List of Billboard Easy Listening number ones of 1972

In 1972, Billboard magazine published a chart ranking the top-performing songs in the United States in the easy listening market.

[1][2] In the issue of Billboard dated January 1, 1972, Three Dog Night moved up two places to the number one position on the Easy Listening chart with "An Old Fashioned Love Song", but the band held the top spot for only a single week before being replaced by David Cassidy with "Cherish".

[5] In 2001, it was voted into the top 5 of a poll of the Songs of the Century compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The former song also topped the Hot 100, as did many of the year's other Easy Listening number ones: "Without You" by Nilsson, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack, "The Candy Man" by Sammy Davis Jr., Neil Diamond's "Song Sung Blue", "Black and White" by Three Dog Night, "Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me" by Mac Davis and "I Can See Clearly Now" by Johnny Nash,[8] meaning that almost half of the year's Easy Listening chart-toppers also reached the pinnacle of the Hot 100.

[9] Diamond's "Song Sung Blue" was the longest-running number one on the Easy Listening chart, spending seven consecutive weeks in the top spot.

A grey-haired man in a brightly patterned shirt playing a guitar and singing into a microphone
Don McLean (pictured in 2013) reached number one with the classic song " American Pie ".
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Gilbert O'Sullivan (pictured in 1974) had two number ones and spent nine weeks in the top spot.
A long-haired man wearing a purple shirt, playing a guitar and singing into a microphone in front of other musicians
" Song Sung Blue " by Neil Diamond (pictured in 1976) was the year's longest-running number one.
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Roberta Flack (pictured in 1995) spent six weeks at number one with " The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face " and had a second number one later in the year collaborating with Donny Hathaway .