AM Gold: The Early '70s is a fine collection from the savvy folks at Time Life. It rounds up 22 songs you pretty much couldn't escape if you had your radio on in the early '70s. The styles range from the singer/songwriter musings of Jim Croce ("Time in a Bottle") and James Taylor ("Fire and Rain") to the impassioned soul of Al Green ("Let's Stay Together"), the bubblegum soul of the Jackson 5 ("The Love You Save"), and the soft rock genius of America ("Ventura Highway") and Bread ("If"). The disc also encompasses a nice mix of lightweight novelty tunes like the Buoys' "Timothy," deeply emotional tunes like Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes' "If You Don't Know Me by Now," and true classics like Smokey Robinson & the Miracles' "Tears of a Clown" and the Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose's "Too Late to Turn Back Now." If you are looking for a way to begin your collection of '70s music or merely looking for a great road trip mix, you could do a lot worse than picking up this disc, or any in the AM Gold series for that matter.