Top Songs of 1973: The Year's Biggest Hits & Trends
The top songs of 1973 were led by a song about someone nervously heading home.
That someone wasn't sure they'd still be welcome.
Tony Orlando and Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" became 1973's defining hit.
It's a story-song about a man returning from prison.
He asks his love to signal her forgiveness with a ribbon tied around a tree.
Beyond that chart-topper, 1973 turned out to be an unusually deep year.
Two different artists each landed three songs on the year-end list.
A long stretch of legacy acts each scored two hits apiece.
This is a closer look at the songs and artists behind the top songs of 1973.
Chart data: Billboard Year-End Hot 100, 1973.
Top Songs of 1973: The Full Playable Top 100
These are the top songs of 1973: all 100 from Billboard's Year-End Hot 100, in rank order.
Press Play on any row to watch that song here, tap a heading to sort, and check #1 Hit for weekly chart-toppers.
| Play | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree | Tony Orlando and Dawn | 1 | Yes | |
| Bad, Bad Leroy Brown | Jim Croce | 2 | Yes | |
| Killing Me Softly with His Song | Roberta Flack | 3 | Yes | |
| Let's Get It On | Marvin Gaye | 4 | Yes | |
| My Love | Paul McCartney & Wings | 5 | Yes | |
| Why Me | Kris Kristofferson | 6 | ||
| Crocodile Rock | Elton John | 7 | Yes | |
| Will It Go Round in Circles | Billy Preston | 8 | Yes | |
| You're So Vain | Carly Simon | 9 | Yes | |
| Touch Me in the Morning | Diana Ross | 10 | Yes | |
| The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia | Vicki Lawrence | 11 | Yes | |
| Playground in My Mind | Clint Holmes | 12 | ||
| Brother Louie | Stories | 13 | Yes | |
| Delta Dawn | Helen Reddy | 14 | Yes | |
| Me and Mrs. Jones | Billy Paul | 15 | Yes | |
| Frankenstein | The Edgar Winter Group | 16 | Yes | |
| Drift Away | Dobie Gray | 17 | ||
| Little Willy | Sweet | 18 | ||
| You Are the Sunshine of My Life | Stevie Wonder | 19 | Yes | |
| Half-Breed | Cher | 20 | Yes | |
| That Lady | The Isley Brothers | 21 | ||
| Pillow Talk | Sylvia Robinson | 22 | ||
| We're an American Band | Grand Funk Railroad | 23 | Yes | |
| Right Place Wrong Time | Dr. John | 24 | ||
| Wildflower | Skylark | 25 | ||
| Superstition | Stevie Wonder | 26 | Yes | |
| Loves Me Like a Rock | Paul Simon | 27 | ||
| The Morning After | Maureen McGovern | 28 | Yes | |
| Rocky Mountain High | John Denver | 29 | ||
| Stuck in the Middle with You | Stealers Wheel | 30 | ||
| Shambala | Three Dog Night | 31 | ||
| Love Train | The O'Jays | 32 | Yes | |
| I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby | Barry White | 33 | ||
| Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose | Tony Orlando and Dawn | 34 | ||
| Keep on Truckin' | Eddie Kendricks | 35 | Yes | |
| Danny's Song | Anne Murray | 36 | ||
| Dancing in the Moonlight | King Harvest | 37 | ||
| Monster Mash | Bobby 'Boris' Pickett | 38 | ||
| Natural High | Bloodstone | 39 | ||
| Diamond Girl | Seals and Crofts | 40 | ||
| Long Train Runnin' | The Doobie Brothers | 41 | ||
| Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) | George Harrison | 42 | Yes | |
| If You Want Me to Stay | Sly & the Family Stone | 43 | ||
| Daddy's Home | Jermaine Jackson | 44 | ||
| Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye) | Gladys Knight & the Pips | 45 | ||
| I'm Doin' Fine Now | New York City | 46 | ||
| Could It Be I'm Falling in Love | The Spinners | 47 | ||
| Daniel | Elton John | 48 | ||
| Midnight Train to Georgia | Gladys Knight & the Pips | 49 | Yes | |
| Smoke on the Water | Deep Purple | 50 | ||
| The Cover of 'Rolling Stone' | Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show | 51 | ||
| Behind Closed Doors | Charlie Rich | 52 | ||
| Your Mama Don't Dance | Loggins and Messina | 53 | ||
| Feelin' Stronger Every Day | Chicago | 54 | ||
| The Cisco Kid | War | 55 | ||
| Live and Let Die | Paul McCartney & Wings | 56 | ||
| Oh, Babe, What Would You Say? | Hurricane Smith | 57 | ||
| I Believe in You (You Believe in Me) | Johnnie Taylor | 58 | ||
| Sing | The Carpenters | 59 | ||
| Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got) | The Four Tops | 60 | ||
| Dueling Banjos | Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandell | 61 | ||
| Higher Ground | Stevie Wonder | 62 | ||
| Here I Am (Come and Take Me) | Al Green | 63 | ||
| My Maria | B.W. Stevenson | 64 | ||
| Superfly | Curtis Mayfield | 65 | ||
| Last Song | Edward Bear | 66 | ||
| Get Down | Gilbert O'Sullivan | 67 | ||
| Reelin' in the Years | Steely Dan | 68 | ||
| Hocus Pocus | Focus | 69 | ||
| Yesterday Once More | The Carpenters | 70 | ||
| Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy | Bette Midler | 71 | ||
| Clair | Gilbert O'Sullivan | 72 | ||
| Do It Again | Steely Dan | 73 | ||
| Kodachrome | Paul Simon | 74 | ||
| Why Can't We Live Together | Timmy Thomas | 75 | ||
| Do You Want to Dance? | Bette Midler | 76 | ||
| So Very Hard to Go | Tower of Power | 77 | ||
| Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu | Johnny Rivers | 78 | ||
| Ramblin' Man | The Allman Brothers Band | 79 | ||
| Masterpiece | The Temptations | 80 | ||
| Peaceful | Helen Reddy | 81 | ||
| One of a Kind (Love Affair) | The Spinners | 82 | ||
| Funny Face | Donna Fargo | 83 | ||
| Funky Worm | Ohio Players | 84 | ||
| Angie | The Rolling Stones | 85 | Yes | |
| Jambalaya (On the Bayou) | Blue Ridge Rangers | 86 | ||
| Don't Expect Me to Be Your Friend | Lobo | 87 | ||
| Break Up to Make Up | The Stylistics | 88 | ||
| Daisy a Day | Jud Strunk | 89 | ||
| Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) | Deodato | 90 | ||
| Stir It Up | Johnny Nash | 91 | ||
| Money | Pink Floyd | 92 | ||
| Gypsy Man | War | 93 | ||
| The World Is a Ghetto | War | 94 | ||
| Yes We Can Can | The Pointer Sisters | 95 | ||
| Free Ride | The Edgar Winter Group | 96 | ||
| Space Oddity | David Bowie | 97 | ||
| It Never Rains in Southern California | Albert Hammond | 98 | ||
| The Twelfth of Never | Donny Osmond | 99 | ||
| Papa Was a Rollin' Stone | The Temptations | 100 | Yes |
Year-End Rank is a song's spot among the top songs of 1973 on the Year-End Hot 100.
The #1 Hit column marks songs that also reached number one on the weekly Hot 100.
Tony Orlando and Dawn Led the Top Songs of 1973
Billboard's Year-End Hot 100 named "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" the top song of 1973.
It wasn't a close call.
Written by Irwin Levine and L. Russell Brown, the song tells a simple story.
A man comes home on a bus after serving time.
He asks the woman he loves to tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree in their yard.
That ribbon would mean she still wants him back.
That simple, hopeful image struck a chord well beyond the charts.
The song became the top-selling single of the year in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
Tony Orlando and Dawn didn't stop at one hit either.
They also landed a second song on the year-end list at #34.
That song was "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose."
It made 1973 a genuine double win for the group.
Curious what else was topping the charts around this time?
Our Birthday #1 Song Finder pulls the exact number one hit for any date.
Stevie Wonder and War Tied for the Year's Busiest Artists
Tony Orlando and Dawn owned the top spot.
Two other acts were even busier across the rest of the chart.
Stevie Wonder and the band War each placed three separate songs on the 1973 year-end list.
That's more than any other artist landed that year.
Wonder's three hits showed off his range across the decade.
- "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" — #19
- "Superstition" — #26
- "Higher Ground" — #62
He moved between warm romantic soul, sharp funk, and gospel-tinged uplift within the same busy stretch.
War's three hits leaned into the band's genre-blending sound.
- "The Cisco Kid" — #55
- "Gypsy Man" — #93
- "The World Is a Ghetto" — #94
The band mixed funk, soul, and Latin influence into songs that felt distinct from everything else charting that year.
That kind of volume from two very different acts stands out.
It's part of what makes 1973 such a rich year to look back on.
A Top of the Chart Full of Range
Just beneath the number one hit, the top of the 1973 chart told a story of real stylistic variety.
Jim Croce's "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" ranked #2 for the year.
It brought his easygoing storytelling style to a massive audience.
Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly with His Song" ranked #3 on the 1973 year-end chart.
Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" ranked #4.
Each brought a completely different kind of soul to the upper reaches of the chart.
Paul McCartney & Wings rounded out the top five at #5 with "My Love."
They also charted a second time that year, at #56 with "Live and Let Die."
That kind of range is striking.
Folk-pop storytelling sat right alongside two of soul music's most iconic singles and a Bond theme.
It shows just how wide open the top songs of 1973 truly were.
A Long List of Two-Hit Artists
Beyond the acts at the very top, 1973 had an unusually long list of two-hit artists.
Each landed exactly two songs on the year-end chart.
- Elton John
- Gladys Knight & the Pips
- The Carpenters
- The Temptations
- Steely Dan
- Bette Midler
- Gilbert O'Sullivan
- The Edgar Winter Group
- Paul Simon
That's nine different acts, on top of Paul McCartney & Wings and Tony Orlando and Dawn.
All of them repeated on the same year-end list.
That's a real sign of how competitive the pop landscape had become by this point in the decade.
That kind of competition is part of what makes the top songs of 1973 worth remembering.
See how 1973 compares to the year before it in our Top Songs of 1972 countdown.
Want to hear how these hits stack up against other years?
Our 70s Decade Wheel lets you spin through year by year.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the number one song of 1973?
Tony Orlando and Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" was the top song of 1973.
That's according to Billboard's Year-End Hot 100.
The song tells the story of a man returning home from prison.
He asks his love to signal her forgiveness with a ribbon tied around a tree.
It became the top-selling single of the year in both the US and UK.
Which artists had the most songs on the 1973 year-end chart?
Stevie Wonder and the band War each placed three songs on Billboard's Year-End Hot 100 for 1973.
That's more than any other act that year.
Wonder charted with "You Are the Sunshine of My Life," "Superstition," and "Higher Ground."
War charted with "The Cisco Kid," "Gypsy Man," and "The World Is a Ghetto."
Did Tony Orlando and Dawn have more than one hit in 1973?
Tony Orlando and Dawn did land more than one hit in 1973.
In addition to their number one hit, they also placed a second song on the year-end list at #34.
That song was "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose."
It gave the group two songs on the same year-end chart.
Which other major artists had big hits near the top of the 1973 chart?
Several major artists landed big hits near the top of the 1973 chart.
Jim Croce's "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" ranked #2, and Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly with His Song" ranked #3 on the 1973 year-end chart.
Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" ranked #4.
Paul McCartney & Wings' "My Love" rounded out the top five at #5.
Which artists landed exactly two hits on the 1973 year-end chart?
A long list of major acts each placed two songs on the 1973 year-end chart.
That list includes Elton John, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and The Carpenters.
It also includes The Temptations, Steely Dan, Bette Midler, Gilbert O'Sullivan, The Edgar Winter Group, and Paul Simon.
That reflects just how competitive the pop landscape had become by that point in the decade.
Sources
- Billboard Year-End Hot 100 for 1973, the chart this countdown's year-end ranks follow.
- Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1973, Wikipedia, a full list to compare against.
- 1973 in music, Wikipedia, for the albums, awards and events of the year.
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