To commemorate this most eventful year in music and culture on the week of Woodstock’s 50th anniversary, the Billboard staff is ranking our 100 favorite songs from a year treasured by Bryan Adams and New York Mets fans alike. It was the capper the ’60s deserved, certainly. 1 hits, despite neither band really even existing in any conventional sense, while Hot 100 legends like Elvis Presley and The Supremes both topped the chart for the final time. The Archies and Steam had their first and only No.
Outside of rock, artists like Isaac Hayes, Nina Simone and Miles Davis were continuing to push the envelope in fusing soul, funk and jazz, on and off the charts. Nearly every rock band we associate with the decade today released a classic album at the end of it - Creedence Clearwater Revival alone dropped three of ’em - while bands who would go on to define the ’70s in both the mainstream (Led Zeppelin, Chicago, Three Dog Night) and the underground (The Stooges, MC5) poked their heads out for the first time. Eric Church, HARDY and Jelly Roll to Headline Pepsi Rock the South 2024
