Unlike most other Radio 1 programmes, Sounds of the Seventies concentrated on albums rather than singles, and rock music rather than pop.
Variations included Mike Harding's use of the central guitar solo from "Heartbreaker" by Led Zeppelin, and Alan Black's regular closing theme, which was the piano and voice coda from "Pilgrim's Progress" by Procol Harum.
[2] A new series of Sounds of the 70s with Johnnie Walker began on Sunday 5 April 2009 with DJ Johnnie Walker, broadcasting on Radio 2 as part of the station's retro music output, which also includes Sounds of the 60s (formerly hosted by Brian Matthew, now hosted by Tony Blackburn).
[11][12][13] was brought forward in the BBC Radio 2 schedules from 22:00 [14] and is now broadcast at 20:00 on Saturdays, while the 22:00 to 00:00 slot was given over to Sounds of the 90s with Fearne Cotton.
Due to the nature of the BBC's 1960s Top of the Pops archive, the series compiled each episode from a wide range of BBC programmes such as cutting-edge pop show The Beat Room[33] and children's programmes like Blue Peter and Crackerjack, with some short clips used to set the scene of the 1960s theme being used that week.
Both the 1960s and 1980s series have been repeated many times on BBC Four, with the programmes also being used by UKTV's Yesterday channel as part of their Saturday night music programming block.
[36][37][38][39] In the late 2010s, Sounds of the 80s with Gary Davies had an hour long video version of the show simulcast by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Television (via the Red Button on Freeview channel 601), with pop stars from the 1990s and early 2000s (like Louise[40] and Dido)[41] picking their favourite 1980s hits.