"Bring the Boys Home," Freda Payne (1971)

A remarkably pretty protest song

Peak: #3 on the R&B chart (#12 on the Hot 100)
Streams: 2.1 million

Freda Payne’s “Band of Gold” is such an enduring standard of the early 70s that she was invited to sing it on American Idol as late as 2009. The song has been covered by everyone from Belinda Carlisle to Sylvester, and even today the original recording still sounds fresh. It’s one of those songs you can point to and say, “See? There’s good music from every era!” (I guess I’m imagining myself as a grumpy old man pointing at a surly teen who insists music truly began when Drake freed the internet or whatever.)