70 Number One Hits of the 70s, Vol. 1

• Artist: Various Artists
• Release Date: 1998
• Total Time: 42:47
• Type: Collection (various artists)
• Genre: Rock

Review

This is the first of six volumes of a set which, taken together, actually does add up to 70 tracks that were number one singles during the 1970s. The simple fact that the series lives up to its title, in total and in each individual volume, is more remarkable than you might think; there are albums out there with the phrase "number one hits" in their names that contain only a few actual chart-toppers. Justifying the title, though, is the best the series does. Otherwise, it is a randomly sequenced collection of often stylistically disparate recordings, with no annotations. Here, the hard rock classic "American Woman" by the Guess Who (which, by the way, is presented in its five-minute album version rather than in the two-minute edit that was the hit single) from 1970 is followed by the blue-eyed soul standard "Rich Girl" by Hall & Oates from 1977, with nothing tying the two together except their status as number one hits. Tony Orlando and Dawn's frothy "Knock Three Times," which sounds like something from the early '60s instead of the 1970 hit it was, is followed by Stories' "Brother Louie," a cautionary rock song about interracial love, and so on. Certainly, one gets a sense of the range of styles in the popular music of the '70s, and to the nostalgic baby boomer at whom the album and its successors are aimed, the music may make a certain sense if only by reason of association with cherished memories. Such considerations override the gag reflex one might suffer at listening to the chirpy sex ballad "Afternoon Delight" or what has always sounded like the terribly off-key Terry Jacks rendition of Jacques Brel's death lament, "Seasons in the Sun." A hit is a hit, after all, no matter what a critic says. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi

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