50 Best Songs of 1974

12/8/2024

by Julian Spivey

50. "The Night Chicago Died" by Paper Lace
Songwriters: Peter Callander & Mitch Murray

“The Night Chicago Died” by the British band Paper Lace isn’t even that good. But the song, written by Peter Callander and Mitch Murray, is such an oddity in its story of a shoot-out (a fictional one) between Chicago Police and Al Capone’s gangsters when Capone ran the streets of the Windy City from the mid-‘20s to early-‘30s sung and performed as if it were a fun party – all the while being told from the point of a view of a child hoping his policeman father comes home alive. It’s wild, its chorus is catchy, and it went to No. 1 in 1974. Brother, what a year it really was.

49. "Rock Me Gently" by Andy Kim
Songwriter: Andy Kim

Andy Kim had a major hit in 1974 with the easy-flowing “Rock Me Gently” and my theory is it was a hit because so many people confused it for a song done by pop hitmaker Neil Diamond. Seriously, how is this not a Diamond song? It’s basically a reworked version of “Cracklin’ Rosie.” Kim even sounds like he’s impersonating Diamond with a keyboard solo late in the song from Michael Omartian, imitating some of Stevie Wonder’s finest work. Yes, I know it’s Andy Kim, but it’s probably Neil Diamond’s third-best song.

48. "The Bitch Is Back" by Elton John
Songwriters: Elton John & Bernie Taupin

“The Bitch is Back” is Elton John at his sauciest and sassiest. The track, a top-five hit off Caribou, was inspired by lyricist Bernie Taupin’s wife, Maxine Fiebelman, who would say: “the bitch back” whenever Elton John was in a bad mood. Elton would later state the song as “kind of my theme song,” you can tell by the enjoyment he seems to derive when performing it live.

47. "I Love" by Tom T. Hall
Songwriter: Tom T. Hall

Tom T. Hall wrote some of the greatest story songs in country music history, but his best selection from 1974 is the cutesy, lullaby-ish “I Love,” released in late 1973 and topped the country chart in early 1974. It was also Hall’s only crossover hit to No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Who couldn’t adore a song that begins: “I love little baby ducks”?

46. "Rock On" by David Essex
Songwriter: David Essex

David Essex’s 1974 glam rock top-five hit “Rock On” is one of the coolest sounding songs on this list with its swaggering, almost spoken word vocals and mellow bass riff groove that follows the song throughout and gives it a funky feel. It would be his only big hit in the U.S. and would even be eclipsed on the American charts when actor-singer Michael Damian took a cover of it to No. 1 on Billboard in 1989.

45. "Smokin' in the Boys Room" by Brownsville Station
Songwriters: Cub Koda & Michael Lutz

Brownsville Station’s “Smokin’ in the Boys Room" reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1974. The song about one of high school’s favorite pastimes of the era, smoking in the bathroom without being busted, would be the band’s only big hit. Known for its spoken word intro and gravelly-voiced performance by vocalist Cub Koda, it was one of the hardest songs on top-40 radio of its time. Unfortunately, today, the 1985 cover by Motley Crue is probably better known.

44. "Tell Me Something Good" by Rufus
Songwriter: Stevie Wonder

Rufus’s No. 3 hit “Tell Me Something Good,” written by Stevie Wonder (who I can’t believe didn’t cut it himself on his 1974 album Fulfillingness’ First Finale), might be the funkiest song of the year. The unusual tune featuring Al Ciner on guitar, Kevin Murphy on organ and Hohner clavinet and Dennis Belfield on bass would be the only hit credited solely as Rufus, as Chaka Khan’s silky-smooth vocals made her the focus of the group and led to the immediate rebranding Rufus featuring Chaka Khan.

43. "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" by Stevie Wonder
Songwriter: Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder had the most extensive run of any music superstar in the ‘70s, from 1972’s Talking Book to 1976’s Songs in the Key of Life. His 1974 release Fulfillingness’ First Finale is considered by many to be the year’s best album, but his best song of the year was probably the final single off his previous album Innervisions, “Don’t You Worry ‘bout a Thing,” which hit No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. The sunny song has a Latin flavor and was one of Wonder’s most uplifting choruses of the decade.

42. "Holding Things Together" by Merle Haggard
Songwriter: Merle Haggard

I first heard “Holding Things Together” from Dwight Yoakam, who was undoubtedly paying homage to his Bakersfield Sound forefather Merle Haggard. The song, written by Haggard, is a classic country downer about a man forced to hold things together for his children (“a job meant for two”) when his wife walks out the door.

41. "(We're Not) The Jet Set" by George Jones & Tammy Wynette
Songwriter: Bobby Braddock

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were known as “Country Music’s First Couple” and showed why repeatedly on some of the greatest duets ever recorded in country music history. “(We’re Not) The Jet Set,” written by Bobby Braddock, is one of the more fun numbers in their duet history about how they don’t have to be rich and travel the world as long as they're together.

40. "That's the Way Love Goes" by Johnny Rodriguez
Songwriters: Lefty Frizzell & Sanger D. Shafer

“That’s the Way Love Goes” is just an all-timer of a country classic love song, no matter who records it, and it’s been done memorably a few times. Lefty Frizzell wrote the song with Sanger D. Shafer and included it on his late career 1973 album The Legendary, but didn’t release it as a single. Johnny Rodriguez’s version, which I’ve always found short and sweet at under two minutes, topped the country music chart in February 1974. This version was likely eclipsed, at least in memory, by Merle Haggard’s version, which also topped the country chart a decade later and won Haggard the only Grammy of his career.

39. "Killer Queen" by Queen
Songwriter: Freddie Mercury

“Killer Queen,” off Queen’s third studio album, would become the band’s first hit in the United States when it reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974 . It was abnormal in its creation by frontman Freddie Mercury, who wrote the lyrics before the music, whereas he usually did the opposite. Mercury stated that the song was about a “high-class call girl,” but by including the band’s name in the title, it became something of an anthem for the band. Guitarist Brian May called the song a “turning point for the band,” saying, “It was the song that best summed up our kind of music and a big hit, and we desperately needed it as a mark of something successful happening for us.”

38. "Lonely People" by America
Songwriters: Dan Peek & Catherine Peek

America’s “Lonely People,” which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974, was an ode to those feeling alone and pessimistic. It was written by America vocalist and guitarist Dan Peek with his wife, Catherine, a few weeks into their marriage as sort of a positive response to The Beatles’ 1966 hit “Eleanor Rigby.” It feels like something Crosby, Stills & Nash may have recorded in their heyday.

37. "Take Me to the River" by Al Green
Songwriters: Al Green & Mabon Hodges

Al Green is potentially the greatest soul singer of all time. His most famous hit is probably the super smooth “Let’s Stay Together” from 1972, but 1974’s “Take Me to the River,” which he penned with guitarist Mabon “Tennie” Hodges is Green with a downhome Southern soul grit that showcases more of a Memphis-flavor than Motown. It would be memorably covered many times, most notably by Talking Heads in 1978.

36. "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" by Elton John
Songwriters: Elton John & Bernie Taupin

“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me” was a No. 2 hit for Elton John from his 1974 album Caribou. The song, music by Elton John and lyrics by Bernie Taupin, as usual, builds as it goes along from a slow beginning to an anthemic vocal by the end. Taupin said: “My only recollections of this is that we wanted to write something big. Like ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’. Hopefully being powerful without being pompous.” The song would become bigger in 1991 when a live duet version between Elton John and George Michael topped the Billboard Hot 100.

35. "The Seashores of Old Mexico" by Merle Haggard
Songwriter: Merle Haggard

Merle Haggard’s “The Seashores of Old Mexico,” off his dumb titled Merle Haggard Presents His 30th Album, wouldn’t become a hit (Haggard never released it as a single) until George Strait’s cover in 2006 made it to No. 11 on the US Hot Country Songs chart, but it was always a terrific story song about a man fleeing the U.S. to Mexico, finding love and living out his days in bliss. The song was first cut by Hank Snow in 1971, and Haggard and Willie Nelson would do it as a duet on their 1987 album, which shares the song’s name.

34. "Bad Company" by Bad Company
Songwriters: Paul Rodgers & Simon Kirke

How badass of a band are you when you come out with your band, album and perhaps most famous track off that album all share the same name? It hasn’t happened much in music history, but Bad Company is probably the most famous example. Surprisingly, “Bad Company,” the song by the Bad Company band on the Bad Company album, wasn’t a single, despite having since reached classic status on classic rock format radio. Co-written by vocalist Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke, the song brings out a Western theme of outlaws ready to take on the world.

33. "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone
Songwriters: Lolly Vegas

Redbone should be more recognized and celebrated for being the first act with Native American heritage (some members were also Mexican American) to reach top-five Billboard Hot 100 status when their biggest hit, “Come and Get Your Love,” a groovy, soulful rock number, was one of the biggest songs of 1974. The song seems as popular today as ever, thanks to its placement in pop culture via movie hits like “Guardians of the Galaxy” and critically acclaimed cult TV shows like “Reservation Dogs.”

32. "Please Come to Boston" by Dave Loggins
Songwriter: Dave Loggins

Dave Loggins hit it big in 1974 with his No. 5 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Please Come to Boston,” a song about a rambling singer-songwriter from Tennessee trying to make it big in bigger cities like Boston, Denver and Los Angeles with the plea to his love back home to follow him around the country. The song, which appeals to listeners of soft rock, pop, folk and country, was inspired by Loggins touring with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1972 and being away from home and seeing so many different things, but the love back home was a fabrication.

31. "Amanda" by Waylon Jennings
Songwriter: Bob McDill

Waylon Jennings often felt like the baddest hombre in country music, but he could also squeeze the last bit of sweetness out of an emotional love song. His recording of songwriter Bob McDill’s “Amanda” makes you feel his love for the titular character and the disappointment in knowing she could have had a better life with someone more suited to a life of luxury. Don Williams recorded an equally good version of the song the year before, but it wasn’t much of a hit – Williams hadn’t quite broken out as a big star yet. Jennings didn’t release “Amanda” as a single in 1974 but would on his Greatest Hits compilation in 1979, and it would go all the way to No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart.

30. "Must of Got Lost" by J. Geils Band
Songwriters: Peter Wolf & Seth Justman

When people think of the J. Geils Band, they probably think of their ‘80s hits like the No. 1 “Centerfold” and No. 4 “Freeze-Frame,” both from 1982, but the best release of their career for my money is the 1974 funky-rock of “Must of Got Lost,” which would go to No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1975. Written by vocalist Peter Wolf and keyboardist Seth Justman, it’s a number that makes you want to get up and dance and scream out the simple, catchy chorus.

29. "Call Me the Breeze" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Songwriter: J.J. Cale

Lynyrd Skynyrd took J.J. Cale’s shuffling country-ish number “Call Me the Breeze” and turned it into a boogie southern rock masterpiece on their sophomore album Second Helping. Skynyrd’s version of “Call Me the Breeze” was never released as a single but has become one of the band’s most popular tracks in the decades since. It’s a great example of taking a good song, turning it up to 11 and letting loose.

28. "Marie Laveau" by Bobby Bare
Songwriter: Shel Silverstein & Baxter Taylor

Bobby Bare’s Bobby Bare Sings Lullabys, Legends and Lies was one of country music's best albums of late 1973 and into 1974. It was something of a concept album in that it entirely featured songs written by songwriter and children’s author Shel Silverstein. The album's highlight was “Marie Laveau,” a tale of a Louisiana voodoo queen looking for a husband. Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show first recorded the humorous song in 1971, but Bare’s No. 1 country hit is likely its most famous and known release.

27. "Radar Love" by Golden Earring
Songwriters: George Kooymans & Barry Hay

Golden Earring, from the Netherlands, hit it big internationally in 1974 when “Radar Love,” off the group’s 1973 album Moontan, reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song succeeded even more in the band’s home continent, where it went No. 1 in their homeland and reached the top 10 in the U.K., Germany, Belgium and Austria. The song is from the point of view of a man with a psychic connection to his lover, the so-called “radar love,” desperate to make it home to her. It features memorable guitar riffs from George Kooymans, synth from Rinus Gerritsen and an epic drum solo by Cesar Zuiderwijk.

26. "Black Water" by The Doobie Brothers
Songwriter: Patrick Simmons

“Black Water” by The Doobie Brothers is undoubtedly one of the most fun songs from 1974, with its different parts sung by different band members in its chorus and acapella section. The song, written by Patrick Simmons (who provides the lead vocals), is a lovely rootsy rock number about floating down the Mississippi River as if one were a character in a Mark Twain novel. It would be the band’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1.

25. "I'm a Ramblin' Man" by Waylon Jennings
Songwriter: Ray Pennington

Waylon Jennings recorded several songs during his career that could serve as theme songs for him, and 1974’s “I’m a Ramblin’ Man,” written by Ray Pennington, is undoubtedly one of them. I don’t think there’s ever been anyone in the history of country music who could’ve wrung more swagger out of this tune than Jennings. He swaggered all the way to No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart in 1974 with it.

24. "You're No Good" by Linda Ronstadt
Songwriters: Jerry Lieber & Mike Stoller

Linda Ronstadt could do a cover song like Nobody’s Business. Many of these would result in her having the most outstanding recording of the song. One of her most famous examples of this is her take on “You’re No Good,” the Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller song that had been recorded a handful of times before Ronstadt took it to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974 with a powerhouse vocal.

23. "Help Me" by Joni Mitchell
Songwriter: Joni Mitchell

“Help Me,” from Joni Mitchell’s 1974 album Court and Spark, would become the biggest hit of her career when it topped out at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 (her only career top 10). With a bit more of a poppy sound – albeit still with jazz influences – I think it was probably more accessible for pop radio and wasn’t too far off from the kind of stuff Carole King had hits with earlier in the decade.

22. "Hooked On a Feeling" by Blue Swede
Songwriter: Mark James

Blue Swede wasn’t the first to cut “Hooked on a Feeling.” B.J. Thomas took the song, written by Mark James, to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969. But the Swedish rock band did the best version, taking it to No. 1 on Billboard in 1974, their highest charting hit in America. With its catchy “ooga chakas” (not in Thomas’s original) and suave vocals from Bjorn Skifs, it’s had a second life since a high-profile placement in the Marvel superhero flick “Guardians of the Galaxy” in 2014.

21. "Rednecks" by Randy Newman
Songwriter: Randy Newman

“Rednecks” isn’t a song anyone could get away with these days. Even as satire, which it certainly was/is. The opening track from Randy Newman’s American South concept album Good Old Boys will hit you right across the face with its use of a racial slur in its chorus as it comes from the point of view of a white Southerner while also aiming at race issues in the Northern United States. Newman never shied away from hard truths as he saw them. “Rednecks” may be his riskiest hard truth.

20. "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song" by Jim Croce
Songwriter: Jim Croce

Jim Croce was no stranger to cutesy love songs in his repertoire, but “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song,” released posthumously, is probably one of the most emotional. Croce wrote the song following a disagreement with his wife, Ingrid. Instead of arguing with her, she said he went downstairs and started playing “like he always did,” the following day, he came to her and performed this for her. It went to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100.

19. "Jet" by Paul McCartney & Wings
Songwriters: Paul McCartney & Linda McCartney

“Jet,” the first single off Paul McCartney and Wings’ Band on the Run album, was named after McCartney’s black labrador retriever puppy but would seem more about the women’s suffragette movement of the ‘70s. Hell, McCartney might not even know what it means. In his book Paul McCartney: In His Own Words, he said, “I make up so much stuff. It means something to me when I do it, and it means something to the record buyer, but if I’m asked to analyze it I can’t really explain what it is.” When it sounds as cool as “Jet,” I’m not sure any of that analysis truly matters.

18. "Forever Young" by Bob Dylan
Songwriter: Bob Dylan

There are a couple of notable recordings of Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” by Dylan himself on the same album, 1974’s Planet Waves. The song, written as a lullaby to Dylan’s eldest son Jesse (born in 1966) and sees Dylan with the kind of hopes and wishes for his child as they grow that many fathers have, is a slow, folky number ending side one of the album. It’s preceded by a rip-roaring, faster rock version that begins side two and speeds through the song in about half the time. The slow version might be the more famous, but I’ve always enjoyed the faster version more. It’s a beautiful tribute from a parent to a child.

17. "Bloody Mary Morning" by Willie Nelson
Songwriter: Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson’s 1974 album Phases and Stages was before its time in its concept of the end of a marriage told in two parts, the first side of the record being the woman’s point of view and side two being from the man’s perspective. My favorite track on the album is the hangover song “Bloody Mary Morning,” which opens the man’s POV after his wife has left him in the night, and you can tell he’s really going through with the fast-paced of the song, simulating the pounding that our narrator must be experiencing in his head. It would be Nelson’s first foray into a concept album, but it wouldn’t be his last or most successful.

16. "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton
Songwriter: Dolly Parton

Many may know “I Will Always Love You” these days from Whitney Houston’s high-powered 1992 No. 1 cover, which spent a then-record 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, but it was the first released in 1974 by its songwriter Dolly Parton. The song emerged from one of the most devastating moments of Parton’s life and career when she parted ways with her mentor and duet partner, Porter Wagoner, and set out on her own. Parton’s vocal might not be the powerhouse that is Houston’s, but the tender vocal matched the song’s original feeling better.

15. "Already Gone" by Eagles
Songwriters: Jack Tempchin & Robb Strandlund

“Already Gone,” the first single off the Eagles' third studio album, On the Border, was the hardest thing they had released to that point, but it still had the band’s signature harmonies and country-rock twang. Surprisingly, it only made it to No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100, but the band was still on the cusp of hitting it big (that would come in early 1975 with “Best Of My Love” on the same album) despite some of their most famous songs today having already been released.

14. "The Joker" by Steve Miller Band
Songwriter: Steve Miller, Eddie Curtis & Ahmet Ertegun

Steve Miller was on such a high in 1973/74 that he made up words like “pompatus,” which sounded cool and like they belonged perfectly in a song like “The Joker.” Released in late ’73, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 in early ’74. Fifty years later, when you hear “The Joker” on classic rock format radio, it still sounds like one of the coolest tunes around with its infectiously catchy chorus, its cool phrasing like “space cowboy” and “gangster of love” and it’s whining slide guitar.

13. "Carefree Highway" by Gordon Lightfoot
Songwriter: Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot’s 1974 was arguably the greatest year of his career, with “Carefree Highway” and “Sundown” being top 10 hits. “Carefree Highway” oozes a laidback melody that I can’t help but fall in love with every time I hear it, even though the story being sung – a rumination of a past failed relationship – isn’t as flowery as the idea of being on a carefree highway might suggest. Lightfoot’s vocals are silky smooth.

12. "The Entertainer" by Billy Joel
Songwriter: Billy Joel

“The Entertainer,” Billy Joel’s cynical and satirical look at the fickleness of the music business, is one of the most entertaining songs he’s recorded in his 50-plus year career. It showcases the type of wit and bite that would appear in some of Joel’s other classics, like future No. 1 hit “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me.” It’s a unique-sounding song – heavy on synthesizer while also featuring both banjo and steel guitar played by Tom Whitehorse, which is unusual for pop-rock.

11. "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" by The Rolling Stones
Songwriters: Mick Jagger & Keith Richards

From the album that shares its name, “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It),” was the band’s biggest hit off an album that proved not to be as successful as their previous releases. Likely because there weren’t many hits like this on it. The song, credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, although future Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood collaborated with Jagger, was written as a comeback to those who took seriously everything the band did during that era.

10. "Long Haired Country Boy" by Charlie Daniels Band
Songwriter: Charlie Daniels

Charlie Daniels was at his coolest in “Long Haired Country Boy,” off his 1974 album Fire on the Mountain. In the song, the fiddle hero takes on hypocrisy, like television evangelists, politicians who’ll sell any lie for a vote and those who put down rock ‘n’ roll music. The country-tinged Southern Rock anthem sees Daniels merely wanting to relax in the shade next to his loyal blue tick hound with a bottle and joint. As Daniels aged and became too close to those TV evangelists he once mocked, he would change some of the more memorable lines in the song to fit his change of heart.

9. "The Ballad of Curtis Loew" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Songwriters: Al Collins & Ronnie Van Zant

I think Lynyrd Skynyrd is often misunderstood because of the Southern Rock label and the appearance of its fan base. Sometimes people think of the harmful stereotypes of Southerners when they hear the band’s name, but of the group’s best was the tribute to an old black blues man, which is supposedly a composite of multiple people who lived in frontman/songwriter Ronnie Van Zant’s Jacksonville, Fla. neighborhood. It’s a lovely tribute to someone who most people would pass on by without a second thought.

8. "Angel From Montgomery" by Bonnie Raitt
Songwriter: John Prine

John Prine’s self-titled 1971 album was a bit of music perfection but was one of those hidden secrets for many not in the world outside of top-40 radio hits. So, when Bonnie Raitt covered that album’s finest track, “Angel from Montgomery,” for her 1974 album Streetlights, it was the breakthrough both the wonderful story song and Prine’s music needed. Raitt’s warm vocal fits the story of an old woman recounting tales of her old lover like a glove. Raitt and Prine would go on to perform the song together many times.

7. "The Grand Tour" by George Jones
Songwriters: Norro Wilson, Carmol Taylor & George Richey

If you made a list of the saddest country songs of all time, there would likely be a couple from George Jones near the top, and his 1974 Billboard Hot Country No. 1 “The Grand Tour” might top it. The song, written by Norro Wilson, Carmol Taylor and George Richey, has Jones’s one-of-a-kind country croon telling the devastating story of the end of a relationship via a home tour, including one of the most heartbreaking lyrics ever put to record: “as you leave you’ll see the nursery/oh, she left me without mercy/taking nothing but our baby and my heart.”

6. "Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie
Songwriter: David Bowie

The great thing about David Bowie is you can take something from 50 years ago like “Rebel Rebel,” and it sounds like it could plausibly be released as a song today – there aren’t too many songs on this list that you could say that about. The song, the lead single off Diamond Dogs, has both been cited as Bowe’s farewell to glam rock, as well as his foray into proto-punk with its tale of an androgynous rebel (it was initially meant for a Ziggy Stardust musical). The distinctive guitar riff created by Bowie and played on record by Alan Parker that runs through the song is reminiscent of some of Keith Richards's best work with The Rolling Stones, most notably “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”

5. "Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney & Wings
Songwriters: Paul McCartney & Linda McCartney

“Band on the Run” has always been my favorite Paul McCartney song of his post-Beatles career. The opening track from the Paul McCartney & Wings album that shares its name is unique in its three passages that vary in sound and style, with lyrics about trying to escape to freedom from oppressors vague in who they are. However, I love how critic Robert Christgau put it: “the oppression of rock musicians by cannabis-crazed bureaucrats.” The song hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974.

4. "Sundown" by Gordon Lightfoot
Songwriter: Gordon Lightfoot

“Sundown,” the first No. 1 hit for Gordon Lightfoot, is the kind of song that probably makes other songwriters jealous. The song has an easy-going, folksy melody, as Lightfoot sings lyrics with a darker tone about a troubled relationship with a woman who doesn’t exactly hide that she’s running around on him. Lightfoot told American Songwriter in 2008: “I think my girlfriend was out with her friends one night at a bar while I was at home writing songs. I thought, ‘I wonder what she’s doing with her friends at the bar.’ It’s that kind of feeling. ‘Where is my true love tonight? What is my true love doing?”

3. "Louisiana 1927" by Randy Newman
Songwriter: Randy Newman

Randy Newman’s 1974 concept album, Goold Old Boys, about his take on viewpoints from inhabitants of the Deep South, is one of the year’s best albums, but its finest song, “Louisiana 1927,” is one that would have a place on any of Newman’s classic releases. The song tells the story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, which killed around 500 people and left around 700,000 people homeless. The piano-driven leading into full orchestra lament does hit home one of the themes of the record of Southerners as a forgotten or uncared-for people – the kind of people that could be faced with such devastation for their own country’s government to turn a blind, indifferent eye toward them.

2. "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Songwriters: Ed King, Gary Rossington & Ronnie Van Zant

It’s perhaps become too ubiquitous over the years, but there’s no escaping, even if you’ve heard it a million times, the greatness of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” There’s the immediately catchy opening guitar riff from Ed King, the now legendary “turn it up” spoken by vocalist Ronnie Van Zant and a fascinating Southern Rock classic that pokes fun cheekily at fellow legendary rockers like Neil Young, as well as controversial Alabama governor George Wallace. In ways, the song is more profound than its haters, and probably many of its lovers give it credit for.

1. "Come Monday"/"A Pirate Looks at 40"/"Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season" by Jimmy Buffett
Songwriter: Jimmy Buffett

I’m going to admit my bias here. Jimmy Buffett is one of my favorite singer-songwriters of all time (thanks, Dad!), and 1974 was a banner year for him with the releases of Living and Dying in ¾ Time and A1A, both top five albums for Buffett. Limiting his output from that year to three songs was hard for me. And, since I didn’t want to knock too many other worthy candidates off the list by pumping it with Buffett tunes, I’m just placing all three together – but here’s the thing: they’re all going to be tied for the top spot.

If I were forced to cut two of these and keep just one song, it would be “Come Monday” from Living and Dying in ¾ Time. The beautiful love song written about and for his future wife, Jane (they would marry in 1977), has been my favorite Buffett song for as long as I can remember. I understand lines like: “we can go hiking on Tuesday/with you’d I’d walk anywhere” might sound corny to some, but Buffett sings the tune with so much sincerity you can’t help but believe him and wish you were in his old hush puppy shoes. Despite his passionate and loyal fan base that would become known as Parrotheads, Buffett never had many hits, but this was his first top-40.

“A Pirate Looks at Forty,” my favorite track off my favorite Buffett album A1A, became one of his most played and biggest tunes. It’s a laid-back ballad serving as a bittersweet confessional of one who’s lived life fast and hard but looking back on his first 40 years – Buffett wasn’t yet 40 when he wrote it – figures he wouldn’t have done it any other way after all his preferred occupation of piracy no longer really exists.

“Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season” is similar in theme to “A Pirate Looks at Forty.” The narrator wakes up late one day, his head throbbing from a wild night before, and wants to take it easy while life around him races. He knows he can’t keep up the pace of life he’s living and needs the quiet of a beach with a severe storm impending to get him back on the right path.

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50 Best Songs of 1974

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