How Awesome Was 1971? Part 2

We couldn't leave it at one show. When friend-of-the-station Jim Bricker first asked how awesome 1971 was, two hours barely scratched it — so we're back for a second afternoon in the greatest year music ever had. If Part One leaned on the giants — Zeppelin, Bowie, Joni, the Stones — Part Two goes digging deeper into the crates. This is the year told through its singles and its sleepers: the number-one soul 45s, the brass-rock burners, the one-hit wonders and the quiet masterpieces. We'll tip our hat to David Hepworth's argument once more (his book 1971 — Never a Dull Moment is still the case for the defence), but mostly we'll just keep piling up the evidence and let you be the judge.

And what evidence. There are two completely different songs called "Get It On" from 1971, and we play both. There's Motown growing a conscience, Marvin Gaye and the Temptations and a young Michael Jackson; the sass of Mr. Big Stuff and Want Ads; the hush of Joni, Carly Simon and Neil Young; and a whole run of soft-focus radio gold from the Carpenters to Olivia Newton-John's very first single. Then we send it out the only way a year this big deserves — Rod Stewart, a bit of Isaac Hayes funk, and eight and a half minutes of "American Pie" with everyone singing. Pour something, turn it up, and settle in. Two shows, one extraordinary year — and still, we've barely covered it.

Broadcast 31 August 2026