Stayin' Alive
1977 · From Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack
Barry Gibb's falsetto over a drum loop so metronomic that paramedics still use it to time chest compressions.
★ 9.4
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1977
Showing 56 songs from 1977
I Feel LoveDonna Summer
I Feel Love
1977
Moroder's pulsing synth track, Summer floating above it, and the record Eno reportedly called the sound of the future.
★ 9.3
HeroesDavid Bowie
Heroes
1977 · From "Heroes"
Recorded beside the Berlin Wall, Fripp's feedback howling while Bowie sings himself hoarse over a single defiant day.
★ 9.1
Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)Fleetwood Mac
Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
1977 · From Rumours
Nicks wrote it in a black velvet studio room at Sausalito's Record Plant; it remains the band's only US number one.
★ 8.9
Hotel CaliforniaThe Eagles
Hotel California
1977 · From Hotel California
Felder demoed it on a four-track in Malibu, and his Les Paul duels Walsh's Telecaster through the outro.
★ 8.8
Go Your Own Way
1977 · From Rumours
Buckingham aimed Mick Fleetwood at the Street Fighting Man groove, then sang a breakup line Nicks demanded he cut.
★ 8.5
God Save the QueenThe Sex Pistols
God Save the Queen
1977 · From Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Written as "No Future," banned by the BBC, and stuck at number two amid loud suspicion of chart rigging.
★ 8.3
One LoveBob Marley and the Wailers
One Love
1977 · From Exodus
A 1965 Studio One ska tune rebuilt for Exodus, with Mayfield credited to keep the borrowing legal.
★ 8.3
We Will Rock You
1977 · From Greatest Hits
May came home from a Stafford gig where the crowd sang back, and built a chorus from stomps and claps.
★ 8.1
Trans Europa Express
1977
Kraftwerk's rhythm rode a train across Europe, name-checked Bowie and Iggy Pop, then turned up inside Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock.
★ 8.1
We are the Champions
1977 · From Greatest Hits
Mercury wrote it with audience participation in mind, and a 2011 study named it the catchiest song in pop.
★ 7.7
The ChainFleetwood Mac
The Chain
1977 · From Rumours
Razor-blade tape splices turned rejected scraps into the one Rumours song credited to all five, McVie's bass ending it.
★ 7.7
Sir Duke
1977 · From Songs in the Key of Life
Wonder built it for Ellington after his death in 1974, then handed the melody to horns playing in unison.
★ 7.7
Lust for Life
1977
Bowie found the beat in an Armed Forces Network call sign; Hunt Sales hammered it out in Berlin.
★ 7.7
American Girl
1977 · From Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Petty cut it on the Fourth of July, 1976, and Roger McGuinn heard the Byrds so clearly he covered it.
★ 7.6
Psycho Killer
1977 · From Talking Heads: 77
A ballad first, written at art school, until Weymouth's French bridge and bassline turned it feral.
★ 7.6
Marquee Moon
1977 · From Marquee Moon
Ten minutes captured in one take; Ficca thought it was a rehearsal and Verlaine refused Andy Johns another go.
★ 7.5
The PassengerIggy Pop
The Passenger
1977
Gardiner found the riff wandering under apple blossom, and Bowie sings behind Iggy at Hansa by the Wall.
★ 7.5
Flash LightParliament
Flash Light
1977
Bootsy passed on the bass part, so Worrell chained three Minimoogs together and gave Parliament its first R&B number one.
★ 7.5
Three Little BirdsBob Marley and the Wailers
Three Little Birds
1977 · From Exodus
Reportedly inspired by canaries at his Hope Road windowsill, cut in London, and the gentlest reassurance in reggae.
★ 7.4
Mr. Blue Sky
1977
Two weeks of Alpine fog broke, and Lynne wrote this and thirteen more songs, closing it with a vocoder.
★ 7.3
Alison
1977 · From My Aim is True
Costello glimpsed a supermarket checkout girl, Clover backed him before the Attractions existed, and one line titled his debut.
★ 7.2
Lovely Day
1977
Withers holds the last note for eighteen seconds, Ray Parker Jr. plays guitar, and morning suddenly looks survivable.
★ 7.0
Like a HurricaneNeil Young
Like a Hurricane
1977 · From American Stars 'n Bars
Young wrote it on doctor-ordered voice rest, whistling the melody, then chased Sampedro's Stringman chords for eight electric minutes.
★ 7.0
How Deep Is Your Love
1977 · From Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack
Seventeen weeks in the American top ten, and a ballad Stigwood refused to let them hand to Yvonne Elliman.
★ 6.9
White Riot
1977 · From The Clash
Strummer and Simonon were in the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival riot; the single ran under two minutes and reached thirty-eight.
★ 6.9
Sound and Vision
1977 · From Low
The BBC ran its long instrumental intro under programme trailers, and Bowie's ultimate retreat song went to number three.
★ 6.8
Solsbury Hill
1977 · From Peter Gabriel
Seven-four time, Steve Hunter's Martin triple-tracked at three tape speeds, and Gabriel's first record after walking out of Genesis.
★ 6.8
Pretty Vacant
1977 · From Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Matlock's riff, lifted off ABBA's "SOS", and the sound of a generation deciding not to care.
★ 6.7
Watching the Detectives
1977 · From My Aim is True
Costello wrote it after a night with the first Clash album; Nieve's piano stalks it like Bernard Herrmann.
★ 6.6
Blank GenerationRichard Hell and the Voidoids
Blank Generation
1977
A rewrite of a 1959 novelty called "The Beat Generation", with Quine and Julian's guitars turning parody into manifesto.
★ 6.4
Complete Control
1977
Lee Perry produced it after CBS released a single without the band's consent; Topper Headon's first Clash session.
★ 6.4
I Want You to Want Me
1977
Nielsen's studio take on In Color went nowhere; the live Japanese version, crowd and all, hit number seven.
★ 6.4
Brick House
1977
Drummer Walter Orange stepped out front, LaPread's bass line did the rest, and funk got a permanent floor-filler.
★ 6.4
Easy
1977
Richie traced that Sunday-morning ease to the small Alabama town he grew up in; the singer is walking away relieved.
★ 6.3
Sheena is a Punk RockerThe Ramones
Sheena is a Punk Rocker
1977 · From Rocket to Russia
Joey Ramone spliced a jungle-comics heroine with punk's primal charge, and Britain sent it to number twenty-two.
★ 6.3
Just the Way You Are (Billy Joel)
1977 · From The Stranger
Bebop alto player Phil Woods takes the solo, and the melody Joel dreamed won Record and Song of the Year.
★ 6.2
Birdland
1977
Zawinul named it for the club where he heard Basie, Ellington and Miles, then made an instrumental a hit.
★ 6.1
Rich Girl
1977
Hall wrote it about a fast-food heir, changed Rich Boy to Rich Girl, and took the duo to number one.
★ 6.0
Best of My Love
1977
Maurice White and Al McKay wrote it, Earth Wind and Fire's rhythm section played it, and the Hutchinson sisters soared.
★ 6.0
Dust in the Wind
1977
A fingerpicking exercise Livgren's wife overheard and told him to finish, now Kansas's only American top ten.
★ 5.9
Holidays in the Sun
1977 · From Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Marching boots open the record, and a collapsed Jersey holiday sent the band to Berlin for their subject.
★ 5.8
Margaritaville
1977
Norbert Putnam moved the sessions to Miami for the beachfront air, and Buffett turned one ruined afternoon into the chorus.
★ 5.7
Only the Good Die Young
1977 · From The Stranger
Liberty DeVitto hated reggae, so the demo's lilt became a shuffle; the radio bans only sold more copies.
★ 5.7
See No Evil
1977 · From Marquee Moon
Verlaine hired Andy Johns off Goats Head Soup, cut the two guitars to separate channels, and punk got counterpoint.
★ 5.7
Trenchtown RockBob Marley and the Wailers
Trenchtown Rock
1977
Self-produced by the Wailers, and the track that opened the Lyceum nights Island taped in July 1975.
★ 5.7
Wonderful Tonight
1977
Clapton wrote it on a Martin D-28 while Pattie Boyd got ready for a Buddy Holly party, by his account.
★ 5.7
Whole Lotta RosieAC/DC
Whole Lotta Rosie
1977 · From Let There Be Rock
Vanda and Young cut it at the Let There Be Rock sessions, reworking a 1976 outtake called Dirty Eyes.
★ 5.7
Come Sail Away
1977
A piano ballad at first, then a synthesizer break, then guitars, angels and a starship headed skyward.
★ 5.5
Uptown Top Ranking
1977
Two Jamaican teenagers, seventeen and eighteen, answering Trinity over Alton Ellis's riddim, number one in Britain within months.
★ 5.3
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
1977
Jankel lifted the bass figure from Ornette Coleman's "Ramblin'"; the BBC banned the single, and Peel played it anyway.
★ 5.1
Cold as Ice
1977
A piano riff hammered like a warning, written by Gramm and Jones, later sampled wholesale by M.O.P.
★ 5.0
Feels Like the First Time
1977
One of four songs on the demo that got Foreigner signed, and Gramm sang it at his audition.
★ 4.4
Little Drummer Boy, Peace on Earth
1977
Bowie balked at the carol, so writers built the Peace on Earth counterpoint in an hour; Crosby died weeks later.
★ 4.3
Father ChristmasThe Kinks
Father Christmas
1977
Ray Davies cut it at Konk in 1977, a department store Santa mugged by kids who want jobs, not toys.
★ 4.2
Baby Come Back
1977
Beckett and Crowley wrote it after two bandmates' breakups, and Lambert and Potter's production held number one for three weeks.
★ 3.6