Every UK #1 Single Of 1974 Discussion Thread

What about the next label in the States to carry that group (and Suzi Quatro) - Big Tree?

 

I have never heard of it!

 

I’m not a big Hot Chocolate fan. Which is a shame as they released a new single about every 6 weeks in the 70s!
Emma is one of maybe a handful that I like. Every 1’s A Winner is my favourite.

 

And that's the truth.

I like most, but they do have a generic kind of sound to them. Emma, It Started With A Kiss and A Child's Prayer are probably my favourites.

 

Tiger Feet is a really fun bouncy song, and one I've heard before even though it's totally unknown in the USA, and Mud is pretty obscure too.

 

Here's the Big Tree issue of "Emma" and its B side, "A Love Like Yours" - note how the first initials of the writers' names are reversed:

 

Those, plus "You Sexy Thing," are the best-known Hot Chocolate hits in the States.

 

Even without The Full Monty, You Sexy Thing is probably the most well known Hot Chocolate song in the UK, BUT it wasn't their #1 single.

 

"Every 1's A Winner" has one of the great hooks of the decade. "Brother Louie" was fantastic as well, although the cover from Stories bested the original I've always thought. "You Sexy Thing" of course is a disco-era classic. I'm especially fond of their minor hit "Mindless Boogie":

 

This is the dutch sleeve of Tigerfeet:



As I have written before, Mud were HUGE in the Netherlands. Starting with Dynamite, they had three #1's in 1974, and Tigerfeet was the second time Mud topped the charts. My older brother was very much into them and bought all the records. And although I also liked a couple of those (particularly Tigerfeet), I always considered Mud a slight step down from earlier glam bands, missing the flamboyance of a Slade or T. Rex. Mud sort of pointed the way glam was going from 1974 onwards, quietly toning down its excesses in fashion and outrageous behaviour. Unfortunately, I must say, because those components had been an essential part of why glam rock was such a fun genre in the first place.

 

Great song, this is the Teenage Rampage sleeve of the dutch copy I bought:



I think Teenage Rampage is one of Sweet's best, but it was only a moderate hit in the dutch charts. The thing with Sweet and the Netherlands is that they peaked very early over here, when they were still in their bubblegum phase (Poppa Joe is their highest-selling dutch single), so when Sweet went the glam route it was difficult for some adjusting to that. In particular Steve Priest's over-the-top antics on Top Pop (dutch equivalent of TOTP) drove many a parent up the wall. Blockbuster still did very well, but from there on it seemed the louder the Sweet singles became, the lower they ended up on the dutch charts. In that respect found Sweet themselves in the Netherlands after awhile between a rock and a hard place. Too heavy for the top 40 audience while at the same time too commercial for the underground crowd.

 

By the time of Teenage Rampage, Sweet were still a big band in the UK, but they’d probably peaked a year earlier. Without checking Wikipedia I can only think of three more big hits to come...

 

You were inundated with picture sleeves in the Netherlands.

The only Mud single I bought did have a picture sleeve, and if I’m honest that was probably a large part of why I bought it! I was always swayed toward picture sleeved singles as there were so few of them here.

Still, this would be a year away, and Mud were on a different label by then..

 

...I am interested to note New Seekers tracks produced by U.S. pop all-arounder Michael Lloyd!
These lines have cited Record Mirror, not the higher-rep to knowing-some-Brit-stuff Americans New Musical Express or Melody Maker - was RM more the choice of younger " pop kids ' then? Did it cost less? Have more color pictures? More straightforwardly " fannish " journalism? What chart did RM use for their chart?

 

...Yes, I had a U.S. RCA 45 of that that I acquired in the late 70s! I got it through a British source, IIRC...it had no center things, just an American-style big hold!
I think that B-side may have been re-recorded by Sweet on one of their late period album.






post: 19072102, member: 3466"]It was perhaps the only U.S. Sweet single issued on RCA - albeit in "export issue" form:

This was between Bell dropping them and Capitol picking them up . . .[/QUOTE]

 

...Oddly enough - I have!




s, post: 19086130, member: 76356"]I bought this comp, which gives me the singles I want, but like you have never owned Mud Rock.

[/QUOTE]

 

Record Mirror was more ‘pop’ than NME, Sounds and Melody Maker. It also had the bonus of being the only weekly mag to feature the official charts used by Radio 1 and TOTP.

RM was about the same price as the other mags, but was definitely more lightweight.

 

That single sleeve is just so clever, the song is called tiger feet and I strongly suspect that those are tiger paw prints on the sleeve.
Here in the UK record companies didn't have the huge budgets for the arts department like they did in the Netherlands...

 

They released a couple of Phil Spector International singles in the US when Warner lost interest in Phil's stuff.

They also had the US release of Double Barrel

 

Funny that . . .

 

I have to say that since this thread started I’ve developed a strange fascination for the comings and goings of the New Seekers. I was listening to various tracks from the Peter, Paul and Marty album last night. It’s pretty bad. A mixture of poorly executed covers and lame ‘self-penned’ numbers, yet still my finger was hovering over the ‘Buy It’ button on eBay! Why?

The above album was given the deluxe treatment from Polydor in 1973. Packed similarly to the considerably more popular Sladest album in a gatefold sleeve with a lyric/photo book attached. Given that PP&M barely sold any records this seems a bit foolish.

Incidentally, does anyone know what became of Peter Oliver? Can’t find much about him on the Internet, other than he joined Paper Lace for a while!

 

When I posted the French and German sleeves, I very nearly added the Dutch one, but thought it too similar to the German.

I was wrong, despite the simplicity, the Dutch sleeve is far superior.

Seeing so many good sleeves, and a few awful ones, I wonder why the UK was so slow in supplying them?

 

Yes, Why?!

Here's a link for you with a little more information about Larry!

Lyn Paul website: New Seekers - Peter Oliver

 

Luckily when the UK did provide picture sleeves it was worth it.

 

So the Osmonds were the reason the UK stopped supplying picture sleeves!