1970 - 1979
1970
• The Beatles break up. By the end of the year, each member had released a solo album.
• Tamla Motown have one of their best years with hits from Jackson 5, Four Tops, Temptations, Supremes, Diana Ross,
Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Motown Spinners and Marvin Gaye
• Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin both die of drug-related deaths at age 27.
• King of Mudfests, Glastonbury, is born. Entrance fee: £1 including free glass of milk.
• Top Selling Single: Elvis Presley - The Wonder Of You
• Top Selling Album: Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled
Water
1971
• Jim Morrison of The Doors dies in Paris at age 27.
• Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West) gives comedian Benny Hill a Christmas and New Year chart topper.
• T Rex spends the longest time at number one with 'Hot Love'.
• Electronic minimalists Kraftwerk (known in a previous incarnation
as the 'Organization') release their debut album - 'Kraftwerk 1'. They will
go on to become the most defining influence on Dance music and Electronica throughout the late 20th century and beyond.
• Top Selling Single: George Harrison - My Sweet Lord
• Top Selling Album: Simon & Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Water
1972
• The Osmonds top the UK charts for five weeks with Puppy Love opening the doors for nine-year-old brother Jimmy to out-sell his siblings' efforts
with 'Long Haired Lover From Liverpool'.
• Glam Rock continues to grow in popularity with new additions by Sweet and Gary Glitter.
• Top Selling Single: Royal Scots Dragoon Guards - Amazing Grace
• Top Selling Album: Various Artists - 20 Dynamic Hits
1973
• The fledgling Virgin label's first release is Mike Oldfield's
Tubular Bells, hitting the spot in July.
• New York gives birth to Hip Hop culture fuelled by DJ Kool Herc's first
Funk parties where he would switch between 2 copies of the same record at the
point of the instrumental 'break' (a technique which inspired Grand Wizard Theodore and Grandmaster Flash to develop the art of 'scratching'), effectively looping
the beats and at the same time instigating 'breakdancing'.
• The Jamaican film 'The Harder They Come', starring Jimmy Cliff, opens the door for Reggae music, helped in no small way by the appearance of
Bob Marley and the Wailers on 'The Old Grey Whistle Test'.
• Chart wise, it was Slade's year, with the Birmingham rockers
scoring three number ones including 'Cum on feel the Noize' and the Christmas
classic, 'Merry Xmas Everybody'.
• Top Selling Single: Dawn - Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old
Oak Tree
• Top Selling Album: David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
1974
• Patti Smith releases what is considered to be the first punk
single, 'Hey Joe'.
• George McCrae's 'Rock Your Baby' and Carl Douglas' 'Kung
Fu Fighting' hint at the Disco craze to follow later on.
• Mama Cass from the Mamas and the Papas dies aged 30 in the same
Mayfair flat where The Who's Keith Moon died four years later.
• Top Selling Single: Mud - Tiger Feet
• Top Selling Album: Carpenters - The Singles 1969-1973
1975
• Dance music makes an impression with hits offered by KC & The Sunshine
Band, Gloria Gaynor, BT Express, Silver Convention
and Hamilton Bohannon.
• Bob Marley's 'No Woman No Cry', recorded live at the Lyceum, reaches number 22 in the charts.
• Queen release the pop-video for 'Bohemian Rhapsody', helping it hold the number one position for a month.
• The tartan clad Bay City Rollers cause 'Rollermania' with two massive number one hits - "Bye Bye Baby" and "Give A Little Love". They also top the US charts with "Saturday Night".
• Top Selling Single: Bay City Rollers - Bye Bye Baby
• Top Selling Album: Stylistics - Best Of The Stylistics
1976
• It was a good year for Abba: three UK number one hits - 'Mamma
Mia', 'Fernando', and 'Dancing Queen'.
• Brotherhood of Man win the Eurovision Song Contest with 'Save
Your Kisses For Me'.
• Philip Glass completes Einstein on the Beach, the first widely
known example of minimalist composition.
• A visit by the Ramones helps kick-start the 'Punk' phenomena
in the UK as Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood create the Sex Pistols and the Damned release 'New Rose', considered to be the first UK Punk single.
• The Clash form in west London bringing together elements of Rockabilly, Punk and Reggae.
• Best Selling Single: Brotherhood Of Man - Save Your Kisses For Me
• Best Selling Album: Abba - Greatest Hits
1977
• The Sex Pistols' 'God Save the Queen' is suspiciously kept
from the top spot by Rod Stewart's 'I Don't Want to Talk About it/First Cut
is the Deepest'.
• 'Saturday Night Fever' sparks the disco inferno and gives a new lease
of life to the Brothers Gibb, aka the Bee Gees.
• Elvis Presley dies at Graceland, his home in Memphis, Tennesse,
aged 42.
• T Rex's Marc Bolan dies aged 29.
• Stewart Copeland and Gordon Sumner aka Sting, form The Police.
They are soon joined by guitarist Andy Summers.
• Best Selling Single: David Soul - Don't Give Up On Us
• Best Selling Album: Abba - Arrival
1978
• Very much inspired by Germany's Kraftwerk, the Human League
form in Sheffield and along with Gary Numan's Tubeway Army, Fad Gadget
and Cabaret Voltaire, open the doors for synth-based Dance/Electronica
in the UK.
• Sony introduces the Walkman, the first portable stereo.
• 'You're the One That I Want' is the biggest selling single taken from
the motion picture soundtrack of 'Grease'.
• German record producer Frank Farian's Boney M Have their best
year yet with two number ones and their biggest UK hit 'Rivers of Babylon'. Farian
will later try to emulate their success with Milli Vanilli.
• Best Selling Single: Boney M - Rivers Of babylon/Brown Girl
In The Ring
• Best Selling Album: Various - Saturday Night Fever
1979
• The Sugar Hill Gang releases the first commercial rap hit, 'Rapper's
Delight', bringing rap into the popular music scene. Over the decades, Rap becomes
one of the most important commercial and at the same time creative branches
of dance music, eventually outselling Rock.
• Having formed in Dublin the previous year, U2 release their
debut EP U2:3. The EP is available only in Ireland but in time the band will
go on to become one of the biggest Rock acts ever.
• Pouring out from London clubs such as The Blitz, Le Beat Route and
Billy's, the New Romantics claimed the limelight headed by acts such as Spandau
Ballet, Visage, Adam and the Ants and Classic Nouveau.
• Top Selling Single: Art Garfunkel - Bright Eyes
• Top Selling Album: Blondie - Parallel Lines
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