1970 in Music...

There was a lot of good music in 1970 (I suspect in reality there was a lot of good music coming out in just about any year you could mention). The real question is where to start - do you look at bestselling singles, or Albums, UK, USA or elsewhere? What about songs that are considered important and still played today, or should I be listening to those songs that have been all but forgotten?

To start off with, here's the top 10 songs from 1970, per the UK charts.

1. The Wonder of You by Elvis Presley
2. In the Summertime by Mungo Jerry
3. Band of Gold by Freda Payne
4. Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel
5. Two Little Boys by Rolf Harris
6. Wand'rin Star by Lee Marvin
7. Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum
8. Back Home by The England World Cup Squad
9. All Right Now by Free
10. Yellow River by Christie

There are some good songs on here, The Wonder of You is a really nice Elvis song that I don't remember hearing before (it wasn't originally an Elvis song though, it was written by Baker Knight in 1959, and recorded by various artists before Elvis including the Platters and The Sandpipers). I really like Band of Gold and Bridge Over Troubled Water, and I also enjoyed the dry, rasping voice of Lee Marvin singing Wand'rin Star. Lee Marvin is actually an actor of the 1960s and 1970s, and he sung this song in the 1969 film Paint Your Wagon. The film was a flop, but the song was a big success - Marvin never followed it up with another song, so is a definite one hit wonder.

The US chart has some of the same songs but mostly different ones, including:

(They Long to Be) Close to You - by the Carpenters
Aint No Mountain High Enough by Diana Ross
Let It Be by The Beatles
I'll Be There by the Jackson Five
Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head by B J Thomas

I have made a playlist on Spotify of some of bestselling songs of 1970, and a few other songs that came out in that year that are notable, or just ones that I like :)

Sources

UK Top 100 1970 - http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/top-100-1970.shtml
US chart 1970 - http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/top-100-songs-of-the-year/?year=1970

1970 - At the movies

In 1970, there were only 3 television channels in the UK, and consumer video players/recorders had yet to put in an appearance so to watch movies, apart from the occasional film on television going to the cinema was the only real option for movie lovers. 1970 may be an arbitrary place to start this retro journey, but I don't think it is a bad one - while some films will have dated and special effects have come on leaps and bounds, many films in the 1970's could just as easily have been filmed in the 1990's or after - hairstyles and fashions not withstanding of course!

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Box Office Smashes

Here's the top 10 grossing films at the US box office in 1970, according to the Internet Movie Database.

1. Love Story - starring Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal. This is a romantic film about a boy and a girl who fall in love at college, but then tragedy strikes.
2. Airport - starring Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin. This is an action thriller come disaster move, with Burt Lancaster playing an airport manager having to contend with lots of problems including someone trying to blow up a plane.
3. M.A.S.H. - starring Donald Sutherland. A war comedy based in a field hospital in the Korean war.
4.  Joe - starring Peter Boyle, Dennis Patrick and Susan Sarandon. It is a thriller about a man who accidentally kills his junkie daughter's drug dealing boyfriend.
5. Anybody's - "An erotic drama about a youthful bride-to-be who takes a holiday to Yugoslavia with a cynical and evil lesbian film critic (and murderess) that leads to debauchery, degradation with a dwarf, a dinner with naked entertainers and other highlights..." (taken straight from IMDB, I couldn't beat that description.
6. Tora! Tora! Tora! - A historical film about the days leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Habour.
7. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls - A satirical musical drama about three girls who go to Hollywood to find fame and fortune, but instead find sex, sleaze and drugs. A satirical take on Valley of the Dolls.
8. Chisum - Western starring John Wayne and Forrest Tucker, and featuring legendary figures Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett.
9. Darling Lili - a comedy musical drama starring Julie Andrews, which is a cute spin on the legend of Mata Hari.
10. Myra Breckinridge - a comedy starring Mae West and John Huston about a man who has a sex change operation. 

Other notables

An interesting mix of films there. Other notable films include The Only Game in Town (a romantic comedy starring Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beaty), Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Five Easy Pieces (see below), The Aristocats, Patton (a biopic of American WW2 general George Patten), Kelly's Heroes (a war comedy adventure starring Clint Eastwood) and Little Big Man, a comedy adventure film starring Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway about a man who looks back on his early life being raised by Native Americans and then fighting General Custer.

Most of these films are American, but one notable British film is The Railway Children, a lovely family drama that came out on Boxing Day 1970, about a family who move to a small Yorkshire town after their father's enforced absence. I've seen this many times, and would recommend it, particularly if watching with children.

What I'm Watching

There's a lot of good films here, I'm spoiled for choice but wanted to start off by watching at least one film from 1970. I started off with Five Easy Pieces. It focuses on an upper class American drop out who leaves his family and takes up a succession of dead end working class jobs on oil rigs. It wasn't a major box office success, but is notable for being Jack Nicholson's first major film and he does a good job in it. This film is a real slice of Americana, and has a good soundtrack, featuring songs country music legend by Tammy Wynette. A good film 4/5.

Available on Amazon

I also watched the top film at the box office in 1970, Love Story. This is a film that would probably come across as cliched today, but it no doubt was a lot fresher a story in 1970. It was a very moving film, with a beautiful soundtrack and was impressive for really featuring ups and downs in the relationship of the two main characters, not portraying everything as perfect (as a lot of films today would). It also features Tommy Lee Jones in his first (brief) big screen appearance - he plays a student housemate of main character Oliver. This film was based on a book of the same name by Erich Segal, and there's also recently been a musical.  5/5.

Also on my list to watch is Kelly's Heroes and Little Big Man.