American Songwriter has published a list highlighting three rock songs from the 1970s that are credited with rescuing their bands' careers at critical moments. The piece looks back at tracks by Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones and Kansas, each of which arrived when the respective group faced fading relevance or commercial pressure, and argues that these songs proved pivotal to their long-term legacies.

Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" needed a decade and Run-D.M.C.'s hip-hop remake to turn the band from has-beens into 1980s comeback stars, while The Rolling Stones' disco-tinged "Miss You" showed the group adapting to changing musical trends late in the decade. Kansas, meanwhile, produced "Carry On Wayward Son" as a last chance after a failed album, and the song went on to become one of the most enduring anthems in rock history.