3 Hit Tracks That Knocked Your Favorite Song From the No. 1 Spot Back in 1972

Honestly, any of the following six songs could be your favorite track from 1972, especially if you were a young music fan at the time. Maybe your favorite got knocked down from the top, or maybe your favorite did the usurping. Either way, let’s look at a few fine No. 1 hit tracks from 1972 that took the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart gloriously.

“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” by Roberta Flack

This gem from Roberta Flack knocked America’s enduring hit “A Horse With No Name” from the No. 1 spot on April 15, 1972. America had held that spot for three weeks before Flack took the top spot, and her song stayed there for six whole weeks. This soulful jazz tune is one of the best songs to come out in 1972, though I’d say “A Horse With No Name” has become pop culture fodder in retrospect, too.

“My Ding-A-Ling” by Chuck Berry

Sometimes I forget that Chuck Berry and Michael Jackson were making music at the same time, and they both even had No. 1 hit tracks in 1972. The pop rock novelty song “My Ding-A-Ling” by Chuck Berry hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart, effectively knocking MJ’s hit “Ben” from the top spot. The hilariously egregious sexual innuendo in this song made a lot of people mad at the time, of course, but that didn’t stop the song from grabbing the No. 1 spot for two whole weeks, starting on October 21, 1972. Jackson’s track “Ben” spent one week at the top, and it was technically Jackson’s first No. 1 hit single in the US as a solo musician.

“Without You” by (Harry) Nilsson

Harry Nilsson’s “Without You” (often credited as Nilsson only) makes it to our list of No. 1 hit tracks that knocked other artists from the top in 1972 after it took over the spot from Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together”. Nilsson’s song is technically a cover of a Badfinger tune, but his version caught the attention of mainstream audiences quite fast. Even though the song debuted at No. 99, within a few short weeks, it made it to No. 1, where it stayed for four whole weeks, starting on February 19, 1972. On that day, it took over Al Green’s spot, where “Let’s Stay Together” previously held it down at the top for a week.

Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images