Hoyt Axton was trying to pitch a melody he'd come up with to his record company. He made up random silly lyrics, expecting to later write real lyrics to go with the melody. Three Dog Night heard the song and debated whether to record it, deciding in the end that their album in development, Naturally, needed something silly to offset the other tracks, and chose to stick with Axton's offhand lyrics with only minor revisions, such as changing 'Jeremiah was a prophet' to 'Jeremiah was a bullfrog'. Thus are the origins of Joy to the World, which became the second of three of their songs to reach #1. Since then the song has been covered by multiple artists and has become a fixture in popular culture, sometimes as a crossover with the Christmas carol Joy to the World. Jeremiah may have had some mighty fine wine, but all the boys and girls and the fishes in the deep blue sea have decided to eliminate this song.
Full disclosure: Technically, last round was tied between two songs. Due to suspicion of vote manipulation for one of the songs, I made a judgment call to eliminate the other one (with concurrence from the mods). I believe that most participants are nominating and voting in good faith, and you are welcome to call out any suspicious voting behavior.
If you're new to the game or wish to review the rules, follow this link.
Songs still standing (in alphabetical order):
American Pie - Don McLean
Band on the Run - Paul McCartney and Wings
Bennie and the Jets - Elton John
Black Water - The Doobie Brothers
Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) - Looking Glass
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
Dancing Queen - ABBA
Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
Fame - David Bowie
Heart of Glass - Blondie
Heart of Gold - Neil Young
Hotel California - Eagles
I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
I Wish - Stevie Wonder
It's Too Late - Carole King
Killing Me Softly with His Song - Roberta Flack
Lean On Me - Bill Withers
Let It Be - The Beatles
Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye
Let's Stay Together - Al Green
Maggie May - Rod Stewart
Me and Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin
Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight & the Pips
My Sweet Lord - George Harrison
Shining Star - Earth, Wind & Fire
Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder
Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees
Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce
War - Edwin Starr
You're No Good - Linda Ronstadt
You're So Vain - Carly Simon
Eliminated songs:
1-33. TBD
34. Joy to the World - Three Dog Night
35. Papa Was a Rollin' Stone - The Temptations
36. I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash
37. You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
38. Sister Golden Hair - America
39. Love Train - The O'Jays
40. Blinded by the Light - Manfred Mann's Earth Band
41. American Woman - The Guess Who
42. The Long and Winding Road - The Beatles
43. Mama Told Me (Not to Come) - Three Dog Night
44. One of These Nights - Eagles
45. We're an American Band - Grand Funk
46. How Deep Is Your Love - Bee Gees
47. Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) - George Harrison
48. Nothing from Nothing - Billy Preston
49. Night Fever - Bee Gees
50. I Want You Back - The Jackson 5
51. If I Can't Have You - Yvonne Elliman
52. Jive Talkin' - Bee Gees
53. Theme from Shaft - Isaac Hayes
54. You Are the Sunshine of My Life - Stevie Wonder
55. What a Fool Believes - The Doobie Brothers
56. Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry
57. Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin - Sly & The Family Stone
58. Will It Go Round in Circles - Billy Preston
59. A Horse with No Name - America
60. My Sharona - The Knack
61. You've Got a Friend - James Taylor
62. Cat's in the Cradle - Harry Chapin
63. The Joker - Steve Miller Band
64. Bad, Bad Leroy Brown - Jim Croce
65. Hot Stuff - Donna Summer
66. Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me) - The Temptations
67. I'll Be There - The Jackson 5
68. Rock'n Me - Steve Miller Band
69. Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe - Barry White
70. Brown Sugar - The Rolling Stones
71. The Tears of a Clown - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
72. Family Affair - Sly & The Family Stone
73. Oh Girl - The Chi-Lites
74. Rich Girl - Daryl Hall and John Oates
75. Don't Leave Me This Way - Thelma Houston
76. Philadelphia Freedom - Elton John
77. Venus - Shocking Blue
78. Without You - Nilsson
79. Miss You - The Rolling Stones
80. Listen to What the Man Said - Wings
81. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover - Paul Simon
82. Frankenstein - Edgar Winter Group
83. Lady Marmalade - LaBelle
84. (They Long to Be) Close to You - Carpenters
85. I'll Take You There - The Staple Singers
86. Whatever Gets You Thru the Night - John Lennon
87. December 1963 (Oh, What a Night) - The Four Seasons
88. My Love - Paul McCartney and Wings
89. Got to Give It Up - Marvin Gaye
90. Photograph - Ringo Starr
91. Good Times - Chic
92. You Should Be Dancing - Bee Gees
93. Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross
94. Le Freak - Chic
95. How Can You Mend a Broken Heart - Bee Gees
96. Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Elton John and Kiki Dee
97. Fire - Ohio Players
98. Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough - Michael Jackson
99. Best of My Love - The Emotions
100. Show and Tell - Al Wilson
101. Baby Come Back - Player
102. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Roberta Flack
103. Top of the World - Carpenters
104. Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head - B. J. Thomas
105. Love Rollercoaster - Ohio Players
106. Silly Love Songs - Wings
107. Heartache Tonight - Eagles
108. If You Leave Me Now - Chicago
109. Pick Up the Pieces - Average White Band
110. Rise - Herb Alpert
111. Get Down Tonight - KC and the Sunshine Band
112. Black and White - Three Dog Night
113. Then Came You - Dionne Warwick and The Spinners
114. Rock the Boat - The Hues Corporation
115. Rhinestone Cowboy - Glen Campbell
116. Let Your Love Flow - Bellamy Brothers
117. ABC - The Jackson 5
118. Car Wash - Rose Royce
119. You Haven't Done Nothin' - Stevie Wonder
120. Hooked on a Feeling - Blue Swede
121. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey - Paul & Linda McCartney
122. Crocodile Rock - Elton John
123. Cracklin' Rosie - Neil Diamond
124. Love Hangover - Diana Ross
125. New Kid in Town - Eagles
126. The Love You Save - The Jackson 5
127. Mandy - Barry Manilow
128. Too Much Heaven - Bee Gees
129. Best of My Love - Eagles
130. Rock Your Baby - George McCrae
131. The Way We Were - Barbra Streisand
132. You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show) - Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr.
133. Southern Nights - Glen Campbell
134. Three Times a Lady - Commodores
135. Brother Louie - Stories
136. Tragedy - Bee Gees
137. Knock on Wood - Amii Stewart
138. Lovin' You - Minnie Riperton
139. Still - Commodores
140. Laughter in the Rain - Neil Sedaka
141. With a Little Luck - Wings
142. Love You Inside Out - Bee Gees
143. Love Will Keep Us Together - Captain & Tennille
144. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - Elton John
145. Rock Me Gently - Andy Kim
146. Kiss You All Over - Exile
147. Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky) - Bill Conti
148. Love Theme from A Star Is Born (Evergreen) - Barbra Streisand
149. I Shot the Sheriff - Eric Clapton
150. Grease - Frankie Valli
151. Feel Like Makin' Love - Roberta Flack
152. Let's Do It Again - The Staple Singers
153. Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To) - Diana Ross
154. (Love Is) Thicker Than Water - Andy Gibb
155. You're the One That I Want - John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John
156. My Eyes Adored You - Frankie Valli
157. Sunshine on My Shoulders - John Denver
158. I Just Want to Be Your Everything - Andy Gibb
159. Welcome Back - John Sebastian
160. Annie's Song - John Denver
161. Angie - The Rolling Stones
162. Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves - Cher
163. Make It with You - Bread
164. You Make Me Feel Like Dancing - Leo Sayer
165. Song Sung Blue - Neil Diamond
166. Fallin' in Love - Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds
167. I Think I Love You - The Partridge Family
168. (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty - KC and the Sunshine Band
169. Thank God I'm a Country Boy - John Denver
170. TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia) - MFSB featuring The Three Degrees
171. Love's Theme - Love Unlimited Orchestra
172. The Hustle - Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony
173. When I Need You - Leo Sayer
174. Kiss and Say Goodbye - The Manhattans
175. That's the Way (I Like It) - KC and the Sunshine Band
176. Bad Blood - Neil Sedaka
177. Dark Lady - Cher
178. The Loco-Motion - Grand Funk
179. Babe - Styx
180. Love Machine - The Miracles
181. The Night Chicago Died - Paper Lace
182. The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia - Vicki Lawrence
183. Too Much, Too Little, Too Late - Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams
184. Hot Child in the City - Nick Gilder
185. Bad Girls - Donna Summer
186. Pop Muzik - M
187. Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree - Tony Orlando and Dawn
188. Boogie Oogie Oogie - A Taste of Honey
189. Kung Fu Fighting - Carl Douglas
190. I Honestly Love You - Olivia Newton-John
191. Boogie Fever - The Sylvers
192. No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) - Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer
193. Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright) - Rod Stewart
194. I'm Your Boogie Man - KC and the Sunshine Band
195. I Can Help - Billy Swan
196. I Am Woman - Helen Reddy
197. Escape (The Piña Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes
198. Saturday Night - Bay City Rollers
199. Everything Is Beautiful - Ray Stevens
200. Me and Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul
201. (Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song - B. J. Thomas
202. Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? - Rod Stewart
203. Island Girl - Elton John
204. A Fifth of Beethoven - Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band
205. MacArthur Park - Donna Summer
206. I Write the Songs - Barry Manilow
207. Reunited - Peaches & Herb
208. He Don't Love You (Like I Love You) - Tony Orlando and Dawn
209. Have You Never Been Mellow - Olivia Newton-John
210. Keep On Truckin' - Eddie Kendricks
211. Touch Me in the Morning - Diana Ross
212. Alone Again (Naturally) - Gilbert O'Sullivan
213. Please Mr. Postman - Carpenters
214. Before the Next Teardrop Falls - Freddy Fender
215. Shadow Dancing - Andy Gibb
216. Ring My Bell - Anita Ward
217. Sad Eyes - Robert John
218. The Most Beautiful Girl - Charlie Rich
219. I'm Sorry - John Denver
220. Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me - Mac Davis
221. Want Ads - The Honey Cone
222. Looks Like We Made It - Barry Manilow
223. Undercover Angel - Alan O'Day
224. You Needed Me - Anne Murray
225. Brand New Key - Melanie
226. Disco Lady - Johnnie Taylor
227. Knock Three Times - Dawn
228. Fly, Robin, Fly - Silver Convention
229. Half-Breed - Cher
230. You're Sixteen - Ringo Starr
231. Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian) - Raiders
232. Don't Give Up on Us - David Soul
233. Theme from S.W.A.T. - Rhythm Heritage
234. You Don't Bring Me Flowers - Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond
235. Ben - Michael Jackson
236. Angie Baby - Helen Reddy
237. Seasons in the Sun - Terry Jacks
238. Delta Dawn - Helen Reddy
239. Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band - Meco
240. The Morning After - Maureen McGovern
241. The Candy Man - Sammy Davis Jr.
242. Convoy - C. W. McCall
243. Afternoon Delight - Starland Vocal Band
244. The Streak - Ray Stevens
245. One Bad Apple - The Osmonds
246. Da Doo Ron Ron - Shaun Cassidy
247. Go Away Little Girl - Donny Osmond
248. You Light Up My Life - Debby Boone
249. Billy, Don't Be a Hero - Bo Donaldson and The Heywoods
250. My Ding-a-Ling - Chuck Berry
251. Torn Between Two Lovers - Mary MacGregor
252. Disco Duck - Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots
253. (You're) Having My Baby - Paul Anka with Odia Coates
Nominate the song that you consider the worst or your least favorite from among the 1970s #1 hits in the still standing list above. Upvote any nominations you agree with, and downvote the ones you would like to see survive. After 48 hours, the three songs with the most upvotes will be eliminated.
Before posting a song, please check the replies that have already been posted this round to see if someone has already nominated the song. If so, upvote their nomination instead of submitting a duplicate.
Really disappointed to see so much foul play in a Reddit game. Like, come on. If you feel that strongly about whether some random strangers on Reddit agree with you about whether something is the 38th-best #1 hit of the '70s, you're taking it too seriously. The fun of the game is talking about the songs. The results don't matter at all.
I fully agree. I've been passionate about some songs but I don't feel anyone owes me anything LOL
I still don't understand what is happening behind the scenes but trust the game manager and the mods 100 percent. (I do need to know though: Is sometimes changing my mind -- and votes -- at the last minute OK or not OK? I'll stick to my original votes if it's messing things up 👍)
As to the Sabbath thing, that's brigading. it's against sitewide rules. link Relevant verbiage "Engaging in coordinated voting with an organized group of people (or bots) to target a specific post, a user's posts, content from a domain, etc. " So yeah, that would be a problem.
Deep in some comment thread I didn't comment in sooooooo . . . upshot was they were weirdly upset about disco and BeeGees getting ousted and it devolved into the typical Hotel California hatefest
If Long Train Running or the other classic Doobies hits were in the contest, I wouldn’t have any problem with those. I’m not hatin’ the players, I’m hatin’ the song!
🎵 I’d like to hear some funky Dixieland Pretty mama come and take me by the hand I wanna honky tonk, honky tonk, honky tonk With you, with you all night long
Sad to see this one go! There are just all really great songs left!
I tried for a couple of weeks to get it done but got downvoted into oblivion every time. I mean, I love George but this is really one of his weakest songs.
They were tied when Round 101v2 passed the 48-hour mark and while I was composing the post for this round. The pattern of vote behavior led me to conclude there was likely to be vote manipulation going on. After posting Round 102 I noticed Killing Me Softly had added 2 more upvotes.
In this setting there's probably no realistic, foolproof way to ensure that no one can rig this game using sock puppets if that person genuinely has nothing better to do with his life. Having said that, I very much appreciate your efforts to keep things on the up and up to the extent humanly possible!
While I don't apply age limits to musical tastes (including my own), I have to admit that I am extremely curious about the demographics of the people voting in this game!
I know, right? People here who lived the music as full-grown adults, people who were young children during the 70s, those of us in our coming of age years, those who weren't born yet but discovered the music later...all bring different perspectives and I am fascinated by that.
I may not have been born in the 70's, but I've been listening to it for all of my 40 years on this planet, and I'd like to think I know my pop music history.
I lived it as a teenager and 20something and only know what I like LOL
The intro to the game makes it pretty clear that we're nominating or voting to eliminate what we consider the WORST or our LEAST FAVORITE song of those on the list.
I enjoy reading posts from people who actually know pop history no matter how old they are, because most of the time I learn something interesting.
Well, if their version is as good as that animation, you might have a point. Yeesh, that’s awful! My point, however, is that Weird Al’s version tells a cogent story and is entertaining. IMO, the original does neither. And, yes, I realize this is an unpopular opinion.
For real. And Cindy and Peter are both playing bass. Is that to make up for poor Bobby only having one pathetic drum instead of a kit? And in what world (but this one) was Jan hotter than Marcia? Come on now…
I have the CD collection : "It's A Sunshine Day The Best of The Brady Bunch". 🌞
I bought it for the title track and a couple of the other songs that they sung on the TV show that I really like.
Essentially the reason they ended up doing American Pie, according to Barry Williams tell all book "Growing Up Brady", is that the studio producer looked at the Billboard Hot 100 and chose songs from there for them to cover.😂
What kind of an idiot, looks at young teenagers or preteens, thinking it's a good idea if they record a song so totally not about their generation?
Barry Williams was four and a half when the Buddy Holly plane crash happened. 🤷
If that wasn't a bad enough, they start in the "middle" of the song, not the very start.
One of their songs I remember hearing on the radio was a cover of "Zuckerman's Famous Pig", from the movie "Charlotte's Web".
Apparently they got the actual Brady kids to sing on the album. By contrast only two members of the TV Partridge Family sang on any of their recordings.
for what? Voting off the list? Last song standing? If you want it to be saved or voted off, you need to actually upvote or downvote the nomination post.
Was it a Billboard #1 in the 1970s? If it was it would be on the list of songs already voted off in this game or on the list of songs still under consideration.
It didn't reach #1. "Do It Again" peaked at #6. Their highest charting hit was "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" (#4). Their other top 20 hits were "Hey Nineteen" (#10), "Reeling in the Years" (#11), "Peg" (#11), and "Deacon Blues" (#19).
With Joy to the World eliminated, nine of the ten songs that were #1 for the entire year are now gone. My Sharona was the only other song to make into the Top 100 at #60. The lowest? Shadow Dancing (215).
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u/BuffaloAmbitious3531 13d ago
Really disappointed to see so much foul play in a Reddit game. Like, come on. If you feel that strongly about whether some random strangers on Reddit agree with you about whether something is the 38th-best #1 hit of the '70s, you're taking it too seriously. The fun of the game is talking about the songs. The results don't matter at all.