Forty years ago, films like Chinatown, The Godfather II, The Conversation, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, The Parallax View, Claudine, The Girl From Petrovka, Young Frankenstein, The Man With The Golden Gun, For Pete's Sake, The Sugarland Express, Herbie Rides Again, Murder On The Orient Express, Blazing Saddles, Phantom of the Paradise, A Woman Under the Influence and Thieves Like Us were making their mark.
Americans were reading Stephen King's Carrie, Lois Duncan's Down A Dark Hall, Judy Blume's Blubber, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's All The President's Men, Elmore Leonard's 52 Pick Up, Shel Silverstein's Where The Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstine, John le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Maya Angelou's Gather Together In My Name, Patricia Highsmith's Ripley's Game, Philip K. Dick's Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, Agatha Christie's Poirot's Early Cases: 18 Hercule Poirot Mysteries, Marilyn Monroe's My Story, Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch, Patricia Neil Warren's The Front Runner, Kurt Vonnegut's Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons, Angela Y. Davis' An Autobiography, Jackie Collins' The Love Killers (originally published as Lovehead), Noam Chomsky's The Chomsky -- Foucault Debate: On Human Nature, Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew's Mystery of the Glowing Eye, Grace Paley's Enormous Changes at the Last Minute, Doris Lessing's The Memoirs of a Survivor and Danielle Steel's Now and Forever.
And music?
We're boiling down all the hit singles of 1974 to the ten best.
1) Gladys Knight & the Pips' "Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me"
2) Steve Miller Band's "The Joker"
3) Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye's "My Mistake (Was To Love You)"
4) Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love"
5) Carly Simon's "Haven't Got Time For The Pain"
6) Roberta Flack's "Feel Like Makin' Love"
7) Ashford & Simpson's "Everybody's Got To Give It Up"
8) Olivia Newton-John's "I Honestly Love You"
9) Todd Rundgren's "Hello It's Me"
10) Joni Mitchell's "Help Me"