Every UK #1 Single Of 1973 Discussion Thread

Are sure this was Top Of The Pops?
Sweet performed live on Supersonic in 1975....They did Burn On The Flame and The Lies In Your Eyes I think...might have been 76' actually.
They had huge flames behind them and a silly Air Fan with tikatape blowing from it.
Steve Priest was so miffed about the cheapo pyro....he walked off stage!!!
You can clearly see the rest of the band laughing about.
I'll post like later....

 

Slade featured heavily in the 1972 thread and are set to do the same this year. Cum On Feel The Noize would be #1 for 4 weeks from 3rd March. Keeping both Part Of The Union by the Strawbs and Cindy Incidentally by the Faces at #2.



"Cum On Feel the Noize" is a song by the British rock band Slade, released in 1973 as a non-album single. It was written by lead vocalist Noddy Holder and bassist Jim Lea, and produced by Chas Chandler. It reached No. 1 in the UK, giving the band their fourth number one single, and remained in the charts for twelve weeks. The song would be included on the band's 1973 compilation album Sladest.

In 1983, the American heavy metal band Quiet Riot recorded their own version of the song, which was a million selling hit single in the United States, reaching No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Slade released "Cum On Feel the Noize" in February 1973 as their first single of the year. The song gave the band their fourth number one in the UK, and also their first single to enter number one in its first week. This achievement had not been seen since The Beatles' "Get Back" in 1969 The song remained there for four consecutive weeks and sold 500,000 copies in its first three weeks of release. With "Cum On Feel the Noize", the band's manager Chas Chandler and Polydor's head John Fruin had devised a strategy to get the single to number one on the first week of release. The strategy used pre-release airplay to build up pre-order sales for the single. In America, the song reached No. 98 on the Billboard Hot 100.

"Cum On Feel the Noize" detailed the atmosphere found at the band's concerts. Originally titled "Cum On Hear the Noize", Holder changed the title after recalling one of the band's 1972 UK concerts, where he "felt the sound of the crowd pounding in [his] chest". The song's introduction of Holder shouting "Baby, baby, baby" had just been a microphone test and was not intended for the finished recording.

In a 1984 interview with Record Mirror, Lea spoke of "Mama Weer All Crazee" and "Cum On Feel the Noize": "I was at a Chuck Berry gig in '72 and everybody was singing his tunes. He kept stopping and letting the crowd sing and it wasn't just a few people, it was everyone. I thought it was amazing and thought – why not write the crowd into the songs, and so we got round to "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" and "Cum On Feel the Noize" and all the chants were written into the tunes." In a 1986 fan club interview, guitarist Dave Hill said: "The song was based around audiences and things that were happening to us. They were just experiences. Obviously, when you are on the road, you are writing about being on the road, you're writing about what's going on.

 

Here’s the B-side, I’m Mee, I’m Now An’ That’s Orl. FFS.

 

Here’s the UK single.

 

Various picture sleeves.

France.



Spain.



Italy.



Netherlands.

 

Review from Disc.




And from NME.

 

My thoughts.

Slade had at least a handful of songs that could be described as ‘signature’, but to the world at large Cum On Feel The Noize is perhaps the one. I think in the UK it’s the Christmas song, but we’ll come to that later. COFTN was the first Slade single I loved as it charted. I’d missed the rest. My mum hated Noddy Holder’s voice and thought Slade were the pits. But that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?

This kicked 1973 off in fun style. It really was music for the kids and we lapped it up. Must have been a great time for the band as the Slayed? album was #1 around the same time.

 

Cum On Feel The Noize kept a couple of great songs from the top spot but for once I don't mind because it is such, such a wonderful song. One of the greatest singles in chart history. Even the plodding Quiet Riot couldn't do it too much damage.

Apologies for the hyperbole but I really do feel it's that good.

What a start to 1973!

 

This is my all time favourite Slade single. From The Baby, baby baby intro it is simply brilliant.

 

Sweet, then Slade......what a great one-two.

 

It's not their worst (that comes next) but it's not their best either.

 

Slade - Cum On Feel The Noize / I'm Mee, I'm Now, An' That's Orl
It's perfect, nothing less. Unimitable songwriting and guitar style equally. Of course it has been played so much that nowadays it's not on my platter as much as some of their other work, but it still gives ear-gasms.

The flip is OK but nothing special. Wonder if the title spawned Twisted Sister's "I Am (I'm Me)".

 

The U.S. issue (which I don't think exactly burned up the charts) was on Polydor PD 15069. Three variants have been documented: PRC in Richmond, IN; Monarch in Los Angeles, CA; and this one, Capitol from Scranton, PA:

 

Fourth number one in a row I remember from the time, and absolutely brilliant. Slade simply perfected the sing along chorus, making it there own!

From the Baby, baby, baby, Jim's bass, Don's snare roll to more Noddy vocal acrobatics (Mariah could learn a thing or two!) this is epic, and like Marc Bolan and Steve Priest, Dave knew how to make the most of a TOTPs performance.

Dave Hill gets so much coverage for fashion sense, that his guitar playing is often overlooked, along with Noddy, the guitars are Cum On Feel The Noize are completely fit for purpose. Wot a song.

 

Great single, how can you not sing along. I was 7 when this came out and not really that interested in music, but you couldn't help but see Slade etc. On Top of this, in the 70s I had Look-in (The Junior TVTimes) every week, so all these people getting to number one would be plastered over the "pull-out" posters and the great painted front covers.

 

And one more, this one from 1973.

 

I wonder why they use drawings on the cover rather than actual photos of the band?

 

It was something they did from almost the beginning until 1982. I remember they had comic strip stories of the history of The Beatles, Abba and some other bands too.

Look-in - Wikipedia

 

Sweet - Blockbuster was a welcome relief after Jimmy Osmond. And much better than Sweet's previous 2 singles Little Willy and Wig Wam Bam.

 

I remember the flame type effects and have convinced myself that they were during Hellraiser.

 

Slade's version of COFTN is about 1,000 times better than Quiet Riot's, which is the only version that Yanks really know.

 

Hated it because it kept the best ever T.Rex single (at the time we thought it was a lesser T.Rex single) from the number 1 slot (it didn't really as Strawbs and Faces were at no 2).

Loved it because it was an exceptionally great single. Wonderful opening, verse, chorus, arrangement and performance.

It may be fashionable to suggest that Far Far Away or Crazee Now is the best Slade single but this was not only a hit single, it was an event.

 

1973, my favorite year of the decade (well, it's actually a tie with 1977). And the year's first new #1 by Sweet is of course an excellent start. However, although Blockbuster is decent commercial hardrock, I prefer Sweet's other releases in '73, with Ballroom Blitz as their crowning achievement.

Blockbuster was actually the third Sweet single which topped the charts in my native country the Netherlands. Already during their bubblegum phase the band did very well in the dutch charts, with Funny Funny and Poppa Joe hitting the #1 spot in respectively 1971 and 1972, while all the other Sweet singles at least reached our top 10.

 

It stumbles a bit after this. Plenty of good stuff to come, but there will be ones people will bash.

I will try and talk about other top 10 hits from the week, when we get disappointing #1s..