When it comes to decades that were fertile environments for great tunes, the 1970s are hard to beat. The “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack alone was the source of many chart-topping hits, and that’s just talking about what was on that record’s side one.
In such an environment, there will be limited space for every song that deserves to be heard, and many of them slipped through the cracks before they could hit the charts. Having said that, a timeless song is a timeless song, and many that didn’t get airplay back then have become beloved favorites today. Here are 10 songs from the 1970s that deserved a warmer welcome when they were released.
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1.‘Cherry Bomb’ – The Runaways (1976)
Before Joan Jett and Lita Ford became successful solo acts, they were members of the all-female teenage rock band the Runaways. The band didn’t last long and got very little love from the charts, but their music has endured and today the Runaways are recognized for their contributions to popular music while they were still adolescents.
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2. ‘Emerald’ – Thin Lizzy (1976)
Ireland’s Thin Lizzy had their most significant moment of hard rock glory when they released their “Jailbreak” album in 1976, featuring the very well-known song “The Boys Are Back in Town.” That song swallowed up all the oxygen in the room and sidelined the rest of that album’s songs, all of which are classics. That includes “Emerald,” the heaviest song about the 12th-century Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland ever to end an album.
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3. ‘Easy Livin’‘ – Uriah Heep (1972)
Uriah Heep has been together in one form or another since 1969, and though they never reached the same chart heights as fellow UK rockers like Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin, they still churned out solid tunes, such as “Easy Livin,’” which just barely cracked the US top 40, coming in at number 39. It’s a fixture of their live sets to this day, and its upbeat shuffle beat will get your heartbeat racing for all two and half minutes of its running time.
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4. ‘Girls Got Rhythm’ – AC/DC (1979)
“Girls Got Rhythm” appeared on AC/DC very popular “Highway to Hell” album, and while the title track has won all sorts of accolades, this song tends to get overlooked. It’s too bad because it offers 3 1/2 minutes of three-chord headbanging joy, with really stupid lyrics to boot!
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5. ‘Songbird’ – Bee Gees (1975)
In the mid-’70s, the Bee Gees revamped their sound, imbuing it with disco beats that gave them such a new lease on life, which made many people think they were a new band. 1975’s “Main Course” album featured several songs like “Jive Talkin'” that brought the band into the new era, but sadly ballads like “Songbird” got overlooked. That’s a shame, because it’s one of their best and deserved attention.
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6. ‘Heaven’s Just a Sin Away’ – The Kendalls (1977)
The Kendalls were a father-and-daughter country music duo whose music was heavenly when you could ignore the fact that it was a father and daughter harmonizing together on songs about cheating. Luckily, Jeannie Kendall had such an immediately infectious singing voice that you forget all that the second she starts. For its part, “Heaven’s Just a Sin Away” is a delightful song that demands multiple repeat plays.
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7. ‘Pocahontas’ – Neil Young (1979)
Neil Young has hit the charts numerous times throughout his long career, but many of his songs that never charted are as good as those that did and, at times, even better. One such sleeper track that was never even released as a single is “Pocahontas,” a song whose 1979 vintage means it contains some terms for Indigenous people that would not fly today.
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8. ‘There Goes Another Love Song’ – The Outlaws (1975)
The Outlaws were never as big as fellow southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd or the Allman Brothers Band, but it wasn’t because they couldn’t write songs. “There Goes Another Love Song” is an infectious tune that seems to go by in about 10 seconds, and the fact that it got no higher than number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 is a travesty.
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9. ‘Truth Hits Everybody’ – The Police (1978)
While some bands take a couple of records to find their artistic footing, the Police’s debut album, “Outlandos d’Amour,” showed that they were already fully formed songsmiths from the get-go. Unfortunately, it boasted such songs as “So Lonely” and “Roxanne,” which overshadowed some of the other classic material on the album, notably the very great “Truth Hits Everybody.”
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10. ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ – The Ramones (1978)
Truth be told, if you took almost any Ramones song, slowed it down, and turned off the distorted guitars, you would have a band that performed bubblegum pop songs. One song that had pop hooks for days is “I Wanna Be Sedated,” whose subject likely stopped it from reaching a broad audience. The leather jackets and identical bowl cuts might have alienated a few people, too.
This article was produced and syndicated by MediaFeed.
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