Ten 1970s Songs That Helped Us Discover New Bands For 1st Time

Feature Photo: Marines, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This article takes us back to the 1970s, when hearing one song for the first time could lead to the discovery of a band or artist you would love for the rest of your life. Some of these songs were so mind-blowing that they made us stop in our tracks and ask, “Who is that?” This is not a best-debut-single list because many of these performers had already released records before these particular songs reached us. It is simply about that unforgettable moment of discovery.

There was also something bittersweet about watching a band you loved suddenly become massively popular. Admit it, many of us felt a little sense of ownership before everybody else caught on. For most listeners, the songs below became introductions to artists who would become dearly loved. So here are ten unforgettable tracks that made us stop, take notice, and think, I need to get that album.

# 10 – Magic Man – Heart

We open this list with Heart’s “Magic Man.” Every time I hear that guitar at the beginning, it takes me right back to being 15 years old, hanging out on the streets of the Bronx at night and doing what 15-year-old rock and rollers did. The song came from Heart’s debut album Dreamboat Annie, recorded in Vancouver with Mike Flicker producing, and “Magic Man” eventually climbed to number nine on the Billboard Hot 100. Ann Wilson’s voice was unlike anything many of us had heard, while Nancy Wilson and the rest of the band gave the record a sound you could identify almost immediately. For me, it was the song that sent us running to the record store and began a lifelong love affair with Heart.

# 9 – Feels Like The First Time – Foreigner

Only months after Heart had grabbed our attention, another killer opening guitar lick and another sensational vocalist suddenly came blasting out of the radio. Foreigner’s “Feels Like the First Time” was released from the band’s self-titled 1977 debut album and was written by founding guitarist Mick Jones. Lou Gramm’s powerhouse vocal and Jones’s guitar gave the song the kind of immediate identity that made people ask who they were hearing. The single reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the first major hit in a long run of Foreigner classics. In an era filled with new rock bands, this was one of those songs that made discovery feel exciting.

Read More: 10 Most Rocking Foreigner Songs

# 8 – Slow Ride – Foghat

Foghat had already released several albums by the time “Slow Ride” became the song that turned me on to the band. I was around 15, and that record was everywhere on FM radio, while Fool for the City quickly became an album I had to own. The track was recorded at Suntreader Studios in Sharon, Vermont, with Nick Jameson producing and playing bass and keyboards alongside Dave Peverett, Rod Price, and Roger Earl. Foghat also felt like a local band to us on Long Island, which made the connection even stronger as I became a fan for life. Years later, getting the chance to interview founding drummer Roger Earl made that early discovery feel even more special.

# 7 – (Don’t Fear) The Reaper – Blue Öyster Cult

Blue Öyster Cult had also been around for a while before “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” introduced the band to a much larger audience. For many of us, this was the song that made us turn our heads and ask who was creating that hypnotic guitar sound. The track appeared on the band’s 1976 album Agents of Fortune and was written and sung by Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser. It reached number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Blue Öyster Cult’s defining hit. Being from New York also added to the connection because Blue Öyster Cult’s Long Island roots made the band feel close to home.

# 6 – Show Me The Way – Peter Frampton

The live version of Peter Frampton’s “Show Me the Way” was one of those records that seemed to appear everywhere in 1976. The hit version from Frampton Comes Alive! was recorded in August 1975 at the Long Island Arena in Commack, New York, and features Frampton’s instantly recognizable talk box guitar. His warm vocal, melodic soloing, and the electricity of the live performance made the record sound completely different from almost anything else on the radio. The single reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped turn Frampton Comes Alive! into a cultural phenomenon. For many listeners, including those of us growing up around New York, this was the song that transformed Peter Frampton from a name we might have known into a star we suddenly had to hear more from.

# 5 – You Really Got Me – Van Halen

Do you remember the first time you heard Van Halen tear into “You Really Got Me”? Ray Davies had written the song for The Kinks in the 1960s, but Van Halen’s 1978 version sounded like a new machine exploding out of the speakers. Hearing Eddie Van Halen’s playing for the first time was unforgettable, especially when most of us had no idea what was about to come from that band. The cover became Van Halen’s first single and reached number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100. It did not take long before plenty of us were rushing to Sam Goody, Record World, or wherever we bought records to grab that debut album.

# 4 – More Than A Feeling – Boston

Man, we were truly spoiled growing up in the 1970s and discovering music like Boston for the first time. I will never forget the fall of 1976, when “More Than a Feeling” came out of the radio and introduced so many of us to Tom Scholz, Brad Delp, and that enormous Boston sound. The band’s self-titled debut was released in August 1976, and the single eventually reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100. Once we bought the album, it became obvious that the discovery went far beyond one song because every track seemed to deliver. Hearing an album like that at 15 years old is something you never really forget.

# 3 – Born To Run – Bruce Springsteen

I remember sitting in my ninth-grade journalism class when a high school senior tapped me on the back and told me about a musician named Bruce Springsteen. He had noticed how often I talked about music and insisted that I check out the Born to Run album, which was released in August 1975 after two earlier Springsteen records had struggled commercially. I bought the single, put it on my turntable, and was completely blown away even though I was not sure at first what to make of Springsteen’s voice. Then came that moment when the music nearly stops and Springsteen shouts the count-in before the band crashes back, and it hit me straight in the heart. For me, discovering “Born to Run” was one of those life-changing musical moments that made the world of rock and roll suddenly feel even bigger.

# 2 – Paradise By The Dashboard Light – Meat Loaf

My discovery of Meat Loaf began the old-fashioned way, by stumbling across the incredible Bat Out of Hell cover in a record store and thinking that an album looking like that had to be good. “Bat Out of Hell” was the first track that knocked me out, but “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” became the song that introduced Meat Loaf to an enormous number of people. Jim Steinman wrote the song, Todd Rundgren produced it, and Ellen Foley supplied the unforgettable female lead vocal opposite Meat Loaf. Growing up in the Bronx as a Yankees fan made Phil Rizzuto’s baseball play-by-play in the middle of the song even more fun because he was our beloved broadcaster and one of the great Yankees. Nothing else sounded quite like this giant rock-and-roll mini-musical, and its popularity kept growing long after Bat Out of Hell first appeared in 1977. It became one of those records that did not simply introduce an artist, it created a whole world around him.

Read More: Top 10 Meat Loaf Songs

# 1 – 2112 – Rush

I discovered Rush while browsing record-store aisles and spotting the striking cover of 2112. I had no idea who Rush was, but I bought the album anyway, and when those opening synthesizer sounds began, I knew I had stumbled onto something special. Released in April 1976, 2112 was Rush’s fourth studio album, recorded at Toronto Sound with Terry Brown, and its 20-minute title suite became the breakthrough that changed the band’s career. The next day I brought the album to school and started raving about it to friends who had never heard of Rush either, and before long the band seemed to be everywhere. Years later, after seeing Rush at the Palladium in New York and eventually having Alex Lifeson featured in an interview on our site, that first record-store discovery still feels incredible. Some albums introduce you to a band, but 2112 felt like discovering an entirely new universe.