Greatest Rock Songs 1970s (Revision Version)

[Brian]

Bo Rhap ahead of Born to Run is definitely arguable. I don't think Bo Rhap will ever go ahead of Born to Run on the all-time list, but maybe with all the other inconsistencies between the all-time list and the decade lists, one more isn't that much of a problem.

There are already 4 Marley/Wailers songs on this list, and I think 5 would be too many, so if that's the case, then it comes down to whether replacing one of the songs that are now on the list would be a good move. "Jamming" is the lowest one on the list, and it's the only one of the four not on the all-time list, so if one were to be dropped, I lean toward that one. I don't see a big overall difference between "Jamming and "Is This Love", but "Is This Love" does appear to have a slight overall edge, with the only advantage that "Jamming" appears to have being a not very big advantage in acclaim.

With "Highway to Hell" at #51, moving it higher would mean that something would have to leave the top 50, so care should be taken that the best choice is made for that. As I don't think black artists are over-represented at all in the top 50, to keep a good balance, I'd want whatever drops to #51 to not be a soul/funk/disco/rap song. Some candidates:

Rocket Man: According to acclaimedmusic, this is the least acclaimed song in the top 50, but just barely, and it's still pretty highly acclaimed. A top 10 hit in both the US and UK, 5x platinum in the US and 4x in the UK, and a lot of listens at spotify.

London Calling: Very high acclaim is the main thing that it has. Platinum in the UK and good lasting popularity, but not as good as most of the top 50.

Brown Sugar: The main problem here is that its popularity seems to have fallen off in recent years. It was a big hit at the time in both the US and UK and is highly acclaimed, but I'm starting to think that even if it stays in the top 50, #37 is a bit high.

My Sweet Lord and Heart of Gold: Strong across the board, but are they strong enough to beat at least one of the other songs listed above?

[ManPerson]

Bo Rhap ahead of Born to Run is definitely arguable. I don't think Bo Rhap will ever go ahead of Born to Run on the all-time list, but maybe with all the other inconsistencies between the all-time list and the decade lists, one more isn't that much of a problem.

It's pretty hard to convince the three of you to make changes to that list, from my experience.

[ManPerson]

What's the justification for 25 or 6 to 4 > If You Leave Me Now. I'm guessing you don't consider IYLMN to be rock?

[Brian]

Yes, or at best, borderline rock. I thought it best to represent Chicago with a song that's definitely rock.

[ManPerson]

- I could see Mamma Mia being added to the list since it has strong streaming numbers, as well as inspiring a hugely successful musical and movie, so it's likely that Spotify numbers alone would actually underestimate the song's popularity.

- I'd also have Take it Easy higher, strong streaming numbers, as well as being the most popular song off of a huge selling greatest hits album, two facts that indicate really strong lasting popularity. I'd also give it a lot of credit for the Eagles influence on soft rock since it was their debut and breakthrough single.

- I'd have Paranoid a bit higher. I think when compared with Sex Machine, both songs are very influential while Paranoid's win in lasting popularity trumps Sex Machine's win in acclaim. I think it's win in acclaim and influence should also put it above Free Bird, Smoke On the Water and Ain't No Sunshine, though I guess in SOtW's case influence is somewhat comparable, since it has huge lasting popularity in its own right.

- Blitzkrieg Bop seems low. I think the only part of the criteria that Kashmir or Won't Get Fooled Again, for example clearly beat the song is initial popularity. I also think it's comparable with Walk on the Wild Side with acclaim being close, Walk on the Wild Side taking popularity and Blitzkrieg Bop clearly taking influence.

- I feel like Somebody to Love's popularity should bring it on here, but I assume that you consider 5 Queen songs to be a bit much. Similar situation for Beast of Burden or Wild Horses.

[Brian]

I don't weigh influence much for this list, mainly because I usually find it hard to credit influence to an individual song. I think influence indirectly affects the list anyway, because I think it affects acclaimmusic.net rankings. For example, I doubt that "Rapper's Delight" would rank as highly there if not for its influence.

"Take It Easy" does have strong streaming numbers, but the greatest hits album is filled with popular songs, so I don't think we can conclude much from that. The song could be a little higher though. I'm thinking 6 positions, so that it's in between "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" and "I Wanna Be Sedated". That would also move it 2 positions higher on the 1972 list, from #15 to #13.

I think that I'll stop work on this list for today, but if you want to comment more, that's fine. I'll see it tomorrow.

[ManPerson]

Ok, all the comments I leave will be edited into two posts above this one.

[Fido]

Good update!

[Brian]

Thanks, Fido!

[Brian]

- I could see Mamma Mia being added to the list since it has strong streaming numbers, as well as inspiring a hugely successful musical and movie, so it's likely that Spotify numbers alone would actually underestimate the song's popularity.

- I'd also have Take it Easy higher, strong streaming numbers, as well as being the most popular song off of a huge selling greatest hits album, two facts that indicate really strong lasting popularity. I'd also give it a lot of credit for the Eagles influence on soft rock since it was their debut and breakthrough single.

- I'd have Paranoid a bit higher. I think when compared with Sex Machine, both songs are very influential while Paranoid's win in lasting popularity trumps Sex Machine's win in acclaim. I think it's win in acclaim and influence should also put it above Free Bird, Smoke On the Water and Ain't No Sunshine, though I guess in SOtW's case influence is somewhat comparable, since it has huge lasting popularity in its own right.

- Blitzkrieg Bop seems low. I think the only part of the criteria that Kashmir or Won't Get Fooled Again, for example clearly beat the song is initial popularity. I also think it's comparable with Walk on the Wild Side with acclaim being close, Walk on the Wild Side taking popularity and Blitzkrieg Bop clearly taking influence.

- I feel like Somebody to Love's popularity should bring it on here, but I assume that you consider 5 Queen songs to be a bit much. Similar situation for Beast of Burden or Wild Horses.

"Mamma Mia" could be added, but since it wasn't a very big hit in the US, isn't especially acclaimed, its Spotify numbers are very good but not huge, and ABBA already has 2 songs on the list, I don't think it's a must. I'm running low on songs that I don't mind dropping from the list, since most near the bottom of the list are there to represent a particular artist or subgenre. I suppose I could drop "Takin' Care of Business" to make room for it, unless you propose another song to add that I think is more worthy than "Mamma Mia".

I talked about "Take It Easy" in a previous post.

I'll move "Paranoid" up a bit, but on it and "Blitzkrieg Bop", note what I said before about influence. That being the case, I'll put BB 2 positions higher, but I think that's enough.

I do think there's enough Queen and Stones on the list, especially Queen, considering that "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" comprise one entry, so while they have 4 entries, they really already have 5 songs.

[ManPerson]

I suppose I could drop "Takin' Care of Business" to make room for it, unless you propose another song to add that I think is more worthy than "Mamma Mia".

"The Passenger" was an omission that came to mind, strong acclaim and lasting popularity. I think it takes popularity by more than Lust for Life takes acclaim.

[Brian]

I replaced "Lust for Life" with "The Passenger", and substituted "Is This Love" for "Jamming".

In the process of looking into and making these changes, "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac came to my attention. It probably got left out before because Fleetwood Mac already have 3 songs, but still, that's 3 songs, not 4, and "The Chain" is pretty huge. I think it should have priority over "Mamma Mia". "The Chain" pretty much beats "Mamma Mia" in everything, except that it wasn't a single at the time. Of course, it was on a huge album, so it was never an obscurity.

[ManPerson]

I'd have A Horse with No Name higher. #1 hit in the US, over 1 billion streams on Spotify and it's also been shazamed over 8 million times, indicating it's played in public quite a bit as well. I think it's clearly a lot more popular, at least in recent years, than You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, with similar acclaim. Looking higher than that, it seems very comparable with The Joker.

I'd have YMCA a lot higher. Obviously a huge hit on release and while its Spotify numbers aren't huge, this definitely seems like a case where Spotify doesn't quite capture a song's popularity, since it's been a mainstay at sporting events and parties for decades and, tbf this is just from my experience, it seems like pretty much everyone knows the song at least somewhat. Based on this it's the 5th most played song of the 1970s at parties. I see it as being very comparable with Funkytown.

Also, in terms of ABBA songs, I'd say Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) should be added since its lasting popularity is quite huge with over 1.2 billion streams, over 900 million views on Youtube (across a couple videos) and over 11 million shazams. According to that link I mentioned earlier it also seems to be played a ton at parties. It seems to blow pretty much every song in the 200-250 range out of the water in lasting popularity. Also, personally, I don't think 3 ABBA songs would be excessive at all considering how successful they were from 1974-1981.

[Brian]

I think that the question of "A Horse with No Name" vs. "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" is more a matter of the latter being a little high than the former being a little low. "Black Magic Woman" is a similar case to YASNY. So I'll move those 2 songs below AHwNN. "The Joker" is 7x platinum in the US, which is part of the reason for its high placement.

I'll promote YMCA 6 positions (131-125).

I think "The Chain" beats Gimme!, but Gimme! probably does beat "Mamma Mia". I had mentioned "Takin' Care of Business" as a possible song to drop, and now looking for a second one, I suppose "Alone Again (Naturally)" could be dropped on the grounds that it's questionable as a rock song, even if it is popular and acclaimed. So I think Gimme! can be added as long as another doesn't come up that I think is more deserving.

I'm not familiar with shazams.

[ManPerson]

Shazam is an app used to find the name of songs you hear in public so if a song is shazamed a lot, it's likely that it's played a lot in either restaurants, department store, parties, festivals, or something like that.

[Fido]

I'll add that even if I think it's a good idea to use Shazam, it also shows that people are not that familiar with the song. A song that is played all the time but everybody knows already doesn't need to be shazamed.