All Right Now by Free was released in May 1970 and charted as high as #2 in the United Kingdom and #4 in the United States. Though their only memorable song, the song is considered a rock-n-roll classic – Ultimate Classic Rock’s #54 – and is heard regularly on both radio and streaming services.
I recently heard All Right Now on Sirius XM while driving, glanced at the display to confirm the band, and had an epiphany: a 55 year-old song is still regularly heard by millions of people! BMI recognized the song for 4 million performances as of 2010, Spotify claims 344 million (and growing) plays, BraveWords claims the song is played every 45 seconds. Despite platform proliferation dramatically increasing the ways one consumes music and despite its age, the song has not slipped from public consciousness.
What’s enlightening is how unremarkable this is: the Beach Boys, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Lovin’ Spoonful, the Rolling Stones, Santana, Sly and The Family Stone, the Who – and many other artists – recorded songs that still regularly played – on radio and television, soundtracks for advertising and movies, streamed from many services, etc. – and are old enough to (almost) be eligible for Medicare! And this is not just a nostalgic old fart harking back to days gone past: I’ve heard Millennials and Gen-Z humming or singing songs substantially older than themselves, including album deep cuts. Are they shifting through their grandparents’ album cabinet (totally possible in an analog world)?
I listened to radio obsessively growing up – a lot of WLS-AM from Chicago – and rarely heard anything pre-1960, much less pre-WWII. The (purported) top songs from 1920 are completely unknown to me. Even as a pre-teen I had heard of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin but wouldn’t recognize their music. My parents attended Woodstock and showed little/no interest in their parents’ music (aside from generating my father’s love of Gilbert and Sullivan plays). And I definitely did not shift through my grandparents’ albums.
Perhaps moving on from WWII meant moving on that era’s music as well. Perhaps societal changes were the triggering events that allowed rock-and-roll to enter the mainstream, making other musical styles uncool. Perhaps jazz and crooning had run its natural course as a mainstream style. Perhaps today’s ever-increasing need for content means post-1960s music has outlets today unavailable to pre-1960s music. Perhaps our ever-increasingly digital world allows nostalgia a longer lifespan than what analog provides. For whatever reasons, these and others, it appears music works and styles are not replaced as quickly as their predecessors.
Even 1970s disco, often considered crap, is still heard and, at times, even considered cool. And yes, I have my guilty pleasure.
