(Credits: Far Out / Atlantic Records / Tamla)
Thu 21 August 2025 22:00, UK
In the series finale of the much-loved US sitcom remake The Office, the character Andy Bernard says, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” With classics from David Bowie, Marvin Gaye and The Rolling Stones released, I would imagine the people in 1973 thought something similar.
Music is always an art form which is persistently moving forward. Once we have a great album or song released, labels and artists are looking for different ways that this piece of work can be further explored. It’s one of the most satisfying forms of entertainment in the world in the sense that nobody within it is ever actually satisfied. People are persistently looking for something more, something deeper and moving. It means we are constantly subjected to excellent sounds, but it also means that a lot of us pass through iconic moments without realising we are in such a moment.
A cornucopia of exciting ideas was in full flow throughout 1973. There was a sense of familiarity and innovation in the air, as genres like rock continued to top the charts, but bands like Led Zeppelin were truly coming into their stride and showing just how much that style of music could be pushed beyond the pines. What was genre anymore? This band was adding splashes of acoustic music, blues, R&B and folk into the rock ‘n’ roll that we knew and loved so dearly… and it was working. On top of that, you had other styles such as Motown, funk and soul all starting to break through as well.
When you look at some of the albums that were released during this period, it reads like the most popular aisle in a record shop for legends. The Dark Side of the Moon, Band on the Run, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Aladdin Sane, Houses of the Holy, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, all of them were released during this iconic year for music. Psychedelia, rock, funk, metal, everything was accelerating, and people were desperate to listen and were digging what they found.
The same goes for the songs that were released in 1973 as well. Alongside some of these great albums, so too was there a healthy mixture of gorgeous singles put out into the world. Many saw success and are still considered classics to this day, but it does beg the question: which song out of these hits was number one for the longest?
So, what was number one for the longest time in 1973?
There were plenty of great songs that spent more than one week at number one on the charts in 1973, and one of these was Elton John’s classic ‘Crocodile Rock’, a track that he had to effectively move away from in the years that followed because it had proven so popular. There are some music lovers from this period who detest the song because they feel as though it was overplayed. Elton John described the song as serving “a strange dichotomy”, saying, “I don’t mind having created it, but it’s not something I would listen to”.
Some of the other songs that charted well during 1973 include the likes of the ever-so-smooth ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’ by Roberta Flack, deeply sensual ‘Let’s Get It On’ by Marvin Gaye, and the rather jaunty ‘Bad, Bad Leroy Brown’ by Jim Croce.
However, despite such stiff competition, the track that spent the longest time at number one in 1973 was Tony Orlando and Dawn’s upbeat and soulful offering with ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree’. Truly a classic in every sense of the word, many have said the song defines the sound of the ‘70s, making it clear why it skyrocketed to number one and spent four weeks at the top spot.
During what is arguably one of the greatest years for music, it was this track from Tony Orlando and Dawn that was playing at the pinnacle.
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