(Credits: Far Out / Miguel Alcântara)
Mon 2 February 2026 13:54, UK
The dawn of the 1970s may have marked the end of The Beatles, but music lovers were not to worry. A revolution with a whirlwind of new genres lay ahead.
Alongside bell-bottoms and platforms, the decade ushered in a swathe of new subcultures and sounds ranging from disco to new wave to prog, each new genre spawning its own icons spanning from the likes of the B-52s, Donna Summer, and Queen to Led Zeppelin, Funkadelic, and a dominant David Bowie. Many of the decade’s biggest hits are just as well-loved half a century later.
Above all, the decade perhaps witnessed a diversification of the ‘mainstream’. The UK charts were home to a wide range of artists, from the progressive rock stylings of Pink Floyd to the danceable disco of ABBA. And despite an economic downturn, this wellspring of choice created a commercial boom in music. The top ten songs from the decade each earned over a million sales, with entries ranging from a future party playlist staples to songs from iconic movie soundtracks.
David Soul took tenth place in the decade with his 1976 single ‘Don’t Give Up on Us’, which earned him just over a million sales. Soul was just beaten out by Art Garfunkel, who released ‘Bright Eyes’ in early 1979, following the release of Watership Down a year earlier. Despite hitting the airwaves just 12 months before the arrival of the 1980s, the track sold enough copies in that short span of time to take ninth place on the list.
Amidst the growing interest in new wave and disco, Blondie’s iconic ‘Heart of Glass’ deservedly took eighth place. It was pop perfection and proved seminal to the ‘80s style that lay ahead. Between Debbie Harry’s flawless vocals and effortlessly cool accompanying instrumentation, the track has aged like fine wine. It’s a timeless classic.
Debbie Harry for Blondie. (Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
But even ‘Heart of Glass’ could never quite touch the legacy of the song in seventh place, which goes to Queen’s epic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. It was such an oddity, with a complex structure hitherto unknown, that it actually took a while for the public to truly get on board. But it certainly gathered some speed.
One of the greatest songs of all time and an ever-dependable karaoke pick, the song was released at the midpoint of the decade and found its place at the top of the charts for over two months. Though it has never quite achieved the same critical acclaim as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, Village People’s ‘Y.M.C.A.’ outsold Queen’s signature song and took sixth place, remaining a staple party track even 45 years later.
Which songs made the fabled top five?
Movie soundtracks continue to prove their cultural relevance as we reach the top five, with two tracks from the iconic 1978 film Grease appearing in the upper half of the list. Both led by stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, the playful ‘Summer Nights’ comes in at number five, while ‘You’re the One That I Want’ takes home the bronze.
The Grease tracks alternate with Boney M entries, as Christmas single ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ takes fourth place, and their version of ‘Rivers of Babylon’ comes in second. If anything these tracks confirmed the creeping commercialism in music, after all, most of the band were backing singers or dancers, centred around Frank Farian who would soon take this approach a crooked step further with the invention of Milli Vanilli.
Alas, you can’t doubt the appeal of his songwriting. The classic ‘Rivers of Babylon’ just missed out on a whopping two million copies, a feat that was first achieved by the top song of the decade, the corny Wings classic ‘Mull of Kintyre’. It’s an indicative winner.
You see, by and large, the ‘70s are now remembered for the emergence of punk, disco, and David Bowie, but none of these, in their purest sense, made a list that is topped by a simple catchy track with the commercial quirk of being singable every New Year. We remember the cool subcultures, but this chart recalls the classic cash-ins. Or at least about 60% of it does.
From singalong-worthy musical theatre to a future Queen biopic title, the top ten list represents the mammoth cultural impact of the decade. Find the full list below.
The 10 best-selling songs of the 1970s:10. ‘Don’t Give Up on Us’ by David Soul9. ‘Bright Eyes’ by Art Garfunkel8. ‘Heart of Glass’ by Blondie7. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen6. ‘Y.M.C.A.’ by Village People5. ‘Summer Nights’ by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John4. ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ by Boney M. 3. ‘You’re the One That I Want’ by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John2. ‘Rivers of Babylon’ by Boney M. 1. ‘Mull of Kintyre’ by Wings
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