Looking Back at the 26 Biggest Hit Songs of 1970

Jim Farber

July 15, 2023 at 12:52 PM·13 min read

You can learn a lot about any given year by listening to its most popular songs. In 1970, the No. 1–selling single was Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” an ode to everlasting hope and unwavering faith. Nearly as popular were the Beatles’ “Let It Be,” “O-o-h Child” by the Five Stairsteps and B.J. Thomas’ “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” all songs meant to soothe and uplift.

It’s no accident singles like these wound up defining life in 1970, a turbulent year in America and beyond. “It was a time of the Vietnam war, riots in cities and [following] the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy,” says Keni Burke, who, as part of the Five Stairsteps, crooned the calming anthem “O-o-h Child,” which assured us that “things are gonna get easier.” Burke says that the music of that era was “a Band-Aid for what was ailing us.”

“Given so much unrest, everyone was exhausted,” says David Browne, author of Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970. “It’s no coincidence that the top songs of the year were as much hymns as pop songs.”

But if such anthems brought people together, the bands who created them were, at the time, falling apart. Both Simon & Garfunkel and the Beatles broke up in 1970, as did Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Meanwhile, great new musicians and groups rose to take their place, including Elton John, the Jackson 5, the Carpenters and James Taylor, all of whom released breakthrough songs in that same 12-month stretch. Whole new genres emerged as well, making 1970 a banner year that will live forever in musical history—and in our memories. These are the songs that resonated so deeply back then, we still sing them today.

Need a bridge over troubled water? Listen to our Spotify playlist of 1970’s most soothing hits below.

Songs of Support

1. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (Simon & Garfunkel)

One of the most stirring pop songs of all time doubles as one of the longest. At nearly five minutes, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” exceeded the airplay length allowed for most radio singles. But that didn’t stop DJs from making it the most played song of the year. Its memorable title line was inspired by the Swan Silvertones’ version of the old gospel spiritual “Mary Don’t You Weep,” which contained the phrase, “I’ll be your bridge over deep water.” Some S&G fans actually thought Paul Simon’s partner, Art Garfunkel, wrote the song because he sang it alone. That misunderstanding was only one rift that contributed to the duo’s split. By the time “Bridge” won Song and Record of the Year at the Grammys in 1971, Simon & Garfunkel had called it quits.

2. “Let It Be” (The Beatles)

About a month after “Bridge” appeared, one of the Liverpool lads’ most beloved songs was released. It enjoyed the highest opening chart position of a single ever on the Billboard Hot 100 up to that point, starting at No. 6 before quickly ascending to No. 1. Interestingly, the “mother Mary” reference in the lyrics didn’t refer to the Virgin Mary but instead to Paul McCartney’s mother, who had died of cancer when he was 14. Paul’s wife Linda sang backup on the track, marking her only appearance on a Beatles song. John Lennon later said he didn’t like “Let It Be.” He thought it sounded like something McCartney would have recorded with his post-Beatles band, Wings.

3. “O-o-h Child” (The Five Stairsteps)

Keni Burke was just 16 when he and his four siblings recorded this Top 10 smash. The group’s producer, Stan Vincent, wrote the song with plans to transform the Chicago-based Stairsteps from an R&B group to a mainstream pop act. Still, their record company initially released it as the B-side to the group’s cover of the Beatles’ “Dear Prudence.” Only when a Philadelphia DJ flipped it over did “Child” make its fast trip up the charts. “It was something nobody expected,” Burke, now 66, tells Parade. “But the soothing way my sister [Alohe] sang the intro touched people’s souls.”

4. “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (B.J. Thomas)

“Raindrops,” a jaunty statement of joy in the face of adversity (rain!), was written by the powerhouse team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a blockbuster pair-up for Paul Newman and Robert Redford. After the film appeared in the fall of 1969, the song started selling hundreds of thousands of copies per day. It became the first No. 1 single of 1970 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. “It was a very different-sounding song,” its singer, B.J. Thomas, later said. “Bacharach and David never had any qualms about trying to push the envelope.” Their pluck also helped “Raindrops” nab the Oscar for Best Original Song.

A Beatles Breakup

5. “Maybe I’m Amazed” (Paul McCartney)

One month after “Let It Be” appeared, McCartney announced the Beatles’ breakup. The same month, he issued his solo debut album, simply titled McCartney, which included its most-airplayed song, “Maybe I’m Amazed.” But “Maybe” wasn’t released as a single back then. Only when a live version appeared seven years later did it crack the Top 10.

6. “Instant Karma!” (John Lennon)

Lennon didn’t wait for the official end of the Beatles to release a solo song. Two months before the band’s breakup, he came out with “Instant Karma!,” credited to “John Ono Lennon with the Plastic Ono Band.” Boosted by producer Phil Spector’s giant “wall of sound” production, the song—built loosely around the Eastern religious belief that actions in this life will affect your future lives—cracked the Top 5. “The idea of instant karma was like instant coffee,” Lennon told Playboy magazine. “Presenting something [old] in a new form.” Lennon wrote and recorded the song in one day; George Harrison played guitar.

7. “My Sweet Lord” (George Harrison)

While everyone might have expected McCartney or Lennon to score the first post-Beatles smash, Harrison had that distinction. “My Sweet Lord” got to No. 1 at the end of 1970, lifting his first post-Beatles solo album, All Things Must Pass, to the same spot. However, a cloud later descended over the song when the writer of the Chiffons’ hit “He’s So Fine” claimed Harrison had plagiarized his composition, and he sued. The court ruled that Harrison had “subconsciously” lifted from the song, ordering him to pay more than $1.5 million (later reduced to $587,000) to the other writer, kicking off a precedent of copyright infringement cases that continues to this day.

Singers & Songwriters

8. “Fire and Rain” (James Taylor)

It didn’t just make James Taylor a star, this song kick-started a whole singer-songwriter movement. By the next year, pop music was dominated by solo stars who both wrote and sang their own tunes, including Carole King, Carly Simon and Cat Stevens. Taylor’s song, which cracked the Top 5, contrasted sad lyrics—inspired by his stay in a mental institution—with the warmest possible vocal delivery. Carole King later said her hit “You’ve Got a Friend” was her answer to Taylor’s lyric, “I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend.” And that’s King playing piano on “Fire and Rain.”

9. “Your Song” (Elton John)

Sir Elton owes part of his breakthrough with “Your Song” to Three Dog Night. The group’s Danny Hutton tells Parade, “Elton gave us the demo of it and we recorded it for our album It Ain’t Easy in 1970. We thought about releasing it as a single,” says Hutton, now 80, “but in the end, we didn’t.” Even John‘s record company didn’t initially intend “Your Song” as a single; they buried it on the B-side of “Take Me to the Pilot.” But when DJs played his gorgeous ballad instead, it shot into the Top 10.

The Woodstock Experience

10. “Woodstock” (Joni Mitchell)

The mega music festival may have happened in August 1969, but its effect was more widely felt the next spring, when the three-hour theatrical film documentary about Woodstock was released, along with a blockbuster double album spotlighting some of its hottest performances. One of the most insightful perspectives on the event came from a songwriter who wasn’t even there. Joni Mitchell only watched its coverage on TV, yet somehow nailed its essence in her song “Woodstock.” Two other versions, besides her own, appeared in 1970, including a more popular take by her friends Crosby, Stills Nash & Young, which became an FM radio staple, and another by the U.K folk-rock band Matthews Southern Comfort, which went No. 1 in the U.K.

11. “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)” (Melanie)

At the same time Mitchell’s ode to Woodstock appeared, Melanie (the stage name of singer Melanie Anne Safka) released her own hosanna to the event. Her lyric reveled in the sheer size of the audience as well as in their emotional closeness she had experienced as a performer there. She collaborated on the song with the Edwin Hawkins Singers, who helped it scale the heights of gospel ecstasy.

What? An Anti-Drug Song?

12. “Mama Told Me Not to Come” (Three Dog Night)

In the late 1960s, Randy Newman wrote a song that made fun of a square guy who felt overwhelmed by people smoking pot at a party. That this oddball, satirical piece arrived during the peak of the sex-drugs-and-rock-’n’-roll culture may account for why Three Dog Night’s version became their first No. 1. Still, the group’s Danny Hutton tells Parade that “when we first tried to record it, I wasn’t going for it. But once we got the right arrangement, with that great groove, I knew it couldn’t be denied.” He became even more excited when the song pushed the Jackson 5’s “The Love You Save” out of the No. 1 spot. “I thought, We’re in pretty good company,” he says.

The Jacksons Rise

13-16. “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “The Love You Save” and “I’ll Be There” (The Jackson 5)

In a feat that suggested they could become the new Beatles, the Jackson 5 scored a mind-boggling four No. 1 hits in a row, starting with “I Want You Back” in January 1970 and ending with “I’ll Be There” in October. Their not-so-secret weapon was little brother Michael, who seemed to have been born with the soulfulness of a mature artist at his peak. The first three singles by the group brought the energy of the best Motown hits to a new high, while the last, “I’ll Be There,” represented one of the company’s most beautiful ballads.

Superstar Siblings

17. “(They Long to Be) Close to You” (The Carpenters)

The Jacksons weren’t the only family group to become superstars at the start of the new decade. Richard and Karen Carpenter began their tremendous run with “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” penned by the formidable team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. The song had been recorded several times before, by Richard Chamberlain, Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield. But only by pairing Bacharach’s sumptuous melody with Karen’s yearning vocal did it become a smash. “Close” held the No. 1 position for four weeks, going on to become the second-biggest-selling song of 1970 after “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

A Surprising LGBTQ Smash

18. “Lola” (The Kinks)

One year after the riots known as Stonewall uprising in New York City, an event often credited with igniting the gay rights movement, Ray Davies of the Kinks wrote a Top 10 hit that expressed acceptance about gender variations in a way no pop song had before. The song’s narrator meets someone he believes to be an attractive woman in a bar, only to later find out she’s a he. The revolutionary part is that, while the narrator doesn’t go home with his hook-up, he does note that it’s “a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world except for Lola,” an amazingly open view for its day.

The First Christian Rock Smash

19. “Spirit in the Sky” (Norman Greenbaum)

The hybrid format of Christian rock became a huge business in the 1980s, but back in 1970, it was unheard of for a song that directly mentioned Jesus to hit the Top 5. The guy who changed that, Norman Greenbaum, was actually Jewish, raised in an Orthodox home, no less. He later told the New York Times he got the idea for the song after seeing country star Porter Wagoner perform a gospel number on TV, writing it in 15 minutes. But it’s the sound of the music that really sold the song, especially its unique, fuzz-toned guitar.

O Canada!

20-22. “Snowbird” (Anne Murray), “American Woman” (The Guess Who) and “If You Could Read My Mind” (Gordon Lightfoot)

Before 1970, Canadian-born solo singers had a hard time selling records in the U.S. Only one, Paul Anka, had made it big. It was a slightly different story for groups. In 1969, the Guess Who became the first north-of-the-border band to become superstars here, scoring three Top 10 hits in 1969, including “No Time” and “These Eyes.” In May 1970, they did that one better by getting their first U.S. No. 1 with “American Woman.” Some listeners found the line “American woman, stay away from me” a bit misogynistic. But the band argued that they were just expressing their feelings of intimidation in the face of the bold women of the states. Either way, “Woman” seemed to break a curse for Canadians. By the summer, Nova Scotia’s Anne Murray became the first female singer from the north country to score a U.S. gold record, with “Snowbird,” while that fall, Gordon Lightfoot would release the single “If You Could Read My Mind,” which would make him Canada’s first solo male vocalist since Anka to crack the Top 5.

The Mystery Singer

23-26. “Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes” (Edison Lighthouse), “United We Stand” (Brotherhood of Man), “My Baby Loves Lovin”(White Plains) and “Gimme Dat Ding” (The Pipkins)

In 1970, four bubblegum songs popped their way toward the top, each recorded under a different, fake band name. Remarkably, they all featured the same vocalist, Tony Burrows, making him the “masked singer” of his day. “I was a musical mercenary,” Burrows tells Parade. In fact, he was a session singer who recorded backup vocals for scores of songs in London. Back then, he was so in demand, he had the clout to demand royalties from some of the recordings, something that usually only goes to songwriters. “Thank God I did that!” he says with a laugh.

Burrows, 78, says he doesn’t mind that the songs were credited to fake groups—recorded by studio musicians and singers, then attributed to various nonexistent musical groups for marketing purposes—rather than to him, except in the case of “Love Grows,” which he considers the best of them. For the silliest of the songs, “Gimme Dat Ding,” Burrows provided the signature “dirty old man” voice, something that came by accident. “I had been singing for hours and my voice was raw,” he says. Still, his “dirty” sound helped get the song banned in Italy, where they mistook the word “ding” for a sexual reference. Burrows said he loved being part of such bouncy hits. “People enjoyed those songs,” he says, “because we enjoyed making them.”

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