The 1970s was an era that had a great variety of music from progressive rock to disco to funk to jazz-rock.  But as the post-war baby boom put the Sixties behind them, and went to school, learned trades and began families, the music shifted from the acid-tinged progressive rock of the Sixties to a large number of positive, energetic, softer songs.  This was the era of the singer-songwriter, working with top notch producers and professional studio musicians, including a lot of strings. Musicians like Gord Lightfoot re-recorded much of his oeuvre in California in this newer style.  Anne Murray released two or three albums a year; and Elton John ruled the album charts.

I thought it might be fun to capture the softer side of the Seventies in a playlist, and before I knew it, I had over 100 songs to listen to.  And then I don’t know what came over me; I decided to order all these songs in alphabetical order, and see what came out.  Google’s slapdash software engineering is at its worst when it comes to sequencing youtube playlists, but somehow I got the job done. So here it is.  Oh, and no Jim Croce.  No Tony Orlando and Dawn.  No ‘Feelings’ and definitely, no Barry Manilow.  Just a lot of stuff that I listened to back in the day.  I also allowed at most two songs per artist, except Abba gets three.  No, they weren’t the best act of the 1970s, but they were the 1970s.  So, three for Abba.  I hope you enjoy this.

On spotify:  Spotify – Soft Sounds of the 70s

On youtube: