My Favorite Song from Every Year I’ve Been Alive (Part One: 1966–1979)

I do these because I hate myself

Last year I did a series on both my favorite film and favorite album from every year I’ve been alive. I really enjoyed those trips down memory lane (and the debates they sparked in the comments), and my plan was to do one covering my favorite songs from every year I’ve wandered the planet sometime soon after. You know what they say about the best laid plans, which is why the first installment has languished in my drafts folder for over a year.

I finally got sick of that draft mocking me, with its “last edited over 1 year ago” line under the title, and decided to finally write the damn thing. What I had forgotten was the amount of therapy that becomes necessary as a result of delving into your own past, even musically, but I soldiered on and have completed the first decade and a half (the real trauma doesn’t start until the 1980s anyway).

As with the earlier articles, I am breaking this up by decade simply because of the sheer size involved. I have lived for parts of seven decades; that’s a lot of music and will be a lot of words, even taking into consideration that I remember almost none of 1988. Don’t ask.

Since I was born in the mid-’60s, I am including those years with the 1970s (and will surely combine the 2010s and 2020s at the end as well). And let me be crystal clear about one thing: this is not a listing of the greatest songs of each year, but rather my personal favorites. Sometimes they will be the same thing, often they will not. I’m sure you’ll have opinions in the comments. Also please note that I am using the release date of the album, not the single (if the song was released as a single).

Let’s get started.

1966: “Got to Get You Into My Life” — The Beatles. The year of my birth was obviously groundbreaking because of my birth, and it saw some groundbreaking albums released as well, including Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. The Beatles’ Revolver was the best of the lot, and “Got to Get You Into My Life” is still one of my favorites by the Fab Four; McCartney’s vocals are amazing, and the horns fit perfectly.

1967: “Somebody to Love” — Jefferson Airplane. 1967 was a great year for music, with several songs from The Doors’ debut album, Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” and Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” all arguing for this spot in my mind at various points (though with apologies to Beatles uber-fan Alex Markham, the only song from the Sgt. Pepper’s album that came close to challenging this one was “A Day in the Life”). In the end, I asked myself which one I’ve played more over the years, with Grace Slick and the boys winning hands down.

1968: “Stand by Your Man” — Tammy Wynette. It may seem strange that my favorite from ’68 isn’t a song off The Beatle’s magnificent White Album, or that if it’s a country song that it’s not from the Johnny Cash classic At Folsom Prison. It shouldn’t seem strange at all, since in 1968 Tammy Wynette gave us the greatest country song of all time.

1969: “Gimme Shelter” — The Rolling Stones. I firmly believe that this is the best song Mick and Keith have written in 60 years of amazing musical collaboration. The only songs from ’69 that come close for me are Elvis’ “Suspicious Minds” and “Someday We’ll Be Together” by the Supremes, and neither is really that close.

1970: “Paranoid” — Black Sabbath. I went into this assuming that a song from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s album Cosmo’s Factory would be my favorite, most likely “Travelin’ Band.” I had somehow forgotten that my favorite Sabbath song came out the same year. Silly me.

1971: “Maggie May” — Rod Stewart. I really wanted to pick something from Led Zeppelin IV (though you would have all stopped reading if it had been “Stairway to Heaven”), but one test of what makes a song my favorite is my inability to get out of the car until it finishes playing. For that, this one just beats out “L.A. Woman” and “Stairway to Heaven.”

1972: “Rock Me on the Water” — Jackson Browne. This is a song they will play at my funeral along with “Born to Run.” Yes, it’s that good. Just take a listen:

1973: “Rosalita” — Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Had Springsteen not released The Wild, the Innocent & E Street Shuffle album in 1973, this would have been the hardest year for me to choose a favorite song from. Consider just these few: “Let’s Get It On,” “Midnight Train to Georgia,” “Piano Man,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Angie,” and “Band on the Run.” Fortunately, he did release it and along with it one of his most joy-inducing tunes ever.

1974: “Sweet Home Alabama” — Lynyrd Skynyrd. 1974 was a bad enough year for albums that I chose Bad Company for the earlier series. It was an equally bad year for songs, which is why you get one that is barely in my top five favorites from Lynyrd Skynrd.

1975: “Born to Run” — Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. If you didn’t already know that The Greatest Song Ever would be my favorite from the year it was released, I can only assume that this is the first article of mine you have ever read. My favorite non-Springsteen track from 1975 (the songs from the Born to Run album occupy spots one through eight) would be Joan Baez’s haunting “Diamonds and Rust.”

1976: “Wasted Time” — The Eagles. It’s no easy task emerging from a pack that includes Thin Lizzy’s “Cowboy Song,” KISS’ “Detroit Rock City,” and the far better known title track from the album “Wasted Time” also appeared on. Don Henley is an underappreciated genius.

1977: “Vienna” — Billy Joel. Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” was a strong contender here, as was Meat Loaf’s “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” This often-overlooked gem from The Stranger album wins out, if only because the lyrics sum up my feelings even more today than they did nearly 50 years ago.

1978: “Prove It All Night” — Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Bruce has played “Badlands” and “The Promised Land” from this album more times in concert, and my good friend and fellow Bruce fanatic Mark Holburn is more partial to “Racing in the Street,” but there was something about this song that spoke to me from the first time I heard it when I was 12 years old.

1979: “Even the Losers” — Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. I reluctantly chose Candy-O by The Cars over Petty’s Damn the Torpedoes in the series on my favorite albums from every year I’ve been alive, and I reluctantly stand by that; Candy-O is a better album overall. There is no better song from that year than “Even the Losers,” however, and that includes AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” Elvis Costello’s “Oliver’s Army,” and (gasp) Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” I said what I said.

That’s my songs from the first decade and a half of my time on this planet (there is a playlist with each one below). Next time, we’ll see what the glorious 1980s have to offer. Until then, let me know some of your favorites in the comments, and keep on rockin’.

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