Top 50 Songs of 1974

For individuals who weren’t round within the yr 1974 — or as a refresher for many who have been — listed here are just a few notable occasions.

In February, publishing heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped by a gaggle of radicals referred to as the Symbionese Liberation Military, prompting one of many greatest nationwide information tales of its period. In August, President Richard Nixon resigned and President Gerald Ford instantly assumed workplace, absolutely pardoning Nixon a number of months later. In October, Muhammad Ali defeated George Foreman within the “Rumble within the Jungle” struggle in Zaire, Africa, successfully reclaiming the world heavyweight title.

Throughout all of this, one of the fruitful batches of latest music of the complete decade was ushered in. Landmark releases from David Bowie, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dolly Parton, the Eagles, Steely Dan and numerous others arrived — songs that, 5 a long time later, are nonetheless performed on heavy rotation.

Beneath, we’re having a look on the High 50 Songs of 1974 as voted by UCR employees. To start, a handful of songs tied for the No. 50 slot…

50. Sparks, “This City Ain’t Massive Sufficient for the Each of Us”
From: Kimono My Home

“My voice ain’t a ‘rock’ voice,” singer Russell Mael advised The Phrase at one level, talking concerning the falsetto he utilized in “This City Ain’t Massive Sufficient for the Each of Us.” “It is not soulful, within the conventional rock approach. It is not about ‘guts.’ It is untrained, unschooled, I by no means questioned why I used to be singing excessive. It simply occurred, dictated by the songs.” This monitor was not a success in America, however carried out remarkably effectively in a number of European nations.

50. Ohio Gamers, “Hearth”
From: Hearth

The sirens initially of Ohio Gamers’ “Hearth” can solely imply one factor: purple sizzling funk is on the best way. The opening monitor to the album of the identical identify, “Hearth” was an enormous hit for the band, going to No. 1 on the Billboard Scorching 100 and the Scorching Soul Singles chart inside only a few months. It turned certainly one of their signature songs.

50. Neil Younger, “Ambulance Blues”
From: On the Seashore

Neil Younger will need to have identified that “Ambulance Blues,” the almost nine-minute closing monitor to On the Seashore would not likely be appropriate for radio play given its size, however that was hardly the purpose of the music, nor the album as an entire. Right here, Younger yearns for the sooner days of his musical profession, earlier than excessive and disenchanting fame pounced on him — “Again within the previous folky days / The air was magic after we performed.”

49. Chicago, “(I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Lengthy”
From: Chicago VII

“(I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Lengthy,” penned by trombonist James Pankow, was the primary single to be launched from Chicago VII, and it definitely proved the proper determination. The music went to No. 9 within the U.S. (Pankow’s different sole songwriting contribution to the album was “Mongonucleosis.”)

48. Raspberries, “In a single day Sensation”
From: Beginning Over

Songwriters will typically say that songs will unfold in the identical approach motion pictures do, with a plot and a solid of characters. That is what occurred with “In a single day Sensation” by Raspberries, written by lead singer Eric Carmen. “It was written very theatrically,” he recalled within the liner notes to 2005’s Raspberries Best. “The primary scene was, you’ll be able to image Abbey Street Studios, this nice, large darkish room with an actual excessive digital camera and this one highlight on the singer and it was like this man singing in his front room, occupied with the music enterprise. … Visually, I used to be making an attempt to get on a report what I used to be seeing in my head.”

47. Patti Smith, “Piss Manufacturing facility”
From: 1974 Single

Because of a person named Sam Wagstaff, a distinguished creative curator and benefactor, Patti Smith was in a position to finance the making of her very first single, the double-sided “Hey Joe” / “Piss Manufacturing facility.” The previous is a Jimi Hendrix cowl, however the latter was the younger punk poet’s very first authentic launch. Like plenty of her songs, it stemmed from a poem she’d been writing. “I used to be saying that as an adolescent, I nonetheless had want — want to do effectively,” she later advised Rolling Stone. “Maybe a number of the individuals within the manufacturing facility misplaced all want. I can perceive how that may occur. … What ‘Piss Manufacturing facility’ is about is: somebody who within the midst of the useless felt alive.”

46. The Doobie Brothers, “Black Water”
From: What As soon as Had been Vices Now Are Habits

Generally, a bit of noodling goes a good distance. Whereas the Doobie Brothers have been at work on their 1973 album The Captain and Me, Patrick Simmons was simply playing around on his guitar in between takes. “All [of a] sudden I heard the talk-back go on,” Simmons recalled to Guitar Participant in 2016, “and [producer] Ted Templeman says: ‘What’s that?’ I stated: ‘It is just a bit riff that I got here up with that I have been tweaking with.’ He goes: ‘I really like that. You actually ought to write a music utilizing that riff.'” And he did: 1974’s “Black Water.”

45. Blue Swede, “Hooked on a Feeling”
From: Hooked on a Feeling

“Hooked on a Feeling” was first recorded and launched by B.J. Thomas in 1968, a No. 5 hit. Six years later, the Swedish rock group Blue Swede took the music even increased to the No. 1 slot with their 1974 recording, which was modeled off a 1971 cowl by Jonathan King.

44. Unhealthy Firm, “Prepared for Love”
From: Unhealthy Firm

It is not likely stealing when you achieve this from your self. “Prepared for Love,” penned by Mick Ralphs, was first launched by Mott the Hoople in 1972. Ralphs, who sang lead on the monitor, was by no means fairly glad along with his vocal efficiency, so when he left Mott the Hoople and shaped Unhealthy Firm, the music received a second likelihood in 1974 with singer Paul Rodgers.

43. Nazareth, “Love Hurts”
From: Hair of the Canine

“Love Hurts” has been lined by plenty of artists through the years, together with the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Joan Jett, Rod Stewart and extra. However essentially the most profitable model got here from Nazareth, who launched it as a single in 1974. It went to No. 8 within the U.S. and topped the charts in a number of different nations.

42. Kraftwerk, “Autobahn”
From: Autobahn

Kraftwerk’s 20-plus minute music “Autobahn,” was launched with solely German lyrics, however the verbal language wasn’t the purpose. The general feeling of being on the street was way more vital. “It was an environmental composition, a sound portray,” lead singer Ralf Hutter advised The Guardian in 2017. “We have been touring in Germany and after we performed in different cities, we did not have cash to remain in motels. So we have been at all times driving on the autobahn, going someplace and coming again at evening on a regular basis.”

41. Cat Stevens, “Oh Very Younger”
From: Buddha and the Chocolate Field

The attention-grabbing factor about Cat Stevens is that he at all times appeared in a position to impart a way of knowledge far past his age. He was solely 25 years previous when he launched “Oh Very Younger,” a No. 10 hit that pointed to the brevity of life itself: “You are solely dancin’ on this earth for a short time / And although your desires might toss and switch you now / They are going to vanish away like your dads finest denims.”

40. Joe Walsh, “Flip to Stone”
From: So What

“Flip to Stone,” first launched by Barnstorm in 1972, was written about President Nixon’s administration, the Vietnam Warfare and the protests it triggered. “In these days it felt like the federal government’s precedence was not the inhabitants,” Joe Walsh advised Rolling Stone in 2016. “They’d an agenda that was about one thing aside from doing what was essentially good for the nation.” Two years later, Walsh recorded the music once more for his personal solo album, So What.

39. Gordon Lightfoot, “Sunset”
From: Sunset

Gordon Lightfoot solely landed one No. 1 hit on the Billboard Scorching 100: the title monitor to his 1974 album Sunset. “I feel my girlfriend was out together with her associates one evening at a bar whereas I used to be at residence writing songs,” he advised American Songwriter in 2008, recalling its writing course of. “I believed, ‘I’m wondering what she’s doing together with her associates at that bar!’ It is that sort of a sense. ‘The place is my real love tonight? What’s my real love doing?'”

38. Grand Funk Railroad, “Some Sort of Great”
From: All of the Ladies within the World Beware!!!

For those who’ve by no means heard the unique model of “Some Sort of Great,” recorded by the R&B group Soul Brothers Six, it is extremely really useful. You’ll inform precisely the place Grand Funk Railroad was in a position to pull the energy from for his or her enormously profitable 1974 cowl of the music.

37. Dolly Parton, “I Will At all times Love You”
From: Jolene

A lot has been written about Dolly Parton’s “I Will At all times Love You,” however arguably essentially the most compelling story to have been born out of its creation is the one involving Elvis Presley. Because the music climbed the nation charts in 1974, Presley’s supervisor, Colonel Parker, knowledgeable Parton that his shopper wished to cowl the music, however that his commonplace process included being given half the publishing rights. Torn however decided to stay to her weapons, Parton declined the supply. Years later, she gave Whitney Houston permission to report the music. “When Whitney’s got here out, I made sufficient cash to purchase Graceland,” Parton quipped to Nation Music Tv in 2006.

36. Stevie Marvel, “You Have not Completed Nothin'”
From: Fulfillingness’ First Finale

Joe Walsh wasn’t the one artist taking purpose at Nixon in 1974. Stevie Marvel voiced his personal opinion on “You Have not Completed Nothin,'” which featured the Jackson 5 as backing vocalists. “All people guarantees you the whole lot,” Marvel stated when the one was launched, “however in the long run, nothing comes out of it. … I am sick and uninterested in all their lies.”

35. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Name Me the Breeze”
From: Second Serving to

Penned by J.J. Cale, there’s arguably no extra iconic model of “Name Me the Breeze” than Lynyrd Skynyrd’s. “Ronnie [Van Zant] was a giant fan of J.J. Cale,” guitarist Rickey Medlocke advised UCR in 2023. “And I am telling you, you understand, in our historical past, and in our previous, I imply, there are a number of songs that you simply get into the present and there is a number of songs that you simply can not neglect to do. And ‘Name Me the Breeze’ is certainly one of them.”

34. Billy Preston, “Nothing From Nothing”
From: The Youngsters & Me

Billy Preston’s “Nothing From Nothing” is noteworthy for a few causes. The primary, after all, is that it was a big hit, reaching the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Scorching 100 and staying on the charts for 4 and a half months. The second is that Preston carried out it when he appeared as one of many two first ever musical friends on Saturday Night time Reside in October 1975. (The opposite was Janis Ian.)

33. Labelle, “Woman Marmalade”
From: Nightbirds

Patti LaBelle didn’t perceive the French lyrics in 1974’s “Woman Marmalade” when it was first introduced to her, however she did not care. All she knew was the music could be a giant one for her band. “For as soon as I can say ‘sure’ and actually imply ‘sure’ as a result of we have been on our approach to New Orleans with Allen Toussaint again within the day earlier than he handed,” she stated in a 2023 interview. “As soon as we received this ‘Woman M’ music I stated, ‘We now have to report this primary, ‘trigger it is a hit,’ and it was a success!” (It held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Scorching 100 for an entire week.)

32. Eagles, “Better of My Love”
From: On the Border

“Glenn [Frey] discovered the tune; the tune I feel got here from a Fred Neil report,” J.D. Souther, co-writer of “Better of My Love” recalled to Acoustic Storm in 2009. “I don’t know who wrote the primary strains; we wrote it in London.” It turned the Eagles’ very first No. 1 hit, although definitely not the final.

31. Funkadelic, “Pink Scorching Mama”
From: Standing on the Verge of Getting It On

When guitarist Eddie Hazel returned to Funkadelic for the primary time in three years, it was as if the items fell into place. You may hear the aid and cohesion of the group on a music like “Pink Scorching Mama,” co-written by Hazel.

30. Unhealthy Firm, “Unhealthy Firm”
From: Unhealthy Firm

Self-titling an album is one factor, self-titling certainly one of its tracks is one other. However that is what Unhealthy Firm did in 1974. Why? “I feel as a result of it had by no means actually been carried out, so far as I knew,” Paul Rodgers advised Spinner in 2010. “I believed it was attention-grabbing to return out as a brand-new band with its personal theme music.”

29. Elton John, “The Bitch Is Again”
From: Caribou

You actually by no means know when a very good title goes to strike you. Within the case of Elton John’s “The Bitch Is Again,” it got here from Bernie Taupin’s spouse, Maxine Feibelman, who coined the phrase sooner or later when John was in a poor temper. From there the music, a No. 4 hit within the U.S., virtually wrote itself.

28. Rufus and Chaka Kahn, “Inform Me One thing Good”
From: Rags to Rufus

You may assume that Rufus and Chaka Kahn’s “Inform Me One thing Good” has a kind of Stevie Marvel high quality to it — and that may make sense, given he wrote the monitor. Pay particular consideration to Tony Maiden’s guitar speak field half, one of many first situations of the device being utilized in a success music.

27. Rush, “Working Man”
From: Rush

Even a long time after its 1974 launch, Geddy Lee nonetheless cited “Working Man” as his favourite music to play stay — and it is change into a fan favourite, too. It is becoming then that this was the final music the band performed stay collectively at their remaining live performance in 2015.

26. Billy Joel, “The Entertainer”
From: Streetlife Serenade

By his personal admission, Billy Joel did not have loads to say on 1974’s Streetlife Serenade — he frankly was too busy touring to provide you with a lot materials for a brand new album. Joel wrote about this stress in “The Entertainer,” a cynical kind of ode to the relentless grind that’s being a working musician in an business that strikes at lightning velocity. “I will not be right here in one other yr,” he sings on the finish of the monitor, “if I do not keep on the charts.”

25. Kiss, “Black Diamond”
From: Kiss

Paul Stanley had nearly all the required components for “Black Diamond,” the closing monitor to Kiss’ debut album. But it surely was Gene Simmons who offered the ultimate puzzle piece: the riff. “It is all about association and embellishment,” Stanley advised Guitar World in 1996. “That is what you are speculated to do in a band: are available and add one thing.”

24. Electrical Mild Orchestra, “Cannot Get It Out of My Head”
From: Eldorado

ELO first shaped in 1970, but it surely wasn’t till 1974 that they started reaching a wider viewers, thanks partly to Eldorado. The band landed their very first High 10 hit within the U.S. with “Cannot Get It Out of My Head,” although it did not chart of their native nation. This was nonetheless a welcome improvement contemplating Jeff Lynne had purposefully written the monitor to show some extent to his father, who had advised him his songs had no tune. “So I stated, ‘I’’ll present you a tune then,'” he recalled on the Final Traditional Rock Nights radio present in 2019.

23. Ringo Starr, “No No Music”
From: Goodnight Vienna

Penned by Hoyt Axton and David Jackson, “No No Music” is meant to be a humorous tackle, effectively, drug dependancy – typically you must snort to maintain from crying. Ringo Starr, on the time he recorded the monitor, was over a decade away from changing into sober himself, making his model much more tongue-in-cheek. In any case, it was a success, reaching No. 3 within the U.S.

22. Bob Dylan, “Perpetually Younger” (Sluggish Model)
From: Planet Waves

Over the course of his profession, Bob Dylan has change into well-known for reinventing his personal songs, placing new spins on them such that the result’s one thing completely totally different. Again in 1974, he did this within the studio with “Perpetually Younger,” two variations of which, one quicker and one slower, have been included on Planet Waves. It is the slower model, although, that strikes extra of an emotional chord.

21. Massive Star, “September Gurls”
From: Radio Metropolis

“I actually liked the mid-’60s British pop music, all two and a half minutes or three minutes lengthy, actually interesting songs,” Alex Chilton of Massive Star advised The Unbiased in 2010. “So I’ve at all times aspired to that very same format, that is what I like.” “September Gurls,” which didn’t chart on the time of its launch, is a wonderful instance of this.

20. ABBA, “Waterloo”
From: Waterloo

ABBA’s “Waterloo” was particularly written with the intention of being entered into the 1974 Eurovision Music Contest, the nineteenth working of this system. This mission was profitable, however past that, it was a giant step for ABBA — “Waterloo” made it to No. 6 within the U.S., serving to carry them to a wider American viewers.

19. Kiss, “Strutter”
From: Kiss

Not like “Black Diamond” above, “Strutter” was really a collaborative effort between Stanley and Simmons, who have been credited as co-writers. Utilizing a music Simmons had written referred to as “Stanley the Parrot,” Stanley modified the groove a bit and wrote new lyrics. “With ‘Strutter,’ I used to be making an attempt to approximate the texture of the Stones’ ‘Brown Sugar,’ to write down a music that had swagger and angle and a bravado to it,” Stanley advised Traditional Rock in 2021. “As soon as the texture of the music modified it appeared to lend itself to a lyric which captured that swagger.”

18. Harry Chapin, “Cat’s within the Cradle”
From: Verities & Balderdash

It is presumably the perfect identified music concerning the circle of familial life: Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s within the Cradle.” “Frankly, this music scares me to demise,” Chapin as soon as stated of it, noting that he was pondering of his personal relationship along with his son, Josh, when writing the monitor.

17. Genesis, “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”
From: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Understandably, the music of Genesis is just not everybody’s cup of tea. However for prog rockers, it does not get way more seminal than The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Its title monitor was launched as a single, and although it didn’t chart, it was nonetheless performed typically on American radio stations — a tantalizing style of the remainder of the LP.

16. John Lennon, “No matter Will get You Through the Night time”
From: Partitions and Bridges

Amazingly, 1974’s “No matter Will get You Through the Night time,” was the one music of John Lennon’s that went to No. 1 whereas he was alive. “At evening he liked to channel-surf, and he would decide up phrases from all of the exhibits,” Lennon’s then-girlfriend Might Pang stated to Radio Occasions journal in 2005. “One time, he was watching Reverend Ike, a well-known black evangelist, who was saying, ‘Let me let you know guys, it does not matter, it is no matter will get you thru the evening.’ John liked it and stated, ‘I’ve received to write down it down or I am going to neglect it.’ He at all times stored a pad and pen by the mattress. That was the start of ‘No matter Will get You Through the Night time.'”

15. Jackson Browne, “Late for the Sky”
From: Late for the Sky

You’d probably by no means guess it, however Jackson Browne was simply 25 years previous when he wrote the achingly tender “Late for the Sky. “I keep in mind it very effectively,” Browne advised The Dallas Morning Information in 2015. “I keep in mind writing the strains, ‘Now, for me, some phrases come straightforward, however I do know that they do not imply that a lot, in contrast with the issues which can be stated when lovers contact.’ That sort of broke me down proper there, and it’s extremely emotional.”

14. Eagles, “Already Gone”
From: On the Border

Again in 1968, songwriter Jack Tempchin was the supervisor of an unassuming membership in San Diego. He and fellow songwriter Robb Strandlund would typically present the leisure for the membership themselves, however one night they have been within the again room of the venue once they discovered a mysterious jug of liquid, which they proceeded to drink. “So, we have been ingesting out of this jug and we began to really feel actually good, and I stated, ‘Let’s write a rustic music,'” he recalled to Songfacts. (The jug contained onerous cider, it turned out.) “So in about 20 minutes within the again room there, we wrote ‘Already Gone.’ The refrain goes woo hoo hoo as a result of I simply felt so good out of the blue.” Tempchin despatched a tape of the music to Glenn Frey and the Eagles took it from there.

13. Bob Marley and the Wailers, “No Girl, No Cry”
From: Natty Dread

It is not precisely clear what position Bob Marley performed within the writing of “No Girl, No Cry,” as a result of he gave the composer credit score to a person named Vincent Ford, a buddy of Marley’s who ran a soup kitchen within the neighborhood Marley grew up in. Thus, the royalty funds Ford acquired helped maintain the kitchen afloat and feeding individuals in want.

12. The Rolling Stones, “It is Solely Rock ‘n Roll (However I Like It)”
From: It is Solely Rock ‘n Roll

“The concept of the music has to do with our public persona on the time,” Mick Jagger would recall of “It is Solely Rock ‘n Roll (However I Like It)” in the 1993 compilation Bounce Again. “I used to be getting a bit uninterested in individuals having a go, all that, ‘oh, it is inferior to their final one’ enterprise. The one sleeve had an image of me with a pen digging into me as if it have been a sword. It was a lighthearted, anti-journalistic kind of factor.”

11. Joni Mitchell, “Assist Me”
From: Court docket and Spark

Working with the jazz group Tom Scott’s L.A. Categorical as her backing band, Joni Mitchell made essentially the most profitable single and the one High 10 of her profession in 1974: “Assist Me.” It is not straightforward to distill simply how influential Mitchell’s ’70s work was to different musicians, however here is an instance. “Assist Me” was later referenced in Prince’s “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker:” “‘Oh, my favourite music,’ she stated / And it was Joni singing: ‘Assist me, I feel I am falling.'”

10. Al Inexperienced, “Take Me to the River”
From: Al Inexperienced Explores Your Thoughts

Quite a lot of artists have recorded Al Inexperienced’s “Take Me to the River:” Speaking Heads, Levon Helm, Annie Lennox and Bryan Ferry amongst them. However the definitive model, that includes the Memphis Horns, stays Inexperienced’s authentic 1974 minimize.

9. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing But”
From: Not Fragile

Randy Bachman didn’t intend to make an enormous hit single out of a crude joke music, however that is what occurred with “You Ain’t Seen Nothing But,” which he purposefully sang with a stutter in an effort to make enjoyable of his brother and Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s supervisor, Gary. “He had a speech obstacle,” Bachman stated in Fred Bronson’s 1988 guide, The Billboard E-book of Quantity One Hits. “We thought, only for enjoyable…we might take this music and I would stutter and we’d ship it to him. He’ll have the one copy on the earth of this music by BTO.” Clearly, issues modified and the music, full with the stuttering, was included on 1974’s Not Fragile.

8. Queen, “Killer Queen”
From: Sheer Coronary heart Assault

“It is a couple of excessive class name lady,” Freddie Mercury defined of “Killer Queen” to NME in 1974. “I am making an attempt to say that stylish individuals might be whores as effectively. That is what the music is about, although I would desire individuals to place their interpretation upon it — to learn into it what they like.” Not solely did “Killer Queen” go to No. 2 within the U.Okay., it reached No. 12 within the U.S., Queen’s first American hit.

7. Linda Ronstadt, “You are No Good”
From: Coronary heart Like a Wheel

Hell actually hath no fury like a lady scorned, particularly whenever you place that girl in a recording studio. Linda Ronstadt was not the primary to report “You are No Good,” however her model turned the definitive one. She’d already been performing the music stay together with her band, however her studio minimize went to No. 1 on the Billboard chart.

6. Dolly Parton, “Jolene”
From: Jolene

In the meantime in 1974, Dolly Parton was recording a music fairly totally different from “You are No Good,” one concerning the desperation felt when a prettier girl enters the image. Based on Parton, “Jolene” was impressed by an awfully pleasant financial institution teller she observed flirting together with her husband once they have been newlyweds. However for what it is price, the couple has been married for near 60 years.

5. Steely Dan, “Rikki Do not Lose That Quantity”
From: Pretzel Logic

By 1974’s Pretzel Logic, it was abundantly clear that Steely Dan, the band, actually referred to its core two songwriters, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. However nonetheless essential to the recording of the music “Rikki Do not Lose That Quantity” was drummer Jim Gordon (a decade earlier than he was sentenced to 16 years to life in jail for murdering his mom) and guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, who joined the Doobie Brothers not lengthy after.

4. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Candy Residence Alabama”
From: Second Serving to

“Flip it up,” Ronnie Van Zant confidently says on the high of “Candy Residence Alabama.” At some point guitarist Gary Rossington was messing round within the studio. “I had this little riff,” he recalled to Backyard & Gun in 2015. “It is the little choosing half and I stored enjoying it time and again after we have been ready on everybody to reach for rehearsal. Ronnie and I have been sitting there, and he stored saying, ‘play that once more.'” Van Zant added lyrics and Ed King helped write the remainder of the music, leading to certainly one of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s signature songs.

3. Aerosmith, “Identical Outdated Music and Dance”
From: Get Your Wings

There’s an entire assortment of artists whose sophomore album ended up a droop. Aerosmith was not certainly one of them. They got here extra into their very own on 1974’s Get Your Wings, particularly on “Identical Outdated Music and Dance.” “I advised them that we must always herald some horns to carry out their rhythm and blues aspect,” producer Jack Douglas recalled to Music Radar in 2012. “They positively had that sort of type and sound already.”

2. Elton John, “Do not Let the Solar Go Down on Me”
From: Caribou

“I wish to be extra attention-grabbing than a very good previous ‘I really like you, you’re keen on me, my coronary heart will break when you go away me,” Bernie Taupin advised Esquire in 2012. “Throw in a curveball. ‘Do not Let the Solar Go Down on Me.’ Put a darkish twist on them.” Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnston of the Seashore Boys sang backing vocals on this No. 2 hit.

1. David Bowie, “Insurgent Insurgent”
From: Diamond Canine

If there’s a stronger ode to gender-bending, unbridled glam rock than David Bowie’s “Insurgent Insurgent,” we have no idea it. With one of the recognizable guitar riffs in music historical past, it is not tough to see why it turned a crowd favourite, the sort of music that invitations one to bounce and throw warning to the wind. Who cares concerning the future when you’ll be able to stay within the current?