Let's back track to my favourite musical decade, the fabulous 70s

With Christmas and New Year done and dusted for another year (well almost), some of us are looking forward to what will come in 2024 while others are reflecting on what has happened in the past.
Torbay Hospital Radio will be looking to finalise a number of projects in the coming 12 months and you can expect to see us out and about in the bay at various functions. As always we are looking for volunteers both in and out of the office and to find out more just visit our website torbayhospitalradio.co.uk.
But enough about that, over Christmas we were discussing our favourite music and songs and I am not talking Christmas music.
We categorise our library by decades, starting in the 1950s and going right up to date.
There are thousands of tracks, which helps when we collect requests from the patients in the wards.
From my point of view, my favourite is the 70s, which will give my age away right away, so I thought I would have a brief look at that decade and perhaps cover others in future articles.
Obviously, everyone has different ideas about what’s best, but you only need to look at the various charts that are produced to see that, whether based on sales, expert opinion or listeners' votes, there are certain favourites that come up time and time again. Smooth Radio recently rated Dancing Queen by Abba as their number one song of the seventies, whilst Middermusic had God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols in the top slot. Those two songs could not be more different!
But variety is good, right? So I dug a little deeper, to find out what makes a good song. And here it got even more confusing.
We all know a good song when we hear one, it sticks in your head, has you humming along, writing down the title so you can listen to it again, so why doesn’t everyone like the same song? Because we are human is my take on it. If we all liked the same stuff, did the same thing it would be a boring old world.
It seems strange to me that some people do not like music at all and that is apparently down to the chemicals in your brain.
Not so long ago we did a chart of the most requested song at our station, based on ward visits. There are always a few favourites in this sort of chart, such as regular Beatles and Elvis tracks. Bridge Over Troubled Water is another that is regularly requested and maybe reflects the mood of some patients.
But what was our chart topper, I can hear you ask. Well, unsurprisingly it was Bohemian Rhapsody. I know a lot of you will think it should have been something else and maybe when we repeat the exercise it will be something else. My prediction is that it is unlikely to be The Sex Pistols.
Have a great 2024.