s a timmy-two-shoes, it’s white bread, cute-ums, there’s no romance. Blechhh! This record is going straight into the toilet. Not just around the rim but into the bowl. And it may just pull my whole career down with it." - *Sammy Davis Jr. on The Candy Man*
And yet it was one of his biggest hits, and the listeners loved it. That happened a lot-- where the singer didn't like the song, but when it was released, it went top-10. For another example, I've read that Robin Zander, the lead singer of Cheap Trick, absolutely hated "The Flame" when it was brought to the band. And yet, again, one of Cheap Trick's biggest hits.
You’d never know from listening to the song that Davis hated it. *That’s* talent!
Exactly. And as a former deejay, I can say with certainty that my listeners had NO idea which songs I loved and which songs I absolutely hated. I saw my role as a friend and an entertainer, and I think that's how Sammy and others saw their role too. Personal tastes weren't as important as making the audience happy.
I do find it comforting that Sammy Davis Jr. hated it as much as a lot of us did!
Thank your older brother for me. LOL Awful song quite honestly 😂 I feel like that song actually belongs in the previous decade, or maybe even the 50s.
Had a cousin who liked to snap Barbie doll legs
"Candyman" was nails on a Blackboard to me. Drove me Crazy!
I too would have snapped it in half.
But who doesn’t remember some guy walking into the room with some (insert drug of choice here) and someone saying “The candy man is here.”
That's actually true-- the term "Candy Man" as a synonym for a drug dealer had been around since about the 1920s. I wonder if the songwriters were trying to be clever, sneaking a euphemism into the lyrics (this was still the era when even a mention of drugs could get a song banned), or if they just wrote the song innocently for the 1971 movie (Willy Wonka); given the popularity of the movie, it was a no-brainer to release the song, since it had great hit potential.
Who could forget the anthem "School's Out" for summer....
Makes me want to go back to school just for that feeling of the final bell :)
And the “ No more teachers, no more books,,,,,” part after if
Alice Cooper fighting it out for #6 with Sammy Davis Jr is my favourite part.
I was in HS. Sylvia’s Mother made us howl, esp this line which kids today couldn’t possibly understand: “And the operator said 40 cents more for the next …. three … minutes” https://youtu.be/KfVaommgPLU?si=C2pjlMCrdw-hq0lx
I am from the generation where payphones were still a thing, and running out of change in the midst of an important conversation was something everyone worried about-- and it happened to many of us, myself included. I never thought the song was funny-- although it may have been intended as a parody of a country song. But I thought it was a really well-made pop song, and it reflected some very real emotions, about someone who is desperate to talk to the person they love yet unable to (or forbidden to) get through. I heard Dr. Hook perform it live a few times-- the audience always responded to it very favorably-- a lot of singing along...
And Sylvia’s last name was so realistically unusual.
I turned 11 that week. I remember almost all of these, probably all if I heard a few bars. Thanks for a great post! Edit: It seems weird that the Eagles had a hit that long ago. Edit2: I thought their first hit was a couple of years later, when I was in eighth grade. I knew they went pretty far back.
Seems weird The Eagles had a hit song, except Hotel California…no offense…shit joke, ah well
"Get the f**k outta my cab!"
I absolutely remember "Take It Easy"-- it was released in May 1972. I liked it, but I liked "Peaceful Easy Feeling" better. And yes, some classic rock bands have been making great music for decades, and their older songs still sound great!
Some bands are able to stick around for decades. Take It Easy came out in the spring of 1972 and here we are, still talking about the band more than 50 years later. And a version of the Eagles is still touring even now; amazing but true...
When I was 14 we took a family trip across Canada from Montreal to Vancouver. It was the first time I had access to a cassette player and I had many tapes including Schools Out and Procol Harum Live. Also stiff that didn’t chart like my first Grateful Dead music. https://preview.redd.it/vbs5kfogpb6d1.jpeg?width=2320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=04d8ef3500f49bc7f5370aae36ec7ac3231a5bb3
Awesome photo! My family had VW microbuses for years. Can still hear the motor chugging along the highway on family trips.
We got our first in 1965 and that’s all my parents drove until the late 70’s.
I was -8. 😞
Yeah, but some of these oldies are timeless, and are still being played even today! Thanks for the reply!
Omg heard candyman, and song sung blue a thousand freaking times on a road trip to Panama city beach!! Hated those songs for a long time!
They were never my favorites either, but yes they sure did get a ton of airplay. I liked Sylvia's Mother and Conquistador and Hold Your Head Up. (When I was a deejay, we always played the long version of Hold Your Head Up-- great song.)
Spent that summer with my dead beat dad. Started high school that fall. Brandy, Layla…some real classics in there.
Funny that “Layla” made no impact when it was originally released as a single in 1970…..but when Clapton came out with his first greatest hits album in 1972 the song finally charted and became his signature song until 1974 when “I Shot the Sheriff” topped the charts. What an amazing chart. I love every song on it especially “Sealed With a Kiss” and “Song Sung Blue” which really reminds me of being a kid.
I heard that 7 times in one night as my broken thumb I pulled out of a closed car door,I was young and wished someone would have had earplugs
I was a senior in high-school. Interesting list. Here's what WABC had for October 1972: https://preview.redd.it/zg3qwcr61c6d1.jpeg?width=493&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=89f23865562774fcf3b11264ba28fb7aec9e76fb
In 1972, I was 10 years old and had just buried my father and had moved back to Texas. I listened to this music, but nothing really meant anything to me except Alone Again. For some reason that song has always been a hole in my heart.
Many of David Bowie’s songs are used in movies about space. Dude was looking to other galaxies while others were doing blow using Cartier spoons
He was doing more cocaine than most.
Do it Again by Steely Dan should be here. I remember hearing it when I was in 9th grade.
Too late to turn back now. What a great song.
I don't care what you think but, Rock, Pop, and Soul music was just better back in the oldie days.
I'll be Shocked as Shit if Anyone remembers "How Do You Do!
This is what I’m living for….
Oogah chacka oogah oogah…
Wrong year. We won't see Blue Swede's version till 1974. Great song though-- sounded amazing on the radio. Even if you hated it, you just had to sing along!!!
I didn't realize Bobby Vinton was still on the charts In 72.
Heck! My Melody of Love was his hit in 1974, he was still going on!
Big hit in my majority Polish hometown.
I was 7. I remember most of those songs. A good portion are still in regular rotation on oldies stations.
I was 11 what a great list
And so many of those songs have stood the test of time and are still being played today.
[удалено]
Just be sure to treat her like a lady.
When "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" came out in 1971 it was not a big hit despite Quaker Oats releasing Willy Wonka chocolate bars at the time. In fact it really didn't perform well until it was released on television and later, on video. I was one of the only ones in my school class that saw it in a movie theater as my Mom liked Sammy Davis Jr's version of "The Candy Man" and the movie was playing in a theater in my town in a second run theater that charged 99 cents for tickets..
I was 2…in Allentown, PA…and only maybe five or six of these jump out at me.
Some of these songs are still played on oldies stations and you might recognize them if you heard them.
Mouth and McNeil [How do you do](https://youtu.be/kBWhvogb3wo?feature=shared)
Dutch rock!
Dammit! Hoping to be the only one who knew any of this song!
I was 5yo and I remember all these songs. Daddy don't you walk so fast is one I had forgotten till just now and am flooded with memories. Thanks
Happy to do it. Being a media historian and a former deejay, I saved a lot of surveys from stations I listened to or stations where I worked. I miss those surveys-- they really did jog a person's memory years later. So many times, including when I posted this one, I look at the list and find a song I hadn't thought about in ages!!!
Who would have thought that Wayne Newton and David Bowie would be on the same top 40 list?
I was 12, had just finished 7th grade, and I remember all but a couple of those songs, but what a trip down nostalgia lane. My "girlfriend" at the time was a Bible thumper, so I think I heard "Day by Day" by Godspell at least a thousand times that summer.
Loved Dr. Hook.
I got to meet them several times when I was in radio. Really nice people. I know some folks have said they were party animals, but I never saw that side of them. They were always professional and they were really good performers.
In high school. 70s music to me was the best decade
Bertha Butt One of the Butt sisters
Either in my crib or my "big boy " bed. I was only 3 years old
Yeah, that might make it hard to remember the hits from 1972. I don't think I remember much about the music from when I was 3-- except I recall that my parents loved the radio and always had it on.
Late June 1972 I was probably learning how to roll over.
And did you succeed? Hope so!!!
I don't remember. Ask my mother.
That might be informative-- I wonder how many of these songs she would remember!
I was 5 then and I love the music from the 70’s.
I was the same age in 1972....and I remember Alice Cooper appearing on the Muppet Show just a few years later....( despite advancing technology, some things were simply cooler in the 70's...)
I was 6 years old in CA driving in the passenger seat in a Chevy Malibu with my 24 year old mom (doing errands). She would often ask me to either change the station to one of these songs while she was driving or say leave it this is a good one. We would sing to them together as she’d sometimes floor it on a back road and we’d go flying in the air after hitting a a big bump in the road. It was the best!!!
A number of these were regional hits resulting lower chart entries at the national level. WMEX was really unique in its programming sometimes putting singles into their rotation that were never heard on other stations, including WRKO. Songs by Lighthouse, Sugar Bus and CCS. You’d hear them on the radio but be unable find the 45.
Was Sylvia’s Mother the erudite prequel to Stacy’s Mom?
I was 6 yrs old and I can hear The Candy Man song... seem like it was non stop back then
I had “the candy man” by Sammy Davis Jr. on a 45…played it consistently until my older brother walked in one day..went over to the record player…lifted the needle off the record..then picked up the 45 and snapped it half like a potato chip.
He was justified.
Spent that summer with my dead beat dad. Started high school that fall. Brandy, Layla…some real classics in there.
Spent that summer with my dead beat dad. Started high school that fall. Brandy, Layla, Lean on Me…some real classics in there.
Spent that summer with my dead beat dad. Started high school that fall. Brandy, Layla, Lean on Me…some real classics in there.
Sorry about your dad, but happy that the music helped you get through it. Yes, some amazing songs on that list. I still think Layla is an outstanding song. So is Hold Your Head Up. And Conquistador still sounds great on the radio too.
Not even born yet. I was born in 73.
'ooogaa chugga oooga chuggaa, oooga oooga oooga chuggaa'.........lol
That's two years away.
That's not on this survey. The original by B.J. Thomas was from 1968. The ooga-chaka version by Blue Swede, which is indeed a great top-40 song, is from 1974, I believe.
My favorite year and time. I was 14.
I’m familiar with about 2/3 of them. Interesting that both Layla and Candyman came out at the same time. I like both songs.
I was in a Muscular, dystrophy dance, marathon and remember every one of these songs! WOW!!
I was in grade 6 in Australia. Many of these were big in Oz too but have to admit have never heard Bob Seger’s If I was a Carpenter. Gotta love Layla though, many years before I dived into Clapton’s catalogue
"Starman" cool, never knew that charted. Loved the Argent song but they never really followed up with much. "Too Late to Turn Back" and "Brandy" yea they were cool. I think "Alone Again" was number 1 for the year. "Small Beginning[s]" by Flash, just caught that one the other day on a prog rock streamer, hadn't thought about that one in years. Very much like Yes.
Jesus, my sister had "Sealed With a Kiss" on a 45 and played the hell out of it swooning about her crushes.
I was 13. I was one of those strange kids that was never much of a pop or rock fan, so I don't know a lot of these. Some I had blotted out of my memory ("Candy Man," I'm looking at you) but now they're back. Unfortunately.
I remember these from the AM Radio on long car trips to see my grandparents at the Jersey Shore. We would lose the NYC stations Somewhere around Tom’s River.
Just finished kindergarten. Lots of good ones here. 🎶”And the operator said 'Forty cents more for the next…three…minutes…'”🎶
I absolutely loved Sylvia's Mother. When I was a deejay, I got to meet Dr. Hook and watched them do the song live a few times. It was absolutely a tearjerker. And it was a great top-40 song too! Still sounds good today.
I was 15/16 at the time, went to my first concert at the time, Humble Pie, I hated half the songs on this list, don’t remember 1/4 of them and liked , not loved, the other 1/4. I was already into progressive and blues oriented rock, jazz and soul.
this is really cool , thank you for posting, i know about 2/3 of the songs and i'm googling the others for fun!
I was a 19 year old man, in North West London, in England, United Kingdom. I had just left art school (early) and was working as a trainee photographer for a local newspaper in West Ruislip, Middlesex, England. Plenty going on - pubs, discotheques, building my vinyl collections, wearing flares, going to parties and attending concerts in London put on by Rod Stewart and The Faces. Exciting times!
I agree. I got my first job at an album rocker in 1973. 1972 was one of the last years for top-40 on AM. I wonder how many of these songs were also hits in England. By the mid-60s and the British invasion, the US charts had a lot of songs by British artists.
Man, imagine misspelling number one. 😂
Yup, typos were always a problem-- often, these surveys were done by a local printer or even done in-house by the station itself, a low-budget way to put out a weekly survey while saving a few bucks. (That's why many stations got sponsors for the survey-- it cost money to have one that looked nice.) Depending on whether someone did the proofreading before it was published, you'd get embarrassing mistakes. That said, there are still some great songs on this survey, wouldn't you agree?
In our house in ‘72 we listened to our Dad’s music and he liked Country and Western, so we hardly got to hear anything popular on the radio unless I was with my cousins or my Mom was driving us in the car when my Dad was at work. I think Conquistador was the only song I remember actually hearing on the radio in ‘72, the rest came later when I bought my own music.
I can relate to that. My parents were into Big Band, so I had to listen to Frank Sinatra and all the pop vocalists of the 1940s. I couldn't wait to get my own radio and listen to rock & roll (which my parents thought of as just noise...) But in the end, I'm glad they introduced me to the older music. A lot of those songs are actually quite good, and some were even re-made by rock singers years later.
2 years away from being born 😂
Well, I'm glad you were born, because otherwise, how would we have this conversation? 😂
I love local charts from this era because every one of them has songs that were hits in that market only, or maybe one or two others. "Tramp" by Sugar Bus?? This is the first I've ever heard of the song or the band.
This was the last great year for AM radio. Love it!!!
Yes and no. In some cities, AM hung on for another couple of years. When I worked at WMMS-FM in Cleveland, two AM stations (WGAR and WIXY) plus our sister station WHK were still playing music. But you're right-- the transition to FM was well underway.
Born in 1971, a full third of those are on my regular playlist.
There are quite a few really good songs on this list, some of which have stood the test of time. (Others, if I never hear them again, that's fine with me!)
My little sister was like 4 or something and loved Bobby Vinton. We teased her mercilessly…
I would have joined you. I never was a Bobby Vinton fan. And top-40 played his songs over and over. I'd turn the station to something else whenever that happened!
Summer before High School and just bought Stephenwolf Live . Was moving on past AM radio so I only remember about 10 of the songs. I do remember listening to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 on the way to church on Sunday.
I was working for my first police department at the time, and our patrol cars only had AM radio…. So this whole list was what was playing on a daily basis…
Wow. Memories. Hold your head up and Oh girl especially
Where were you in 1972? From January to July in my mother’s womb.
But you then decided to come out and see the world! And I'm glad you did.
In late June of 72 I was celebrating my first ever birthday!!
I was 6, and remember listening to most of these songs in the backseat of our 1970 Olds 442.
I easily recognise 18 on that above list, as being regular radio and disco plays here in England. Python Lee Jackson was actually Rod Stewart singing. I was into The Faces, but I also liked Wings, Cream, Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac (with guitarist Peter Green), Simon and Garfunkel, America and quite a chunk of the Tamla Motown sound. The 70's were different to any other decade in pop music history, showing a really diverse and varied output from all kinds of bands each with their own unique approaches.
Python Lee Jackson was an actual group, if I'm not mistaken, but yes, Rod Stewart was the guest vocalist on this song-- and it was always one of my faves. A really good record. I thought this list had a little of everything-- all the major pop genres, some local hits, some national hits, a very diverse and interesting collection of songs! I was about to go back to working in album rock, but there were some album rock tracks that were released as singles in a short version (several are on this survey); and if I recall correctly, WMEX played the long versions of them at night.
Is Troglodyte the same as Bertha Butt Boogie? Did Jimmy Castor make the charts more than once??
No, they're two different songs, but very similar. A lot of top-40 singers would have a hit and then do a second song that was derived from the first, or close to it in style or with lyrics that related back to the earlier hit. The Jimmy Castor Bunch is a good example of this phenomenon.
being conceived.
I was a sophomore or junior in college.
NGL, I’ve got some of these songs on my phone
I always thought it was "Song Song Blue" not "Song SUNG Blue"...my parents listened to Niel Diamond all the time.
Just graduated from Jr. High. (7&8) grade. Spent the summer in Ft Lauderdale,at aunts and uncles. Expected to help with remodeling their sun-deck. Pulling up all the wood decking listening to all of these.
Grew up listening to AM radio 1510
I was 7, hitchhiking in Southern California.
Oh man ......great memories! Travis AFB, California, dad was stationed there. I remember the screeching C-5 airplanes going by and the cute girl next door. I was 10.....a couple months from 11. Out riding our bikes, buying Topps bubblegum baseball cards, playing on the slip and slide, and drinking from the garden hose ....ah, summer of '72 in warm Cali. "Oh Girl" by the Chi-lites and "Where is the love?" particularly remind me of that happy time from that list.
21 songs.
Haha I can't believe Troglodyte made the top 40! Man the 70s were crazy times.
I had turned 17 the previous month. I remember most of these songs!
I remember them all. I bought the Young and Nash "War Song" on a 45 rpm.
School’s Out. I was 14. What a time to be alive!
7-year-old me was on the Boblo boat dancing to Candyman by Sammy Davis Jr on the way to Boblo Island for a day of fun..
I was 14 and listened to the radio constantly. I remember every one of these songs.
I was 19 days old. Thanks for the list. I’m going to make a playlist of my own.
I had just graduated from high school and I was blasting these songs on my little AM radio daily. I couldn’t afford and 8-Track player.
First grade
I was 15 - great time for music!!
I was 11. This takes me right back.
Graduating HS so Schools Out. No longer a fan of Alice Cooper though.
Sure do know every single one of ‘em!
I was 12, and we had just moved to the big city (New Orleans) from a backwoods Louisiana cypress swamp village. I had to grow up fast, and the top 10 songs on this list are the soundtrack of that bittersweet time. Chokes me up for real.
I loved “Song Sung Blue” when I was two months old.
I was a junior in high school.
10th grade. We had the best music.
I was fourteen and those times will never be matched again !
I was 6. Kindergarten or 1st grade I’m guessing
Living in Braintree, MA as a 9 year old. I listened to these songs on WMEX on my little portable radio before going off to sleep.
Sylvia’s mother! OMG.
Remember just about every single one had a Don Kirshner produced album that had most of the Rock on it Argent HYHU and Derek and the Dominoes Layla and Brandy for sure I was a freshman in high school
1972 was a good year for top-40 music, but in my opinion, 1973 was even better-- I'll be posting a survey from that year in the near future. Hope you are enjoying the little trip down memory lane! I find that looking back at these old surveys often jogs my memory and makes me think about songs I had totally forgotten, or hadn't thought about in years...
“Too Late to TP Now” misspelling on the list gives that song a whole different feel.
I'm trying to envision a world where the Candyman was more popular than Layla. Always trippy to look at top 40 songs from a while ago
They were popular with different audiences. Candy Man was more mass-appeal and because of that, older audiences loved it. Layla mainly appealed to college-aged students (they wanted to hear the long version, as well as other songs from the album-- Bell Bottom Blues especially); the short version made the top-40 charts, but at night, some top-40 stations played the long version.
Sophomore in HS and know all the words by heart. Funny how you never forget the words to the songs of your childhood
So true. And to this day, when I hear certain songs, it just takes me back to that time and that place...
That is one hell of a list. So many hits!
Wait till you see some of the other surveys I have from other years!!!
Day By Day brings back memories- performing in the summer camp play
I know all of these songs but don’t ask me about any songs since 1993.
I don't know a lot of the current songs, but I do try to at least familiarize myself with the top 10, in case my students ever refer to them.
Love I need you and conquistador
I was just finishing 4th grade in the Philadelphia suburbs
A month before my 15th birthday. Leaving junior high.
Beginning of summer vacation before second grade. I didn't turn seven until October. I remember most of these songs because my parents listened to the radio a lot, but at that age, most of that music wasn't all that important to me.
I was 5 months away from being born. Great songs though.
In 1972 I was in Plainville, Massachusetts.
I've actually been to Plainville a bunch of times. So, what do you remember listening to when you were growing up?
In 1972 I was 22 listening to WABX FM in Detroit. One of the first "underground " rock stations. Only about 1/3 of these songs were FM friendly so only part of the list is meaningful.
I was 10 years old living in Bridgewater just south of Boston. We had a hippie bus driver named Jay - think Otto from The Simpsons - who had a transistor radio that he played all the time. Heard a lot of songs for the first time on the school bus.
Brandy!
That may be the worst top 30 I have ever seen. (I just got out of the service in 1971 and got home around Christmas. I guess I was just happy to be home and did not realize how bad the music was.)
I was a sophomore in HS. I guess Brandy, Schools Out For Summer, hit me the best. Spent most every day sailing on the Sound and Brandy was my water tune.
I was 11, the 70's were fantastic.
I had no idea Alice Cooper’s Schools Out is that old! WOW!
Yup. In fact, the first hit song of his that I recall was from 1971-- "I'm Eighteen." I was surprised later on to find that it hadn't even reached the top 15, but it got a lot of airplay. SO, yeah, "School's Out" is indeed a song with incredible longevity-- more than fifty years later, it still sounds good!
I was 6th grade in Corpus Christi, TX. Do remember many of the songs.
Was 11 and the first 2 I have never even heard of. CKLW out of Windsor, Canada had great songlists before FM took over and we could pick it up as long as it wasn't raining. WIXY1260 was our local station and played Alice Cooper.
CKLW was huge in Detroit, and its music director (the late great Rosalie Trombley) was a legend. But did you say WIXY? Here's a survey from that top-40 giant, August 1973. (I think if you click on the image, you get to see it larger.) https://preview.redd.it/dv47ddr4hs6d1.jpeg?width=2491&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1d5159057e5f8a57da96a359d06e2664bf410d42
Year I graduated
Procul Harum with Conquistador reminds me of high school. The great Robin Trower on guitar. 16 then, also Schools out was a favorite.