Soft Rock Hits of the 70s - search

I've just fallen in love with the ELO hits comp, and have been a lifelong Steely Dan fan. Other favourites include 10cc's 'Things We Do For Love', all Joni Mitchell(who barely fits here..?), Hall and Oates' 'Private Eyes' album... this sounds like the mix for me.

Baby Come Back - Player
Chuck E's in Love - Rickie Lee Jones
You're No Good - Linda Ronstadt
Saturday In The Park - Chicago
Easy - Commodores
Welcome Back Kotter - John Sebastian
Alone Again (Naturally) - Gilbert O'Sullivan
Afternoon Delight - Starlight Vocal Band
Everybody is talking - Harry Nillson
Make It With You - Bread
Maggie May - Rod Stewart
Magic - Olivia Newton-John
Muskrat Love - Captain and Tennille
Long Way Home - Supertramp
I Keep Forgetting - Micheal McDonald
Angry Eyes - Loggins and Messina
Goodbye Stranger - Supertramp
Anticipation - Carly Simon
Can't Live (If living is without you) - Air Supply
Leader Of The Band - Dan Fogelberg
The Logical Song - Supertramp
leaving on a jet plane - john denver
Two Tickets to Paradise - Eddie Money
The Guitar Man - Bread
Claire - Gilbert O'Sullivan
One - Harry Nillson
Macarthur Park - Richard Harris

also check out-

Climax Blues Band - "I LOve You"
America - "Lonely People"
Little River Band - "Reminiscing"
Gary Wright - "Dream Weaver"
Jonathon Edwards - "Sunshine"
Al Stewart - "Time Passages"
Michael Franks - "Tiger in the Rain"
Gino Vanelli - "Stop"

I've been rocking this mix0r in the am hours.

i have Hall & Oate's "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" on my first mix because it's only my favoritest song in the entire world, but a friend made me cry when she told me it's from 81. booooooooooo

Has many of the essentials.

(I confess to liking "Seasons In The Sun" a lot too but I'm not going to defend that one so passionately. I know when I'm on shakier ground.)

Also "Don't Pull Your Love" and "I'd Really Love To See You Tonight" - I know one of them is Hamilton Joe Frank and Reynolds, and the other is England Dan and John Ford Coley, but I don't know which is which.

A buddy made several '70s comps and kindly copied them for me - great stuff.

Not to be confused with the sixth song off of Ride the Lightening.

At first I read this as "faux-Styx feel" and thought, "Huh?" Then I tried to think of bands who do have a faux-Styx feel.

Hamilton Joe Frank and Reynolds

Anybody but me think "Don't Pull Your Love" always sounded like Elvis singing a much better song than what the actual Elvis was actually doing at the time?

Saga to thread!

My contribution.

Two that haven't been mentioned but should:
Orleans - "Still the One"
crap, what was the other one I was thinking of?

But the greatest of all these is:
Couldn't Get It Right - Climax Blues Band

Now fighting to get Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You" out of my head. "La la la la la, la la la la la ...".

seals and crofts - summer breeze
Michael martin murphy - wildfire
Henry Gross - Shannon

Also, I would really love a copy of this.

OH AND WAHT ABOUT DESE

Nicolette Larson - "Lotta Love"
Rita Coolidge - "Your Love (Keeps Me Lifting Me Higher)"
Dave Mason - "We Just Disagree"

We were talking about bad spoken word bits recently. I think this has to be counted among them:
"I said 'wha?'
She said 'oo-oo-oo-wee'
I said 'alll riiiight!
She said 'love me, love me, love me!"

This stuff is one of my obsessions:

Some of the playlists when I ran Lite Nite or Easy ... Saturday nights dedicated to soft rock and other soft sounds:

http://home.earthlink.net/~davidday/eavesdrop/EASY.SAT.08.03.02.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~davidday/eavesdrop/EASY.SAT.09.27.02.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~davidday/eavesdrop/EASY.SAT.10.12.02.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~davidday/eavesdrop/EASY.SAT.11.30.02.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~davidday/eavesdrop/EASY.SAT.12.07.02.htm

I think this is my all time lost favorite:
Climax Blues Band - Couldn't Get It Right

cheers.

I'm also surprised that no one has mentioned the Atlanta Rhythm Section yet.

i was also gonna start a 60s-70s country pop thread, stuff like Afternoon Delight, Witchita Lineman and Lee Hazelwood. does the stuff from that countrypolitan fit into it? badical

Ozark Mountain Daredevils - "Jackie Blue"
Pure Prarie League - "Aimee"

When I was, a younger man, I hadn't a care
Foolin' around, hitting the town, growing my hair
You came along and stole my heart, when you entered my life
Ooh babe, you got what it takes, so I made you my wife

Since then I've never looked back
It's almost like living a dream
And ooh, I love you

You came along, from far away, and found me here
I was playin' around, feeling down, hittin' the beer
You picked me up from off the floor, and gave me a smile
You said you're much too young your life ain't begun, let's walk for awhile

And as my head was spinnin' 'round
I gazed into your eyes
And thought ooh, I want you

Thank you babe for being a friend
And shinin' your light in my life
'Cause ooh, I need you

As my head was comin' round
I gazed into your eyes
And thought ooh I want you

Thanks again for being my friend
And straightenin' out my life
'Cause ooh, I need you

Since then I never looked back
It's almost like livin' a dream
Ooh, I got you

If ever a man had it all
It would have to be me
And ooh, I love you

Old punk is fun because you get to hear the songs for the very first time in some cases. On the complete other side, soft rock is fun because every song is just a giant 'OH, YEAH, THIS THING!" waiting to happen. There's a few songs on this list that I don't recognize, but Lord knows that I've probably heard those songs a couple hundred times without knowing it.

(I also kinda think "Couldn't Get It Right" is a little too uptempo for this list though)

rebel!

http://www.myspace.com/reallysmoothmusic
http://www.myspace.com/talconline

http://low-bee.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2293 (hollertronix is even doing it?!)

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a320/djdeluxxx/Soft_Explosion.jpg

all links stolen from asilentflute

I watched a looooong infomercial for soft rock CD set last week. It had Air Supply sitting in sofas and talking about the hits. I've had Into The Night in my head ever since. Soft rock!

I heard about that, haven't seen it.
yay this thread! i got ignored bringing this stuff up on the country rock thread. like BIG difference huh who knew.
Nicolette Larson's "Lotta Love" sent me on a tear with this stuff a few months ago, I'm starting to match names to songs, having last heard most of these in my mom's car growing up. Anyone see VH1's softastic countdown last year? doesn't add anything to the thread but I ate it up.

i meant last month

I saw it. Rupert Holmes lip-synching to "Escape" was too much.

I watched a looooong infomercial for soft rock CD set last week. It had Air Supply sitting in sofas and talking about the hits. I've had Into The Night in my head ever since. Soft rock!

lolll I saw that thing too. it started out awesome but was we kept watching and watching, my wife and I were like "wait a minute, that's not soft rock, that's just a shitty song." there seemed to be a lack of focus.

have i ever told you guys how much i hate the term Yacht Rock and all it's ironic bandwagon jumpers?

the only difference is yacht rock is a stupid name

-- jaxon, Saturday, April 28, 2007 6:00 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Link

yes

jaxon: approve/disapprove?

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f286/Timdogg3/staysmooth_V.jpg

Sentimental Lady, Bob Welch (or the Fleetwood Mac version)

Anyone see VH1's softastic countdown last year

Please, the word is "softsational."

Deej, the thing is I would probably go to that if I wasn't going to a house party tonight. Then again, it's sort of on the way home.

i think the flyer would be better w/out the part calling people 'smooths'

i also fear the number of my-name-is-earl ironic mustaches.

that said i'm totally going

If 10cc count as soft rock, then search 10cc in general.

that flyer looks fine except for the attire part.

a lot of nü balearic beardo dance acts are addopting this schtick too. and even though i like the music, it is a bit silly

see bay area dreamchimney duders: hatchback, windsurf, etc

i think those yacht rock skits are funny but yeah, cut it out. deej overdosed on my ambrosia the other night fyi.

hah i didnt even notice the attire

overdosed on my ambrosia

o_O

man that night sucked! fuck schubas

wow. just wow.
Exile - I Wanna Kiss You All Over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJJQpSzDgC0

haha...well, it helps to understand that Exile came from a country music background...(which might explain the singer's boots)...funny thing, back when that video came out I had NO idea I would one day be laughing hysterically at it...it just didn't seem so out of place back then...

he looks like he should be in spinal tap. great song though

ha! a friend of mine made a comp called "Couples' Skate" filled with lots of the stuff mentioned above. I'm going to need to get a copy asap.

Funny my dad used to bump that Exile song and even had me put it on a mix cd for him last year. I love the production and the wobbly bassline. Great stuff. I would kill to hear this in a dive bar.

http://www.jasonhare.com

He's the king of '70s soft rock - he understands its ridiculousness, but openly loves it despite himself. (And avoids the kitschy fashion trappings, which is a quadruple plus.)

more ridiculously great random 70s tunes...

Sanford Townsend Band: Smoke From a Distant Fire
The Four Seasons: December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)
The Manhattans: Kiss and Say Goodbye
The Spinners: Could It Be I'm Falling In Love
Glen Campbell: Southern Nights

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCOS2vOxuXE

rock on, soft rock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GYyEaQnT60&NR=1&feature=fvwp

sounds like you have mental problems, man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCxQsaQ9FtQ

yeah, sounds like you have mental problems. man.

balaeric is a nice update, but lacks a certain gravitas without the skeezy vocals.

i'd like some real "nu soft-rock," and that bon-iver related stuff isn't it.

Promises - baby its you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekK5d7AI9hA

Real Nu Soft Rock?
Does this count?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0li04zmCPM

these songs, looped forever.

steve folbert -- romeo's tune
paul davis -- cool night
chris rea -- fool if you think it's over
gino vannelli -- living inside myself

Chris Rea really gets a great wurly sound out of that grand piano!

Haha, saw this thread last night and bookmarked Daniel's four-song post to listen to at work.

Get to work and Paul Davis' link is already grayed out because apparently I too have gone that route myself.

so that one song isn't really called "Boo If You Think It's Over", gotcha.

Kinda weird to catch up to some of these songs for the first time since I was six.

a few more

seals & crofts -- diamond girl
rupert holmes -- him
robbie dupree -- steal away
robert john -- sad eyes
randy vanwarmer -- just when i needed you most
mary mcgregor -- torn between two lovers
dr. hook -- sexy eyes
cliff richard -- we don't talk anymore

some of these are obvious. what i really crave are a few great songs of this era and genre that weren't released as singles. i want nu-soft rock, with that skeevy 70s vibe.

sick links bro

Daniel, Scott Seward posted a very special version of that Rupert Holmes song last year on this thread:

A thread for Rupert Holmes, the Pina Colada song dude

It's ... it says a lot.

Angry Eyes - Loggins and Messina
Al Stewart - "Time Passages"

Yes x10000 for those two classics.

Not sure if this fits because this is a legitimately great song, no camp value at all:

Murray Head--Say It Ain't So Joe. Yes, it is the One Night In Bangkok guy.

Here are two with plenty of camp value:

Maureen McGovern - The Morning After

And this is one is going hit your soft rock spot: The love theme from Same Time Next Year. Johnny Mathis and Jane Olivor - The Last Time I Felt Like This

Crank the Mathis song.

Daniel, Scott Seward posted a very special version of that Rupert Holmes song last year on this thread:

A thread for Rupert Holmes, the Pina Colada song dude

It's ... it says a lot.

― pplains, Monday, January 13, 2014

can't . . . stop . . . crying . . .

that maureen mcgovern song is great.

Trying to think of something a bit obscure (from 1970):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAdiSPcAVqQ

that maureen mcgovern song is great.

The Podeidon Adventure wouldn't be the same without it. The Johnny Mathis one is my favorite.

that bells song is 'saright.

anyone know an obscure song that has that chevy van vibe? now that's 70s skeevy soft-rock.

i think this counts, too: bob welch (with stevie nicks) -- ebony eyes

This one's from 1981, but I think this kind of genre really had no boundaries when it came to what decade it belonged to. (Rupert's "Escape" was the last U.S. No. 1 song of the 70s, after all.)

I would've posted the longer version because it has that scary fade-out, but man, an Australian band – complete with instrumentless lead singer singing back-up – playing on a German music show with a Confederate flag hanging on the wall was too much to pass up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbXqgtcrbyY

little river band had great vocal harmonies.

more

pilot -- magic
ace -- how long
melissa manchester -- midnight blue
leon russell -- lady blue
mac davis -- baby don't get hooked on me
david soul -- don't give up on us baby
leo sayer -- more than i can say
andy kim -- rock me gently
lobo -- i'd love you to want you
first class -- beach baby
blue swede -- never my love (borderline inclusion)

enough for tonight. reminiscing about music isn't such a bad mid-life crises, as such things go.

boz scaggs - what can i say? (the "other" single from silk degrees)

"Moonlight Feels Right" - Starbuck

This is really nice. Great synth lead through the verse. And the marimba (?) solo is fun. Vocals are a little sleazy, I can picture singing "me and moon are itchin' to play" while winking at the audience with an unsettling grin.

^I can picture **the vocalist**

rod stewart - tonight's the night

spread your wings and come inside this one, which will hook you from the paul mccartney & wings guitar chord that opens it and hold you through the cooing french spoken word that ends it, with a stop in the middle for some soft strings and silky saxophone.

also, the video is a pre-mtv lost treasure.

smooth as fuck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU2mfK-maSQ

I love Little River Band, Ambrosia, and Leo Sayer! Also this guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fCzfO18Rh4

Just to throw out a few more:

Dave Mason - We Just Disagree
Dave Loggins - Please Come To Boston
Looking Glass - Brandy
Michael Murphy - Wildfire

It's almost an endless genre...

surely bread qualify for this love ?

picked up their catalogue last year and alongside, elo, moody blues, and 10cc, find their smooth aor country rock pop is joyous ear candy.

Al Stewart rules this genre, Time Passages as mentioned upthread is a good'un but Year of the Cat just edges it

This isn't soft-rock, but if we're mentioning Boz Scaggs in the same breath, we've got to include George Benson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iey3CZFg-KE

This was playing in your dad's Cutlass as he was driving back from the apartment of that chick he met at the racquet club.

oh yeah. that song soundtracked a summer of mine as a young teenager, while i was desperately in love with a girl who wouldn't give me the time of day (no girl in her right-mind would've, but that's another story).

Oh man, I had completely forgotten about Alan O'Day! Love the way this one starts: Yeahhhh....Awright Baby.....Uhhhh....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7Xvf-L1wzo

I started throwing stuff together, looked up and saw that it's almost 9:30. I've got work to do.

So do you – somebody add what I forgot here: http://open.spotify.com/user/pplains/playlist/0nwTuzF4shGGH4D9FjUtXT

Be careful because Good Lord, this genre is ate up with acts either re-recording new versions of their old hits or the dreaded "karaoke" version of everything.

Also, feel free to arrange these. I haven't gone through and said "no, we can't follow 'my maria' with 'take a letter, maria'" yet.

Just found out Alan O'Day died this year, and that he wrote "Angie Baby" for Helen Reddy. I've never paid any attention to the lyrics, but according to wiki:

In order to make the character ("Angie") more interesting, he based her on a neighbor girl he had known who seemed "socially retarded".[citation needed] O'Day also thought of his own childhood; an only child who was often ill, many of his days were spent in bed with a radio to keep him company.[citation needed] O'Day showed the unfinished song to his therapist, who pointed out that the character's reactions were not those of a retarded person; O'Day then switched Angie from mentally "slow" to "crazy."[citation needed] This expanded to her living in a dream world of lovers, inspired by the songs on her radio. When an evil-minded neighbor tries to enter her room to take advantage of the girl, he is instead drawn into her reality, literally shrinking him down into her radio, "never to be found".

Alan O'Day's debut was a self financed sort of promo record that is really good! Originals can be expensive but Big Pink reissued it a few years ago on CD.

I started throwing stuff together, looked up and saw that it's almost 9:30. I've got work to do.

So do you – somebody add what I forgot here: http://open.spotify.com/user/pplains/playlist/0nwTuzF4shGGH4D9FjUtXT

Be careful because Good Lord, this genre is ate up with acts either re-recording new versions of their old hits or the dreaded "karaoke" version of everything.

Also, feel free to arrange these. I haven't gone through and said "no, we can't follow 'my maria' with 'take a letter, maria'" yet.

― pplains, Tuesday, January 14, 2014

this is great.

Yeah I know it's 1982 but it sure sounds 1970s. Strangely enough stripey t-shirt dude looks just like a Shoreditch hipster, unlike the bassist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Adx0RXpvg

yeah. i think that counts, but it's right on the edge. america had that "middle-aged, alcohol-soaked guy making an unsettling pass at a woman half-his-age" vibe, which is the essence of 70s soft rock.

Craig Ruhnke is one of Canada's soft rock greatest secrets. The Japanese pay a lot for his records, and with good reason. His first from 73 is pure easy and free.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9okhZ972m3s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr7wn_Zyc6A

oh wow, those are great.

Hey Daniel if you'd like my soft mix I posted in the mixtape thread

Hey Daniel if you'd like my soft mix I posted in the mixtape thread

― JacobSanders, Wednesday, January 15, 2014

missed this somehow. i'll check it out tonight. thx!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s-KwsoZk0Q

buddies of mine in philly made this: https://soundcloud.com/#the-dream-chimney/mix-of-the-week-darklord-soft-rock-for-hard-times . it's great.

jacob - can you share a direct link to your mix? not sure which mixtape thread you're talking about

future world orchestra - miracles

https://soundcloud.com/lexx72/lexx-symptoms-of-love

this mix is really good

really like this record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz8dtIruywA

hell yea, stoked to listen to this lexx mix

btw soft rock for hard times vol 2 came out a while back on test pressing, link for anyone who might be interested: http://testpressing.org/2014/09/370-universal-cave-soft-rock-for-hard-times-vol-2/

hi I've been nerding out so hard on this stuff lately

(also early 80's easy listening hit machines like george benson, Peabo Bryson et al)

but also this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0sTpZja6JQ

(and I always end up thinking about MST3K's riff on whether it's Hamilton, Joe, Frank, & Reynolds / Hamilton Joe, Frank & Reynolds / Hamilton Joe Frank, & Reynolds etc etc )

so although it was techically 1981, it was mentioned up thread - Paul Davis's "Cool Night".

one I loved as a kid, as an adult I hear it and think "ugh, relatable".

which is to say "classic"

listening to the rhino 70s box and there seems to be a significant subgenre of 'dude runs into old flame, everyone's doing fine, but dude never in fact got over old flame (and sometimes sees her face when he's fucking his wife)'. kinda creepy!

are there more recent examples of this trope in pop lyrics?

I just spent 15 minutes contemplating the amazingness of the Pablo Cruise logo, as evocative of intent as any metal band's logo.

I have the "Have A Nice Day" series of 70s comps which cover all sorts of low-charting hits, very evocative of my childhood listening to the radio. Much of my early ideas of love and relationships came from those songs.

are there more recent examples of this trope in pop lyrics?

― mookieproof, Tuesday, April 7, 2020 9:41 AM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

steve winwood - "valerie" kinda?

yikes steve

"What a Fool Believes" ??

I always figured this trope was because a lot of people were getting divorced in the 70s and because they had been off the market for a while, the people who spring to mind when romance became a possibility again were old flames
Also it seems like a distinctly cis male POV but I have nothing to prove that aside from a gut feeling

i'm definitely fascinated by this strain of thought, which like you i think of as being particularly cis male. something like bill labounty's "livin' it up" or, i mean, earlier something like "flowers on the wall". the bitter regret of someone who took what he had for granted and treated "his woman" like shit but lacking in anything resembling real insight or personal accountability. that's the extra layer of tragedy of songs like that, you just know the protagonist of the song is going to pull that shit again and again until they finally die, alone and miserable.

Whereas ladies are always singing things like "I'm happy for you. I wish nothing but the best for you both."