Paul Fitzpatrick: April 2026

Mount Rushmore is commonly known as the “Shrine of Democracy”. A monument to the first 150 years of American History, it features 60-foot rock carvings of former presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.  

The iconic Mount Rushmore imagery first came to my attention via Deep Purple’s, classic Deep Purple in Rock album cover. Although the realisation that Ritchie Blackmore and co had borrowed the concept came later, virtue of my favourite childhood toy, the View-Master.

Mt Rushmore the national memorial may have been around for over a century, but Mount Rushmore as pop culture jargon (to describe the top four of any category) is fairly recent…. and got me thinking about personal ‘Mt Rushmore’s’ in a musical sense.

I think there’s enough ‘Best Band’, ‘Best Song’ listings out there, so the first cab off the rank of my personal Mt Rushmore’s is – ‘The Mt Rushmore of 70s Singles Artists’.

As a teenager in the 70s, there was no escaping the sound of 45’s, we were surrounded by transistor radios, jukeboxes and youth club record players belting them out 24-7.

When it came to shopping for singles, Woolworths was always a popular destination, you never felt intimidated or judged by the friendly Woolies staff, who could be selling you Pick ‘N’ Mix one minute and Ronco Veg-O-Matic’s the next.
Also, standing in front of the Woolies record-bar you had all the time in the world to purvey the top 30 singles before making that all important buying decision and sorting out the loose change in your jeans pocket.
Albums at the time were £2.50-£3.00 a pop, so at 50p, 45’s were a more attainable purchase.

One particular trip to Woolie’s (in Partick) in the summer of 72, has stayed with me.

Armed with birthday money and a plan to purchase ELP’s Pictures at an Exhibition album to boost my prog-rock credentials. I bounded home instead with five singles – Bowie’s “Starman”, Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out”, Roxy’s “Virginia Plane”, Rod’s “You Wear it Well” and “All the Young Dudes” by Mott the Hoople.
At the time, all those gems were in the charts and had pride of place on the Woolies record bar, alongside Donny Osmond’s “Puppy Love” and Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs “Sea Side Shuffle”.

Despite missing out on Keith Emerson’s catchy rendition of “Nut Rocker” I’ve always felt it was a good trade.

So, how does one go about creating their personal Mt Rushmore’s? Well, the cool thing is that it’s completely subjective so you can apply your own set of rules.

I intend to keep things simple, so my criteria for 70s singles artists is based on…
Which artists combined the most quality with quantity when it came to releasing singles in the 70s.

So here are my four for Mt Rushmore.

David Bowie:
Even if you’re not a Bowie fan you have to admire his body of work.
The transitions… from early 70s Hunky Dory folk-rock, to Ziggy glam-rock. From Young Americans ‘Philly-soul to his Berlin electronic art-rock period at the decades end.

A master of the 4 minute pop song his catalogue is filled with great singles, often foreshadowing his musical (and fashion) mood swings, with particular highlights being…. “Life on Mars”, “Changes”, “Starman”, “Drive in Saturday”, “Rebel Rebel”, “Fame”, “Young Americans” and “Heroes”.

Twenty two of Bowie’s singles charted in the 70s and I can’t think of many bad ones.

Steely Dan:
Like I said, you create your own rules in this gig, and even taking into account Steely Dan’s lack of chart action they deserve their Mt Rushmore spot. Simply put their 70s output was quite literally off the charts.

Of course, I’m totally biased when it comes to The Dan but even I was shocked when I looked down the list of exquisite songs that failed to chart in the UK… “Do it Again”, “Reelin’ in the Years”, “My Old School”, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”, “Kid Charlemagne”, “Peg”, “Deacon Blues”, in fact the only single that did chart was “Haitian Divorce”.

I despair of this country sometimes!

The Rolling Stones:
70s behemoths Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin weren’t much interested in releasing singles but the biggest Rock n Roll band in the world thought different. Maybe it’s because the Stones came of age in the sixties when singles were arguably more important than albums, or perhaps savvy operator Jagger had more interest in record sales than artist mystique.

The decade kicked off with “Brown Sugar” and finished with “Respectable” with classics like “Tumbling Dice”, “Street Fighting Man”, “Angie”, “Fool to Cry” and “It’s Only Rock and Roll” sandwiched in between.
What’s also impressive about the Stones in the 70s is that unlike most of the legacy rock bands who disappeared in the face of Punk, the Stones refused to fade away, and were still churning out hits like “Beast of Burden” and “Miss You” in the midst of New Wave & Punk..

Stevie Wonder:
I’m not sure anyone can match Stevie’s output and creativity in the 70s, so in Mt Rushmore terms he’s the George Washington.
From 1970’s “Signed Sealed Delivered” to “Songs in the Key of Life” Stevie produced a run of eight albums spawning twenty-two singles of insane quality.

Highlights for me include – “Superwoman”, “Superstition”, “Higher Ground”, “Living for the City”, “He’s Misstra Know it All”, “I Wish”, “Sir Duke” and “As”.

On top of this prolificacy, Stevie also found time in the 70s to write hit songs for The Supremes, Jeff Beck, Roberta Flack, Syreeta, Ramsey Lewis, Quincy Jones, Rufus and Minnie Riperton.

Honourable mentions go to...

Roxy Music: Who’s first five singles (Virginia Plane, Pyjamarama, Street Life, All I Want is You and Love is the Drug) were all brilliant and for our pleasure.

Paul Simon: Who post Simon & Garfunkel released a string of spectacular singles including “Mother and Child Reunion”, “Take Me to the Mardi Gras”, “Slip Sliding Away”, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” and “Still Crazy After all These Years”

Rod Stewart: I’m a bigger fan of Rod’s earlier work, both solo and with The Faces, still, we can forgive him “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” and “Hot Legs” for “Maggie May”, “You Wear it Well”, “Stay With Me” and “In a Broken Dream”

Elton John: Like Bowie, Elton was prolific with twenty four charting singles in the 70’s, and that doesn’t include classics like “Tiny Dancer” and “Benny and the Jets” which bizarrely never made the top 30 in the UK.
The musical transitions may not have been as pronounced as Bowie’s but there was still a spectrum of sounds ranging from “Rocket Man” to “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” to “Philadelphia Freedom”.

10cc: The smartest band in the world served up three number one’s, the sharpest lyrics and the classic “I’m Not in Love”.