(Credits: Far Out / NASA / Uwe Conrad)
Thu 9 October 2025 13:30, UK
If I were given the appropriate budget to buy six 1970s records from my local store, I fear I might not complete the task. The sheer amount of brilliant music that existed that decade would unfortunately leave me trapped in a state of choice paralysis.
But, in the interest of my hypothetical dreamstate, it’s worth taking a stab at where I might start, which is undoubtedly with Marvin Gaye’s seminal What’s Going On. If we are talking about the art form of the album, where ideas can spread across more than just the standard three-minute lifespan of a single song, then this record is the perfect fit. Sonically concise, while lyrically provocative, it had everything you would want from Marvin Gaye and a soul record in general.
How could any 1970s catalogue albums be complete without Led Zeppelin, either? The band who dominated the decade with their unrelenting brand of rock would undoubtedly slip into my basket and most likely in the form of Led Zeppelin IV, which seemed to capture them at their most enigmatic.
Joining Zeppelin and Gaye would be Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life for its outrageous display of songwriting innovation across the entire runtime. Rounding off these musical behemoths would likely be Maggot Brain by Funkadelic and The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, and slotting in on the sixth spot would have to be George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, just to get one subtle hit of something Beatles-related while I can.
Whether you agree with my final line-up or not, surely we can find common ground on the fact that these are all worthy choices in some capacity, and go a long way to proving just how rich the landscape of music was in this decade, moving a chain of events that saw the sonic world embracing the album over single releases.
Surprisingly, not one of these records I just mentioned held the number one spot for ten weeks or more in the 1970s. It leaves me wondering, which ones did in fact reach that feat, and what were they doing to achieve such charting pinnacles?
Which 1970s albums stayed number one for 10 weeks or more?
In total, there were six albums that held the accolade, and sadly, only one of them fell into the realms of what we would consider a conventional album and that’s Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, reaching number one on February 21st, 1970, and staying there for 13 weeks.
You would have thought this would have set out an exciting and futuristic stall for albums, but the rest of the decade didn’t follow suit, with the remaining either compilation records or film soundtracks, proving that there was still a commercial underbelly to the 1970s charts.
Some instances include Elton John’s Greatest Hits staying at number one for 11 weeks from November 1974 onwards, The Beach Boys’ 20 Golden Greats doing ten weeks from July 1974, and The Carpenters’ The Singles: 1969–1973 doing 11 weeks from March 1974.
So while 1974 was the year of the compilation, 1978 was the year of the soundtrack as both the Saturday Night Fever and Grease records topped the charts for 18 and 13 weeks, respectively, a rather shocking showing from the decade that was supposed to be the most innovative and album-led of all time.
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