Soft Rock, Bread and Circus (Magazine)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

The Captain and Tennille singing duo epitomized the corny aspect of 1970s-era music. Muskrat Love, anyone?

The 1970s was a time when corny was king.

Corny clothing, corny hairstyles and corny music.

And the music. Oh, the music.

The decade offered a veritable cornucopia (cornycopia?) of many great soft rock classics as well as some extremely painful and unbearable dreck that we were not able to avoid. Transistor radios and piped-in tunes at shopping malls guaranteed that if you were anywhere, you’d hear the smarmy songs of the day.

Remember: this was the era when elevator music flourished.

Songs like “If” dominated the charts.

In case you’ve forgotten, here are a few of the lyrics and a nice video to refresh your memory.

If a picture paints a thousand words
Then why can't I paint you?
The words will never show the you I've come to know
If a face could launch a thousand ships
Then where am I to go?
There's no one home but you…

To get the full experience, check out the video below.

The 1970s soft rock band Bread topped the charts with hits that defined the decade.

For some reason, the popularity of “Easy Rock,” “Soft Rock,” or “Yacht Rock” seemed to reach its peak during this decade. This, surprisingly so, as the simplicity and light nature of this genre of music belied what was really happening in The ‘Me’ Decade. It’s not to say that it was all rainbows and unicorns during this time period, but if one looked at the popular songs of the time, one might be forgiven for coming to such a conclusion. After all, the soft rock classics such as Escape (The Pina Colada Song), Summer Breeze and anything by Elton John were on heavy rotation during this time period.

Of course, there are the bellwether 1970s tunes that led the way and continue to remind us how bad things got back then. They include:

1. Muskrat Love (The Captain and Tennille)

2. You Light Up My Life (Debby Boone)

3. Seasons in the Sun (Terry Jacks)

4. Having My Baby (Paul Anka)

5. Feelings (Morris Albert)

‘If’ by Bread

Skyrockets in Flight!

1970s-era supergroup Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” album provided a soft rock soundtrack to the latter part of the decade

Sweet (and sometimes smaltzy) Soul Music

Soul music during the 70s also took us on a safe and soothing step into the lighter side of things. Me and Mrs. Jones, When Will I See You Again and anything from Marvin Gaye rounded out the decade. But even the smooth grooves of the times often fell into the expected cheesiness that epitomized the era. There is no doubt whatsoever that Kiss and Say Goodbye by the Manhattans continues to be a classic (the vocals are oh, so good!) but the soliloquy that precedes the actual singing is next level smaltz. “I won’t be able to see you anymore because of my (PAUSE) obligations.”

Like, say, a wife?

Kiss and Say Goodbye Intro

This has got to be the saddest day of my life
I called you here today for a bit of bad news
I won't be able to see you anymore
Because of my obligations and the ties that you have
We've been meeting here every day
And since this is our last day together
I wanna hold you just one more time
When you turn and walk away, don't look back
I wanna remember you just like this
Let's just kiss and say goodbye

Every Sha-La-La-La

And in the ‘Novelty’ category…

“Don’t be a cluck! Try your luck!”

Perhaps it made sense that during this time of musical tumult, the novelty song saw its heyday. Of course there was “The Streak” which was a thing in and of itself (people were actually running around naked, just for kicks) giving many a cause to laugh and many more to clutch their proverbial pearls. “Kung Fu Fighting” capitalized on the martial arts trend of the time. Culminating with “Disco Duck” in 1976, the decade continued on with classics like Steve Martin’s “King Tut” (a jab at the media and public’s obsession with the the then-traveling Egyptian Pharaoh’s artifacts), and “Short People,” which was just cruel but dominated the airwaves for weeks back in 1977.

Heavy (Metal) Hitters

Superstar rock band Queen’s music stood in stark contrast against lighter musical fare of the day.

The 1970s was clearly a time when innovation and change came to the musical fore. The mere range of what was musically available in the public domain could easily keep record players spinning for years to come. One can easily juxtapose much of the popular “music lite” with an equal amount of heavier sounds from this time period.