Folk rock songs took the world by storm in the 1970s, and the boom started around the time the following three songs from 1973 first hit the airwaves. These three tunes really predicted what would become of the genre.
“Stuck In The Middle With You” by Stealers Wheel from ‘Stealers Wheel’
There’s a catchy rhythm within “Stuck In The Middle With You” that listeners of all ages will find inescapable after hearing it for the first time. This one’s a classic that will get stuck in your head forever, probably, and few would complain about it. Stealers Wheel blended together the harmony vocals of early 70s pop, the rock rhythm of 70s rock, and the rootsy, accessible sound of folk music of the 70s. It’s an amalgamation of what made the time so good musically, and it predicted how far folk rock would go in the 70s.
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“Stuck In The Middle With You” by Stealers Wheel peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1973.
“Diamond Girl” by Seals & Crofts from ‘Diamond Girl’
This gem leans a little more toward soft rock than folk rock, but it does exist somewhere between the two. And this acoustic, folky classic is really unforgettable. Seals & Crofts proved that there was commercial appeal in folk rock with “Diamond Girl”.
“Diamond Girl” by Seals & Crofts was a crossover hit. It reached No. 6 on the Hot 100 chart and No. 4 on the Easy Listening chart in the US.
“American Tune” by Paul Simon from ‘There Goes Rhymin’ Simon’
Unsurprisingly, Paul Simon makes it to our list of folk rock songs from 1973 that hinted at what would become of the 1970s. This song has a pretty traditional sound and introspective, reflective lyricism you’d expect from Simon. Folk musicians of the 60s had a tendency to look outward toward love and the world. Simon, with “American Tune”, looks inward, something that would become more popular with singer-songwriters in the 1970s.
“American Tune” by Paul Simon reached No. 35 on the Hot 100 after it dropped in 1973. The song also made it to No. 8 on the Easy Listening chart in the US.
Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns
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circa 1975: Freddie Mercury (1946 – 1991), lead singer of 70s hard rock quartet Queen, in concert during the group's British tour. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)