

It hadn’t even been a year since Hugh Masekela’s sauntering jazz instrumental “Grass” had topped the Hot 100 when The Friends of Distinction - an L.A. Friends of Distinction, “Grazing in the Grass” (No. But this driving, droning fluke smash still feels like an AM broadcast from a distant world. Though they released a few LPs before splitting, Zager & Evans remained the ultimate one-hit wonder: only “2525” reached the chart. Audiences flipped for the verse-free jeremiad, and the Nebraskan duo released the tune on their own label before it got picked up by RCA. Rick Evans wrote “2525” in the mid-’60s, but shelved it until he and Denny Zager needed to pad a regular lounge gig. 1 song on Earth was a doomy folk-rocker about planetary death by technology. When Aldrin and Armstrong stepped onto the moon – the signature engineering achievement of the century - the No. Zager & Evans, “In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)” (No. Read on, and get ready to be taken higher.ġ00. So some ’69-released classics that became hits later on, like “I Want You Back,” “Space Oddity” or “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” are ineligible.īut as you’ll see, there’s still an embarrassment of riches to be had: pop classics, singer-songwriter standards, FM rock perennials, intergalactic side-long jazz odysseys and only-in-’69 oddities all among them. 1 that year - but not if they debuted or topped the chart after the year was over. As we usually do with our staff year-in-review lists, we’re counting songs if they were released in ’69, debuted on the Hot 100 or hit No. To commemorate this most eventful year in music and culture on the week of Woodstock’s 50th anniversary, the Billboard staff is ranking our 100 favorite songs from a year treasured by Bryan Adams and New York Mets fans alike. It was the capper the ’60s deserved, certainly. 1 hits, despite neither band really even existing in any conventional sense, while Hot 100 legends like Elvis Presley and The Supremes both topped the chart for the final time. The Archies and Steam had their first and only No. Outside of rock, artists like Isaac Hayes, Nina Simone and Miles Davis were continuing to push the envelope in fusing soul, funk and jazz, on and off the charts.

Nearly every rock band we associate with the decade today released a classic album at the end of it - Creedence Clearwater Revival alone dropped three of ’em - while bands who would go on to define the ’70s in both the mainstream (Led Zeppelin, Chicago, Three Dog Night) and the underground (The Stooges, MC5) poked their heads out for the first time. KCON 2022 Wraps With 90,000 Attendees at Los Angeles K-Pop Festival
