(FORTUNE Magazine) – Back in 1973, FORTUNE ran a full-page graph of price/earnings ratios, plotting the multiples of 382 major companies over 25 years. A lot has come and gone since then: KC & The Sunshine Band, Dynasty, Newt Gingrich...oh, yeah...and the longest bull market in U.S. history. So we asked Standard & Poor's for an update.

Those psychedelic bands below represent the 12-month trailing P/E ratios since 1980 for each company in the S&P 500, arranged from most expensive to least. For instance, at the close of the first quarter of 2001, 69% of companies traded at multiples of 15 or more. (Compare that figure with 1980, when 81% of the S&P 500 had P/E ratios of less than 15.) Companies with zero or negative earnings are represented by the gray band across the top of the chart. Who says that this market isn't pretty?