4 Folk-Flavored Beauties From Singer-Songwriters in 1972

The year 1972 stands as perhaps the absolute pinnacle of the singer-songwriter era. You could grab an acoustic guitar, pen something thoughtful and heartfelt, and reasonably expect that you’d end up with a solid hit out of it.

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These four songs prove our point. They were all big hits in 1972. And they all came down on the folkier side of the singer-songwriter spectrum.

“Heart Of Gold” by Neil Young

For a hot minute there, Neil Young stormed into the mainstream. “Heart Of Gold” served as the catalyst for all that. Of course, Young being Young, he quickly released a series of darker albums. Those LPs ensured the wider public wouldn’t stick around. To be truthful, he’s written a hundred songs similar to this one in his career, and there’s not a lot here that makes it stand out from those others. You do get some nice backing vocals from James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt to sweeten the pot a bit. But “Heart Of Gold”, Young’s lone No. 1 single, epitomizes how a safer option from an iconoclastic artist will often do the most pop chart damage.

“A Horse With No Name” by America

Most music fans these days associate “A Horse With No Name” with the self-titled debut album by America. But it was only placed retroactively on reissues of the LP. The band actually recorded it after the album was out at the request of their record company, who were looking for something that would do well for the band in the US. Mission accomplished. It’s kind of eerie how the song, written by Dewey Bunnell (who also sings lead), evokes a hot, desert scene. You’ll find that you might get a little parched by the end of the track, although that could be from singing along with all those “la-la’s.”

“Sunshine” by Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards never released a song that even made it into the Top 100 on the pop charts after his debut single crashed the Top 5. Apparently, Edwards only included the song on his debut because another track was lost during the recording process. “Sunshine” belies its title with lyrics that get downright ornery at times. Edwards was subtly protesting the actions of then-President Richard Nixon in regard to the Vietnam War. “And he can’t even run his own life/I’ll be damned if he’ll run mine,” Edwards barks out in a frenzy. It might have been Edwards’ only hit, but “Sunshine” sure packs a wallop.

“Garden Party” by Ricky Nelson

Maybe we don’t think enough of Rick Nelson as a singer-songwriter. In his teen idol, hitmaking days, Nelson relied on the songs of others to dent the charts. As his career progressed, however, he forged his own path and became a pioneer in the melding of country and rock. But that fusion apparently bothered some fans at a Madison Square Garden concert in 1971, and Nelson heard from the boo birds. That incident led to him writing “Garden Party”, which recounted the incident through a somewhat surreal lens. Nelson found himself back on the pop charts once again when all was said and done with a No. 6 hit.

Photo by Dick Barnatt/Redferns