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Posted by: popchartfreak 17th January 2015, 07:55 PM

6th January 1970

A new year a new decade, and the futuristic-sounding 1970 heralded the best year of my life by far, to date. Two Little Boys had a 2nd week at 1, The Archies go top 5, and the only new entry was the goodbye single from Diana Ross and The Supremes. Someday We’ll Be Together, sings Ms. Ross. She lies, no way no how not ever ever have she and Mary Wilson patched things up enough to arrange that (barring one-off performances), to my disappointment. I saw Mary Wilson in concert a few years back and she was great fun. Fun and Diana Ross, aren’t necessarily concepts that sound right, I guess, which is a shame as she had a fantastic honey-sweet vocal ability that set off an epic ballad a treat, not to mention the odd powerful uptempo stomper, dance or otherwise, and I would have loved to see them (and Cindy Birdsong) do a proper 60’s-inspired album together. Sadly, it was increasingly mundane post-1986 for our Diane, till she just gave it all up.



1 ( 1 ) TWO LITTLE BOYS Rolf Harris
2 ( 3 ) (ALL I HAVE TO DO IS) DREAM Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry
3 ( 2 ) SUGAR SUGAR The Archies
4 ( 4 ) REFLECTIONS OF MY LIFE Marmalade
5 ( 6 ) JINGLE JANGLE The Archies

6 ( 7 ) SOMETHING The Beatles
7 ( 8 ) RUBY DON’T TAKE YOUR LOVE TO TOWN Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
8 ( 5 ) SUSPICIOUS MINDS Elvis Presley
9 ( 9 ) YESTER-ME, YESTER-YOU, YESTERDAY Stevie Wonder
10 ( NEW ) SOMEDAY WE’LL BE TOGETHER Diana Ross And The Supremes


In Singapore, I could mention we still lived in our 4-bedroom rented house in Bedokville, but the cost was becoming an issue and we had our name on the waiting list for a cheaper place nearer RAF Changi. Which was a great pity, I enjoyed the suburban feel of the estate, the neighbours - we went to a wedding of a tall RAF lad and his much-shorter pretty young Chinese girlfriend, and they moved in diagonally opposite out place. Big RAF do’s involved lots of booze, mini-skirted other-halves, and kids running around everywhere, and with few above 35 in attendance. I also loved Bedok Junction, there was a furniture-maker where we eventually bought some hand-carved ornate Chinese-styled designs on coffee tables of various sizes and shapes, lamp stands, newspaper racks and a linen chest, all made of teak, which looked gorgeous. I love them all still 40 years later, though of course we now know that teak is very much a no no, being rainforest and old timber, and devastating to the environment to chop down. In those days information on such things was few and far between, or else I would have nagged my parents not to buy them, being increasingly anti-war, social-equality and environmentally-friendly as I had now hit the advanced age of 12, virtually grown-up, and had opinions on a world that seemed all unfair.

In the world, The Beatles last studio recording (while all were still alive) was the day after my birthday, though as yet we all thought they would go on forever, so much were they part of 60’s life. Back in the UK we had a new Doctor Who, Jon Pertwee, though it meant nothing to me as Patrick Troughton’s run was still being run in Singapore hooray!

Posted by: popchartfreak 18th January 2015, 02:57 PM

13th January 1970

3 weeks for Rolf presiding over a still-short and inactive chart, but at least Marmalade’s fab Reflections goes up to 2, equalling their cover of Paul McCartney’s Beatles Ob La Di Ob La Da. Talking of Paul McCartney covers, he wrote a jolly poprock track for The Iveys, now known as Badfinger and signed to The Beatles Apple Records. Come And Get It was a great pop track, and introduced the very good (and ill-fated) Badfinger to the chart-world. They ended up getting more great hits (self-written), writing Without You for Nilsson, and recently had the closing song on Breaking Bad’s TV series. Sadly by then, following the legal mess of Apple Records, they had struggled commercially and the two main songwriters/singers had both killed themselves at ages 27 and 36 respectively.

More happily, a reggae track pops in at 8, instrumental The Liquidator, which is not actually a Singapore track I recall hearing or liking but when I heard it on returning to the UK it sounded so familiar I included it in my charts of the time, so Harry J & The All Stars get their only hit (barring re-issues). Harry was a Jamaican record producer who went on to hit with the classic Bob & Marcia hit Young Gifted And Black, but was one of the key tracks for skinheads, a youth movement that had started up. By the time I got back UK-bound in late 1971, skinhead’s were fairly obvious in those longer-haired times and had based their movement around reggae music, which in the 80’s had morphed into a racist-fringed aggressive cult. Irony?


1 ( 1 ) TWO LITTLE BOYS Rolf Harris
2 ( 4 ) REFLECTIONS OF MY LIFE Marmalade
3 ( 3 ) SUGAR SUGAR The Archies
4 ( 2 ) (ALL I HAVE TO DO IS) DREAM Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry
5 ( NEW ) COME AND GET IT Badfinger



6 ( 6 ) SOMETHING The Beatles
7 ( 8 ) SUSPICIOUS MINDS Elvis Presley
8 ( NEW ) THE LIQUIDATOR The Harry J All Stars
9 ( 7 ) RUBY DON’T TAKE YOUR LOVE TO TOWN Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
10 ( 5 ) JINGLE JANGLE The Archies



My DC comics hobby was getting pretty exciting as I got random 1969 (and older) issues of Legion of Super-Heroes, Superman, Supergirl, Teen Titans, Justice League Of America, Batman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Superboy and World’s Finest in particular. To be honest, though, if I had the cash available I’d take anything labelled DC. Marvel Comics? I don’t recall them even being about, never mind being an attraction. I look back at the cover issues and get massive pangs of nostalgia transporting me back to the happy tropics.

Singapore got it’s constitution this week, and the Biafran War ended after several bloody and famine-stricken years in Nigeria, around a million dead, and after watching the awful images on television as I was growing up. Biafra was a wannabe breakaway state, and Nigeria (independent in 1960 from the UK) wasn’t keen. It’s worth repeating that a MILLION people died and then despair over human nature. For all of the current terrible problems in the world, there is at least an awareness these days of foreign events unfolding which can put pressure on them ending before they escalate to ever-more terrible conclusions and atrocities. The roots of the conflict? Religious, oil and historical (the British Empire boundary-defining). No change there then in basic causes of conflicts that continue elsewhere in the world...

Posted by: popchartfreak 19th January 2015, 06:57 PM

20th January 1970

Things finally start to happen in my charts, as Marmalade grab their first well-deserved chart-topper with the touching Reflections Of My Life. Badfinger go up to 4 and there are 4 new entries, the highest from Edison Lighthouse, the fantastic (or “Ace” as we tended to say then) Love Grows, a huge pop UK chart-topper that was pretty popular on Singapore radio and Forces network shows. Showcasing (of course) the great pop vocals of Tony Burrows who famously appeared on Top of the Pops around this time as lead singer for Edison Lighthouse, White Plains and Brotherhood Of Man. Pretty successful! Written by Tony Macauley and Geoff Stephens who each had a massive string of hit songs in the 60’s and 70’s (loads of them are still well known), it couldn’t really go wrong, and didn’t.

In at 7 it’s a John Denver debut - as songwriter. Peter Paul and Mary were pretty well-known in the 60’s, with folk-hits like Blowin’ In The Wind and Puff The Magic Dragon, the latter a kiddie tearjerker loved by all, and here they were with a last hurrah with the lovely Leaving On A Jet Plane. Sweet. As I’d been on a jet plane recently, it spoke to me. At 9, one that has grown with the years for me, these days I absolutely love the Temptations in their funk heyday from 1969 through to 1973, and especially the brilliant I Can’t Get Next To You, a record I love more and more the older I get. I liked it, then by the 80’s I liked it a lot, in the 90’s I loved it, and now I’ve REALLY gone big on it. The psychedelic youtube live performance video is great but the recorded record on loud? Awesome! At 10, a pleasant-enough ballad from group Arrival, Friends, unless you’re typing too fast, in which case Fiends.



1 ( 2 ) REFLECTIONS OF MY LIFE Marmalade
2 ( 1 ) TWO LITTLE BOYS Rolf Harris
3 ( 3 ) SUGAR SUGAR The Archies
4 ( 5 ) COME AND GET IT Badfinger
5 ( NEW ) LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) Edison Lighthouse



6 ( 4 ) (ALL I HAVE TO DO IS) DREAM Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry
7 ( NEW ) LEAVING ON A JET PLANE Peter, Paul And Mary
8 ( 7 ) SUSPICIOUS MINDS Elvis Presley
9 ( NEW ) I CAN’T GET NEXT TO YOU The Temptations
10 ( NEW ) FRIENDS Arrival



One of the first purchases to reflect our Forces-overseas affluence (relative to being at home, only, of course) was a proper actual record-player/FM radio with 2 actual speakers for actual stereo, which was a revelation in sound for me. The old blue portable record-player dad bought in Aden was functional, but it was tinny in sound to say the least. This was black plastic, wooden framed class in comparison, and music suddenly was wide-screen. Dad started buying appropriately wide-screen albums and EP’s, like Barbra Streisand’s Funny Girl EP, which had the big Don’t Rain On My Parade for me to singalong to. Radio also benefitted though, it just sounded so much better! Hooray!

Posted by: popchartfreak 19th January 2015, 07:59 PM

27th January 1970

Edison Lighthouse get that number one, one-hit wonders in actual fact here, but singer Tony Burrows would eventually get another under the name First Class. Peter Paul And Mary also go up, to 4. At 8, Vanity Fayre return with another catchy pop ditty, Hitchin’ A Ride, I loved the tune, though the version I was more familiar with (off the radio) was a version by Frank Ifield of all people, early 60’s yodelling favourite. I suppose in truth I should replace Vanity Fayre with Frank in my chart - I did get a tape copy of it off the local radio in Singapore, but it’s been utterly unavailable on vinyl, CD, download, streaming youtube or anyplace in the whole wide world for 45 years or so: till I just googled it and found it on a vinyl album in Brighton for £25. Hmmm, how much do I want it....?


The big news is the belated 3rd hit for big fave singer Mary Hopkin, who was still trying for her hat-trick of number ones, though very much not in a hurry, Those Were The Days in 1968 and Goodbye in 1969, averaging one single a year! Temma Harbour was gorgeously tropical and evocative, sort of calypso-flavoured in a honey-sweet folk coating with lush strings taking me to an aural tropical paradise. Actually, I heavily associate the record with Singapore, the lyrics make references to sunshine, sea, waves, catching fish and coconut trees and that pretty much summed up my way of life at the time. So, not very Asian, more Caribbean, but still tropical images for me.



1 ( 5 ) LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) Edison Lighthouse
2 ( 1 ) REFLECTIONS OF MY LIFE Marmalade
3 ( 3 ) SUGAR SUGAR The Archies
4 ( 7 ) LEAVING ON A JET PLANE Peter, Paul And Mary
5 ( 2 ) TWO LITTLE BOYS Rolf Harris



6 ( 4 ) COME AND GET IT Badfinger
7 ( NEW ) TEMMA HARBOUR Mary Hopkin
8 ( NEW ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE Vanity Fayre
9 ( 10 ) FRIENDS Arrival
10 ( 6 ) (ALL I HAVE TO DO IS) DREAM Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry




Talking of catching fish... it wasn’t to kill, though, it was for my tropical fish tank, which we got at Bedok Junction fish shop, whole tanks of multi-coloured fish of all shapes and sizes just waiting to be put together in one tank - on the one hand I have brilliant vivid memories of shiny green neon tetra, exotic angel face, nippy tiger barb’s, cleaning sucker fish loach, grey catfish, zebra fish, black mollies and especially guppies to devote hours of watching on, on the other hand I also have traumatic memories of the fast-growing angel fish bullying other fish and on one horrendous occasion watch one chop a guppy in half, the poor thing had a horrible slow death because I couldn’t bear having to put it out of it’s torment. Angel fish are not cute, trust me. Guppies are. I used to go fishing for guppies in monsoon drains some months later - the wild males weren’t as multi-coloured as the shop ones, and had smaller tails, but I liked to think I was giving them a good home. Plus it reminded me of days by the river in Chesham, when I was 6 years old and used to catch sticklebacks to keep as pets. At least till they died overnight in the bucket, the inconsiderate little things just didn’t return my love by staying alive and eating bread! Happily the guppies all survived, by and large. Hooray!

Posted by: popchartfreak 22nd February 2015, 01:45 PM

4th February 1970

Love Grows gets 2 weeks on top of my last ever top 10, from here-on it’s Top 20’s as in Singapore we move house to a bungalow with very high ceilings located next door to the rear of the infamous wartime Changi Prison. 122F Tanah Merah Besar was opposite barbed wire fencing, and our house was overlooked from that fence by a tall guard tower, manned by armed prison officers. Burglary didn’t really go on much round here! We were also pretty much a short walk from the end of RAF Changi’s forces airfield runway, so we had regular drowning-out of the TV and radio from loud aircraft taking off, especially the VC10’s. On the plus side I got to see plenty of airplanes for nearly 2 years.

Speaking of jet planes, in the chart, Peter Paul & Mary take John Denver’s song to 2, as Mary Hopkin takes the tropical Temma Harbour to 4, and yes we could see banana plants and coconut trees from our house, hooray! Keeping on with the singer-songwriter cover version theme, in at 7, the pure-voiced folk-ish Judy Collins enters with a gorgeous harpsichord-flavoured cover of Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now, a song I randomly found already recorded on a reel-to-reel tape accompanying our first ever second-hand 4-track tape recorder, which revolutionised my pop music experiences cos I could now repeat-listen to songs as often as I wanted to hear them. Paradise! Buying blank reel-to-reel tapes became important to me, immediately! Both Sides Now is a flawless song, much-covered, but probably only bettered in this version by a male act who charts soon with it. The great white soul songwriter Laura Nyro never achieved any chart success herself, but she provided songs for many others to cover successfully, especially The Fifth Dimension, who had been having hits for 3 years already, including my top 3 Hair track, Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine from 1969. I love their versions of her songs, starting with Wedding Bell Blues, harmony soul delight in at 10.

Which leaves only one other new entry, a kiddie/teen Motown family pop-soul all-male band called The Jackson 5, jointly-fronted by a precociously talented kid who was only 6 months or so younger than 12-year-old me, and his name was Michael. They were sometimes on variety shows imported from the States on TV, so I got to see them sing, and they looked so cool. I Want You Back is brilliant, of course, so good it’s been a hit on several occasions over the decades, a great song, production and passionate vocals from a boy. I wonder what happened to The Jackson 5...



1 ( 1 ) LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) Edison Lighthouse
2 ( 4 ) LEAVING ON A JET PLANE Peter, Paul And Mary
3 ( 2 ) REFLECTIONS OF MY LIFE Marmalade
4 ( 7 ) TEMMA HARBOUR Mary Hopkin
5 ( 3 ) SUGAR SUGAR The Archies



6 ( 8 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE Vanity Fayre
7 ( NEW ) BOTH SIDES NOW Judy Collins
8 ( 5 ) TWO LITTLE BOYS Rolf Harris
9 ( NEW ) I WANT YOU BACK The Jackson 5
10 ( NEW ) WEDDING BELL BLUES The Fifth Dimension

Posted by: 🈶🈲🈳 22nd February 2015, 10:55 PM

Not gonna lie, I prefer Riverdance!

Posted by: popchartfreak 23rd February 2015, 07:57 AM

well it IS great for dancing to

Posted by: popchartfreak 23rd February 2015, 08:44 PM

11th February 1970

At 1, and completing her hat-trick of consecutive chart-toppers, it’s Mary Hopkin and the lovely Temma Harbour. Notable for being the longest-span to get a hat-trick (3 calendar years), for being the first act to do it, and for doing it with her first 3 releases. It would another 14 years before the next act did that (Frankie Goes To Hollywood).

Vanity Fayre go top 5 for the second time, and a load of re-entries peppered about the expanded top 20, but it’s the new entries that count: Actor Lee Marvin growls his way in at 13 with the fab Wanderin’ Star from the movie Paint Your Wagon, a future UK chart-topper, a film loved so much by my family that dad bought the soundtrack album which we played to death. Most famous these days for the brilliant song They Call The Wind Mariah, from which Ms Carey was named. True fact. Also infamous for an even worse vocal performance than Lee Marvin’s endearing growl, yes it’s Clint Eastwood in at 18 with the B Side, I Talk To The Trees. It’s kinda sweet, but Clint never repeated the experience, though to be honest I’ve heard much worse on X Factor’s final shows.

At 15, Glen Campbell was on a roll, and his muse Jimmy Webb was behind him, but ti mattered not as he was hot on country-pop hit gems like Try A Little Kindness, a romping great song, which was a discovery on the afore-mentioned reel-to-reel tape we acquired. I loved it, I played it. A lot. Glen Campbell was pretty much my most favourite pop star in the world in 1970, hot off seeing him True Grit and singing the fab movie theme (not eligible for my chart but it would have been a number 1). At 16, the now-obscure follow-up to huge hit Saved By The Bell, Robin Gibb was still mad at his 2 brothers and on a wistful waltzing-ish ballad groove, another song I loved. It’s pleasant, sweet, nice. Not bad words to me! At 20, Jonathan King starts his long run of whimsical multiple alter-ego hits using his own name, the fun Let It All Hang Out.




1 ( 4 ) TEMMA HARBOUR Mary Hopkin
2 ( 1 ) LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) Edison Lighthouse
3 ( 2 ) LEAVING ON A JET PLANE Peter, Paul And Mary
4 ( 6 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE Vanity Fayre
5 ( 3 ) REFLECTIONS OF MY LIFE Marmalade
6 ( 7 ) BOTH SIDES NOW Judy Collins
7 ( 9 ) I WANT YOU BACK The Jackson 5
8 ( 5 ) SUGAR SUGAR The Archies
9 ( 10 ) WEDDING BELL BLUES The Fifth Dimension
10 ( RE ) COME AND GET IT Badfinger



11 ( 8 ) TWO LITTLE BOYS Rolf Harris
12 ( RE ) FRIENDS Arrival
13 ( NEW ) WANDERIN’ STAR Lee Marvin
14 ( RE ) (ALL I HAVE TO DO IS) DREAM Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry
15 ( NEW ) TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS Glen Campbell
16 ( NEW ) AUGUST OCTOBER Robin Gibb
17 ( RE ) SUSPICIOUS MINDS Elvis Presley
18 ( NEW ) I TALK TO THE TREES Clint Eastwood
19 ( RE ) I CAN’T GET NEXT TO YOU The Temptations
20 ( NEW ) LET IT ALL HANG OUT Jonathan King





Back in sunny Singapore, I was on a new ghari (white RAF bus) to RAF Seletar, on a new route up Tampines Road, which was a bit more rural than the Bedokville route, though on Singapore island (17 miles wide) all things are relative. Next to our hilly road adjacent Changi Prison we had Lloyd Leas Estate, which had a great monsoon river running through it, a great place to re-stock my tropical fish tank with plainly-coloured guppies (multi-colours and frilly fins not being that helpful for survival in monsoon streams). I loved them anyway, been fascinated by fish in rivers since my 6-year-old stickleback-catching days. And lollipop sticks floating down monsoon drains, around obstacles, the shapes the mud flats made. Ah we had to make our entertainment then, no computer games to waste a life away on....

Posted by: popchartfreak 24th February 2015, 10:05 PM

18th February 1970

2 weeks for Mary on top, giving her the most weeks on top in total for any artist in the whole 18 months of pre-teen charting. Judy Collins goes top 3, and Lee Marvin is Wandrin’ up the top 10, and there are 4 new entries: Sacha Distel gets yet another movie Western song into the top 20 (the third) as he covers Burt Bacharach/Hal David’s song from Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid and enters at 16. From this distance the very French crooning isn’t a patch on the much-superior film version by B.J.Thomas, a big American pop star of the period who had a long string of great pop hits, one of them later covered by Jonathan King (at 17 this week) Hooked On A Feeling, which in turn was covered by Blue Swede and as featured in Guardians Of The Galaxy in 2014. At 19, The Brotherhood Of Man debut, though not the Eurovision line-up of singers, it was instead Tony Burrows (at 2 with Edison Lighthouse) leading the way in the early days. This is a great Tony Hiller ballad (creator of the group and co-writer of their later biggest hits), very Eurovision, but in a good way. Lastly, veteran soul group The Tams debut at 20 with the sweet Be Young Be Foolish Be Happy, as the Northern Soul circuit was about to rescue the seeming has-beens from obscurity in a big way in 1971, long after their career had more-or-less faded away and they were looking quite elderly to teenagers like me who were buying their records suddenly.

At 18, it’s John and Yoko, with their second solo hit, and it’s terrific, Instant Karma, complete with Yoko knitting while on Top Of The Pops (not that I saw it at the time, of course, being out of the country and all). The hook We All Shine On is fab, John is in great voice, and we had no idea that The Beatles were actually over, just over 7 years of chart hits from start to finish. Or to put it into perspective, that would be like a musical act dropping out of the blue with new innovative, creative, timeless, and influential material in late 2008, releasing 3 or 4 singles a year, all chart-toppers and usually not on albums, while also releasing a record-breaking 1 or 2 albums a year, giving songs away, making 3 movies, TV specials and touring before calling it a day around now. No wonder they burnt out quickly, that sort of intense career is unthinkable in the modern era. Rihanna comes closest, co-incidentally now working with Paul McCartney. I love a nice link.

1 ( 1 ) TEMMA HARBOUR Mary Hopkin
2 ( 2 ) LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) Edison Lighthouse
3 ( 6 ) BOTH SIDES NOW Judy Collins
4 ( 7 ) I WANT YOU BACK The Jackson 5
5 ( 3 ) LEAVING ON A JET PLANE Peter, Paul And Mary
6 ( 4 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE Vanity Fare
7 ( 5 ) REFLECTIONS OF MY LIFE Marmalade
8 ( 13 ) WAND’RIN’ STAR Lee Marvin
9 ( 16 ) AUGUST OCTOBER Robin Gibb
10 ( 15 ) TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS Glen Campbell



11 ( 10 ) COME AND GET IT Badfinger
12 ( 11 ) TWO LITTLE BOYS Rolf Harris
13 ( 9 ) WEDDING BELL BLUES The Fifth Dimension
14 ( 18 ) I TALK TO THE TREES Clint Eastwood
15 ( 14 ) (ALL I HAVE TO DO IS) DREAM Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry
16 ( NEW ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD Sacha Distel
17 ( 20 ) LET IT ALL HANG OUT Jonathan King
18 ( NEW ) INSTANT KARMA The Plastic Ono Band
19 ( NEW ) UNITED WE STAND Brotherhood Of Man
20 ( NEW ) BE YOUNG BE FOOLISH BE HAPPY The Tams




In Singapore, my swimming badges were coming along nicely, and we getting them sewn onto our swimming gowns - actually that sounds a bit gay now I say it, but they were really just towels you could wear, and it was early evening so the temperatures sometimes dropped as low as ooh the upper 70’s (25C) and it felt a bit chilly after the heat of the day. Perhaps that’s why I still prefer those sort of temperatures, and loathe the cold to this day. Hey, ho, anyway, distance badges were nearly done, and we were by now moving on to learning how to blow up our pyjamas (for life-belt purposes) and diving for bricks - which as we all know is a very useful skill to develop. Who hasn’t accidentally dropped a brick into a river or pond or pool that they just had to retrieve?! Anyways, considering I couldn’t swim 5 months earlier, I did OK.

Posted by: popchartfreak 25th February 2015, 07:13 PM

25th February 1970

3 weeks for Temma Harbour anchored on top, Judy Collins is still looking at both sides now, while Robin Gibb looks at his calendar and gets a second solo top 3 hit. There are only two new entries, but my word they are great: At 15, Bridge Over Troubled Water is the title track to one of the greatest albums of all time, and pure genius in it’s own right, talk about going out on top! Yes, The Beatles weren’t the only ones splitting at the top of their game, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were also going it alone, admittedly because Paul Simon felt as the songwriter he could do whatever he wanted, and did. Paul Simon is a poet, and he’s a gifted folkpop songwriter, but in this case Bridge Over Troubled Water was basically Paul’s gospel tour-de-force sung as a solo by Art, and what a combination that made. The word Epic is over-used, but it’s totally deserved for Bridge Over Troubled Water, future UK chart-topper singles and albums charts, and in the case of the album for 2 years or so on and off. For me, Simon and Garfunkel were big with the young married RAF crowd, we borrowed the album from our next-door neighbours, and recorded it onto reel-to-reel, plus Bridge was regularly on 2-Way Family Favourites, so it remains a huge record for me - without ever being my single-fave record of the moment until I bought the album myself in 1976, played it to death, and would say it’s comfortably one of my top 10 of all-time.




Venus, by Dutch band Shocking Blue and in at 20, was fantastic too, a sort of hippie rock pop anthem, so good it got covered kitschtastically by Bananarama 16 years later.

1 ( 1 ) TEMMA HARBOUR Mary Hopkin
2 ( 3 ) BOTH SIDES NOW Judy Collins
3 ( 9 ) AUGUST OCTOBER Robin Gibb
4 ( 4 ) I WANT YOU BACK The Jackson 5
5 ( 2 ) LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) Edison Lighthouse
6 ( 8 ) WAND’RIN’ STAR Lee Marvin
7 ( 5 ) LEAVING ON A JET PLANE Peter, Paul And Mary
8 ( 10 ) TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS Glen Campbell
9 ( 7 ) REFLECTIONS OF MY LIFE Marmalade
10 ( 14 ) I TALK TO THE TREES Clint Eastwood



11 ( 6 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE Vanity Fare
12 ( 11 ) COME AND GET IT Badfinger
13 ( 16 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD Sacha Distel
14 ( 12 ) TWO LITTLE BOYS Rolf Harris
15 ( NEW ) BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER Simon And Garfunkel
16 ( 17 ) LET IT ALL HANG OUT Jonathan King
17 ( 18 ) INSTANT KARMA The Plastic Ono Band
18 ( 19 ) UNITED WE STAND Brotherhood Of Man
19 ( 13 ) WEDDING BELL BLUES The Fifth Dimension
20 ( NEW ) VENUS Shocking Blue

Posted by: popchartfreak 31st March 2015, 09:16 PM

3rd March 1970

4 weeks for Mary Hopkin’s Harbour on top, still holding off another folk-stylee singer Judy Collins at 2. Lee Marvin wanders his way to 3, Painting his Wagon along with Clint’s tree-talking at 8, while Simon & Garfunkel keep that folk theme going with a gospel detour for the perfect Bridge Over Troubled Water.

B.J. Thomas is the third movie record in the chart entering just behind the Sacha Distel cover, and it’s WAY better, taken straight from the bicycling sequence in Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, a great film for those sunshine-themed days, cool cowboy outlaws and a great Bacharach/David song, what’s not to like! B.J. is also an under-rated singer in the UK, he had some great US hits, many of them covered by others in the UK and US (see Elvis, JK, Blue Swede). Shame!

At 17, future Bananarama hit Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye enters for Steam, actually a 1969 US hit, regarded as bubblegum (and therefore not worthy) but it’s bloody fantastic, and still the definitive version, great tune, great vocal, great production. Kenny Rogers is back, and Something’s Burning at 19. Smoldering for the first half of the country track, mostly, but it packs a wallop later on, and is a cut above some of his more famous later country story songs. Finally, it’s Polly Brown at 20, 4 years ahead of 2 later versions of her pop toons, but this time it’s Pickettywich, who have a sweet enough ditty getting that same old feeling.



1 ( 1 ) TEMMA HARBOUR Mary Hopkin
2 ( 2 ) BOTH SIDES NOW Judy Collins
3 ( 6 ) WAND’RIN’ STAR Lee Marvin
4 ( 3 ) AUGUST OCTOBER Robin Gibb
5 ( 5 ) LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) Edison Lighthouse

6 ( 4 ) I WANT YOU BACK The Jackson 5
7 ( 8 ) TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS Glen Campbell
8 ( 10 ) I TALK TO THE TREES Clint Eastwood
9 ( 15 ) BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER Simon And Garfunkel
10 ( 7 ) LEAVING ON A JET PLANE Peter, Paul And Mary



11 ( 13 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD Sacha Distel
12 ( NEW ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD B.J. Thomas
13 ( 12 ) COME AND GET IT Badfinger
14 ( 17 ) INSTANT KARMA The Plastic Ono Band
15 ( 18 ) UNITED WE STAND Brotherhood Of Man



16 ( 14 ) TWO LITTLE BOYS Rolf Harris
17 ( NEW ) NA NA HEY HEY KISS HIM GOODBYE Steam
18 ( 20 ) VENUS Shocking Blue
19 ( NEW ) SOMETHING’S BURNING Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
20 ( NEW ) THAT SAME OLD FEELING Pickettywich



This week in the news, it was the funeral of Lee Kuan Yew (March 2015) and it’s impossible to mention 1970 Singapore without reference to the giant of Far east politics. Singapore was well under-way on the route to modernisation and prosperity, largely thanks to his way of doing business, politics and social planning. I have very mixed feelings about this (and him) - on the one hand he created a genuine melting pot of cultures, dominated by a sort of Chinese Britishness with generous dashes of Malay and Indian culture, all really dating back to the British Empire in the Far East and trading links between them. I loved the historic styles that old Singapore still had, but the bulldozers were busy levelling much and rebuilding new high rise megacity Singapore. That said, some of the more poverty-stricken areas had their own odours hitting you as soon as you got in range!

On the other hand, Lee kept Singapore relatively stable despite the chaos politically in the immediate region. I never agreed with the death penalty, the anti-gay laws, and the banning of much western youth culture, even as a kid, but it has to be said even Singapore had terrorism problems. That’s not something you got to hear about back in the UK, and it was mostly imported in from neighbouring countries, and directed against the British - even though they were leaving, winding down in 1970 through 1972. The worst moment was when 2 kids from my brothers infants school were blown up by booby-trapped flag-bombs at Suicide Village, one of them dying. This was deliberate targeting of children, the red flags left in scrubland adjacent the largely British housing estate where we had friends we visited. After that, all kids were told not to go away from Changi Village/RAF Changi on their own. Not that I took notice, but that’s another story...

Posted by: Sword of Justice 3rd April 2015, 08:48 AM

John, it's the one from my favourite top 2 in all history of your Buzzjack charts.

Posted by: popchartfreak 3rd April 2015, 01:28 PM

Thanks Alex, I still love them to bits too

Posted by: popchartfreak 3rd April 2015, 09:03 PM

10th March 1970

5 weeks for Mary Hopkin on top, now beating Goodbye’s 4 weeks, but still lagging behind Those Were The Days 7 weeks, but the total of 16 weeks is way ahead of any other act in the 18 months of charting so far. Glen Campbell meanwhile gets yet another record peaking at 2, something of a habit by now, his 4th Top 5. Try A Little Kindness is terrific, and like Galveston and Wichita Lineman should have hit number one too. Raindrops is in the top 10, too, twice! The best version at 5, t’other at 10.

New at 11, it’s...The Beatles and a gospel ballad classic you may have heard? Let It Be. 5th top 20 since Hey Jude debuted on top of my first chart, a Paul McCartney gem, and yes, I loved the Phil Spector-produced strings n all version. No apologies, it’s brilliant any way the Fabs want to do it, but this is the version I heard, and loved. Of course, on April 10th Paul announced that the boys had already in fact Let It Be, and he left what had already disbanded, and the greatest popular music act of the 20th century moved into history after a mere 7 years or so. They crammed more into 7 years than any act has managed in a lifetime, creatively, inspirationally, popularly, culturally and critically. True fact. Lots of people don’t like them (mad!) but no-one can offer up a credible alternative argument. When dad told me the news, in far off Singapore, it seemed just so unlikely! I literally (in the true meaning of the word) could not recall a time when there was no Beatles, and it didn’t seem as if it would stay that way, that one day they would realise the error of their ways and get back together. Eep!

At 15, Andy Williams returns with an Elvis cover, all sweeping strings. Andy was huge in our house in 1970/1, his TV show was the bees knees and I loved The Cookie Bear and frequent guests The Osmond Brothers, not to mention his missus Claudine Longet. Have I mentioned I’ve seen Andy, and Paul, and Glen in concert? Fab, Awesome and awesome, respectively. At 18 and 20, 2 records that came back bigger in my charts in 1974, as technically they didn’t get played much in Singapore (Bob and Marcia was a reggae classic, but not one that made even 2-way family favourites that I heard) - Young Gifted And Black, and Farewell Is A Lonely Sound. Love ‘em, love ‘em. Which leaves childhood faves The Dave Clark 5 returning after a year away with their final good record, the sweet Everybody Get Together, a love and peace pop song with a fab toon. Dave & co would have likely have grabbed at least 3 chart-toppers if I’d started earlier: Bits And Pieces, Glad All Over and Everybody Knows.

1 ( 1 ) TEMMA HARBOUR Mary Hopkin
2 ( 7 ) TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS Glen Campbell
3 ( 3 ) WAND’RIN’ STAR Lee Marvin
4 ( 2 ) BOTH SIDES NOW Judy Collins
5 ( 12 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD B.J. Thomas

6 ( 5 ) LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) Edison Lighthouse
7 ( 9 ) BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER Simon And Garfunkel
8 ( 6 ) I WANT YOU BACK The Jackson 5
9 ( 4 ) AUGUST OCTOBER Robin Gibb
10 ( 11 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD Sacha Distel



11 ( NEW ) LET IT BE The Beatles
12 ( 8 ) I TALK TO THE TREES Clint Eastwood
13 ( 17 ) NA NA HEY HEY KISS HIM GOODBYE Steam
14 ( 10 ) LEAVING ON A JET PLANE Peter, Paul And Mary
15 ( NEW ) CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE Andy Williams



16 ( 19 ) SOMETHING’S BURNING Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
17 ( 16 ) TWO LITTLE BOYS Rolf Harris
18 ( NEW ) (TO BE) YOUNG GIFTED AND BLACK Bob And Marcia
19 ( NEW ) EVERYBODY GET TOGETHER The Dave Clark 5
20 ( NEW ) FAREWELL IS A LONELY SOUND Jimmy Ruffin



So, life at Tanah Merah Besar, by Changi prison. It meant a longer bus ride to school at RAF Seletar, and at school I’d been moved up a grade into a higher Maths class, while still in English class 2. The other subjects were mixed ability with the rest of my classmates in 1H2 - I was doing pretty well, actually, I enjoyed being at school, I had friends, a best friend in Stephen Game, and was actually not that rubbish at athletics, a first for me being good at any sort of sports. The roasting sun and humidity obviously affected me less than everyone else, hooray! For some reason, oddly, when we all sat down for 12 Plus exams I tried to do well. 12 Plus? Actually 11 Plus exams, where kids were streamed according to passing (Grammar Schools) or failing (Secondary Modern Schools). Obviously I, along with all kids at my previous British Primary School bar 1, was a failure, as was the norm for oiks in those days. trouble was the Secondary School in Seletar was over-subscribed, and the Grammar School in Changi was under-subscribed, so each term a couple kids from each year were upgraded to Grammar, usually the swots that had slipped through the net unexpectedly. A bit like me then. Not sure, in retrospect, that I should have tried, cos I only went and bloody passed (it turned out a few weeks later) which really made my heart sink. I loved it at Seletar and didn’t want to leave. Damn!

Posted by: popchartfreak 4th April 2015, 04:23 PM

17th March 1970

6th and final week on top for Mary Hopkin - she would have had longer, but sadly I gave records a chart run that matched the UK singles chart, and once they dropped out of that one they were ejected (and non-chart runs were limited to 10 weeks). Judy Collins also gets the boot this week for the same reason, giving Canned Heat a brief chance of a 3rd hit, Let’s Work Together, an old blues track that was to become definitive for Bryan Ferry in 1976, under it’s new title Let’s Stick Together.


1 ( 1 ) TEMMA HARBOUR Mary Hopkin
2 ( 3 ) WAND’RIN’ STAR Lee Marvin
3 ( 2 ) TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS Glen Campbell
4 ( 5 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD B.J. Thomas
5 ( 7 ) BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER Simon And Garfunkel
6 ( 10 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD Sacha Distel
7 ( 11 ) LET IT BE The Beatles
8 ( 6 ) LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) Edison Lighthouse
9 ( 13 ) NA NA HEY HEY KISS HIM GOODBYE Steam
10 ( 8 ) I WANT YOU BACK The Jackson 5



11 ( 14 ) LEAVING ON A JET PLANE Peter, Paul And Mary
12 ( 9 ) AUGUST OCTOBER Robin Gibb
13 ( 18 ) (TO BE) YOUNG GIFTED AND BLACK Bob And Marcia
14 ( 15 ) CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE Andy Williams
15 ( 19 ) EVERYBODY GET TOGETHER The Dave Clark 5
16 ( 12 ) I TALK TO THE TREES Clint Eastwood
17 ( 20 ) FAREWELL IS A LONELY SOUND Jimmy Ruffin
18 ( 17 ) TWO LITTLE BOYS Rolf Harris
19 ( 16 ) SOMETHING’S BURNING Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
20 ( NEW ) LET’S WORK TOGETHER Canned Heat




The Beatles Steam into the 10, Lee Marvin peaks at 2, the rest shuffle about a bit. At RAF Changi we were having quite the social whirl, as neighbours the Wainwrights spent a lot of time with us, Dale and Gary being slightly younger than me and my brother, and baby Jamie being adored by mum, so we often did stuff together, such as ten pin bowling on camp. I still love 10-pin bowling, one of the games I’m actually good at, and no-nonsense attitudes to it, fits perfectly for anyone capable of holding a heavy ball and chucking it at some pins. Fab. We attended a lot of stamp auctions, too, as I now specialised in getting mint and first day cover 1960’s UK stamps, and recent and current Singapore stamps. Singapore had some gorgeous designs on theirs - the various traditional dresses of ethnic female Singaporeans featured heavily, and became the template for copper beatings, a big artistic pastime of the mums, framed for wall display and all. This truly was a lifestyle of leisure and creativity completely alien to 1960’s UK. Mum’s works still hang on the wall. We also bought paintings on silk cloth from a deaf Chinese lady, madame Teo, who came round the house one day, Chinese ships in traditional harbours, the sort of views very-much disappearing in the modern Singapore. Fab.

Posted by: popchartfreak 4th April 2015, 06:43 PM

24th March 1970

Mary Hopkin gets evicted for her protege, the one that signed her to Apple Records, wrote her a follow-up hit, and produced her huge number one - that’ll be Paul McCartney then, as The Beatles get their second number one, and Paul McCartney becomes the first songwriter to write 3 number ones (credited also to John Lennon, but Paul wrote them - John and Paul credited each other on songs after their teenage agreement, even if the other had nothing to do with it). The Beatles become the first band to get 2 number ones. Mary Hopkin, in the meantime, is the UK’s Eurovision singer and here she is at 13 - Knock Knock Who’s There? Mary. Mary who? I just told you, use your ears! It’s not as good as her first three singles, but she was on a roll!

BJ hits 2, Raindrops tended to fall on our heads too - well monsoon raindrops in Singapore, deluges of warm exciting floods of rain, filling the monsoon drains, and running down into our new house patio, giving us temporary paddling pools to play in. Hooray! I digress. Bob and Marcia hit the 10, and Joe Dolan gets a second hit, following his 1969 biggie Make Me An Island which I adored. You’re Such A Good Looking Woman is a nice slice of upbeat Irish pop balladry, so yay!



1 ( 7 ) LET IT BE The Beatles
2 ( 4 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD B.J. Thomas
3 ( 2 ) WAND’RIN’ STAR Lee Marvin
4 ( 5 ) BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER Simon And Garfunkel
5 ( 3 ) TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS Glen Campbell
6 ( 9 ) NA NA HEY HEY KISS HIM GOODBYE Steam
7 ( 6 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD Sacha Distel
8 ( 8 ) LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) Edison Lighthouse
9 ( 13 ) (TO BE) YOUNG GIFTED AND BLACK Bob And Marcia
10 ( 10 ) I WANT YOU BACK The Jackson 5



11 ( 15 ) EVERYBODY GET TOGETHER The Dave Clark 5
12 ( 12 ) AUGUST OCTOBER Robin Gibb
13 ( NEW ) KNOCK KNOCK WHO’S THERE Mary Hopkin
14 ( 11 ) LEAVING ON A JET PLANE Peter, Paul And Mary
15 ( 17 ) FAREWELL IS A LONELY SOUND Jimmy Ruffin
16 ( 14 ) CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE Andy Williams
17 ( 19 ) SOMETHING’S BURNING Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
18 ( 16 ) I TALK TO THE TREES Clint Eastwood
19 ( 20 ) LET’S WORK TOGETHER Canned Heat
20 ( NEW ) YOU’RE SUCH A GOOD LOOKING WOMAN Joe Dolan





Talking of rain, the monsoon drains all ran to bigger drains, which ran downhill from Changi Prison onto the Lloyd Leas Estate huge drain, mostly a stream or river, dependent on volume - where I used to fish for guppies. On the way downhill, there was this overhanging tree on the footpath just by the junction to the main road, and it had giant ants living on it, Clingers we called them, cos they sowed up the elongated leaves of the tree into oval-ish hollow balls where they lived. The downside was you had to not hang around cos they had a tendency to drop on you from above, and had a hurty nip. Just behind the tree was a Kampong, Malay this time I think, with a shop fronting the road selling bits and bobs. The worst visit I had to make to the shop was when mum was poorly in bed and needed some lady products, and I had to ask for some hoping they spoke English well enough. Very embarrassing for a 12-year-old!

Posted by: popchartfreak 4th April 2015, 07:30 PM

31st March 1970

2 weeks for Let It Be on top, as the Eurovision winner for Ireland, teenage sweet-faced sweet-voiced Dana enters at 2 with her sweet ditty All Kinds Of Everything. This is bad news for Mary Hopkin up to 9 with her UK entry! Not that I got to see the contest, the first I’d missed since I first watched Sandie Shaw win in 1967, being as Singapore and Malaya TV didn’t broadcast it. In at 16, it’s a future 3 times UK chart-topping song, the awesome Spirit In The Sky, but the best version by far is the original from Norman Greenbaum, the fab riffy guitars, the singalong gospel-tinged chorus, the tune...fantastic! I finally bought the single in 1974, which is when I fell in love with it, but I was sort of aware of it at the time, which is why it was allowed in these charts. Gimme Dat Ding at 17 - yes, it’s him again, Tony Burrows singing (unrecognisably) assisted by David & Jonathan man Roger Greenaway, and written by Albert Hammond & Mike Hazelwood. It’s falsetto fun, almost 20’s jazz in style. At 20, The Four Tops are back (even though their substantial classic period predated my charts, with the awesome Levi Stubbs vocals, they were still having reissued Holland Dozier Holland hits - this time with early single I Can’t Help Myself.

1 ( 1 ) LET IT BE The Beatles
2 ( NEW ) ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING Dana
3 ( 2 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD B.J. Thomas
4 ( 4 ) BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER Simon And Garfunkel
5 ( 3 ) WAND’RIN’ STAR Lee Marvin

6 ( 6 ) NA NA HEY HEY KISS HIM GOODBYE Steam
7 ( 5 ) TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS Glen Campbell
8 ( 9 ) (TO BE) YOUNG GIFTED AND BLACK Bob And Marcia
9 ( 13 ) KNOCK KNOCK WHO’S THERE Mary Hopkin
10 ( 8 ) LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) Edison Lighthouse




11 ( 7 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD Sacha Distel
12 ( 10 ) I WANT YOU BACK The Jackson 5
13 ( 15 ) FAREWELL IS A LONELY SOUND Jimmy Ruffin
14 ( 11 ) EVERYBODY GET TOGETHER The Dave Clark 5
15 ( 12 ) AUGUST OCTOBER Robin Gibb




16 ( NEW ) SPIRIT IN THE SKY Norman Greenbaum
17 ( NEW ) GIMME DAT DING The Pipkins
18 ( 18 ) I TALK TO THE TREES Clint Eastwood
19 ( 16 ) CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE Andy Williams
20 ( NEW ) I CAN’T HELP MYSELF The Four Tops

Posted by: Sword of Justice 4th April 2015, 07:42 PM

Dana vs Mary Hopkin. Looks very familiar. The one from two epic Eurovision battles for win (another is France Gall vs Kathy Kirby in 1965).

Dana won my ESC ranking for 1970, had more weeks at # 1 and it's my second favourite all-time UK # 1 (behind "The Land of Make Believe"), but both songs are WONDERFUL and were included in my all-time top 5 Eurovision songs.

My favourite Mary Hopkin singles :
1. Mary Had A Baby (Best Christmas song ever !!!)
2. Knock Knock Who's There
3. Temma Harbour

All 8 Mary Hopkin's singles were # 1 in my retro charts. Mighty pop beauty.
It's a record : Shampoo had 5 # 1s from 5 singles, H & Claire and allSTARS* had 4 # 1s from 4 singles.

Posted by: AH Gold 4th April 2015, 08:46 PM

Some classic stuff here. Bob & Marcia, BJ Thomas and Four Tops are my particular faves in the last chart. I do like Bridge Over Troubled Water but it's one of those songs (like Bo Rhap) that has suffered due to overkill in my view.

Posted by: popchartfreak 6th April 2015, 07:08 AM

Thanks AH, I guess S&G is a regular radio fave, though I've never overdosed on it like I have BoRap. Glad you like some of the oldies though, I'm always fascinated to see which oldies appeal to folk who werent around at the time (so dont have the bias of nostalgia like I do ) Those are 3 good choices!

Posted by: popchartfreak 4th May 2015, 06:23 PM

7th April 1970

It’s a first Eurovision song chart-topper for Dana, All Kinds Of Everything won the first of many victories for Ireland and the pretty teenager with the pretty voice and pretty song. Everybody say aaaahh! I did love it at the time, less so these days though. The UK’s entry has to make do with 4, as Knock Knock Who’s There shockingly fails to go on top after 3 singles in a row to hit my number one. Not so shocking, actually, as it got very little airplay in Singapore, and Dana was always on 2-way Family Favourites. The classic Bridge Over Troubled Water is at 3, and the also classic Spirit In The Sky is up to 8.

New at 17, Blue Mink are back with another good single, Good Morning Freedom, I loved Madeleine Bell and happily caught her on TV the other day talking about her days as Dusty Springfield’s backing vocalist during Dusty’s classic period. The single is SO catchy! At 18, and Stevie is really on a roll, Never Had A Dream Come True is a great single towards the tail-end of his early Motown soul-crooner days, and before he became a serious album’s artist on top of hitmaker of singles. Creedence were also on a roll, Travelling Band being one of their big UK hits, but one I like less than some of their minor UK hits which hit it big in the USA around 1970 and 1971. Always good though.



1 ( 2 ) ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING Dana
2 ( 1 ) LET IT BE The Beatles
3 ( 4 ) BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER Simon And Garfunkel
4 ( 9 ) KNOCK KNOCK WHO’S THERE Mary Hopkin
5 ( 3 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD B.J. Thomas
6 ( 8 ) (TO BE) YOUNG GIFTED AND BLACK Bob And Marcia
7 ( 5 ) WAND’RIN’ STAR Lee Marvin
8 ( 16 ) SPIRIT IN THE SKY Norman Greenbaum
9 ( 6 ) NA NA HEY HEY KISS HIM GOODBYE Steam
10 ( 7 ) TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS Glen Campbell



11 ( 13 ) FAREWELL IS A LONELY SOUND Jimmy Ruffin
12 ( 12 ) I WANT YOU BACK The Jackson 5
13 ( 17 ) GIMME DAT DING The Pipkins
14 ( 20 ) I CAN’T HELP MYSELF The Four Tops
15 ( 15 ) AUGUST OCTOBER Robin Gibb



16 ( 14 ) EVERYBODY GET TOGETHER The Dave Clark 5
17 ( NEW ) GOOD MORNING FREEDOM Blue Mink
18 ( NEW ) NEVER HAD A DREAM COME TRUE Stevie Wonder
19 ( 18 ) I TALK TO THE TREES Clint Eastwood
20 ( NEW ) TRAVELLIN' BAND Creedence Clearwater Revival





In Singapore, I had a new friend from an adjacent bungalow to the rear of the house, Robert Gough, who went to the Grammar School at Changi, had a warrant officer dad (all my dad’s mates were low-ranking so this was virtual hob-nobbing with the elite!) and he got sent home to private school in the UK for a while. When it was his birthday I got a real treat in a Katong upstairs restaurant, my first-ever banana split, and some money to spend in the big Robinson’s store in the city - where I got a brand new copy of Action Comics 386, which featured an ageing immortal Superman in a continuing story set in the far future, and a legion Of Super-Heroes back Zap Goes The Legion! which had a fave minor villainess Uli Algor, who plotted to turn their super-powers against the featured legionnaires - she got beaten by a punch. Always poor planners, villains! It was a great evening out though, and of course I still have that comic, still precious to me and in good condition, with the 55 cents Singapore price-tag stamped on it. These things matter when you’re 12 (or 57)!

At the Oscars, it was Midnight Cowboy, John Wayne (in True Grit, which I loved), and Maggie Smith - sadly, not for Sister Act, that was still nearly 20 years away! On TV I was watching reruns of The Ice Warriors Doctor Who (well re-runs to me, having watched them 2 years earlier in the UK), while the UK was stuck with Jon Pertwee episodes - he just wasn’t the Doctor! I was also watching The Banana Splits which aired just before it, I loved the cool Drooper, the animated cartoons, the crap gags, and especially the theme tune and funky songs. Oldies on TV? Gilligan’s Island, My Favorite Martian, The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis, Car 54 Where Are You? and other US 60’s sitcoms. My pop culture is pretty much American pop culture, British sitcoms were dull in comparison. All of ‘em. The first sitcom that appealed to me was just out in the UK - Up Pompeii - and that was very much in the Carry On tradition. Carry On films still came out regularly and played at the RAF Changi cinema - I remember going to see Carry On Loving in 1971 and not getting the “cooking fat” gag for a cat’s name. Cos he spits, I thought, naively!

Posted by: Sword of Justice 4th May 2015, 06:44 PM

I thought "Knock Knock" will be # 1 here, not Dana.

Still adore both songs

Dana was the first Irish singer with # 1 in my charts. The chain will continue with another Irish ESC participants, Corrs, B*Witched and Imelda May.

Posted by: popchartfreak 4th May 2015, 07:09 PM

Sadly, Mary never got another new number one - though Those Were The days returned to the top 20 years on She still has my first-ever hat-trick though, even my beloved Beatles didn't do that (despite writing one of them for her)

Posted by: popchartfreak 4th May 2015, 08:01 PM

14th April 1970

2 weeks for Dana on top, and Spirit In The Sky hits 5, but a quiet week overall, just The Band’s Rag Mama Rag at 20 (not even their best single) and The Archies EP at 9: this was an EP mum and dad bought with my own pocket money. I’d asked them to get me The Partridge Family EP - EP’s were quite pricey, but you got 4 good quality tracks as I was mad on the new TV show and songs, but they knew I was also mad on The Archies songs from TV shows, too - I even took to recording them direct from the TV with a hand-held microphone on our reel-to-reel recorder, tinny quality but they also happened to be generally pretty good, and many of them remain unreleased to this day, to my ongoing annoyance. Anyhoo, Sugar Sugar had already topped, but the other tracks were also good, I already knew the theme tune (which was fun) and Bang Shang A Lang was jolly bubblegum pop that had hit the US charts before Sugar Sugar. Of course, I also bought the comics if I had spare cash after grabbing every DC superhero comic I could find from second-hand bookstalls and shops. The cover of the EP (the first I ever bought) is also the one used by the youtube link

1 ( 1 ) ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING Dana
2 ( 2 ) LET IT BE The Beatles
3 ( 3 ) BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER Simon And Garfunkel
4 ( 4 ) KNOCK KNOCK WHO’S THERE Mary Hopkin
5 ( 8 ) SPIRIT IN THE SKY Norman Greenbaum

6 ( 7 ) WAND’RIN’ STAR Lee Marvin
7 ( 5 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD B.J. Thomas
8 ( 6 ) (TO BE) YOUNG GIFTED AND BLACK Bob And Marcia
9 ( NEW ) THE ARCHIES EP (Sugar Sugar/Bang Shang A Lang/ Everything’s Archie (Archie's Theme)/Over And Over) The Archies
10 ( 10 ) TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS Glen Campbell



11 ( 9 ) NA NA HEY HEY KISS HIM GOODBYE Steam
12 ( 13 ) GIMME DAT DING The Pipkins
13 ( 12 ) I WANT YOU BACK The Jackson 5
14 ( 11 ) FAREWELL IS A LONELY SOUND Jimmy Ruffin
15 ( 17 ) GOOD MORNING FREEDOM Blue Mink



16 ( 18 ) NEVER HAD A DREAM COME TRUE Stevie Wonder
17 ( 14 ) I CAN’T HELP MYSELF The Four Tops
18 ( 16 ) EVERYBODY GET TOGETHER The Dave Clark 5
19 ( 20 ) TRAVELLIN' BAND Creedence Clearwater Revival
20 ( NEW ) RAG MAMA RAG The Band




In the news world, there were 2 major stories around the world, and very much in Singapore too: The Beatles split up! Paul McCartney announced the unthinkable, the fab four were no more, they were an ex-world-conquering-megastar-act. These days we are used to seeing bands fold, even big ones, and even at the height of their success, but back then there had never been a band as big as The Beatles (and never would be again), and they really were rewriting all of the rule books, including ending at the top of their game. For me personally, it all seemed a bit distant (quite literally), and as I’d already loved Give Peace A Chance the prospect of solo Beatles singles seemed to still be a very good thing, and to be honest I’m not sure I (or the media, or anyone else) thought that it would be forever. I just seemed so unlikely that the biggest pop group in the world as far back as I could remember would not be back. Good thing I didn’t know the reality!

The other event was Apollo 13. It gripped the world media over the next 2 weeks, as it lifted-off on it’s doomed (but ultimately heroic) voyage to the moon. Apollo 11 had been Earth-shattering, Apollo 12 was a bit like watching a repeat, only without a camera - the lack of images was a major PR disaster and was the start of the grumbling backlash from critics and taxpayers. Apollo 13 was different. We honestly had no idea what would happen, and I recall one of mum’s friend’s soberly offering an opinion that she thought they would die, which kind of brought it all home how serious the situation was. I can’t do better than suggest watching the Tom Hanks movie Apollo13, that pretty much tells the whole story of Jim Lovell and co, and perfectly captures what 1970 looked like and sounded like, the fashions, the media. My mum was 30-ish and wore mini-skirts, so did her friends. I was mad on the space missions and was gutted when they cancelled them. I cut out colour splash photos of Apollo 14 on the moon, as it got a temporary boost and subsequent missions had the cool Lunar Rover to motor about as well as proper decent colour video pictures. Awesome then, awesome now, and as part of history now taken for granted. I suggest taking a look at the recent high-def images of the moon’s surface, taken from satellite, they are incredible, you can make out every rover trail, footprints and every bit of equipment left on the surface of the moon. They will stay there, barring return visits which look less likely with every passing decade, for centuries, long after all of the crackpot “Moon-landing hoax” money-making charlatans have been forgotten. For every event there is a conspiracy theorist jumping out of the woodwork to get rich on other people’s paranoia and naivety.

Posted by: popchartfreak 6th May 2015, 06:20 PM

21st April 1970

3 weeks for Dana, summertime, wintertime, spring and autumn too, nothing is shifting her, not even The Archies at 3, or Stevie Wonder up to 8. Highest new entry, though, is a personal obscure fave of mine written by blue-eyed soul/gospel singer-songwriter Laura Nyro. She was a fantastic songwriter but never made it as an artist, but her songs were often covered successfully by acts of the time, and especially by The Fifth Dimension, the ultimate sweet soul harmony band. Like contemporaries The Carpenters, considered a bit too MOR and uncool, I think they are long overdue a critical re-appraisal. Save The Country was a social-conscience gospel song with lyrical sentiments that still apply. I’d like to see it covered, modern-stylee, and not just because it evokes strong feel-good nostalgic memories of 1970 Singapore (which it does, the group were often on US variety shows broadcast) or the general music-scene vibes of 1970 (which it should, not being a million miles away from Hair - and their hit version of Aquarius).

Tom Jones is back, 2 years of popchartfreak-hit-making (pah! 2 years! Currently on about 46 years...) and Daughter Of Darkness was one of his more sombre darker-story-songs, and it packed a punch enough. Arguably his last record to do that for, ooh, 18 years. The Hollies meanwhile can’t tell the bottom from the top, not a problem I generally have, and it’s a decent enough pop song (as always). Finally House Of The Rising Sun is back, very famous, one of those songs that always seemed to have existed in pop culture, but not The Animals! No, it’s a hippie prog rock version from Frijid Pink. Alecia Moore might have something to say about that, I’d hazard a guess!

1 ( 1 ) ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING Dana
2 ( 2 ) LET IT BE The Beatles
3 ( 9 ) THE ARCHIES EP (Sugar Sugar/Bang Shang A Lang/ Everything’s Archie (Archie's Theme)/Over And Over) The Archies
4 ( 3 ) BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER Simon And Garfunkel
5 ( 5 ) SPIRIT IN THE SKY Norman Greenbaum

6 ( 4 ) KNOCK KNOCK WHO’S THERE Mary Hopkin
7 ( 6 ) WAND’RIN’ STAR Lee Marvin
8 ( 16 ) NEVER HAD A DREAM COME TRUE Stevie Wonder
9 ( 8 ) (TO BE) YOUNG GIFTED AND BLACK Bob And Marcia
10 ( NEW ) SAVE THE COUNTRY The Fifth Dimension



11 ( 12 ) GIMME DAT DING The Pipkins
12 ( 7 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD B.J. Thomas
13 ( 15 ) GOOD MORNING FREEDOM Blue Mink
14 ( 10 ) TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS Glen Campbell
15 ( 14 ) FAREWELL IS A LONELY SOUND Jimmy Ruffin



16 ( 19 ) TRAVELLIN' BAND Creedence Clearwater Revival
17 ( NEW ) DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS Tom Jones
18 ( 17 ) I CAN’T HELP MYSELF The Four Tops
19 ( NEW ) I CAN’T TELL THE BOTTOM FROM THE TOP The Hollies
20 ( NEW ) HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN Frijid Pink




Back in home-life anecdote vogue, we had local gardeners come round to cut the lawn - not exactly grass in the European sense, the plants had broader leaves and were quite tough under-foot as they needed to be to avoid getting washed away in monsoon rains. The main gardener was usually a Malay man with a couple of kids tagged on, and they planted a few decorative shrubs with pink and white flowers around, one they called the poo-poo tree. Maybe they were having us on, it was quite nice! The garden was quite exposed to the sun at this time, little natural shade, so I was fascinated to see them stick a twig in the ground by the fence and monsoon drain behind it in the front garden facing our fold-out door - the front room had no windows at all, basically the whole frontage just folded into wooden doors that folded inward and opened up the room to the garden (and insects and chit-chat geckos). More fascinating was the twig actually growing rapidly, sprouting leaves, and within a year or 18 months it was shady tree big enough to climb into (at least for me and my brother). I also became interested in growing exotic fast-growing plant-pot plants and seeds outside. Still am. Still do.

The late great Laura Nyro, just her voice and piano and song...

Posted by: popchartfreak 6th May 2015, 07:52 PM

28th April 1970

It’s a new entry, the only act that can stop The Archies from topping my chart - yes it’s The Beatles getting a 3rd Number One, all of them Paul McCartney songs, and the Fabs replace themselves in the chart as Let It Be prematurely vacates the UK singles chart but The Long And Winding Road heads to the top of the US chart, and gets plenty of Singapore exposure. Paul wasn’t that keen on the Phil Spector strings arrangement, but I was a huge 12-year-old fan of it, and the climactic emotional build. Sentimental? Absolutely. Mushy? A bit. Brilliant? Too right! It was the end of the Long And Winding Road for The Beatles, and a good one to go out on as much as Let It Be was. Not a UK single of course, like so many classic Beatles tracks, though it did eventually top the UK charts, err for Gareth Gates and Will Young. Better late than never.

The World Cup was apparently a thing in 1970. I say that as I had no inkling about anything to do with it, other than the song Back Home which was listed in the Daily Mirror Top 30 charts when we got a massive bundle of newspapers all glued and packaged together like a telephone book every month or so. At least I got to hear about some of the hits even if not actually hear them. So, in at 18 an actual decent World Cup song, and it’s from the England squad on their way in the summer to not actually winning for a second time in a row. Ne’er mind, sure there’ll be another victory soon, lads.... No? In at 19, a folk singer often on UK TV, Julie Felix does a quick cover of the Simon And Garfunkel album track. I liked Julie, but let’s be honest, not as good as the S&G version. Which leaves The Move returning after a number one in 1969 with Blackberry Way, but with a difference - Roy Wood had inducted his Brummie mate in the band, name of Jeff Lynne, and The Brontosaurus was a monster combo. A bit heavy, not one of my fave Move tracks, but it was essentially the seeds of The Electric Light Orchestra being sown before our eyes. Nobody remembers the Move anymore (sadly), but ELO and Roy Wood are still a bit famous!




1 ( NEW ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles
2 ( 3 ) THE ARCHIES EP (Sugar Sugar/Bang Shang A Lang/ Everything’s Archie (Archie's Theme)/Over And Over) The Archies
3 ( 1 ) ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING Dana
4 ( 5 ) SPIRIT IN THE SKY Norman Greenbaum
5 ( 4 ) BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER Simon And Garfunkel

6 ( 6 ) KNOCK KNOCK WHO’S THERE Mary Hopkin
7 ( 10 ) SAVE THE COUNTRY The Fifth Dimension
8 ( 7 ) WAND’RIN’ STAR Lee Marvin
9 ( 9 ) (TO BE) YOUNG GIFTED AND BLACK Bob And Marcia
10 ( 8 ) NEVER HAD A DREAM COME TRUE Stevie Wonder



11 ( 17 ) DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS Tom Jones
12 ( 11 ) GIMME DAT DING The Pipkins
13 ( 12 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD B.J. Thomas
14 ( 19 ) I CAN’T TELL THE BOTTOM FROM THE TOP The Hollies
15 ( 13 ) GOOD MORNING FREEDOM Blue Mink



16 ( 14 ) TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS Glen Campbell
17 ( 15 ) FAREWELL IS A LONELY SOUND Jimmy Ruffin
18 ( NEW ) BACK HOME England World Cup Squad
19 ( NEW ) IF I COULD Julie Felix
20 ( NEW ) BRONTOSAURUS The Move

Posted by: popchartfreak 8th June 2015, 06:07 PM

5th May 1970

2 weeks for The Beatles on top as The Long And Winding Road winds on, but in at 2 it’s an instant fave from Christie, Yellow River being a sort of poppier version of Creedence Clearwater Revival, and a very catchy song indeed and often played on Singapore radio. Once upon a time it was very well-known, these days it’s fallen a bit out of favour, but for me it has such strong nostalgia associating with great Singapore days that I still have great fondness for it.

Julie Felix, If I Could, goes top 10, and there is only one more new entry, The Moody Blues have a Question at 18. My question is, why I never rated it enormously when I finally got to hear it once or twice (not a radio fave in Singapore), but it’s grown on me over the years as I got more familiar with it's Alone Again Or vibe, like most of the Moody’s songs having finally got to see them in concert recently. Still good!

1 ( 1 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles
2 ( NEW ) YELLOW RIVER Christie
3 ( 3 ) ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING Dana
4 ( 2 ) THE ARCHIES EP (Sugar Sugar/Bang Shang A Lang/ Everything’s Archie (Archie's Theme)/Over And Over) The Archies
5 ( 5 ) BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER Simon And Garfunkel
6 ( 4 ) SPIRIT IN THE SKY Norman Greenbaum
7 ( 7 ) SAVE THE COUNTRY The Fifth Dimension
8 ( 19 ) IF I COULD Julie Felix
9 ( 6 ) KNOCK KNOCK WHO’S THERE Mary Hopkin
10 ( 11 ) DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS Tom Jones

11 ( 9 ) (TO BE) YOUNG GIFTED AND BLACK Bob And Marcia
12 ( 10 ) NEVER HAD A DREAM COME TRUE Stevie Wonder
13 ( 14 ) I CAN’T TELL THE BOTTOM FROM THE TOP The Hollies
14 ( 13 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD B.J. Thomas
15 ( 18 ) BACK HOME England World Cup Squad
16 ( 12 ) GIMME DAT DING The Pipkins
17 ( 16 ) TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS Glen Campbell
18 ( NEW ) QUESTION The Moody Blues
19 ( 17 ) FAREWELL IS A LONELY SOUND Jimmy Ruffin
20 ( 15 ) GOOD MORNING FREEDOM Blue Mink



In world events the Kent University, Ohio shooting of students by troopers shocked the world. The Vietnam War and other such student protests, such as environmentalism, were not looked on kindly by the establishment. The very famous photo of a victim with a woman kneeling over his body affected me, and if anything made me even more anti-violence, pro-peace, and pro-environment, pro-equal-rights and many other pro’s. It all seemed very simple and logical to this 12-year-old that some things were just plain wrong, and using deadly force against students was one of them. Vietnam was a lot closer to home in Singapore, and always loomed large on the news.

At the RAF cinema, which was always a bit behind the times, we weren’t yet watching the big movies A Man Called Horse, but mum and dad went to see when they got hold of a copy, very much in line with the mood of the times as Native Americans were no longer just baddie injuns for cowboys to shoot dead at every opportunity in the movies. The Aristocats also came out, but for some reason we never got to see that one, leaving a Disney hole in my childhood experiences, ditto Bedknobs And Broomsticks. After that, there was only really the next animated movie (Robin Hood) before I stopped altogether until Robin Williams voiced Aladdin 20 years later.

Posted by: popchartfreak 8th June 2015, 06:47 PM

12th May 1970

Yellow River gets it’s first week at number one, fab! Tom Jones is up to 9, keeping his run of top 10 singles of at least one a year intact, and it’s the dramatic Daughter Of Darkness. New at 3, though, it’s a record I was insanely mad on, Honey Come Back was a huge hit for Glen Campbell and even though in retrospect it’s not his best single by any means, it was sweetly touching, tuneful and popular, and I just became obsessed by the hook and by Glen Campbell. Some of mum and dad’s friends had an album by Glen with it on, so I got to hear it when we went round, and this became the album I most wanted for Christmas, so I could get my own copy of the single. When they bought me an Australian mash-up of tracks from his previous two albums I was disappointed to say the least (they couldn’t find a copy), though I’m glad they did as This Is Glen Campbell had Wichita Lineman, Galveston, By The Time I Get To Phoenix and was a bloody timelessly brilliant album - even if I’m probably one of few to own an existing copy of those track-listings.

In at 18, Up The Ladder To The Roof, and The Supremes return without Diana Ross. I’ll be honest, I saw the split as a good thing, Diana Ross solo records were fantastic, and the new Supremes line-up was also fantastic, both were releasing terrific singles throughout the early 70’s. Sadly, public perception is that the Supremes dies without Diana Ross, but that’s not true, they had some classic singles to come, easily among the best, and the new girls (along with Mary Wilson) were great singers - Jean Terrell and Cindy Birdsong. This again was a single I barely heard at all at the time, and didn’t pick up on properly until 1975 on “5 Years Ago” charts on the radio in the UK. I won’t mention the host DJ. He’s already poisoned enough childhood memories for a generation.



1 ( 2 ) YELLOW RIVER Christie
2 ( 1 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles
3 ( NEW ) HONEY COME BACK Glen Campbell
4 ( 3 ) ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING Dana
5 ( 5 ) BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER Simon And Garfunkel
6 ( 8 ) IF I COULD Julie Felix
7 ( 6 ) SPIRIT IN THE SKY Norman Greenbaum
8 ( 4 ) THE ARCHIES EP (Sugar Sugar/Bang Shang A Lang/ Everything’s Archie (Archie's Theme)/Over And Over) The Archies
9 ( 10 ) DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS Tom Jones
10 ( 7 ) SAVE THE COUNTRY The Fifth Dimension

11 ( 9 ) KNOCK KNOCK WHO’S THERE Mary Hopkin
12 ( 15 ) BACK HOME England World Cup Squad
13 ( 11 ) (TO BE) YOUNG GIFTED AND BLACK Bob And Marcia
14 ( 18 ) QUESTION The Moody Blues
15 ( 12 ) NEVER HAD A DREAM COME TRUE Stevie Wonder
16 ( 13 ) I CAN’T TELL THE BOTTOM FROM THE TOP The Hollies
17 ( 14 ) RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD B.J. Thomas
18 ( NEW ) UP THE LADDER TO THE ROOF The Supremes
19 ( 16 ) GIMME DAT DING The Pipkins
20 ( 19 ) FAREWELL IS A LONELY SOUND Jimmy Ruffin

Posted by: popchartfreak 11th June 2015, 09:09 PM

19th May 1970

Glen Campbell gets his first number one, Honey Come Back, the only record in the summer of ’70 that I was more mad on is in at 3, Ray Stevens Everything Is Beautiful. Ray up to this point was largely known for novelty hits in the States, but was little-known in the UK even though some of them were rather amusing, such as Gitarzan. He also had dabbled with some straight songs though, like Mr. Businessman, but this gospel-flavoured kiddie-chorused, religious-tinted ballad propelled him into the big league. These days it’s seen as too saccharine to get much airplay, but I care not a jot - for some years into the late 70’s this was my all-time favourite record: the kids chorus start gave me goosebumps, the positive sentiment registered strongly with me, and the big choir finish was music to my ears. Plus it was a big family fave in Singapore, and I just hear it blaring out from the house one exotic sunny tropical morning into the street and garden as dad turned it up loud on the radio. Bliss!

In at 8 another Singapore fave, but one that left me frustrated: Butterscotch and Don’t You Know, one of those White Plains soundalike pop bands featuring songwriters Arnold, Martin and Morrow - who went on to write for Guys And Dolls, Barry Manilow, and others. It had a great tune, but I woke up one morning while dreaming of this song I’d never heard in my life before, as far as I was aware, only to go into the living room and switch the radio on and hear it suddenly coming out of the speakers. Now either I am psychic (nah, just perceptive) or I guess someone in a neighbouring house must have put the radio on accidentally loudly which interrupted my dream enough to wake me up, and I just managed to catch half of it on the radio. Or did I, doo doo doo doo Twilight Zone! Anyway, I sang the tune to myself for weeks and months afterwards but I never did get to hear it again, despite loving it, until I found a copy of the single in 1975, second-hand. Hooray! OK it was dated by then, but still pleasant.

At 15, The Jackson 5 have a soundalike, much-less-good, follow-up to I Want You Back, my least-fave of all their early singles, but hey-ho, still good and marvel at young Michael. In at 18, an instrumental novelty (sort of) the fab Groovin’ With Mr. Bloe, a cover of a Wind featuring Tony Orlando B side (without Tony Orlando), Elton John was involved, Dick James music was involved, and Elton John band musicians were involved. You might say it was Elton John’s breakthrough (on the other tracks which he wrote - his piano was re-recorded for the A side). You might not. I say yes, as Reg was busy singing Top Of The Pops cover album tracks of current hits at the time. Anyway it still sounds great fun and quirky. Finally, at 20, Marvin Gaye is back with a cover of Dion’s recent US hit Abraham Martin And John, done in a soul-style rather than folk-style, a tribute of course to Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr and John Kennedy, violently murdered American political leaders.




1 ( 3 ) HONEY COME BACK Glen Campbell
2 ( 2 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles
3 ( NEW ) EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL Ray Stevens
4 ( 1 ) YELLOW RIVER Christie
5 ( 4 ) ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING Dana

6 ( 6 ) IF I COULD Julie Felix
7 ( 5 ) BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER Simon And Garfunkel
8 ( NEW ) DON’T YOU KNOW Butterscotch
9 ( 9 ) DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS Tom Jones
10 ( 7 ) SPIRIT IN THE SKY Norman Greenbaum



11 ( 8 ) THE ARCHIES EP (Sugar Sugar/Bang Shang A Lang/ Everything’s Archie (Archie's Theme)/Over And Over) The Archies
12 ( 12 ) BACK HOME England World Cup Squad
13 ( 14 ) QUESTION The Moody Blues
14 ( 10 ) SAVE THE COUNTRY The Fifth Dimension
15 ( NEW ) ABC The Jackson 5



16 ( 18 ) UP THE LADDER TO THE ROOF The Supremes
17 ( 15 ) NEVER HAD A DREAM COME TRUE Stevie Wonder
18 ( NEW ) GROOVIN’ WITH MR. BLOE Mr. Bloe
19 ( 16 ) I CAN’T TELL THE BOTTOM FROM THE TOP The Hollies
20 ( NEW ) ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN Marvin Gaye

Posted by: popchartfreak 17th June 2015, 01:56 PM

26th May 1970

2 weeks for Glen and his Honey on top. Sweet! The Jackson 5 make it 2 consecutive top 10’s, Mr Bloe grooves his way to 10, and The Beach Boys enter at 15 with an old Lead Belly blues song from 1940, Cottonfields being a rather different harmony version and pretty much drawing to a close the Beach Boys classic Capitol years and the hits after an awesome 8 year run. Ahead lay a succession of comebacks over nearly 45 years, some better than others, some solo, some collaborations, some new stuff, some covers, and even after the deaths of 2 of the Wilson Brothers. Not quite as great as the 60’s classics, but never bad.

1 ( 1 ) HONEY COME BACK Glen Campbell
2 ( 3 ) EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL Ray Stevens
3 ( 2 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles
4 ( 4 ) YELLOW RIVER Christie
5 ( 8 ) DON’T YOU KNOW Butterscotch
6 ( 5 ) ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING Dana
7 ( 7 ) BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER Simon And Garfunkel
8 ( 15 ) ABC The Jackson 5
9 ( 6 ) IF I COULD Julie Felix
10 ( 18 ) GROOVIN’ WITH MR. BLOE Mr. Bloe



11 ( 9 ) DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS Tom Jones
12 ( 10 ) SPIRIT IN THE SKY Norman Greenbaum
13 ( 13 ) QUESTION The Moody Blues
14 ( 11 ) THE ARCHIES EP (Sugar Sugar/Bang Shang A Lang/ Everything’s Archie (Archie's Theme)/Over And Over) The Archies
15 ( NEW ) COTTONFIELDS The Beach Boys
16 ( 12 ) BACK HOME England World Cup Squad
17 ( 20 ) ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN Marvin Gaye
18 ( 14 ) SAVE THE COUNTRY The Fifth Dimension
19 ( 16 ) UP THE LADDER TO THE ROOF The Supremes
20 ( 17 ) NEVER HAD A DREAM COME TRUE Stevie Wonder





In Singapore, the end of term wasn’t far off and English was all about preparing for the end of term play. Mum had to get involved in making a middle-eastern Sinbad-type-frock-smock for me to stand on stage looking and feeling stupid, chanting some lines as part of a chorus, and a couple on my own. Mum and dad travelled over to RAF Seletar one evening to watch it, and I’m sure mum was proud as punch she never criticised only encouraged school stuff I did. It was my first taste of being on stage in front of an audience, a very shy boy, and I made sure it was the last time for another 16 years! My next audience of adoring fans was on national Radio One on the Roadshow in Bournemouth. May as well look an idiot in front of as many folk as possible if you’re going to do it...!

Posted by: popchartfreak 23rd July 2015, 07:21 PM

2nd June 1970

3 weeks on top for Glen Campbell’s fab Honey Come Back, as Ray Stevens holds at 2, and the highest new entry is another total Singapore summertime pop gem, the chugging shuffling very very famous In The Summertime from Mungo Jerry. It was a monster hit, instantly catchy, with across-the board appeal and I loved it for many years until over-familiarity gradually eroded it’s charm. I’m still fond of it though, as it reminds me of Singapore so much.

The Beach Boys’ Cottonfields sounded like an ancient song, though it was a mere 30 years old, in contrast with Gerry Monroe’s energetic, falsetto-stomping update of Gracie Field’s 1931 once-famous signature tune Sally, which was a whoppingly ancient 39 years old. Time’s a funny ol’ thing, covers of songs from the 70’s wouldn’t seem that ancient in these X Factor and The Voice days, but they sounded like they were from a century ago in those days. Whatever, it’s a fun record in at 12.

Marvin Gaye gets his 2nd top 10 hit, as Abraham Marvin And John goes where his Grapevine had been before, and Status Quo return with a very different blues boogie sound, Down The Dustpipe at 20, no more shiny psychedelic pop sadly. Or happily, in the long run. At 17, Fleetwood Mac are also back with some blues, slowed-down and disturbingly haunting, The Green Manalishi was very much Peter Green’s final mental-illness-laid-bare work with the Mac, and the end of this phase of their career, seemingly with finality as the principal songwriter left to deal with drug-induced and long-term mental problems. The song, with it’s eerie whooping, took me back to childhood horror television soundtracks (I got to stay up to watch them occasionally, like Tales Of Mystery And Imagination in 1966, which featured an old-woman ghost and scared the bejeezers out of me for years afterwards, and lost me a lot of sleep hiding under the bed-covers). Anyways, the record disturbed me then, and it still has that effect on me now.


1 ( 1 ) HONEY COME BACK Glen Campbell
2 ( 2 ) EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL Ray Stevens
3 ( 3 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles
4 ( 5 ) DON’T YOU KNOW Butterscotch
5 ( 4 ) YELLOW RIVER Christie
6 ( NEW ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
7 ( 8 ) ABC The Jackson 5
8 ( 15 ) COTTONFIELDS The Beach Boys
9 ( 10 ) GROOVIN’ WITH MR. BLOE Mr. Bloe
10 ( 17 ) ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN Marvin Gaye



11 ( 11 ) DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS Tom Jones
12 ( NEW ) SALLY Gerry Monroe
13 ( 13 ) QUESTION The Moody Blues
14 ( 12 ) SPIRIT IN THE SKY Norman Greenbaum
15 ( 14 ) THE ARCHIES EP (Sugar Sugar/Bang Shang A Lang/ Everything’s Archie (Archie's Theme)/Over And Over) The Archies
16 ( 16 ) BACK HOME England World Cup Squad
17 ( NEW ) THE GREEN MANALISHI Fleetwood Mac
18 ( 18 ) SAVE THE COUNTRY The Fifth Dimension
19 ( 19 ) UP THE LADDER TO THE ROOF The Supremes
20 ( NEW ) DOWN THE DUSTPIPE Status Quo




Meanwhile, in Singapore, I was a lot happier in my tropical wonderland than I’d been in the UK. School was also very sadly winding down for me, I felt bad about having to leave somewhere I was very happy, with lots of friends and lots of fun at RAF Seletar Secondary Modern, in order to take up a new role as a boy with educational potential at RAF Changi Grammar. I’d seen one of my acquaintances make the trip the previous term, and after my mum had been a bit disappointed I failed my 11plus exams first-time round, and seemed proud I’d got in to the Grammar School (dad also got into Grammar in his youth but didn’t like it and bailed), I really had no get-out clause handy without causing disappointment, even though I felt a bit sick about leaving, and about joining another new school yet again - this would be my, let’s see, ooh, 8th school in 7 years. Always the new boy intruding on others’ established social circles, me. Probably why I still see myself outside of gangs and groups and organisations - not that I don’t have, and didn’t have, friends (Im very fortunate to have loads) but having seen what groups of human beings are capable of, and been on the receiving end of it, I don’t trust human nature and it’s herd instincts and it’s tendency to do what the leading biggest bully thicko wants them to do. We see this in the playground, and we see it now in politics and supposed religious movements (which are the opposite of what they pretend to be) as lost and weak-minded look to others to give their life some meaning.
Plus, I got to know people from other cultures and had a wider perspective on life and human nature than people growing up in one area their whole life....

Posted by: popchartfreak 24th July 2015, 06:47 PM

9th June 1970

Ray Stevens sings to me that Everything Is Beautiful in it’s own way - well, that’s a very rose-tinted and wildly inaccurate viewpoint if taken literally, but the equality sentiment (red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight) struck a chord with me even if the more overtly religious elements didn’t have the same power to lil 12-year-old John. Now I’m much more cynical, but it’s nice to hark back to a time when one had bursting optimism that anything good was possible. The record, of course, is not held up with esteem these days, but it was hugely popular at the time, and made me a fan of Ray Stevens, both his serious and his comedy tracks. Just as well, cos his Greatest Hits is a very schizophrenic experience! My fave record for nearly a decade, in part for the sledgehammer nostalgia for Singapore it brought out in me when times were less fun.

Butterscotch at 2, don’t cha know, while the ever-present Cliff is highest new entry at 8, with his biggest UK hit in 2 years, Goodbye Sam Hello Samantha, a good ol’ pop record about growing up and taking an interest in girls. Pity, cos Goodbye Samantha Hello Sam would have caused a sensation. Cliff was 12 years into his career, and already was just SO famous, non-stop hits, TV shows, films, very much an institution with everyone but the rock critics. This one did nothing to improve that situation, but I loved it anyway, cos, frankly, I pretty much loved everything Cliff did till I hit my teens and I couldn’t remember a time when there was no Cliff. 45 years on, I still can’t (fairly obviously).

At 14, Free, All Right Now, rock classic. Still famous, and a hit many times, it’s easy to forget how young Free were at the time, but oh that riff is timeless. Not, however, a riff that made it’s way over to Singapore radio, rock was not approved of, so from my point of view there’s a bit of retro charting going on here because I DID become aware of it soon after Singapore days were over, but for me it was the third Free song to get to love, after Little Bit Of Love and Wishing Well both of which I (gasp!) prefer. Wishing Well especially is vastly under-rated in comparison. Hey ho. In at 19, The Four Tops are back with a cover, It’s All In The Game, one Cliff covered in the early 60’s, but I’d say the Tops is the definitive version. That’s pretty much a golden rule of mine: With Levi Stubbs on lead vocal, any Four Tops cover is ALWAYS the definitive version. Well, nearly always!




1 ( 2 ) EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL Ray Stevens
2 ( 4 ) DON’T YOU KNOW Butterscotch
3 ( 1 ) HONEY COME BACK Glen Campbell
4 ( 3 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles
5 ( 6 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
6 ( 5 ) YELLOW RIVER Christie
7 ( 8 ) COTTONFIELDS The Beach Boys
8 ( NEW ) GOODBY SAM HELLO SAMANTHA Cliff Richard
9 ( 12 ) SALLY Gerry Monroe
10 ( 7 ) ABC The Jackson 5



11 ( 10 ) ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN Marvin Gaye
12 ( 9 ) GROOVIN’ WITH MR. BLOE Mr. Bloe
13 ( 11 ) DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS Tom Jones
14 ( NEW ) ALL RIGHT NOW Free
15 ( 15 ) THE ARCHIES EP (Sugar Sugar/Bang Shang A Lang/ Everything’s Archie (Archie's Theme)/Over And Over) The Archies
16 ( 13 ) QUESTION The Moody Blues
17 ( 17 ) THE GREEN MANALISHI Fleetwood Mac
18 ( 14 ) SPIRIT IN THE SKY Norman Greenbaum
19 ( NEW ) IT’S ALL IN THE GAME The Four Tops
20 ( 16 ) BACK HOME England World Cup Squad





So, what was I watching on TV? This month Sesame Street debuted in the USA, and it found it’s way over to Singapore pretty rapidly - although strictly speaking far too old to watch the show, it was pretty revolutionary in style, and soooo cool for kids, so I enjoyed it anyway. Of the new shows on local TV from the 1969/70 USA schedule (there were very few UK TV shows of note, in comparison, other than Doctor Who, so my TV world was American): My World And Welcome To It, Rowan and Martin’s laugh-In, The Carol Burnett Show, The Mod Squad, Marcus Welby MD, Julia (the first black female-starring sitcom), Nanny And The Professor, The Courtship Of Eddie’s Father, The Smothers Brothers Show, The Flying Nun, The Dean Martin Show, The Andy Williams Show, and from Australia low-budget sci-fi series Phoenix Five: Space ships, that was enough for me. Sold!

Posted by: popchartfreak 26th July 2015, 09:00 PM

16th June 1970

2 weeks on top for Ray Stevens, as Mungo Jerry hit 3 in the summertime, as Simon & Garfunkel follow-up Bridge Over Troubled Water with the rousing brilliance of Cecilia. For some inexplicable reason it wasn’t a hit in the UK, but was huge everywhere else. Just to rub salt in the wound the song has been a big hit in cover versions in the UK since, most notably Suggs in the 90’s. I can only assume that the BBC didn’t playlist it, and most people who liked it bought the all-time classic album, which popped to the top of the chart again and again for 2 years. It’s rare you get an album that works as a complete whole, and where every track is great, but this was my first exposure to one as our next-door-neighbours loaned us the album, and I became enthusiastic for Cecilia in particular.

1 ( 1 ) EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL Ray Stevens
2 ( 3 ) HONEY COME BACK Glen Campbell
3 ( 5 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
4 ( 4 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles
5 ( 2 ) DON’T YOU KNOW Butterscotch
6 ( 8 ) GOODBY SAM HELLO SAMANTHA Cliff Richard
7 ( 6 ) YELLOW RIVER Christie
8 ( 9 ) SALLY Gerry Monroe
9 ( NEW ) CECILIA Simon And Garfunkel
10 ( 7 ) COTTONFIELDS The Beach Boys



11 ( 14 ) ALL RIGHT NOW Free
12 ( 10 ) ABC The Jackson 5
13 ( 12 ) GROOVIN’ WITH MR. BLOE Mr. Bloe
14 ( 19 ) IT’S ALL IN THE GAME The Four Tops
15 ( 11 ) ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN Marvin Gaye
16 ( 13 ) DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS Tom Jones
17 ( 17 ) THE GREEN MANALISHI Fleetwood Mac
18 ( 15 ) THE ARCHIES EP (Sugar Sugar/Bang Shang A Lang/ Everything’s Archie (Archie's Theme)/Over And Over) The Archies
19 ( 16 ) QUESTION The Moody Blues
20 ( 18 ) SPIRIT IN THE SKY Norman Greenbaum

Posted by: popchartfreak 29th July 2015, 04:28 PM

23rd June 1970

3 weeks for Ray, Cliff goes top 5, Free top 10 and not much else other than 2 new entries: Creedence are back with Up Around The Bend, more southern blues rock and one of their bigger UK hits but not one of my faves of theirs, in at 17, and in at 18, also not one of my faves of The Archies, Who’s Your Baby? It was a very odd choice for single, and following on from the huge Sugar Sugar they had a wealth of great bubblegum tracks they could have gone with to get a UK follow-up hit but they went with this lacklustre effort, I guess because it featured joint female vocals again, as per Sugar Sugar and was also written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim. That’s a shame because the regular album tracks (and they were 3 albums in by this time) featured many far more interesting tracks that only had Ron Dante on lead vocal and flipped in and out of a few pop genres bubblegum stylee, and there were far better songs that only ever featured on the TV shows and never had an official release - and still don’t.....

1 ( 1 ) EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL Ray Stevens
2 ( 3 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
3 ( 2 ) HONEY COME BACK Glen Campbell
4 ( 6 ) GOODBY SAM HELLO SAMANTHA Cliff Richard
5 ( 4 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles
6 ( 8 ) SALLY Gerry Monroe
7 ( 9 ) CECILIA Simon And Garfunkel
8 ( 7 ) YELLOW RIVER Christie
9 ( 5 ) DON’T YOU KNOW Butterscotch
10 ( 11 ) ALL RIGHT NOW Free



11 ( 14 ) IT’S ALL IN THE GAME The Four Tops
12 ( 10 ) COTTONFIELDS The Beach Boys
13 ( 12 ) ABC The Jackson 5
14 ( 13 ) GROOVIN’ WITH MR. BLOE Mr. Bloe
15 ( 16 ) DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS Tom Jones
16 ( 15 ) ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN Marvin Gaye
17 ( NEW ) UP AROUND THE BEND Creedence Clearwater Revival
18 ( NEW ) WHO’S YOUR BABY? The Archies
19 ( 17 ) THE GREEN MANALISHI Fleetwood Mac
20 ( 19 ) QUESTION The Moody Blues




The Archie Show was a 30-minute one-season show that ran 1968/69 and was shown in Singapore in 1970, but the music-heavy show was Archie’s Fun-house which was an hour-long 1970/71 series, having already shared the spotlight with Sabrina The Teenage Witch in 1969/70. The Funhouse was the series where I was squatting holding a microphone in front of the TV to record as many tracks off the TV, complete with cartoon noises, kids cheering, family talking, and microphone hand-changing bangs and clicks. I was pretty keen on the bubblegum pop, to say the least, and some of the tracks I recorded are now downloadable (along with 20 or 30 that I didn’t know), but some long-forgotten gems (by everyone but me, seemingly) which feature in future charts, aren’t. Among those which were released by 1970 and which I’ll link to instead are: Get On The Line, Love Light, Bicycles Roller-Skates And You, and Catching Up On Fun. The album cover featured on the tracks, is the very first album I bought with my own pocket money, so I’m totally and completely biased of course, Singapore City shopping expedition and a record store with more than one Archies album, me only enough cash for one....

Posted by: popchartfreak 29th July 2015, 08:50 PM

30th June 1970

4 weeks and everything is still beautiful for me in tropical Singapore. Simon & Garfunkel get a 4th top 5, and The Four Tops go top 10, while there are 4 spiffy new entries, led by Cat Stevens making his chart debut at 10 - I say debut, but Lady D’Arbanville should really be viewed as his big 3-years-overdue belated follow-up to Matthew And Son, which I was SO mad on from 1967 onwards to the present-day. I loved that record so much, friends of my parents and relations who had the single had to put up with me playing it and singing along to it. Needless to say it would have been number one for weeks, had I been charting then. Lady D’Arbanville shows Cat entering into his post-TB singer-songwriter phase, after he’d been a teenage pop star and songwriter of great pop songs like Here Comes My Baby and First Cut Is The Deepest. It’s a fantastic, if slightly macabre, song, terrific melody and lyrically I guess based on having to watch people die while in hospital, a life-changing experience for him.

At 13, another new entry, also a belated debut for a long-time fave (for a 12-year-old) The Kinks. Lola, of course, was a revelation lyrically with it’s gender-confusing woman-is-a-man story theme, and a genuine classic, but again, strictly speaking it would really be following up on many previous hits (had I been charting pre-1968) as I was mad on Autumn Almanac in ’67, so presumably it would have hit the top spot as I sang along to it on the radio, with the lyrics handily printed in Weekend Magazine when I lived at RAF Valley, Isle Of Anglesey. Mum wondered how I knew all the words, so I showed her. Then there’s Sunny Afternoon, another top fave, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, Death Of A Clown (Dave Davies’ solo hit), Waterloo Sunset (another classic!), and the main one which just a little too early for me to know well, You Really Got Me. I got mad on that one in 1973 after buying 20 Flashback Greats of the 60’s.

At 18, Diana Ross’ solo career starts off properly with the charting of Reach Out And Touch, very much of the time mood-wise, 1970 was all about songs of peace harmony and love, and they all had a huge affect on my future attitude to life and politics. This one was a lovely one to start off with - though again, not really a debut - already Diana had a credit on 2 number 2’s (Love Child and I’m Gonna Make You Love Me), both of which should been number one’s, and she was pretty huge in Singapore 1970 for me as we borrowed the neighbours’ double album of Supremes hits which reminded me just how many fantastic singles they had had, most notably for me those I already knew and loved (Baby Love, Stop In The Name Of Love, You Keep Me Hangin On, You Can’t Hurry Love) any of which could have topped a hypothetical mid-60’s personal chart. Finally, at 19 it’s Shirley Bassey debuting with a decent cover of recent George Harrison Beatles hit Something. I say debut (is this getting repetitive?) but Shirl was a big fave of dad, and so I knew her 50’s stuff well (Kiss Me Honey Honey Kiss Me springs to mind) and she had show-stoppers like As Long As He Needs Me, the immortal Goldfinger, and Big Spender which were variety show fodder galore, and radio standards, and would all have done very well in my theoretical charts.


1 ( 1 ) EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL Ray Stevens
2 ( 2 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
3 ( 4 ) GOODBY SAM HELLO SAMANTHA Cliff Richard
4 ( 3 ) HONEY COME BACK Glen Campbell
5 ( 7 ) CECILIA Simon And Garfunkel
6 ( 5 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles
7 ( 8 ) YELLOW RIVER Christie
8 ( 6 ) SALLY Gerry Monroe
9 ( 11 ) IT’S ALL IN THE GAME The Four Tops
10 ( NEW ) LADY D’ARBANVILLE Cat Stevens



11 ( 9 ) DON’T YOU KNOW Butterscotch
12 ( 10 ) ALL RIGHT NOW Free
13 ( NEW ) LOLA The Kinks
14 ( 12 ) COTTONFIELDS The Beach Boys
15 ( 14 ) GROOVIN’ WITH MR. BLOE Mr. Bloe



16 ( 18 ) WHO’S YOUR BABY?/SENORITA RITA The Archies
17 ( 17 ) UP AROUND THE BEND Creedence Clearwater Revival
18 ( NEW ) REACH OUT AND TOUCH (SOMEBODY’S HAND) Diana Ross
19 ( NEW ) SOMETHING Shirley Bassey
20 ( 16 ) ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN Marvin Gaye




So as I bid June farewell, I was also doing very well in my ongoing series of swimming badges, pretty had all the simple ones, and distance ones, and swimming-style ones, so only the bigger complicated ones were left, and they took a lot more effort, knowledge of human biology, and more complicated tasks and stamina - the one I was starting to work towards was the Bronze Medallion Life-Saving badge, but that meant a lot of time being tutored one evening a week before it got too dark at RAF Changi swimming pool. I probably swallowed several gallons of kids pee, I know they used to pee in the pool cos it was a topic of conversation in the kids changing rooms and at school. Did I get the badge? Stay tuned.. At school, end of year sports events were all the rage, and I had to compete in the crawl, one length of the RAF Seletar swimming pool - I was embarrassed to be seen doing my own version of crawl, head high out of the water at all times, so I made the last nervous decision to try and do it properly, head down, breathing every other stroke. The only problem is the fresh water was harder to swim in (Changi was salt water) and the chlorine blinded my sight. Net result? I came last and veered off towards the sides of the swimming pool before I realised I wasn't going straight. I'm sure I was hilarious! Felt like a t*t though!

Posted by: popchartfreak 2nd September 2015, 06:51 PM

7th July 1970

5 weeks and Everything Is still Beautiful for Ray Stevens. Simon & Garfunkel go up to 4 with Cecilia up in my bedroom, Lady D’Arbanville gives Cat Stevens a royal climb to 6, and Lola gives The Kinks a manly leg-up into the top 10. New at 10, and The King is back, fresh from a run of classic 1969 singles, including chart-topper In The Ghetto, but this time it’s not cool soulful gospel Elvis, it’s the start of Las Vegas live cabaret Elvis who covers other people’s records for a living. This one is 1959 Ray Peterson hit The Wonder Of You, and is still his best cabaret period track, well OTT but a bit of fun, and Elvis had yet to become a caricature of himself.

In at 14, and back in the chart groove, Jimmy Ruffin keeps those Motown soul-sounds going with I’ll Say Forever My Love, a terrific record in a run of great singles from Jimmy. In at 19, Joni Mitchell finally charts in her own right, having been covered by others prior to Big Yellow Taxi. It’s a great song, still popular, but not by any means my favourite Joni song, not even close. 5 years on she took a re-recorded version into my charts, and it would be 4 years before she actually got a follow-up chart track enter my charts.

1 ( 1 ) EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL Ray Stevens
2 ( 2 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
3 ( 3 ) GOODBY SAM HELLO SAMANTHA Cliff Richard
4 ( 5 ) CECILIA Simon And Garfunkel
5 ( 4 ) HONEY COME BACK Glen Campbell
6 ( 10 ) LADY D’ARBANVILLE Cat Stevens
7 ( 6 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles
8 ( 13 ) LOLA The Kinks
9 ( 7 ) YELLOW RIVER Christie
10 ( NEW ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley



11 ( 8 ) SALLY Gerry Monroe
12 ( 9 ) IT’S ALL IN THE GAME The Four Tops
13 ( 12 ) ALL RIGHT NOW Free
14 ( NEW ) I’LL SAY FOREVER MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin
15 ( 14 ) COTTONFIELDS The Beach Boys
16 ( 18 ) REACH OUT AND TOUCH (SOMEBODY’S HAND) Diana Ross
17 ( 15 ) GROOVIN’ WITH MR. BLOE Mr. Bloe
18 ( 19 ) SOMETHING Shirley Bassey
19 ( NEW ) BIG YELLOW TAXI Joni Mitchell
20 ( 16 ) WHO’S YOUR BABY?/SENORITA RITA The Archies





So, as they like to start sentences with these days, Singapore lazy hazy days of summer. My school popcorn transfer collection was becoming pretty comprehensive - I’d covered my cardboard hardboard suitcase-style school bag (everyone had them) in them, inside and out, and I’d decided to save them for posterity in a DIY mini-album made from A4 sheets cut in half and folded over, and stapled together. I still have it of course, and I am right now gazing at my gorgeous Neal Adams figures of Superman, Batman, Batgirl and Robin, still the best DC Comics artist of all time. I also had my el cheapo Far east rip-off versions of Batman/ Superman which had the hair the wrong colour, the costumes the wrong colour, and other hilarity I guess was intentionally done to avoid copyright prosecution. Either that or the artist was colour-blind. Then there’s my 2001: A Space Odyssey transfers, still sexy and still futuristic even though it’s 14-years beyond 2001 now. Not to mention my “Monkey” animation transfers (I’m sure I have already mentioned these, but y’know, whatever!) as Far East culture was just as much fair game as American to kids like me. Think of it as an early version of Kung Fu Panda! Then there’s the Cowboy transfers (think Toy Story’s Woody), the Daktari TV show transfers (Clarence The Cross-Eyed Lion was a hit long before The Lion King), and loads of Anime superheroes in the style of hit Japanese TV show Marine Boy. Anime was big news in Singapore for kids, and I have vague memories of an obscure series called Phantoma so I googled and I youtubed and he looks nothing like I recall (see link) so I’m thinking it may have been a local TV station rename for Space Ghost who does look like I recall (a Hanna Barbera cartoon) so here’s the Japanese language version. Anyways, all in all, a big yah-boo-sucks to later trends and cults for kids, beat ya all to it, so there hah (raspberry!).

Posted by: popchartfreak 4th September 2015, 07:23 PM

14th July 1970

Mungo Jerry finally get on top in the summertime, or in Singapore where it’s perpetually summer, summer sounds seemed doubly appropriate. Once upon a time it was fresh and new and unusual, before a plethora of adverts, TV spots, film slots and a cover by Shaggy rendered it all a bit old hat, but I retain affection for it as long as I don’t hear it too often! Highest new entry at 12 is Hotlegs with the insistent plodding beat of Neanderthal Man. It seemed like a novelty record, which is not quite right as the band went on to become 75% of 10CC, who also started off with what seemed to be a novelty record, before it became quite clear that they specialised in musical pastiches, witty lyrics and versatility of sound. Prior to Hotlegs, Eric Stewart was in and sang lead vocal on the Mindbenders gorgeous Groovy Kind Of Love, another of many childhood faves of mine. After leaving the chart, Graham Gouldman joined Lol Creme, Kevin Godley and Eric (joint owner of Strawberry Studios, where they recorded, along with Graham) and that was essentially 10CC formed.




1 ( 2 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
2 ( 1 ) EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL Ray Stevens
3 ( 3 ) GOODBY SAM HELLO SAMANTHA Cliff Richard
4 ( 4 ) CECILIA Simon And Garfunkel
5 ( 8 ) LOLA The Kinks
6 ( 6 ) LADY D’ARBANVILLE Cat Stevens
7 ( 5 ) HONEY COME BACK Glen Campbell
8 ( 10 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
9 ( 7 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles
10 ( 9 ) YELLOW RIVER Christie



11 ( 14 ) I’LL SAY FOREVER MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin
12 ( NEW ) NEANDERTHAL MAN Hotlegs
13 ( 11 ) SALLY Gerry Monroe
14 ( 12 ) IT’S ALL IN THE GAME The Four Tops
15 ( 13 ) ALL RIGHT NOW Free
16 ( 18 ) SOMETHING Shirley Bassey
17 ( 15 ) COTTONFIELDS The Beach Boys
18 ( 19 ) BIG YELLOW TAXI Joni Mitchell
19 ( 16 ) REACH OUT AND TOUCH (SOMEBODY’S HAND) Diana Ross
20 ( 17 ) GROOVIN’ WITH MR. BLOE Mr. Bloe


Around about this time dad started buying colour slide films for the new half-frame camera - this was quite a revelation, as once he’d got a screen and slide projector we had the multicolour 60’s experience recorded for posterity at 72 shots a roll of film, and shown in glorious multicolour afterwards as big as you wanted. This was amazing, as it just captured everything about a largely-disappearing period-piece, our youth, and in the years (and decades) afterwards it kept the whole tropical Singapore world fresh and vivid. I still have boxes and boxes of slides (now sometimes looking worse for wear as time starts to let fungus and the like creep in) and no way of transferring to digital which does them justice - the focus is not quite right, the colours too pastel, the bits of dust and stuff on them stands out too much. What I need is time and expensive kit to have them back to life and saved. Here’s one of mum, dad, brother and life then ins Singapore city: mum’s crocheted handbag (arts and crafts were big with the housewives), the bottle of fanta (you needed lotsa bottles of fizzy drinks on a day out), the umbrella (when it rained it poured), the cool fashions: I’m sorry, for me fashion peaked in 1970 and it has been at it’s best since when it’s returning to similar styles of the late 60’s and very early 70’s. Call me old-fashioned...!




https://popchartfreak.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/sporecity70crop.jpg

Posted by: popchartfreak 5th September 2015, 01:04 PM

21st July 1970

Cliff gets his first chart-topper after a couple of number 2’s. I say first, actually Cliff’s career was the same age as me (still is, obviously!) and he’d moved over into family pop fairly early into his career and pretty much stayed there, but with an increasingly bubblegum tendency that didn’t go down well with music critics. Goodbye Sam Hello Samantha was melodic pop that appealed well enough to 12 year-old’s, about a boy dumping his mates for girls, not about tomboys blossoming into women, or boys going the Lola route (sadly, as that would have been quite a media sensation). In a hypothetical world where I started my pop charts at age 5, not 10, Cliff would have had Summer Holiday, Bacholer Boy, All My Love, The Day I Met Marie and maybe Congratulations hit the top spot, cos I loved them all. The Day I Met Marie eventually did top my chart, and there’s still time for The Next Time (double A with Bacholer Boy) to do the same, though the others have all passed that point now.

Simon & Garfunkel get yet another single fall just short of the top spot, the fab Cecilia at 2, as Elvis and Cat go top 5, Hotlegs go top 10, and the highest new entry at 13 is one I was mad on, recorded direct off the TV with a hand microphone from The Archies Fun House show. Love Vibrations inexpicably remains unreleased 45 years later, and of course is therefore the record I most want to be available on download, or CD, or vinyl. It’s just a great tune, and much better than a number of their rather odd singles choices following the monster that was Sugar Sugar. Pretty sure it never appeared in any chart, therefore, on the whole Planet Earth, so I’m singing it’s praises a lone voice in the wilderness, albeit through childhood rose-tinted specs. At 18, and much better-known, it’s Stevie Wonder again, Signed, Sealed, Delivered he’s yours. Even covered by Stevie himself in 2003 with Blue (it wasn’t an improvement on the original) it gave him a 21st century UK chart hit that wasn’t Superstition (it usually is). The youtube clip is a gem, cool Stevie and spot missus Syreeta on backing vocals. At 20, Pickettywich sneak in briefly again with a sad old movie, kinda. S’OK.



1 ( 3 ) GOODBY SAM HELLO SAMANTHA Cliff Richard
2 ( 4 ) CECILIA Simon And Garfunkel
3 ( 1 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
4 ( 6 ) LADY D’ARBANVILLE Cat Stevens
5 ( 8 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
6 ( 5 ) LOLA The Kinks
7 ( 7 ) HONEY COME BACK Glen Campbell
8 ( 12 ) NEANDERTHAL MAN Hotlegs
9 ( 9 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles
10 ( 10 ) YELLOW RIVER Christie



11 ( 11 ) I’LL SAY FOREVER MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin
12 ( 18 ) BIG YELLOW TAXI Joni Mitchell
13 ( NEW ) LOVE VIBRATIONS The Archies
14 ( 14 ) IT’S ALL IN THE GAME The Four Tops
15 ( 15 ) ALL RIGHT NOW Free
16 ( 13 ) SALLY Gerry Monroe
17 ( 17 ) COTTONFIELDS The Beach Boys
18 ( NEW ) SIGNED SEALED DELIVERED I’M YOURS Stevie Wonder
19 ( 16 ) SOMETHING Shirley Bassey
20 ( NEW ) (IT’S LIKE A) SAD OLD KINDA MOVIE Pickettywich



What was reading at this time, apart from comics? Just William books (very British), The Bobbsey Twins books (very American), Enid Blyton books (still) though I’d moved more into the “Secret” and “Adventure” books and away from The Famous Five and The Secret Seven (very Dorset). I’d already dipped into Arthur C. Clarke (Dolphin Island, a long-forgotten pro-dolphin sci-fi yarn aimed at kids) which whetted my appetite for science-fiction, without actually being aware that was what it was, or that more was available in that genre. My fave books of all-time, though were The Secret Island (Blyton) and Dolphin Island (Clarke) and the 1858 R. M. Ballantyne novel The Coral Island. Hmmm, I seem to have a thing for being marooned on/or living on isolated islands, particularly tropical ones, and ones with animals I can love (as opposed to eat). It all seemed so glamorous being able to do exactly what you want, in co-operation, on a marvellous adventure. Or maybe I just liked living in my own world cos the real one is quite cruel. No change there then....

Posted by: popchartfreak 5th September 2015, 07:33 PM

28th July 1970

2 weeks for Cliff and Samantha, Cat hits 3 with his lady, and Jimmy Ruffin gets a 2nd top 10 in a row. In at 12 it’s another country-flavoured melodic ballad from the under-rated Scottish band Marmalade, Rainbow is another sweet-sad pop song in the style of The Hollies or Crosby Stills & Nash, and follows-up my chart-topper Reflections Of My Life. Like The Monkees they generally (against their wishes) were forced to record songs by professional songwriters, (good records all the same) but in 1969 switched to Decca and produced their own songs. Their line-up had Junior Campbell, later of solo gospel-tinged singles success, and they rather sensibly changed the band name from The Gaylords. Pity they didn’t choose The Jam rather than The Marmalade though! Hendrix was an early supporter, little-known fact.

At 14, it’s an oldie, and a classic. Yes, shockingly, Tears Of A Clown was an obscure 1967 Smokey Robinson & The Miracles album track which Motown bizarrely failed to recognise as a smash hit classic. The UK was a big supporter of 60’s Motown tracks well into the 70’s, and this one actually topped the UK singles chart before happening in the USA - it also stopped Smokey leaving the band for another 2 years! The record? It’s perfect. The circus-themed riffs, the clever lyrics, the great vocal, and the tune, all perfect. No cover version, including the hit ska cover by The Beat, comes close to matching the sheer beauty of the original. Smokey is a much-admired songwriter by other professional songwriters, and he even had a song all about him: ABC’s When Smokey Sings. Nuff said. In at 19, Chicago are back with 25 Or 6 To 4 - no I still have no idea what it means either. It’s a great jazz-tinged rock groove though, with some mighty riffs. The future held decades of tedious ballads (mostly) but in 1970 they were still cool.

1 ( 1 ) GOODBY SAM HELLO SAMANTHA Cliff Richard
2 ( 2 ) CECILIA Simon And Garfunkel
3 ( 4 ) LADY D’ARBANVILLE Cat Stevens
4 ( 5 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
5 ( 3 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry

6 ( 8 ) NEANDERTHAL MAN Hotlegs
7 ( 7 ) HONEY COME BACK Glen Campbell
8 ( 6 ) LOLA The Kinks
9 ( 11 ) I’LL SAY FOREVER MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin
10 ( 9 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles



11 ( 10 ) YELLOW RIVER Christie
12 ( NEW ) RAINBOW Marmalade
13 ( 13 ) LOVE VIBRATIONS The Archies
14 ( NEW ) TEARS OF A CLOWN Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
15 ( 14 ) IT’S ALL IN THE GAME The Four Tops



16 ( 12 ) BIG YELLOW TAXI Joni Mitchell
17 ( 18 ) SIGNED SEALED DELIVERED I’M YOURS Stevie Wonder
18 ( 15 ) ALL RIGHT NOW Free
19 ( NEW ) 25 OR 6 TO 4 Chicago
20 ( 17 ) COTTONFIELDS The Beach Boys




The youtube clip of Tears Of A Clown is taken from The Andy Williams Show, Andy was coolest of the crooners and a family fave, his variety show had his extended family on it (actual wife Claudine Longet, and unrelated regulars The Osmond Brothers) and big big Hollywood and TV superstars, and big singers and up and coming upstarts like Elton John and The Jackson 5. The Cookie Bear was a running gag beloved of kids like me, and in this clip you have Ray Stevens doing his novelty hit Along Came Jones with Andy doing the female role, comic Danny Thomas joining in, and 7-year-old Jimmy Osmond as cowboy hero Jones. Cute!

Posted by: popchartfreak 15th March 2016, 07:43 PM

4th August 1970

3 weeks for Cliff on top, and Elvis is on his heels at 2, how appropriate since Cliff modeled himself on early Elvis! Marmalade go for a 4th top 5, a melancholy Rainbow, and The Archies get a 5th Top 10 with a record that still has never been officially released in either the UK or the USA. Smokey Robinson gets a top ten song about tears, no not The Tracks Of My, this time it’s the equally classic Of A Clown.

Motown labelmates The Jackson 5, the hottest pop group around, enter at 13 with a third hit The Love You Save, a big improvement on ABC for me. They were the darlings of US variety shows of the time, not least the Ed Sullivan Show, which we had on TV in Singapore, albeit a while later. Look at the clip and marvel at Michael’s precociousness as performer. Fab. The other new record is at 20, Fairweather’s Natural Sinner. I’ve added it in retroactively as I didn’t hear it until 1975 while Andy Fairweather-Low was undergoing a solo career revival, having already had the hit pop group success with Amen Corner, including topping my charts in 1969 with Half As Nice. Not his finest hour, in all honesty.


1 ( 1 ) GOODBY SAM HELLO SAMANTHA Cliff Richard
2 ( 4 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
3 ( 3 ) LADY D’ARBANVILLE Cat Stevens
4 ( 2 ) CECILIA Simon And Garfunkel
5 ( 12 ) RAINBOW Marmalade
6 ( 5 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
7 ( 13 ) LOVE VIBRATIONS The Archies
8 ( 14 ) TEARS OF A CLOWN Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
9 ( 8 ) LOLA The Kinks
10 ( 10 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles



11 ( 9 ) I’LL SAY FOREVER MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin
12 ( 6 ) NEANDERTHAL MAN Hotlegs
13 ( NEW ) THE LOVE YOU SAVE The Jackson 5
14 ( 17 ) SIGNED SEALED DELIVERED I’M YOURS Stevie Wonder
15 ( 16 ) BIG YELLOW TAXI Joni Mitchell
16 ( 15 ) IT’S ALL IN THE GAME The Four Tops
17 ( 19 ) 25 OR 6 TO 4 Chicago
18 ( 18 ) ALL RIGHT NOW Free
19 ( 20 ) COTTONFIELDS The Beach Boys
20 ( NEW ) NATURAL SINNER Fairweather


Talking of Ed Sullivan. As I’ve said before, in many ways my TV world of the 60’s and early 70’s was much more American than British, and that held true especially in Singapore - there were UK shows but they tended to be the sci-fi shows like Doctor Who and UFO, which was the latest, most exciting. mind-blowing show for me to get hooked on. Gerry Anderson had gone into live action TV, keeping the model-making for the space-age vehicles and flying saucers, as we called them in those days. I loved it. I also loved American variety shows like Ed Sullivan, though he was very, very dull. He also regularly had an awful cute mime mouse on far too often (once was more than enough, never mind 50 times in 8 years) Topo Gigio. If I’ve repeated myself here, apologies, just take it as a warning as it’s still on youtube! Avoid!

Posted by: popchartfreak 18th March 2016, 06:41 PM

11th August 1970

A second number one from The Archies, Love Vibrations was featured on Archie’s Funhouse, an hour-long mix of songs and sketches and short stories, with a supposed live audience of kids. See lower down for more info! On an otherwise still-dull chart, Smokey Robinson goes top 5, Jackson 5 top 10, both Motown, and there are 2 new entries, both songs Tom Jones has recorded. Just as well as his version of I (Who Have Nothing) is in at 16, a terrific dramatic ballad, with The Voice on fine form. Shirley Bassey had the UK 1963 hit version (produced by George Martin) but this was a cover of Ben E. King’s US original English-language version of an Italian hit 1961 song by Joe Sentieri.

At 20, is another cover by Three Dog Night, this time Randy Newman’s Mama Told Me Not To Come, typically lyrically quirky and interesting and 2 or 3 decades before he became a big-deal movie composer for Pixar and others. I’d prefer to hear Randy, but this passed the time till Tom Jones covered it for his Reloaded album with Stereophonics.



1 ( 7 ) LOVE VIBRATIONS The Archies
2 ( 2 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
3 ( 3 ) LADY D’ARBANVILLE Cat Stevens
4 ( 5 ) RAINBOW Marmalade
5 ( 8 ) TEARS OF A CLOWN Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
6 ( 4 ) CECILIA Simon And Garfunkel
7 ( 1 ) GOODBY SAM HELLO SAMANTHA Cliff Richard
8 ( 6 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
9 ( 12 ) NEANDERTHAL MAN Hotlegs
10 ( 13 ) THE LOVE YOU SAVE The Jackson 5



11 ( 9 ) LOLA The Kinks
12 ( 10 ) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD The Beatles
13 ( 14 ) SIGNED SEALED DELIVERED I’M YOURS Stevie Wonder
14 ( 11 ) I’LL SAY FOREVER MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin
15 ( 16 ) IT’S ALL IN THE GAME The Four Tops
16 ( NEW ) I (WHO HAVE NOTHING) Tom Jones
17 ( 15 ) BIG YELLOW TAXI Joni Mitchell
18 ( 18 ) ALL RIGHT NOW Free
19 ( 17 ) 25 OR 6 TO 4 Chicago
20 ( NEW ) MAMA TOLD ME NOT TO COME Three Dog Night



Archie’s Funhouse and Love Vibrations: I’ve bought the series DVD in haze of rose-tinted bliss, and it’s excruciating to sit through - except for the songs. I enjoyed the Archie comics, but I loved the cartoon band pop to bits and recorded this direct off the TV at the time, tinny and all from a hand microphone onto my mid-60’s reel-to-reel (well, technically dad’s recorder but my need was greater and I acquired it pretty much so I could record every song I loved from that moment on. That was a LOT of songs and a lot of blank reel-to-reel tapes for me to save up to buy for the next 20 years. I’m obviously biased but I still love this song, written by one Neil Brian Goldberg, a songwriter who never made it but who impacted me and I hope other young kids of the time.

What happened was that music maestro and Archies producer/songwriter Jeff Barry was moving on (he of hit songwriting married couple Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich, many a legendary song like Be My Baby, Da Do Ron Ron, Leader Of The Pack, River Deep Mountain High, and of course Sugar Sugar also for the Archies without Ellie). He took on Neil who ignored instructions to dumb down the hit machine and aim for 7-year-olds - instead his subject matter for songs was the world, the environment, civil rights, fairly serious topics for kiddie-pop. I noticed. I also noticed the promo cartoon videos to accompany and the fab tunes still sung by Ron Dante. Only 4 of the dozens of songs ever made it to limited release and none are available to buy to this day, including this one. So this will be the only chart it has ever appeared in. Boo! Hiss! It’s sweet (or twee), ever-so-slightly hippie psychedelic and melodic bubblegum.

Posted by: popchartfreak 29th March 2016, 06:11 PM

18th August 1970

It’s Elvis on top, with his second number one in just over a year, following on from In The Ghetto. The Wonder Of You was originally a 1959 hit for Ray Peterson, but Elvis notched up the drama, now entering his Las Vegas phase and it was essentially Showbiz City from here on. I was still mad on Elvis and it would be another 2 years before the increasingly naff singles caused me to lose my love - in retrospect it all started here, really, give or take, as Parody Elvis killed off Gospel Elvis. These days, The Wonder Of You is nowhere near the top of my list of classic Presley.

Cat Stevens gets to 2, just ahead of a new entry for a new act, Bread. Bread was essentially David Gates, a great songwriter with an angelic sweet vocal, which I loved, but which provoked the same reaction amongst musos as The Carpenters - sweet equals sickly in their eyes, totally unable to appreciate the song quality. Make It With You is gorgeous, and was covered in the 90’s by Let Loose, to reasonable effect.

In at 5, one of my all-time fave bands of the 70’s debut - Hot Chocolate, fresh off The Beatles Apple label, and now with Micky Most’s RAK Records, loved that yacht logo on the vinyl. Errol Brown led the mixed race combo, in itself a statement at that time, and Errol and bandmate Tony Wilson showed they were nifty songwriters pretty much immediately (writing for other acts like Mary Hopkin). The organ and strings riffs of Love Is Life and that shuffling percussive rhythm were irresistible to me, and that soaring melody just fabulous. Still love it to bits.

Also in, at 19, Andy Williams is back with It’s So Easy, my top-rated crooner of the time. Andy was never bad, and I loved that he covered current hits on his show and albums. Just look at him singing this bouncy joyous pop ditty live - effortless and stylish.



1 ( 2 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
2 ( 3 ) LADY D’ARBANVILLE Cat Stevens
3 ( NEW ) MAKE IT WITH YOU Bread
4 ( 7 ) GOODBY SAM HELLO SAMANTHA Cliff Richard
5 ( NEW ) LOVE IS LIFE Hot Chocolate



6 ( 1 ) LOVE VIBRATIONS The Archies
7 ( 4 ) RAINBOW Marmalade
8 ( 6 ) CECILIA Simon And Garfunkel
9 ( 5 ) TEARS OF A CLOWN Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
10 ( 8 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry



11 ( 10 ) THE LOVE YOU SAVE The Jackson 5
12 ( 9 ) NEANDERTHAL MAN Hotlegs
13 ( 11 ) LOLA The Kinks
14 ( 13 ) SIGNED SEALED DELIVERED I’M YOURS Stevie Wonder
15 ( 16 ) I (WHO HAVE NOTHING) Tom Jones

16 ( 19 ) 25 OR 6 TO 4 Chicago
17 ( 15 ) IT’S ALL IN THE GAME The Four Tops
18 ( 14 ) I’LL SAY FOREVER MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin
19 ( NEW ) IT’S SO EASY Andy Williams
20 ( 18 ) ALL RIGHT NOW Free




Back in Singapore, time for some end-of-holiday musings and summary: the long summer holiday from school was pretty literal there, hot days, comics, music, TV, swimming pool, beach, catching fish for my tank, and yet more comics. I was getting a pretty good set of new Action Comics by this time, as well as back issues of Adventure Comics, all featuring my beloved Legion Of Super-Heroes (and Superboy and Superman). I can’t understate how shaky and sweaty I would get when I came across a new issue - the surge of excitement overcame everything else. I had to have them, no matter what. By this time I was off on longer bus journeys, to Katong and Siglap bookstores and roadside kiosks, to Changi Village second-hand bookstores, and to Singapore City plush department stores newsagent sections (with grown-ups, that one, it was just that bit too daunting to go into the city on my own). Just as well I didn’t always tell where I’d been (I used to say Bedok, near where we first lived, and bring back fish from the tropical fish store for the tank as proof). Ah happy days, and I even got friend Dale to accompany me too, eventually - his parents also didn’t know. Given the red-flag bombs left locally aimed at us kids, as I’ve already said, I had to get my priorities right. I knew the risks, took no chances straying from the main bus route and the shops, and I wouldn’t have trusted strangers, but those comics were meant for me, I had to have them! I still have them....

I noticed by now that the comics I brought over from the UK were getting a bit brown and stained round the edges, so hot and humid was it, constantly. I had moth balls in the draw I kept them in, but that didn’t stop it. The expensive new ones needed to be kept as mint as possible in my obsessive eyes. I came up with a solution. Bread rolls. Or rather the bags the rolls came in, labelled with Bakers logos and so on, but otherwise transparent - I washed them out, dried them off for a day or two, and stored my comics in them one in each bag. Then inside a larger bag. It worked - they are still inside the same bags 46 years later, fairly airtight and stacked in my childhood wooden box. Some might call that anal retentive and they’d be right. But my comics are still near mint and worth a bob or two now.

Posted by: popchartfreak 20th April 2016, 06:30 PM

25th August 1970

School hols nearly over, and it’s a reggae new entry at 1 for Desmond Dekker, finally getting the top spot after peaking at with Israelites the previous year. Written by Jamaican reggae legend Jimmy Cliff, You Can Get It If You Really Want was a fab melodic pop groove released on the super-cool reggae label Trojan. Back in 1970, though, Desmond was the big reggae star. Hot Chocolate go up to 2 with the fantastic Love Is Life, and Marmalade hold at 3 with the lovely Rainbow. New at 11, a future Kylie cover, the soulful funk of Chairmen Of The Board, starting their string of hits with one of their great singles, Give Me Just A Little More Time. Lead singer General Johnson had a terrific voice, and the creative team was ex-Motown legends Holland-Dozier-Holland on their new Invictus record label. Funkier, but still fab.



1 ( NEW ) YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT Desmond Dekker
2 ( 5 ) LOVE IS LIFE Hot Chocolate
3 ( 3 ) MAKE IT WITH YOU Bread
4 ( 1 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
5 ( 2 ) LADY D’ARBANVILLE Cat Stevens
6 ( 6 ) LOVE VIBRATIONS The Archies
7 ( 7 ) RAINBOW Marmalade
8 ( 8 ) CECILIA Simon And Garfunkel
9 ( 10 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
10 ( 9 ) TEARS OF A CLOWN Smokey Robinson & The Miracles



11 ( NEW ) GIVE ME JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME Chairmen Of The Board
12 ( 12 ) NEANDERTHAL MAN Hotlegs
13 ( 13 ) LOLA The Kinks
14 ( 11 ) THE LOVE YOU SAVE The Jackson 5
15 ( 15 ) I (WHO HAVE NOTHING) Tom Jones
16 ( 14 ) SIGNED SEALED DELIVERED I’M YOURS Stevie Wonder
17 ( 19 ) IT’S SO EASY Andy Williams
18 ( 16 ) 25 OR 6 TO 4 Chicago
19 ( 18 ) I’LL SAY FOREVER MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin
20 ( 20 ) ALL RIGHT NOW Free


Back in the tropics, what kind of games were popular in our house? I got a fab game called Battling Tops for christmas which dad and his RAF mates also pissed themselves over - it was like an old amphitheatre but curved. Basically you wrapped up to 4 spinning tops in nylon rope, placed them in the 4 starter blocks at 90 degrees around the arena, and pulled hard. They then went mad, spinning towards each other and colliding, and the winner was the one who didn’t get chucked out the arena and who spun the longest.

The grown-ups were big on Canasta, very much a social thing among young married couples, or a ladies-only bit of fun - I still adore card games but they seem to be a thing of the past generally these days. Anyway, I watched avidly behind each grown-up watching how they played till I picked it up, and eventually I got to play too. Yay!

The other big social do, again for couples, but also men’s beer-drinking gatherings at our house (cos we had a dartboard) was darts. Mum and dad went onto the main RAF camp for nights out (we stayed on our own, brother & I, locked indoors with neighbours opposite keeping an eye on the house), I was quite sensible from an early age, these days you’d be done for child abandonment but at 12 or 13 years old I certainly didn’t feel I needed a baby sitter to control my younger brother and a bit of squabbling now and then. Anyway, they won loads of team darts awards, albeit some as runners-up (still have the little wooden plaques and cups) and I got to play darts as much as I wanted. Never did get great at it, though, preferred DC Comics and pop music and American TV.

Other board games: Monopoly (of course), Careers, Scrabble, Mouse Trap, and minor ones like draughts, snakes and ladders, ludo and so on. My big new board game, though, was Chess. I joined the chess club at Seletar Secondary Modern in my first year, and liked it, and ended up getting my own super-funky magnetic chess board (still have it) which I took to my new upcoming school, where I basically spent breaks with the other nerds playing chess. Yes my days of hanging about with the cool kids running round school playgrounds and playing fields were over, the new RAF Changi Grammar School was a whole different ball game, so to speak, and I pretty quickly got labelled a “swot” which was the social kiss of death for any shy boy. To be continued in September, and day one at school...

Posted by: mdh 26th April 2016, 07:28 AM

5 ( 2 ) LADY D’ARBANVILLE Cat Stevens

This is a great track. In love with Cat/Yusuf's music still today

Posted by: popchartfreak 26th April 2016, 11:31 AM

Hi mdh, thanks and I agree, Cat is still good, and Lady D'arbanville is spine-tingling in a macabre sort of way..!

Posted by: popchartfreak 26th August 2017, 07:42 PM

cripes it's been 18 months since I posted one of these! Better crack on with less commentary!

1st September 1970

1 year to the day since leaving for Singapore and Desmond Dekker tops my chart for a second week - when I left it was It Mek that I was just getting in to before cruelly not being able to hear it for another few years! This one though got some radio airplay. 2 new entries, Canadians The Poppy Family became better known as Terry Jacks - well, one of them did anyway. Bobby Bloom pops in with another Caribbean-flavoured song for 1970, following Mary Hopkin's Temma Harbour.

1 ( 1 ) YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT Desmond Dekker
2 ( 2 ) LOVE IS LIFE Hot Chocolate
3 ( 3 ) MAKE IT WITH YOU Bread
4 ( 4 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
5 ( 5 ) LADY D’ARBANVILLE Cat Stevens
6 ( 9 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
7 ( 8 ) CECILIA Simon And Garfunkel
8 ( 7 ) RAINBOW Marmalade
9 ( 6 ) LOVE VIBRATIONS The Archies
10 ( 11 ) GIVE ME JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME Chairmen Of The Board

11 ( 10 ) TEARS OF A CLOWN Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
12 ( 12 ) NEANDERTHAL MAN Hotlegs
13 ( 13 ) LOLA The Kinks
14 ( 17 ) IT’S SO EASY Andy Williams
15 ( NEW ) WHICH WAY YOU GOING BILLY? The Poppy Family
16 ( 14 ) THE LOVE YOU SAVE The Jackson 5
17 ( NEW ) MONTEGO BAY Bobby Bloom
18 ( 15 ) I (WHO HAVE NOTHING) Tom Jones
19 ( 16 ) SIGNED SEALED DELIVERED I’M YOURS Stevie Wonder
20 ( 19 ) I’LL SAY FOREVER MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin

Posted by: popchartfreak 26th August 2017, 07:58 PM

8th September 1970

3 weeks on top for Desmond, 3 weeks at 2 for Hot Chocolate, 4 weeks at 3 for Bread... not much happening!

The Poppy Family leap into the top 5, and Bobby Bloom to 7, but the big news is THREE new entries, whooo! At 12, Jimmy Cliff's lovely Cat Stevens cover is in, It's A, It's A, It's A Wild World as Jonathan King covered it post-Pet Shop Boys not-guilty but not entirely dissimilar It's A Sin. Holland-Dozier-Holland, ex-Motown Masterminds of brilliance (or Tamla Motown as we called the label in the UK in those days, let's be accurate about it) set up their new label/production company Invictus - Chairmen Of The Board and Freda Payne were on it - cue the sheer brilliant Band Of Gold, a heart-rending tale of a newly-wed who's husband isn't up to the job on the wedding night, or thereafter. Gotta feel for her, what a rat! That leaves Three Dog Night, back with a Randy Newman cover. Like all their covers it's not as good as the original. Or any other cover, though it's a close call in this case with the Tom Jones and Stereophonics 90's hit cover.

1 ( 1 ) YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT Desmond Dekker
2 ( 2 ) LOVE IS LIFE Hot Chocolate
3 ( 3 ) MAKE IT WITH YOU Bread
4 ( 4 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
5 ( 15 ) WHICH WAY YOU GOING BILLY? The Poppy Family
6 ( 8 ) RAINBOW Marmalade
7 ( 17 ) MONTEGO BAY Bobby Bloom
8 ( 7 ) CECILIA Simon And Garfunkel
9 ( 10 ) GIVE ME JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME Chairmen Of The Board
10 ( 9 ) LOVE VIBRATIONS The Archies

11 ( 11 ) TEARS OF A CLOWN Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
12 ( NEW ) WILD WORLD Jimmy Cliff
13 ( 14 ) IT’S SO EASY Andy Williams
14 ( 12 ) NEANDERTHAL MAN Hotlegs
15 ( NEW ) BAND OF GOLD Freda Payne
16 ( 13 ) LOLA The Kinks
17 ( 16 ) THE LOVE YOU SAVE The Jackson 5
18 ( 20 ) I’LL SAY FOREVER MY LOVE Jimmy Ruffin
19 ( 18 ) I (WHO HAVE NOTHING) Tom Jones
20 ( NEW ) MAMA TOLD ME NOT TO COME Three Dog Night

Posted by: popchartfreak 2nd September 2017, 05:48 PM

15th September 1970

There's some actual chart movement as the Tremeloes enter at 1 with the fab stomping guitar-riffed Me And My Life, their only chart-topper, though I'd known the band for years - ironically this was pretty much their last fling as far as big hits were concerned, though they had further chart hits with me for another 4 years. Jimmy Cliff climbs to 6, his biggest hit here, and Diana Ross not only covers Marvin Gaye & Tami Terrell's song, she turns it into a monster dramatic ballad and gets her second solo hit. It's an epic version that sets the template for the next 2 years of fab singles, and another 4 years of lesser singles before an abrupt change was called for.

2 metal classics enter at 15 and 20, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, both of them to chart again in 1980. Paranoid is the best of the two, and Deep Purple aren't technically debuting as in my "retro" charts of 1967 and 1968 (ie ones I'm doing now to comprehensively survey the weekly music scenes of that era) they more or less charted as Episode Six (with Morning Dew) and also with a cover of Joe South's Hush, a bigger hit for Kula Shaker into the future.

1 ( NEW ) ME AND MY LIFE The Tremeloes
2 ( 1 ) YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT Desmond Dekker
3 ( 2 ) LOVE IS LIFE Hot Chocolate
4 ( 4 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
5 ( 5 ) WHICH WAY YOU GOING BILLY? The Poppy Family
6 ( 12 ) WILD WORLD Jimmy Cliff
7 ( 3 ) MAKE IT WITH YOU Bread
8 ( NEW ) AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH Diana Ross
9 ( 10 ) LOVE VIBRATIONS The Archies
10 ( 8 ) CECILIA Simon And Garfunkel

11 ( 6 ) RAINBOW Marmalade
12 ( 15 ) BAND OF GOLD Freda Payne
13 ( 11 ) TEARS OF A CLOWN Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
14 ( 9 ) GIVE ME JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME Chairmen Of The Board
15 ( NEW ) PARANOID Black Sabbath
16 ( 7 ) MONTEGO BAY Bobby Bloom
17 ( 14 ) NEANDERTHAL MAN Hotlegs
18 ( 16 ) LOLA The Kinks
19 ( 13 ) IT’S SO EASY Andy Williams
20 ( NEW ) BLACK NIGHT Deep Purple

Life then...
A week or so into yet again playing the "new boy" at yet another school, this time RAF Changi Grammar, with my new brown leather school bag for all the extra books and work I had to do (much more homework at this school, so I had to up my game to do well, rather than just comfortably coast). I was in the second year, and fellow RAF Seletar transferee Stephen Mears joined at the same time, the two new boys in Mr Chapman's form. My best friend at Seletar (Stephen Game) was sporty, so that the was the gang I hung in, new friend Stephen was more into chess - so that was the gang I hung in here. Suited me, as apart from running, rounders, volleyball, swimming, team games really didn't agree with me, rugby and cricket in particular. Another new mate called Stephen (bit of a trend here!) who I knew from 2 terms at Seletar was also here, he was taller and a bit clumsy, not at all sporty, and also into chess and Snagglepuss impressions - so that was it really, I was in with what they called "the swots" in those days, rather than "one of the boys". To be fair, though, there was very little bullying going on in either RAF school, which completely left me blissfully unaware of the reality of the average British non-forces Secondary Schools. Frankly one of the teachers was more scary...but that's another tale.

Posted by: popchartfreak 2nd September 2017, 06:08 PM

22nd September 1970

2 weeks on top for The Trems, as The Carpenters debut at with the Bacharach/David gem Close To You. Just. Gorgeous. Karen's angelic voice just fit into Singapore culture and radio beautifully, being as it was regarded as "Easy Listening" as they called it in those days. Class, I call it. Ditto Simon & Garfunkel having the fourth top 10 off possibly the greatest album of all-time, which my neighbours had, and had loaned to dad to record the top tracks, including this definitive version - note not the UK hit version by Julie Felix. Freda Payne goes top 10, as I hadn't actually rated it as highly as I do now.

1 ( 1 ) ME AND MY LIFE The Tremeloes
2 ( 2 ) YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT Desmond Dekker
3 ( NEW ) (THEY LONG TO BE) CLOSE TO YOU The Carpenters
4 ( 8 ) AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH Diana Ross
5 ( NEW ) EL CONDOR PASA Simon And Garfunkel
6 ( 4 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
7 ( 3 ) LOVE IS LIFE Hot Chocolate
8 ( 6 ) WILD WORLD Jimmy Cliff
9 ( 9 ) LOVE VIBRATIONS The Archies
10 ( 12 ) BAND OF GOLD Freda Payne

11 ( 15 ) PARANOID Black Sabbath
12 ( 7 ) MAKE IT WITH YOU Bread
13 ( 5 ) WHICH WAY YOU GOING BILLY? The Poppy Family
14 ( 11 ) RAINBOW Marmalade
15 ( 13 ) TEARS OF A CLOWN Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
16 ( 20 ) BLACK NIGHT Deep Purple
17 ( 17 ) NEANDERTHAL MAN Hotlegs
18 ( 14 ) GIVE ME JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME Chairmen Of The Board
19 ( 16 ) MONTEGO BAY Bobby Bloom
20 ( 19 ) IT’S SO EASY Andy Williams

Back at RAF Changi, it was getting to know the teachers and schoolmates, like outgoing and assertive Lee Kleinhans, a kid from South Africa, my best friend next-door was also there, in the first year, along with his older sister a couple of years up from me. Short Gary was likeable - the same couldn't be said for the fearsome Mr Mynett, the Physics teacher, who put the fear of God into kids with his OTT Sgt-Major-styled methods - short and sharp in appearance and nature. Mr. Magnet we called him. Put me off Physics pretty much. I preferred the nice Biology teacher lady, though I am still waiting for an answer to a question I asked (I never asked questions in class) when she said all fruits had seeds and I asked about bananas. "I'll tell you later" she said, and never did.

Kids remember these things!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 23rd March 2018, 07:22 PM

29th September 1970

3 weeks on top for The Trems, rather amazingly their only chart-topper in my charts, even in my retrospective charts (I've started from January 1967 charting songs new to me and old to me, comprehensively top 50's - and they don't come close even though I loved them as a kid). The Carpenters are up to 2, and Simon & Garfunkel at 3 with the track covered by Julie Felix, and highest new entry is at 6 - The Archies are back with a minor US hit, and a track I adored at the time (taping it off their TV show) the joyous bubblegum of Sunshine, which deserves to be better known - or rather known at all. Written by Jeff Barry and Bobby Bloom, that'll be Sugar Sugar and the chap at number 16 with the also-tropical-sounding Montego Bay.

Black Sabbath are a bit Paranoid at being leap-frogged by a cartoon band, but then they DID have their own cartoon character in Ozzy.... In at 17, the soul-funk powerful social commentary of The Temptations' Ball Of Confusion, Chicago pop back in at 19, and in at 20 one of my recent raves Our World. Blue Mink were fab, but tend to be under-appreciated, quite unfairly as they had a variety of singles, all great quality - this track was written by Herbie Flowers, later of "Grandad" success and Walk On The Wild Side bassline fame, and Kenny Pickett. Madeline Bell did the original version of I'm Gonna Make You Love Me, pre-Diana Ross & Co, which has made my retro 1968 charts - see my wordpress popchartfreak account for those shortly.



1 ( 1 ) ME AND MY LIFE The Tremeloes
2 ( 3 ) (THEY LONG TO BE) CLOSE TO YOU The Carpenters
3 ( 5 ) EL CONDOR PASA Simon And Garfunkel
4 ( 2 ) YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT Desmond Dekker
5 ( 4 ) AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH Diana Ross
6 ( NEW ) SUNSHINE The Archies
7 ( 11 ) PARANOID Black Sabbath
8 ( 10 ) BAND OF GOLD Freda Payne
9 ( 6 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
10 ( 7 ) LOVE IS LIFE Hot Chocolate

11 ( 8 ) WILD WORLD Jimmy Cliff
12 ( 13 ) WHICH WAY YOU GOING BILLY? The Poppy Family
13 ( 12 ) MAKE IT WITH YOU Bread
14 ( 16 ) BLACK NIGHT Deep Purple
15 ( 15 ) TEARS OF A CLOWN Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
16 ( 19 ) MONTEGO BAY Bobby Bloom
17 ( NEW ) BALL OF CONFUSION The Temptations
18 ( 18 ) GIVE ME JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME Chairmen Of The Board
19 ( RE ) 25 OR 6 TO 4 Chicago
20 ( NEW ) OUR WORLD Blue Mink

Posted by: The Hissmobile 23rd March 2018, 07:33 PM

I love Paranoid and Black Night in your top 20, two great rock anthems!

El Condor Pasa is a great song too and They Long To Be (Close To You) is lovely.

Posted by: Poptarttreat 23rd October 2020, 09:01 AM

6th October 1970


Back in Singapore, in actual 1970 The Tremeloes had a 4th week on top, with The Archies fave Sunshine, as heard in their TV show was top 5. Woodstock enters at 8, a hippie dippy Joni Mitchell anthem (she wasn't there at the famous outdoor festival, but imagined it from the comfort of a TV viewing) covered definitively by Ian Matthews in 100% dreamy fabness. I was totally oblivious to both as a schoolboy in the tropics. Melanie enters at 10 with her terrific cover of Ruby Tuesday, better than The Rolling Stones 1967 original, and yet some self-written gems from that Melanie album stayed as album tracks for the moment, including What Have They Done To My Song, Ma, and The Nickel Song. Classic Four Tops ballad at 18, with Still waters, and fab ballad Hollies Gasoline Alley Bred at 20.

In real life I became more of Chess-Club & Library kinda student than a Run-Around school boy as my new friends weren't that into manically chasing round a school that frankly didn't have the same number of hiding places RAF Seletar had. Unlike that one, which didn't bother with boundary fences as it was located within the RAF base, RAF Changi Grammar wasn't secured within a base, it was just a building off Changi Road, so fences were there, and we weren't allowed out of the grounds. In the US PBS began broadcasting BBC shows on it's debut, while on Singapore TV we already had that network owner's Sesame Street. I might have been a bit outside the target audience, but I liked American shows, and the puppets were mildly amusing to me.


1 ( 1 ) ME AND MY LIFE The Tremeloes
2 ( 2 ) (THEY LONG TO BE) CLOSE TO YOU The Carpenters
3 ( 3 ) EL CONDOR PASA Simon And Garfunkel
4 ( 6 ) SUNSHINE The Archies
5 ( 4 ) YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT Desmond Dekker
6 ( 5 ) AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH Diana Ross
7 ( 7 ) PARANOID Black Sabbath
8 ( NEW ) WOODSTOCK Matthews Southern Comfort
9 ( 9 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
10 ( NEW ) RUBY TUESDAY Melanie

11 ( 10 ) LOVE IS LIFE Hot Chocolate
12 ( 8 ) BAND OF GOLD Freda Payne
13 ( 11 ) WILD WORLD Jimmy Cliff
14 ( 14 ) BLACK NIGHT Deep Purple
15 ( 13 ) MAKE IT WITH YOU Bread
16 ( 12 ) WHICH WAY YOU GOING BILLY? The Poppy Family
17 ( 17 ) BALL OF CONFUSION The Temptations
18 ( NEW ) STILL WATERS (LOVE) The Four Tops
19 ( 15 ) TEARS OF A CLOWN Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
20 ( NEW ) GASOLINE ALLEY BRED The Hollies

Posted by: Poptarttreat 23rd October 2020, 09:03 AM

13th October 1970

In my charts of 50 years ago this week it's The Carpenters taking the top spot for the first time as the tropical Singapore lifestyle dominated, with the classic Bacharach/ David song Close To You, while in the UK charts Woodstock was hitting it big for Matthews Southern Comfort. Singapore and Malaysia tended to be more pop and less rock-oriented in it's charts - as in Western charts compiled by Rediffusion Record Shop and published in Billboard magazine. As I was at school at the time, I also had less radio-listening time, so these retro-compiled charts in the 70's include stuff I got to hear 5 Years Later, rather than at the time, such as Patches entering for Clarence Carter, or around about 1971/72, such as What Have They Done To My Song, Ma from The New Seekers, debuting their Melanie cover this week, along with the whistling Roger Whittaker on one of his best tracks.

1 ( 2 ) (THEY LONG TO BE) CLOSE TO YOU The Carpenters
2 ( 1 ) ME AND MY LIFE The Tremeloes
3 ( 4 ) SUNSHINE The Archies
4 ( 8 ) WOODSTOCK Matthews Southern Comfort
5 ( 3 ) EL CONDOR PASA Simon And Garfunkel
6 ( 5 ) YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT Desmond Dekker
7 ( 10 ) RUBY TUESDAY Melanie
8 ( 6 ) AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH Diana Ross
9 ( 7 ) PARANOID Black Sabbath
10 ( 9 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley

11 ( 18 ) STILL WATERS (LOVE) The Four Tops
12 ( 11 ) LOVE IS LIFE Hot Chocolate
13 ( NEW ) LOOK WHAT THEY’VE DONE TO MY SONG, MA The New Seekers
14 ( 20 ) GASOLINE ALLEY BRED The Hollies
15 ( 12 ) BAND OF GOLD Freda Payne
16 ( NEW ) PATCHES Clarence Carter
17 ( 15 ) MAKE IT WITH YOU Bread
18 ( NEW ) NEW WORLD IN THE MORNING Roger Whittaker
19 ( 14 ) BLACK NIGHT Deep Purple
20 ( 19 ) TEARS OF A CLOWN Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

Posted by: Last Dreamer 23rd October 2020, 09:55 AM

In July 2020 I started to compile my retrospective weekly chart for 1970 year.
But only seven charts were finished, because my PC don't work anymore and I lost all database of singles, which I prepared for 70s charts.

Posted by: Poptarttreat 23rd October 2020, 01:05 PM

20th October 1970
wot I liked that week then

Snowbird enters at 1, and 50 years later it still reminds of a family visit to Suicide Village, to visit family friends, it was going round my head all day long and for weeks after, I was obsessed with it. The other memory of Suicide Village is of a terrorist bombing of 2 British Primary School kids attracted to a booby-trap with a flag stuck amongst overgrown vegetation on a large open space adjacent the community and main road. The terrorists seem to be Malaysian activists no doubt inspired by the ongoing wars in Viet-Nam, Cambodia & around the area. One of the kids died, and it was a spiteful action given the RAF was already in the process of pulling out of Singapore. We kids were all warned off flag bombs from that day forward - they attended the same school as my brother, and the small kids were more at risk. I still ignored orders not to go into other areas to buy DC Comics, especially Legion Of Super-Heroes comics, my other main obsession. Yes, I would literally risk my life going on a bus to Katong and Siglap (in a minor way) to get super-hero comics. And now they feature in huge blockbuster movies. I feel justified...!

Also new in, Jimmy Ruffin with his last great Motown-track, It's Wonderful, though he would have reissued success again in 1970, and Bee Gees-assisted success in 1980, and War, Edwin Starr's still-relevant histrionic cover of a Temptations track. Classic.

1 ( NEW ) SNOWBIRD Anne Murray
2 ( 3 ) SUNSHINE The Archies
3 ( 1 ) (THEY LONG TO BE) CLOSE TO YOU The Carpenters
4 ( 2 ) ME AND MY LIFE The Tremeloes
5 ( 4 ) WOODSTOCK Matthews Southern Comfort
6 ( 7 ) RUBY TUESDAY Melanie
7 ( 5 ) EL CONDOR PASA Simon And Garfunkel
8 ( 6 ) YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT Desmond Dekker
9 ( 12 ) LOOK WHAT THEY’VE DONE TO MY SONG, MA The New Seekers
10 ( 16 ) PATCHES Clarence Carter

11 ( NEW ) IT’S WONDERFUL (TO BE LOVED BY YOU) Jimmy Ruffin
12 ( 10 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
13 ( 13 ) GASOLINE ALLEY BRED The Hollies
14 ( 8 ) AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH Diana Ross
15 ( 11 ) STILL WATERS (LOVE) The Four Tops
16 ( 9 ) PARANOID Black Sabbath
17 ( 18 ) NEW WORLD IN THE MORNING Roger Whittaker
18 ( 14 ) BAND OF GOLD Freda Payne
19 ( 20 ) TEARS OF A CLOWN Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
20 ( NEW ) WAR Edwin Starr

Posted by: Poptarttreat 23rd October 2020, 01:19 PM

Oh that's frustrating! All of that work lost I had the same problems myself years ago so I back up everything onto an external hard drive now, it doesnt take long to bung stuff onto it and well-worth the investment and time! My pc just stopped loading one day, I think it had been attacked by viruses from a dodgy website I used to get a free music download, but I managed to get it working by sticking a cd in the cd player slot and it sort of punched it into action for long enough for me to back up everything on the pc that I needed before I gave up on it and switched to laptop.

Hopefully if you re-compile the data it will be a bit quicker than first-time round - you can always use my revamped expanded 1970 charts to look for some stuff you might like (mostly UK/USA though, I'm afraid) like Anne Murray's Snowbird, some Mary Hopkin tracks, Clodagh Rodgers, a New Zealand singer called Suzanne, Pickettywich, New Seekers... I havent posted them on here just sticking with my originals, but they are online by googling popchartfreak 1970 charts

Posted by: Poptarttreat 30th October 2020, 02:39 PM

27th October 1970

It's the week before my brother's 11th birthday, and US TV shows I was or would-soon-be watching included Julia, The Courtship Of Eddie's Father, Mary Tyler Moore Show, Sesame Street, The Partridge Family, The Andy Williams Show, The Flip Wilson Show & old shows like Combat, My Favorite Martian, Get Smart and Green Acres. UK shows were Doctor Who (Troughton era), UFO, and err not much else, Asian cartoons Phantoma, Marine Boy and Monkey, and Aussie sci-fi show Phoenix 5.

In my charts it's 2 weeks on top for Snowbird, Jimmy Ruffin going top 10 for the 3rd time in 1970, and Don Fardon's fab 1968 US track hitting in the UK - though I never got to hear it at the time, I was more aware of The Raiders hit US version in 1971.

1 ( 1 ) SNOWBIRD Anne Murray
2 ( 2 ) SUNSHINE The Archies
3 ( 4 ) ME AND MY LIFE The Tremeloes
4 ( 3 ) (THEY LONG TO BE) CLOSE TO YOU The Carpenters
5 ( 10 ) PATCHES Clarence Carter
6 ( 9 ) LOOK WHAT THEY’VE DONE TO MY SONG, MA The New Seekers
7 ( 11 ) IT’S WONDERFUL (TO BE LOVED BY YOU) Jimmy Ruffin
8 ( 5 ) WOODSTOCK Matthews Southern Comfort
9 ( 7 ) EL CONDOR PASA Simon And Garfunkel
10 ( 8 ) YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT Desmond Dekker

11 ( 12 ) THE WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
12 ( 17 ) NEW WORLD IN THE MORNING Roger Whittaker
13 ( 14 ) AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH Diana Ross
14 ( 6 ) RUBY TUESDAY Melanie
15 ( NEW ) INDIAN RESERVATION Don Fardon
16 ( 16 ) PARANOID Black Sabbath
17 ( 13 ) GASOLINE ALLEY BRED The Hollies
18 ( 15 ) STILL WATERS (LOVE) The Four Tops
19 ( 18 ) BAND OF GOLD Freda Payne
20 ( 20 ) WAR Edwin Starr

Posted by: Sixth Sense 30th October 2020, 02:44 PM

I love Snowbird by Anne Murray but actually prefer Lynn Anderson's version which was the B-side to her No.3 smash hit Rose Garden in Feb.'71.

Posted by: Poptarttreat 30th October 2020, 02:48 PM

That was a nice version too, and Rose Garden will riding high in my 1971 charts, cos it's fab and inspired Kon Kan

Posted by: Sixth Sense 30th October 2020, 03:13 PM

Great. If you like it check out some of Lynn's other songs too. She did many more. Another Lonely Night and How Can I Unlove You are my faves.

Elvis's version of Snowbird isn't bad either.

Posted by: Sixth Sense 31st October 2020, 03:31 PM

Yes agree with all those 4. Paranoid is a true classic track.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 6th November 2020, 04:45 PM

Oddly I associate Paranoid more with the 1980 reissue, it didn't sound old at all

Posted by: Sixth Sense 6th November 2020, 04:51 PM

Yeah me to actually as was only 10 in 1970 so not in to music and charts.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 6th November 2020, 04:59 PM

5th November 1970

Remember remember the 5th of November. Actually I don't, Bonfire Night not a thing in Singapore, though there were fireworks and firecrackers on parades through the city on Chinese New Year (I think) along with loads of dragons and bells. I still have one somewhere, possibly - at least a small version, not one with a dozen people in it. Meanwhile it's 3 weeks on top for Snowbird, and the highest new entry was the soundalike follow-up to Yellow River, San Bernadino, which I heard once or twice and liked.

Down the bottom-end of the chart, though, I'm struggling to find records I knew at the time and so filled in with a batch I got to hear in 1975 - none of them I particularly went big for, though I bought Mary Hopkin's Hot Chocolate song (Errol Brown/Tony Wilson wrote it for her) Think About Your Children and it's quite sweet. White Plains Julie Do Ya Love Me is an inferior UK cover of a much-better Bobby Sherman US hit, Voodoo Chile a big posthumous UK chart-topper for Jimi Hendrix - to be honest I must have heard he had died by this time, but I couldn't swear to it as it's left no residual memory of me remembering it, like I did when The Beatles split up. Fire And Rain is a goodie, though, a song I knew but didn't know I knew until after You've Got A Friend had been a hit in late '71. I think I knew it in a Jose Feliciano cover version so technically I should have charted that one, really!

1 ( 1 ) SNOWBIRD Anne Murray
2 ( 3 ) ME AND MY LIFE The Tremeloes
3 ( 2 ) SUNSHINE The Archies
4 ( 4 ) (THEY LONG TO BE) CLOSE TO YOU The Carpenters
5 ( 7 ) IT’S WONDERFUL (TO BE LOVED BY YOU) Jimmy Ruffin
6 ( NEW ) SAN BERNADINO Christie
7 ( 5 ) PATCHES Clarence Carter
8 ( 6 ) LOOK WHAT THEY’VE DONE TO MY SONG, MA The New Seekers
9 ( 9 ) EL CONDOR PASA Simon And Garfunkel
10 ( 10 ) YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT Desmond Dekker

11 ( 15 ) INDIAN RESERVATION Don Fardon
12 ( 8 ) WOODSTOCK Matthews Southern Comfort
13 ( 12 ) NEW WORLD IN THE MORNING Roger Whittaker
14 ( 14 ) RUBY TUESDAY Melanie
15 ( 13 ) AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH Diana Ross
16 ( NEW ) JULIE DO YA LOVE ME White Plains
17 ( 16 ) PARANOID Black Sabbath
18 ( NEW ) FIRE AND RAIN James Taylor
19 ( NEW ) THINK ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN Mary Hopkin
20 ( NEW ) VOODOO CHILE The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th November 2020, 05:04 PM

10th November 1970

It's 4 weeks on top for Family Guy fave Anne Murray and her wonderful Snowbird, with neil Diamond entering at 2 with possibly his best record, Cracklin' Rosie at 2 - play it nowwwwww, my baby! - and Christie get a second top 3 with San Bernadino doing a creditable Creedence Clearwater Revival-lite. T.Rex debut at 8, in the big news, as the influential Glam Rock godfather Marc Bolan starts up his classic run of singles and some album tracks, it'll be almost 4 years before the cracks start creeping in. Ride A White Swan, and every single from here through to 1974, is fab.

Down the bottom end I was a bit short on decent tracks featuring in the UK charts, so it's Elvis Presley's crappy I've Lost You taking up space. Back in 1970, a very young highschool Aerosmith debuted this week, Ethan Hawke was born (I've been compared to Ethan Hawke facially - the older version - which I choose to take as a compliment), The Goodies TV show debuted on BBC2 (which hardly anyone had in 1970) and Layla was released by Derek & The Dominoes...2 years later it was a hit. Around this time my dad bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder, which revolutionised my life! Suddenly, I could buy reel to reel tapes (after saving pocket money up), and tape all my fave songs off the radio and TV, and play them back over and over again. Bliss! I still have it, I still have the tapes, but it's tragically not in working order and I havent copied tapes beyond 1980 onto casette. Fortunately the Singapore days I'd copied before it packed in. At the time I taped all of my top 11 this week, bar Christie and Don Fardon.

1 ( 1 ) SNOWBIRD Anne Murray
2 ( NEW ) CRACKLIN’ ROSIE Neil Diamond
3 ( 6 ) SAN BERNADINO Christie
4 ( 2 ) ME AND MY LIFE The Tremeloes
5 ( 5 ) IT’S WONDERFUL (TO BE LOVED BY YOU) Jimmy Ruffin
6 ( 4 ) (THEY LONG TO BE) CLOSE TO YOU The Carpenters
7 ( 3 ) SUNSHINE The Archies
8 ( NEW ) RIDE A WHITE SWAN T.Rex
9 ( 11 ) INDIAN RESERVATION Don Fardon
10 ( 9 ) EL CONDOR PASA Simon And Garfunkel

11 ( 10 ) YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT Desmond Dekker
12 ( 7 ) PATCHES Clarence Carter
13 ( 12 ) WOODSTOCK Matthews Southern Comfort
14 ( 18 ) FIRE AND RAIN James Taylor
15 ( 8 ) LOOK WHAT THEY’VE DONE TO MY SONG, MA The New Seekers
16 ( 16 ) JULIE DO YA LOVE ME White Plains
17 ( 15 ) AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH Diana Ross
18 ( 19 ) THINK ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN Mary Hopkin
19 ( 14 ) RUBY TUESDAY Melanie
20 ( NEW ) I’VE LOST YOU Elvis Presley

Posted by: Popchartfreak 20th November 2020, 05:59 PM

17th November 1970

It's 5 weeks flying on top for the Snowbird, as a T.Rex starts to threaten at 3, and Neil Diamond holds at 2 with his bit of Cracklin', Rosie. Dave Edmunds debuts at 10, 2 years since his tour-de-force guitar-playing crashed into the chart with Love Sculpture's Sabre Dance. This time he's updated a blues standard, I Hear You Knocking, and done it beautifully. Julie Felix gets a second chart entry with Heaven Is Here, giving Errol Brown and Tony Wilson 2 songs on the list (Mary Hopkin t'other) while Chairmen Of The Board make it 2 in a row, dangling or otherwise!



1 ( 1 ) SNOWBIRD Anne Murray
2 ( 2 ) CRACKLIN’ ROSIE Neil Diamond
3 ( 8 ) RIDE A WHITE SWAN T.Rex
4 ( 3 ) SAN BERNADINO Christie
5 ( 4 ) ME AND MY LIFE The Tremeloes
6 ( 6 ) (THEY LONG TO BE) CLOSE TO YOU The Carpenters
7 ( 5 ) IT’S WONDERFUL (TO BE LOVED BY YOU) Jimmy Ruffin
8 ( 9 ) INDIAN RESERVATION Don Fardon
9 ( 7 ) SUNSHINE The Archies
10 ( NEW ) I HEAR YOU KNOCKING Dave Edmunds

11 ( 10 ) EL CONDOR PASA Simon And Garfunkel
12 ( 14 ) FIRE AND RAIN James Taylor
13 ( 12 ) PATCHES Clarence Carter
14 ( 18 ) THINK ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN Mary Hopkin
15 ( 13 ) WOODSTOCK Matthews Southern Comfort
16 ( 20 ) I’VE LOST YOU Elvis Presley
17 ( 15 ) LOOK WHAT THEY’VE DONE TO MY SONG, MA The New Seekers
18 ( NEW ) HEAVEN IS HERE Julie Felix
19 ( 19 ) RUBY TUESDAY Melanie
20 ( NEW ) YOU’VE GOT ME DANGLING ON A STRING Chairmen Of The Board

Posted by: Sixth Sense 20th November 2020, 06:27 PM

You certainly did like Snowbird!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 27th November 2020, 02:32 PM

I was mad for it! I got obsessed by records all the time back in the day

Posted by: Popchartfreak 27th November 2020, 02:42 PM

24th November 1970

It's a new number one, Neil Diamond getting his first chart-topper with Cracklin' Rosie, a big MOR fave act among expats in their 30's (ie my parents and their friends) - and me. Cracklin' Rosie is a great pop track, and if I'd known he'd also written I'm A Believer & A Little Bit Me A Little Bit You for The Monkees I would have been even more impressed with Neil. Talking of big MOR acts, Andy Williams enters at 4 with another Two Way Family Favourite radio biggie (Forces personnel abroad liked the sentiment), a UK-written ballad Home Lovin' Man. Andy was on Singapore TV at the time with his Andy Williams Show.

There's also my big fave, Glen Campbell, who was definitely my top male singer of 1970 at the time, no question, this time 50's oldie in it's best version It's Only Make Believe. Glen knew how to end a record on a high! Great range, great honeyed voice, great guitarist. C.C.S. Pop in with the Top Of The Pops theme, which I was still 10 months away from hearing, but basing these charts on the UK top 30 of the time meant I had to fill-it-up at the lower end with tracks I caught later, and some I didn't really care for (Elvis frinstance).

1 ( 2 ) CRACKLIN’ ROSIE Neil Diamond
2 ( 1 ) SNOWBIRD Anne Murray
3 ( 3 ) RIDE A WHITE SWAN T.Rex
4 ( NEW ) HOME LOVIN’ MAN Andy Williams
5 ( 5 ) ME AND MY LIFE The Tremeloes
6 ( NEW ) IT’S ONLY MAKE BELIEVE Glen Campbell
7 ( 10 ) I HEAR YOU KNOCKING Dave Edmunds
8 ( 4 ) SAN BERNADINO Christie
9 ( 9 ) SUNSHINE The Archies
10 ( 7 ) IT’S WONDERFUL (TO BE LOVED BY YOU) Jimmy Ruffin

11 ( 12 ) FIRE AND RAIN James Taylor
12 ( 8 ) INDIAN RESERVATION Don Fardon
13 ( 13 ) PATCHES Clarence Carter
14 ( 15 ) WOODSTOCK Matthews Southern Comfort
15 ( 18 ) HEAVEN IS HERE Julie Felix
16 ( 16 ) I’VE LOST YOU Elvis Presley
17 ( 14 ) THINK ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN Mary Hopkin
18 ( 17 ) LOOK WHAT THEY’VE DONE TO MY SONG, MA The New Seekers
19 ( 19 ) RUBY TUESDAY Melanie
20 ( NEW ) WHOLE LOTTA LOVE C.C.S.

Posted by: Steve201 28th November 2020, 10:35 AM

I’ve only just discovered this 70s chart thread!!

What age were you when this was compiled?

Posted by: Popchartfreak 4th December 2020, 05:11 PM

Hi Steve!

Long answer: I'm afraid my first attempts at personal charts started in 1968 aged 10 (all of which I still have), and sporadically until we moved to Singapore at which point I got cut off from British charts for 2 years (other than reading the list of the top 30 singles in the mega-pack Daily Mirror's that were bundled together for RAF ex-pats, most of which I didn't know unless they got played on local radio or Two Way Family Favourites on the Forces network and Radio 2 back home). So I restarted when I got back in Sept 1971 and was overwhelmed with excitement at the new buzzing music scene opening to me, and never really stopped.

The gaps in my charts then started to bug me, as so many faves from 1968 to 1971 didn't get a feature, so as soon as I got hold of the first chart book in the mid-70's to feature Top 20 BBC charts (plus "last week" positions) I filled in the gaps basing it on what I liked at the time that was in the UK charts, which was pretty much still what I liked at the time a few years earlier anyway, plus a few US tracks that didnt hit in the UK that I knew, and before fading memory helps you conveniently forget that you liked all those not-cool tracks, actually

Short answer, I was 12 in 1970, and compiled them around 1975/6 I think, but from Oct 1971 they are originals, I make that 49 years of chart obsession. I may or may not hold the World Record for Biggest All-Time Personal Chart Geek

Posted by: CHRIS-TMAS 4th December 2020, 05:28 PM

Welcome along Steve. He does some great nostalgic threads.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 4th December 2020, 05:29 PM

1st December 1970

It's a first T.Rex Glam Rock chart-topper with Ride A White Swan, and we are now at the stage where dad's second-hand reel-to-reel 4-track taperecorder purchase really was paying dividends as I spent a lot of time radio-listening with my finger on the record-pause button. The Jackson 5 enter at 7 with the sublime I'll Be There. The Jackson 5 were big on The Ed Sullivan Show, and other variety shows like Dean Martin, Andy Williams, Flip Wilson, all American, and they were fab, and I loved this track. Michael's voice was so brilliant before puberty hit. Of course, Mariah carey did her best to turn me against it, but in 1995 I returned to Singapore with my mum and brother (dad stayed at home dog-sitting), popped over on the cable-car from Mount Faber to Sentosa, and the song playing at the entrance area was...I'll Be There, Jackson 5. SO appropriate, so nostalgic!

At 13, a bit of a karoake classic, Frank Sinatra's signature tune hadn't really gone away Since charting My Way in early 1969, and I still loved it 18 months later, before avalanches of covers killed it for me forever more. Elvis' was the worst. Just awful. So bad. At 14 Gilbert O'Sullivan debuts with the charming Nothing Rhymed, one I got to hear a year or so later and liked, before Gilbert dumped his trademark shorts and 1930's depression-era outfit and haircut, and opted for cheesy-pullover curly-hair chart-topping drivel instead, till he sabotaged his own career with the abysmally misogynistic A Woman's Place.

At 19, The Bandwagon are back, with Johnny Johnson getting top billing this time, after Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache in 1968 now they are blaming it on the Pony Express. I know I'm old, but trust me, we had post office vans and international mail, so blaming it on the pony express is a bit out of order. It's A Shame for The Spinners, as the UK folk group had already copyrighted the name, so in the UK they became known as The Detroit Spinners, a way better name, I think, anyway. This much-covered song debuts under the Motown Spinners moniker. Monica? Fab anyway, one that's grown with the years.


1 ( 3 ) RIDE A WHITE SWAN T.Rex
2 ( 2 ) SNOWBIRD Anne Murray
3 ( 1 ) CRACKLIN’ ROSIE Neil Diamond
4 ( 4 ) HOME LOVIN’ MAN Andy Williams
5 ( 7 ) I HEAR YOU KNOCKING Dave Edmunds
6 ( 6 ) IT’S ONLY MAKE BELIEVE Glen Campbell
7 ( NEW ) I’LL BE THERE The Jackson 5
8 ( 8 ) SAN BERNADINO Christie
9 ( 9 ) SUNSHINE The Archies
10 ( 10 ) IT’S WONDERFUL (TO BE LOVED BY YOU) Jimmy Ruffin

11 ( 13 ) PATCHES Clarence Carter
12 ( 12 ) INDIAN RESERVATION Don Fardon
13 ( NEW ) MY WAY Frank Sinatra
14 ( NEW ) NOTHING RHYMED Gilbert O’Sullivan
15 ( 15 ) HEAVEN IS HERE Julie Felix
16 ( 11 ) FIRE AND RAIN James Taylor
17 ( 14 ) WOODSTOCK Matthews Southern Comfort
18 ( 18 ) LOOK WHAT THEY’VE DONE TO MY SONG, MA The New Seekers
19 ( NEW ) BLAME IT ON THE PONY EXPRESS Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon
20 ( NEW ) IT’S A SHAME The Motown Spinners

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th December 2020, 06:19 PM

8th December 1970

It's a first week on top for Andy Williams (though he'll be back in the 90's and beyond with oldies) and his great ballad, Home Lovin' Man, a bit of anthem for Ex-Pats in the Forces missing the UK as Christmas approached. Not me. I just loved the song. Clive Dunn enters at 7 with another of those Two-Way Family Favourites radio staples of the time, Grandad, fresh from his stint as Corporal Jones in Dad's Army. Clive was an actor, and he wasn't old, he was just made-up to look old. The song was written by Herbie Flowers, of Blue Mink, and the man who played THAT bass line on Lou Reed's Walk On The Wild Side, among many other music-biz achievements. I loved the song at the time, though my grandad (at home in the UK) thought it was sentimental slop (my Auntie Ann had bought it, she's two years older than me). Mind you, grandad thought most pop records were slop.

McGuiness Flint pop in with When I'm Dead And Gone, ex-Manfred Mann and future The Manfreds, who I've seen several times and are always a great night out. The Bee Gees US hit, and minor UK hit, Lonely Days debuts at 14. Essentially their final "60's" sounding record, and a great one too, all dramatic n fab. From here on it would be ballads all the way till disco-funk. This week in 1970, Kevin Sussman was born. Not that I was aware of it at the time, but if you'd said a baby had been born who'd play a Comic Book Store owner on a fab sitcom called The Big Bang Theory for 12 years in the 21st Century, I would have been gripped. Ticking all sorts of boxes for me that sentence.


1 ( 4 ) HOME LOVIN’ MAN Andy Williams
2 ( 2 ) SNOWBIRD Anne Murray
3 ( 1 ) RIDE A WHITE SWAN T.Rex
4 ( 3 ) CRACKLIN’ ROSIE Neil Diamond
5 ( 6 ) IT’S ONLY MAKE BELIEVE Glen Campbell
6 ( 7 ) I’LL BE THERE The Jackson 5
7 ( NEW ) GRANDAD Clive Dunn
8 ( 13 ) MY WAY Frank Sinatra
9 ( 8 ) SAN BERNADINO Christie
10 ( 10 ) IT’S WONDERFUL (TO BE LOVED BY YOU) Jimmy Ruffin

11 ( 5 ) I HEAR YOU KNOCKING Dave Edmunds
12 ( 14 ) NOTHING RHYMED Gilbert O’Sullivan
13 ( NEW ) WHEN I’M DEAD AND GONE McGuiness Flint
14 ( NEW ) LONELY DAYS The Bee Gees
15 ( 11 ) PATCHES Clarence Carter
16 ( 12 ) INDIAN RESERVATION Don Fardon
17 ( 19 ) BLAME IT ON THE PONY EXPRESS Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon
18 ( 17 ) WOODSTOCK Matthews Southern Comfort
19 ( 20 ) IT’S A SHAME The Motown Spinners
20 ( 15 ) HEAVEN IS HERE Julie Felix

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th December 2020, 06:00 PM

15th December 1970

It's 2 weeks on top for Andy Williams as Xmas nears. Not much happening, though, Frankie Valli in at 16 with his Northern Soul stomper, You're Ready Now. Northern Soul, unbeknownst to me, was getting to be a big British movement as kids in Wigan and beyond were grooving at night to obscure US soul dance tracks, but ones with a specific bpm and sound which crossed over into blue-eyed soul like this one. Also out, this week, was a track I wouldn't hear for another 40 years, a little Xmas ditty called Felice Navidad, now huge on streaming and download presumably from it's US success spilling over to non-US markets. It certainly never got any UK radio play until the 21st century! On the other hand 2 other festive regulars, The Jackson 5's Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, and Carpenters Merry Christmas Darling would both chart in the UK 2 years later, and then become semi-regulars.


1 ( 1 ) HOME LOVIN’ MAN Andy Williams
2 ( 5 ) IT’S ONLY MAKE BELIEVE Glen Campbell
3 ( 2 ) SNOWBIRD Anne Murray
4 ( 3 ) RIDE A WHITE SWAN T.Rex
5 ( 6 ) I’LL BE THERE The Jackson 5
6 ( 4 ) CRACKLIN’ ROSIE Neil Diamond
7 ( 7 ) GRANDAD Clive Dunn
8 ( 9 ) SAN BERNADINO Christie
9 ( 12 ) NOTHING RHYMED Gilbert O’Sullivan
10 ( 10 ) IT’S WONDERFUL (TO BE LOVED BY YOU) Jimmy Ruffin

11 ( 14 ) LONELY DAYS The Bee Gees
12 ( 8 ) MY WAY Frank Sinatra
13 ( 11 ) I HEAR YOU KNOCKING Dave Edmunds
14 ( 13 ) WHEN I’M DEAD AND GONE McGuiness Flint
15 ( 17 ) BLAME IT ON THE PONY EXPRESS Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon
16 ( NEW ) YOU’RE READY NOW Frankie Valli
17 ( 18 ) WOODSTOCK Matthews Southern Comfort
18 ( 16 ) INDIAN RESERVATION Don Fardon
19 ( 19 ) IT’S A SHAME The Motown Spinners
20 ( 20 ) HEAVEN IS HERE Julie Felix

Posted by: Popchartfreak 25th December 2020, 12:42 PM

22nd December 1970

Glen Campbell gets his 2nd chart-topper of the year with his great version of It's Only Make Believe. I would be getting This Is Glen Campbell for Xmas (I wanted Honey Come Back but it wasn't available in the record store, just as well as the one I got had Wichita Lineman & Galveston on it). Lonely Days goes top 10, and there are 3 newies: Apeman - The Kinks record was one I would buy for 2 pence in early 1972 at the RAF Swinderby Thrift Shop after I'd sold off some precious DC Legion Of Super-Heroes Adventure Comics I bought in Singapore - I was made to feel I was too old for comics (at 14!) and then immediately regretted it, went back to collect them, but they'd already gone. Never listen to parents when they nag you to get rid of stuff, it'll all just become a huge source of regret for the rest of your life and turn you into a hoarder. That's my excuse anyway!

Judy Collins was another track that would be huge in 1972 - for the bagpipes version - and give Judy another chart run for ever and a day until it got on everyone's nerves, but I've come back to Amazing Grace of late (her version is rather mournfully lovely).
I missed the early hits of Chairmen Of The Board, but again, in 1972 I became a big fan of their latter singles, and retroactively discovered the early stuff, so they get included in these charts I did in the mid 70's. Another 9 months till my Actually-Compiled-at-the-time weekly charts start in earnest after some sporadic false starts in 1968 and 1969.


1 ( 2 ) IT’S ONLY MAKE BELIEVE Glen Campbell
2 ( 1 ) HOME LOVIN’ MAN Andy Williams
3 ( 5 ) I’LL BE THERE The Jackson 5
4 ( 3 ) SNOWBIRD Anne Murray
5 ( 4 ) RIDE A WHITE SWAN T.Rex
6 ( 7 ) GRANDAD Clive Dunn
7 ( 6 ) CRACKLIN’ ROSIE Neil Diamond
8 ( 11 ) LONELY DAYS The Bee Gees
9 ( 9 ) NOTHING RHYMED Gilbert O’Sullivan
10 ( 15 ) BLAME IT ON THE PONY EXPRESS Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon

11 ( 10 ) IT’S WONDERFUL (TO BE LOVED BY YOU) Jimmy Ruffin
12 ( 13 ) I HEAR YOU KNOCKING Dave Edmunds
13 ( 16 ) YOU’RE READY NOW Frankie Valli
14 ( 14 ) WHEN I’M DEAD AND GONE McGuiness Flint
15 ( 12 ) MY WAY Frank Sinatra
16 ( NEW ) APEMAN The Kinks
17 ( NEW ) AMAZING GRACE Judy Collins
18 ( NEW ) YOU’VE GOT ME DANGLING ON A STRING Chairmen Of The Board
19 ( 19 ) IT’S A SHAME The Motown Spinners
20 ( 18 ) INDIAN RESERVATION Don Fardon

Posted by: Last Dreamer 25th December 2020, 01:05 PM

John, did you hear Cindy and Bert cover version of "Paranoid" ?



This song sounds very unpredictably for German schlager duo Cindy and Bert, especially if you are familiar with their discography. I love Cindy's vocals on this track, she could be a minor rock star.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 29th December 2020, 10:49 AM

Ha, thanks Alex, I actually think that's great fun. It's like they covered a heavy metal classic in a 1967 psychedelic vibe in German

Posted by: Popchartfreak 30th December 2020, 02:54 PM

29th December 1970

It's The Jackson 5's glorious I'll Be There on top, their first chart-topper, and a track that followed me to Sentosa Island as I got off the cable car from Mount Faber in Singapore in 1995, appropriately evoking powerful nostalgic emotional memories of 1971 Singapore. At least until Mariah Carey attempted to murder them with her warbling cover a year or two earlier than 1995, but that brought it all back to me. It was Xmas presents in Singapore, mum had to explain to our cleaner (or Amah as they called them) what snow on the cards was, as Ahchoo had never seen it. Took her to the icebox of our first-ever fridge to explain! Being low-paid working-class the idea of having a cleaner was quite embarrassing, but it was sort of expected that RAF families would help support jobs in the local community, and she lived just down the road in a Kampong (a wooden hut community). Kampongs have long since been demolished in ultra-modern Singapore as everyone was repatriated into tower block flats.

New in at 8 it's Karen & Richard Carpenter and the fab We've Only Just Begun, which has been popular again in 2020 thanks to an advert cover from Bat For Lashes, and a second top 10 for the duo. Stevie Wonder sneaks briefly in with the well-meaning but not-a-massive-fave Heaven Help Us All, which I first came across on a Ronco or K-Tel album a couple of years later, I think. They were the equivalent of the Now albums in those days....



1 ( 3 ) I’LL BE THERE The Jackson 5
2 ( 2 ) HOME LOVIN’ MAN Andy Williams
3 ( 1 ) IT’S ONLY MAKE BELIEVE Glen Campbell
4 ( 6 ) GRANDAD Clive Dunn
5 ( 4 ) SNOWBIRD Anne Murray
6 ( 5 ) RIDE A WHITE SWAN T.Rex
7 ( 7 ) CRACKLIN’ ROSIE Neil Diamond
8 ( NEW ) WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN Carpenters
9 ( 12 ) I HEAR YOU KNOCKING Dave Edmunds
10 ( 8 ) LONELY DAYS The Bee Gees

11 ( 13 ) YOU’RE READY NOW Frankie Valli
12 ( 16 ) APEMAN The Kinks
13 ( 11 ) IT’S WONDERFUL (TO BE LOVED BY YOU) Jimmy Ruffin
14 ( 9 ) NOTHING RHYMED Gilbert O’Sullivan
15 ( 10 ) BLAME IT ON THE PONY EXPRESS Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon
16 ( 17 ) AMAZING GRACE Judy Collins
17 ( 15 ) MY WAY Frank Sinatra
18 ( 14 ) WHEN I’M DEAD AND GONE McGuiness Flint
19 ( 18 ) YOU’VE GOT ME DANGLING ON A STRING Chairmen Of The Board
20 ( NEW ) HEAVEN HELP US ALL Stevie Wonder