JoleneDolly Parton
Jolene
1973 · From Jolene
Dolly pleading with her rival rather than fighting her, written the same day as "I Will Always Love You."
★ 9.3
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1973
Showing 33 songs from 1973
Let's Get It On
1973 · From Let's Get It On
Ed Townsend conceived it as a spiritual; Gaye kept the backing track, rewrote the lyric, and Billboard number one followed.
★ 8.4
Higher Ground
1973 · From Innervisions
Written and taped in a three-hour burst, Wonder on clavinet and drums, the keyboard snarling through a Mu-Tron filter.
★ 7.8
Living for the CItyStevie Wonder
Living for the CIty
1973 · From Innervisions
Wonder played most of it himself, then broke it open with a spoken street scene running past seven minutes.
★ 7.8
Killing Me Softly With His Song (Roberta Flack)
1973
Flack heard Lori Lieberman's version on a plane's in-flight audio, rewrote the chords, and took Record of the Year.
★ 7.8
Free Bird
1973 · From Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd
Collins's chords sat unused for two years until Van Zant found the melody; the long outro was his onstage rest.
★ 7.7
Get Up, Stand Up
1973 · From Burnin'
Written with Tosh after Marley toured Haiti, and the last song he ever sang onstage, Pittsburgh, September 1980.
★ 7.7
Money
1973 · From The Dark Side of the Moon
Seven beats to the bar, a tape loop of coins and cash registers, and Pink Floyd's first American hit.
★ 7.7
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Sessions collapsed in Kingston, so the band regrouped at a French chateau and Taupin traded Oz for a Lincolnshire farm.
★ 7.7
Search and DestroyThe Stooges
Search and Destroy
1973 · From Raw Power
Pop lifted the title from a Time column on Vietnam, and Bowie's mix made Williamson's guitar a threat.
★ 7.6
Midnight Train to Georgia
1973
Cissy Houston's version turned Weatherly's midnight plane to Houston into a train to Georgia.
★ 7.6
Knocking on Heaven's Door
1973 · From Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
Two short verses written for a dying sheriff in Pat Garrett, with Roger McGuinn on guitar and Jim Keltner drumming.
★ 7.5
Piano ManBilly Joel
Piano Man
1973 · From Piano Man
A lounge gig, a fake name, Bill Martin, and every regular at the Executive Room written into a verse.
★ 7.5
I Shot the SheriffBob Marley and the Wailers
I Shot the Sheriff
1973 · From Burnin'
Marley swapped police for sheriff to avoid a government fuss, and Clapton's 1974 cover became his only American number one.
★ 7.3
Band on the RunPaul McCartney
Band on the Run
1973
Wings lost two members on the eve of Lagos, so McCartney played the drums and built a three-part escape.
★ 7.2
Dream On
1973 · From Aerosmith
Tyler had the tune on his family's New Hampshire lodge piano years before Aerosmith; a reissue reached number six.
★ 7.2
Bennie and the Jets
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Gus Dudgeon overdubbed crowd noise from old concerts, and the fake live track topped the Hot 100.
★ 7.1
Live and Let DiePaul McCartney
Live and Let Die
1973
McCartney read the Fleming novel in a day and wrote it that afternoon; Martin's orchestra did the rest at AIR.
★ 7.0
Candle in the Wind
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Taupin lifted the phrase from a Janis Joplin tribute and pointed it at Marilyn Monroe; the chorus does the mourning.
★ 6.8
That Lady
1973
Recorded at the Record Plant in LA, with Ernie Isley's Hendrix-drenched guitar rebuilding a song the brothers cut in 1964.
★ 6.7
You Are the Sunshine of My Life
1973 · From Talking Book
Wonder hands the first four lines to Jim Gilstrap and Lani Groves, then walks in over his own Fender Rhodes.
★ 6.5
Apache
1973
Michael Viner cut Jerry Lordan's tune in Vancouver, and Kool Herc turned its long percussion break into hip hop's foundation.
★ 6.5
Simple Man
1973 · From Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd
Van Zant and Rossington wrote it in an hour, putting his grandmother's and Rossington's mother's advice into song.
★ 6.5
Personality Crisis
1973 · From New York Dolls
Eight days at the Record Plant with Rundgren, and Johansen's strut arrived years before punk had a name.
★ 6.5
Jungle Boogie
1973
Don Boyce, the band's roadie, shouted the vocal and got a writing credit; Pulp Fiction did the rest.
★ 6.5
Ramblin' ManThe Allman Brothers Band
Ramblin' Man
1973 · From Brothers and Sisters
Betts wrote and sang it, borrowing Hank Williams' title; Oakley's bass line was among his last recordings.
★ 6.3
The JokerSteve Miller Band
The Joker
1973
A lyric lifted from "Lovey Dovey", a misheard doo-wop coinage, and a Levi's ad that made it Britain's number one.
★ 6.3
If You Want Me to Stay
1973 · From Fresh
Number twelve on the Hot 100, the band's last pop top twenty, and a bass line hip hop still raids.
★ 6.3
Funeral For a Friend Love Lies Bleeding
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
John wrote the instrumental half imagining music for his own funeral; Hentschel's ARP 2500 overdubs did the rest.
★ 6.3
JessicaThe Allman Brothers Band
Jessica
1973 · From Brothers and Sisters
A Django Reinhardt tribute written to be playable with two fingers, named for the infant daughter bouncing to it.
★ 6.3
DesperadoThe Eagles
Desperado
1973 · From Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)
Never released as a single; Henley's piano sketch dated to 1968, and Jim Ed Norman's strings turned it monumental.
★ 6.1
Whiskey River
1973 · From Shotgun Willie
A Johnny Bush song Nelson borrowed for Shotgun Willie, then used to open nearly every concert since 1974.
★ 5.6
Tuesday's GoneLynyrd Skynyrd
Tuesday's Gone
1973 · From Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd
A Mellotron faking the strings, producer Al Kooper credited as Roosevelt Gook, and Van Zant's rambling farewell.
★ 5.4