Adult Contemporary is a chart published by Billboard ranking the top-performing songs in the United States in the adult contemporary music (AC) market. In 1973, 26 songs topped the chart, then published under the title Easy Listening, based on playlists submitted by easy listening radio stations and sales reports submitted by stores. [1]
In the first issue of Billboard of 1973, the band Bread retained the number one position from the final chart of the previous year with "Sweet Surrender", [2] but the group held the top spot for only one further week before being replaced by "Been to Canaan" by Carole King. Helen Reddy had the highest total number of weeks at number one in 1973, spending two weeks in the top spot with "Delta Dawn" and four with "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)". The latter song tied with "All I Know" by Art Garfunkel for the year's longest unbroken run at number one. Reddy, The Carpenters and Tony Orlando and Dawn were the only acts with more than one chart-topper during the year. Among acts to top the Easy Listening chart for the first time in 1973 was English singer Elton John, [3] a singer who would achieve consistent success on the chart for more than 40 years. By 2016 he held the records for both the greatest number of hits and the largest amount of number ones on the chart, and five years earlier Billboard had named him the most successful act of the listing's first 50 years. [4]
The final number one of the year was "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce, which moved into the top spot in the issue of Billboard dated December 30. It was a posthumous chart-topper for the singer, who had died in an airplane crash three months earlier. [5] The song also topped Billboard's all-genre single chart, the Hot 100. [6] In the early 1970s there was considerable crossover between the two charts, and seven of 1973's other Easy Listening number ones also reached the top spot on the Hot 100: "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon, [7] "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" by Tony Orlando and Dawn, [7] "My Love" by Paul McCartney and Wings, [7] "Touch Me in the Morning" by Diana Ross, [7] "Delta Dawn" by Helen Reddy, [7] "The Most Beautiful Girl" by Charlie Rich, [8] and "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" by Stevie Wonder. [7] Rich's song was a triple chart-topper, as it also reached number one on the Hot Country Songs chart. [8]
Indicates best-performing easy listening song of 1973 [9] |
The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by Billboard magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to Billboard by stations that are members of the Adult Contemporary radio panel. The chart debuted in Billboard magazine on July 17, 1961. Over the years, the chart has gone under a series of name changes, being called Easy Listening(1961–1962; 1965–1979), Middle-Road Singles(1962–1964), Pop-Standard Singles(1964–1965), Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks(1979–1982) and Adult Contemporary(1983–present).
"Leave Me Alone " is a 1973 song written and first recorded by American singer-songwriter Linda Laurie. It was famously covered by Australian-American singer Helen Reddy several months later; Reddy's cover was a million-selling, Gold-certified hit single.
Long Hard Climb is the fourth studio album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy, released on July 23, 1973, by Capitol Records and, aside from its primary focus on Top 40-friendly material, had her trying out New Orleans jazz and the English-language version of a recent Charles Aznavour standard. It debuted on Billboard's Top LP's & Tapes chart in the issue dated August 11, 1973, and reached number eight during its 43 weeks there, and in Canada's RPM magazine it peaked at number 14. On September 19 of that year, the Recording Industry Association of America awarded the album with Gold certification for sales of 500,000 copies in the United States. On July 22, 2003, it was released for the first time on compact disc as one of two albums on one CD, the other album being her 1972 release I Am Woman.