Favorite Songs of 1972

To fully understand where I stand on music in the year 1972, you need to take into account that, at that time, I was in the midst of my teenage years. As such, I tended to bond more with the prevailing popular music then than at other times of my life. So as a result, since I was 15-16 years old this year, 1972 naturally contains probably the longest list of "great" songs that I could amass. So, once again, I'll just comment on a few of my favorites and list the rest.

I listened in 1972 to a variety of radio stations (in south Florida) for my music. The pop/rock mainstays on AM, 560-WQAM, 790-WFUN, and 1580-WSRF, played most of my favorites. But 940-WINZ would also play songs that weren't necessarily top-40 but still were awfully good. Examples of this were Georgio's Son of My Father, Bob Dylan's George Jackson, and Apollo 100's Joy. On the FM side of the radio dial, a wide variety of stations had proliferated as well, giving me plenty of opportunities to surf around for good music. Bread had two sad, sweet love songs in Everything I Own and Diary. The Moody Blues, with the release of their Seventh Sojourn album, had two excellent tracks (often played end-to-end as a unit) For My Lady (later to become one of my top ten all-time favorites) and Isn't Life Strange. The group Yes hit the big time with their keyboard-frenzied Roundabout. Three Dog Night's Family of Man lightened my spirits in a personally-depressing spring of '72. Another spirit-lifter was Candyman by the inimitable Sammy Davis Jr., whose career was also enhanced this year by kissing Archie Bunker and diminished by hugging Richard Nixon. Commander Cody made me laugh with their resurrection of Hot Rod Lincoln. Looking Glass had their one big hit (and my #5 favorite of the year): Brandy. The Carpenters went a little heavy on the electric guitar with the sad, forlorn (and my #4 favorite of '72) Goodbye To Love. At the close of 1972, emerging superstar singer Carly Simon had her greatest song ever (to me): her hilarious tongue-in-cheek tribute to jet-setter friend Mick Jagger (and my #3 song of the year): You're So Vain. Elton John in 1972 came out with several hits, among them Rocket Man and Honky Cat. But my favorites of his that year were songs that I only heard played on one radio station (1580-WSRF): Levon and Tiny Dancer (my #2 song of 1972). Since these two are the ones now being played a lot on the radio, I feel sweetly vindicated! The greatest song to me of the great musical year of 1972? None other than the passionate, soulful plea of love by Eric Clapton, expressed through his group Derek and the Dominoes: Layla, a song which, moreover, really won me over for its long instrumental ending that wove together the keyboard and the guitar into a masterpiece of sound. And here are the other songs from 1972 that I liked a lot:

Footstompin' Music (Grand Funk Railroad)
I Wanna Be Where You Are (Michael Jackson)
Outa-Space (Billy Preston)
Doctor My Eyes (Jackson Browne)
Lean On Me (Bill Withers)
I Saw the Light (Todd Rundgren)
Too Late to Turn Back Now (Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose)
Coconut (Nilsson)
Conquistador (Procol Harum)
Where Is the Love (Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway)
Take It Easy (Eagles)
Go All the Way (Raspberries)
Garden Party (Rick Nelson)
Popcorn (Hot Butter)
Tight Rope (Leon Russell)
Freddie's Dead (Curtis Mayfield)
I Can See Clearly Now (Johnny Nash)
Papa Was a Rolling Stone (Temptations)
Me and Mrs. Jones (Billy Paul)
I'm Stone in Love With You (Stylistics)
Sitting (Cat Stevens)
Crab Dance (Cat Stevens)
Saturday in the Park (Chicago)
Duncan (Paul Simon)
Heart of Gold (Neil Young)
Summer Breeze (Seals and Crofts)
Living in the Past (Jethro Tull)

The entire Beatles White Album (which I heard in its entirety for the first time in 1972) dominated much of my listening later in the year, even though this work was released back in 1968. I was able to borrow the album from a dear friend and later bought it myself. In particular, I enjoyed listening through "Side Four", which included the ominous and sinister Revolution 9 and the tearjerking finale, Goodnight. The mood of much of this great work of the Beatles strongly resonated with how I was generally feeling at the time, and I'll always fondly identify it with 1972.