The U.K. 70s Singles & Albums Chart General Discussion Thread.

Yes, anybody doing a cover version of I Write The Songs is setting themselves up as a target for mockery. And I am quite happy to oblige.

 

Frank Sinatra, at least, had the dignity to call his cover "I Sing The Songs."

 

Have given it and ordered this comp from Amazon.



I have lots of them already of course, but it’s nice to see Eye Level, which I don’t own.

 

Wow, that is a real grab bag. I think I'd be hitting the skip button a lot with that one.

 

They gotta put out a U.S. version of such compilation. I could see, on such a compilation, "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" in there - but as by Mac And Katie Kissoon. And Bo Donaldson And The Heywoods' version of "Billy, Don't Be A Hero." Substitute "Little Green Bag" for "Paloma Blanca" for the George Baker Selection. I could go on and on.

Blue Swede's "Hooked On A Feeling" would most likely stay in that compilation - since it did make U.S. #1 after all . . .

 

There might be a couple I’d skip, but I’d really enjoy most of it!

 

Well, it's certainly 'eclectic'! Guys & Dolls were even worse than BOM (if that's possible). I seem to remember that Bruce Forsyth's daughter was one of the singers; as well as the Dollar duo. That Stephanie De Sykes song always makes me laugh. It starts with some strutting Stax-like brass, then, as soon as she starts to sing, the song turns into a 'schlager oompah in the local chippie' affair. Wasn't she in Crossroads; along with the wobbly scenery?

One I really like is White Plains My Baby Loves Lovin'. They released a handful of well constructed little pop gems. UK #9 (1970). I think this TOTP performance is from the show where Tony Burrows appeared three times in different groups.

 

Does anyone know if there was an edition of Dick Clark's American Bandstand where Ron Dante appeared as both The Archies performing "Sugar Sugar," and then The Cuff Links with their hit "Tracy"? Mr. Dante was a piker compared with Mr. Burrows in that regard. But that is what equivalent that infamous TOTP episode would be.

As for Ms. De Sykes and Crossroads: Yep. In fact, that was likely how some "genius" in the record company that signed her thought she had what it took to be a pop singer.

And "My Baby Loves Lovin' ": Love it too, but I've never seen in 41 years of record collecting any CBS Pitman copies. If there were, I'd've had it long ago. Same with the original, Mk.I Brotherhood Of Man's "United We Stand." (Tell me, of the Eurovision lineup, who'd've done Sunny's leads, and who'd do Mr. Burrows', on that one?)

 

That's a nice compilation actually...

 

Crossroads pulled the same stunt in the early 80s with Kate Robbins.

 

I know you love your 70s music, but this comp basically explains why I didn't get into music until the 80s

EG.

 

50 years ago today Alice Cooper released what would become their international breakthrough LP: School's Out. We've already discussed the single, so here's one of the album tracks, Blue Turk. It's sort of West Side Story-meets-New Orleans jazz, and demonstrates how musically eclectic the Cooper gang were.

Blue Turk, from School's Out. (UK#4 1972)

 

I played disc one today. Really enjoyed it and the songs all appeared to be the original recordings.

I think it’s a nostalgia thing. Certainly some of the tracks could never be described as golden moments in pop history, but I have memories attached to most of them.

 

That's right - 70s cheese is the only cheese I can love. There are, as you say, a lot of memories wrapped up in it, and it's a time when your extended family is all present and correct and you're at school, free of responsibility even to yourself, and the future feels like an eternity, a time when life is as carefree as it's ever going to get, even if it didn't always seem that way at the time. That's true for everybody, whichever era they grew up in, but in your case and mine, it happened to be the 70s, and I think we were the luckiest of all to have had our childhood and adolescence in that period. It was the last Old School era, so we were lucky to have caught that just in time.

I suppose the early 80s are now finally beginning to evoke nostalgia in me. At the time, I thought it was a grey era, bordering on bleak (certainly 1981-82), but now it's starting to feel more like a safe harbour, without putting on rose-tinted specs. Deep... I'm wearing corduroy trousers and glasses at the moment, so maybe that's taking me over... The Thinker... Fair grand.

 

The only Billy Ocean song I ever liked is Love Really Hurts. I always regard it, and Maxine Nightingale's Right Back Where We Started From, as musical twins. They've both got that '60s Motown stomp underpinning them.

I was a big fan of very early Leo Sayer. Long Tall Glasses isn't a particular favourite, although it's still imbued with his distinctive idiosyncrasies. But then, as with Mr Ocean, Leo had his rough edges smoothed, and his quirks ironed out, for US mass consumption. And became all the duller for it.

Re The Osmonds, Love Me For A Reason is a great cover of Johnny Bristol's original. Not their absolute best - that's Crazy Horses - but still poptastic.

Anyway here's Leo with the excellent chamber pop of Why Is Everybody Going Home? (from Silverbird #2 1973)

 

I’d be 20 in 1983 and although I still liked pop music and the charts, it wasn’t the same as in the 70s. Maybe at 20 some of the thrill of following the charts and buying records had diminished… I don’t necessarily think music got worse, just that I was less accepting of the changes. By 1988/89 - for the most part - I’d given up the ghost though.

 

I have the Silverbird album. Just A Boy too, I think.

 

1983 was pretty good, but after that, I didn't like the changes either, but I think that's a good thing because you can start to leave "pop" behind and seek out other forms. I'd always liked classical music and I always had an instinctive love of folk music from being really small, and now I could explore them due to my dying interest in all that top 40 stuff, and I get a lot more out of it, find it more stimulating. I don't think you're meant to follow the charts forever, although there is no rule that says you shouldn't, of course.

 

I bought Smash Hits in the 80s when I’d be in my early twenties. Even then there was that knowledge that this mag was really for kids and I probably shouldn’t be buying it! I never grew out of loving music, but I did lose interest in chart stuff. If I look at the singles chart from, say, 1989, there’s a lot I simply don’t remember. When BBC4 got to 1988 in their TOTP repeats, that’s when I stopped watching. Even the DJs annoyed me on those shows!

 

Most of the early to mid 70's is pure gouda but there's a few glam gems in there like "Metal Guru" & "My Coo Ca Choo". The Blondie one is great too.

 

I wish the NOW people would do those individual Yearbook comps for the 70s. The 80s ones (so far) have been pretty good. It’d be great to see Yearbooks for 1972/73…

 

Formaggio or not, what we did get throughout the 1970s were good and memorable melodies.

Even if one doesn't rock out to 'Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep' there's no denying that we can all sing it from memory, and even if we all groan when we hear "Welcome Home" by Peters And Lee, again we all know the tune. Even rock had great melodies, which is one of the reasons for the success of Sweet, Slade, T. Rex, Suzi Quatro etc.

By the mid-80s, however, good melodies in pop seemed to become more scarce, and ballads seemed to become more formulaic. Also dance music with good melodies, including pop and soul started to become thinner on the ground. Stock, Aitken and Waterman brought about a revival of good songs but even their music became predictably formulaic, like HDH during their Invictus days and their star rapidly faded.

 

It would, though I've got just about everything. The good thing about these comps, though, is that you get stuff that you wouldn't have gone out of your way to buy and probably haven't heard since, so you can give them another hearing. One that springs to mind is Frida's 'I Know There's Something Going On', on the 1982 Now Yearbook - Extra. I heard it decades ago and it passed me by, really, but it's a great record.

 

The only SAW track I can even remotely bear is Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up', which has always reminded me of The Real Thing, even when it was out. It would have sounded much better if it had been recorded a decade earlier.

 

I was a bit young to be chart watching when Chirpy came out. Would I have liked it if I had been watching? Probably! You can’t deny it’s an ear worm. Very distinctive vocal too.

I was a chart fan when Welcome Home came out. I knew Peters & Lee from Opportunity Knocks already, so it wasn’t a surprise that the song became a big hit. It probably washed over me at the time. Rather like singles like And I Love You So and Yesterday Once More did. They were for your mum and grandparents, weren’t they?

These days I’m quite fond of Welcome Home. The OTT strings always make me smile. As the song didn’t really register with me in 1973, I suppose it’s unusual I’m nostalgic for it. Probably more nostalgic for 1973 itself, if I’m honest.