Big wheels keep on turnin'

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.  

1974 : Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Once again, a fine song (and I was a lot more impressed with Lynyrd when I met them than I was expecting) but I'd have to say this really surprises me as a winner in the UK - it's a very US kinda song (and I bet 99% of us couldn't find Alabama on a map).

It's 4:43 of Southern rock, written by three guys who come from - well, not Alabama, actually.  It's partly written in response to two Neil Young songs in which they think he blames all of the South for slavery and its aftermath.  Neil, in response (somewhat surprisingly) said about one of his songs in question "I don't like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue".  Wikipedia suggests that this song possibly suffers from similar problems, but no-one seems to be entirely sure whether it's more "The South is great" or "The South ain't all great, but are you sure the North is perfect?" (this was the time of Watergate, after all).  Things are also further complicated by two of the backing singers being famous black studio backing singers - they were really trying to muddy the waters.

Unsurprisingly, the song did well in the US, getting to #8.  We had to wait until '76 to get it released here and we went slightly less mad for it, with it only getting to #33 - it also got to #44 in '08 because Kid Rock released "All Summer Long" which, shall we say, borrowed heavily from this song.  And finally, some random Wikipedia facts for you - it's the third most played song that features a place name and Metallica's "The Four Horsemen" track used the intro riff without their permission, which seems pretty rude!  Wikipedia gives us no cover versions at all and I'm not expecting many from secondhandsongs.com either - nope, Jewel and Garth Brooks are the only people I recognise on the list (I didn't mind Jewel's version at all). 

I still struggle to imagine this is really the most streamed track of the year, but let's have a look at the competition, shall we?  Well, the top five selling singles in the UK certainly aren't great - Mud's "Tiger Feet" (which I love, but not in a "let's listen to this loads of times" kinda way), Terry Jacks's "Seasons In The Sun", Paper Lace's "Billy Don't Be A Hero", The Three Degrees' "When Will I See You Again" and George Macrae's "Rock Your Baby" (which I had remind myself of).  The charts come up with some slightly better options - David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel", ABBA's "Waterloo", Eric Clapton's "I Shot The Sheriff", Carl Douglas's "Kung Fu Fighting" (a top slice of cheese), John Denver's "Annies Song" and Ralph McTell's "Streets Of London".  But it's not a great list, is it - amusingly The Wombles had three top ten tracks in the year, which tells you all you need to know.  The US charts offer nothing more either - I can't wait to experience the album charts for this year!

So - personally I feel ABBA can probably feel pretty hard done by here, but I can only work with what I'm given.  And it's a fine track, but not a great one - but it wasn't a great year either (particularly compared with the tracks that were out there in 1973), so there you go.

1973 - A fine track from an all-round good egg
1975 - Some absolutely astonishing cover versions