Plenty of baby boomers out there remember the rock and roll landscape of 1974, as well as the hard rock hits that made it to the airwaves that year. If you loved hard rock back then and still love it now, the following four tracks will be instantly recognizable.
“Burn” by Deep Purple from ‘Burn’
There’s only one way to describe this heavy metal hard rock jam by Deep Purple: ferocious. “Burn” was born from a riff that Ritchie Blackmore came up with while jamming, and the result was one of their finest 70s releases. And yet, “Burn” by Deep Purple didn’t quite make it to the Hot 100, reaching No. 5 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. Still, it’s become a bit of a retrospective hit among fans of the band.
“Radar Love” by Golden Earring from ‘Moontan’
Golden Earring dropped this hard prog-rock tune in 1974, and it ended up becoming the band’s first international hit outside of their native Netherlands. “Radar Love” topped the charts in their country, of course, but it also did well at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 7 on the UK Singles chart.
“You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive from ‘Not Fragile’
There’s no way I’d skip this hard rock classic from Bachman-Turner Overdrive. “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” was easily one of the biggest rock songs of the year in 1974. It also remains the band’s most memorable song, and rock fans in 1974 were pretty obsessed with it. This Randy Bachman-penned classic was a No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 chart, and it also reached No. 2 on the UK Singles chart.
“Rebel Rebel” by David Bowie from ‘Diamond Dogs’
Baby boomers loved hard rock in 1974, and they also loved David Bowie. His 70s era was arguably his best. And this particular proto-punk, hard rock tune was one of the biggest hits of the glam era.
“Rebel Rebel” by David Bowie was a hefty commercial success. The track made it to No. 5 on the UK Singles chart and No. 16 on the Billboard Rock Songs chart in the US.
Photo by Steve Morley/Redferns/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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