What was the best-selling single of 1971?
As much as it may not seem like it, 1971 was one of the most interesting and pivotal years in music history. On the face of it, it was a year when everything, quite literally, changed. The hangover of the 1960s was always likely to hit hard, but what many probably didn’t expect was for the haze of uncertainty to breed a different kind of empowerment where musical excellence spawned from complete and utter confusion.
Mostly, this societal desaturation, the kind that replaced all the peace signs with a less distinctive hue, introduced a broader disillusionment that made trends and musical directions far less clean-cut. It wasn’t that there was less talent; it was that those still pushing on suddenly had no idea what to do, and some used that lack of clarity to create some of the best music of the entire decade and beyond.
Take Joni Mitchell’s Blue, for instance. Far more than just a record borne out of uncertainty, Blue was Mitchell’s way of rediscovering empowerment in her own personal detachment, reaching far into the broader confusion of society and the industry and using it as something to talk about, or for the purpose of her own poetic license and means of turning something relatively vapid into an artistic vision.
But the confessional, inwardly personal style of singer-songwriters like Mitchell, Carole King, or James Taylor wasn’t just a response to the changing times; it was a direct show of leadership and a guide to navigating the political climate when nothing, not even activism, seemed to make all that much sense anymore. And really, who was better to lead this charge into uncharted waters than a former Beatle?
So, what was the best-selling single of 1971?
In 1971, George Harrison was proving himself as an individual artist, breaking free from the shackles of the Fab Four with a voice that, like Mitchell and several others, looked change in the eye and claimed to be stronger.
‘My Sweet Lord’ is probably one of the biggest responses to this societal disillusionment, despite its seemingly direct response to changing attitudes towards religion and spirituality, a conversation that The Beatles were never shy of to begin with. ‘My Sweet Lord’, however, tackles the shift towards spiritual fluidity, and how people should feel united by the change and the uncertainty, not divided further.
Incidentally, ‘My Sweet Lord’ was also the best-selling single of 1971 (and the first number-one single by a former member of the band), which presented another interesting trend, with people seemingly pulling towards a sense of unity and spirituality while also opposing it, or experiencing it in their own, personal ways. Still, the draw to it made complete sense, offering a sense of light, hope, and togetherness even when it was clear everything was in a significant state of upheaval.
In a way, that was the entire appeal of many early ’70s pioneers: establishing the importance of feeling when everything else felt surreal. If music could incite an emotional connection, even in that climate, it was doing its job. As Harrison explained in the documentary The Material World: “First, it’s simple. The thing about a mantra, you see… mantras are, well, they call it a mystical sound vibration encased in a syllable. It has this power within it. It’s just hypnotic.”
