Favorite Songs of 1970

1970 was still another year containing a multitude of good, memorable songs. It was the last year that the Beatles were together, and their final album, Let It Be, was released. Although the title track became the big singles hit, my favorites were the "deep tracks" The Two of Us and For You Blue. I also loved The Long and Winding Road. Phil Spector, much to Paul McCartney's chagrin, had enhanced this song by adding orchestration and a chorus, greatly improving it in the process (in my humble opinion). Another famous act, Simon and Garfunkel, ended as well in 1970 with the release of singles from their Bridge Over Troubled Waters album (including the title track as well). But my favorite song of that album was the wildly syncopated Cecilia (my #5 song of '70 as I lived through it). Question, by the Moody Blues, was my #4 favorite song of this year. It would be more than two decades before I discovered the treasure trove of material that this talented and inspired band produced in a flurry during the late sixties/early seventies. During the summertime of 1970, I listened to local radio station 940-WINZ, which in that era would play songs that were only marginally popular nationwide. One of those songs, Oliver's I Can Remember, captured my heart and made me wonder why it wasn't a monster hit. It was also my #3 favorite song of that year. In the fall of '70, British blues/rock singer Joe Cocker, already famous for his covers of Beatles tunes She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends, and the Box Tops' The Letter, outdid himself by raucously covering the old slow, sensual Julie London song Cry Me a River in a concert setting. This fast-paced version, with Cocker crying and screaming and friend Leon Russell going all-out on the piano, helped turn my musical tastes more toward both soul and hard rock (and was my #2 song of the year). But my #1 top favorite song of 1970 (back then) turned out to be an aberration of sorts. For reasons I'm still unaware of, I became thoroughly obsessed in the spring of '70 with the George Baker Selection song Little Green Bag. It was only a minor hit, and one day in late spring I discovered that my local stations were no longer playing it. This deprivation started me on a long period of Little Green Bag withdrawal (since it hadn't been popular enough to be recycled as a "golden oldie"). Later on, I bought that single and now scratch my head wondering what I saw in that song! Still, I like it. But nowhere near the fanatical degree of adulation I felt for it back in 1970! Go figure. Anyway, here are some other great tunes from back then that I liked:

Venus (Shocking Blue)
Arizona (Mark Lindsay)
Rainy Night in Georgia (Brook Benton)
Won't Find Better Than Me (New Hope)
Ma Belle Amie (Tee Set)
Didn't I (Delfonics)
Hey Mr. Sun (Bobby Sherman)
Come and Get It (Badfinger)
Love Or Let Me Be Lonely (Friends of Distinction)
Tennessee Birdwalk (Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan)
Try a Little Kindness (Glen Campbell)
Everything is Beautiful (Ray Stevens)
Reflections of My Life (Marmalade)
Daughter of Darkness (Tom Jones)
Hitchin' a Ride (Vanity Fair)
The Love You Save (Jackson Five)
Yellow River (Christie)
O-o-o Child (Five Stairsteps)
We Gotta Get You a Woman (Todd Rundgren)
Overture From Tommy (Assembled Multitude)
Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) (Melanie)
The Pollution Song (Tom Lehrer)
Spirit in the Sky (Norman Greenbaum)
Ball of Confusion (Temptations)
Stoned Love (Supremes)
Up the Ladder to the Roof (Supremes)
Out in the Country (Three Dog Night)
One Man Band (Three Dog Night)
Instant Karma (John Lennon)
Your Song (Elton John)
No Sugar Tonight/Mother Nature's Son (Guess Who)
Hand Me Down World (Guess Who)
Our House (Crosby, Stills, Nash &Young)
Make Me Smile (Chicago)
Cracklin' Rosie (Neil Diamond)
Thank You Fallettime Be Mice Elf Agin (Sly & the Family Stone)
Jennifer Tomkins (Street People)
Everybody's Out of Town (BJ Thomas)
Mississippi (John Phillips)
A Song of Joy (Miguel de los Rios)
Long Long Time (Linda Ronstadt)
No Matter What (Badfinger)