At the midpoint of the decade, 1974 appeared to have no definite dominant genres, but that allowed for a very varied singles chart.  1975 very much follows that trend, but pushes some of the focus back to great albums.

In our in-depth look at the year, we highlight a few of those essential long-players, from Pink Floyd’s masterpiece ‘Wish You Were Here’, Led Zeppelin’s double platter, ‘Physical Graffiti’ and ‘Trick of The Tail’ by the re-configured Genesis – giving the world, perhaps, their best ever album against the odds.  Having departed from Deep Purple, Ritchie Blackmore explores slightly different hard rock waters with the fantasy themed Rainbow, Elton’s ‘Captain Fantastic’ shows it’s every bit as good as the much championed ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ and Steely Dan follow the almost perfect ‘Royal Scam’ with the equally inventive ‘Katy Lied’.  We’ve chosen various cuts from each (and more) and in the RG playlist tradition, not just the obvious tracks.

1975 brought some great singles.  Pilot’s ‘January’ still sounds joyous, despite being relegated to the decade in which it was made; Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Say You Love Me’ signifies more greatness over the horizon and Steeleye Span’s ‘All Around My Hat’ cemented the folk-rock band’s place in the music history books, despite being viewed rather more flippantly in years to come.

Funky? You want funky?  We’ve got Parliament.  We’ve got Tower of Power.  We’ve got Kool and The Gang.  Bee Gees are just about to start their five year domination of the charts.  …And from a fusionist perspective, we bring superb album cuts from Jeff Beck, Herbie Hancock and Stanley Clarke.  It’s all good.

There are lot of things you could say about 1975, but “bland” isn’t it.  Sit back and enjoy our picks from the year… Hopefully, as always, you’ll find something something you’d forgotten – or better still, something new from this bag of tricks.  Until next time, happy listening…and have a great weekend!