Soft rock

[11] The Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts became more similar again toward the end of the 1960s and into the early and mid-1970s when the texture of much of the music played on top 40 radio once more began to soften.

The Carpenters' hit version of "(They Long to Be) Close to You" was released in the summer of 1970, followed by Bread's "Make It with You", both early examples of a softer sound that was coming to dominate the charts.

The lead double-sided single from the album, "It's Too Late"/"I Feel the Earth Move", spent five weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 beginning in mid-June 1971.

[14] Albert Hammond scored a major hit single with "It Never Rains in Southern California" in 1972, which went top 10 in at least six countries including Canada and the U.S. at numbers 2 and 5, respectively.

Topping the charts in both the U.S. and Canada, this soft rock ballad featured backing vocals from Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor, heard near the end of the song.

Soft rock reached its commercial peak in the mid-to-late 1970s with acts such as Toto, England Dan & John Ford Coley, Air Supply, Seals and Crofts, America and the reformed Fleetwood Mac, whose Rumours (1977) was the best-selling album of the decade.

Program director Scott Kenyon told Billboard magazine, Michael Murphey's "Wildfire" is a perfect example; it feels like Colorado, you can tell it came from this part of the country.

[24] In Los Angeles, KOST 103.5 FM, under program director Jhani Kaye, debuted its soft adult contemporary format in November 1982.