Here is what many of us can agree is wrong with the hit music of 1975. It’s morose, and it becomes even more so as the year goes on. By fall, we have “I’m Sorry” by John Denver,” “At Seventeen” by Janis Ian, and “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” by Willie Nelson on the charts at the same time. And, oh yeah, “Feelings” by Morris Albert. I’ve softened on a few of those songs over the years, but in the aggregate, they made Top 40 an unhappy place at the time.
Here’s what was great about 1975. The ascent of disco. The continued strength of funk. The emergence of the quirky British R&B that gave us many of my mid-chart faves of the next few years. The power-pop in both North America and the U.K. that probably descended from the Raspberries and the nostalgia boom but became the ramp-up to punk and new wave. And, for me, the goofiness. As recently noted in an article on best and worst years of the ‘70s, “Run Joey Run” wasn’t a stopper for me. Neither was “The Bertha Butt Boogie.” Or “Convoy,” the “Fancy Like” of its time.
The saccharine and the silly are both represented among the top 15 hits from 1975 with the highest Lost Factor scores — a calculation of the biggest hits of the time, as determined by the Billboard year-end Top 100 for that year, seen against today’s FM radio airplay. We’ve included 1975 hits as part of our wrapup of the Lost Factor Top 100 of 1975-79, but I owe Lost Factor fans a fuller recap of the year.
Or maybe, just maybe, I just want an excuse to post this playlist of 1975 hits and radio/record-person faves. There are hits and mid-charters from the UK and Canada as well, along with a lot of the R&B and disco that never entirely crossed to pop radio. In keeping with my growing belief that only a few hit songs give a year its bad reputation, there are no sappy ballads (except for the ones I like). It’s a successor to our “1974 Without Apologies” playlist.
Here are the 15 “most lost” hits of 1975, based on points for their standing for the year divided by the number of plays they receive now. In parenthesis is the Lost Factor, followed by the number of spins the songs received in the U.S. and Canada according to NielsenBDS in the week prior to my calculations. These calculations are the ones I did in 2020, but I’ve spot-checked the top Lost Factor songs, and none of them have changed significantly since last year.
- Bazuka, “Dynomite” (lost factor 49, weekly spins 0)
- Donny & Marie Osmond, “Morning Side of the Mountain” (27, 0)
- Joe Simon, “Get Down, Get Down (Get on the Floor)” (25, 0)
- Eddie Kendricks, “Shoeshine Boy” (22, 0)
- Jessi Colter, “I’m Not Lisa” (22, 0)
- Paul Anka & Odia Coates, “One Man Woman (One Woman Man)” (18, 2)
- Morris Albert, “Feelings” (14, 4)
- John Denver, “I’m Sorry” (12, 2)
- Helen Reddy, “Angie Baby” (11, 7)
- Barry Manilow, “Could It Be Magic” (11, 6)
- B.T. Express, “Express (5, 6)
- Average White Band, “Cut the Cake” (10, 3)
- Carpenters, “Please Mr. Postman” (10, 7)
- Alice Cooper, “Only Women Bleed” (10, 4)
- Paul Anka & Odia Coates, “I Don’t Like to Sleep Alone” (9, 3)
These are the songs above 100 spins for the week that punched above their weight with the most spins proportionate to their year-end placing. (As is often the case with Billboard’s Top 100 timing, the biggest song is a 1974 holdover).
- Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” (778 spins)
- Queen, “Killer Queen” (1,154 spins)
- Bad Company, “Feel Like Makin’ Love” (755 spins)
- KC & the Sunshine Band, “Get Down Tonight” (333 spins)
- America, “Sister Golden Hair” (389 spins)