5 Hit Rock Songs From 1970 That No One Remembers Today

Rock music certainly had one of its best-ever years in 1970. The sounds of the '60s had matured and changed, and they dovetailed nicely with the new kinds of music that would develop and get more popular in the decade ahead. Purveyors of seemingly disparate styles such as folk rock, pop rock, hard rock, soft rock, psychedelic rock, soulful rock, jazzy rock, and experimental rock all made creative leaps and experienced great commercial success in 1970. This generated foundational classics that still get airplay today, many decades later, not to mention needle drops in movies and TV shows, as well as big numbers on streaming services.

But there's apparently only so much room in the collective memory and hearts. Many of the biggest, most rocking hits of 1970 have been memory-holed by the world. These are some terrific, all-time great tunes that, over time, just got completely forgotten by almost everyone. Here are five unheralded classic rock songs from 1970.

The story of Kenny Rogers, a certifiable country music legend, began in the late 1960s as the frontman of a rock band called Kenny Rogers & the First Edition. The group put up a string of lightly progressive, guitar-heavy hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including "Something's Burning," which reached a respectable No. 11 in mid-1970. The tune really takes the listener on a journey, starting out quiet and soft before adding multiple voices, acoustic and electric instruments, and thundering drums until it reaches a joyful cacophony. (The something that's burning? Love.)

If anyone remembers the First Edition's music, it's for the often-covered "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" and "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)". Combined, those two tracks have 122 million listens on Spotify as of late 2025, while "Something's Burning" has amassed just 3.8 million. But the real reason the First Edition disappeared is because it's been heavily overshadowed by Rogers' solo career, which he enjoyed in the non-rock genres of country and pop. In the 2020s, the song might be played on an oldies radio station at a rate of about once a year.

In the late 1960s, British songwriter Jeff Christie cut a demo tape of his compositions and got such a good response from other musicians that he decided to form a band, which he named after himself. The U.K. division of CBS Records signed Christie (the band), and positioned them as a heavier and more British version of the American swamp-rock group Creedence Clearwater Revival. The first song released under the Christie name: "Yellow River," with Jeff Christie and Vic Elmes singing over an old track from the former's demo days. Despite having zero reputation whatsoever in the U.S., "Yellow River went to No. 23 on the Hot 100 in 1970, and topped the chart back in the U.K. It sold well enough and got so much radio airplay that it finished the year as the 83rd biggest hit of 1970, many notches higher than more remembered tunes like Dionne Warwick's "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Travelin' Band,"

Follow-up singles failed to sell, and Christie's self-titled album fell off the chart after a couple of months. And then, the band itself dissipated too, breaking up by the mid-1970s.

In early 1970, the soulful, gritty rock-with-horns band Blood, Sweat & Tears won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for its second, eponymous LP. Mixing jazz, psychedelic sounds, and hard rock, the group combined a lot of exciting '70s sounds and captured the musical energy of the era. That album had spawned three straight No. 2 hits – "You've Made Me So Very Happy," "Spinning Wheel," and "And When I Die" — but when the rushed follow-up, "Blood, Sweat & Tears 3," hit stores in mid-1970 to capitalize on the band's popularity and acclaim, it wasn't as well-received as its predecessor. The band's first single, "Hi-De-Ho," stalled at No. 14, and then "Lucretia Mac Evil" became the band's last Top 30 hit ever, peaking at No. 29.

Like another nostalgic hit from 1970, the Guess Who's "American Woman," "Lucretia Mac Evil" is about a nefarious female with shady intentions of whom the narrator issues a warning. It sounds a lot like Blood, Sweat & Tears' other hits, particularly the funky "Spinning Wheel" with its growled vocals and brass blasts, but this one just didn't have the lasting power at classic rock radio. It's not even in the top-10 most-listened to Blood, Sweat & Tears songs on Spotify.

An old folk song with unclear authorship, "The House of the Rising Sun" has been recorded by many acts, including British Invasion act The Animals, which took its version to No. 1 in the U.S. and the U.K. in 1964. Six years later, heavy, loud, early heavy metal bands were starting to emerge from major U.S. scenes, and one of them, Detroit's Frijid Pink, found its first minor success with its fuzzy, buzzy, guitar-attacking rendition of "House of the Rising Sun."

Extremely fresh while also reflecting the sound of the rising experimental hard rock of the late '60s and early '70s, Frijid Pink's take on the familiar song doesn't feature vocals until almost a minute has gone by, filling up the space with spacey effects, wah-wah pedals, and walls of guitar and drum noise. The frenetic recording made it all the way to No. 7 on the pop chart in 1970. Frijid Pink, a one-hit wonder who deserved more than 15 minutes of fame, never made the Top 40 again. Its popular cover of "House of the Rising Sun," so successful on release, wound up inexorably linked to a particular era and grew into an outdated novelty. In the 2020s, its classic rock radio airplay is nonexistent.

Right in the middle of the list of the 50 biggest hits of 1970, near enduring tracks like the Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road" and Simon and Garfunkel's "Cecilia," sits "Tighter, Tighter" by a band called Alive N Kickin'. With a unique, double lead singer set-up — one male and one female — the first and easily biggest hit by the band was a breezy, hippie-era vibe-setter with a head-nodding drum beat, light horns, and a pervasively groovy bass line.

Appropriately released at the start of the summer of 1970, "Tighter, Tighter" was co-written by lightly psychedelic pop-rocker Tommy James after his label made him renege on a promise to give Alive N Kickin' another of his compositions, "Crystal Blue Persuasion," which became one of his all-time greatest hits with his band, the Shondells. That song made it to No. 2 and is still remembered fondly; "Tighter, Tighter" reached No. 7, and then got lost in the historical shuffle after the band never managed to score another big hit.