Every UK #1 Single of 1978 Discussion Thread.

Yes, I’ve jumped forward a few years!

Glam is over. Punk is nowhere to be seen. At least in the number ones of 1978. How very sad.

1978 is the year of Boney M, Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Father Abraham & the Smurfs. No, come back...It’s better than I’m making it sound.

The singles will be updated every couple of days. Feel free to drop by and say how much better things were a decade ago. And also to give some positive comments if you want.

First #1 coming shortly.

Also check out the following @Randoms threads.

Every UK #1 Single Of 1974 Discussion Thread

Every UK #1 Single Of 1971 Discussion Thread

 

Brian and Michael? Boney M? Oh dear...

At least Wuthering Heights is an oasis in a desert of mediocrity.

 

Boney M. were excellent, but those number 1's weren't my favourite of their songs.

Brian and Michael has grown on me over the years.

 

Indeed Rasputin was a belter of a number.

 

And Painter Man.

 

Here we go. The first number one of 1978 is actually one from 1977. Mull Of Kintyre spent 9 weeks (until the first week of February!) in the top spot and was the biggest selling UK single ever until Band Aid 7 years later. Even now, 41 years after its release, it’s still the 4th biggest selling single of all time!




‘Mull of Kintyre" is a song by the British rock band Wings written by Paul McCartneyand Denny Laine. The song was written in tribute to the picturesque Kintyre peninsula in Scotland and its headland, the Mull of Kintyre, where McCartney has owned High Park Farm since 1966. The song was Wings' biggest hit in Britain where it became the 1977 Christmas number one, and was the first single to sell over two million copies nationwide.

“Mull of Kintyre" was recorded on 9 August 1977 at Spirit of Ranachan Studio at High Park Farm in Scotland, during a break in recording the London Town album caused by Linda McCartney's advanced pregnancy. The song featured bagpipes played by the Campbeltown Pipe Band from nearby Campbeltown. Paul's vocals and acoustic guitar were recorded outdoors. "Mull of Kintyre" and "Girls' School" (a rocker that had been previously recorded for London Town) were released as a double A-sided single on 11 November 1977, independently of the album. It was included on the Wings compilation Wings Greatest in 1978, the UK/Canada version of McCartney's 1987 compilation album All the Best!, the 2001 compilation Wingspan: Hits and History and the 2016 compilation Pure McCartney.

The song's broad appeal was maximised by its pre-Christmas release and it became a Christmas number one single in the UK, spending nine weeks at the top of the charts. It also became an international hit, charting high in Australia and many other countries over the holiday period. It went on to become the first single to sell over two million copies in the UK and became the UK's best-selling single of all-time (eclipsing the Beatles' own "She Loves You") until overtaken by Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in 1984 (which also featured McCartney on the B-side). The song remains the UK's best-selling completely non-charity single, having sold 2.08 million copies. (Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" has sold more in its two releases, but the profits of the 1991 release were donated to charity.)

The millionth copy of the disc sold in the UK included a special certificate. It was sold to David Ackroyd, who was presented with a gold disc of the single by Laine.

Despite its international appeal, the song was not a major hit in North America, where the flipside "Girls' School" received more airplay and reached #33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #34 on the Canadian RPM charts. "Mull of Kintyre" was not a pop hit at all in the US, but did manage to reach #45 on the Easy Listening chart.

Meanwhile, in Canada, "Girls' School"/"Mull of Kintyre" was initially tracked as a double A-side, and reached #44 on the pop charts before "Mull of Kintyre" was dropped from the chart listings as of 21 January 1978. "Girls' School" continued its chart climb for a few more weeks, reaching #34 in Canada. After the single fell out of the top 40, it was once again tracked as a double A-side (with "Mull of Kintyre" getting first billing) for one week in April, but it did not better its previous #44 chart peak. "Mull of Kintyre" alone (without "Girls' School") did reach #30 on Canada's Adult Contemporary chart.

 

Mull Of Kintyre was a double A-side with Girls’ School on the flip. I don’t recall this getting much (if any) airplay in the UK. It seemed DJs preferred Mull Of Kintyre. Girls’ School is actually an excellent rocker that really should have been included on Wings’ 1978 London Town album but wasn’t. Maybe they thought everyone had the single already and would be sick of it? As good as Girls’ School is, Paul was right to lead with Mull Of Kintyre as I think the former is a top 20 record on its own merits at best.

 

Love it.

Always preferred Wings to that other band he had been in.

Adding both tracks to London Town improves an already enjoyable 1978 album.

 

Remember this well, 1977 was one of the greatest Christmasses in my life, I had a couple of really great friends who lived adjacent to the back of our house and we spent a great amount of time over Christmas together. We all kind of preferred Girls School to Mull, although I did like both and was excited about how long it managed to stay at number one.

This was my first year of Comprehensive School so there was lots of interesting things going on in my life at the time.

 

The UK single. We got a picture sleeve! I knew skipping ahead a few years would pay dividends.









It would appear the picture sleeve was a universal one. I can’t find any from other territories that are different.

 

By the time I got mine it was in a plain sleeve.

 

Living in the US, I'd never heard this single until college, when I picked up the Wings Greatest Hits CD, circa '87. I was a huge Beatles fan in high school, and knew Paul had a massive hit with this as a solo artist (OK, as part of "Wings"), but had never heard the thing before.

As in '87, I am completely perplexed how this became the biggest hit of his career. It isn't horrible I guess, but really? I could see it hitting #1 - one for gram to listen to - but for umpteen weeks? He had a dozen solo/Wings singles (at least) that stomp all over "Mull".

One of the lesser #1 hits of '77/'78 on the UK charts, from what I could see. And it isn't awful, so that's a testament to how strong (and consistent) the chart is going to be this year as compared to some other years...

 

That picture sleeve is gorgeous though, and very forward-designed for '77. Linda, I assume?

 

A few odds and sods from Record Mirror.

 

Well, in the UK, especially in the 60s and 70s, it wasn't only young people buying singles, this song got picked up by Radio 2 and thus an older demographic would be exposed to it as well. A few years earlier we had a number one of Amazing Grace played on bagpipes, so in 70s, bagpipes were a big thing for some ages.

 

Well, Judy Collins charted here with "Amazing Grace" as well around the same time, taking it to #15. But it's true we didn't have a national radio station like the Beeb that had to appeal across a broader segment.

When we did get something like that, with MTV in 1981, it had a profound impact on the pop charts for about 5 years. Curiously, it prompted a second (third?) British Invasion and the pop charts for the US and the UK fell into a noticeable synchronization for quite awhile.

 

Mull Of Kintyre - SingalongaMacca.....dull as ditchwater......perfect for insomniacs.

 

My thoughts.

To be honest, I can’t remember what I first thought of Mull Of Kintyre. It feels like its been in my life forever! I do find it highly amusing that in the supposed ‘year of punk’ this bagpipe laden, sentimental, super-slow, 5 minute long song became the biggest selling hit of the year. Maybe the charts were fixed for this too.

It wasn’t aimed at my generation. I felt no need to buy it. I didn’t hate it either, but I was probably tiring of it by February. My dad liked it, along with the song that was stuck at #2 behind MOK, The Floral Dance, Good times for him! Nowadays I hardly ever hear it. Unless I play my Wings Greatest CD. I appreciate more than I did in 1977/8, though I do agree that it’s not amongst McCartney’s finest.

Unsurprisingly, there are several Mull Of Kintyre threads on SHF. So because I’m feeling lazy I’m going to post my comments from the most recent one.

Just one of those examples of McCartney pulling something out of the hat that connects with the public. MOK was played to DEATH upon it's release. For years I never wanted to hear it again. Now I enjoy it and can appreciate it's class and simple beauty. Girls' School isn't bad either!

Paul and Wings had put out a stream of excellent, and totally different singles throughput the 70s and Mull Of Kintyre certainly continued that tradition. It was a song that seemed to span the generations and I'm sure many parents, aunties and grandparents received the single in their Christmas stocking that year.

McCartney is often derided for his sentimentality, but when he gets it right like he did here, he can move mountains.

 

I loved Painter Man. It was about the 8th single off Night Flight To Venus and didn’t fare as well as the others.

 

I bought this early doors with the picture sleeve, and enjoyed Mull, but preferred Girls School. As Bobby said, Girls School was never played on the radio and simply by continuos play, I slowly went off Mull Of Kintyre.

Some songs stand up to weeks of repeated plays, for me Mull didn't. It is still a good song, and Girls School still rocks.

 

The UK charts from one of the weeks in January that Mull Of Kintyre was #1.

 

Never understood the appeal of it, and remember it primarily for its long run at number one, because I wondered at the time how are we ever going to get rid of it? As you say, I think it did crossover to an older audience who probably bought a single once every five years. I haven’t heard it in ages, but for a while it did become like an alternative Scottish national anthem, although I’m glad to say it has been overshadowed by Flower Of Scotland. The charts threw up these anomalies from time to time; Royal Dragoon Guards’ Amazing Grace for example, or the Van der Valk theme (also a number one), that I wonder what were people thinking when they bought them?

 

And Belfast!

 

From this chart, in my collection are #6 (via a Buddah issue I'll get to later on), 7, 16, 20, 29, 34 and 42.

As for the U.S. issue of this 45, it looked something like this:

But then . . . Rula Lenska, a British actress, was basically known in the U.S. only for ads she did for Alberto VO5 hair spray. So it wasn't simply "Mull Of Kintyre" that, with Americans, went down like the proverbial lead you-know-what.

Oh, and I have a 45 label sheet proof for the U.S. ish of #35 (which, as such, was the B side of something called "Alison"):

This was a "heat seal" label printed on 60 lb. C1S (coated one side) paper for styrene records of 3.5" center label diameter trim.

 

Wings - Mull of Kintyer
This seemed to be No 1 forever.
I appreciate its simplistic thrum now, but back then.....
3/5

Anyways....I'd already took Punk and New Wave to my heart and 1978 was a year I really started to collect singles.
I recall coloured vinyl and picture sleeves aplenty.
Great year....turned 15 that year.