My Top 100 Albums of 1970

Call me lazy, or maybe I’m simply an organized person. Regardless, I have been struggling to find ideas for this blog. So, while looking through my document files that I have been keeping for years prior to starting this blog a couple of years ago, I noticed a set of files that had not been updated in three or more years. When I opened them, I discovered a plethora of lists of my favorite albums from the years 1970 through 2000. I honestly thought I had used these at one time or another, but apparently not. Currently, I am in the process of tweaking the lists to better reflect a refinement in my tastes, whatever that means.

You see, I had gone through Billboard‘s year-end Albums Charts for those years, as well as referring to the original Book of Rock Lists (1981) in addition to several websites to help me compile these lists. Now, you may be asking why I did these lists for this particular years covering three decades? Well, 1970 represents the end of my first grade school year and the beginning of second grad, so I had a year-and-a-half of riding the school bus and hearing the 8-Track tapes the high school kids were having the bus driver play. Therefore, 1970 is the year during which I began to transition from a singles and Partridge Family kid into something of a lover of the art of the long playing record.

By no means am I an expert of the first couple of years in this countdown. I really did not come into my own as a music listener until 1975. And while I still loved the thrill of a three-minute single, I began to find magic in the grooves of those great albums of those days. I ended these lists in 2000 as Y2K is the end of the not only the millennium but also the year when my boys’ musical tastes eclipsed mine. In other words, they were discovering all the new exciting music of the moment while I was playing catch up.

Actually, to be perfectly honest, I really think I will end this whole project in 1999, since that will make the whole thing an even thirty years. Plus, in my mind, free radio died during the Nineties, so they were beginning to have less of an influence on musical trends and began their incestuous relationship by being dictated by a sales chart. My original intent was to carry this thing all the way to the present, but that seems like too much effort. Maybe, one day one of my boys will pick up the mantle of this blog and carry it through. Then again, with how unimportant music appears to be to the Millennials and Gen Y, our music will be left for discovery by kids 50 to 100 years from now. Rock will probably become like Mozart, Dixieland, Jazz, Big Band, Blues, Folk and all the rest and be carried on by the music teachers of the future.

With all that said, let’s get this academic series going! Here are my Top 100 albums for 1970.

1. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu
2. Chicago – Chicago II
3. Grateful Dead – American Beauty
4. Elton John – Tumbleweed Connection
5. George Harrison – All Things Must Pass
6. Van Morrison – Moondance
7. Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge over Troubled Water
8. The Stooges – Funhouse
9. Led Zeppelin – III
10. Grateful Dead – Workingman’s Dead
11. David Bowie – The Man Who Sold the World
12. Todd Rundgren – Runt
13. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band – John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
14. Neil Young – After the Gold Rush
15. Black Sabbath – Paranoid
16. The Band – Stage Fright
17. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Cosmo’s Factory
18. Derek & the Dominos – Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
19. Elton John – Elton John
20. The Rolling Stones – Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!
21. The Who – Live at Leeds
22. Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
23. Cat Stevens – Tea for the Tillerman
24. The J. Geils Band – The J. Geils Band
25. The Kinks – Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One
26. Van Morrison – His Band and the Street Choir
27. Curtis Mayfield – Curtis
28. Badfinger – No Dice
29. James Taylor – Sweet Baby James
30. Syd Barrett – The Madcap Laughs
31. Bob Dylan – New Morning
32. Paul McCartney – McCartney
33. The Beatles – Let It Be
34. The Temptations – Psychedelic Shack
35. Jimi Hendrix – Band of Gypsys
36. Eric Clapton – Eric Clapton
37. Miles Davis – Bitches Brew
38. Nick Drake – Bryter Layter
39. Randy Newman – 12 Songs
40. The Move – Shazam
41. Funkadelic – Free Your Mind…And Your Ass Will Follow
42. Emitt Rhodes – Emitt Rhodes
43. Otis Redding/The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Live at Monterrey
44. Deep Purple – Deep Purple in Rock
45. Santana – Abraxas
46. Traffic – John Barleycorn Must Die
47. Joe Cocker – Mad Dogs and Englishmen
48. Nilsson – Nilsson Sings Newman
49. Bob Dylan – Self-Portrait
50. The Jackson 5 – I Want You Back
51. Stevie Wonder – Signed, Sealed and Delivered
52. The Guess Who – American Woman
53. The Jackson 5 – ABC
54. James Brown – Sex Machine
55. Allman Brothers Band – Idlewild South
56. Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Emerson, Lake & Palmer
57. Tim Buckley – Starsailor
58. Free – Fire and Water
59. Eric Burdon & War – Eric Burdon Declares “War”
60. The Meters – Look-Ka Py Py
61. he Beach Boys – Sunflower
62. The Doors – Morrison Hotel
63. MC5 – Back in the USA
64. Funkadelic – Funkadelic
65. Aretha Franklin – Spirit in the Dark
66. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Pendulum
67. Pink Floyd – Atom Heart Mother
68. The Flying Burrito Bros – Burrito Deluxe
69. Joni Mitchell – Ladies of the Canyon
70. King Crimson – In the Wake of Poseidon
71. Grand Funk Railroad – Grand Funk
72. Velvet Underground – Loaded
73. The Delfonics – The Delfonics
74. Andrew Webber & Tim Rice – Jesus Christ Superstar
75. Ike & Tina Turner – Workin’ Together
76. The James Gang – The James Gang Rides Again
77. Aretha Franklin – This Girl’s in Love with You
78. Various Artists – Woodstock
79. Wilson Pickett – In Philadelphia
80. B. King – Indianola Mississippi Seeds
81. Rod Stewart – Gasoline Alley
82. Rodriguez – Cold Fact
83. The Byrds – (Untitled)
84. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band – Live Peace in Toronto 1969
85. Soft Machine – Third
86. Clarence Carter – Patches
87. Kris Kristofferson – Kristofferson
88. Willie Dixon – I Am the Blues
89. Delaney & Bonnie and Friends – On Tour (With Eric Clapton)
90. Can – Soundtracks
91. Isaac Hayes – The Isaac Hayes Movement
92. The Doors – Absolutely Live
93. Diana Ross – Diana Ross
94. Rare Earth – Get Ready
95. The Beatles – Hey Jude
96. Blood, Sweat & Tears – Blood, Sweat & Tears III
97. The Mothers of Invention – Burnt Weeny Sandwich
98. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy
99. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band – I Am the Blues
100. King Crimson – Lizard

Author: ifmyalbumscouldtalk

I am just a long-time music fan who used to be a high school science teacher and a varsity coach of several high school athletic teams. Before that, I worked as a medical technologist at three hospitals in their labs, mainly as a microbiologist. I am retired/disabled (Failed Back Surgery Syndrome), and this is my attempt to remain a human. Additionally, I am a serious vinyl aficionado, with a CD addiction and a love of reading about rock history. Finally, I am a fan of Prince, Cheap Trick, Tom Petty, R.E.M., Hall & Oates, Springsteen, Paul Weller & his bands and Power Pop music. View all posts by ifmyalbumscouldtalk