10 Classic ’70s Songs That Didn’t Originally Make the Top 40 (Though You Probably Think They Did)
In November, I made a list of well-known 1960s songs that, surprisingly, didn’t make the Top 40. Of course, the 1970s had its share of popular non-charters as well, though with the rise of FM radio, the emergence of album-oriented rock, and the shift in the industry toward album sales as opposed to primarily single sales, perhaps some of the songs on this list shouldn’t come as a big surprise.
Nevertheless, all of the artists are so iconic and the songs so well known that you figure they just had to have been single hits, right? As we learned last time, that’s not always the case, and so below are 10 examples (listed alphabetically by the artists) of iconic songs that didn’t make the Top 40 of the Billboard pop charts when originally released.
1) “Walk This Way,” Aerosmith (1975, did not chart)
I know what you’re thinking: how did this very well-known song not chart at all? Well technically it did chart — later. When Aerosmith released their landmark album Toys in the Attic in 1975, “Sweet Emotion” was the first single release, and while it only peaked at #36, the second single, “Walk this Way,” did not chart at all. As album sales picked up, the group re-released “Walk this Way” in 1976, and this time it went all the way #10, making it and “Dream On” (which had also been re-released after an initially poor performance) the group’s only two Top 10 singles prior to 1988. Of course, “Walk this Way” would chart yet again in 1986 as Run DMC’s version (with Aerosmith members Steven Tyler and Joe Perry backing them up) would surpass the original, peaking at #4.
2) “Sail on Sailor,” The Beach Boys (1973, peaked at #79)
The early 1970s were tough times for the Beach Boys; in 1972 it had been three years since their last Top 40 single, and it’d be three more years until their 1976 album 15 Big Ones would garner them Top 40 hits again with “Rock and Roll Music” (#5) and “It’s O.K.” (#29). The group was starting to go their separate ways, and few of them were interested in still doing those old girls/surfing/cars songs — even if anyone had been interested in hearing them. That didn’t mean they weren’t recording, but when the group offered their recently finished album Holland to Warner Brothers in 1973, the label rejected it on the grounds that it wasn’t confident that the album contained even one track suitable for release as a single.
Van Dyke Parks offered up a song he’d written earlier with Brian Wilson, and thus “Sail On, Sailor” was recorded and became the single release for the album. At the time, it didn’t chart particularly well, going only to #79, and when re-released in 1975, it only rose to #49, even though today it’s a popular song in the Beach Boys’ canon. By the way, lead vocals are not by Mike Love — nor Carl Wilson, Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, or Dennis Wilson. Lead vocals on this record were handled by Blondie Chaplin, who, though he recorded with the group in 1972 and ’73, was not one of the “core” group from the ’60s or afterwards.
3) “Iron Man,” Black Sabbath (1972, peaked at #52)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LjbMVXj0F8
Legendary heavy metal band Black Sabbath never measured their success by single sales, and that’s probably good because they never had a Top 40 record on the American pop charts. Only two of their songs even made the American Top 100: “Paranoid” hit #61 in 1970, and “Iron Man” reached #52 in 1972. The song was made popular to a whole new generation of listeners with its use in the 2008 film Iron Man, yet despite its fame, the 1972 release remains the pinnacle of the group’s chart success and their last record to register on the pop charts.
4) “Changes,” David Bowie (1972, peaked at #66)
Looking back on David Bowie’s career, he’s had an immensely diversified and successful musical portfolio. Yet the fact remains that, prior to 1975, he’d been releasing records for 11 years and had just one Top 40 hit to show for it — the 1973 re-release of 1969’s “Space Oddity,” which hit #15 on the US Hot 100 the second time around. There were a lot of now-well-known songs released during that period, however, including “The Jean Genie,” “Knock on Wood,” and “Rebel, Rebel” (and I almost wrote about that one here). But “Changes” remains one of his most identifiable songs from this early period and comes in at #128 on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Not bad for a song that peaked at #66 on the pop charts.
5) “Tequila Sunrise,” The Eagles (1973, peaked at #64)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKLucjUmJN0
The Eagles were one of the most successful bands of the 1970s, and five of their singles reached the #1 position on the popular music charts, a number surpassed during that decade only by the Bee Gees and Elton John. Almost every single they released between 1972 and 1980 made the Top 40, and so it’s somewhat surprising that “Tequila Sunrise,” one of their most recognizable songs and the first single released from their album Desperado, did not climb higher than #64. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the only highly-recognizable song from that album not to make the Top 40; the title track, “Desperado,” was never released as a single at all, despite the fact that it, too, is one of their better-known songs and has been featured on every applicable greatest hits album they’ve produced and even in an episode of Seinfeld.
6) “Tiny Dancer,” Elton John (1972, peaked at #41)
Perhaps it’s not a stretch to see why hard-edged songs such as “Iron Man” or “Cinnamon Girl” didn’t make the Top 40, but “Tiny Dancer”? If ever a song was made for chart success, this figured to be it. Certainly it’s been immortalized many times over in a variety of media since. Today, the song is one of Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s most popular compositions and is iconic enough that it was included in Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of all time. But when originally released in 1972, it peaked only at #41 in the US, and was so little-regarded that it wasn’t released as a single in the UK at all. Many people attribute its early lack of success to the fact that, when the song was shortened for AM radio play, the single version lacked the power that the album cut had.
As a result, the song built its reputation over time as FM stations came to dominate the market, and they were willing to play the complete album version, especially on adult contemporary stations. Consequently, “Tiny Dancer” finally went gold in 2005 and achieved platinum status almost 40 years later in 2011. Perhaps its most memorable appearance is during a climactic scene in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous, and anyone who has ever seen the film can tell you the squabbling bandmates and groupies singing the song together on the bus may well be the highlight of an already great film.
7) “Rock and Roll,” Led Zeppelin (1972, peaked at #42)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WzG64syKHA
Despite their standing as one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time, Led Zeppelin has never really been a singles band. Only one of their songs (“Whole Lotta Love”) ever reached the Top 10 on the American pop charts, and less than a handful of their songs made the Top 40 at all. Still, considering that Led Zeppelin IV was arguably their greatest album, one would be inclined to think that their single releases from that album would have performed well. And while “Black Dog” would be their second-highest charting single ever, peaking at #15, the equally memorable “Rock and Roll” would stumble and settle in just outside the Top 40 at #42. But at least “Rock and Roll” had some chart success; their best-known song from that album, “Stairway to Heaven,” was never released as a single at all.
8) “Moondance,” Van Morrison (1970; not released until 1977, peaked at #92)
If you asked most music fans to name Van Morrison’s three biggest hits, my guess would be that most would offer up “Brown Eyed Girl,” “Domino,” and possibly the jazzy “Moondance” as that third song. But when Morrison released his Moondance album in 1970, “Come Running,” not “Moondance,” was the album’s single release, and in fact, “Moondance” wasn’t even released as a single until seven years later after repeated FM radio play made it as recognizable as any song in Morrison’s catalog. Even then, the song only peaked at #92. But over time the song’s reputation has continued to grow; it was listed on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
9) “Cinnamon Girl, ”Neil Young (1970, peaked at #55)
Today “Cinnamon Girl” is fairly well known as part of Neil Young’s catalog, but as his first chart record as a solo artist, it didn’t climb past #55 on the charts. While that may seem low given the song’s familiarity and his long and storied career, within the next year he would follow up with the extremely successful singles “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”(#33), “Heart of Gold”(#1), and “Old Man”(#31). Of course Young’s success has been felt not only as a singles artist, but also as a member of Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young as well.
10) “Baba O’Riley,” The Who (1971; not released as a single)
Generally considered one of the greatest rock anthems, the highly recognizable “Baba O’Riley” (sometimes erroneously referred to as “Teenage Wasteland”) was the first cut on the Who’s superb 1971 album Who’s Next. Despite the song’s popularity almost from the day the album hit the airwaves, “Behind Blue Eyes” (#34) and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (#15) were the album’s only single releases in the US. In fact, “Baba O’Riley” was only released as a single in the Netherlands, where it peaked at #11. Nevertheless, the song remains one of the band’s best known and most iconic songs.
