The musical landscape of 1970
The charts reflected a broad musical marketplace: intimate singer-songwriter records, soul, hard rock, country-pop and polished mainstream pop all competed for attention.
The Beatles appears 2 times in the Top 20, making the artist one of the clearest recurring presences in this year’s list.
What to listen for
Pay attention to the range of vocal styles and to the growing contrast between personal songwriting and large-scale studio production.
This list contains 18 different credited artists. The number gives a quick indication of whether the year was concentrated among repeat hitmakers or spread across a wider field.
Billboard Year-End Top 20 songs of 1970
| Rank | Song | Artist | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bridge Over Troubled Water | Simon and Garfunkel | Spotify ↗ |
| 2 | Close to You | The Carpenters | Spotify ↗ |
| 3 | American Woman | The Guess Who | Spotify ↗ |
| 4 | Raindrops Keep Fallin on My Head | BJ Thomas | Spotify ↗ |
| 5 | War | Edwin Starr | Spotify ↗ |
| 6 | Ill Be There | The Jackson 5 | Spotify ↗ |
| 7 | Let It Be | The Beatles | Spotify ↗ |
| 8 | Mama Told Me Not to Come | Three Dog Night | Spotify ↗ |
| 9 | ABC | The Jackson 5 | Spotify ↗ |
| 10 | Spirit in the Sky | Norman Greenbaum | Spotify ↗ |
| 11 | Make It with You | Bread | Spotify ↗ |
| 12 | Thank You | Sly and the Family Stone | Spotify ↗ |
| 13 | Venus | Shocking Blue | Spotify ↗ |
| 14 | Band of Gold | Freda Payne | Spotify ↗ |
| 15 | Instant Karma | John Lennon | Spotify ↗ |
| 16 | My Sweet Lord | George Harrison | Spotify ↗ |
| 17 | Signed Sealed Delivered | Stevie Wonder | Spotify ↗ |
| 18 | Candida | Dawn | Spotify ↗ |
| 19 | Aint No Mountain High Enough | Diana Ross | Spotify ↗ |
| 20 | The Long and Winding Road | The Beatles | Spotify ↗ |
Build a 1970 playlist
Start with “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon and Garfunkel, then alternate familiar high-ranking records with contrasting selections from the lower half of the list.
How this page should be used
Year-End charts summarize performance across an extended chart year. They are not simply a list of songs that reached number one, and historical methodology has changed. Treat this page as a guided listening resource and compact chart-history reference rather than a mathematical comparison with other eras.