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> My 1970 charts, and ramblings on my life then, media and the world
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Popchartfreak
post Mar 18 2016, 06:41 PM
Post #41
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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.
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Popchartfreak
post Mar 29 2016, 06:11 PM
Post #42
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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.



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Popchartfreak
post Apr 20 2016, 06:30 PM
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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...
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mdh
post Apr 26 2016, 07:28 AM
Post #44
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5 ( 2 ) LADY D’ARBANVILLE Cat Stevens

This is a great track. In love with Cat/Yusuf's music still today wub.gif
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Popchartfreak
post Apr 26 2016, 11:31 AM
Post #45
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QUOTE(mdh @ Apr 26 2016, 08:28 AM) *
5 ( 2 ) LADY D’ARBANVILLE Cat Stevens

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


Hi mdh, thanks and I agree, Cat is still good, and Lady D'arbanville is spine-tingling in a macabre sort of way..!
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Popchartfreak
post Aug 26 2017, 07:42 PM
Post #46
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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
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Popchartfreak
post Aug 26 2017, 07:58 PM
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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
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Popchartfreak
post Sep 2 2017, 05:48 PM
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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.
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Popchartfreak
post Sep 2 2017, 06:08 PM
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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!
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Popchartfreak
post Mar 23 2018, 07:22 PM
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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
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TheSnake
post Mar 23 2018, 07:33 PM
Post #51
Say that hiss with your chest, and...
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I love Paranoid and Black Night in your top 20, two great rock anthems! music.gif

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


This post has been edited by The Hissmobile: Mar 23 2018, 07:36 PM
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Popchartfreak
post Oct 23 2020, 09:01 AM
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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
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Popchartfreak
post Oct 23 2020, 09:03 AM
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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
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Last Dreamer
post Oct 23 2020, 09:55 AM
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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. sad.gif


This post has been edited by Last Dreamer: Oct 23 2020, 09:56 AM
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Popchartfreak
post Oct 23 2020, 01:05 PM
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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...! smile.gif

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
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Popchartfreak
post Oct 23 2020, 01:19 PM
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QUOTE(Last Dreamer @ Oct 23 2020, 10:55 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. sad.gif



Oh that's frustrating! All of that work lost sad.gif 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 laugh.gif
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Popchartfreak
post Oct 30 2020, 02:39 PM
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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
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crazy chris
post Oct 30 2020, 02:44 PM
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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.
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Popchartfreak
post Oct 30 2020, 02:48 PM
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QUOTE(Sixth Sense @ Oct 30 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.


That was a nice version too, and Rose Garden will riding high in my 1971 charts, cos it's fab and inspired Kon Kan biggrin.gif heart.gif
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crazy chris
post Oct 30 2020, 03:13 PM
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QUOTE(Poptarttreat @ Oct 30 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 biggrin.gif heart.gif



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.


This post has been edited by Sixth Sense: Oct 30 2020, 03:19 PM
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