Elton, Olivia 1975 Best Sellers
Elton John and Olivia Newton-John were the best-selling record artists of 1975, according to year-end tabulations of weekly sales charts by the nation’s three leading music trade publications - Billboard, Cash Box and Record World.
As in past years, there were some major differences in the publications’ findings, but by presenting some results from each magazine we should get a reasonably accurate picture of 1975 record-buying tastes.
The year’s most convincing individual sales performance was turned in by Elton John who finished first among male album sellers in all three magazines and shared top honors among male “singles” artists with John Denver. Helen Reddy was the top single achiever in the 1974 year-end results.
In this year’s female competition, Newton-John was the top album artist in all three polls and the top “singles” artist in one of the three publications (Linda Ronstadt led in the other two).
Captain & Tennille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together” was named the most popular single by all three publications, while Elton John’s “Greatest Hits” was ranked top album by two magazines. John’s “Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy” and the Eagles” “One of These Nights” shared top album honors in Record World’s findings.
The most popular albums of 1975, according to Billboard, were:
1-Elton John’s. “Greatest Hits”
2-Earth, Wind & Fire’s “That’s the Way of the World”
3-John Denver’s “Greatest Hits”
4-John Denver’s “Back Home Again”
5-Phoebe Snow’s “Phoebe Snow”
6-Elton John’s “Captain Fantastic…“
7-John Denver’s “An Evening with John Denver”
8-Average White Band’s “Average White Band”
9-Eagles’ “On the Border”
10-Led Zeppelin’s “Physical Graffiti”
The year’s top singles, as ranked by Billboard, were:
1-Captain & Tennille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together”
2-Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy”
3-Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom”
4-Freddy Fender’s “Before the Next Teardrop Falls”
5-Frankie Valli’s “My Eyes Adored You”
6-Grand Funk’s “Some Kind of Wonderful”
7-Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Shining Star”
8-David Bowie’s “Fame”
9-Neil Sedaka’s “Laughter in the Rain”
10-Eagles” “On the Border”
The year’s top male album artists, according to Cash Box, were Elton John, John Denver, David Bowie, John Lennon, Al Green, Barry White, George Harrison, Cat Stevens, Neil Sedaka and Jim Croce.
Olivia Newton-John was followed in Cash Box’s list of female album artists by Linda Ronstadt, Helen Reddy, Janis Ian, Joni Mitchell, Minnie Ripperton, Phoebe Snow, Carole King, Barbra Streisand and Joan Baez.
Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Ohio Players, Average White Band, Earth, Wind & Fire and the Eagles were the top album groups in Cash Box’s survey, while Loggins & Messina, the Carpenters and Seals & Crofts were the top album duos.
Trailing Elton John in Record World’s ranking of male artists on “singles” were John Denver, Frankie Valli, Barry Manilow and Neil Sedaka. Linda Ronstadt was followed by Minnie Ripperton, Helen Reddy, Olivia Newton-John and Phoebe Snow.
Other winners in the magazine’s “singles” competition were the Eagles (male group), Pointer Sisters (female group), Paul McCartney’s Wings (mixed group) and Captain & Tennille (duo).
In the country field Billboard’s top album artists were Charlie Rich, John Denver, Olivia Newton-John, Merle Haggard and Conway Twitty.
The leading soul album artists were Ohio Players, Al Green, Spinners, Isley Brothers and Earth, Wind & Fire.
The top-selling jazz artists were Stanley Turrentine, Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Han-ock, the Blackbyrds and Billy Cobham. “Tommy” was the most successful soundtrack album.