Top 10 Songs of 1971: The Greatest Hits Of The Year

Top 10 Songs of 1971: The Greatest Hits Of The Year

The top 10 songs of 1971 along with some not so known fun facts about our favorite artists from the 70s!

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📝 Share your thoughts in the comments below!

[robinhood]

Glad you said primarily, I live in the blue ridge mountains 800 yards from the Shenandoah River in West Virginia.

[randstahl]

A beloved daughter in law (Australian born) when first met worn a tank top. Seen upon her backside where neck and shoulder meet, tattooed in cursive, the word Imagine, the title of her favorite song. Upon seeing the tattoo, I instantly knew how come my son fell in love with her. Three daughters have they now -- an ode to Imagine, a song whose melody plays on forever in an imagination. Rock on!

[TheAnarchitek]

A very Top 40 list. It's Too Late, Carole King, and How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, Bee Gees, got more airplay than most of your list (excepting only Maggie May, Rod Stewart). Joy to the World was the big winner, that year, along with some very treacly, bad crap, like Go Away Little Girl, Donnie Osmond, and One Bad Apple, the Osmonds. Brown Sugar came in #16, Ain't No Sunshine #23, Riders on the Storm #99, while Take Me Home Country Roads was #8, and Me and Bobby McGee came in at #11. Imagine, Stairway to Heaven, What's Going On?, and Let's Go Together, didn't make Billboard's list of the Top 100 for the year. Mostly because they didn't get played as much, for whatever reason.

Of all the songs on you list, only three spent time at #1:
Me and Bobby McGee, 2 weeks in late March
Brown Sugar, 2 weeks at the end of May/beginning of June
and (drumroll),
Maggie May, ALL 5 "weeks" in October, 2, 9, 16, 23, & 30

Imagine entered the Top 10 on Oct 30, hit #3, on Nov 13, for one week. Let's Stay Together was #11 on the 1972 Top 100, but Stairway to heaven doesn't make any list, because it wasn't a single. A "promotional" single was released, to generate airplay to pimp the album, but no commercial single existed. It's hard to know what to make of a list like this, ignoring better songs, pushing favorites into higher positions. Yeah, "everybody" likes Stairway to Heaven, but they liked many other songs even better.

[josephcormier]

Carpenters "Superstar" and "Rainy Days and Mondays" were HUGE hits in 1971. Both tunes were on the charts for many, many weeks. And other artists with more impactful songs should have made this list as well.

[thankthelord]

I was looking for "Smiling Faces" by Undisputed Truth and "Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles.

[VallinSFAS]

I met a Margaret Stewart in September 1971 between Maggie May and Stairway To Heaven. She turned me on... [to Britinvasion]

[GentlemanJim]

Imagine was a big hit in 1971, it went to #3 on the US charts

[GrowlyBear]

11:03 What's Going On by Marvin Gaye hit the Billboard Hot 100 chart on February 20th. Then it reached the top 40 chart at position #29 on March 6, 1971 NOT MAY.

[VallinSFAS]

How could you omit ELP's anthemic "Great Gates Of Kiev" and operatic 'Tarkus'?! You also did not mention The Partridge Family, the other reason I'm a musician.

[fogelbergfan]

Hard to believe there’s nothing on here from Carol King who released her Tapestry album in 1971. This was my Sr year in high school. Stairway to Heaven is the Greatest rock song of all time. 😎

[bubblejomay]

Dude you are trippin’. You don’t know music. You left out one of the biggest hits to be #1 in fact it won an Oscar “Shaft” DUH!!!

[francesmeyer]

I always thought "Imagine" was naive. I was 23 in 1971.💐

[Spiffy]

Because it followed Led Zep II & Led III, it's most often referred to by original fans as Led Zep IV. The symbols inside lead people to call it "ZOSO"- but technically, the original and true name is "Untitled". Atlantic Records- afraid of releasing an album with no band name nor title- wrapped a paper band around it so people would know what it was. I bought it the day it was released. Personally- "When the Levy Breaks" is one of the greatest "cover" songs ever.

[TheWerequat]

Make no mistake, this is not my trip down memory lane, it's yours. Stairway is in no way my choice for greatest anything. 71 was the the year of Carole King, Badfinger, and Elton John. Yeah, you missed a ton.

[dougnowak]

When you think of John Lennon you think of drugs, the world's UGLIEST girlfriend, asinine political views, and a senseless death 😂😅😊

[lexdunn]

Stop with the cheap character assassination of a man who has been dead for 45 years, and just play the fucking music. We were there! Who do you think is watching this? Check your analytics.