70s Bands: The Biggest Groups of the Decade, by the Charts
The Bee Gees were the biggest of all the 70s bands by the charts.
They placed 12 group singles on Billboard's year-end Hot 100 between 1971 and 1979.
Wings and The Carpenters tied for second with 11 each.
This page ranks every band and duo act with at least three year-end hits in the decade.
That's 47 groups, each with their number ones, weeks at the top, and biggest hit.
Every one of those biggest hits can be played right from the table.
The ten bands with the most Billboard year-end Hot 100 hits, 1970 to 1979.
Chart: Music of the 70s, from this site's year-end Billboard data.
The Short Answer: The Top 10 70s Bands
Ranked by group singles on the Billboard year-end Hot 100, these were the decade's ten biggest names:
- Bee Gees: 12
- Wings: 11
- The Carpenters: 11
- Chicago: 8
- Electric Light Orchestra: 8
- The Jackson 5: 7
- Three Dog Night: 7
- Gladys Knight & the Pips: 7
- Earth, Wind & Fire: 7
- War: 7
Ties among 70s bands are broken by chart points, so a higher-ranked song counts for more.
That's why Chicago sits above Electric Light Orchestra.
It's also why The Jackson 5 sit above the four bands tied with them at seven.
The year-end list is Billboard's own summary of each year's biggest singles.
Landing on it seven or more times across a ten-year span isn't just a moment.
It's a run.
Why Groups Only
This is a ranking of 70s bands as acts, not individual voices.
Solo singers get their own chart-built ranking instead.
Lumping every act together would bury most group careers under a handful of superstar solo acts.
For the record, here's how the biggest solo singers compare on the same count.
- Elton John had 12 year-end hits, level with the Bee Gees.
- Stevie Wonder had 10.
- Barry Manilow and Olivia Newton-John had 9 and 8.
The full breakdown is on the 70s Singers page.
Same Band, Different Credit: How Wings Became One Entry
Paul McCartney formed Wings in 1971 with his wife Linda and Denny Laine.
The Beatles had just broken up.
Billboard's year-end charts never settled on one way to credit them.
The same band shows up under three different names across the decade in this site's own data.
| Year | Song | Year-end rank | Credited as |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | My Love | 5 | Paul McCartney & Wings |
| 1973 | Live and Let Die | 56 | Paul McCartney & Wings |
| 1974 | Band on the Run | 22 | Paul McCartney and Wings |
| 1974 | Jet | 77 | Paul McCartney and Wings |
| 1974 | Helen Wheels | 91 | Paul McCartney and Wings |
| 1975 | Listen to What the Man Said | 42 | Wings |
| 1975 | Junior's Farm | 88 | Paul McCartney & Wings |
| 1976 | Silly Love Songs | 1 | Wings |
| 1976 | Let 'Em In | 67 | Wings |
| 1978 | With a Little Luck | 18 | Wings |
| 1979 | Goodnight Tonight | 52 | Wings |
The Counting Call, Stated Plainly
All three credits are the same lineup and the same band.
This page merges them into one entry: Wings, 11 year-end hits.
Left unmerged, none of the three spellings alone would even crack the top 20.
A separate, earlier 1971 single, "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," is credited to Paul & Linda McCartney.
That one predates the Wings name and isn't folded into this total.
Dr. Hook gets the same treatment further down this page, for the same reason.
"Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show" became just "Dr. Hook" partway through the decade, same band, one entry.
1976 Was the Peak, With a Real Number One
"Silly Love Songs" finished number 1 for all of 1976, Wings' only year-end chart-topper.
It also held the weekly number one spot for five weeks that spring.
Paul McCartney wrote it partly as a rebuttal to critics.
They'd said he only wrote soft, sentimental songs after the Beatles.
The chorus repeats "I love you" more than a dozen times, on purpose.
Early 70s vs. Late 70s: Two Different Leaders
Split the decade in half and the leaderboard flips completely.
| 1970 to 1974 | Hits | 1975 to 1979 | Hits |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Carpenters | 9 | Bee Gees | 10 |
| The Jackson 5 | 7 | Electric Light Orchestra | 8 |
| Three Dog Night | 7 | Earth, Wind & Fire | 7 |
| Chicago | 7 | Wings | 6 |
| Gladys Knight & the Pips | 6 | Eagles | 5 |
Not one band from the early-70s top five repeats in the late-70s top five.
The sound of the charts changed lineups as much as it changed genres.
The Carpenters Never Missed a Year Early On
The Carpenters placed at least one song on every year-end list from 1970 through 1975.
Nine of their eleven career year-end hits landed in that first half of the decade.
"(They Long to Be) Close to You" was their breakthrough, finishing number 2 for 1970.
Karen Carpenter's voice and Richard Carpenter's arrangements made soft, string-laden pop a real chart force.
That happened at a time when hard rock and Motown otherwise dominated.
Disco Rebuilt the Late-70s Leaderboard
Every band in the late-70s top five had at least one foot in disco or dance-floor R&B by 1978.
The Bee Gees' 10 late-decade hits came almost entirely from the Saturday Night Fever era.
Earth, Wind & Fire and Eagles took very different routes to the same chart.
Funk horns against California harmony, and both got there.
Weeks at Number One: A Different Leaderboard
Year-end hits reward 70s bands for consistency.
Weeks at number one reward the monster hit.
Measured that way, the gap at the top only gets wider.
Combined weeks at number one on the weekly Hot 100, by band, 1970 to 1979.
Chart: Music of the 70s, from this site's weekly Billboard data.
Nine Number Ones, 27 Weeks
The Bee Gees are the runaway leader here too.
27 combined weeks at number one, across nine different singles.
"Night Fever" alone spent eight weeks on top in early 1978.
"Stayin' Alive" and "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" each spent four.
No other band in this data comes within half of that total.
It's the widest gap anywhere on this 70s bands ranking.
Bands With Real Chart Runs but Few Weeks on Top
Some groups built long year-end careers without ever dominating a single week at number one.
- Electric Light Orchestra, 8 year-end hits, 0 weeks at number one
- War, 7 year-end hits, 0 weeks at number one
- Steely Dan, 5 year-end hits, 0 weeks at number one
- Dr. Hook, 6 year-end hits, 0 weeks at number one
Steady mid-chart presence, not a single monster week, is its own kind of 70s success story.
The Top 70s Bands, Year by Year
Here's which of the 70s bands placed the most singles on each year's list.
Ties were common, and 1976 was the most crowded year of the decade for bands.
| Year | Top band(s) | Hits that year |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | The Jackson 5 | 4 |
| 1971 | The Carpenters | 3 |
| 1972 | Three Dog Night | 2 |
| 1973 | War | 3 |
| 1974 | Wings, Gladys Knight & the Pips | 3 |
| 1975 | Earth, Wind & Fire, Eagles, The Carpenters, Wings, America | 2 |
| 1976 | Ten bands tied, including Bee Gees, Queen, Fleetwood Mac | 2 |
| 1977 | Fleetwood Mac | 3 |
| 1978 | Bee Gees | 3 |
| 1979 | Chic, Bee Gees | 3 |
1970 Belonged to The Jackson 5
The Jackson 5 placed four singles on the year-end 1970 list.
That's the single biggest year any band had in the decade.
"I'll Be There," "ABC," "The Love You Save" and "I Want You Back" all charted that year.
Michael Jackson wasn't even 13 yet.
No other band matched four year-end hits in one year at any other point in the 1970s.
1976 Was as Crowded as It Gets
Ten different bands tied with two year-end hits apiece in 1976.
That's more ties than any other year in this data.
Wings, Queen, KC and the Sunshine Band, Fleetwood Mac and the Bee Gees were among them.
It's the clearest single-year snapshot of how crowded and varied the mid-70s charts had become.
Disco, arena rock and soft pop all landed hits in the same twelve months.
Bands vs. Solo Singers: How the Two Lists Compare
This page and the 70s Singers page use the exact same source data and the exact same counting method.
The only difference is whether an act charted as a group or as an individual.
Put the two leaderboards side by side and a few things stand out.
- The Bee Gees (12, band) and Elton John (12, solo) are tied for the single biggest chart run of the decade, one on each list.
- Groups take 3 of the top 3 spots on this page; solo singers take 3 of the top 3 spots on the other. Neither format overwhelms the whole decade.
- The Bee Gees' own Andy Gibb charted separately as a solo singer, with 5 year-end hits of his own, showing up on the other list entirely on his own record.
Curious how a specific act you don't see credited here charted as an individual instead?
Test what you remember about both lists on the 70s Music Trivia Quiz.
Then check the full sortable tables on either page.
All 47 70s Bands With 3 or More Year-End Hits, Sortable
Here is every one of the 70s bands that placed three or more singles on the Billboard year-end Hot 100.
Tap a column heading to sort by rank, name, year-end hits, number ones or weeks at the top.
Names and song titles in gold link to a full story on this site.
Press Play to hear each band's biggest year-end hit in a player that opens under the row.
| Play | Biggest hit | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bee Gees | 12 | 9 | 27 | Night Fever (1978, No. 2) | |
| 2 | Wings | 11 | 5 | 13 | Silly Love Songs (1976, No. 1) | |
| 3 | The Carpenters | 11 | 3 | 7 | (They Long to Be) Close to You (1970, No. 2) | |
| 4 | Chicago | 8 | 1 | 2 | If You Leave Me Now (1976, No. 48) | |
| 5 | Electric Light Orchestra | 8 | 0 | 0 | Telephone Line (1977, No. 15) | |
| 6 | The Jackson 5 | 7 | 4 | 10 | Dancing Machine (1974, No. 5) | |
| 7 | Three Dog Night | 7 | 3 | 9 | Joy to the World (1971, No. 1) | |
| 8 | Gladys Knight & the Pips | 7 | 1 | 2 | Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me (1974, No. 34) | |
| 9 | Earth, Wind & Fire | 7 | 1 | 1 | Shining Star (1975, No. 7) | |
| 10 | War | 7 | 0 | 0 | Slippin' into Darkness (1972, No. 23) | |
| 11 | Dr. Hook | 6 | 0 | 0 | When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman (1979, No. 13) | |
| 12 | The O'Jays | 6 | 1 | 1 | Love Train (1973, No. 32) | |
| 13 | Eagles | 5 | 5 | 5 | One of These Nights (1975, No. 10) | |
| 14 | KC and the Sunshine Band | 5 | 4 | 5 | I'm Your Boogie Man (1977, No. 11) | |
| 15 | ABBA | 5 | 1 | 1 | Dancing Queen (1977, No. 12) | |
| 16 | Queen | 5 | 0 | 0 | Bohemian Rhapsody (1976, No. 18) | |
| 17 | The Temptations | 5 | 2 | 3 | Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me) (1971, No. 9) | |
| 18 | Fleetwood Mac | 5 | 1 | 1 | Dreams (1977, No. 39) | |
| 19 | Steely Dan | 5 | 0 | 0 | Rikki Don't Lose That Number (1974, No. 51) | |
| 20 | The Spinners | 5 | 0 | 0 | Could It Be I'm Falling in Love (1973, No. 47) | |
| 21 | Tony Orlando and Dawn | 4 | 1 | 3 | Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree (1973, No. 1) | |
| 22 | Chic | 4 | 2 | 7 | Le Freak (1979, No. 3) | |
| 23 | Sweet | 4 | 0 | 0 | The Ballroom Blitz (1975, No. 17) | |
| 24 | Commodores | 4 | 2 | 3 | Three Times a Lady (1978, No. 10) | |
| 25 | Captain & Tennille | 4 | 1 | 4 | Love Will Keep Us Together (1975, No. 1) | |
| 26 | Bread | 4 | 1 | 1 | Make It with You (1970, No. 13) | |
| 27 | The Stylistics | 4 | 0 | 0 | You Make Me Feel Brand New (1974, No. 14) | |
| 28 | Foreigner | 4 | 0 | 0 | Feels Like the First Time (1977, No. 31) | |
| 29 | Steve Miller Band | 4 | 2 | 2 | Fly Like an Eagle (1977, No. 28) | |
| 30 | Ohio Players | 4 | 2 | 2 | Love Rollercoaster (1976, No. 30) | |
| 31 | Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band | 4 | 0 | 0 | Still the Same (1978, No. 52) | |
| 32 | Grand Funk Railroad | 3 | 0 | 0 | The Loco-Motion (1974, No. 6) | |
| 33 | The Doobie Brothers | 3 | 2 | 2 | Black Water (1975, No. 16) | |
| 34 | The Osmonds | 3 | 1 | 5 | One Bad Apple (1971, No. 4) | |
| 35 | The Rolling Stones | 3 | 3 | 4 | Brown Sugar (1971, No. 16) | |
| 36 | The Hollies | 3 | 0 | 0 | Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress (1972, No. 24) | |
| 37 | The Beatles | 3 | 2 | 4 | Let It Be (1970, No. 9) | |
| 38 | Rare Earth | 3 | 0 | 0 | Get Ready (1970, No. 8) | |
| 39 | The Sylvers | 3 | 1 | 1 | Boogie Fever (1976, No. 20) | |
| 40 | Sly & the Family Stone | 3 | 1 | 2 | Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) (1970, No. 19) | |
| 41 | America | 3 | 2 | 4 | A Horse with No Name (1972, No. 27) | |
| 42 | The Isley Brothers | 3 | 0 | 0 | That Lady (1973, No. 21) | |
| 43 | Little River Band | 3 | 0 | 0 | Lady (1979, No. 42) | |
| 44 | Styx | 3 | 1 | 2 | Come Sail Away (1978, No. 56) | |
| 45 | Creedence Clearwater Revival | 3 | 0 | 0 | Lookin' out My Back Door (1970, No. 36) | |
| 46 | Heatwave | 3 | 0 | 0 | The Groove Line (1978, No. 49) | |
| 47 | Bay City Rollers | 3 | 1 | 1 | Saturday Night (1976, No. 64) |
Want a name you haven't heard of yet?
The Random Artist Picker pulls from over 600 artists of the decade, well beyond this chart list.
How This Ranking Was Built
Every number on this page comes from two of this site's own Billboard data files.
- The year-end Hot 100 file, 100 songs for each year from 1970 to 1979.
- The weekly number one file, one record for every week of the decade.
To check any figure yourself, Billboard's charts are reproduced year by year on Wikipedia.
- The year-end lists, for example the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1978.
- The weekly chart toppers, in the list of Billboard Hot 100 number ones of the 1970s.
The Counting Rules
- Only group and duo credits count on this page; individual voices are on the companion 70s Singers page.
- Acts credited under more than one spelling or lineup name for the same band, like Wings and Dr. Hook, are merged into a single entry, shown explicitly above.
- A one-off pairing that isn't an ongoing act in its own right is not treated as a band here.
- Ties on year-end hits are broken by chart points: 101 minus the year-end rank, added up across every hit.
Where the Weekly Data Comes In
Number ones and weeks at number one are counted straight from the weekly rows.
That's why "Night Fever" shows its full eight weeks.
It's also why a band like Electric Light Orchestra can have eight year-end hits and zero weeks on top.
Current and archived charts are on Billboard's Hot 100 page.
The full approach to sourcing is on the site's methodology page.
For the solo side of this same chart data, see the 70s Singers ranking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was the biggest band of the 70s?
The Bee Gees were the biggest band of the 1970s by Billboard's year-end charts. They placed 12 group singles on the year-end Hot 100 between 1971 and 1979, more than any other group act. Nine of those singles reached number one on the weekly Hot 100, for a combined 27 weeks at the top, also the most of any 70s band.
Which 70s band had the most weeks at number one?
The Bee Gees spent more weeks at number one than any other band of the 1970s, 27 in total. "Night Fever" alone held the top spot for eight weeks in 1978. Wings were a distant second with 13 weeks, and The Jackson 5 were third with 10.
Why isn't ABBA higher on this list of 70s bands?
ABBA placed 5 singles on Billboard's year-end Hot 100 in the 1970s, which ranks them 15th on this list. ABBA sold far more records worldwide and in Europe than the US year-end chart alone shows, but this page ranks bands strictly by their American chart performance, using the same method as every other ranking on this site.
What's the difference between this list and the 70s Singers list?
This page ranks groups and duo acts, while the companion 70s Singers page ranks solo voices only, using the same Billboard year-end data and the same counting method. Splitting them keeps a band like the Bee Gees from crowding out a solo act like Elton John, since lumping every act together would bury most solo careers under group totals.
How is this 70s bands ranking calculated?
Each band is ranked by how many singles it placed on Billboard's year-end Hot 100 from 1970 to 1979, using this site's own chart data. Ties are broken by chart points, which is 101 minus each song's year-end rank, added up. Acts credited under more than one name for the same lineup, like Wings, have those credits merged into one entry.
Think you know which of these bands cut which hit?
Put it to the test on the 70s Music Trivia Quiz.
For every genre, year and artist the site covers, start at Music of the 70s.
Related Posts
70s Singers
The companion ranking: solo singers only, same chart data, same method.
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