Which female musician had the most number ones in the 1970s?
The 1970s was a decade of monumental cultural change.
Sure, you may think The Beatles made their impact in the previous decade, but the ripple effects that trickled into the 1970s were arguably more seismic. The landscape of musical diversity had been blown wide open, and quite simply, nothing was off the cards.
Whether it was the embracement of psychedelic rock through the groundbreaking influence of Pink Floyd and Dark Side Of The Moon, or the rusted roots of punk rock being forged into the pathways of London and New York, the entire decade was a breeding ground for innovation.
But if you look at the charts today and evaluate what music really seems to engage with the modern audience, then the emergence of soul and disco would arguably be the most important genres to come out of the 1970s. Capturing the zeitgeist of the decade’s underground club scene, these two genres became a beacon of light for a global society seemingly drowning in negativity.
Political and economic bleakness seemed to ravage some of the world’s major cities and so they looked to music to facilitate joy. Marvin Gaye was providing socially conscious soul that helped engage and escape from reality, while the pioneering works of Chic, Donna Summer and Diana Ross built what would soon be labelled as disco, just providing pure, unfiltered escapism.
The latter artist, Ross, became the queen of the decade, though. She built her humble beginnings off the back of soul, working under the somewhat questionable stewardship of Motown, delivering hit after hit, before switching to the innovative world of disco.
Luther Vandross remarked on her vocal evolution, saying, “I loved her when she sang ‘Baby Love’. I loved her when she sang ‘Touch Me In The Morning’, but, oh, please, you know, ‘Endless Love’ and those beautiful songs and the new Diana Ross’s really voluptuous full voices. There’s nothing like it. I mean, it’s gorgeous.”
He added, “She just has a tone in her voice that just thrills me that I just can’t get enough of I think she’s just one of the gifted brilliant singers of uh of this or any other time.”
Her voice was the throughline for this decade of unrelenting change and she reaped commercial acclaim for her work, managing to achieve a number one hit single more times than any other female artist throughout the 1970s, bagging a total of five.
So what songs did Diana Ross achieve a number one with, in the 1970s?
Her success in the charts just goes to prove how her career evolved through the genres during the decade. It started with a soul classic in ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ in 1970, before slowly evolving into a more disco-led palette. ‘Touch Me in the Morning’ (1973), ‘Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)’ (1975), ‘Love Hangover’ (1976), ‘The Boss’ (1979).
The very evolution that Luther Vandross marvels over can be traced through each and every one of those number one hits, beginning with the sweet and innocent in 1970, to the truly confident in 1979.
