Every UK #1 Single Of 1974 Discussion Thread

Hmmm, bit busy on a Friday afternoon. Thought about going via Newcastle but I kinda need to know whereabouts in Scotland she actually is....

 

Thought someone would get the lyrics-

 

He has certainly had great success in more recent years writing very successful, camp dance hits, and both Kylie and Sophie Ellis-Bexter owe him a lot.

What makes you think he was the camp one?

 

Rob Davis would later be responsible for this - co-write with Cathy Dennis.

 

I would only have 2 Mud singles. The one I bought was a year or so away. The other was a swap. Neither of them were Tiger Feet. I certainly liked the song but I expect the reason I didn’t have it was the usual one.. Lack of funds.

Tiger Feet got a lot of airplay so I suppose there was no real need to acquire it. It was certainly Mud’s peak moment. They’d have lots of other hits, including a couple more number ones, but Tiger Feet is the one everybody remembers.

Mud always looked like they were having a good time. They were fun to watch. Especially if you were 11 like I was here. I’ve never picked up a Mud album, but have a few of their singles on assorted comps. Tiger Feet was a great start to the number ones of 1974 (I’m already forgetting the New Seekers), and deserved it’s big sales, I’d say.

 

I brought it now. My brother had the flexi, I think it came free with NME?

 

Les Gray always looked like he was trying to recover from a hard night’s partying. Which, in fairness, he probably was. Hard to believe he’d only be 27/28 at the time of this single.. Pop stars looked rough in the 70s... I bet they couldn’t wait for Botox to come along.

 

I bought this comp, which gives me the singles I want, but like you have never owned Mud Rock.

 

Yes, agree about never really being glam, but when you've got Chinn/Chapman penned songs, it just happens!

 

They all resort to leather in the end....

 

Yes, they all had to have a camp or zany member, even Kenny and The Rubettes.

 

It must have been strange, going from a really successful band that everyone had heard off, huge no 1 singles, always on TV, touring the world, in magazines etc and succesful for several years. Then going to work in a shop.

 

Makes you wonder where it all goes wrong. The New Seekers even had hits in the States so you’d assume they made some money...

Eve, if I’m not mistaken, was regularly voted ‘most fanciable female’ in Record Mirror’s annual poll. She had a pleasant enough voice, but as she was a little older than most of the female pop stars of the time (she’d be 31 in 1974), maybe record companies didn’t want to take a chance on her?

However, she’d be part of the next New Seekers reunion in 1976..




Didn’t she end up marrying the new bloke?

 

7ts records have added a few more reissues. Including a 3 album boxset by Liverpool Express. Who knew bloody Liverpool Express even made 3 albums?! Also, there’s a double disc CD set of two albums by the New Seekers. These have never been issued on CD before. I know none of you care, but I’ll tell you anyway.

7Ts Records

 

Yep. The music papers had many great flexis. Ive got Mick Ronson’s, Alice Cooper’s, Slade’s, the New Seekers....even Micky Jupp did one. Great (cheap!) way of spreading the good vibes. Maybe coming back in vogue too as this month’s MOJO mag gave away a flexi.

 

I would think a number of these bands started out in leather, and like The Beatles, had a fashion change forced on them.

I'm sure Rob didn't always wear frocks.....

 

A friend of mine had that Mud single - I heard it a lot. I quite liked it (but not enough to buy it myself) and was a bit put out when Top of the Pops ran their end titles over it and faded it out very early. It always seemed wrong when The Pops did that to a No. 1. Looking back, it's harmless pop, but it's not really clear what 'Tiger Feet' or 'tiger light' actually are. I've never felt the urge to tell anyone how much I love their tiger feet - it's simply never come up.

 

I cannot find any Record Mirror chart scans for the weeks Mud are at number one, so for anyone interested, here is a link to the official UK singles chart for 20th January 1974.

Official Singles Chart Top 50 | Official Charts Company

 

The last guy who did this thread was a lot better.

He’d have found scans.

 

Have we got anywhere near Seasons In The Sun? Listening to it right now.

An excellent single if ever there were one.

 

You are very welcome to your old job back at anytime!

Post away when you find the scan.

 

We are one song closer, and I promise you will receive a message when the post goes up.

In the meantime, here is the song on which it is based.



I wonder if Westlife could dance and smile their way through that, obviously totally oblivious to the song's meaning: they certainly did to Terry's adaptation!

Edit. I used the video with the English translation, to reinforce the tragic nature of the song.

 

"Tiger Feet" had a very limited issue in the States, after mid-1974 on Bell 45,602. To date, the only pressings confirmed have been mono/stereo promos, here from Bestway Products:

 

Around this time, another RAK single was beginning to make some noise. It only aspired to #3 in what one 45cat member calls the "yuk" ("only," he says), but that was better than was initially the case in the U.S., issued on single Bell #45,466. This was the same stock coupling as the UK; stocks of the U.S. release are, if anything, rarer than promos:

At least Bell got the first initials of the songwriters correct - unlike the other U.S. label that put out this number, "Emma," with a different B side, and on which it finally, in the next year, cracked the U.S. charts at #8.

 

Still strange seeing a Mickie Most production on a Bell label.

Whatever label, Emma is a song I have always really liked: it peaked at #3 in the UK in March '74.