⇦ 1973

1975 ⇨

The Best Music of 1974

Here is a selection of the best albums and songs from 1974. Hall of Famers are highlighted in orange.

For a list of the top artists who made their debut recording in 1974, check out this list.

Albums (?)		Wikipedia
Aerosmith	Get Your Wings	☆
Al Green	Al Green Explores Your Mind	☆
Average White Band	AWB	☆
B.T. Express	Do It ('Til You're Satisfied)	☆
Bad Company	Bad Company	☆
Barbra Streisand	The Way We Were	☆
Barry White	Can't Get Enough	☆
Bert Jansch	L.A. Turnaround	☆
Betty Davis	They Say I'm Different	☆
Big Star	Radio City	☆
Billy Joel	Streetlife Serenade	☆
Billy Preston	The Kids & Me	☆
Blue Öyster Cult	Secret Treaties	☆
Bob Marley & the Wailers	Natty Dread	☆
Brian Eno	Here Come The Warm Jets	☆
Brian Eno	Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)	☆
Camel	Mirage	☆
Can	Soon Over Babaluma	☆
Carly Simon	Hotcakes	☆
Carole King	Wrap Around Joy	☆
Cat Stevens	Buddha and the Chocolate Box	☆
Chicago	Chicago VII	☆
Dan Fogelberg	Souvenirs	☆
David Bowie	Diamond Dogs	☆
Deep Purple	Burn	☆
Dolly Parton	Jolene	☆
Electric Light Orchestra	Eldorado, A Symphony	☆
Elton John	Caribou	☆
Eric Clapton	461 Ocean Boulevard	☆
Frank Zappa	Apostrophe (')	☆
Funkadelic	Standing on the Verge of Getting It On	☆
Gene Clark	No Other	☆
Genesis	The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway	☆
Gentle Giant	The Power and the Glory	☆
George Harrison	Dark Horse	☆
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson	Winter in America	☆
Gordon Lightfoot	Sundown	☆
Graham Central Station	Release Yourself	☆
Gram Parsons	Grievous Angel	☆
Hawkwind	Hall of the Mountain Grill	☆
Herbie Hancock	Thrust	☆
Jackson Browne	Late For The Sky	☆
Jethro Tull	War Child	☆
Jimmy Buffett	Living and Dying in 3/4 Time	☆
Joe Cocker	I Can Stand a Little Rain	☆
John Denver	Back Home Again	☆
Joni Mitchell	Court and Spark	☆
King Crimson	Red	☆
King Crimson	Starless and Bible Black	☆
KISS	Kiss	☆
Kool & the Gang	Light of Worlds	☆
Kraftwerk	Autobahn	☆
Labelle	Nightbirds	☆
Leonard Cohen	New Skin for the Old Ceremony	☆
Linda Ronstadt	Heart Like a Wheel	☆
Little Feat	Feats Don't Fail Me Now	☆
Lou Reed	Rock 'n' Roll Animal	☆
Lynyrd Skynyrd	Second Helping	☆
Michael Omartian	White Horse	☆
Miles Davis	Get Up With It	☆
Millie Jackson	Caught Up	☆
Neil Young	On The Beach	☆
New York Dolls	Too Much Too Soon	☆
Ohio Players	Fire	☆
Ohio Players	Skin Tight	☆
Ozark Mountain Daredevils	It'll Shine When It Shines	☆
Parliament	Up for the Down Stroke	☆
Phoebe Snow	Phoebe Snow	☆
Queen	Sheer Heart Attack	☆
Queen	Queen II	☆
Quincy Jones	Body Heat	☆
Ramsey Lewis	Sun Goddess	☆
Randy Newman	Good Old Boys	☆
Raspberries	Starting Over	☆
Return to Forever featuring Chick Corea	Where Have I Known You Before	☆
Richard and Linda Thompson	I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight	☆
Robert Palmer	Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley	☆
Robin Trower	Bridge of Sighs	☆
Roxy Music	Country Life	☆
Rufus featuring Chaka Khan	Rags to Rufus	☆
Slade	Slade in Flame	☆
Sparks	Kimono My House	☆
Sparks	Propaganda	☆
Steely Dan	Pretzel Logic	☆
Stevie Wonder	Fulfillingness' First Finale	☆
Supertramp	Crime of the Century	☆
Suzi Quatro	Quatro	☆
Sweet	Desolation Boulevard	☆
Tangerine Dream	Phaedra	☆
The Commodores	Machine Gun	☆
The Eagles	On the Border	☆
The Grateful Dead	From the Mars Hotel	☆
The Meters	Rejuvenation	☆
The Pointer Sisters	That's a Plenty	☆
The Pointer Sisters	Live at the Opera House	☆
The Residents	Meet the Residents	☆
The Rolling Stones	It's Only Rock 'n Roll	☆
The Spinners	New and Improved	☆
Todd Rundgren	Todd	☆
Tom Waits	The Heart of Saturday Night	☆
Van Morrison	It's Too Late to Stop Now	☆
Waylon Jennings	The Ramblin' Man	☆
Weather Report	Mysterious Traveller	☆
Willie Nelson	Phases and Stages	☆
Yes	Relayer	☆

---

Songs (?)		Wikipedia
ABBA	Waterloo	☆
Ace	How Long	☆
Aerosmith	Same Old Song and Dance	☆
Aerosmith	Train Kept A Rollin'	☆
Al Green	Take Me to the River	☆
America	Tin Man	☆
America	Lonely People	☆
Andy Kim	Rock Me Gently	☆
Aretha Franklin	Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)	☆
Bachman-Turner Overdrive	You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet	☆
Bachman-Turner Overdrive	Roll On Down the Highway	☆
Bad Company	Bad Company	☆
Bad Company	Can't Get Enough	☆
Bad Company	Movin' On	☆
Bad Company	Ready for Love	☆
Barry Manilow	Mandy	☆
Barry White	Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe	☆
Barry White	You're the First, the Last, My Everything	☆
Bay City Rollers	Saturday Night	☆
Big Star	September Gurls	☆
Big Star	I'm In Love With A Girl	☆
Billy Joel	The Entertainer	☆
Billy Preston	Nothing From Nothing	☆
Billy Swan	I Can Help	☆
Blue Öyster Cult	Astronomy	☆
Blue Swede	Hooked On A Feeling	☆
Bob Dylan	Forever Young	☆
Bob Marley & The Wailers	No Woman No Cry	☆
Bobby "Blue" Bland	Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City	☆
Bobby Womack	Lookin' For A Love	☆
Boz Scaggs	You Make It So Hard (to Say No)	☆
Brian Eno	Needle in the Camel's Eye	☆
Buffalo	I'm a Skirt Lifter, Not a Shirt Raiser	☆
Camel	Lady Fantasy	☆
Carl Carlton	Everlasting Love	☆
Carl Douglas	Kung Fu Fighting	☆
Carly Simon	Haven't Got Time for the Pain	☆
Carly Simon & James Taylor	Mockingbird	☆
Carole King	Jazzman	☆
Cat Stevens	Oh Very Young	☆
Cat Stevens	Another Saturday Night	☆
Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco	Quimbara	☆
Cher	Dark Lady	☆
Chicago	Happy Man	☆
Chicago	Wishing You Were Here	☆
Dave Loggins	Please Come to Boston	☆
David Bowie	Rebel Rebel	☆
David Bowie	Rock 'N' Roll Suicide	☆
Deep Purple	Burn	☆
Dionne Warwicke & The Spinners	Then Came You	☆
Dolly Parton	I Will Always Love You	☆
Electric Light Orchestra	Can't Get It Out Of My Head	☆
Elton John	Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me	☆
Elton John	The Bitch Is Back	☆
Eric Clapton	I Shot The Sheriff	☆
Eric Clapton	Motherless Children	☆
Fanny	Butter Boy	☆
Frank Zappa	Cosmik Debris	☆
Frank Zappa	Don't Eat the Yellow Snow	☆
Frankie Valli	My Eyes Adored You	☆
Freddy Fender	Wasted Days and Wasted Nights	☆
Genesis	The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway	☆
Genesis	The Carpet Crawlers	☆
Gentle Giant	Proclamation	☆
George McCrae	Rock Your Baby	☆
Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson	The Bottle	☆
Gladys Knight & the Pips	On and On	☆
Gloria Gaynor	Never Can Say Goodbye	☆
Gordon Lightfoot	Sundown	☆
Gordon Lightfoot	Carefree Highway	☆
Gram Parsons	Return Of The Grievous Angel	☆
Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris	Love Hurts	☆
Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris	$1000 Wedding	☆
Grand Funk Railroad	Some Kind Of Wonderful	☆
Grand Funk Railroad	The Loco-Motion	☆
Harry Chapin	Cat's In The Cradle	☆
Jackson Browne	Late For The Sky	☆
Jackson Browne	Fountain of Sorrow	☆
Jethro Tull	Bungle in the Jungle	☆
Jethro Tull	Skating Away On the Thin Ice of a New Day	☆
Jimmy Buffett	Come Monday	☆
Jimmy Buffett	A Pirate Looks at Forty	☆
Joe Cocker	You Are So Beautiful	☆
John Denver	Thank God I'm a Country Boy	☆
John Denver	Annie's Song	☆
John Denver	Back Home Again	☆
John Lennon	Whatever Gets You Through the Night	☆
John Lennon	#9 Dream	☆
Joni Mitchell	Free Man In Paris	☆
Joni Mitchell	Help Me	☆
King Crimson	Starless	☆
King Crimson	Red	☆
King Crimson	Fallen Angel	☆
King Crimson	One More Red Nightmare	☆
KISS	Strutter	☆
Kool & The Gang	Summer Madness	☆
Kraftwerk	Autobahn	☆
Labelle	Lady Marmalade	☆
Leonard Cohen	Who By Fire	☆
Leonard Cohen	Chelsea Hotel No. 2	☆
Linda Ronstadt	You're No Good	☆
Linda Ronstadt	When Will I Be Loved	☆
Little Feat	Rock and Roll Doctor	☆
Little Feat	Spanish Moon	☆
Lynyrd Skynyrd	Sweet Home Alabama	☆
Lynyrd Skynyrd	Call Me the Breeze	☆
Merle Haggard	If We Make It Through December	☆
Mike Post	The Rockford Files	☆
Minnie Riperton	Lovin' You	☆
Mott The Hoople	Crash Street Kidds	☆
Nazareth	Love Hurts	☆
Neil Diamond	Longfellow Serenade	☆
Neil Sedaka	Laughter in the Rain	☆
Ohio Players	Fire	☆
Ohio Players	Skin Tight	☆
Olivia Newton-John	I Honestly Love You	☆
Orleans	Dance With Me	☆
Parliament	Up For The Down Stroke	☆
Pilot	Magic	☆
Queen	Killer Queen	☆
Queen	Stone Cold Crazy	☆
Queen	Seven Seas Of Rhye	☆
Randy Newman	Louisiana 1927	☆
Randy Newman	Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man)	☆
Raspberries	Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)	☆
Ray Stevens	The Streak	☆
Redbone	Come And Get Your Love	☆
Richard and Linda Thompson	I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight	☆
Ringo Starr	No No Song	☆
Roberta Flack	Feel Like Makin' Love	☆
Roxy Music	Out of the Blue	☆
Roxy Music	All I Want Is You	☆
Rufus	You Got the Love	☆
Rufus & Chaka Khan	Tell Me Something Good	☆
Rush	Working Man	☆
Shirley & Company	Shame, Shame, Shame	☆
Sparks	Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth	☆
Sparks	This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us	☆
Sparks	Amateur Hour	☆
Steely Dan	Rikki Don't Lose That Number	☆
Steely Dan	Any Major Dude Will Tell You	☆
Steely Dan	Pretzel Logic	☆
Stevie Wonder	You Haven't Done Nothin'	☆
Stevie Wonder	Boogie On Reggae Woman	☆
Supertramp	Dreamer	☆
Supertramp	Bloody Well Right	☆
Suzi Quatro	The Wild One	☆
Suzi Quatro	Devil Gate Drive	☆
Sweet	Fox On The Run	☆
Tangerine Dream	Pheadra	☆
The Average White Band	Pick Up The Pieces	☆
The Blackbyrds	Walking in Rhythm	☆
The Charlie Daniels Band	The South's Gonna Do It	☆
The Doobie Brothers	Black Water	☆
The Eagles	Already Gone	☆
The Eagles	Best of My Love	☆
The Grateful Dead	Scarlet Begonias	☆
The Guess Who	Clap for the Wolfman	☆
The Hollies	The Air that I Breathe	☆
The J. Geils Band	Must of Got Lost	☆
The Kiki Dee Band	I've Got the Music in Me	☆
The Meters	It Ain't No Use	☆
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils	Jackie Blue	☆
The Pointer Sisters	Fairytale	☆
The Righteous Brothers	Rock and Roll Heaven	☆
The Rolling Stones	It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)	☆
The Three Degrees	When Will I See You Again	☆
Todd Rundgren	A Dream Goes On Forever	☆
Tom Waits	(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night	☆
Willie Nelson	Bloody Mary Monday	☆

⇦ 1973

1975 ⇨