I have to say I never cared for the 60s music scene, so that means that the remnants of the decade that made it big this year and in 1970 do nothing for me which does drag down their rankings on this list. This also had those awful pop and country ballads that permeated the first half of the 70s, which the previous year lacked and thus gave it a higher ranking on this list.
A decade prior to scoring massive success with his second band Mondo rock, Ross Wilson fronted this short lived but well remembered band who scored one of the quintessential hits of the decade with this pub anthem. It continues to be a staple on oldies stations to this day, an honour that few other entries on this list can boast about due to how little of a legacy they each seem to have individually.
This wasn’t the first hit to come from the Mixtures (we’ll look at that in a bit) however this was the song that made them a household name internationally given how this nearly topped the British charts following its dominance on our charts at the start of the decade. Sadly, these guys would be a one hit wonder internationally for reasons we’ll look at further down this list.
We have another ballad to feature from Rod Stewart on this site, this one being the first major hit he had both solo and as part of a group as it was due to this ballad’s success that the band he was in at the time found massive success with one of their albums (that band being the Faces.)
Even though this remains a staple on oldies stations to this day, this solo breakthrough from George Harrison sparked massive controversy back in the day due to the melody being similar to a track from the Chiffons known as “He’s so fine.” This led to a legal battle where he wound up giving songwriting credit to the older track even if he insists the plagiarism was unintentional.
While this wasn’t the debut single from Olivia Newton John (we’ll look at that entry way down this list) it was the song that made her a household name given how it was easily one of the biggest hits of the decade here in Australia for the British born (at the time) country singer. It was due to this song’s success that she decided to permanently migrate to Australia, at least until she decided to migrate to America a decade later.
Given how the Monkees were one of the most successful bands of the 60’s, it only makes sense that their spiritual successor when it comes to bands created for TV would also find massive success worldwide. This song is nowadays better known for the Voice of the beehive cover from the early 90’s, however for twenty years, it was this version people thought of whenever the title came to mind.
Get used to seeing a bunch of country ballads on this list as those were plentiful back in the day, here’s the most successful of the bunch which comes from American singer Susan Raye likely due to it being named after the Californian airport as well as the success of the recent Airport film.
This was one of only two hits that Drummond had during their time together, the other was “Kings of the world” which they achieved as Mississippi later in the decade which we’ll be looking at much later on this list. It does seem like a coincidence that these guys would score a hit with a song that shares its name with Ross Wilson’s first band from earlier on this list.
This remains the most successful song in John Lennon’s catalogue outside of his work with the Beatles, although curiously this protest track didn’t hit number one on Billboard despite it being a massive chart topper throughout the rest of the world. I guess American listeners didn’t quite feel the positive message of world peace this song was going for, that or they felt this was communist propaganda from an out of touch millionaire.
This was the first of two chart toppers that Tony Orlando had with his backing band Dawn, a duo that was in fact two women of colour who provided backup vocals for him who obviously elevated the material from typical easy listening ballads to more noteworthy pop ballads of the day. They have two more entries to come on this list, proving how successful this formula was for the trio.
Although this wasn’t the first solo single that Cher released (that honour goes to “Bang bang”) this was the first solo hit of hers to be a massive worldwide success thanks to it being an autobiographical track about how she rose to fame with her (then) husband Sonny Bono. She still has one more entry to come on this list, however her fortunes changed for the worse as the decade went on due to her marriage with Sonny failing.)
We have another Australian supergroup here, or rather they’re a supergroup in retrospect given how much success each of the members would go on to have with their separate projects. By far the most famous member is Rick Springfield, however Beeb Birtles is also well known for his involvement with the Little river band. This was their only hit which was only the case due to being a Beatles cover.
This was the first major hit that Helen Reddy scored here in Australia and indeed the rest of the world, although it was a hit here first given how she had yet to attract international attention which is how things work for Australian artists making it big globally. We’ll be looking at three more of her ballads as we go down this list, each of them showcasing her talents as a vocalist in the country genre.
We have another British born south African artist to appear on this list, this time it’s from Dave Mills who scored a massive hit here in Australia with this ballad to the point where he was convinced to move here following its success. This proved to be fruitless as he remains a one hit wonder here despite doing quite well in Africa with his earlier material that all failed to chart here.
The first of two entries from Cat Stevens, this was the lead single from his album Teaser and the fire cat, or rather it was a two for one deal given how both songs were released as singles internationally but were bundled together here in Australia. The first track remains as one of Cat’s signature tunes due to the multiple covers it received over the years whilst the latter likely would’ve bombed here had it not been released with the former.
It was rather difficult finding out information about Joel Dayde, eventually I had to brush up on my French as the only articles online that go into detail about him are written in his native tongue. Basically, he’s a singer/songwriter from France who scored his one and only hit with this ballad that was apparently written in French and then translated for him to sing in English, resulting in his version becoming a success here in Australia.
This was the only hit that Lynn Anderson had here in Australia, mainly because it’s named after a 1964 book that would become a box office flop later in the decade as a film adaptation. It could also be that it’s yet another country ballad from a female artist which like I said earlier, permeated our music scene during the first half of the decade.
This was the lead single to Paul and Linda’s collaboration album Ram, a song that for whatever reason, never saw the light of day in the former’s native UK despite it being a massive success throughout the rest of the world. It’s also often mistaken for a Wings track, likely because it appears on many greatest hits packages for the band as well as fans considering it as such for Linda’s involvement.
For the longest time, this was the only hit that Tony Christie had in his native UK, although he had a second hit here in Australia that we’ll get to in a bit that was a hit for him over there in 2005 of all times. I like to think of this guy as the English equivalent of Tom Jones, that is the pop crooner Tom and not the sexaholic Tom given how this guy obviously lacks the Welshman’s sex appeal.
Although disco didn’t exist at the start of the decade, I feel that it’s safe to declare this as the first song in the genre given how similar it sounds to the likes of the Bee gees and Donna Summer’s work from later in the decade. It was the only hit that Freda Payne had here in Australia likely due to how catchy it is compared to many of the other entries on this list, although she fared much better in her native America.
This was the only hit for British singer Lally Stott (boy what a stupid stage name) it’s not the only version of this track to appear on this list as Middle of the road took their stab at the track shortly after this version was released. Tragically, Lally would die from a bike accident later in the decade, meaning that there’s a possibility he could’ve escaped the one hit wonder bin had he lived to the end of the twentieth century.
Told you we’d be looking at another version of Lally Stott’s one and only hit on this list, here we are with Middle of the road (what a strange name for a pop band) interpretation of the folk track which also serves as their debut single to boot. The best way to describe these guys is if they were the Scottish equivalent of the New seekers and thus weren’t a spinoff of a much better Australian band from the 60’s.
This may seem like a surprise entry if you’re from the northern hemisphere as this was merely an album track outside of Australia and NZ for the Hollies, I’m not sure why us Aussies and kiwis were given the privilege of having this be a single over the rest of the world, but the result was that it became the band’s biggest hit here and second biggest hit behind “The air that I breathe” in NZ.
This came a full decade prior to Rick Springfield’s 80’s chart topper “Jessie’s girl,” even though it wasn’t an inescapable success here like his 80’s work was, it nonetheless was enough of an incentive to release it in America where it became a minor success on Billboard. Rick put his music career on hold to focus on his acting career throughout the remainder of the decade.
This was the only hit that Australian prog rock band Spectrum managed to achieve in their career, mainly because it was highly unusual for prog bands to find success with their singles back in the day and that their albums even more curiously didn’t do very well back in the day. I guess it was due to this limited success they had that led to them breaking up two years after their one and only hit.
It’s strange that Dave Edmunds would score success on both ends of the decade but find no success during its midpoint, here we are with the first of his three hit singles (we’ll look at his second in a bit) which was his biggest hit both here and his native UK due to being a cover of an old RNB track from the 50’s that he faithfully interpreted for a (then) modern audience.
It took me a while to get to these guys, but I finally get to feature the spiritual successor of the Seekers on this list of mine starting with their debut single. I guess the rest of the world was a bit sceptical of this new direction that the brand name was going in given how it was only a hit in the southern hemisphere, although that would quickly change with their subsequent releases.
One of the more prominent glam rock bands of the decade was T Rex, this was their biggest hit which feels like a hybrid of a psychedelia track and a glam track which I feel is the perfect song to see how the former became the latter as the decade found its own identity. Even though this was their biggest hit here in Australia, it’s far from their most well known as we’ll get to those tracks later on this list.
Another two for one entry on this list, this time it’s the two final hits that CCR had in most parts of the world given how they both come from Pendulum which is the last album their fans like to acknowledge from their catalogue. “Have you ever seen the rain” is by far the more famous of these two entries given how fondly remembered it remains for 70’s aficionados due to its instantly recognisable melody.
Well, this might be one of the peachiest songs to ever be a hit single, although curiously this wasn’t the big hit that Gerry Monroe had in his native UK as that honour goes to “Sally” which was incidentally his debut single despite him pushing forty when it was released in his homeland.
Even though this wasn’t the biggest hit that the brothers Gibb has here in Australia during the first half of the decade, this was the first Billboard chart topper the trio had suggesting that this was the song that finally made them a household name in America even though they had plenty of success over there with their earlier material from the 60’s.
This is the only notable hit that Joan Baez had here in Australia, it’s a cover of a song from the Canadian band err… the Band about the fallout of the American civil war. Naturally it connected with audiences at the time due to the recent outcome of the Civil rights movement, which is often compared to the Civil war when it comes to fighting for the basic human rights of the everyman.
Another artist to die tragically young this decade, here we have the only hit that Janis Joplin achieved which she only did so posthumously given how he died of a drug overdose several months prior to its release. This is also a bad representation of her work musically as it’s a country ballad as opposed to her heavier blues tracks that she’s often celebrated for.
This was the only hit that Spanish composer Waldo De Los Rios had throughout his career, it was a symphonic rearrangement of Mozart’s “Symphony no 40” which proved to be a massive success thanks to the rise in popularity of classical music from around this time.
We have another two for one entry on this list, this time it’s the big hit that Carole King had as well as what would’ve been her only hit were it not for her endorsement of the Hard rock cafe becoming a surprise hit for her later in the decade. Here we have a folk track that helped her claim her only number one hit on Billboard as well as its B-side which was a massive hit for Martika nearly two decades later.
Even though he had released a solo album the year prior to this ballad, this was the first solo hit that Paul McCartney had anywhere in the world due to not releasing a single from that album at the start of the decade. This went straight to number one on our charts despite it not being among the bigger hits of the decade down under.
This is the only notable hit that the Canadian band Five-man electrical band (seriously what is with these wack band names?) had throughout the world, this song being a protest track about the political climate of the early 70’s given how it appeared that the world had abandoned the protests of the 60’s by this point in time. Naturally it drew criticism at the time for failing to provide a solution to the issues they addressed.
We have another entry from the debut album of Daddy cool on this list, this was the second single from said album which was released around the time the album dropped around the time the album was released in order to cash in off said albums success. It wasn’t as inescapable as their earlier entry on this list, hence why you don’t hear it much on oldies stations.
If it wasn’t for “Say you’ll stay until tomorrow” from later in the decade as well as his revival period in the 90’s, this would’ve been the final hit in Tom Jones’s career worldwide given how his popularity seemed to fall off a cliff despite ending the 60’s on a high note with a highly successful live album based on a Vegas show of his.
This was the only hit that South African singer John Kongos had in his career (side note this was an excellent time for African artists if this list is any indication) it’s a song that’s since been eclipsed here in Australia due to the Party boys cover from 1987. It’s a song that’s best known for its strong African style production from the drums to it having somewhat of a tribal ambience to it.
This was originally an instrumental theme for the Hollywood blockbuster Love story; however, it was turned into a love ballad at the last minute when the producers decided to recruit American crooner Andy Williams to sing over the instrumental theme in order to score a hit for the film’s soundtrack. This gambit paid off here in Australia where it was a huge hit, not so much anywhere else in the world where it wasn’t.
This was the second single to come from George Harrison’s double album All things must pass, it was a massive hit for the former Beatle worldwide even with the strong album sales somewhat hampering its success in countries such as Australia which consist of data based on capitalism. This continues the spiritual theme of his earlier entry on this list which is a theme present throughout the album.
This is the first of two entries to come from the Kinks, it remains as their final hit single in most parts of the world due to the 60’s band struggling to carryover their success into the 70’s likely due to their two hits from the start of the decade being very different to the garage rock of their earlier material. It could also be that there’s more of a novelty both of these tracks have compared to their earlier work lyrically.
It took us a while to get to a second hit from the Rolling stones on this track, however we finally have one with this lead single to their album Sticky fingers which was a much bigger hit in America and in their native UK likely due to strong album sales eating up its success here in Australia. This is their last entry on this site of mine as they only had three hits in the 70’s down under (their two entries on this list and “Miss you.”)
This was the first solo single that Ringo Starr released in his career, naturally it was an immediate success for the drummer of the fab four given how his former bandmates had dominated the charts with their earlier entries on this list following their breakup from the start of the decade. His true peak in success would come with his second solo album which contains his other two entries on this list.
One of the stranger songs to become a hit throughout the 70’s, we have this signature track from Three dog night which was by far their biggest hit both here in Australia and in their native America where it topped the Billboard charts due to how energetic it is. For whatever reason, Mariah Carey interpolated parts of this track for her cover of the Christmas hymn of the same name for her 1994 Christmas album.
Russell Morris was another Australia artist who began the 70’s on a high note given how he came out of the 60’s with not one but two chart toppers under his belt (those being “The real thing” and “Part 3 into paper walls.”) That said, this was his biggest hit throughout the decade which was a far cry commercially from what he achieved with his earlier work.
This is the second rendition of the Christian hymn to make this list, although at least this one is a more conventional cover of the hymn as opposed to it being an (in my opinion) bizarre instrumental rendition played on bagpipes. Judy already appeared on my site with her rendition of “Send in the clown,” meaning she wasn’t a one hit wonder with us Aussies throughout the decade.
We have one final appearance from Neil Diamond on this list, it’s another big worldwide hit he had proving yet again that he was on top of the world during the first half of the decade regardless of where you’re from.
On the surface, this seemed like a typical blues act that scored their one and only hit with this track before fading into obscurity. What’s interesting about this track is the “friends” that provided backup vocals to the track, these friends include the likes of the Allman brothers, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Leon Russell and Rita Coolidge, all of whom went on to have massive worldwide success following their appearance on this track.
This was the only hit for Australian country singer Reg Lindsay, it was a song written about Neil Armstrong following his overnight fame of being involved with the moon landing a year prior to this song’s release. Apparently, he had tried to find success for over a decade by the time he released this track, proving how hard it’s always been for Australian country singers in our music landscape.
Although Tin tin was a duo from Australia, it took a year for this song of theirs to become a success here likely due to them releasing it in the UK to deafening silence and not releasing it here around the same time for whatever reason. Honestly the story behind the song is more interesting than the song itself as it’s your typical bubble-gum pop track that history has long forgotten about.
This is another entry from the Partridge family on this list, making it the fourth appearance from the TV band so far and proving just how popular they were with Australian audiences.
This was a massive worldwide hit for the Canadian band Ocean, likely due to how unapologetically religious it is which connected with spiritual audiences back in the day. It appears there weren’t many Aussies in that audience given how much less successful it was here compared to the rest of the world.
I bet you were beginning to wonder if these guys had any success on our charts back in the day given how long it’s taken for me to feature one of their quintessential tracks. Suffice to say that this is the first of two entries on this list which became a success around the time of Jim Morrison’s tragic death.
This is the only notable hit that the British group Fortunes had here in Australia, although like many British bands back in the day, they were far more lucrative in their homeland than they were internationally as they scored a ton of hits in their homeland throughout the 60’s.
This is the only other hit that the Kinks had this decade in most parts of the world, it’s also (to my knowledge) the earliest hit single about a trans woman given that the titular woman is described as such. This has led to a polarising reception of the song in recent years as it’s both praised for being ahead of its time for humanising these individuals and criticised for not going far enough (the latter usually by “woke” individuals.)
We’ve looked at the second hit that James Taylor had here in Australia (at least as a solo artist) “Handy man,” time now to look at the fire big hit he had which is of course his signature track that he released at the start of the decade. This was such an instant success for the folk singer that it boosted the popularity of the album it came from to the point where it became a best seller here.
Although we’ll look at Danyel Gerard’s version of this track much later on this list, this version from Matt Flinders proved to be the big hit here in Australia which makes this yet another example of a local artist stealing the success that an international artist would’ve otherwise had back in the day.
It was surprisingly hard to research this track given how it and the band behind it has fallen into obscurity over the years. From what I can gather, Dusk was a trio who were formed to compete with Dawn commercially, they only seemed to have success in the southern hemisphere given how this was a big hit for the girls in both Australia and NZ.
While this wasn’t his debut single, this was the song that put Elton John on the map given how it was a massive success in most parts of the world due to how sentimental it was compared to many of the other ballads on this list. He would continue to find success for the remainder of the twentieth century with his subsequent follow ups.
This was a reggae track that became a success here in Australia due to its massive popularity in the UK of all places, I’m not sure why it took off over there other than the Brits always seeming to have a soft spot for reggae over the years. It was Dave and Ansell Collins only hit down under; however, they did score a second hit in the UK after this.
This was written by Burt Bacharach during the height of the Civil rights movement, meaning that this is less about world peace and more about racial harmony (even though the two are of course interchangeable with each other.) Dionne Warwick’s version is the most well-known, however it’s this version from Tom Clay that managed to be a big hit back in the day, at least it was here in Australia.
The Carpenters were on a roll when they released their second big hit around the world, in fact this nearly topped the Billboard charts much like their top entry on this list which confirmed the brother and sister duo as the real deal moving forward in the decade.
This was a hit for Brian Hyland a decade after his first hit “Itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polkadot bikini” (I can’t believe I had to type that up on this site even after mentioning its 1990 cover on the NZ side of my site.) This meant that the former teen idol was able to escape the one hit wonder bin here in Australia with this track about a Romani woman he’s in love with (though not enough to not refer to her as a slur.)
We have another two for one deal on this list, this time it’s from the king of rock and roll as Elvis Presley bundled his cover of a Dusty Springfield classic with a song that’s long been forgotten by even his diehard fanbase for decades at this point.
This is the final hit that Axiom achieved during their short time together, it was the lead single to their second and final album which proves that although they weren’t quite as popular with their first album, there was still love for the band regardless even mere months prior to them calling it quits.
This is one of the many moderate hits that the Partridge family had here in Australia between their two earlier entries on this list, I’m guessing this song’s success was due to how well it went over with us Aussies when it was performed on the show.
This is a song that could’ve only been popular from the 60’s or the start of the 70’s, it comes to us from Daddy Dewdrop who scored his one and only hit worldwide with this novelty track that still pops up here and there in pop culture.
We have another entry from the brothers Gibb, this will be their earliest entry to feature on my site as I don’t think I’ll ever be looking at what was popular in the 60’s where most of their pre disco success came from.
This was a modest success for Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds (what a weird band name) here in Australia, likely due to it being a huge hit in their native America where this type of ballad reigned supreme on the Billboard charts.
This was the only hit for Leon Russell, one of the less influential icons of the hippy culture despite doing quite well with his albums here in Australia during the first half of the decade. I’m not sure how we Aussies came across his work given how little success he had in his native America.
While we’ve already seen plenty of heavier tracks on this list, this is the first entry to be a full-on heavy metal track which comes to us from Deep purple of all bands. Something interesting about this song’s success here in Australia is that it was quite delayed as it had almost been a full year since its international success before it finally took off on our charts.
This is the final entry from Russell Morris on this list, he had quite the string of hits here with some of them even crossing over to NZ due to how inescapable he was during the first half of the decade. He’s another Aussie artist that I’m surprised failed to see a resurgence in popularity with the rise of Countdown.
This was the second hit that the Doors had from their final album L.A woman, it’s another song that’s been fondly remembered over the years due to how much oldies stations love to play it. I guess if the album weren’t so successful, it would’ve been even bigger here due to our charts revolving around physical sales which the album ate up for this song.
Of all the bands that could’ve used a second chance in the mainstream following the launch of Countdown, Chain ranks pretty high as they were one of the few Aussies prog rock bands to find success during the height of the genre’s popularity during the first half of the decade. This was their only hit, however it easily fits in with Blackfeather’s earlier entries on here.
We have another country ballad from a female artist to make it on this list, this time it’s the only hit that Sammi Smith scored here and in her native America as this was released during the height of this trend that died out by the midpoint of the decade.
This was the lead single to CCR’s final album Mardis gras, or rather it was a throwaway track they released following the success of Pendulum that they included on the album due to the behind-the-scenes drama they went through during the album’s conception.
This was a hit for Lobo two years prior to his other two entries on this list, likely because it’s a love song that revolves around a couple and their puppy which I’m sure melted the hearts of listeners back in the day despite how lame it seems for modern audiences.
