People are divided on Grease to this day, on the one hand there's people who think it's a timeless classic complete with catchy as hell music and a compelling narrative (such as me) and on the other there's people who think it's an overrated mess filled with cliche storylines and awful characters. One thing audiences of the day could agree on is that this duet between its two leads was a masterpiece as it was a huge success for them worldwide.
Often considered to be one of the greatest songs of all time (rightfully so in my opinion) this nearly six-minute rock opera initially struggled to find an audience due to its crushing length on the radio as well as record executives finding it too silly to be pushed as a single. Needless to say, the general public disagreed with those assessments.
Oh boy do I do not want to talk about this song, mainly for the artist who made it but also, I promised myself I wouldn't be mean to songs that were clearly meant for children. Thankfully this will be Rolf Harris's only entry on my site given how his only other hit was as such a decade prior.
This was a massive hit for Elvis Presley at the start of the decade worldwide, it makes sense given how he began the decade with his earlier entry on this list which also remains one of his more iconic tracks in his catalogue. This not so much due to his 70's output being widely ignored by most modern fans of the king of rock and roll.
This was the biggest hits in Australia during the first half of the decade, in fact it came close to being the biggest hit of the decade overall given its refusal to die on our charts back in the day. I feel this is the best indication of how widely different our music landscape was from the pre-Countdown era to the post Countdown era given how this definitely wouldn't have touched our charts later in the decade.
This might be a bit of an anomaly for my American readers as this was never released as a single over there for some reason, for everyone else this remains the biggest hit from Wings which seems fitting as it's a song that honours Paul's Scottish heritage more than anything else he's ever released.
#34 for 1973
It's crazy to think that there's an earlier version of this ballad from Badfinger of all people given how many will either think of this version or the Mariah Carey cover from the 90's when the title is brought up. Even though this was Nilsson's only hit here in Australia, it was instrumental for making his album a huge success back in the day, suggesting that his subsequent failures were due to disappointment from us Aussies.
I told you we'd get to this version of the Mixture's earlier entry on this list eventually, here we have the debut single for Mungo Jerry who is a band named after a character from a book of cat poetry that would be the basis of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats. Honestly, I could go on all day about this track, however I'll leave it at this being the quintessential track about doing nothing ala "The lazy song" or "Hakuna Matata."
Oh joy, we now have the youngest member of the Osmond family scoring a massive hit with his track at the tender age of ten years old. Even though this was widely rejected in his native America, it was a massive hit here in Australia which prompted it to be an even bigger hit in the UK where it actually went to number one.
Simon and Garfunkel were another band who broke up at the start of the decade despite starting the 70's on a strong note, in this case it was with the title track from their final album which indeed was a massive hit for the folk duo worldwide. Curiously, Art would find more success in the 70's despite Paul finding more success on his own in the long run.
This was another song whose popularity was a bit late in Australia, mainly because by the time it was released as a single here, it was already one of the biggest hits of the decade over in NZ for the Dutch trio Pussycat. This resulted in them being one of the more popular acts over there whilst the remained a one hit wonder here.
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.)
These guys already had a hit earlier in the decade with "United we stand," although it was this song which helped them win Eurovision that made them a household name as that earlier track was only a modest success upon its initial release. These two songs were the British group's only success here in Australia, although they scored further success later in the decade by ripping off Abba's material.
#23 for 1971
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.
This had an impeccable run on the Australian charts back in the day, an impressive fourteen weeks at number one which has only recently been topped by less fondly remembered songs. To think this was originally released as a bonus track from a greatest hits package during the height of the Swedish foursome's popularity.
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.
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.
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.
This was the biggest hit the New seekers had in their native UK, naturally this meant that it would be a huge hit here in Australia despite the fact that these guys struggled to follow up the success of their earlier entry with their releases from between these two songs. If you can believe, it was NZ where these guys were at their most popular given how they clogged the Listener charts.
This is the final hit that Gary Glitter had here in Australia as his fortunes seemed to have run out fairly early on in the glam rock days with us Aussies, even so, at least it remains as his biggest hit here given how there's still plenty of entries to come from the former legend of glam rock.
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.
This was the peak of Boney M's popularity throughout the world, a song that in my opinion lacks a lot of the charm that can be found throughout the rest of their discography. I'm guessing this was done in order for them to appeal to the American market as this was a minor success on the Billboard charts, however when you think of these guys, chances are you're thinking of "Rasputin" or "Ma baker" over this.
Often considered to be one of the greatest duets of all time, this collaboration between Elton John and Kiki Dee (who despite being described as an unknown singer did have a minor hit two years prior with "Amoureuse") managed to give the former his first chart topper in his native UK, which is impressive to think about considering how much success he already had over in America by this point.
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.
This was for the longest time the signature track from Abba as this was their only Billboard chart topper during their run throughout the 70's and 80's. It's easy to see why this was their biggest hit in America as it perfectly demonstrates the joyous and upbeat nature of their discography that continues to captivate audiences to this day.
It looks like Alvin Stardust had a hit here in Australia after all given how this was the biggest hit in the glam rock genre during its peak, although curiously this was a flop over in NZ despite him having a hit over there with "Pretend" almost a decade later. Then again, the kiwis weren't that big with the glam rock scene, at least not to the extent we Aussies were.
Well, it was the fourth single from the Grammy award winning soundtrack, oh yeah, I should mention that the Saturday night fever soundtrack won album of the year at the Grammys this year. In any case, we have this third hit that the Brothers Gibb were able to score this year, once again due to the vocal harmonies of the brothers as well as the irresistibly catchy disco beat they were synonymous with.
This was the first duet from Grease to be played in the film, although technically it's more of an ensemble piece as both characters recall how they came across each other over the summer which would set up the basis for their relationship throughout the rest of the film. It's one of the less conventional songs to become a hit over the years, but it's catchy and well performed.
Although the Osmonds never found much success here in Australia, that didn't prevent their key member from finding a ton of success as a solo artist as this is one of many entries from Donny Osmond on this list. At least MJ appeared earlier on this list with his solo breakthrough, otherwise I'm sure this will spark an unwanted debate on how this kid copied the work of a much more talented kid of colour and found more success to boot.
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.
While none of his singles managed to rise to the ranks of even his weaker selling albums here in Australia, that didn't mean that Neil Diamond didn't achieve massive success during the first half of the decade here like he did throughout the rest of the world. This was the third hit he scored on our charts as well as the biggest in his entire catalogue due to it being his first Billboard chart topper.
One of the most popular bands of the decade has to be the Bay city rollers, although admittedly their popularity here in Australia was even briefer than that of Abba and Sherbet who at least stuck around for most of the decade. Here we have the first big hit from the Scottish band which remains popular to this day due to the lyrics being a good way of ending a bad relationship with someone.
The legends are true, there is in fact a version of the Christian hymn "Amazing grace" that's performed on bagpipes by a real army battalion known as the Military band of the Royal Scots Dragon Guards. I'm not sure when the backlash towards this song became an internet meme or if it even had a backlash prior to the internet, however it's one of those tracks that internet trolls love to use in reference to a joke towards a meme.
If you thought that actors trying for a singing career has only been a recent phenomenon, allow me to present to you David Soul who managed to score a massive hit worldwide with this track following the success he had with his TV series Starsky and Hutch. Even though this was his only hit in his native America, he would score two more hits throughout the rest of the world thanks to the show.
There were no signs of Abba slowing down when they released the third single from Arrival, in fact this wound up being their biggest hit in the UK likely due to this being a breakup song which was in sharp contrast with the bright and upbeat pseudo disco tracks they had put out throughout their career. Indeed, this song was a bit ahead of its time when it came to the band singing about their messy breakups.
Dr Hook were on a roll this year as they found a second hit here in Australia with another soft rock ballad, this confirmed that they had matured from the comedy rock from the first half of the decade and wanted to appeal to a more mainstream audience. I guess we Aussies were a little ahead of the curve in this regard as their popularity here dwindled just as it was beginning to explode internationally.
Thought that David Soul was a one hit wonder with "Don't give up on us?" Well, he might have been in his native America, however he scored two more big hits internationally with this being the third and final hit he achieved in his career. I'm guessing he returned to his day job of acting once the hits dried up for him.
I really don't like it whenever I have to call out a sellout a band is doing for the worse, however this really applies to this track as Chicago went from one of the more progressive bands of the decade to what many will say is one of the worst bands of the 70's and 80's with this ballad. Simply put, this song is a bore and a half for most people to listen to (me included) due to how the melody is structured.
If you're wondering how Hollywood legend Lee Marvin managed to score a hit with what appears to be a spoken word track about wishing on a star, that's because this is from his film Paint your wagon which co-stars Clint Eastwood who also has spoken word songs which led to the films critical backlash upon its initial release for the two leads lack of singing talent.
To answer your first question, no this isn’t the theme song to the 80's cartoon adaptation of the Belgian comics, this is instead a theme song for a cancelled film adaptation of said comics that never came to be but was inexplicably released as a single regardless. To answer your second question, yes this was composed by a man of the cloth, hence why he's referred to as a father on the cover.
This was the theme to the popular British animated film Watership down, a film that's become infamous over the years for its depiction of gore in what's otherwise meant to be a children's film about rabbits escaping from captivity. The ballad touched the hearts of audiences worldwide, so much so that Art Garfunkel decided to include it on his album Fate for breakfast which proved to be a massive success for him.
This was the lead single to the Saturday night fever soundtrack, an album/soundtrack that showcases the Bee gees at their finest through their vocal harmonies as well as how catchy their disco production is. I never quite understood why there have been so many covers of this track in particular over the years, I would've thought that "Staying alive" or "Night fever" would be the song to be revisited over and over again from this album.
Contrary to popular belief, this song wasn't written for the Jesus Christ superstar soundtrack even though this was released around the time the show premiered on Broadway and west end which would likely explain its international success for Norman Greenbaum. This is also the best proof I have that the 60's didn't end at the turn of the decade given how this feels like something made pre-Woodstock.
I guess following their win on Eurovision, Brotherhood of man decided to become the British equivalent of Abba which admittedly worked out for them given how this was a huge chart topper in their native UK upon its initial release. We Aussies somewhat allowed this change in direction they took, however Bucks fizz proved to be more appealing to us with this experiment in the 80's.
Well, we looked at their big hit they had here exclusively in Australia, time now to look at the big hit these guys had internationally which curiously had a bit of a delay to its success here as it only peaked in the early months of 1973 as opposed to Christmas 1972 like it did in NZ. Again, we have an instrumental track on this list, proving how popular this genre of music was around this time.
Well, this is a queer anthem if I've ever heard one, heck I feel this was more obvious at the time considering how many queer folks found themselves needing to us a YMCA for one reason or another. Here the Village people promote the homeless shelter chain which resulted in it becoming their signature track in a discography filled with tracks to resonate with the LGBT community.
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.
This was the biggest hit that the New seekers had in their native UK as well as in America, this is due to the song being sampled for a Coca-Cola add shortly after its release which boosted its popularity throughout the world. Naturally this add had no affect on the song's popularity here in Australia given how it was far from the most popular song of its day here.
Even though this was a massive success in NZ, I'm willing to bet its sleeper success here in Australia was due to Rod Stewart performing it on Countdown given how (as far as I can tell) it was the only song of his that he performed on the show throughout its thirteen-year run.
Most people will likely be more familiar with Madonna's rendition from the theatrical version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita; however, it was originally a hit for Julie Covington when the story was little more than a concept album where it became one of the biggest hits of the decade for her. She made the strange decision to not appear on the stage version of the album, being replaced with Elaine Paige instead.
This is the only hit that comedian Benny Hill ever had in his career, although admittedly he wasn't much of a musician as this was clearly meant to be a throwaway comedy track that became a surprise hit here in Australia and his native UK due to the success of his show at the time.
#14 for 1973
This was the love theme for the third iteration of the A star is born franchise, a theme that was so popular that it won the Oscar for best original song at the academy awards despite the film being a critical disaster upon its initial release. I'm guessing it was this Oscar that made it a success worldwide as Barbra hadn't had a hit since her previous Oscar win with "The way we were" from earlier in the decade.
Finally, we have another song that's survived the test of time on this list given how it's still fondly remembered even outside of oldies stations to this day. This was one of only three hits that Don Mclean had here in Australia, the other two being ballads as opposed to this lengthy track that serves as a history lesson about the day the music died (03/02/1959.)
This was the last hit that Elvis Presley had during his lifetime, much like John Lennon after him, he died during the height of his popularity which resulted in the success of his final album worldwide. It's hard to say if this song would've been a success if he lived to see the end of the year, however his death certainly did prevent the song from failing much like some of his other ballads this decade.
Well, this took its sweet time in finding success here in Australia, I'd like to tell you that it's because we Aussies knew better than to make Lionel Richie a household name back in the day but sadly the more likely reason is that we just weren't into RNB back in the day like the rest of the world was. Even so, this is a taste of what was to come from Lionel's solo career the following decade for better or worse.
#5 for 1970
You'd think these guys would be a French band given how their biggest hit was a song from the French genre chanson, you'd be wrong as these guys were based in America and only saw success throughout Europe due to how catchy this update of a 50's chanson track was throughout this decade. They did eventually score a hit on Billboard with "Boy from New York," I'm guessing to pander to American culture.
It appears that Cliff Richard was here for the long haul as this ballad managed to become a hit for him worldwide including in America where this got him out of the one hit wonder bin over there that "Devil woman" threatened to trap him in. Indeed, he would go on to have massive success throughout the 80's proving he was far from yesterday's news.
#15 for 1970
This is the final chart topper that Elvis Presley had in his lifetime here in Australia, it's the penultimate chart topper of his if you include the remix of "A little less conversation" from 2002. Despite this, it was far from his final hit as he exploded in popularity throughout the first half of the decade here in Australia, meaning there's plenty of other entries to come on this list from the king of rock and roll.
This was the first of many hits that Slade would have in their career, it was their biggest hit here in Australia likely due to it not being included on any of their albums like some of their other entries on this list we'll get to in a bit. I'm not sure why they titled their earliest songs the way they did other than to offend the Grammar Nazis of the world, at least they stand out among other generic titles.
This is the only entry from Marie Osmond to appear on this side of my site, mainly because her duets with Donny failed to become a success here in Australia (possibly due to their incestual nature which was unintentional on their part.)
If this sounds like an ELO track to you, then you're not far off as several members of this band would go on to be a part of that band later in the decade. This also has members of the Move who were a 60's band that was a part of the psychedelia movement which explains those elements on this track. This was their only hit here in Australia, however they were quite popular in their native UK this decade.
One of the happiest songs to come out of the decade, we have this half disco half RNB jam from Errol Brown and company which managed to be so joyous that it even crossed over to America for them. They often get compared to their American counterparts Kool and the gang since both groups have a predominantly black sound that still resonates with audiences to this day.
Following the success of their Billboard chart topper "TSOP" with MFSB, this RNB girl group managed to score a massive hit worldwide with this ballad which seemed to confirm them as the hottest new act of the moment. Heck this was a huge hit when Countdown launched, so it's obvious even we Aussies were interested in what these girls had to offer for a while. Alas their popularity died out even in their native America after this.
This was the last major hit that Status quo had here in Australia, although they would continue to have massive success in their native UK as recently as the early 90's so perhaps their lack of success after this was due to them changing their sound from being a throwback band to a more contemporary one. This was a cover of a John Fogerty track from his first solo album from earlier in the decade that still receives airplay to this day.
Before he became the face of new wave with his solo hit "Cars," Gary Numan was the lead singer of this short-lived new wave band Tubeway army who scored a massive hit in their native UK with this track about wondering who the real friends are of the narrator of these lyrics. Its legacy has since been overshadowed by "Cars" over the years, however it still remains a pioneer of early 80's music to this day.
We have further evidence that the 60's kept on rolling as far as the music was concerned as this feels like it belongs during the height of summer love, although I get the feeling it would've bombed had its target audience realised that Edison Lighthouse was actually just a group of session musicians looking to cash in off the Freelove vibes of the 60's rather than genuinely be a part of it.
This was the final hit that the Beach boys were able to achieve here in Australia, it's interesting that their final hit with us Aussies would be a country song given how they're best known for their surf rock tracks throughout the 60's. If I were to go back to the 60's, they would have a few more entries on this site, but not nearly enough to make it worthwhile for their fanbase.
While this wasn't the first big hit that Kenny Rogers had here in Australia, this was the song which seemed to convince us and most of Europe that he was the real deal in country music which is odd because this wasn't among his bigger hits in his native America. In any case, he was able to make a huge splash with this ballad that cause his career to explode going into the new decade.
This was the first big international hit that Dr Hook had that wasn't a hit here in Australia, I guess we Aussies only wanted to hear soft rock from these guys if you weren't able to dance to it as this wasn't able to become a hit here despite its massive international popularity. This would be the case for the rest of their catalogue save for "Girls can get it" which was that one bouncy track of theirs to make it big here.
There was a popular TV crime series known as Van der Valk (Dutch for "of the falcon") which aired from 1972-1977 back in the day. As with most popular TV series, its theme song was quite popular in the music scene here in Australia as well as in the show's native UK where it topped the British charts.
The last time Gloria Gaynor had any success anywhere in the world was with her cover of a Jackson 5 track from the midpoint of the decade, so it must have been surprising for audiences to see her back in the spotlight with the second big disco hit from her during the height of Donna Summer's popularity. Most people will likely be more familiar with the remix of this track from the 90's as the original version isn't as bombastic as that version.
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.
Another trend that was out of control during the first half of the decade was the return of older artists on the charts, by far the most successful was Perry Como who scored two massive hits from the album named after this entry we're looking at. Naturally this was another trend that Countdown dealt with when it premiered on our TV a year after this was released.
This was the first pop hit that David Essex was able to score in his career, I bring this up because he scored massive success earlier in the decade with "Rock on," which is more in line with glam rock than any of his other hits. This is also his cheesiest song as he claims that associating with him will make the person in question a star.
This was the first big hit that Gary Glitter had in his career, mainly because it's another two for one deal on this list given how we have two tracks that were billed as two parts of a song he released to appeal to the rising trend of glam rock. Now if the melody sounds familiar to you and you've somehow never heard of this track on oldies stations, that's because it was interpolated for "Doctoring the tardis" in 1988 by the KLF.
