UK Top 25 Week Ending 3rd March 1973. Pick Your Favourites.

I skipped this one, due to it's anachronistic appearance on the charts, not because I dislike the song. Any UK people know why it was there and whether it was a reissue vs. a rerecord vs. a live version?

 

Oddly, it's a cover of a Judy Collins song.

 

Really?

And people say these charts polls are rubbish. Always something to learn.

 

The two Focus tracks, Elton and Carly.

 

I think it's from a Broadway musical.

 

QUOTE="Mark B., post: 15997588, member: 40823"]I think it's from a Broadway musical.[/QUOTE]
I don't see anything about that on Wiki. However, the other cite I saw had Judy listed as the authoress, whereas it was actually written by Rolf Kempf, with Judy doing the original recording of it. It's on her 1968 "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" album. At least I don't have to look up who wrote the title track!

 

I think 1973 was probably the peak of glam rock. It would be interesting to flick through the weekly charts to find the ultimate glam rock chart.
Not sure if this post makes sense as I have been out on the razzle, but what the hell....

 

Pick up this book and you can search to your heart's content.



Every UK top 40 from 1960-2008

BTW, I reckon the best glam charts are in mid to late 1973.

 

What a great week for pop music!

 

Yes I would probably guess the same, which is a shame as T.Rex were passed their imperial phase by that time, but then they were ahead/leaders of the pack anyway, so to be expected that they would burn out the first...

 

Both Focus songs (especially Sylvia) and Carly Simon.

 

It's interesting that stevie wonder is leading the poll, it shows the gulf between uk and USA fans on here I would say.

 

I don't remember that White Plains song at all.

No one else does either by the looks of it.

 

I vaguely remember them, but not this song. I think they were a kind of faceless cabaret group, a bit like the original version of Brotherhood Of Man.

 

Re Hello Hooray:

Canadian folkie, Rolf Kempf, wrote it in 1968. His band had split up, he'd just been robbed, and he wrote the song to try and help get him through a tough period in his life. Judy Collins recorded it 'straight', retaining Kempf's somewhat spiritual concept of self-renewal and reinvention.

Later, Cooper, and Bob Ezrin, refashioned Kempf's acoustic guitar demo, as a Grand Guignol show opener; Alice tinkered with the lyrics, but Kempf retained sole credit. JC's version remained largely unknown, but AC's not only became a big hit single, it was also the lead track on their blockbuster 'Billion Dollar Babies' album. It's also remained a staple of Alice's stage set over the past 40+ years. (Kempf didn't record his own 'proper' version of the song until many years later!)

Re White Plains:

'Step Into A Dream' was originally written by Rogers Cook & Greenway as a jingle for a Butlins advert, then refashioned as a WP single. I really liked a number of earlier White Plains' singles - especially 'My Baby Loves Lovin' and 'When You Are A King' - but this one is total ****.

Here's one of their very surprising b-sides: Today I Killed A Man!

 

I feel incredibly embarrassed to say this, but, although I was only 3 and a half, my favourite record of the time was Little Jimmy Osmond's Long Haired Lover From Liverpool. I used to make my mum play it over and over.

Luckily not long after David Essex came along with Gonna Make You A Star and I had a new obsession.

I Love me a bit of David Essex!

 

Wow, this chart is so much more interesting than those mid-80's ones... IMHO, of course.

 

I thought it was the original version being reissued to capitalize on the success of the London Sessions, but it could very well be a single edit of the London album (live) track ?

 

Also like these from the US Chart...
COULD IT BE I’M FALLING IN LOVE –•– The Spinners (Atlantic)
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH –•– John Denver (RCA)
DADDY’S HOME –•– Jermaine Jackson (Motown)

Thanks @Bobby Morrow for doing these on the early 70s.

Darryl

 

It would be far quicker to pick the handful I DON'T like

 

Usually, I can always find more than a couple of really good songs in any of these lists. Not this time; only about four that I really like. I think this list just has a lot of sub standard UK pop songs.

 

Gonna Make You A Star was the best pop single David Essex ever made. I remember begging my mum for the self-titled LP it came from.

It was released on CD last year and I bought it again.

 

Difficult to listen to when you know what he did.

 

I went for:

4. Sylvia - Focus
5. Cindy Incidentally - Faces
7. Whiskey In The Jar - Thin Lizzy
8. Baby I Love You - Dave Edmunds
14. Superstition - Stevie Wonder
19. Killing Me Softly With His Song - Roberta Flack
21. Hocus Pocus - Focus
25. You're So Vain - Carly Simon

Superstition is the best one there although DE's cover of "baby I Love You" is probably the greatest Phil Spector production not by Spector himself.

 

B+:
Whiskey in the Jar

B:
Daniel
You're so Vain
Baby I Love You

B-:
Part of the Union
Hello Hooray
Killing Me Softly
Hocus Pocus

C+:
Cindy Incidentally (included only because it might grow on me if I listened to it a few more times; first time hearing it)

I had no idea Dave Edmunds covered Baby I Love You. I like it but not as much as the Ronettes of course, which is the epitome of the Wall of Sound. It blows away the feeble Andy Kim cover, although the latter is at least more different from the Ronettes.

I also had no idea the Partridge Family covered Gene Pitney. It's alright but I can live without it.