3 Songs From the 70s That Will Convert You Into a Soft Rock Fan

Soft rock is one of the genres that’s kind of hard not to love. It’s like rock, but a little more subtle. Here are a few songs from the 70s that will get you hooked on this genre, no doubt.

“Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond

Famously inspired by a picture of JFK’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, Neil Diamond wrote this song, which has since become the theme song for Carolines everywhere. Later on, in 2014, he would say that it was his wife at the time, a woman named Marcia Murphey, whom he was writing about when he penned this one.

I was writing a song in Memphis, Tennessee, for a session. I needed a three-syllable name,” Diamond told Today. “The song was about my wife at the time — her name was Marcia — and I couldn’t get a ‘Marcia’ rhyme.”

“Sailing” by Christopher Cross

This song has a unique sense of peace attached to it. That’s probably because the inspiration for “Sailing” has a lot to do with finding solace away from life’s stresses. Cross wrote the Grammy Award-winning song about a high school friend named Al, who sometimes took him sailing as a teen. Later, on The Howard Stern Show, Al and Cross reunited, and the singer revealed what the song was about.

“Night Moves” by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band

Similar to Cross, Bob Seger also took inspiration from his younger years when writing “Night Moves”. When he was a teenager, he fell for this girl who had a boyfriend who was away in the military. When the boyfriend came back, they got married, leaving Seger all alone. The “Moves” part of the song refers to the fields that he and his friends would go to dance in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The song paints a picture of small-town love and the innocence of being enamored with someone at that age.

I was a little too tall, could’ve used a few pounds
Tight pants, points, hardly renowned
She was a black-haired beauty with big dark eyes
And points all her own, sittin’ way up high
Way up firm and high.

Photo by: Michael Putland/Getty Images

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