Our Top 10 Desert Island Albums Of The 1970s

If you could only keep ten albums from your collection, which ten would you keep? That’s not an easy one to answer. Well, okay, we will make it easier for you. Let’s limit it to just ten albums from the 1970s. Does that make it easier? Probably not, because if you’re like me, the majority of your albums are probably from the 1970s. Still, as ridiculous as it may seem, the concept of the desert island discs goes back a long time. I always remember reading the column in Tower Records magazine that came out every month. Remember Tower Records? Hands down, it was the greatest record store we have ever been to.

So, since it’s gone, we figured we would put together our own lists, and hopefully, you will share yours with us too. This is not a top ten albums of the 70s list; we have already done that. No, this is much more personal. It’s a list that defines the ten albums that you could never let go of. So pick those ten and get ready to hang out with Tom Hanks and “Wilson” listening to some really good music.

# 10 – Hasten Down The Wind – Linda Ronstadt

We open up our “Top 10 Desert Island Albums of the 1970s” list with our favorite Linda Ronstadt album, Hasten Down the Wind. There’s just no way we could ever live without Linda Ronstadt in our lives. We need that voice—so soothing and exciting at the same time. She released so many great albums, but in the end, this one was our favorite. Songs like “Lose Again” by Karla Bonoff, “Hasten Down the Wind” by Warren Zevon, and of course “Someone to Lay Down Beside Me” just stand as some of our favorite Linda Ronstadt songs we have ever heard. The album was originally released in 1976, and it’s always been close by our side.

# 9 – Van Halen – Van Halen

# 8 – Madman Across The Water – Elton John

There are so many Elton John albums that we would want to take with us if we could only keep ten records in our collection on our desert island. However, there are also a lot of other records by other artists that we love greatly, so we had to limit this to two Elton John albums. Madman Across the Water is the first of the two Elton John albums on this list. Speaking of the number two, it’s because of the two songs on this album that we need to keep in our lives: “Levon” and “Tiny Dancer.” Every song on the album is great, but those two songs are very special Elton John songs that have this magical quality about them that just never fades away.

# 7 – Night Shift – Foghat

We can never live without the sound of those dual guitars. That sound is all over this album, from the opening track “Driving Wheel” to the killer closer “I’ll Be Standing By.” Lonesome Dave and Rod Price made for some phenomenal playing together, and of course, there’s Roger on the drums, just fueling the sound of this band with Craig MacGregor standing by his side. We love Foghat, and this is our favorite Foghat album of all time. Nothing comes close to this album. This album brings us right back to high school and those crazy rock and roll days when we never went to class and didn’t care about anything but our friends and rock and roll.

# 6 – Street Survivors – Lynyrd Skynyrd

Landing in the number six spot on our “Top 10 Desert Island Albums of the 1970s” list is the legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd album Street Survivors. We have written about this album so many times on this site that there’s almost nothing left to say that we haven’t already talked about. So in the end, we’ll just say there’s no way we’re leaving these guys behind—not this one, never.

# 5 – Physical Graffiti – Led Zeppelin

It’s tough to only pick one album from our favorite rock band of all time. It just doesn’t seem fair. However, I guess if we had to choose one Led Zeppelin album, it would always be Physical Graffiti. If we could pick another, it would probably be Houses of the Holy next, and then Led Zeppelin IV. But Physical Graffiti is a double album loaded with such great songs that bring back so many memories. It’s an album we just want to keep burning forever.

# 4 – The Wild Heart – Stevie Nicks

This list is loaded with albums from our favorite artists of all time, and Stevie Nicks stands almost at the top. We love every single solo album she’s ever released, but as we’ve written many times before, The Wild Heart stands above all the rest. With songs like the title track, “If Anyone Falls,” “Enchanted,” “Stand Back,” and all the rest, this is an album that got us through some really tough times. It’s such an emotional record that just makes you feel good no matter how tough it can get. And hey, on that desert island, times may get tough.

# 3 – Born To Run – Bruce Sprinsgteen

These next three albums are pretty much interchangeable in how much they have meant to us throughout our lives. Born to Run is just an album that is almost difficult to describe anymore, just because of its sheer impact on so many lives. If there ever was a perfect album in rock and roll, it just might be Born to Run. Every single song is its own epic drama, from side one’s “Thunder Road,” “Night,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” and the side one closer “Backstreets” to the second side’s “Born to Run,” “Meeting Across the River,” “She’s the One,” and “Jungleland.” There’s not a weak track on the record. It’s probably the most listened-to album I have ever played on my turntable in my entire life, and the majority of those spins came between 1975 and 1979.

# 2 – Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy – Elton John

From 1970 to 1976, Elton John released a series of albums that blew out a lot of needles on turntables around the world. What an amazing run Elton John had. However, for us, it all culminated with what we believe was Elton John’s greatest musical achievement: the Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy album. The packaging was unbelievable, filled with posters, booklets, and a wonderful gatefold that we could just stare at for hours and hours. Yet each song on this album took the listener on the ride of their lives. From the album’s opening epic adventure “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy” to some of the most original-sounding rock and roll songs like “Tower of Babel,” “Bitter Fingers,” and of course the sad but hopeful “Someone Saved My Life Tonight,” what a ride that was—and that was just side one. I kind of get teary-eyed talking about this album because it just meant so much to me.

# 1 – Darkness On The Edge Of Town – Bruce Springsteen

I’m only going to address this once. You may notice sometimes that I often use the pronoun “we” instead of “I” when I am writing articles on this site. It’s done on purpose. The reason is because I feel that I represent such a large majority of rock and roll fans out there, and it just feels too egotistical to say “I” in a lot of the writing because I am just a small, tiny portion of rock and roll fans. This site has always been designed to be written by rock fans, not critics—rock fans. I believe that a lot of my feelings about music are shared by others. It’s why I use the word “we” often, and I hope you don’t mind me doing that. I hope you understand, and most importantly, I thank you for coming to the site and reading this work.

With all that said, Darkness on the Edge of Town is the album that I could never live without. This one is personal because some of the songs on here saved me at a time when life got really hard. But, of course, going back to the whole “we” concept, it probably saved a lot of other people too. That’s why it matters so much; that’s why these albums are items in our lives that we could never live without.

Our Top 10 Desert Island Albums Of The 1970s article published on Classic RockHistory.com© 2024