1972
Why was 1972 my favourite year in rock? There were many defining years of music before 1990 and most of them were during the 1970's when I was a teenager. I saw many changes in styles and many changes in what I considered to be 'My Sound'. Up until 1972 my tastes in music had always been the lighter, quirkier sounds like Bubblegum and 'Pop' music - bands such as The Monkees, Ohio Express, Herman's Hermits etc etc. 1972 provided me with a lifeline to more mature sounds. It seemed that every year, until late 1975 I was changing who was my favourite band and my tastes ran the gamut of several genres. They delved into Middle Of The Road, Progressive Rock, Glam Rock, Heavy Metal/Hard Rock and even Country influenced music. These days of course I have my favourite bands, but my tastes still cover most of the musical genres of the era.

The big change in 1972 was that the normal thing for me when I returned home from high school was not to turn on the television to watch reruns of Gilligans Island, I Dream Of Jeannie or Lost In Space, but to head for my room to commence my homework. This I did whilst tuning into Sydney radio station 2SM and having the latest music being played in the background. It seems to me that I spent most of that year listening to Top 40 Radio rather than playing my records or watching TV.

One of the routes I took home from school took me past at least two record shops and on every Friday the record stores took delivery of the latest 2SM Top 40 chart, usually on different coloured paper each week. I made every effort to pick up the latest chart each week (which I did for many years - and up until recently, still had all of these charts stored in a chest at home) Each time I heard a charted song on the radio, I would mark it off on the Top 40. I don't think I ever managed to mark off the entire 40 songs, but several times I got very close. When I dug these charts out a few years ago I noticed only the ones from 1972 were marked with my personal notes and these included new releases yet to make the charts and names of certain albums. I guess I really studied the Top 40 charts very diligently.

Some days, on the way home from school, or on shopping days, one of the first stores I would visit was the record stores. The shop window was often festooned with the latest album releases and I became very familiar with the covers of albums such as Neil Diamond's 'Hot August Night', The Rolling Stones 'Goats Head Soup', Jethro Tull's 'Thick As A Brick', Cat Stevens 'Teaser And The Firecat', Rod Stewart's 'Never A Dull Moment' and Deep Purple's 'Machine Head' just to name a few. Being a student with very little pocket money and no part time job on weekends, it was rare that I could afford the luxury of buying new albums, but I dreamt of the day I could list many of the LP's in the shop among my music collection.

I must point out here, that back in 1972 it took quite some time for the master tapes of new albums to be shipped out to Australia from Britain and America and as such, many of the late 1971 chart releases in other countries did not reach the Australian audiences until 1972. This will explain any discrepancies in music chart listings from country to country.

The albums from 1972 and many of the songs released that year still stand out and I'm still discovering great music I missed out on back then that was originally released in 1972 - a fact that never ceases to amaze me. A great example of this is with Wishbone Ash and their 'Argus' album which I have come to love in recent times. Artists such as Neil Young have released great albums before and after 1972, yet for some reason his 'Harvest' album and subsequent 45 rpm release 'Heart Of Gold' stand out as personal favourites. Is it because 'Heart Of Gold' was such a great song or does hearing it release some long term forgotten memory of that time?

There were some great albums released which apart from the ones mentioned above, included David Bowie's 'The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars' which featured the excellent single release, 'Starman'. Progressive Rock Giants ëYesí released what is considered their best work in 'Close To The Edge', though here in Australia, the single 'Your Move' was still in the Top 40 charts in February. Slade gave us 45rpm releases such as 'Coz I Luv You' and 'Look Wot U Dun', but it was their huge selling 'Slade Alive' album that dominated the album chart and provided an album track, John Sebastian's 'Darlin' Be Home Soon' for regular airplay.

Led Zeppelin were big sellers with their huge release 'Led Zeppelin IV', sometimes known as 'The Runes Album'. It produced a Top 40 single in 'Black Dog' and regular airplay for 'Stairway To Heaven' considered by many to be the greatest Rock song ever. Released late the year before, the band America provided an early charting single with 'Horse With No Name' and their excellent self titled debut album that at the time was considered a must for every music lover's record collection - I still have my vinyl copy as well as a CD version. Emerson Lake & Palmer released their self-titled debut album and live set 'Pictures At An Exhibition', both of which made my LP collection within the next few years.

I mentioned earlier Jethro Tull's 'Thick As A Brick' album, the cover of which always had me transfixed as I viewed it through the shop window - with it's intriguing newspaper fold-out. The band also released a double compilation album 'Living In The Past' which provided a re-release of the song of the same name, which charted very well. It was the first time I had heard this song and it is still one of my all time favourites. Another re-issue released for chart success late in the year was The Moody Blues 'Nights In White Satin' which was an entree for the release of the album 'Seventh Sojourn' early in 1973.

1972 was the first time I had heard of Alice Cooper when the 'Schoolís Out' album was released late in the year. Strangely it wasn't the title track of the album that gained most radio airplay, but another from the album called 'Alma Mater'. Cat Stevens followed up his excellent 'Teaser And The Firecat' late in the year with 'Catch Bull At Four' and he appeared to be everyone's favourite solo artist, at least the crew of friends and associates I hung around with during that year. Elton John had just started to dent the charts here with the albums 'Tumbleweed Connection' and 'Honky Chateau' and his memorable 45rpm release 'Rocket Man' charted in '72, a sign of even better things to come.

45 rpm singles of note from 1972 that I remember very well and still enjoy playing from time to time included 'Garden Party' by Rick Nelson And The Stone Canyon Band, 'Down By The River' by Albert Hammond, 'Baby Blue' and 'Day After Day' by Badfinger, 'Military Madness' by Graham Nash, 'Metal Guru' by T-Rex, 'Crazy Mama' by JJ Cale, 'Without You' by Harry Nilsson, 'Mother And Child Reunion' by Paul Simon, 'There Are Too Many Saviours On My Cross' by actor Richard Harris which topped the 2SM charts, The Who didnít release an album in Australia in 1972 but did provide two charting singles, 'Join Together' and 'Letís See Action'. Another band I enjoyed listening to around this time was Bread who were constantly in the charts with singles like 'Baby I'm A Want You', 'Everything I Own', 'Diary' and 'Guitar Man' and Don McLean smashed into the charts with his epic and timeless 'American Pie'.

Of course there were many other acts charting and not all were exactly my cup of tea, though not necessarily unsuccessful. We had teenybopper acts such as The Osmonds which of course gave us Donny and Little Jimmy, The Partridge Family which gave David Cassidy a solo run, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Michael Jackson's first solo hits and Australian acts such as Jamie Redfern.

Australian acts doing well in 1972 included Russell Morris who had chart hits with 'Live With Friends' and 'Wings Of An Eagle', Brian Cadd with 'Ginger Man', Lobby Lloyd And The Coloured Balls with 'Liberate Rock', Billy Thorpe And The Aztecs hit the number one spot with 'Most People I Know Think That Iím Crazy' and 'Believe It Just Like Me', Sherbet were one of the bigger bands at the time and had hits with 'Free The People', 'You've Got The Gun and the Ted Mulry penned 'You're All Woman'. One hit wonder Robin Jolley topped the charts with 'Marshall's Portable Music Machine', G Wayne Thomas charted with one of my all-time favourites 'Open Up Your Heart', Daddy Cool with 'Hi Honey Ho', Mississippi (which eventually provided the major personnel for the Little River Band) had a huge hit with 'Kings Of The World', Jug Blues Revival band Captain Matchbox had a Top 20 single with 'My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes', The Mixtures had their last chart hit with 'Captain Zero' and there were releases by Colleen Hewett, Country Radio, Allison Durbin, La De Dahs (Featuring Kevin Borich on guitar) and Jigsaw.

1972 paved the way for the subsequent releases in the coming years by Status Quo, Suzi Quatro, The Doobie Brothers, Mike Oldfield, 10cc, The Sweet, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, The Eagles, Supertramp and the reicarnation of Fleetwood Mac. So, 1972 was my big year of coming of age in music. What year is your favourite or was most important to your interest in popular music?

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