Songs That Haunted Every 70s Kid

About These Songs That Haunted 70s Kids

The songs that haunted 70s kids often sounded sweet on the surface. They played from kitchen radios and car dashboards, and many children sang along long before they understood what the words were really saying.

This countdown follows our episode from #10 to #1. Each story below was checked against chart records and reliable reference sources, and a few popular myths have been corrected along the way.

The Countdown: 10 Songs That Haunted Every 70s Kid

#10: Shannon — Henry Gross (1976)

Plenty of young listeners assumed Shannon was a little girl lost at sea. In fact, the song is about a dog. In 1975, Henry Gross mentioned to the Beach Boys' Carl Wilson that he had a dog named Shannon. Wilson replied that his own dog, an Irish setter also named Shannon, had recently been killed by a car.

Produced by Terry Cashman and Tommy West, the single reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went gold. It hit No. 1 in Canada and New Zealand. Years later, in 1985, an unaired American Top 40 outtake caught Casey Kasem losing his temper over a dedication of the song to a listener's late dog, Snuggles.

#9: Patches — Clarence Carter (1970)

"Patches" tells of a boy who must become the man of the family after his father dies. General Johnson and Ron Dunbar wrote it, and Chairmen of the Board first released it as a B-side in 1970.

Clarence Carter was reluctant at first. He worried that the song's picture of hardship would be degrading to sing. Producer Rick Hall persuaded him, and they recorded it at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The record reached No. 4 on the Hot 100, No. 2 on the R&B chart and No. 2 in Britain. The writers won the 1971 Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Song.

#8: D.O.A. — Bloodrock (1971)

Few hit records were as grim as "D.O.A." Told from the point of view of a dying crash victim, it is set to the wail of an ambulance siren.

Guitarist Lee Pickens said the idea came from something he saw at 17. He watched a friend take off from a small airport, climb a couple hundred feet, roll and crash. Some radio stations refused to play the song, both for its graphic details and because the siren might confuse drivers. Even so, it reached No. 36 on the Hot 100 in March 1971 and became the band's biggest hit.

#7: Wildfire — Michael Martin Murphey (1975)

Michael Martin Murphey said he dreamed this song almost whole in 1968, while working long hours on a concept album for Kenny Rogers. He wrote it down with Larry Cansler the next morning, and he believed it grew from a legend about a ghost horse that his grandfather had told him.

The song waited seven years for release. In it, a homesteader facing an early winter storm remembers a young woman who died searching for her runaway pony, Wildfire, and he hopes to ride with her someday. Produced by Bob Johnston, it reached No. 3 on the Hot 100, No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and was certified platinum.

#6: Timothy — The Buoys (1971)

"Timothy" is about three men trapped in a mine, and only two come out. Songwriter Rupert Holmes, later famous for "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)," knew the record label would not spend money promoting it. So he set out to write something that could get played but that some people would ban.

The plan worked. Stations banned it, rivals picked it up, and it climbed to No. 17 on the Hot 100 in April 1971. Once it became a hit, label executives tried to claim Timothy was a mule. Holmes refused to go along. Many people linked the song to the 1963 Sheppton mine disaster, but Holmes said he did not know about it when he wrote the song.

#5: Run Joey Run — David Geddes (1975)

This late entry in the teenage tragedy tradition tells of a young man whose girlfriend, Julie, is shot by her own father while trying to protect him. Paul Vance and Jack Perricone wrote it, and Vance produced the record.

Vance's daughter Paula sang Julie's lines. Released in the summer of 1975, the single reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 that fall and No. 1 on the Cash Box chart.

#4: Seasons in the Sun — Terry Jacks (1974)

Children happily sang along to this bright tune, but it is a dying man's farewell. It began as "Le Moribond," a 1961 song by Belgian singer Jacques Brel. Rod McKuen wrote English lyrics in 1963.

Terry Jacks changed nearly one-sixth of McKuen's lyrics. He was moved by a close friend who was suffering from acute leukemia and died four months later, and he dedicated the song to him. The record spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in March 1974. Brel himself died in October 1978, at 49.

#3: Angie Baby — Helen Reddy (1974)

Alan O'Day wrote this eerie story of a lonely girl who lives in a world of radio songs, and of a boy who enters her room and never comes out. Joe Wissert produced it.

The song reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 on December 28, 1974, Helen Reddy's third and final chart-topper after "I Am Woman" and "Delta Dawn." Reddy never said how she understood the story, partly because she enjoyed hearing listeners' theories. O'Day said he had deliberately blurred fantasy and reality.

#2: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald — Gordon Lightfoot (1976)

This is the only song on the list based entirely on a real event. On November 10, 1975, the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, and all 29 crewmen were lost.

Lightfoot, a recreational sailor on the Great Lakes, drew on news reports, especially a Newsweek article titled "The Cruelest Month." The song's opening refers to old Chippewa legends of the lake. Although it has no traditional chorus and runs about six minutes, it reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 in Canada.

Lightfoot considered it his finest work. Over the years he adjusted some lines in concert, including a 2010 change after new findings about the sinking, and he responded to requests from the crew's families.

#1: Cat's in the Cradle — Harry Chapin (1974)

There is no shipwreck or ghost here, only time slipping away. The lyrics began as a poem by Harry Chapin's wife, Sandy. It drew on the strained relationship between her first husband, James Cashmore, and his father, John Cashmore, a Brooklyn borough president.

Harry later said the song was also about himself and his son, Josh, and he admitted that it scared him. Released in October 1974, it reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 that December, Chapin's only chart-topper. It earned a Grammy nomination and entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011.

The children who first heard it on the radio later became parents themselves. For many, that is when the song's final verse truly landed.

Why These Songs Stayed With 70s Kids

Radio in the 1970s did not separate songs for grown-ups from songs for children. A ballad about a dying man could play right after a love song, and young listeners took it all in.

Some of these songs drew on real loss, like a shipwreck or a friend's illness. Others left their mysteries unsolved on purpose. Either way, they gave many children an early sense that a pretty melody could carry something sad underneath.

Which of these songs puzzled or frightened you as a child, and when did you finally understand what it was really about?

Sources and Further Reading

• "Shannon" (song) — Wikipedia
• "Timothy" (song) — Wikipedia
• "Seasons in the Sun" — Wikipedia
• "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" — Wikipedia
• "Cat's in the Cradle" — Wikipedia