70s Female Singers: The Biggest Solo Women, by the Charts
Olivia Newton-John was the most successful of all the 70s female singers by the charts.
She placed 8 solo singles on Billboard's year-end Hot 100 between 1971 and 1979.
Helen Reddy and Anne Murray were next, with 7 and 6.
This page ranks every solo woman with at least two year-end hits in the decade.
That's 22 singers, 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 solo women 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 Female Singers
Ranked by solo singles on the Billboard year-end Hot 100, these were the decade's ten biggest names:
- Olivia Newton-John: 8
- Helen Reddy: 7
- Anne Murray: 6
- Donna Summer: 5
- Diana Ross: 5
- Cher: 5
- Carly Simon: 5
- Aretha Franklin: 5
- Linda Ronstadt: 5
- Barbra Streisand: 4
Ties among 70s female singers are broken by chart points, so a higher-ranked song counts for more.
That's why Donna Summer sits above the five other women tied with five hits apiece.
Three of her five hits landed in the top 12 of 1979 alone, "Bad Girls," "Hot Stuff" and "MacArthur Park."
High rank matters more than raw count once the tiebreaker kicks in.
The year-end list is Billboard's own summary of each year's biggest singles.
Landing on it five or more times across a ten-year span is a real career, not a moment.
Quick Listen: The Top 5 Right Now
No need to scroll to the full table for a first listen.
Press Play on any of these five and the video opens right here.
| Play | Singer | Biggest hit |
|---|---|---|
| Olivia Newton-John | A Little More Love | |
| Helen Reddy | Delta Dawn | |
| Anne Murray | Danny's Song | |
| Donna Summer | Bad Girls | |
| Diana Ross | Ain't No Mountain High Enough |
Why Solo Only
This is a ranking of 70s female singers charting under their own name.
Group credits get their own treatment further down this page.
Lumping solo credits together with band credits would bury a career like Helen Reddy's under whichever group had the biggest year.
For the record, here's how the full mixed-gender Singers ranking compares at the very top.
- Elton John and Stevie Wonder lead that list with 12 and 10 year-end hits.
- Barry Manilow is third with 9.
- Olivia Newton-John is the highest-ranked woman on that combined list too, tied for fourth.
The full mixed ranking is on the 70s Singers page.
Why the Bar Had to Drop: Two Hits, Not Three
The 70s Singers page ranks every solo act, men and women together, with a three-hit qualifying bar.
Only 11 women clear that same three-hit bar, out of 48 acts total on that page.
Built the same way here, this page would be a top-11 list, not a real ranking.
So the bar for this page drops to two year-end hits instead of three.
The Eleven Names That Bar Adds
Dropping the bar to two adds eleven more women, each with a genuine multi-year or multi-song run on the year-end chart.
- Melanie
- Maxine Nightingale
- Freda Payne
- Gloria Gaynor
- Natalie Cole
- Melissa Manchester
- Rita Coolidge
- Dionne Warwick
- Donna Fargo
- Bette Midler
- Alicia Bridges
None of these are one-song flukes either, every name here charted in at least two different years or with two different singles.
Gloria Gaynor's two hits bookend the decade, "Never Can Say Goodbye" in 1975 and "I Will Survive" in 1979.
Listen to that 1979 chart-topper on Listen Now.
Roberta Flack's Six Weeks: The Longest Run by Any Woman
Roberta Flack ranks 11th on this list of 70s female singers, with just three year-end hits.
But she holds a record none of the women above her can touch.
"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" spent six weeks at number one in the spring of 1972.
That's the longest run at the top by any female singer in this entire decade.
"Killing Me Softly with His Song" then added five more weeks in 1973.
Those two songs alone give her 12 combined weeks at number one, more than any other woman on this list.
Why the Hits-Count Rank Doesn't Show This
Year-end hits reward a woman for showing up on the list, however far down.
Weeks at number one reward the monster hit instead.
Measured that way, Roberta Flack's 12 weeks beat Donna Summer's 11, even though Summer placed five year-end hits to Flack's three.
Two of Summer's three number-one weeks came from "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls" during her 1979 run.
Diana Ross is third by weeks, with 7 across two different songs.
Early 70s vs. Late 70s: Two Different Leaders
Split the decade in half and most of the leaderboard turns over.
| 1970 to 1974 | Hits | 1975 to 1979 | Hits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helen Reddy | 5 | Linda Ronstadt | 5 |
| Aretha Franklin | 5 | Donna Summer | 5 |
| Olivia Newton-John | 4 | Olivia Newton-John | 4 |
| Anne Murray | 4 | Diana Ross | 3 |
| Cher | 4 | Barbra Streisand | 3 |
Only one name repeats in both top fives.
Olivia Newton-John placed four hits in each half of the decade, arriving country-pop in 1971 and leaving disco-adjacent by 1979.
No other 70s female singer on this list managed the same split consistency.
Aretha Franklin's Whole Run Happened Early
All five of Aretha Franklin's year-end hits landed between 1970 and 1974.
"Bridge over Troubled Water" and "Spanish Harlem" both charted in 1971 alone.
She doesn't appear on the year-end list again after "Until You Come Back to Me" in 1974.
That doesn't mean her career stopped, only that her year-end chart run was entirely front-loaded.
Linda Ronstadt Was a Late-70s Story Only
Every one of Linda Ronstadt's five year-end hits falls between 1975 and 1979.
"When Will I Be Loved" and "You're No Good" both arrived in 1975, the same year she broke through.
"Blue Bayou" followed in 1978, one of the most enduring singles on this whole list.
She's the only woman in the top 10 with zero hits before 1975.
The Top 70s Female Singers, Year by Year
Here's which of the 70s female singers placed the most singles on each year's list.
Ties were common, and several years were shared three or four ways.
| Year | Top singer(s) | Hits that year |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Diana Ross, Freda Payne, Melanie, Anne Murray, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin | 1 |
| 1971 | Aretha Franklin | 2 |
| 1972 | Roberta Flack, Melanie, Donna Fargo, Aretha Franklin, Cher, Carly Simon | 1 |
| 1973 | Helen Reddy, Bette Midler | 2 |
| 1974 | Olivia Newton-John | 3 |
| 1975 | Olivia Newton-John, Linda Ronstadt | 2 |
| 1976 | Diana Ross | 2 |
| 1977 | Barbra Streisand | 2 |
| 1978 | Linda Ronstadt | 2 |
| 1979 | Donna Summer | 3 |
1974 and 1979 Were the Only Three-Hit Years
Olivia Newton-John placed three singles on the 1974 year-end list alone.
"Let Me Be There," "If You Love Me (Let Me Know)" and "I Honestly Love You" all charted that year.
Five years later, Donna Summer matched that with "Bad Girls," "Hot Stuff" and "MacArthur Park" in 1979.
No woman on this list has ever placed four in a single year.
Those two three-hit years bookend the entire ranking's most crowded stretch.
Duets and Shared Credits, Shown Separately
Several women on this list also appear in shared credits with a male singer.
Those don't count toward anyone's solo total here, the same rule the 70s Singers page uses.
| Year | Song | Credit | Year-end rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | My Mistake (Was to Love You) | Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye | 92 |
| 1975 | One Man Woman/One Woman Man | Paul Anka & Odia Coates | 66 |
| 1975 | I Don't Like to Sleep Alone | Paul Anka & Odia Coates | 73 |
| 1977 | You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show) | Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. | 27 |
| 1978 | You're the One That I Want | John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John | 13 |
| 1978 | Summer Nights | John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John | 69 |
| 1978 | Whenever I Call You 'Friend' | Kenny Loggins & Stevie Nicks | 83 |
| 1979 | You Don't Bring Me Flowers | Neil Diamond & Barbra Streisand | 21 |
| 1979 | Heaven Knows | Donna Summer and Brooklyn Dreams | 39 |
What Changes If You Count Them
Adding her two Travolta duets would lift Olivia Newton-John to 10 year-end hits, still first place.
Adding "Heaven Knows" would tie Donna Summer with Helen Reddy at seven.
Neither change reshuffles the top three.
"You're the One That I Want" also spent one week at number one in the summer of 1978.
Think you can match every duet partner to their song without peeking back at that table?
Test yourself on the 70s Music Trivia Quiz.
Women Who Charted as Bands, Not Solo
Plenty of major 70s women never appear on this page at all.
That's because they charted as part of a group credit, not under their own name.
- Karen Carpenter charted as half of The Carpenters, 11 year-end hits, second place on the 70s Bands page.
- Gladys Knight charted as Gladys Knight & the Pips, 7 year-end hits, eighth place on that same page.
- Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie both charted as Fleetwood Mac, 5 year-end hits.
The full group rankings, with the same year-end method used here, are on the 70s Bands page.
Four Women's Groups That Clear Neither Bar
Some all-female and mostly-female groups land in an odd gap between the two pages.
The Pointer Sisters, Sister Sledge, Honey Cone and Silver Convention each placed exactly two year-end hits as a group.
Two hits is enough to qualify a solo woman for this page.
It is not enough to clear the Bands page's three-hit bar.
So none of those four groups show up in either ranking, a real gap in what chart-only counting can capture.
More acts like them, solo and group alike, are one click away on the Random Artist Picker.
All 22 70s Female Singers With 2 or More Year-End Hits, Sortable
Here is every solo woman who placed two 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 singer's biggest year-end hit in a player that opens under the row.
| Play | Biggest hit | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Olivia Newton-John | 8 | 2 | 3 | A Little More Love (1979, No. 17) | |
| 2 | Helen Reddy | 7 | 3 | 3 | Delta Dawn (1973, No. 14) | |
| 3 | Anne Murray | 6 | 1 | 1 | Danny's Song (1973, No. 36) | |
| 4 | Donna Summer | 5 | 3 | 11 | Bad Girls (1979, No. 2) | |
| 5 | Diana Ross | 5 | 4 | 7 | Ain't No Mountain High Enough (1970, No. 6) | |
| 6 | Cher | 5 | 3 | 5 | Half-Breed (1973, No. 20) | |
| 7 | Carly Simon | 5 | 1 | 3 | You're So Vain (1973, No. 9) | |
| 8 | Aretha Franklin | 5 | 0 | 0 | Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do) (1974, No. 11) | |
| 9 | Linda Ronstadt | 5 | 1 | 1 | When Will I Be Loved (1975, No. 47) | |
| 10 | Barbra Streisand | 4 | 2 | 6 | The Way We Were (1974, No. 1) | |
| 11 | Roberta Flack | 3 | 3 | 12 | The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (1972, No. 1) | |
| 12 | Melanie | 2 | 1 | 3 | Brand New Key (1972, No. 9) | |
| 13 | Maxine Nightingale | 2 | 0 | 0 | Lead Me On (1979, No. 24) | |
| 14 | Freda Payne | 2 | 0 | 0 | Band of Gold (1970, No. 10) | |
| 15 | Gloria Gaynor | 2 | 1 | 3 | I Will Survive (1979, No. 6) | |
| 16 | Natalie Cole | 2 | 0 | 0 | I've Got Love on My Mind (1977, No. 35) | |
| 17 | Melissa Manchester | 2 | 0 | 0 | Don't Cry Out Loud (1979, No. 26) | |
| 18 | Rita Coolidge | 2 | 0 | 0 | (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher (1977, No. 8) | |
| 19 | Dionne Warwick | 2 | 0 | 0 | I'll Never Love This Way Again (1979, No. 32) | |
| 20 | Donna Fargo | 2 | 0 | 0 | The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A. (1972, No. 55) | |
| 21 | Bette Midler | 2 | 0 | 0 | Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (1973, No. 71) | |
| 22 | Alicia Bridges | 2 | 0 | 0 | I Love the Nightlife (1979, No. 64) |
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 1979.
- The weekly chart toppers, in the list of Billboard Hot 100 number ones of the 1970s.
The Counting Rules
- Only credits under a woman's own solo name count toward the ranking.
- Group credits, like Karen Carpenter's records as The Carpenters, are counted on the companion 70s Bands page instead.
- Shared credits with a male singer, like "You're the One That I Want," are shown separately and not counted for either name.
- The qualifying bar is 2 or more year-end hits, lower than the 70s Singers page's 3-hit bar, since only 11 women clear that higher bar.
- 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 Roberta Flack's full 12 weeks show up even though she has only three year-end hits.
It's also why a singer like Aretha Franklin can have five 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 full mixed-gender ranking behind this same chart data, see the 70s Singers page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was the biggest female singer of the 70s?
Olivia Newton-John was the biggest female singer of the 1970s by Billboard's year-end charts. She placed 8 solo singles on the year-end Hot 100 between 1971 and 1979, more than any other woman charting under her own name. Helen Reddy was second with 7, and Anne Murray third with 6.
Which 70s female singer had the most weeks at number one?
Roberta Flack spent more combined weeks at number one than any other 70s female singer, 12 in total. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" held the top spot for six weeks in 1972, and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" added five more in 1973. She ranks 11th by total year-end hits but first by weeks on top.
Why isn't Karen Carpenter or Stevie Nicks on this list of 70s female singers?
This page ranks women who charted under their own solo name. Karen Carpenter charted as half of The Carpenters and Stevie Nicks as a member of Fleetwood Mac, both group credits counted on the companion 70s Bands page instead. Counting them again here would double-count the same hits under two different rankings.
What's the difference between this list and the 70s Singers list?
This page is the female subset of the 70s Singers ranking, using the same Billboard year-end data and the same counting method. The qualifying bar is lower here, two year-end hits instead of three, because only 11 women clear the three-hit bar that qualifies 48 acts on the full Singers page.
How is this 70s female singers ranking calculated?
Each woman is ranked by how many solo singles she 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. Group credits and duets are shown separately and not counted toward the total.
Think you know which of these 70s female singers recorded which number one?
For every genre, year and artist the site covers, start at Music of the 70s.
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