3 Storytelling Songs From 1972 That Every Baby Boomer Still Knows by Heart

Good storytelling isn’t a requisite for a song to become memorable or popular, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. A compelling narrative can be as addicting to a listener as the melody that’s being used to describe it, lodging it deep in our brains to the point that even decades later, we still know it by heart. For every baby boomer alive, that certainly includes these five storytelling songs that were hits in 1972.

“American Pie” by Don McLean

Released in October of the previous year, Don McLean fell among the hits of 1972 as his iconic track, “American Pie”, made its way up the charts. In a specific sense, McLean recounts the day that the world found out that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, H.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, and the musicians’ pilot, Roger Peterson, had all died in a plane crash. But McLean’s story also captures a general feeling of nostalgia for the concept of Americana, no matter how ill-defined that may be. Indeed, nearly every baby boomer alive can finish the lines to “Bye, bye Miss American Pie…”

“Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” by Looking Glass

Looking Glass made the maritime song to end all maritime songs with the 1972 release of “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)”. The storytelling yacht rock tune starts as most stories do: setting the scene. “There’s a port on a western bay, and it serves a hundred ships a day / Lonely sailors pass the time away and talk about their homes.” Next, the story introduces the titular Brandy, who is often fawned over by men who inevitably return to their one true “life, love, and lady” of the sea. The song leaves the listener feeling pity for Brandy, the woman who’s never able to best the ocean.

“Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress” by The Hollies

The Hollies’ “Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress” reads like a pulp fiction novel when you take away the driving early 1970s beat. “Saturday night, I was downtown working for the FBI / sittin’ in a nest of bad men, whiskey bottles piling high.” From then on, the listener has to know what happens next. Does the FBI operation go sour? Moreover, who else comes in? The Hollies answer these questions and, indeed, a few more as they introduce the “long cool woman in a black dress” that’s “Five-nine, beautiful, tall.” Every baby boomer alive can sing along as the unnamed narrator spares her life amid a frenzied shoot-out.

Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns