There’s nothing like a little soft rock music in the summertime. Here are a few songs from the 70s that probably made you fall in love with soft rock without you realizing it.
“Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac
Whether you’re a fan of this English-American rock band or not, “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac is an absolute playlist staple. This song was totally inspired by Stevie Nicks’ breakup with Lindsey Buckingham. However, “Dreams” is also a hopeful song, as Nicks has shared in the past.
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“I always put something at the end that says there’s hope. You know, ‘When the rain washes you clean you’ll know,’” she once explained. “And that’s an old Indian custom… that if it rains, something like that, when somebody dies, if it rains their spirit is set free.”
“How Deep Is Your Love” by Bee Gees
Part of what makes The Bee Gees’ music so good is the way that the brothers’ voices blend together. As Robin Gibb once shared, the unity of his voice with Barry Gibb is especially evident in this song.
“If you listen to ‘How Deep is Your Love’ you think it’s a single voice but it’s me and Barry singing in unison,” he explained to Daniel Rachel, “which produces a nice sound, as it does on ‘New York Mining Disaster’. There’s a sound that we do, it’salmost like a single voice, but it isn’t, and it’s not double-tracked, it’s two voices together. It’s something that we’ve done a lot.”
“Take It Easy” by Eagles
This has to be one of the best debut singles of any classic rock band ever. In 1972, Eagles released “Take It Easy” ahead of their self-titled album. It’s still one of their most popular tracks.
If “Take It Easy” sounds like perfect road trip material, you’re pretty much on the money. Jackson Browne actually started writing this one after taking a road trip from Southern California to Utah.
“Dancing In The Moonlight” by King Harvest
Now here’s a song that both sets the mood and makes you want to relax. Even though this is perhaps one of the vibiest songs ever, “Dancing In The Moonlight” was written only because of a super tragic event.
In 1969, songwriter Sherman Kelley took a trip to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands with some friends. While spending the night on the beach, he and his then-girlfriend were brutally attacked by a gang. He wrote this song during his recovery.
“In it I was just trying to envision a world that was a lot better than the one I had experienced,” he explained of the song in a 2018 interview.
Photo by: Ivan Keeman/Redferns