best run of singles in the 70s?

[fange]

It's ABBA.

Waterloo
SOS
Mamma Mia
Fernando
Dancing Queen
Money Money Money
Knowing Me, Knowing You
The Name of the Game
Take A Chance On Me
Summer Night City
Chiquitita
Voulez Vous
Angel Eyes
Gimme Gimme Gimme
I Have A Dream

A bonanza of pretty much perfect pop. ( We won't talk about Does Your Mother Know? because it's a shocker. )

Love them, and 'Mother' as well, though the last 2-3 on that list aren't faves.

[trans-chigley express]

There's lots of great runs spoiled by the odd clunker (Elton John and Bowie's had a few) but it's hard to argue with Abba's run even though I'm not really a fan their run is pretty damn solid and I like Does Your Mother Know too.

I like Queen's run as well which makes their first Greatest Hits collection such a solid album.

Dare I say it but ELO had a very strong run too but fall in the same category as Queen as being too much of a "marmite" band with as many haters as lovers but their choice of single releases was pretty much impeccable.

T Rex had a strong run too:
"Ride a White Swan"
"Hot Love"
"Get It On"
"Jeepster"
"Telegram Sam"
"Metal Guru"
"Children of the Revolution"
"Solid Gold Easy Action"
"20th Century Boy"

[Diamond Dog]

Some really interesting choices here so far... how about Macca?!

[trans-chigley express]

how about Macca?!

Another Day
Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
The Back Seat of My Car
Give Ireland Back to the Irish
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Hi, Hi, Hi/C Moon"
My Love
Live and Let Die
Helen Wheels
Jet
Band on the Run
Junior’s Farm
Listen to What the Man Said
Letting Go
Venus and Mars/Rock Show
Silly Love Songs
Let ‘Em In
Maybe I’m Amazed
Mull of Kintyre/Girls’ School
With a Little Luck
I’ve Had Enough
London Town
Goodnight Tonight
Old Siam Sir
Getting Closer
Wonderful Christmastime


Apart from a few that's mostly good to great

[Robert]

Not mentioned in the Poll and I'd agree with someone who'd say their best run were in the 60's, compared to Gilbert' O' Sullivan, this is pretty good:

Jan-70 "Live with Me"
Aug-70 "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (Re-issue)
Mar-71 "Little Queenie" (Live)
Apr-71 "Brown Sugar"
Jun-71 "Wild Horses"
Jul-71 "Street Fighting Man" (UK re-issue)
Feb-72 "Let It Rock" (Live)
Apr-72 "Tumbling Dice"
Apr-72 "Sweet Black Angel"
Jul-72 "Rocks Off"
Jul-72 "Happy"
Jul-72 "All Down the Line"
Apr-73 "You Can't Always Get What You Want"
Apr-73 "Sad Day"
Aug-73 "Angie"
Oct-73 "Sympathy for the Devil" (Edit)
Dec-73 "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)"
Feb-74 "Star Star"
Jul-74 "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)"
Oct-74 "Ain't Too Proud to Beg"
Nov-74 "Dance Little Sister"
May-75 "I Don't Know Why"
Aug-75 "Out of Time"
Apr-76 "Fool to Cry"
Jun-76 "Hot Stuff"
May-78 "Miss You"
Sep-78 "Beast of Burden"
Sep-78 "Respectable"
Nov-78 "Shattered"

[ChrisB]

10 CC

[GoogaMooga]

Beach Boys' Brother Years a distinct possiblity

[Goat Boy]

Does Your Mother Know is pure joy.

Taken as a whole I wouldn’t argue against Abba but there are some great runs there. That T-Rex one in particular represents some kind of pop peak

[Bent Fabric]

Another Day
Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
The Back Seat of My Car
Hi, Hi, Hi/C Moon"
My Love
Live and Let Die
Jet
Band on the Run
Junior’s Farm
Listen to What the Man Said
Letting Go
Venus and Mars/Rock Show
Silly Love Songs
Let ‘Em In
Maybe I’m Amazed
Mull of Kintyre/Girls’ School
With a Little Luck
Goodnight Tonight
Old Siam Sir (Arrow Through Me in US)
Getting Closer
Wonderful Christmastime

There's a lot of "best/not best" arguments I'm pretty happy to sidestep here (and elsewhere), but (as edited to my own tastes) this is a big old list of that I get a lot of joy from.

[Mike Boom]

T Rex had a strong run too:
"Ride a White Swan"
"Hot Love"
"Get It On"
"Jeepster"
"Telegram Sam"
"Metal Guru"
"Children of the Revolution"
"Solid Gold Easy Action"
"20th Century Boy"

T Rex is the correct answer. You can add The Goover and Truck On (Tyke) to that list aswell.

[the masked man]

The problem with the Macca list is that it contains Mull of Sodding Kintyre, which is bad enough to sink the entire vessel. Indeed, quality control went seriously downhill towards the end of the decade.

How about the Buzzcocks? Short list, but all their 45s in the 70s were four-or-five-star efforts. And their b-sides were better than most punk bands' a-sides.

[GoogaMooga]

James Brown from It's a New Day (1970) to Cold-blooded (1974)

good call

[Twang]

Stevie Wonder. And if you want to limit run to mean no missteps, it's Stevie Wonder from 1972 through 1977.

[Lord Rother]

Cat Stevens had a decent run. He’s no Slade though of course.

[sloopjohnc]

My main question when I saw this was, "In the UK or US?"

Slade did nothing in the US and Roxy Music, almost nothing. There was Love is the Drug, More Than This, and Avalon. Those are the only three songs you ever heard on US FM radio.

If it's the UK only, yeah, I think there's a case for Slade or Roxy Music. If it's worldwide, I think it's gotta be Elton John. Although I was a fair nipper, he was ubiquitous on AM radio in the early to mid '70s, dropping off after Captain Fantastic.

[ChrisB]

T Rex had a strong run too:
"Ride a White Swan"
"Hot Love"
"Get It On"
"Jeepster"
"Telegram Sam"
"Metal Guru"
"Children of the Revolution"
"Solid Gold Easy Action"
"20th Century Boy"

T Rex is the correct answer. You can add The Goover and Truck On (Tyke) to that list as well.

Except that they're all the same song

[sloopjohnc]

Stevie Wonder. And if you want to limit run to mean no missteps, it's Stevie Wonder from 1972 through 1977.

I've repeated this before, but I remember Paul Simon getting his grammy one year in the '70s and thanking Wonder for not putting out an album that year.

[Georgios]

Where in the name of everything that is holy are The Sweet?

[GoogaMooga]

Sweet were good, but second fiddle to Slade.

About Elton John - another good shout. From 70-76 he was perhaps the most successful recording artist in the world, I am pretty sure he was.

[Georgios]

Chic's run of singles from 77-79 is pretty formidable.