Which artist spent the most weeks at number one in the 1970s?
When you hear people of an older generation complaining that new music isn’t a patch on how it used to be in the old days, you can bet that there’s a high chance they’re referring to the 1970s as the decade where things were perfectly catering to their tastes.
Now, there’s little evidence to prove that modern music has declined in quality, but some of the artists topping the charts in the ’70s have managed to cement themselves as part of pop history, and it’s hard to tell whether the same will happen to the current crop of stars while they’re still in the early stages of their careers; yet, it is equally true that people are also not really opening up to the current crop if they’re still sprouting such tired opinions.
Of course, there are also other decades that people tend to look back on the music of with rose-tinted shades, like the 1960s, and when it comes to topping the singles charts, there was far more emphasis placed on reaching this position at the time, with Motown artists and acts like The Beatles and Elvis Presley constantly battling it out to see who could assert their dominance.
But it’s the ’70s that were arguably a cut above when it came to producing innovative music of all genres, with all of the foundational work laid out by the acts of the previous decade branching forward in varying directions, leaving it to arguably be a far better decade for albums, where most of the notable acts of the time chose not to focus on topping the singles charts, such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, who, despite their global popularity and notoriety, were more focused on creating bodies of work intended to be listened to as a whole.
Consequently, they found themselves not entering the higher levels of the singles chart voluntarily, and so, with that in mind, let’s look at the acts that did manage it throughout the decade, and just how long they managed to stay at the pinnacle.
Which artists spent the most weeks at number one in the 1970s?
In the UK, ABBA was the dominant force, achieving seven number-one hits and spending a total of 26 weeks at the top of the charts throughout the decade, largely owing to their triumph in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974, their popularity remaining intact as they’re still one of the highest grossing acts on the planet today, proving that singles chart success in the 1970s was just as strong as it had been in the previous decade.
In the US, it was the Bee Gees who achieved the same feat, with their nine number-one hits racking up a grand total of 27 weeks at the top of the charts, and similarly, this was down to one major catalyst, which was the inclusion of many of their songs in the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever, one of the most successful film soundtracks of the decade, which also saw them fully adopt a disco style they would become synonymous with.
On both sides of the Atlantic, you’ve got acts like Rod Stewart showing that he was almost as dominant, and Elton John did comparatively well over in the States despite hailing from the UK, but nobody really comes close to either of these two acts who were at the top for the longest, with their ultimately crowning themselves as the kings and queens of pop music throughout the decade.
