Top Artists of the 70’s Overview
How well did your favorite artist of the seventies fare? The top 50 music artists of the 70s will give you the answer. There were lots of new single acts and groups that debuted in this decade from 1970-1979. Some of the new faces were: The Jackson Five, The Carpenters, Olivia Newton-John, Elton John and John Denver just to name a few. The decade produced 5,354 songs that made the pop charts. The year of 1970 had the most charted hit songs with 630. There were over 600 artists that charted singes in this era.
This decade produced 238 singles that reached the #1 position. The years of 1974 and 1975 each had 35 songs that peaked at #1 position. The number one song for the decade was “You Light Up My Life” by Debbie Boone, which topped the charts for ten weeks in 1977. The song with the longest longevity on the charts with 54 weeks was “December 1963 (Oh, What A Night)” by the Four Seasons in 1976.
Point System Used To Determine Rankings
To determine the top 50 artists, a point system was used that would be fair to all artists that charted singles in this period. The point system used is as follows:
1. The highest chart position reached on the Hot 100, Hot 100 Airplay or Bubbling Under charts.
2. Point breakdown as follows:
- #1 = 100 points for its first week at #1, plus 10 points for each additional week.
- #2 = 90 points for its first week at #2, plus 5 points for each additional week.
- #3 = 80 points for its first week at #3, plus 3 points for each additional week.
- #4-5 = 70 points
- #6-10 = 60 points
- #11-15 = 50 points
- #16-20 = 45 points
- #21-30 = 40 points
- #31-40 = 35 points
- #41-50 = 30 points
- #51-60 = 25 points
- #61-70 = 20 points
- #71-90 = 15 points
- #91-100 = 10 points
- #101-110 = 5 points
- #111-120 = 4 points
- #121-135 = 3 points
3. Total weeks charted are added in.
4. In case of a tie, the artist listed first is determined by the following tie-breaker rules:
1) Most charted singles
2) Most Top 40 singles
3) Most Top 10 singles
When two artists combine for a hit single, such as Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, the full point total is given to both artists. Duos like Simon & Garfunkel and Hall & Oates are considered recording teams and their points are not shared.
Adjustment made for featured and lead artists. A featured artist on a single will receive 20% of the point total and the lead artist receives 100% of the point total.
Source: The “Top Pop Singles 1955-2010” Thirteenth Edition by Joel Whitburn.
Top 50 Artists Listing
| Rank / Artist | Points |
| 1. Elton John | 2,138 |
| 2. Paul McCartney | 2,092 |
| 3. Bee Gees | 1,991 |
| 4. Carpenters | 1,838 |
| 5. Chicago | 1,720 |
| 6. The Jackson 5 | 1,677 |
| 7. Stevie Wonder | 1,575 |
| 8. James Brown | 1,486 |
| 9. Neil Diamond | 1,484 |
| 10. Olivia Newton-John | 1,475 |
| 11. Elvis Presley | 1,471 |
| 12. John Denver | 1,396 |
| 13. Diana Ross | 1,372 |
| 14. Three Dog Night | 1,323 |
| 15. Gladys Knight & The Pips | 1,280 |
| 16. Donna Summer | 1,273 |
| 17. Tony Orlando & Dawn | 1,272 |
| 18. Helen Reddy | 1,234 |
| 19. Earth, Wind & Fire | 1,232 |
| 20. Eagles | 1,221 |
| 21. Marvin Gaye | 1,219 |
| 22. Rod Stewart | 1,210 |
| 23. Barry Manilow | 1,204 |
| 24. Linda Ronstadt | 1,196 |
| 25. Aretha Franklin | 1,182 |
| 26. Spinners | 1,173 |
| 27. Barbara Streisand | 1,142 |
| 28. Al Green | 1,127 |
| 29. The Temptations | 1,063 |
| 30. The Doobie Brothers | 1,044 |
| 31. The Rolling Stones | 1,016 |
| 32. James Taylor | 1,011 |
| 33. War | 966 |
| 34. Electric Light Orchestra | 964 |
| 35. Commodores | 961 |
| 36. Glen Campbell | 943 |
| 37. The Stylistics | 929 |
| 38. Grand Funk Railroad | 926 |
| 39. Carly Simon | 923 |
| 40. KC & The Sunshine Band | 914 |
| 41. Bread | 893 |
| 42. The O’ Jays | 888 |
| 43. The 5th Dimension | 885 |
| 44. The Guess Who | 879 |
| 45. Donny Osmond | 877 |
| 46. America | 866 |
| 47. Anne Murray | 861 |
| 48. Abba | 857 |
| 49. Roberta Flack | 857 |
| 50. Barry White | 856 |
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