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Posted by: popchartfreak Jan 20 2015, 08:02 PM

7th January 1975

It’s a return to the top for Gloria Gaynor for a 2nd week at 1 presiding over my new expanded top 50 chart, and who really never can say goodbye! Quite right too! Billy Swan can still help, and he rises to 6 in gratitude, as Stevie Wonder gets his 9th Top 10 in 6 years with Boogie On Reggae Woman, but still yet to top the chart. Booooo! Angie Baby also joins the top batch for Helen Reddy, no longer declaring I Am Woman - well not just at the moment anyway. Christmas records still hang around, let’s be honest it was a novelty for me (and unheard of for the UK charts in those years) to swamp my chart with seasonal pop classics new and old. I invented it, so I’m going to sing my own praises and hang onto them well into the new year, so there!

With the lack of new releases there’s a lovely gap in the market for Fox to come back with a bang at 17, Only You Can having yo-yo’d around my charts wildly for months, and now starting to get BBC airplay and sales. Lulu also shoots back up to 16 with her James Bond theme, much under-rated in the real world, but that benefitted me as I got the vinyl single in a bargain bin for 15p or so and it got a big boost out of me actually being able to hear it whenever I wanted to, in all of it’s widescreen wonder. I almost certainly got in from my shopping mall indie fave record store, who kept me supplied with chart hits and non-charts in Gloucester for 2 years.

Harry Chapin’s brilliant Cats In The Cradle also boosts up to 19, as John Holt pops up a few reggae places, ahead of the highest new entry for Pilot, and their oh-so appropriate January, 3rd chart hit for me for them, and the big one that went all the way to top the UK charts. I still loved Just A Smile more, at the time, though, and under-appreciated just how great the single (still) is. I love it. In at 42, also having his 3rd solo hit, it’s Terry Jacks, no longer having seasons in the sun, no now he’s covering Australian vocalist Kevin Johnson’s fantastic flop story song about failed ambition, lost dreams, and love. Not a bad version, as it happens, but not a hit - though it was the spur for Jonathan King to re-release it on his own UK Records, and he got the hit he deserved! yay! Sometimes there is justice. JK was actually good at making great oldies hits after flopping in the UK, one of the reasons I was a fan of his.

At 43 Dana finally gets a 2nd hit, 5 years after All Kinds Of Everything winged it’s way around the world to near the top of my charts in Singapore in 1970. Please tell him that I said Hello. If you insist, though it’s lost a bit of it’s charm for me these days, as has Dana. At 44, following Alan Price’s comeback in 1974, his former singing partner Georgie Fame gets his first chart entry in 3 years, and his first solo hit for 6 years (Peaceful). Georgie was another 60’s fave though and would certainly have topped my chart with The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde, and come close with the absolutely gorgeous Sitting In The Park, not to mention a little bit of action from his cover of Sunny, Yeh Yeh and Get Away. Sadly his easy-pop-jazz style didn’t become popular again until 1984, so his Muhammed Ali shuffle song didn’t chart.

1 ( 2 ) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Gloria Gaynor
2 ( 3 ) GET DANCIN’ Disco Tex and The Sex-o-lettes
3 ( 5 ) HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) John & Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band with The Harlem Community Choir
4 ( 4 ) YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET Bachman-Turner Overdrive
5 ( 1 ) JE T’AIME...MOI NON PLUS Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg
6 ( 10 ) I CAN HELP Billy Swan
7 ( 18 ) BOOGIE ON REGGAE WOMAN Stevie Wonder
8 ( 8 ) LOVE IS ALL Roger Glover and Guests (featuring Ronnie Dio)
9 ( 9 ) STARDUST David Essex
10 ( 16 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy

11 ( 7 ) SO LONG Abba
12 ( 12 ) I WISH IT COULD BE CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY Wizzard
13 ( 14 ) ARE YOU READY TO ROCK Wizzard
14 ( 13 ) HEY MR CHRISTMAS Showaddywaddy
15 ( 11 ) WOMBLING MERRY CHRISTMAS The Wombles
16 ( 46 ) THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN Lulu
17 ( RE ) ONLY YOU CAN Fox
18 ( 17 ) SOUND YOUR FUNKY HORN KC And The Sunshine Band
19 ( 40 ) CATS IN THE CRADLE Harry Chapin
20 ( 6 ) DING DONG George Harrison

21 ( 22 ) DOWN DOWN Status Quo
22 ( 15 ) YOU CAN MAKE ME DANCE SING OR ANYTHING (EVEN TAKE THE DOG FOR A WALK MEND A FUSE FOLD AWAY THE IRONING BOARD OR ANY OTHER DOMESTIC SHORTCOMINGS) The Faces featuring Rod Stewart
23 ( 19 ) I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE Marvin Gaye
24 ( 20 ) THE INBETWEENIES The Goodies
25 ( 29 ) LIFE OF THE PARTY The Jackson 5
26 ( 26 ) CANDY BABY Beano
27 ( 39 ) HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT John Holt
28 ( 31 ) LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS Elton John
29 ( 23 ) HOLD ME TIGHT Johnny Nash
30 ( 30 ) IRE FEELINGS (SKANGA) Rupie Edwards



31 ( 35 ) LONELY THIS CHRISTMAS Mud
32 ( 24 ) MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY Slade
33 ( 37 ) GET DANCIN’ PART 2 Disco Tex and The Sex-o-lettes
34 ( NEW ) JANUARY Pilot
35 ( 38 ) CRYING OVER YOU Ken Boothe
36 ( 25 ) SLEIGH RIDE The Ronettes
37 ( 21 ) FATHER CHRISTMAS DO NOT TOUCH ME The Goodies
38 ( 33 ) JUKEBOX JIVE The Rubettes
39 ( 34 ) OH YES YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL Gary Glitter
40 ( 27 ) CHRISTMAS SONG Gilbert O’Sullivan



41 ( 32 ) YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL George McRae
42 ( NEW ) ROCK ‘N’ ROLL (I GAVE YOU THE BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE) Terry Jacks
43 ( NEW ) PLEASE TELL HIM THAT I SAID HELLO Dana
44 ( NEW ) ALI SHUFFLE Georgie Fame
45 ( 42 ) THE BUMP Kenny
46 ( 36 ) EVERYBODY NEEDS A RAINBOW Ray Stevens
47 ( 28 ) CHRISTMAS (BABY PLEASE COME HOME) Darlene Love
48 ( 44 ) MY BOY Elvis Presley
49 ( 48 ) SHA LA LA LA (MAKES ME HAPPY) Al Green
50 ( 43 ) PLEASE MR POSTMAN The Carpenters




Talking of Gloucester it was just named the city (urban area, actually) at the bottom of the job creation league over the last decade (minus 12%) which on the one hand is very sad, cos I really loved Gloucester back in 1975, but on the other hand it also brings nostalgic tears to me eyes because so little has changed in 40 years I can streetview my way round the virtual roads in the area and I’m back in time. I guess that’s the problem for Gloucester - most other towns and cities of that period have changed quite a lot to create new jobs. I think I’ll go back and have a tour soon for old times sake, I know Innsworth (home) and Churchdown (school) still look much the same, and for ol farts like me that’s somehow reassuring. Hooray! Maybe they need to market it as a period-piece untouched by the 21st century and push the Roman ruins and so on.

In the world, Charlie Chaplin and Roger Bannister were knighted, I turned 17 and started to collect facial acne. Well, it’s a hobby. The flares on my “good morning judge” tight trousers (it was the fashion!) got so big they regularly got caught up in the platform shoes as I walked, and my hair got longer as teachers were much less inclined to wag the finger at 6th form students - they needed you to stay as opposed to shove off to technical college or the various local trainee programmes in local industry. Yes, it’s true, young people got training! Vocational!! You could opt for practical-based college courses!!! Media courses, HR courses, PR courses, Consultants, all these things were non-existent outside London. Yay! Actually media studies is very useful, I’m just jealous it didn’t exist for me when I left school....

On TV this week: Doctor Who (Robot), Lulu had her own show (with The Shadows singing one of their A Song For Europe candidates), Mission: Impossible with Peter Lupus fresh from his Playgirl centrefold, a first for a male (minor) celebrity actor pretty much, bar Burt Reynolds modest more-famous pose. For my birthday, still on holiday, the BBC kindly broadcast (just for me!) The Monkees, Star Trek: The Trouble With Tribbles, Crackerjack with Donny & Marie and The Rubettes, Cannon with a young David Soul, and a great old movie (now forgotten) Kiss Me Stupid, with Ray Walston, Dean Martin and Kim Novak starring in the great Billy Wilder comedy/ piss-take of the egotistical megastar. It needs to get another showing!

Posted by: popchartfreak Jan 21 2015, 08:44 PM

14th January 1975

The first new number one of 1975, and it’s Fox - Only You Can had taken months to get there, but get there it did. Australian Noosha Fox was quirkily unique, and engaging, I loved her singing style (as did a young clearly-influenced Kate Bush), and the band was largely the creation of producer/songwriter/leader Kenny Young. He wrote Under The Boardwalk, Ai No Corrida, Captain Of Your Ship, Clodagh Rodgers hit stuff, and in the future, was behind Yellow Dog. Lulu meanwhile gets her 4th Top 5 hit, since I’m A Tiger in 1968. Cats In The Cradle makes my top 10, almost 20 years ahead of the UK charts inferior Ugly Kid Joe version.

Highest new entry is Dave Jordan. Street Corner Music was a great pop single, very catchy, pushed by Radio Luxembourg but not pushed enough as it headed for obscurity within weeks. I’ve no idea who Dave Jordan is, but I bought the single and have liked it ever since. My copy may well be the only decent one left in existence judging by the only online presence I’ve found! Quo finally get into the 20 Down Down still going up up, Sparks album-track 1974 top 20 hit in my charts is finally released and returns at 17, Something For The Girl With Everything, and Sweet Sensation follow-up the fab Sad Sweet Dreamer with the soundalike Purely By Coincidence at 21. It’s still very nice regardless.

After Bryan Ferry started re-doing vintage old songs, it became a bit of a minor rage, and here’s another one, 1934 Jerome Kern song I Won’t Dance covered by many a famous name, and at least one osbcure one: John Henry did it Noel Coward stylee in much the same fashion as Gary Shearston did I Get A Kick Out Of You in 1974, and was rewarded with obscurity and a number 22 entry in my chart. I like it still anyway, and as there’s no online version I probably ought to make the effort one day myself (I bought it). There’s another by a duo, Philip and Vanessa cover Two Sleepy People, though as this one had Radio 2 and Top Of The Pops behind it, this cover of the 1938 Hoagy Carmichael song was slightly more successful. Again, covered by hordes of famous singers, recently by Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy and others) of all people (with Norah Jones who popped up in his great movie Ted)! This very MOR version was OK, I bought the album bargain bin for the single. Finally Fly Now, is the good follow-up to Pinball from Brian Protheroe at 46. I have yet to get a copy of this - let me check itunes...I’m back, no chance, of course.




1 ( 17 ) ONLY YOU CAN Fox
2 ( 1 ) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Gloria Gaynor
3 ( 2 ) GET DANCIN’ Disco Tex and The Sex-o-lettes
4 ( 16 ) THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN Lulu
5 ( 4 ) YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET Bachman-Turner Overdrive
6 ( 3 ) HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) John & Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band with The Harlem Community Choir
7 ( 19 ) CATS IN THE CRADLE Harry Chapin
8 ( 10 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy
9 ( 8 ) LOVE IS ALL Roger Glover and Guests (featuring Ronnie Dio)
10 ( 9 ) STARDUST David Essex



11 ( 5 ) JE T’AIME...MOI NON PLUS Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg
12 ( NEW ) STREET CORNER MUSIC Dave Jordan
13 ( 6 ) I CAN HELP Billy Swan
14 ( 7 ) BOOGIE ON REGGAE WOMAN Stevie Wonder
15 ( 11 ) SO LONG Abba
16 ( 21 ) DOWN DOWN Status Quo
17 ( RE ) SOMETHING FOR THE GIRL WITH EVERYTHING Sparks
18 ( 35 ) CRYING OVER YOU Ken Boothe
19 ( 27 ) HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT John Holt
20 ( 12 ) I WISH IT COULD BE CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY Wizzard



21 ( NEW ) PURELY BY COINCIDENCE Sweet Sensation
22 ( NEW ) I WON’T DANCE John Henry
23 ( 14 ) HEY MR CHRISTMAS Showaddywaddy
24 ( 13 ) ARE YOU READY TO ROCK Wizzard
25 ( 34 ) JANUARY Pilot
26 ( 22 ) YOU CAN MAKE ME DANCE SING OR ANYTHING (EVEN TAKE THE DOG FOR A WALK MEND A FUSE FOLD AWAY THE IRONING BOARD OR ANY OTHER DOMESTIC SHORTCOMINGS) The Faces featuring Rod Stewart
27 ( 20 ) DING DONG George Harrison
28 ( 31 ) LONELY THIS CHRISTMAS Mud
29 ( 33 ) GET DANCIN’ PART 2 Disco Tex and The Sex-o-lettes
30 ( 28 ) LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS Elton John

31 ( 18 ) SOUND YOUR FUNKY HORN KC And The Sunshine Band
32 ( 23 ) I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE Marvin Gaye
33 ( 30 ) IRE FEELINGS (SKANGA) Rupie Edwards
34 ( 29 ) HOLD ME TIGHT Johnny Nash
35 ( NEW ) TWO SLEEPY PEOPLE Philip and Vanessa
36 ( 38 ) JUKEBOX JIVE The Rubettes
37 ( 39 ) OH YES YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL Gary Glitter
38 ( 42 ) ROCK ‘N’ ROLL (I GAVE YOU THE BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE) Terry Jacks
39 ( 25 ) LIFE OF THE PARTY The Jackson 5
40 ( 26 ) CANDY BABY Beano

41 ( 24 ) THE INBETWEENIES The Goodies
42 ( 15 ) WOMBLING MERRY CHRISTMAS The Wombles
43 ( 43 ) PLEASE TELL HIM THAT I SAID HELLO Dana
44 ( 44 ) ALI SHUFFLE Georgie Fame
45 ( NEW ) FLY NOW Brian Protheroe
46 ( 40 ) CHRISTMAS SONG Gilbert O’Sullivan
47 ( 46 ) EVERYBODY NEEDS A RAINBOW Ray Stevens
48 ( 37 ) FATHER CHRISTMAS DO NOT TOUCH ME The Goodies
49 ( 41 ) YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL George McRae
50 ( 32 ) MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY Slade

Posted by: popchartfreak Jan 22 2015, 07:42 PM

21st January 1975

Back up to number one, Gloria Gaynor’s Never Can Say Goodbye becomes the first record to go back up to 1 twice, for the 3rd week in 5, keeping ahead of the chasing pack, Cats In The Cradle and Angie Baby, both American chart-toppers and showing my tastes were getting more and more American-chart-influenced thanks to The American Forces chartshow rundown, and American (UK based) chart and pop and music encyclopedia Paul Gambaccini on Radio 1, who became the Music Industry Font of All Knowledge for decades, and someone I look up to still (I have an actual hand-written letter from him after I noted some errors in the first edition of the Guinness Book Of UK Hit Singles and wrote in with some US chart fact questions).

Quo get their 5th hit, as Down Down hits 6, and Dave Jordan (who?!) gets to 8. Ringo’s back with Only You, shuffling along to a new chart re-entry peak of 17, and highest new entry is the terrific Goodbye My Love from the Glitter Band, one I under-rated a bit, but gives them their 3rd hit in at 20. I just listened to it again, and it’s a great song and record, unfairly forgotten, being as it hit UK chart peak of 2 as well. At 21, Sugar Candy Kisses finally gives brother and sister Mac And Katie Kissoon a big UK hit, 4 years after scoring in the States with their version of Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep. It’s sweet as it’s title.

Claire Hamill seems to still be active releasing the occasional album or backing big names, but here she is with an actual chart entry of her own, here and nowhere else, with Geronimo’s Cadillac, very folk-styled in a Maria Muldaur fashion, in at 27, just ahead of a reggae-cover-version that I’ve not heard in 40 years. Jamaican Smokey 007 never made it big either, and as there’s no youtube or itunes link, it looks like I’m not going to get to hear his version of The New Seekers hit cover of Delaney & Bonnie’s Never Ending Song Of Love ever again. The New Seekers hit 1 with their version in my charts 4 years earlier, and I obviously liked this one, so it’s a huge shame I can’t hear it. Doh!



Queen follow-up 2 Freddie Mercury song chart-toppers in a row with a Brian May song, Now I’m Here. It rocks along nicely, but the drop in song standard was very noticeable to me, even though I didn’t know who was writing the songs at the time.
JImmy Ruffin’s 3rd oldie in 4 hits in 6 months is his 1967 and 1969 UK hit, I’ve Passed This Way Before - it didn’t chart in my charts in 1969, as it fell short of the top 30 just before we left for Singapore, and I really don’t recall hearing it, but it’s as fab as Jimmy Ruffin’s greatest records and his 7th chart hit here. A great singer, just like his younger brother, David Ruffin of the Temptations.

Finally, Iron Cross’ glamrock bubblegum gem finally enter my charts 3 years on with a record that I loved from Alan Freeman’s show in 1972 (but wasn’t eligible to chart as it failed to make the UK top 30). This really should have been a hit, though the original US number 2 from 1967 (The Music Explosion) is also pretty good - a Kasenatz-Katt (bubblegum producers) creation, which makes absolute sense, as the riffs were nicked by The Archies, the ultimate bubblegum act. The Ramones and Bruce Springsteen have covered this song, and it’s pop-punktastic.

1 ( 2 ) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Gloria Gaynor
2 ( 1 ) ONLY YOU CAN Fox
3 ( 3 ) GET DANCIN’ Disco Tex and The Sex-o-lettes
4 ( 7 ) CATS IN THE CRADLE Harry Chapin
5 ( 8 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy
6 ( 16 ) DOWN DOWN Status Quo
7 ( 5 ) YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET Bachman-Turner Overdrive
8 ( 12 ) STREET CORNER MUSIC Dave Jordan
9 ( 4 ) THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN Lulu
10 ( 6 ) HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) John & Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band with The Harlem Community Choir

11 ( 9 ) LOVE IS ALL Roger Glover and Guests (featuring Ronnie Dio)
12 ( 14 ) BOOGIE ON REGGAE WOMAN Stevie Wonder
13 ( 10 ) STARDUST David Essex
14 ( 17 ) SOMETHING FOR THE GIRL WITH EVERYTHING Sparks
15 ( 11 ) JE T’AIME...MOI NON PLUS Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg
16 ( 19 ) HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT John Holt
17 ( RE ) ONLY YOU Ringo Starr
18 ( 21 ) PURELY BY COINCIDENCE Sweet Sensation
19 ( 22 ) I WON’T DANCE John Henry
20 ( NEW ) GOODBYE MY LOVE The Glitter Band



21 ( NEW ) SUGAR CANDY KISSES Mac And Katie Kissoon
22 ( 18 ) CRYING OVER YOU Ken Boothe
23 ( 24 ) ARE YOU READY TO ROCK Wizzard
24 ( 13 ) I CAN HELP Billy Swan
25 ( 25 ) JANUARY Pilot
26 ( NEW ) NEVER ENDING SONG OF LOVE Smokey 007
27 ( NEW ) GERONIMO’S CADILLAC Claire Hamill
28 ( 47 ) EVERYBODY NEEDS A RAINBOW Ray Stevens
29 ( 15 ) SO LONG Abba
30 ( 20 ) I WISH IT COULD BE CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY Wizzard



31 ( 29 ) GET DANCIN’ PART 2 Disco Tex and The Sex-o-lettes
32 ( 26 ) YOU CAN MAKE ME DANCE SING OR ANYTHING (EVEN TAKE THE DOG FOR A WALK MEND A FUSE FOLD AWAY THE IRONING BOARD OR ANY OTHER DOMESTIC SHORTCOMINGS) The Faces featuring Rod Stewart
33 ( 23 ) HEY MR CHRISTMAS Showaddywaddy
34 ( 32 ) I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE Marvin Gaye
35 ( 34 ) HOLD ME TIGHT Johnny Nash
36 ( NEW ) NOW I’M HERE Queen
37 ( NEW ) I’VE PASSED THIS WAY BEFORE Jimmy Ruffin
38 ( 35 ) TWO SLEEPY PEOPLE Philip and Vanessa
39 ( 33 ) IRE FEELINGS (SKANGA) Rupie Edwards
40 ( 31 ) SOUND YOUR FUNKY HORN KC And The Sunshine Band



41 ( 36 ) JUKEBOX JIVE The Rubettes
42 ( 27 ) DING DONG George Harrison
43 ( 38 ) ROCK ‘N’ ROLL (I GAVE YOU THE BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE) Terry Jacks
44 ( 30 ) LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS Elton John
45 ( 37 ) OH YES YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL Gary Glitter
46 ( 45 ) FLY NOW Brian Protheroe
47 ( 28 ) LONELY THIS CHRISTMAS Mud
48 ( NEW ) LITTLE BIT O’ SOUL Iron Cross
49 ( 43 ) PLEASE TELL HIM THAT I SAID HELLO Dana
50 ( 44 ) ALI SHUFFLE Georgie Fame

Posted by: popchartfreak Jan 23 2015, 08:09 PM

28th January 1975

A new number one, and it’s Helen Reddy’s Angie Baby, a record where the lyrics are essential to the appeal, a sort of disturbing spooky story song in a vaguely MOR setting, wholesome with a twist. Fab. Re-entering at 4 it’s The Carpenters adding another dose of wholesomeness with the very catchy cover of Please Mr Postman. The Beatles also covered it, and the Carpenters covered Ticket To Ride for a lovely circular bit of cover-versioning. Syreeta also gets her follow-up hit to Spinnin’ And Spinnin, at 19, the delicious Your Kiss Is Sweet. At 30, Love Unlimited (aka Mrs Barry White and friends) get a second Barry-White written and produced hit 3 years after Walking In The Rain With The One I Love, the smooth strings-harmony-soul delight of It May Be Winter Outside...just weather-obsessed, them!

Talking of oldies, I was finally getting to hear some of the missing UK hit records from my 1970 Singapore days, courtesy of Jimmy Now Then Now Then on his 5 Years Ago chartshow on Radio 1, so at least he was good for something. Don’t know what I’m ever gonna do with that Jim’ll Fix It T shirt though.... One chart entry at 49 links to that, Blue MInk’s debut hit Melting Pot finally charts at the tail end of their career instead of the much better Get Up, which would instead become a minor hit record in the summer for The Rimshots with a different title, 7654321 (Blow Your Whistle). Melting Pot is OK, well-meaning, but has some non-pc lyrics these days so it’s not likely to be covered anytime soon.

Highest new entry though is 1971 top tenner, Brandy, from Scott English, a heartfelt emotional ballad with a touch of class. It was reissued no doubt to catch a few sales from a much bigger hit cover by Barry Manilow - Mandy. Change the name, slow it down, go over the top, bland it up, and hey presto everyone thinks you did the original. Scott English remains the definitive (unknown) version. In at 5. In at 15, the even older Footsie, by Wigan’s Chosen Few. The Northern Soul scene was huge in Wigan, and this 1968 b-side track by The Chosen Few was basically speeded up and overdubbed with crowds and sound effects to get a dancefloor vibe groovin’. I loved it at the time, less so these days, but it’s fun, and it really boosted Northern Soul dancing and fashions in the discos down south as well as northern England.




The rest: Bachman-Turner Overdrive get a their lesser follow-up hit to a classic, Arrows also get a follow-up hit, the pleasant My Last Night With You - should’ve gone with I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll, really, they had two series of music shows on ITV, Joan Jett took a shine to it while touring with The Runaways, hey presto worldwide hit. This was Arrows last gasp in the charts, sadly. Back again a year on, it’s Otis’ son Dexter Redding and God Bless - I really did like that one, wish I could get hold of a copy! Sha Na Na get a second hit with a record I have no memory of at all, but as Hot Sox exists nowhere online, I can say nothing about it all. Doh!

Finally, at a modest 50, it’s Number 9 Dream, John Lennon’s single from his Non-Yoko year and then-girlfriend May Pang adds backing-vocals. The single amusingly peaked at number 9 in the USA, but frustratingly only hit 23 in the UK charts, both vastly under-appreciating the genius of this record, quite possibly my favourite John Lennon solo track, give or take the Xmas song charting higher than it. It came to John in a dream, and it has a dreamy, otherworldly feel to it, and that melody is a killer, the nonsense chorus is just gorgeous. It remain’s John’s unknown classic, and high-time that was changed.



1 ( 5 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy
2 ( 1 ) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Gloria Gaynor
3 ( 4 ) CATS IN THE CRADLE Harry Chapin
4 ( RE ) PLEASE MR POSTMAN The Carpenters
5 ( NEW ) BRANDY Scott English
6 ( 3 ) GET DANCIN’ Disco Tex and The Sex-o-lettes
7 ( 8 ) STREET CORNER MUSIC Dave Jordan
8 ( 6 ) DOWN DOWN Status Quo
9 ( 2 ) ONLY YOU CAN Fox
10 ( 12 ) BOOGIE ON REGGAE WOMAN Stevie Wonder



11 ( 20 ) GOODBYE MY LOVE The Glitter Band
12 ( 21 ) SUGAR CANDY KISSES Mac And Katie Kissoon
13 ( 26 ) NEVER ENDING SONG OF LOVE Smokey 007
14 ( 14 ) SOMETHING FOR THE GIRL WITH EVERYTHING Sparks
15 ( NEW ) FOOTSIE Wigan’s Chosen Few
16 ( 7 ) YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET Bachman-Turner Overdrive
17 ( 10 ) HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) John & Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band with The Harlem Community Choir
18 ( 11 ) LOVE IS ALL Roger Glover and Guests (featuring Ronnie Dio)
19 ( NEW ) YOUR KISS IS SWEET Syreeta
20 ( 27 ) GERONIMO’S CADILLAC Claire Hamill

21 ( 13 ) STARDUST David Essex
22 ( 19 ) I WON’T DANCE John Henry
23 ( 16 ) HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT John Holt
24 ( 25 ) JANUARY Pilot
25 ( 17 ) ONLY YOU Ringo Starr
26 ( 15 ) JE T’AIME...MOI NON PLUS Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg
27 ( 9 ) THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN Lulu
28 ( 28 ) EVERYBODY NEEDS A RAINBOW Ray Stevens
29 ( 18 ) PURELY BY COINCIDENCE Sweet Sensation
30 ( NEW ) IT MAY BE WINTER OUTSIDE (BUT IN MY HEART IT’S SPRING) Love Unlimited



31 ( 36 ) NOW I’M HERE Queen
32 ( 23 ) ARE YOU READY TO ROCK Wizzard
33 ( 24 ) I CAN HELP Billy Swan
34 ( 34 ) I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE Marvin Gaye
35 ( 35 ) HOLD ME TIGHT Johnny Nash
36 ( NEW ) ROLL ON DOWN THE HIGHWAY Bachman-Turner Overdrive
37 ( NEW ) MY LAST NIGHT WITH YOU Arrows
38 ( NEW ) GOD BLESS Dexter Redding
39 ( 22 ) CRYING OVER YOU Ken Boothe
40 ( 30 ) I WISH IT COULD BE CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY Wizzard

41 ( 31 ) GET DANCIN’ PART 2 Disco Tex and The Sex-o-lettes
42 ( 29 ) SO LONG Abba
43 ( 32 ) YOU CAN MAKE ME DANCE SING OR ANYTHING (EVEN TAKE THE DOG FOR A WALK MEND A FUSE FOLD AWAY THE IRONING BOARD OR ANY OTHER DOMESTIC SHORTCOMINGS) The Faces featuring Rod Stewart
44 ( 33 ) HEY MR CHRISTMAS Showaddywaddy
45 ( NEW ) HOT SOX Sha Na Na
46 ( 40 ) SOUND YOUR FUNKY HORN KC And The Sunshine Band
47 ( 37 ) I’VE PASSED THIS WAY BEFORE Jimmy Ruffin
48 ( 48 ) LITTLE BIT O’ SOUL Iron Cross
49 ( NEW ) MELTING POT Blue Mink
50 ( NEW ) #9 DREAM John Lennon




On TV I have yet to mention TISWAS, which in these days was not a national show, just regional around the Midlands area on ITV, it was a new anarchic, slapstick, hectic, jokey Saturday morning marathon kids TV show hosted by Chris Tarrant, future DJ, TV star, and host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, the original. Little kids loved the naughtiness and custard pies, bigger kids like me loved that Tarrant was taking the pee out of kids (without being nasty). It made a star of Lenny Henry, and Spit The Dog, had pop stars galore joining in the fun, and John Gorman ex-The Scaffold was on hand too. Eventually it spread to other regions and became a massive hit show (and even made the UK singles charts in 1980), but in 1975 I was there and a big fan ahead of the rest of the UK by quite a few years...

Posted by: popchartfreak Feb 25 2015, 10:37 PM

4th February 1975

2 weeks for Helen Reddy’s spooky Angie Baby presiding over an inrush of oldies at the top end, as The Tams 1971 UK number one (and my Top 10) reissued 1964 Hey Girl Don’t Bother Me enters at 2, outdoing it’s original chart slot, along with Brandy also from 1971 at 3. Leaving the 1968 UK hit version, my top 10, and also peaking higher second time round, the 1966 classic Motown Isley Brothers track This Old Heart Of Mine at 4. 3rd and 4th time round would be even bigger...! I think the oldies show that even though they weren’t actually THAT old (mostly less than 10 years), that’s really quite a long time ago when you’re a teenager - now of course, tracks less than 10 years old I consider recent!

Northern Soul fun-time at 7 for Footsie (also an oldie), and a brilliant climb up from 50 for John Lennon’s brilliant Number 9 Dream at 9 - almost as if i planned it! John of course has only ever had one flop - Cold Turkey in 1969, because I never got to hear it (it was banned!), and it’s still a bit harrowing. Love Unlimited meanwhile get a second top 20 hit, the luvverley It May be Winter at 15, as BTO replace themselves in the top 20 rolling on down the highway. Highest proper new entry is soul woman Betty Wright, finally getting her UK debut hit 4 years after scoring big in the States with Clean-Up Woman at age 18. I liked her because she said in interviews at the time that she was a comics fan. Shoorah Shoorah at 39 for Betty!

That leaves a 7th hit for Suzi Quatro at 41, who said quite correctly for the time, Your Mama Won’t Like Me - hard to believe loveable Suzi was remotely threatening, but wearing leather seemed to do the trick. At 47, another track I missed out on in 1970, but caught up with now, Joni Mitchell’s 4th hit Big Yellow Taxi. Bit of a famous one! Great too, great lyrics, I still agree with every word. Which just leaves The Trammps naughty Sixty Minute Man follow-up popping in (am I allowed to say that?) at 48. I mean, they talk about going on for 60 minutes as if it’s something impressive, I consider anything less than 2 hours a quickie. Hah!



1 ( 1 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy
2 ( NEW ) HEY GIRL DON’T BOTHER ME The Tams
3 ( 5 ) BRANDY Scott English
4 ( NEW ) THIS OLD HEART OF MINE The Isley Brothers
5 ( 2 ) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Gloria Gaynor
6 ( 4 ) PLEASE MR POSTMAN The Carpenters
7 ( 15 ) FOOTSIE Wigan’s Chosen Few
8 ( 19 ) YOUR KISS IS SWEET Syreeta
9 ( 50 ) #9 DREAM John Lennon
10 ( 6 ) GET DANCIN’ Disco Tex and The Sex-o-lettes



11 ( 3 ) CATS IN THE CRADLE Harry Chapin
12 ( 10 ) BOOGIE ON REGGAE WOMAN Stevie Wonder
13 ( 13 ) NEVER ENDING SONG OF LOVE Smokey 007
14 ( 7 ) STREET CORNER MUSIC Dave Jordan
15 ( 30 ) IT MAY BE WINTER OUTSIDE (BUT IN MY HEART IT’S SPRING) Love Unlimited
16 ( 9 ) ONLY YOU CAN Fox
17 ( 20 ) GERONIMO’S CADILLAC Claire Hamill
18 ( 18 ) LOVE IS ALL Roger Glover and Guests (featuring Ronnie Dio)
19 ( 8 ) DOWN DOWN Status Quo
20 ( 36 ) ROLL ON DOWN THE HIGHWAY Bachman-Turner Overdrive

21 ( 14 ) SOMETHING FOR THE GIRL WITH EVERYTHING Sparks
22 ( 31 ) NOW I’M HERE Queen
23 ( 12 ) SUGAR CANDY KISSES Mac And Katie Kissoon
24 ( 38 ) GOD BLESS Dexter Redding
25 ( 22 ) I WON’T DANCE John Henry
26 ( 37 ) MY LAST NIGHT WITH YOU Arrows
27 ( 23 ) HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT John Holt
28 ( 26 ) JE T’AIME...MOI NON PLUS Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg
29 ( 16 ) YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET Bachman-Turner Overdrive
30 ( 17 ) HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) John & Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band with The Harlem Community Choir

31 ( 11 ) GOODBYE MY LOVE The Glitter Band
32 ( 32 ) ARE YOU READY TO ROCK Wizzard
33 ( 33 ) I CAN HELP Billy Swan
34 ( 27 ) THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN Lulu
35 ( 24 ) JANUARY Pilot
36 ( 21 ) STARDUST David Essex
37 ( 34 ) I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE Marvin Gaye
38 ( 35 ) HOLD ME TIGHT Johnny Nash
39 ( NEW ) SHOORAH SHOORAH Betty Wright
40 ( 28 ) EVERYBODY NEEDS A RAINBOW Ray Stevens



41 ( NEW ) YOUR MAMA WON’T LIKE ME Suzi Quatro
42 ( 49 ) MELTING POT Blue Mink
43 ( 25 ) ONLY YOU Ringo Starr
44 ( 29 ) PURELY BY COINCIDENCE Sweet Sensation
45 ( 45 ) HOT SOX Sha Na Na
46 ( 42 ) SO LONG Abba
47 ( NEW ) BIG YELLOW TAXI Joni Mitchell
48 ( NEW ) SIXTY MINUTE MAN The Trammps
49 ( 40 ) I WISH IT COULD BE CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY Wizzard
50 ( 41 ) GET DANCIN’ PART 2 Disco Tex and The Sex-o-lettes





In the world, it was a sad day as a certain M. Thatcher wins the ballot on 4th feb 1975 to become leader of the UK Conservative party, proving that a woman can be just as disastrous as any man for the long-term good of a nation. I’m biased. Based on events since 2008 which can be traced back to her naive belief in the rich and powerful being able to self-govern with honesty, having a concern for the general well-being of the world, and a distinct lack-of-self-interest, I’m also right. They can’t be trusted to do the right thing and need to be accountable at all times to ensure they don’t wreck the world economy. That concludes the end of the party political broadcast on behalf of the Statin’ The Bleedin’ Obvious Party. I thank you.

Posted by: popchartfreak Feb 26 2015, 08:01 PM

11th February 1975

3 weeks for Helen and the rest of the top 5 are oldies, which is a shame as John Lennon’s classic 9 Dream would have peaked at 4 otherwise, or 2 if you discount cover versions - yes it was the second highest rated actual only new song in the top 10, just ahead of Syreeta’s Your Kiss Is Sweet, which ironically keeps her husband’s Boogie On Reggae Woman out of the top 10. In at 9, highest new entry is Nottingham’s finest getting a 4th hit, Paper Lace covering Vanity fare’s 1970 top 5 fave of mine, Hitchin’ A Ride. Frank Ifield’s unavailable and obscure version is better though, a fave of mine when I lived in Singapore. Nottingham, happily, now has 2 actual pop stars charting in 2014 and 2015, notably Indiana who’s been solo dancing recently.

It’s a big top 20 climb for Suzi Quatro at 14, Your Mama Won’t Like Me giving Suzi one of her bigger chart peaks with one of her minor UK hits. Queen peak at 22 shockingly, after 2 number ones, but Brian May songs just didn’t connect with me like Freddie’s did. Ignoring Now I’m Here Queen would have had 3 consecutive number ones with Freddie songs, as the next one was an obscure little ditty called Bohemian Rhapsody which I rather loved. Betty Wright goes top 30, hoorah hoorah, just ahead of the highest actual new song at 27, Shame Shame Shame as Shirley & Co bring a bit of All Platinum fun soul disco into the charts: shame on you if you can’t dance too, indeed.

At 28, it’s a bona fide classic, as Cockney Rebel frontman Steve Harley gets top billing and a third chart entry from me, the track that just made the UK sales Top 40 chart for the third time in January 2015, 40 years on (though only scraping into the combined non-sales Top 75 official chart, where apparently pushing 10,000 actual sales isn’t as important as people playing the same records month after month for free and paying nothing): Make Me Smile, as Mae West said, Come Up And See Me sometime. It was ground-breaking in it’s clever use of intermittent silence, melody, and of course Steve Harley’s unique vocal style, previously brilliantly demonstrated on Judy Teen summer of ’74, a top 3 peak from me. Now I just need an excuse to chart the marvellous Sebastian, one I didn’t know at the time.

At 29, another 1968 track, bubblegum pop from Ohio Express that just pre-dated my charts, but which featured on our 16 Big Hits album that I played and played in Singapore in 1969/70. Yummy Yummy Yummy! At 42, bubblegum 1968 again, The Lemon Pipers fab Green Tambourine also debuting belatedly. Quo did as version of this one, so it’s a bit edgier than Ohio Express. At 41, The Hues Corporation get a third chart entry with more of a ballad this time, and hey, I’ll take a melody, too. Rupie Edwards is also back, with identikit follow-up Lego Skanga at 43, not nearly as good as Ire Feelings, but pleasant enough.


1 ( 1 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy
2 ( 2 ) HEY GIRL DON’T BOTHER ME The Tams
3 ( 7 ) FOOTSIE Wigan’s Chosen Few
4 ( 4 ) THIS OLD HEART OF MINE The Isley Brothers
5 ( 3 ) BRANDY Scott English
6 ( 5 ) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Gloria Gaynor
7 ( 6 ) PLEASE MR POSTMAN The Carpenters
8 ( 9 ) #9 DREAM John Lennon
9 ( NEW ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE ’75 Paper Lace
10 ( 8 ) YOUR KISS IS SWEET Syreeta

11 ( 12 ) BOOGIE ON REGGAE WOMAN Stevie Wonder
12 ( 15 ) IT MAY BE WINTER OUTSIDE (BUT IN MY HEART IT’S SPRING) Love Unlimited
13 ( 20 ) ROLL ON DOWN THE HIGHWAY Bachman-Turner Overdrive
14 ( 41 ) YOUR MAMA WON’T LIKE ME Suzi Quatro
15 ( 10 ) GET DANCIN’ Disco Tex and The Sex-o-lettes
16 ( 16 ) ONLY YOU CAN Fox
17 ( 13 ) NEVER ENDING SONG OF LOVE Smokey 007
18 ( 21 ) SOMETHING FOR THE GIRL WITH EVERYTHING Sparks
19 ( 17 ) GERONIMO’S CADILLAC Claire Hamill
20 ( 11 ) CATS IN THE CRADLE Harry Chapin



21 ( 19 ) DOWN DOWN Status Quo
22 ( 22 ) NOW I’M HERE Queen
23 ( 18 ) LOVE IS ALL Roger Glover and Guests (featuring Ronnie Dio)
24 ( 14 ) STREET CORNER MUSIC Dave Jordan
25 ( 39 ) SHOORAH SHOORAH Betty Wright
26 ( 24 ) GOD BLESS Dexter Redding
27 ( NEW ) SHAME SHAME SHAME Shirley & Company
28 ( NEW ) MAKE ME SMILE (COME UP AND SEE ME) Steve Harley And Cockney Rebel
29 ( NEW ) YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY Ohio Express
30 ( 26 ) MY LAST NIGHT WITH YOU Arrows



31 ( 23 ) SUGAR CANDY KISSES Mac And Katie Kissoon
32 ( 25 ) I WON’T DANCE John Henry
33 ( 27 ) HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT John Holt
34 ( 40 ) EVERYBODY NEEDS A RAINBOW Ray Stevens
35 ( 29 ) YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET Bachman-Turner Overdrive
36 ( 30 ) HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) John & Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band with The Harlem Community Choir
37 ( 28 ) JE T’AIME...MOI NON PLUS Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg
38 ( 47 ) BIG YELLOW TAXI Joni Mitchell
39 ( 42 ) MELTING POT Blue Mink
40 ( 48 ) SIXTY MINUTE MAN The Trammps



41 ( NEW ) I’LL TAKE A MELODY The Hues Corporation
42 ( NEW ) GREEN TAMBOURINE The Lemon Pipers
43 ( NEW ) LEGO SKANGA Rupie Edwards
44 ( 33 ) I CAN HELP Billy Swan
45 ( 32 ) ARE YOU READY TO ROCK Wizzard
46 ( 37 ) I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE Marvin Gaye
47 ( 38 ) HOLD ME TIGHT Johnny Nash
48 ( 34 ) THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN Lulu
49 ( 31 ) GOODBYE MY LOVE The Glitter Band
50 ( 35 ) JANUARY Pilot



Drawing to a close on TV any week now it was Frankie Howard’s Up Pompeii special, ooh, no missus, don’t mock, no, ooh, no titter ye not...and so on. I loved Frankie, but it had actually ended in 1970 and just been repeated so much it seemed to have lasted longer. I’m probably the only one to remember his less-good follow-up series from 19730-ish Whoops Baghdad. Not likely to be repeated that one...! Also in it’s last throws The Golden Shot, Bernie The Bolt, and a show that had outstayed it’s welcome pretty much from the moment it started. At the cinema The Towering Inferno was still topping box office charts week after week, it was a blockbuster and a half relative to the overall market. Saturday was my cinema day, in Gloucester, which also gave me opportunities to continue to scour newsagents and second hand book shops like Toby’s for back DC Comics issues and hot new comics, which were back on form and normal sized after DC’s disastrous flirtation with thicker, more expensive comics, stuffed with reissued old stories as fillers to new stories. I know I felt short-changed cos I wasn’t interested (much) in old stories, they didn’t have the pizzaz of 70’s stories. Legion Of Super-Heroes of course was still in revival, looking sexy, but with a new artist in Mike Grell, who was no Dave Cockrum, though not bad. Dave Cockrum’s artwork could inspire the proposed new Warners movie of the Legion as well as it set up the X-Men (essentially the comic he took over at this point).

Posted by: popchartfreak Feb 28 2015, 10:26 PM

18th February 1975

4 weeks for Angie Baby, and 3 weeks at 2 for The Tams, leaving highest new entry being a Valentines Day record from Mud - even the picture sleeve was done as if it were a gift from me to you stylee. Lonely This Christmas was the first Mud record to fall short of the top 10 (though it would eventually go all the way), so The Secrets That You Keep puts them back in the top 5 with a gentle ballad bang, I did after all love the lads dearly. It’s also the very final Chinn-Chapman record with Mud, as like The Sweet they abandoned their writer-producers leaving them free to all go their new chart ways.

Shirley & Co go up to 6, as Fox go back up for the umpteenth time in 5 months, to 10, one of the most chaotic chart runs ever for me! Magpie’s Mick Robertson manages a second chart entry to follow-up his number one The Tango’s Over, at 11 with Then I Changed Hands, a reggae-prog-rock fusion and one I haven’t heard for 40 years, quite literally. Youtube comes to my rescue, and it’s rather damn fine. It’s written and produced by Richard Hewson, he of The Rah Band, and arranger of ooh, Beatles, Mary Hopkin, Cliff Richard and all some of their finest moments too. It’s safe to assume I was more Magpie than Blue Peter still, they just addressed you more as teens where Blue Peter talked as if you were about 10. Steve Harley goes up to 12, shockingly it’s chart peak first time round - I think over-saturation may have had something to do with it, and it seemed a bit novelty-ish - though like Mud’s Xmas it would be back to top the charts at a later date, hooray!

New at 19, it’s a 60’s veteran, Mike Berry, who gets a chart debut with a slowed-down moody version of Elvis Presley’s Don’t Be Cruel, a song which had already been top 10 for me in 1972 as covered novelty-style by The Berries (formerly The Rocking Berries 60’s hitmakers). It was also a cover version of Billy Swan’s version from his I Can Help album which would also chart after Mike Berry’s version - I didn’t realise Mike had copied Billy! Mike had to wait another 5 years to make the UK charts again, after serving time on the Are You Being Served sitcom after it was past it’s sell-by date. That was still big on UK TV in 1975, of course, as innuendo still seemed much more racy and daring than it does these in-yer-face days. Who could forget Mrs Slocombe’s poor bedraggled pussy, or Mr Humphrey’s parade of friends, including the busty attractive one who was much happier since the operation?

Big climbs for Hues Corporation and Rupie Edwards, and a new entry for Neil Sedaka at 29, his final ever UK hit single (stunningly considering what was to come after The Queen Of 1964, a clever amusing song about an overage groupie who once had Mick Jagger - she claimed), but in my (and the US) charts it was one of a string of hits going back 3 years chronologically, although 16 years if you count the original release date of 1972 number one Oh Carol, released in 1959 when I was 1 year old. Neil does this one in concert, and it’s great fun. As is the latest Rubettes hit at 30, making it 4 in a row with I Can Do It, a great glam pop romp, which was later murdered brutally by a football team who changed it to We Can Do It.... yes stand up and own up Liverpool FC 1977 - still one of the least-bad ever football records as sung by the squads, there’s so little good competition!

More debuts though: Rupert Holmes, 5 years ahead of his Pina Colada song hit debut in the UK, enters at 34 with the American National Anthem - with a difference! It’s the tune, with amusing classy lyric changes about how American guys try to get a girl to err fall for their charms, Our National Pastime. It’s gentle, witty, clever. At 41, it’s the record that shocked Bowie fans: he enters his plastic soul period backed by Luther Vandross, Young Americans was such an abrupt change from Ziggy and Aladdin many couldn’t cope, and sales dropped, but I thought it was funktastic and way better than any of his 1974 singles - though I now love Rebel Rebel. At 42 it’s another brilliant debut, Supertramp and Dreamer, a seriously unusual single, but SO damn catchy despite not really having a hook you can sing as such, as it belts along at a hectic pace. Fantastic, and still their best single.

At 43, another 60’s goodie, the minor fabulousness that has the same name as a DC superhero that I loved - till she was killed off in Crisis On Infinite Earths 10 or more years later, damn that DC Comics! Supergirl, that’ll be then, who just happened to be one of the Legion Of Super-Heroes as well as Superman’s cousin. I digress, it’s a great 1966 pop charmer and deserved to chart. Meanwhile at 44, The Pearls are back with their 6th chart entry, though they only really had one big UK hit (Guilty), and this non-hit was actually ahead of it’s time. 2 years ahead, give or take, as Tina Charles went on to have a big (slightly shrill) hit with it - Doctor Love.



1 ( 1 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy
2 ( 2 ) HEY GIRL DON’T BOTHER ME The Tams
3 ( 3 ) FOOTSIE Wigan’s Chosen Few
4 ( 9 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE ’75 Paper Lace
5 ( NEW ) THE SECRETS THAT YOU KEEP Mud
6 ( 27 ) SHAME SHAME SHAME Shirley & Company
7 ( 4 ) THIS OLD HEART OF MINE The Isley Brothers
8 ( 5 ) BRANDY Scott English
9 ( 6 ) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Gloria Gaynor
10 ( 16 ) ONLY YOU CAN Fox



11 ( NEW ) THEN I CHANGED HANDS Mick Robertson
12 ( 28 ) MAKE ME SMILE (COME UP AND SEE ME) Steve Harley And Cockney Rebel
13 ( 13 ) ROLL ON DOWN THE HIGHWAY Bachman-Turner Overdrive
14 ( 8 ) #9 DREAM John Lennon
15 ( 12 ) IT MAY BE WINTER OUTSIDE (BUT IN MY HEART IT’S SPRING) Love Unlimited
16 ( 7 ) PLEASE MR POSTMAN The Carpenters
17 ( 29 ) YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY Ohio Express
18 ( 14 ) YOUR MAMA WON’T LIKE ME Suzi Quatro
19 ( NEW ) DON’T BE CRUEL Mike Berry
20 ( 15 ) GET DANCIN’ Disco Tex and The Sex-o-lettes



21 ( 10 ) YOUR KISS IS SWEET Syreeta
22 ( 11 ) BOOGIE ON REGGAE WOMAN Stevie Wonder
23 ( 41 ) I’LL TAKE A MELODY The Hues Corporation
24 ( 43 ) LEGO SKANGA Rupie Edwards
25 ( 25 ) SHOORAH SHOORAH Betty Wright
26 ( 38 ) BIG YELLOW TAXI Joni Mitchell
27 ( 17 ) NEVER ENDING SONG OF LOVE Smokey 007
28 ( 30 ) MY LAST NIGHT WITH YOU Arrows
29 ( NEW ) THE QUEEN OF 1964 Neil Sedaka
30 ( NEW ) I CAN DO IT The Rubettes



31 ( 21 ) DOWN DOWN Status Quo
32 ( 18 ) SOMETHING FOR THE GIRL WITH EVERYTHING Sparks
33 ( 23 ) LOVE IS ALL Roger Glover and Guests (featuring Ronnie Dio)
34 ( NEW ) OUR NATIONAL PASTIME Rupert Holmes
35 ( 42 ) GREEN TAMBOURINE The Lemon Pipers
36 ( 26 ) GOD BLESS Dexter Redding
37 ( 19 ) GERONIMO’S CADILLAC Claire Hamill
38 ( 24 ) STREET CORNER MUSIC Dave Jordan
39 ( 22 ) NOW I’M HERE Queen
40 ( 20 ) CATS IN THE CRADLE Harry Chapin



41 ( NEW ) YOUNG AMERICANS David Bowie
42 ( NEW ) DREAMER Supertramp
43 ( NEW ) SUPERGIRL Graham Bonney
44 ( NEW ) DOCTOR LOVE The Pearls
45 ( 34 ) EVERYBODY NEEDS A RAINBOW Ray Stevens
46 ( 35 ) YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET Bachman-Turner Overdrive
47 ( 36 ) HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) John & Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band with The Harlem Community Choir
48 ( 37 ) JE T’AIME...MOI NON PLUS Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg
49 ( 46 ) I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE Marvin Gaye
50 ( 47 ) HOLD ME TIGHT Johnny Nash

Posted by: popchartfreak Mar 1 2015, 01:59 PM

25th February 1975

5 weeks on top for Helen Reddy, the longest run since Paul McCartney & Wings’ Jet, and the first to do 5 weeks in a row since Mud had Hypnosis on top summer of 73. Paper Lace go 2 places higher than the original Hitchin’ A Ride, at 2, and Shirley and Company take the greta Sylvia Robinson’s song and production into the top 5 2 years after her own sexy Pillow Talk did the same, and 5 years ahead of her Sugar Hill Records bringing rap to the world. Mike Berry just misses out on the 10, as the man who’s version he borrowed Don’t Be Cruel from, enters at 22 with the more novelty track off the album, I’m Her Fool and Billy Swan. The Rubettes and Rupert Holmes get good jumps into the 20, and Neil Sedaka’s Queen of 1964 stays ahead of highest new entry Remember The Days Of The Old School Yard as Linda Lewis gets her 3rd chart entry at 20. It’s a Cat Stevens song, but I prefer Linda’s vocals.

Two soul groups for the price of one at 23, as another Sylvia Robinson sweet soul act enters: Moments and Whatnauts sing about Girls - they like ‘em fat, they like ‘em pretty, they like ‘em any which way, apparently, which is a rather admirably inclusive attitude for the 70’s. Unless they are more Quagmire than is called for. Giggity. At 27, a Northern Soul classic, Dean Parrish’ I’m On My Way, and the last record ever to be played at the then-famous Wigan Casino all-nighters. Dean never really made it in the States, but his minor celebrity in the UK was good enough for Paul Weller and Steve Craddock to want to do more recent stuff with him after decades away from the music biz. Yay! Meanwhile Bowie and Supertramp go top 30, hooray!

At 33 Hello get a follow-up to Tell Him, Games Up, which is reasonable glam rock, and at 36 Ringo Starr’s solo career starts to wind down, rather surprisingly, given it was written for him by Elton John: Snookeroo, it must be said, isn’t either of them at their best though! No No Song, as the odd “I given up drugs” double A side, was even less commercial! In at 43, Average White Band debut sounding very American and funky, with the fab US instrumental number one Pick Up The Pieces, so influential were they in their Arif Mardin-produced “coals to Newcastle” story they ended up being the 15th most-sampled act of all-time: and they are Scottish and white! Showing it’s what’s in the grooves that counts, as they used to say. Finally Hamilton Bohannon debuts, with his very funky South African Man.



1 ( 1 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy
2 ( 4 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE ’75 Paper Lace
3 ( 3 ) FOOTSIE Wigan’s Chosen Few
4 ( 6 ) SHAME SHAME SHAME Shirley & Company
5 ( 5 ) THE SECRETS THAT YOU KEEP Mud
6 ( 10 ) ONLY YOU CAN Fox
7 ( 2 ) HEY GIRL DON’T BOTHER ME The Tams
8 ( 7 ) THIS OLD HEART OF MINE The Isley Brothers
9 ( 8 ) BRANDY Scott English
10 ( 11 ) THEN I CHANGE HANDS Mick Robertson



11 ( 19 ) DON’T BE CRUEL Mike Berry
12 ( 12 ) MAKE ME SMILE (COME UP AND SEE ME) Steve Harley And Cockney Rebel
13 ( 30 ) I CAN DO IT The Rubettes
14 ( 34 ) OUR NATIONAL PASTIME Rupert Holmes
15 ( 9 ) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Gloria Gaynor
16 ( 17 ) YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY Ohio Express
17 ( 16 ) PLEASE MR POSTMAN The Carpenters
18 ( 14 ) #9 DREAM John Lennon
19 ( 29 ) THE QUEEN OF 1964 Neil Sedaka
20 ( NEW ) REMEMBER THE DAYS OF THE OLD SCHOOL YARD Linda Lewis



21 ( 23 ) I’LL TAKE A MELODY The Hues Corporation
22 ( NEW ) I’M HER FOOL Billy Swan
23 ( NEW ) GIRLS Moments and Whatnauts
24 ( 41 ) YOUNG AMERICANS David Bowie
25 ( 15 ) IT MAY BE WINTER OUTSIDE (BUT IN MY HEART IT’S SPRING) Love Unlimited
26 ( 42 ) DREAMER Supertramp
27 ( NEW ) I’M ON MY WAY Dean Parrish
28 ( 21 ) YOUR KISS IS SWEET Syreeta
29 ( 20 ) GET DANCIN’ Disco Tex and The Sex-o-lettes
30 ( 22 ) BOOGIE ON REGGAE WOMAN Stevie Wonder



31 ( 25 ) SHOORAH SHOORAH Betty Wright
32 ( 13 ) ROLL ON DOWN THE HIGHWAY Bachman-Turner Overdrive
33 ( NEW ) GAMES UP Hello
34 ( 18 ) YOUR MAMA WON’T LIKE ME Suzi Quatro
35 ( 35 ) GREEN TAMBOURINE The Lemon Pipers
36 ( NEW ) SNOOKEROO Ringo Starr
37 ( 26 ) BIG YELLOW TAXI Joni Mitchell
38 ( 43 ) SUPERGIRL Graham Bonney
39 ( 27 ) NEVER ENDING SONG OF LOVE Smokey 007
40 ( 24 ) LEGO SKANGA Rupie Edwards



41 ( 28 ) MY LAST NIGHT WITH YOU Arrows
42 ( 44 ) DOCTOR LOVE The Pearls
43 ( NEW ) PICK UP THE PIECES The Average White Band
44 ( NEW ) SOUTH AFRICAN MAN Hamilton Bohannon
45 ( 33 ) LOVE IS ALL Roger Glover and Guests (featuring Ronnie Dio)
46 ( 31 ) DOWN DOWN Status Quo
47 ( 36 ) GOD BLESS Dexter Redding
48 ( 46 ) YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET Bachman-Turner Overdrive
49 ( 47 ) HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) John & Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band with The Harlem Community Choir
50 ( 48 ) JE T’AIME...MOI NON PLUS Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg

Posted by: popchartfreak Apr 6 2015, 05:08 PM

4th March 1975

6th and final week for Helen Reddy’s Angie Baby on top, but who will topple her - Wigan’s Chosen Few play footsie at 2, Shirley says Shame Shame Shame at only going up to 3, and there are 2 big new entries: Gloria Gaynor follows up her big number one with a cover of a Motown classic in at 4, the Four Tops Reach Out I’ll Be There, and it’s a thumping frantic disco anthem, for me the best version apart from the original. At 5, it’s a long-missing 50’s guitar instrumental legend, Duane Eddy, who gets some help from a chorus of girl Rebelettes to twang along in the 70’s: Play Me Like Your Guitar is great, though not as great as his old classics like Peter Gunn, Rebel Rouser and Because They’re Young. Close thing, though.

Bowie goes top 20 with his funky Young Americans, ditto Supertramp and Moments and Whatnauts, while in at 26 it’s a 60’s Northern Soul-inspired hit for Gary Lewis And The Playboys, My Heart’s Symphony. They had a whole run of big US hits, and were notable for Gary being the son of comedian Jerry Lewis, and being pretty good pop, especially the fab This Diamond Ring, which was never a UK hit (like almost their entire career). The strings on this one add a bit of 60’s pop interest and I still love it, should have been bigger. Meanwhile Hamilton Bohannon smoothly funks his way to 28, the Average White Band do the same at 29, and Sweet return with their first self-written hit Fox On The Run, and it’s pretty good, in at 30! Giving them 4 years of hits, non-stop.

In at 43, it’s Barry Manilow debuting with the OTT Mandy, a cover of the much-better original sitting at 10 for Scott English - Brandy. It just came over as a bland, if mildly pleasant version of a great song, to me at the time. At 44, the Bay City Rollers ditch their songwriters and go it alone - by covering a Four Seasons non-UK-hit, Bye Bye Baby - they do it effectively, and the song wasn’t that well known in the UK, but it was the start of a loooooong list of acts getting much bigger hits than the brilliant Four Seasons originals in the UK - in the USA it was the other way round, for the most part. Which leaves Helen Reddy getting a follow-up entry as she drops off the top, Free And Easy, and Nosmo King and The Javells getting another chart entry (albeit unlikely) at 46. Finally Jim Stafford has a 3rd entry, with Your Bulldog Drinks Champagne - he certainly never was predictable!


1 ( 1 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy
2 ( 3 ) FOOTSIE Wigan’s Chosen Few
3 ( 4 ) SHAME SHAME SHAME Shirley & Company
4 ( NEW ) REACH OUT I’LL BE THERE Gloria Gaynor
5 ( NEW ) PLAY ME LIKE YOU PLAY YOUR GUITAR Duane Eddy and The Rebelettes
6 ( 2 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE ’75 Paper Lace
7 ( 6 ) ONLY YOU CAN Fox
8 ( 7 ) HEY GIRL DON’T BOTHER ME The Tams
9 ( 8 ) THIS OLD HEART OF MINE The Isley Brothers
10 ( 9 ) BRANDY Scott English



11 ( 11 ) DON’T BE CRUEL Mike Berry
12 ( 5 ) THE SECRETS THAT YOU KEEP Mud
13 ( 13 ) I CAN DO IT The Rubettes
14 ( 14 ) OUR NATIONAL PASTIME Rupert Holmes
15 ( 24 ) YOUNG AMERICANS David Bowie
16 ( 10 ) THEN I CHANGE HANDS Mick Robertson
17 ( 12 ) MAKE ME SMILE (COME UP AND SEE ME) Steve Harley And Cockney Rebel
18 ( 26 ) DREAMER Supertramp
19 ( 23 ) GIRLS Moments and Whatnauts
20 ( 18 ) #9 DREAM John Lennon



21 ( 20 ) REMEMBER THE DAYS OF THE OLD SCHOOL YARD Linda Lewis
22 ( 36 ) SNOOKEROO Ringo Starr
23 ( 17 ) PLEASE MR POSTMAN The Carpenters
24 ( 16 ) YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY Ohio Express
25 ( 15 ) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Gloria Gaynor
26 ( NEW ) MY HEART’S SYMPHONY Gary Lewis And The Playboys
27 ( 27 ) I’M ON MY WAY Dean Parrish
28 ( 44 ) SOUTH AFRICAN MAN Hamilton Bohannon
29 ( 43 ) PICK UP THE PIECES The Average White Band
30 ( NEW ) FOX ON THE RUN Sweet



31 ( 19 ) THE QUEEN OF 1964 Neil Sedaka
32 ( 33 ) GAMES UP Hello
33 ( 21 ) I’LL TAKE A MELODY The Hues Corporation
34 ( 22 ) I’M HER FOOL Billy Swan
35 ( 25 ) IT MAY BE WINTER OUTSIDE (BUT IN MY HEART IT’S SPRING) Love Unlimited
36 ( 30 ) BOOGIE ON REGGAE WOMAN Stevie Wonder
37 ( 28 ) YOUR KISS IS SWEET Syreeta
38 ( 29 ) GET DANCIN’ Disco Tex and The Sex-o-lettes
39 ( 46 ) DOWN DOWN Status Quo
40 ( 45 ) LOVE IS ALL Roger Glover and Guests (featuring Ronnie Dio)



41 ( 31 ) SHOORAH SHOORAH Betty Wright
42 ( 32 ) ROLL ON DOWN THE HIGHWAY Bachman-Turner Overdrive
43 ( NEW ) MANDY Barry Manilow
44 ( NEW ) BYE BYE BABY The Bay City Rollers
45 ( NEW ) FREE AND EASY Helen Reddy
46 ( NEW ) LOVIN’ YOU IS EASY Nosmo King and The Javells
47 ( 40 ) LEGO SKANGA Rupie Edwards
48 ( 41 ) MY LAST NIGHT WITH YOU Arrows
49 ( 42 ) DOCTOR LOVE The Pearls
50 ( NEW ) YOUR BULLDOG DRINKS CHAMPAGNE Jim Stafford

Posted by: popchartfreak Apr 6 2015, 09:01 PM

11th March 1975

Gloria Gaynor gets her 2nd chart-topper in a row, Reach Out I’ll Be There getting there in 2 weeks flat, and a new disco queen arrives. Not me, no. It’s all about Gloria’s vocal, the fab percussion, the backing singers and especially the heavy drumbeat on the chorus. Excited me no end at the time, and still does. Shooting up to 2, Supertramp’s best record Dreamer, it still sounds fresh, urgent and original, well beyond the normal single format. Duane Eddy has a veteran top 3 hit when few from the 50’s were still going, bar the odd Cliff and Elvis. Bowie gets his first top 10 since Sorrow, and his 7th to date, while The Rubettes get a 3rd, cos they can do it. The Rollers rocket up to 12, rather unexpectedly, as my early love for the Rollers in 1971-73 was well on the turn to annoyance what with all the screaming pre-teen girls all over the place, and Gary Lewis gets a 9-years-late top 20 hit.

It’s all about the 19 new entries though, as the music scene hits overdrive and my chart has an almost 40% clearout. 19 is a new record, and is headed by an old-fashioned Eurovision-styled boy-girl singalong, and it’s fab - There’s A Whole Lot Of Loving is schmaltzy, overdoses on the backing singers and strings, and has a killer chorus...yes it’s a real guilty pleasure! The group had TV host Bruce Forsyth’s daughter in it, not to mention Thereza Bazar and David Van Day, future hit duo Dollar. Talking of Eurovision, Radio Luxembourg was busy plugging Geraldine’s English-language version (You) of her French-language entry, Toi, and here it is at 28, making it 4 years in a row that Luxembourg had charted. It’s also one place higher than the UK’s entry, the last one under the system where an established act is chosen to sing 6 songs, then the public vote - and this time Cliff’s backing band, and UK instrumental heroes The Shadows join Duane Eddy on the comeback trail and also get a debut rare vocal hit, Let Me Be The One. It’s not bad at all.

At 30, a dance cover of The Beatles’ George Harrison song Something, from The Miracle Workers, gives it 3 hit versions in 6 years, while a Dutch duo cover of the 60’s childhood fave of mine Swinging On A Star (by Big Dee Irwin and Little Eva, itself a 40’s Bing Crosby cover) enters at 41 for the badly-named Spooky And Sue. An actual 60’s song I liked enters at 47 for The McCoys, Hang On Sloopy, while a 40’s styled gorgeous gentle ballad (and tribute to Fred Astaire) enters at 35 for Don McLean, his first hit in 3 years - Wonderful Baby.

At 32 and 33, two big US hits for two big UK-based stars, and two big UK-flops as they moved to the States and got ignored by UK record-buyers. Idiots. ELO’s Can’t Get It Out Of My Head is a touching emotive ballad, and a singles departure for the band that eventually charted 3 years later on an EP in the UK, while Olivia Newton-John was moving out of country into melodic pop ballads, and one of her best: Have You Never Been Mellow, lovely. At 34 a late glam rock entrant from Shabby Tiger (too late for the UK to chart it, but not in Europe), Slow Down is decent enough, and at 36 The Goodies get a thrid hit with a Funky Gibbon. Yes, well, hmmm, it was catchy for a couple of weeks! David Bowie’s guitarist, the legendary Mick Ronson gets a quirky solo entry at 45, Billy Porter, Alice Cooper gets 3 years of chart entries at 48, Department Of Youth. Also 3 years on, Peter Skellern gets a follow-up entry at 50, the laid-back Hold On To Love, and 2 years on ex-teacher Clifford T. Ward keeps the gentle folk ballads coming, gets a 4th entry with the delightful Jigsaw Girl at 49.

Phew! That leaves just the great new ones, from K.C. And The Sunshine Band, and a third hit (and a 6th song) with Get Down Tonight, as the fabulous funky dance grooves get notched a peg or two, even over chart-topper Queen Of Clubs. The basis of more than one future sampled hit, and still brilliant, and in at 37. Then there’s Elton John, with a Band attached, a new sound of Philadelphia, strings, soul, fabulousness, and a song dedicated to gay tennis player Billie-Jean King, Philadelphia Freedom. In at 42, 4 years of chartdom, and Elton had yet to miss the chart since Rocket Man hit 2, and was followed up by 2 number one’s in Crocodile Rock and Bennie And The Jets in 1972 and 1974. Elton, it should be stressed, was the biggest star in the world at this point and could do no wrong, especially in the USA, and was mightily prolific, 2 albums a year, and singles not necessarily on albums, and album tracks that should have been singles but weren’t. Phew!



1 ( 4 ) REACH OUT I’LL BE THERE Gloria Gaynor
2 ( 18 ) DREAMER Supertramp
3 ( 5 ) PLAY ME LIKE YOU PLAY YOUR GUITAR Duane Eddy and The Rebelettes
4 ( 1 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy
5 ( 2 ) FOOTSIE Wigan’s Chosen Few
6 ( 3 ) SHAME SHAME SHAME Shirley & Company
7 ( 15 ) YOUNG AMERICANS David Bowie
8 ( 13 ) I CAN DO IT The Rubettes
9 ( NEW ) THERE’S A WHOLE LOT OF LOVING Guys and Dolls
10 ( 11 ) DON’T BE CRUEL Mike Berry



11 ( 6 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE ’75 Paper Lace
12 ( 44 ) BYE BYE BABY The Bay City Rollers
13 ( 26 ) MY HEART’S SYMPHONY Gary Lewis And The Playboys
14 ( 14 ) OUR NATIONAL PASTIME Rupert Holmes
15 ( 19 ) GIRLS Moments and Whatnauts
16 ( 8 ) HEY GIRL DON’T BOTHER ME The Tams
17 ( 9 ) THIS OLD HEART OF MINE The Isley Brothers
18 ( 10 ) BRANDY Scott English
19 ( 20 ) #9 DREAM John Lennon
20 ( 7 ) ONLY YOU CAN Fox



21 ( 30 ) FOX ON THE RUN Sweet
22 ( 29 ) PICK UP THE PIECES The Average White Band
23 ( 28 ) SOUTH AFRICAN MAN Hamilton Bohannon
24 ( 22 ) SNOOKEROO Ringo Starr
25 ( 31 ) THE QUEEN OF 1964 Neil Sedaka
26 ( 12 ) THE SECRETS THAT YOU KEEP Mud
27 ( NEW ) FANCY PANTS Kenny
28 ( NEW ) YOU Geraldine
29 ( NEW ) LET ME BE THE ONE The Shadows
30 ( NEW ) SOMETHING The Miracle Workers



31 ( 32 ) GAMES UP Hello
32 ( NEW ) CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD The Electric Light Orchestra
33 ( NEW ) HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW Olivia Newton-John
34 ( NEW ) SLOW DOWN Shabby Tiger
35 ( NEW ) WONDERFUL BABY Don McLean
36 ( NEW ) FUNKY GIBBON The Goodies
37 ( NEW ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band
38 ( 17 ) MAKE ME SMILE (COME UP AND SEE ME) Steve Harley And Cockney Rebel
39 ( 25 ) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Gloria Gaynor
40 ( 23 ) PLEASE MR POSTMAN The Carpenters



41 ( NEW ) SWINGING ON A STAR Spooky And Sue
42 ( NEW ) PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM The Elton John Band
43 ( 43 ) MANDY Barry Manilow
44 ( 41 ) SHOORAH SHOORAH Betty Wright
45 ( NEW ) BILLY PORTER Mick Ronson
46 ( NEW ) SWEET MUSIC Showaddywaddy
47 ( NEW ) HANG ON SLOOPY The McCoys
48 ( NEW ) DEPARTMENT OF YOUTH Alice Cooper
49 ( NEW ) JIGSAW GIRL Clifford T. Ward
50 ( NEW ) HOLD ON TO LOVE Peter Skellern

Posted by: popchartfreak Apr 7 2015, 08:10 PM

18th March 1975

After the deluge of last week, only 2 new entries and Gloria Gaynor gets 2 weeks reaching out on top. The rest of the chart is busy though, Elton up 40 places to 2 outdoing all his previous singles bar 3, just lovin’ that Philadelphia Freedom. Bowie also does better here than any other chart, hitting 5 with Young Americans - Bowie fans struggled with the new “plastic soul” sound, but not me, loved it. The Sweet get an 11th Top 10 hit, Neil Sedaka stops yo-yo-ing and hits 8 for his annual top 10 hit, now allied with Elton John on his label, and ELO get a 4th top 10.

The 2 Eurovision songs keep pace with each other at 14 and 15, Geraldine still having the edge, while Livvy goes top 20, and Shabby Tiger slow down at 19. New at 44 it’s Polly Brown getting a second solo hit, dialling L for Love, though it’s now 5 years since she debuted with Pickettywich. Finally, at 48, The Hues Corporation have a 4th chart entry with the Love Corporation, diminishing returns but they still sound good.

1 ( 1 ) REACH OUT I’LL BE THERE Gloria Gaynor
2 ( 42 ) PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM The Elton John Band
3 ( 3 ) PLAY ME LIKE YOU PLAY YOUR GUITAR Duane Eddy and The Rebelettes
4 ( 2 ) DREAMER Supertramp
5 ( 7 ) YOUNG AMERICANS David Bowie
6 ( 9 ) THERE’S A WHOLE LOT OF LOVING Guys and Dolls
7 ( 21 ) FOX ON THE RUN Sweet
8 ( 25 ) THE QUEEN OF 1964 Neil Sedaka
9 ( 32 ) CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD The Electric Light Orchestra
10 ( 4 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy

11 ( 5 ) FOOTSIE Wigan’s Chosen Few
12 ( 6 ) SHAME SHAME SHAME Shirley & Company
13 ( 8 ) I CAN DO IT The Rubettes
14 ( 28 ) YOU Geraldine
15 ( 29 ) LET ME BE THE ONE The Shadows
16 ( 13 ) MY HEART’S SYMPHONY Gary Lewis And The Playboys
17 ( 15 ) GIRLS Moments and Whatnauts
18 ( 33 ) HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW Olivia Newton-John
19 ( 34 ) SLOW DOWN Shabby Tiger
20 ( 10 ) DON’T BE CRUEL Mike Berry



21 ( 11 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE ’75 Paper Lace
22 ( 19 ) #9 DREAM John Lennon
23 ( 37 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band
24 ( 36 ) FUNKY GIBBON The Goodies
25 ( 12 ) BYE BYE BABY The Bay City Rollers
26 ( 22 ) PICK UP THE PIECES The Average White Band
27 ( 27 ) FANCY PANTS Kenny
28 ( 30 ) SOMETHING The Miracle Workers
29 ( 20 ) ONLY YOU CAN Fox
30 ( 31 ) GAMES UP Hello



31 ( 16 ) HEY GIRL DON’T BOTHER ME The Tams
32 ( 17 ) THIS OLD HEART OF MINE The Isley Brothers
33 ( 18 ) BRANDY Scott English
34 ( 23 ) SOUTH AFRICAN MAN Hamilton Bohannon
35 ( 35 ) WONDERFUL BABY Don McLean
36 ( 26 ) THE SECRETS THAT YOU KEEP Mud
37 ( 14 ) OUR NATIONAL PASTIME Rupert Holmes
38 ( 46 ) SWEET MUSIC Showaddywaddy
39 ( 39 ) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Gloria Gaynor
40 ( 40 ) PLEASE MR POSTMAN The Carpenters



41 ( 41 ) SWINGING ON A STAR Spooky And Sue
42 ( 45 ) BILLY PORTER Mick Ronson
43 ( 50 ) HOLD ON TO LOVE Peter Skellern
44 ( NEW ) DIAL ‘L’ FOR LOVE Polly Brown
45 ( 49 ) JIGSAW GIRL Clifford T. Ward
46 ( 47 ) HANG ON SLOOPY The McCoys
47 ( 24 ) SNOOKEROO Ringo Starr
48 ( NEW ) LOVE CORPORATION The Hues Corporation
49 ( 43 ) MANDY Barry Manilow
50 ( 38 ) MAKE ME SMILE (COME UP AND SEE ME) Steve Harley And Cockney Rebel



In Gloucester days, I was seriously buying every vinyl single I could get afford and find, and every old and new DC comic I could find. I scoured all the record shops (and there were plenty in those days) and newsagents that stocked American comics, and had a weekly Saturday bus ride, or walk of a few miles (to have extra money to spend on them) to do the rounds, especially the second-hand bookstore Toby’s which had stocks of recent DC comics printed with their name on the cover - much cheaper for me and I picked up loads I’d missed. Hooray! We also had a family ride, after some snowfall, to see our Singapore family friends the Wainwrights, after not seeing them for a year or so - I have the trip there fixed in my mind to some of the Radio 1 playlist tracks of the time, so I associate them with crisp snow and sunshine, for instance Fox On The Run and Young Americans, and especially Philadelphia Freedom. Odd the things that stick in the mind sometime. It was great seeing them all again.

Posted by: popchartfreak Apr 8 2015, 03:06 PM

25th March 1975 part 1 (Eurovision)

It’s a new number one, but dropping from 6 and completely out of the chart it’s Guys & Dolls with one of the shortest ever chart runs for a record that peaked at 6 - 2 weeks, peak, and out! It’s a guilty pleasure, but one that I got over quickly, until a decent amount of time had passed by (years), and then I loved it again. Anyway, new at 1 it’s Elton, yay! His 3rd number one in 4 years, a brilliant Philly soul record by a white British rock star, joining Bowie in crossing some genre boundaries, and also commenting at the time about his domination on USA radio where his singles just would not leave the chart - he wished they would stop playing them and let them leave the chart, even he was getting fed up of it! This, of course, is now how the whole music business works: overkill, monotony, and dominated by a huge few stars. Elton was also presiding over another chart invasion, though, chock full of good new singles, led by the Eurovision winner, Teach-In, at 10. Ding A Dong! Or Dinge Dong, take your pick. It was an immediate hit with me while I babysat, and my clear favourite, though the chart placing just ahead of the UK and Luxembourg might say otherwise. The Shadows did well, and Geraldine, Toi, so there’s a mini-1975 Eurovision section to enjoy. Or ‘enjoy’! The Netherlands deserved to win though, and they had clearly learnt the Abba lesson and gone uptempo pop. So here the three are...

Posted by: popchartfreak Apr 8 2015, 03:10 PM

25th March 1975 (part 2)



Back in March 1975, 25th, and K.C. is up to 3 for his 3rd successive top 3 hit, with one of the great instant instrumental funk intros, do a little dance make a little love, get down tonight! The Sweet hit 4, fox-chasing, and Olivia hits 6 with her biggest ever hit in 4 years, so she must have been feeling pretty mellow about that. The second highest new entry is the record that came 2nd in the Radio 1 All-Time Top 100 singles, as compiled in 1974 - Young Girl won it (and charted all over again) but runner-up was Bobby Goldsboro’s 1968 UK number 2, which was reissued in the UK and hit 2 again, having been 2 on the 100. A case of the 2’s if ever I heard it! The sickly-sweet sentimental tragedy song enters at 14 here. It’s both touching and OTT laughable, depending on mood. It fit in with tragic news of the death of a classmate in a motorbike accident, Martin Milliard, who’d been getting interviews with football clubs. His best mate Davvy was a mate at school, and I was shocked and sad all round for Davvy and Milli’s family. The song came up in group classroom conversation, and Davvy took it’s side, so did I.

In at 16, Jim Gilstrap’s lovely gospel soul shuffler Swing Your Daddy, and in at 17 another Wigan band, Wigan’s Ovation with an actual NEW recording and northern soul cover hit, the Invitations’ Skiing In The Snow. Northern Soul was cool in the working class circles. Lulu’s back with another image change at 26, this time soul funk, one style she was to return to most frequently over the years. The record? Take You Mama For A Ride, and 7 years of hits. Missing for 2 years, and it’s a welcome return for Middle Of The Road, with the flop single Hitchin’ A Ride In The Moonlight, which managed to grab a couple of plays on Radio Luxembourg, and nothing in the UK, but it gives them an 8th bubblegum chart entry for me. I haven’t heard it for decades, and it’s not on itunes, boo!

Ralph McTell’s back at 34 with a forgotten, non-itunes, follow-up El Progresso, not that folky, while Hot Chocolate return with new single Blue Night, in the style of Emma at 48. Pretty good, a flop, no airplay, but it had a B Side you may have heard of, a ditty called You Sexy Thing. Come back in 7 months when it gets flipped, and Blue Night is the B Side. 49, Caston And Majors, a Motown act, and a fantastic record in Child Of Love, fab song, should have been a hit. Finally, at 50, it’s another oldie reissue from the late Jim Croce, one which would have charted in 1972 had my charts allowed non-UK-chart records: Bad Bad Leroy Brown. Big US hit.




1 ( 2 ) PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM The Elton John Band
2 ( 1 ) REACH OUT I’LL BE THERE Gloria Gaynor
3 ( 23 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band
4 ( 7 ) FOX ON THE RUN The Sweet
5 ( 3 ) PLAY ME LIKE YOU PLAY YOUR GUITAR Duane Eddy and The Rebelettes
6 ( 18 ) HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW Olivia Newton-John
7 ( 9 ) CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD The Electric Light Orchestra
8 ( 4 ) DREAMER Supertramp
9 ( 5 ) YOUNG AMERICANS David Bowie
10 ( NEW ) DING A DONG Teach-In



11 ( 15 ) LET ME BE THE ONE The Shadows
12 ( 14 ) YOU Geraldine
13 ( 16 ) MY HEART’S SYMPHONY Gary Lewis And The Playboys
14 ( NEW ) HONEY Bobby Goldsboro
15 ( 19 ) SLOW DOWN Shabby Tiger
16 ( NEW ) SWING YOUR DADDY Jim Gilstrap
17 ( NEW ) SKIING IN THE SNOW Wigan’s Ovation
18 ( 10 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy
19 ( 11 ) FOOTSIE Wigan’s Chosen Few
20 ( 12 ) SHAME SHAME SHAME Shirley & Company



21 ( 28 ) SOMETHING The Miracle Workers
22 ( 8 ) THE QUEEN OF 1964 Neil Sedaka
23 ( 27 ) FANCY PANTS Kenny
24 ( 13 ) I CAN DO IT The Rubettes
25 ( 45 ) JIGSAW GIRL Clifford T. Ward
26 ( NEW ) TAKE YOUR MAMA FOR A RIDE Lulu
27 ( NEW ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE IN THE MOONLIGHT Middle Of The Road
28 ( 21 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE ’75 Paper Lace
29 ( RE ) THEN I CHANGE HANDS Mick Robertson
30 ( 22 ) #9 DREAM John Lennon

31 ( 31 ) HEY GIRL DON’T BOTHER ME The Tams
32 ( 32 ) THIS OLD HEART OF MINE The Isley Brothers
33 ( 33 ) BRANDY Scott English
34 ( NEW ) EL PROGRESSO Ralph McTell
35 ( 43 ) HOLD ON TO LOVE Peter Skellern
36 ( 24 ) FUNKY GIBBON The Goodies
37 ( 35 ) WONDERFUL BABY Don McLean
38 ( 26 ) PICK UP THE PIECES The Average White Band
39 ( 34 ) SOUTH AFRICAN MAN Hamilton Bohannon
40 ( 29 ) ONLY YOU CAN Fox

41 ( 39 ) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Gloria Gaynor
42 ( 40 ) PLEASE MR POSTMAN The Carpenters
43 ( 44 ) DIAL ‘L’ FOR LOVE Polly Brown
44 ( 20 ) DON’T BE CRUEL Mike Berry
45 ( 42 ) BILLY PORTER Mick Ronson
46 ( 41 ) SWINGING ON A STAR Spooky And Sue
47 ( 48 ) LOVE CORPORATION The Hues Corporation
48 ( NEW ) BLUE NIGHT Hot Chocolate
49 ( NEW ) CHILD OF LOVE Caston And Majors
50 ( NEW ) BAD BAD LEROY BROWN Jim Croce

Posted by: Sword of Justice Apr 8 2015, 03:25 PM

John, I'm very happy to see "Toi" here. It's my favourite ESC song in 1975. One from the best French language entries in all history of the contest.

My top 3 :
1. Geraldine - Toi (Luxembourg)
2. Sophie - Une Chanson C'est Une Lettre (Monaco)
3. Ellen Nikolaysen - Touch My Life (Norway)

Irish singer won for Luxembourg. It was third their win after France Gall (1965) and Vicky Leandros (1967). Geraldine
was fourth Irish woman, who won in Eurovision (after Dana, Sandie Jones, Maxi).

Monaco got the highest position (2nd place) for the first time in history.

Norway had the most successful decade and got a medal again (after 2nd place in 1971, 1972) and will be unpredictable winner in 1976 (yes, higher than real winner Brotherhood Of Man).

Posted by: popchartfreak Apr 8 2015, 03:57 PM

QUOTE(Sword of Justice @ Apr 8 2015, 04:25 PM)

Posted by: popchartfreak May 7 2015, 07:07 PM

1st April 1975

Another US number one tops my chart, and it’s KC’s 2nd number one the frantic, urgent, funky brilliance that is Get Down Tonight, his 3rd song to top my charts after Rock Your Baby and Queen Of Clubs in 1974. Fantastic. Keeping the dance theme going, Wigans’ Ovation ski up to 5, and Jim Gilstrap swings slowly to 7, bookending the sweet Jigsaw Girl, Clifford T. Ward’s biggest hit to date. Peter Skellern leaps to 16, crooning Hold On To Love pleasantly, while Jonathan King is back in one of his alter ego’s Nemo, returning his 1972 chart entry cover of a 1932 very British song with a now dodgy line that got a radio presenter in trouble last year. Pity about that line, cos it’s an amusing cheerful bit of British Depression-era crooning.

In at 24, though, it’s a properly new classic, the amazing gorgeous Lovin’ You from the stunning vocal range of Minnie Ripperton. It almost came over as a novelty song with it’s birdsong arrangement and sentimentality, certainly one I tired of quickly at the time, but which gained terrible pathos when poor Minnie died very young of Cancer a few years afterwards. I like to think of her as a precursor to Mariah Carey, only she knew how to use her range effectively for emotion rather than bluster. At 26, Swedish Sylvia’s back with a mistimed Spanish follow-up song. Ah well, hasta la vista, baby. In at 31 it’s another bonafide classic, the immortal Lady Marmalade from the futuristic silver-suited glam and sassy LaBelle belting out the soulfunk with passion, not least headed by Patti Labelle, who had already been around a while, including a joint album with the fabulous Laura Nyro. A number one record, of course, decades later for All Saints and again for a quartet of divas, neither of them a patch on the original. Not even close. It also had that naughty French line famous from sitcoms involving French characters...

There’s a novelty cover of actor Telly Savalas’ spoken-word cover of Bread’s fab If, a UK number one as Kojak TV cop mania swept the UK. Yin And Yan’s version was much better, amusingly taking the Michael out of an imagined version of Telly’s recording session for the song. It’s a comedy song, essentially, that works as long as you don’t hear it a lot, and it was a UK hit. Syreeta’s 1974 hit returns, and finally up to 44, and in tribute to the late great Errol Brown who died this week, Blue Night is mentioned, an attempt to repeat the success of Emma that didn’t catch on but which sold bucketloads as the B Side to You Sexy Thing when they flipped the record over later in the year. Errol was a hero, a sweet-natured man, and a talent. He never released a bad record, which is how Hot Chocolate managed 15 consecutive years of hits, despite never being an albums band, bar Greatest Hits collections which were enormously popular jewels in the crown more than once.




1 ( 3 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band
2 ( 1 ) PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM The Elton John Band
3 ( 2 ) REACH OUT I’LL BE THERE Gloria Gaynor
4 ( 10 ) DING DINGE DONG Teach-In
5 ( 17 ) SKIING IN THE SNOW Wigan’s Ovation
6 ( 25 ) JIGSAW GIRL Clifford T. Ward
7 ( 16 ) SWING YOUR DADDY Jim Gilstrap
8 ( 7 ) CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD The Electric Light Orchestra
9 ( 4 ) FOX ON THE RUN The Sweet
10 ( 6 ) HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW Olivia Newton-John

11 ( 11 ) LET ME BE THE ONE The Shadows
12 ( 14 ) HONEY Bobby Goldsboro
13 ( 8 ) DREAMER Supertramp
14 ( 5 ) PLAY ME LIKE YOU PLAY YOUR GUITAR Duane Eddy and The Rebelettes
15 ( 15 ) SLOW DOWN Shabby Tiger
16 ( 35 ) HOLD ON TO LOVE Peter Skellern
17 ( 21 ) SOMETHING The Miracle Workers
18 ( NEW ) THE SUN HAS GOT HIS HAT ON Nemo (aka Jonathan King)
19 ( 12 ) YOU Geraldine
20 ( 13 ) MY HEART’S SYMPHONY Gary Lewis And The Playboys

21 ( 26 ) TAKE YOUR MAMA FOR A RIDE Lulu
22 ( 27 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE IN THE MOONLIGHT Middle Of The Road
23 ( 34 ) EL PROGRESSO Ralph McTell
24 ( NEW ) LOVIN’ YOU Minnie Ripperton
25 ( 29 ) THEN I CHANGE HANDS Mick Robertson
26 ( NEW ) HASTA LA VISTA Sylvia
27 ( 9 ) YOUNG AMERICANS David Bowie
28 ( 18 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy
29 ( 19 ) FOOTSIE Wigan’s Chosen Few
30 ( 20 ) SHAME SHAME SHAME Shirley & Company



31 ( NEW ) LADY MARMALADE LaBelle
32 ( 22 ) THE QUEEN OF 1964 Neil Sedaka
33 ( 28 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE ’75 Paper Lace
34 ( 30 ) #9 DREAM John Lennon
35 ( 31 ) HEY GIRL DON’T BOTHER ME The Tams
36 ( 32 ) THIS OLD HEART OF MINE The Isley Brothers
37 ( 33 ) BRANDY Scott English
38 ( NEW ) IF Yin and Yan
39 ( NEW ) SPINNIN’ AND SPINNIN’ Syreeta
40 ( 43 ) DIAL ‘L’ FOR LOVE Polly Brown



41 ( 23 ) FANCY PANTS Kenny
42 ( 39 ) SOUTH AFRICAN MAN Hamilton Bohannon
43 ( 38 ) PICK UP THE PIECES The Average White Band
44 ( 48 ) BLUE NIGHT Hot Chocolate
45 ( 49 ) CHILD OF LOVE Caston And Majors
46 ( NEW ) EXPRESS BT Express
47 ( RE ) LOVE IS ALL Roger Glover and Guests (featuring Ronnie Dio)
48 ( 40 ) ONLY YOU CAN Fox
49 ( 41 ) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Gloria Gaynor
50 ( 42 ) PLEASE MR POSTMAN The Carpenters

Posted by: Sword of Justice May 7 2015, 07:19 PM

John, which country have more # 1s in all history of your personal charts : UK or US ?

"Ding-A-Dong" is a correct title of Dutch song.

Posted by: popchartfreak May 8 2015, 02:07 PM

QUOTE(Sword of Justice @ May 7 2015, 07:19 PM)

John, which country have more # 1s in all history of your personal charts : UK or US ?

"Ding-A-Dong" is a correct title of Dutch song.

Posted by: Sword of Justice May 8 2015, 02:25 PM

QUOTE(popchartfreak @ May 8 2015, 05:07 PM)

Posted by: popchartfreak May 8 2015, 04:23 PM

QUOTE(Sword of Justice @ May 8 2015, 03:25 PM)

John, just count them, it's not very hard.
Not 100 % sure, but near 75-80 % my # 1s were from United Kingdom, maybe even more.
US is possible on the second place, based on many # 1s from Madonna, Britney, Blondie.

If don't count Eurovision songs these countries have # 1s in my chart :
Netherlands (mostly Luv'), Lithuania, Canada (mostly Shania Twain), Australia (mostly Kylie), Belgium (K3, Betty), Ireland (mostly Dana), Sweden (mostly ABBA), Norway (M2M, Lene Marlin), Germany (No Angels), Russia (Julia Kova, Nataliya Vetlitzkaya), Denmark (Me & My, Aqua), France (France Gall, Mylene Farmer)

Posted by: popchartfreak May 9 2015, 04:34 PM

8th April 1975

Yet another new number one, and it’s the 3rd Eurovision winner to top my charts (after Dana in 1970 and Abba in 1974) as Teach-In from The Netherlands is my clear fave of the contest, a sort of Abba clone in some ways, which made a change from all the ballad singers that usually won. Not weathered as well as Waterloo, of course, but still sounds fun in a Eurovision pub evening (yes they do exist!). That leaves Bobby Goldsboro getting his first top 10 since Summer The First Time peaked at 2 in 1973, as Honey hits 6 7 years late. Peter Skellern also gets his biggest hit as Hold On To Love goes top 10, where 1972’s You’re A Lady only went top 20.

Obviously in a novelty frame of mind, Yin And Yan rocket to 12, If only for a while. Highest new entry is the catchy reggae of Susan Cadogan, cos don’tcha know that it Hurts So Good being at 15? The fantastic Child Of Love spurts in growth to 16, still gives me goosebumps when I play it - let’s be honest never gonna hear it anywhere else ever, certainly not on streaming sites or radio. That’s a loss to the world. That also applies to Ralph McTell at 19, El Progresso not available anywhere, itunes, youtube or streaming. Pity. Sylvia meanwhile hits the top 20 for a 2nd time, while in at 26, it’s a French singer singing in English With Love And Understanding, Gilbert Becaud having a great accent for a quirky, playful ballad. B.T. Express climbs into the top 30 for a bit of funky Express, while new at 36 Al Green is back with another great soul ballad, L.O.V.E. and at 37, Lyn Paul has a solo entry, The New Seekers now in the past, but she has Love. I haven’t heard it for 40 years, and it’s not on the net, so I can’t offer an opinion on it. Pity.

New at 43, one that I have, and it’s a good follow-up to Midnight At The Oasis for Maria Muldaur and her Gringo In Mexico, and The Isley Brothers have a new funk soul Midnight Sky joining their old Motown dance soul This Old Heart Of Mine, in at 44. Pilot get a 4th entry at 47, Call Me Round - OK, you’re round! - Kiki Dee is also back with a 3rd entry and you don’t know, you don’t know, you don’t know How Glad I Am about that. Finally, faves 10CC return with a track that never did it for me lyrically, food based metaphors similes and puns not hitting my spot, though it sounds great musically, but is the least-successful 10CC single to date and only in at 50.


1 ( 4 ) DING-A-DONG Teach-In
2 ( 1 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band
3 ( 2 ) PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM The Elton John Band
4 ( 3 ) REACH OUT I’LL BE THERE Gloria Gaynor
5 ( 5 ) SKIING IN THE SNOW Wigan’s Ovation
6 ( 12 ) HONEY Bobby Goldsboro
7 ( 16 ) HOLD ON TO LOVE Peter Skellern
8 ( 6 ) JIGSAW GIRL Clifford T. Ward
9 ( 7 ) SWING YOUR DADDY Jim Gilstrap
10 ( 10 ) HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW Olivia Newton-John



11 ( 11 ) LET ME BE THE ONE The Shadows
12 ( 38 ) IF Yin and Yan
13 ( 9 ) FOX ON THE RUN The Sweet
14 ( 8 ) CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD The Electric Light Orchestra
15 ( NEW ) HURT SO GOOD Susan Cadogan
16 ( 45 ) CHILD OF LOVE Caston And Majors
17 ( 17 ) SOMETHING The Miracle Workers
18 ( 14 ) PLAY ME LIKE YOU PLAY YOUR GUITAR Duane Eddy and The Rebelettes
19 ( 23 ) EL PROGRESSO Ralph McTell
20 ( 26 ) HASTA LA VISTA Sylvia

21 ( 18 ) THE SUN HAS GOT HIS HAT ON Nemo (aka Jonathan King)
22 ( 13 ) DREAMER Supertramp
23 ( 15 ) SLOW DOWN Shabby Tiger
24 ( 24 ) LOVIN’ YOU Minnie Ripperton
25 ( 31 ) LADY MARMALADE LaBelle
26 ( NEW ) A LITTLE LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING Gilbert Becaud
27 ( 21 ) TAKE YOUR MAMA FOR A RIDE Lulu
28 ( 22 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE IN THE MOONLIGHT Middle Of The Road
29 ( 46 ) EXPRESS BT Express
30 ( 28 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy



31 ( 29 ) FOOTSIE Wigan’s Chosen Few
32 ( 30 ) SHAME SHAME SHAME Shirley & Company
33 ( 20 ) MY HEART’S SYMPHONY Gary Lewis And The Playboys
34 ( 19 ) YOU Geraldine
35 ( 25 ) THEN I CHANGE HANDS Mick Robertson
36 ( NEW ) L.O.V.E. (LOVE) Al Green
37 ( NEW ) LOVE Lyn Paul
38 ( 33 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE ’75 Paper Lace
39 ( 34 ) #9 DREAM John Lennon
40 ( 35 ) HEY GIRL DON’T BOTHER ME The Tams



41 ( 36 ) THIS OLD HEART OF MINE The Isley Brothers
42 ( 37 ) BRANDY Scott English
43 ( NEW ) GRINGO IN MEXICO Maria Muldaur
44 ( NEW ) MIDNIGHT SKY The isley Brothers
45 ( 49 ) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Gloria Gaynor
46 ( 48 ) ONLY YOU CAN Fox
47 ( NEW ) CALL ME ROUND Pilot
48 ( 50 ) PLEASE MR POSTMAN The Carpenters
49 ( NEW ) HOW GLAD I AM The Kiki Dee Band
50 ( NEW ) LIFE IS A MINESTRONE 10CC




Exams were on the horizon, and revising was the order of the day for the various GCE O Levels I had on the books such as British Constitution, Maths, History, English Lit, Geography, which basically meant sitting in my bedroom listening to Radio 1 while reading coursework books and trying to recall dull facts, tedious dates and even sometimes some interesting stuff. Not that often, of course. Much preferred Radio 1 or my latest issue of DC Comics, the covers were getting pretty sexy again after going off the boil a bit, sexy design-wise that is, being aimed at kids. these days comics are largely aimed at men who enjoy scantily clad women and lots of violence in panel after panel of artwork. Plot and characterization are optional add-ons. Back then, they were everything.


http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Superboy_Vol_1_206?file=Superboy_Vol_1_206.jpg

Posted by: Sword of Justice May 9 2015, 05:16 PM

QUOTE(popchartfreak @ May 9 2015, 07:34 PM)

Posted by: popchartfreak May 9 2015, 09:56 PM

QUOTE(Sword of Justice @ May 9 2015, 06:16 PM)

Posted by: popchartfreak May 12 2015, 06:38 PM

15th April 1975

Bobby Goldsboro gets a number one, 7 years after first being a UK and US hit, and after hitting UK number two twice, in both 1968 and 1975. Unlucky! It’s a mawkish story-song, pretty much out-of-fashion these days, but I was still in a sort of shock following the death of a former classmate in a motor-bike accident, and it just struck a chord for me, and his best mate, too. Susan Cadogan is decidedly more upbeat, even if it Hurts So Good at 5. Highest new entry is another oldie, Helen Reddy’s uncharted female-rights anthem from 1972, I Am Woman, following up her 6 week chart-topper. Another 1968 oldie at 13, it’s 60’s surfer instrumentalists The Ventures with the theme tune to Hawaii Five-0, one of the greatest TV theme tunes of all-time, and the opening fast-paced credit sequence one of the most exciting of all-time, even in this age of rapid-editing.

Two re-issued classics for Jackie Wilson at 14 and 19, though they were actually a double A sided UK hit, having previously charted in 1969 and 1972 top 10‘s separately - but Higher And Higher and I Get The Sweetest Feeling were already 3 years old or so first time round, and this wasn’t the last time, nor the biggest for either to chart. In at 18, a soundalike number one follow-up for Disco Tex and his Sex-o-lettes, who still want to dance - wit choo! Faves Mud also return with their penultimate RAK Records single, having parted ways with Chinn-Chapman, masters of their chart success, with a UK chart-topping singalong version of Buddy Holly’s Oh Boy, and in at 24 for me, though it just didn’t have the same appeal as Chinnychap stuff. Maria Muldaur has a good Gringo jump into the top 30, meanwhile as John Lennon follows-up top 5 classic Number 9 Dream with future UK chart-topper for original singer Ben E. King, a passionate version of Stand By Me, as seen on a terrific rare live performance and interview on Old Grey Whistle Test, for the final time on UK TV I think.


Whiskey Mac never had a hit, but their cover of Jigsaw’s Lost And Found, but Des Dyer co-songwriter from Jigsaw has Eurovision connections in the 80’s after their chart and songwriting career had faded, including being backing singer for Scott Fitzgerald, runner-up by one point to Celine Dion. Doh! This was a sweet female vocal cover though. At 41, the third charting version of Elvis Presley’s Don’t Be Cruel, 3 years before Elvis gets a reissued hit version, this time it’s Billy Swan getting a third hit, with his original cover version of the 2nd hit version by Mike Berry 3 months earlier. The first hit version was an Elvis-imitating novelty version by The Berries (formerly Rocking Berries) in 1972. As a key part of the record was an imitation of DJ Jimmy Saville it’s safe to say it will never ever be played again anywhere. It had stopped being funny long before that though - by 1973, I think!

At 47, a major talent debuts: Billy Joel’s signature toon The Piano Man. Billy was never in fashion, and usually dismissed as an MOR act by the street-cred fraternity who completely missed the point. The point being that he was classically-trained, his songs were pretty sophisticated, varied, and showed a real love for pop music past. He may have looked like a short boxer, but he was a real Artist with a capital A. He announced his retirement from the pop biz in the early 90’s and has stuck with it pretty much, save a Classical album or two. Oh, yes The Piano Man should have been a hit in the UK, cos it’s terrific. Which leaves Eric Clapton, still in laid-back reggae cover version mode: Swing Low Sweet Chariot, old-time slave song brought up to date, and heading for Rugby-song tradition. It’s a bit dull, actually but in at 50.




1 ( 6 ) HONEY Bobby Goldsboro
2 ( 1 ) DING-A-DONG Teach-In
3 ( 2 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band
4 ( 5 ) SKIING IN THE SNOW Wigan’s Ovation
5 ( 15 ) HURT SO GOOD Susan Cadogan
6 ( 7 ) HOLD ON TO LOVE Peter Skellern
7 ( 3 ) PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM The Elton John Band
8 ( 4 ) REACH OUT I’LL BE THERE Gloria Gaynor
9 ( 10 ) HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW Olivia Newton-John
10 ( 8 ) JIGSAW GIRL Clifford T. Ward



11 ( 26 ) A LITTLE LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING Gilbert Becaud
12 ( NEW ) I AM WOMAN Helen Reddy
13 ( NEW ) HAWAII FIVE-0 The Ventures
14 ( NEW ) (YOUR LOVE KEEPS LIFTING ME) HIGHER AND HIGHER Jackie Wilson
15 ( 16 ) CHILD OF LOVE Caston And Majors
16 ( 9 ) SWING YOUR DADDY Jim Gilstrap
17 ( 20 ) HASTA LA VISTA Sylvia
18 ( NEW ) I WANNA DANCE WIT’ CHOO (DO DAT DANCE) Disco Tex And The Sex-o-lettes
19 ( NEW ) I GET THE SWEETEST FEELING Jackie Wilson
20 ( 13 ) FOX ON THE RUN The Sweet



21 ( 14 ) CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD The Electric Light Orchestra
22 ( 11 ) LET ME BE THE ONE The Shadows
23 ( 25 ) LADY MARMALADE LaBelle
24 ( NEW ) OH BOY Mud
25 ( 43 ) GRINGO IN MEXICO Maria Muldaur
26 ( 17 ) SOMETHING The Miracle Workers
27 ( 19 ) EL PROGRESSO Ralph McTell
28 ( 21 ) THE SUN HAS GOT HIS HAT ON Nemo (aka Jonathan King)
29 ( 12 ) IF Yin and Yan
30 ( NEW ) STAND BY ME John Lennon

31 ( 29 ) EXPRESS BT Express
32 ( 18 ) PLAY ME LIKE YOU PLAY YOUR GUITAR Duane Eddy and The Rebelettes
33 ( 36 ) L.O.V.E. (LOVE) Al Green
34 ( 47 ) CALL ME ROUND Pilot
35 ( 23 ) SLOW DOWN Shabby Tiger
36 ( 28 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE IN THE MOONLIGHT Middle Of The Road
37 ( NEW ) LOST AND FOUND Whiskey Mac
38 ( 30 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy
39 ( 31 ) FOOTSIE Wigan’s Chosen Few
40 ( 32 ) SHAME SHAME SHAME Shirley & Company



41 ( NEW ) DON’T BE CRUEL Billy Swan
42 ( 22 ) DREAMER Supertramp
43 ( 24 ) LOVIN’ YOU Minnie Ripperton
44 ( 38 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE ’75 Paper Lace
45 ( 39 ) #9 DREAM John Lennon
46 ( 33 ) MY HEART’S SYMPHONY Gary Lewis And The Playboys
47 ( NEW ) THE PIANO MAN Billy Joel
48 ( 50 ) LIFE IS A MINESTRONE 10CC
49 ( 27 ) TAKE YOUR MAMA FOR A RIDE Lulu
50 ( NEW ) SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT Eric Clapton

Posted by: popchartfreak May 13 2015, 07:43 PM

22nd April 1975

Diddy Hamilton played the new number a lot, and it was featured on Top Of The Pops, and from there straight in at 1 in my charts. It’s pleasant harmony pop, loved the tune, but I seemed to be alone apart from David Hamilton, and no doubt Lelly’s husband Daniel Boone of Beautiful Sunday and Blue Is The Colour fame (well he did write it). David Hamilton opened a new store in Gloucester around this time, just down from the swimming pool and I actually went and stood outside for the novelty of seeing a celebrity. Well, he was in those days. As for the song, I think we’ve all gone instantly mad on a record, inexplicably sometimes, and then got less fond of it quickly - it is, however, quite rare for me to chart a record at one on hearing it once or twice, so Lelly did well.

Disco Tex gets a second straight (so to speak) top 10, as John Lennon does the same at 7, one spot behind. Maria Muldaur grabs a top 20 gringo, and very nice too, though not quite as classic as her oasis, and there’s some new entries outside the 40: The Carpenters tuneful pop follow-up to the Postman, Only Yesterday at 41, Ronnie Lane’s 3rd solo entry with a bizarre 1930‘s Depression-era classic, done in the style of the time. I guess not so bizarre, these days, if you consider the same age-gap would be covering a song from this year!

At 50, following another wiped Top Of The Pops episode appearance, Beano’s very 1975 boyband singalong pop Little Cinderella, and finally at 49, a record that cast giant steps right on down 4 decades later: Kraftwerk bring German techno-pop into the mainstream in a massively influential fashion. Giorgio Moroder had beat them to it (Chicory Tip in 1972) and the first EDM record had already charted in 1972 (Hot Butter’s Popcorn) but this was the one that gave birth to Bowie’s late 70’s synth phase, Gary Numan and a new wave of music in the 80’s, not least for Kraftwerk themselves, beyond pop into hip hop via key 80’s acts like Arthur Baker, and form there you can trace the fragmented roots all over the place except arguably dance (that’s still Giorgio Moroder via Donna Summer). Phew!



1 ( NEW ) SEND SOME LOVE Lelly Boone
2 ( 3 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band
3 ( 2 ) DING-A-DONG Teach-In
4 ( 5 ) HURT SO GOOD Susan Cadogan
5 ( 1 ) HONEY Bobby Goldsboro
6 ( 18 ) I WANNA DANCE WIT’ CHOO (DO DAT DANCE) Disco Tex And The Sex-o-lettes
7 ( 30 ) STAND BY ME John Lennon
8 ( 4 ) SKIING IN THE SNOW Wigan’s Ovation
9 ( 7 ) PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM The Elton John Band
10 ( 8 ) REACH OUT I’LL BE THERE Gloria Gaynor



11 ( 15 ) CHILD OF LOVE Caston And Majors
12 ( 12 ) I AM WOMAN Helen Reddy
13 ( 6 ) HOLD ON TO LOVE Peter Skellern
14 ( 14 ) (YOUR LOVE KEEPS LIFTING ME) HIGHER AND HIGHER Jackie Wilson
15 ( 9 ) HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW Olivia Newton-John
16 ( 25 ) GRINGO IN MEXICO Maria Muldaur
17 ( 16 ) SWING YOUR DADDY Jim Gilstrap
18 ( 10 ) JIGSAW GIRL Clifford T. Ward
19 ( 19 ) I GET THE SWEETEST FEELING Jackie Wilson
20 ( 13 ) HAWAII FIVE-0 The Ventures



21 ( 24 ) OH BOY Mud
22 ( 23 ) LADY MARMALADE LaBelle
23 ( 11 ) A LITTLE LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING Gilbert Becaud
24 ( 37 ) LOST AND FOUND Whiskey Mac
25 ( 20 ) FOX ON THE RUN The Sweet
26 ( 21 ) CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD The Electric Light Orchestra
27 ( 22 ) LET ME BE THE ONE The Shadows
28 ( 17 ) HASTA LA VISTA Sylvia
29 ( 34 ) CALL ME ROUND Pilot
30 ( 33 ) L.O.V.E. (LOVE) Al Green

31 ( 31 ) EXPRESS BT Express
32 ( 26 ) SOMETHING The Miracle Workers
33 ( 29 ) IF Yin and Yan
34 ( 32 ) PLAY ME LIKE YOU PLAY YOUR GUITAR Duane Eddy and The Rebelettes
35 ( 27 ) EL PROGRESSO Ralph McTell
36 ( 50 ) SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT Eric Clapton
37 ( 43 ) LOVIN’ YOU Minnie Ripperton
38 ( 38 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy
39 ( 39 ) FOOTSIE Wigan’s Chosen Few
40 ( 40 ) SHAME SHAME SHAME Shirley & Company



41 ( NEW ) ONLY YESTERDAY The Carpenters
42 ( 28 ) THE SUN HAS GOT HIS HAT ON Nemo (aka Jonathan King)
43 ( NEW ) BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME? Ronnie Lane
44 ( 47 ) THE PIANO MAN Billy Joel
45 ( 35 ) SLOW DOWN Shabby Tiger
46 ( 48 ) LIFE IS A MINESTRONE 10CC
47 ( 36 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE IN THE MOONLIGHT Middle Of The Road
48 ( 49 ) TAKE YOUR MAMA FOR A RIDE Lulu
49 ( NEW ) AUTOBAHN Kraftwerk
50 ( NEW ) LITTLE CINDERELLA Beano





So what fashions was I sporting at 17? Well, long fair hair, acne (always popular with teens as a fashion statement), a black blazer or my brother’s Pilot-style jumper (the group, not the occupation) colourful bars of colour on blue, a Parka with furred hoody, obscenely-tight-crotched flared trousers (hey all lads wore them! Fashion!) which made keeping hands in trouser pockets a necessity at various times, and lastly-but-not-leastly platform shoes carefully designed to catch in the flares periodically and send you lurching forward, or even catch in the spokes of your bike or more commonly the pedals, interrupting forward thrust. Ah, happy days!

Posted by: popchartfreak May 14 2015, 07:19 PM

29th April 1975

John Lennon takes Ben E. King’s Stand By Me to the top of my charts a good 12 years before Ben did the same in the UK charts (and mine), it’s a great version (taken from his album of covers) and is his 3rd number one outside The Beatles (Give Peace A Chance in 1969, Happy Xmas War Is Over 1972). Add another 4 Beatles toppers for a total of 7, and he’s just one behind old mucker Macca’s 8 and one ahead of nearest challenger Roy Wood’s 6 in various incarnations. Disco Tex hits 2, one short of Get Dancin’, fair enough as it’s so similar, and Helen Reddy gets a 2nd top 10 in a row, hear me roar she states firmly. She is Woman. After pottering about a bit, Middle Of The Road belatedly make my top 10 with a decent single Hitchin a Ride In The Moonlight had virtually no airplay anywhere though, so it was never going to sell, but it least got them a 6th top 10 in my charts, their first since the first 5 hits in 1971/72, although Talk Of The USA would have hit number one in 1973 had it been eligible.

The big news is a trio of oldies entering straight into the top 10, 2 of them UK reissued chart hits, and one just missing: Mony Mony was a 1968 UK chart-topper for Tommy James And The Shondells, a big USA chart act with a string of hits in the late 60’s and early 70’s, and only one big one in the UK, mystifyingly, cos Tommy James was consistently good and consistently changing music styles, from the sheer exuberant hoarse singalong of Mony Mony to the psychedelic Crimson And Clover, the gorgeous Crystal Blue Persuasion, and the catchy future UK chart-topper (for Tiffany) I Think We’re Alone Now. Criminally under-rated in the UK, even REM have covered his fab Draggin’ The Line, and it’s high-time some overdue kudos popped up. I, of course, was mad on Mony Mony 7 years earlier, and my dad bought it on a compilation album 12 Big Hits in Singapore in 1969, which I played and played and played. By 1975 it wasn’t quite as fresh as it had been, having also charted in 1974, but still fave enough to enter at 8.

In at 7, 6 years on from nearing the top of my charts, it’s the great first reggae star Desmond Dekker and a slightly different version of his unusual UK 1969 number one, The Israelites. It’s classic, everyone knows it over a certain age (say, 30) and it hit the UK top 10 all over again. At 9, a 1971 Uk top 5 Northern Soul hit, a 1966 US minor hit, and a chart hit again in 1975 for Tami Lynn, the fab chugging I’m Gonna Run Away From You. It was actually pretty fresh to me, as I’d barely heard it before now (being still in Singapore when it charted, and where Northern Soul wasn’t what you’d call big!). Terrific.
Jackie Wilson’s 2 oldies have differing fortunes, Higher and Higher climbing higher, and Sweetest feeling dropping - the former had 60’s nostalgia going for it, the latter was too recent.

LaBelle finally break into the 20, still well under-rated by me, Betty Wright gets a second chart entry, Where Is The Love, and Brenda And The Tabulations enter at 31. That’ll be another mid-60’s Soul hit, One Girl Too Late, and one I’ve not heard in 40 years - till now. Back in a tick...I’m back, it’s sweet and tuneful better than I barely recalled. It’s also not on itunes, though Polly Brown has a soundalike good version available so I’ll buy that instead as she was very much 1975 too. That leaves a funked-up ex-Sly And The family Stone Larry Graham’s version of the Detroit Emeralds 1972/3 top 10 Feel The Need In Me, in at 40, and not a UK hit. Finally, Cher slips in at 50 with a jaunty cover of Fontella Bass’ 60’s soul stomper Rescue Me, but as it’s not as good as the original (in line with most Cher covers) I’ll move on...






1 ( 7 ) STAND BY ME John Lennon
2 ( 6 ) I WANNA DANCE WIT’ CHOO (DO DAT DANCE) Disco Tex And The Sex-o-lettes
3 ( 1 ) SEND SOME LOVE Lelly Boone
4 ( 2 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band
5 ( 3 ) DING-A-DONG Teach-In
6 ( 12 ) I AM WOMAN Helen Reddy
7 ( NEW ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker
8 ( NEW ) MONY MONY Tommy James And The Shondells
9 ( NEW ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
10 ( 47 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE IN THE MOONLIGHT Middle Of The Road



11 ( 11 ) CHILD OF LOVE Caston And Majors
12 ( 14 ) (YOUR LOVE KEEPS LIFTING ME) HIGHER AND HIGHER Jackie Wilson
13 ( 4 ) HURT SO GOOD Susan Cadogan
14 ( 5 ) HONEY Bobby Goldsboro
15 ( 8 ) SKIING IN THE SNOW Wigan’s Ovation
16 ( 9 ) PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM The Elton John Band
17 ( 10 ) REACH OUT I’LL BE THERE Gloria Gaynor
18 ( 18 ) JIGSAW GIRL Clifford T. Ward
19 ( 22 ) LADY MARMALADE LaBelle
20 ( 24 ) LOST AND FOUND Whiskey Mac



21 ( 21 ) OH BOY Mud
22 ( 13 ) HOLD ON TO LOVE Peter Skellern
23 ( NEW ) WHERE IS THE LOVE Betty Wright
24 ( 16 ) GRINGO IN MEXICO Maria Muldaur
25 ( 20 ) HAWAII FIVE-0 The Ventures
26 ( 15 ) HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW Olivia Newton-John
27 ( 17 ) SWING YOUR DADDY Jim Gilstrap
28 ( 19 ) I GET THE SWEETEST FEELING Jackie Wilson
29 ( 41 ) ONLY YESTERDAY The Carpenters
30 ( 25 ) FOX ON THE RUN The Sweet



31 ( NEW ) ONE GIRL TOO LATE Brenda And The Tabulations
32 ( 36 ) SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT Eric Clapton
33 ( 23 ) A LITTLE LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING Gilbert Becaud
34 ( 26 ) CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD The Electric Light Orchestra
35 ( 27 ) LET ME BE THE ONE The Shadows
36 ( 46 ) LIFE IS A MINESTRONE 10CC
37 ( 29 ) CALL ME ROUND Pilot
38 ( 28 ) HASTA LA VISTA Sylvia
39 ( 49 ) AUTOBAHN Kraftwerk
40 ( NEW ) FEEL THE NEED Graham Central Station



41 ( 34 ) PLAY ME LIKE YOU PLAY YOUR GUITAR Duane Eddy and The Rebelettes
42 ( 30 ) L.O.V.E. (LOVE) Al Green
43 ( 43 ) BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME? Ronnie Lane
44 ( 38 ) ANGIE BABY Helen Reddy
45 ( 39 ) FOOTSIE Wigan’s Chosen Few
46 ( 40 ) SHAME SHAME SHAME Shirley & Company
47 ( 37 ) LOVIN’ YOU Minnie Ripperton
48 ( 32 ) SOMETHING The Miracle Workers
49 ( 35 ) EL PROGRESSO Ralph McTell
50 ( NEW ) RESCUE ME Cher

Posted by: popchartfreak Jun 17 2015, 08:09 PM

6th May 1975

Born this week: David Beckham
Died This week: Moe from the Three Stooges, the last-surviving member

It’s a new old number one of an even older record than it seems: Tami Lyn, with the fab Northern Soul stormer I’m Gonna Run Away From You hit the UK charts all over again 4 years after going top 5, and 9 years after it’s first release in the USA. That’s bad news for Desmond Dekker, peaking at 2 6 years on from it’s original chart run with The Israelites, and for Tommy James and Mony Mony at 3. The real loser though is Disco Tex - if not for all the oldies it would have been a second chart-topper of the year, but to be fair the other three are all much better!

Highest new entry is Save Me by Silver Convention, a German-based lush-strings-disco girl group very much in the mode of Love Unlimited and Barry White. It might be derivative but it’s still a great pop record and should have been bigger - they eventually had big hits in both the UK and the USA, but this was the first and best. Caston & Majors go top 10, while Jackie Wilson gets a second bout Higher And Higher inside the top 10. In at 13, The Sharonettes, a girl group cover of an early 60’s novelty doo-wop song minor hit by The Rivingtons. Later in the year the same song would put a stop to Gary Glitter’s run of UK top 10 hits (he should have learned from this version flopping sales-wise!) but it’s main claim to fame was being used as the basis for Surfer Bird (along with another Rivingtons song The Bird’s The Word) a big U.S. hit in 1963 for The Trashmen (No. 4), and then made huge by Family Guy’s brilliant TV series and a big UK hit in 2010 (No. 3). Well, I liked this version even if no-one else did!

Betty Wright makes the top 20, and Mud scrape in at 20, their lowest single to date, as another Tammy with an old record enters at 19 - the country music standard Stand By Your Man, from Tammy Wynette, finally becoming a UK number one hit 5 years late, and 3 years since Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman came out (see it at 6) and helped make it a bit of an old-fashioned sentiment - but then it appealed to older music fans who were looking back to older styles of music, as disco, glam, rock, reggae, funk, and new-fangled synthesisers (see Kraftwerk) scared the bejeebers out of them. As I never found a style of music I didn’t like, in it is here, and Tammy was on her way to country superstardom that paid back KLF-stylee 18 years later.

Talking of old music styles: The Wombles’ Mike Batt turns his many talents to the 40’s swing orchestra sounds and Fred Astaire-stylee-but-new-song Wombling White Tie And Tails for an unlikely 5th Wombles hit single. It was becoming clear that Mike had no intention of repeating a formulaic sound for the little furry creatures, and he was using it as an excuse to pastiche music loves of the past. Hooray! Great fun. Talking of old-fashioned Tammy’s: there’s another one in at 29, Welsh TV regular Tammy Jones won several weeks of TV talent show Opportunity Knocks and was rewarded with a hit single, Let Me Try Again. Talking of Gary Glitter: in at 35 with Love Like You And Me, and the quality was definitely dropping by now. Slade were also notably not-Glam-rock-tastic to the same degree, in at 36 with the otherwise good Thanks For The Memry. Yes, thanks, lads!

Talking of old-fashioned music styles (part 6): Abba are back at 41, confounding the music press by insisting on having a third UK hit with the singalong I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do. I’ll be honest, it was my least-fave Abba single to date, a bit too singalong for me, but no matter it improved with age and gave them a 5th chart entry (and 6th song) in a year. At 42 Barry Blue still is around, cos we make him happy when he’s Blue - it was a sweet-ish low-key lush ballad but not really the glam-rock-pop or retro-50’s we were used to, and flopped. Ironically, his biggest track in my charts Do You Wanna Dance pops up at 43 - for Joe And Didi - and I’m assuming it’s a cover of the 60’s track of the same name, as there’s no mention of it on the internet and my memory of it is also zero. So here it is now, a mystery track mentioned on the internet for the first time (probably)! At 44, Imagine Me Imagine You - yes Fox finally release another single, as quirky as the first chart-topper, and almost as good.



1 ( 9 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
2 ( 7 ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker
3 ( 8 ) MONY MONY Tommy James And The Shondells
4 ( 2 ) I WANNA DANCE WIT’ CHOO (DO DAT DANCE) Disco Tex And The Sex-o-lettes
5 ( 1 ) STAND BY ME John Lennon
6 ( 6 ) I AM WOMAN Helen Reddy
7 ( NEW ) SAVE ME Silver Convention
8 ( 11 ) CHILD OF LOVE Caston And Majors
9 ( 3 ) SEND SOME LOVE Lelly Boone
10 ( 12 ) (YOUR LOVE KEEPS LIFTING ME) HIGHER AND HIGHER Jackie Wilson

11 ( 4 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band
12 ( 5 ) DING-A-DONG Teach-In
13 ( NEW ) PAPA OOM MOW MOW The Sharonettes
14 ( 14 ) HONEY Bobby Goldsboro
15 ( 13 ) HURT SO GOOD Susan Cadogan
16 ( 15 ) SKIING IN THE SNOW Wigan’s Ovation
17 ( 23 ) WHERE IS THE LOVE Betty Wright
18 ( 20 ) LOST AND FOUND Whiskey Mac
19 ( NEW ) STAND BY YOUR MAN Tammy Wynette
20 ( 21 ) OH BOY Mud



21 ( 16 ) PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM The Elton John Band
22 ( 17 ) REACH OUT I’LL BE THERE Gloria Gaynor
23 ( 10 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE IN THE MOONLIGHT Middle Of The Road
24 ( NEW ) WOMBLING WHITE TIE AND TAILS The Wombles
25 ( 22 ) HOLD ON TO LOVE Peter Skellern
26 ( 18 ) JIGSAW GIRL Clifford T. Ward
27 ( 39 ) AUTOBAHN Kraftwerk
28 ( 32 ) SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT Eric Clapton
29 ( NEW ) LET ME TRY AGAIN Tammy Jones
30 ( 25 ) HAWAII FIVE-0 The Ventures



31 ( 30 ) FOX ON THE RUN The Sweet
32 ( 27 ) SWING YOUR DADDY Jim Gilstrap
33 ( 29 ) ONLY YESTERDAY The Carpenters
34 ( 31 ) ONE GIRL TOO LATE Brenda And The Tabulations
35 ( NEW ) LOVE LIKE YOU AND ME Gary Glitter
36 ( NEW ) THANKS FOR THE MEM’RY (WHAM BAM THANK YOU MA’AM) Slade
37 ( 28 ) I GET THE SWEETEST FEELING Jackie Wilson
38 ( 24 ) GRINGO IN MEXICO Maria Muldaur
39 ( 26 ) HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW Olivia Newton-John
40 ( 34 ) CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD The Electric Light Orchestra



41 ( NEW ) I DO I DO I DO I DO I DO Abba
42 ( NEW ) YOU MAKE ME HAPPY WHEN I’M BLUE Barry Blue
43 ( NEW ) DO YOU WANNA DANCE Joe And Didi
44 ( NEW ) IMAGINE ME IMAGINE YOU Fox
45 ( 35 ) LET ME BE THE ONE The Shadows
46 ( 41 ) PLAY ME LIKE YOU PLAY YOUR GUITAR Duane Eddy and The Rebelettes
47 ( 38 ) HASTA LA VISTA Sylvia
48 ( 19 ) LADY MARMALADE LaBelle
49 ( 33 ) A LITTLE LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING Gilbert Becaud
50 ( 40 ) FEEL THE NEED Graham Central Station

Posted by: popchartfreak Jun 20 2015, 08:21 AM

13th May 1975

Desmond Dekker finally gets to number one after a week at 2 in 1975 and 3 weeks at 2 in 1969 (with the Aces and the original recording) - The Israelites is such a great ska-reggae breakthrough, semi-novelty in the patois lyrics and vocal style, but Desmond was great. Up to 3, and the top new song, goes Save Me (Silver Convention), as two Tammy/Tami’s nestle inside the top 5, Wynette joining Lyn with an oldie. Talking of oldies, Mungo Jerry return with 1970 number one, the famous In The Summertime, one I loved at 12 years old, and still nostalgically was into at 8, the highest new (old) entry. Yes I was getting very into old music (if you can call 5 years old)!

All these oldies, though, knock back the ground-breaking Autobahn to 10 (it would otherwise be at 3 ignoring covers and reissues), which is a shame for Kraftwerk. The Wombles hit 13 for a bit of White Tie and Tails variety, as Fox shoot up 30 places to 14 with the terrif Imagine Me Imagine You. Abba keep the run of top 40 entries going, they do they do they do they do they do, as Mac And Katie Kissoon keep the brotherly/sisterly love running, Don’t Do It Baby in at 42, and Hot Chocolate make it a non-stop run of chart entries with all their singles since Love Is Life in 1970, as a serious change in sound brings them in at 43 - funky Disco Queen ringing the changes from earlier ballads, soul, and pop. Always did ring in the genre changes did Errol and the boys.

Meanwhile It’s A Miracle at 48 - Barry Manilow charts in my chart with the follow-up to Mandy and flops in the UK singles chart (though not the USA). I’ll be honest, by the time Bazza became a UK chart fixture he was past his best, bar one or two singles. Hey ho. Gladys Knight is in at 49, with her soulful slowed-down cover of Barbra Streisand’s monster film song The Way We Were, which passed me by in 1974 pretty much, along with the UK singles buyer. At 50, Retta Young has a dance hit with Sending Out An SOS - I think it was an All Platinum (Sylvia Robinson label) hit, but not one I’ve heard lo many a year. I liked it enough to remember it though.




1 ( 2 ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker
2 ( 1 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
3 ( 7 ) SAVE ME Silver Convention
4 ( 19 ) STAND BY YOUR MAN Tammy Wynette
5 ( 4 ) I WANNA DANCE WIT’ CHOO (DO DAT DANCE) Disco Tex And The Sex-o-lettes
6 ( 5 ) STAND BY ME John Lennon
7 ( 13 ) PAPA OOM MOW MOW The Sharonettes
8 ( NEW ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
9 ( 3 ) MONY MONY Tommy James And The Shondells
10 ( 27 ) AUTOBAHN Kraftwerk

11 ( 11 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band
12 ( 8 ) CHILD OF LOVE Caston And Majors
13 ( 24 ) WOMBLING WHITE TIE AND TAILS The Wombles
14 ( 44 ) IMAGINE ME IMAGINE YOU Fox
15 ( 12 ) DING-A-DONG Teach-In
16 ( 9 ) SEND SOME LOVE Lelly Boone
17 ( 17 ) WHERE IS THE LOVE Betty Wright
18 ( 28 ) SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT Eric Clapton
19 ( 10 ) (YOUR LOVE KEEPS LIFTING ME) HIGHER AND HIGHER Jackie Wilson
20 ( 6 ) I AM WOMAN Helen Reddy



21 ( 14 ) HONEY Bobby Goldsboro
22 ( 16 ) SKIING IN THE SNOW Wigan’s Ovation
23 ( 15 ) HURT SO GOOD Susan Cadogan
24 ( 21 ) PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM The Elton John Band
25 ( 22 ) REACH OUT I’LL BE THERE Gloria Gaynor
26 ( 36 ) THANKS FOR THE MEM’RY (WHAM BAM THANK YOU MA’AM) Slade
27 ( 35 ) LOVE LIKE YOU AND ME Gary Glitter
28 ( 33 ) ONLY YESTERDAY The Carpenters
29 ( 37 ) I GET THE SWEETEST FEELING Jackie Wilson
30 ( 25 ) HOLD ON TO LOVE Peter Skellern

31 ( 41 ) I DO I DO I DO I DO I DO Abba
32 ( 26 ) JIGSAW GIRL Clifford T. Ward
33 ( 31 ) FOX ON THE RUN The Sweet
34 ( 32 ) SWING YOUR DADDY Jim Gilstrap
35 ( 30 ) HAWAII FIVE-0 The Ventures
36 ( 18 ) LOST AND FOUND Whiskey Mac
37 ( 23 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE IN THE MOONLIGHT Middle Of The Road
38 ( 29 ) LET ME TRY AGAIN Tammy Jones
39 ( 20 ) OH BOY Mud
40 ( 38 ) GRINGO IN MEXICO Maria Muldaur



41 ( 42 ) YOU MAKE ME HAPPY WHEN I’M BLUE Barry Blue
42 ( NEW ) DON’T DO IT BABY Mac And Katie Kissoon
43 ( NEW ) DISCO QUEEN Hot Chocolate
44 ( 39 ) HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW Olivia Newton-John
45 ( 45 ) LET ME BE THE ONE The Shadows
46 ( 46 ) PLAY ME LIKE YOU PLAY YOUR GUITAR Duane Eddy and The Rebelettes
47 ( 40 ) CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD The Electric Light Orchestra
48 ( NEW ) IT’S A MIRACLE Barry Manilow
49 ( NEW ) THE WAY WE WERE/TRY TO REMEMBER Gladys Knight And The Pips
50 ( NEW ) SENDING OUT AN S.O.S. Retta Young





At the movies, Monty Python And The Holy Grail was a must, though it took some getting used to having an actual ongoing plot/setting as opposed to a short sketch. The big moment of course was the aggressive knight (John Cleese) who just kept shouting abuse despite the ongoing loss of his limbs. At school, big exam time, GCE O’ Level revision was in full swing and the winding down of the 6th form life was looming - sadly, for me. For the first time in 4 or 5 years I’d had a year of school life that I enjoyed, no bullies, treated like adults, people mostly getting along. The raising of the school leaving age to 16 had now happened and those who should have left at 15 had gone taking their disinterest with them. Hooray! Life was good, tennis on hot days, comics and pop music were good, money from babysitting continued, and only exams were the main tedium.

On TV: Survivors was the show of the summer, a post-apocalyptic world where most people had been wiped out by disease (and a plot borrowed by many movies since), this was gripping stuff. Rutland Weekend Television was a Python Eric Idle breakaway project, and it was goodbye to long-running TV Western Gunsmoke after 20 years, although it hadn’t been screened in the UK for some time so it kind of passed us by. A Man Called Ironside, disabled rights actual TV detective also finished, and the more recent cult fave Kung Fu died away as the Kung Fu craze also started to die down, most notably following the Goodies Ecky Thump episode, where a poor viewer actually died laughing so hard at it.

Posted by: popchartfreak Jun 20 2015, 09:04 PM

20th May 1975

It’s yet another oldie on top, as Mungo Jerry return five years after In The Summertime hit number one. No youtube video though as it’ll be on my 1970 chart soon. I think the HP Sauce ad in the late 70’s killed the song for me forever, which is a shame! If not for the oldies Fox would have grabbed a second chart-topper in 1975, but have to settle for 4 and Imagine Me Imagine You. The Wombles get a second top 10 out of 6 chart hits, not bad! There’s a sudden spate of new entries, Showaddywaddy highest at 13 with a pretty good cover of Eddie Cochran’s posthumous UK chart-topper, Three Steps To Heaven. This, of course, became a career template for them - old rock ‘n’ roll covers.

Best of all, though, is in at 15, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney follows up the huge Band On The Run album with this lead track off Venus And Mars. The summer of ’75 was hot and sunny, and I was eating a lot of Instant Whip to cool down while revising for exams - I used to trot round to the newsagent at Innsworth (near Gloucester) through a garages access road, and someone often used to be playing the album as I passed by, Wings blaring out the window to my great pleasure. The critics weren’t so kind, comparing it to Band On The Run, but this summery sax-driven sauntering melodic harmony track was just gorgeous - Listen To What The Man Said sounded like a Morecambe And Wise “the play wot I wrote” moment of a title, and they sing “says” anyway, and it’s fab. Macca is never far from my charts, any decade you pick.

Talking of Ex-Beatles, Neil Sedaka was starting to happen in the USA charts after being UK based to restore his career and reputation as a songwriter, and he had a US hit with the fantastic The Immigrant, a song about John Lennon’s battle to stay in the States - the authorities regarded him as an undesirable. Tragically not a UK hit, it’s a heartfelt ballad statement, though of course, in hindsight I wish John HAD been deported, the music world could have been very different. Neil still sings this in concert, and he sounds no different from the recorded vocal, he really has a timeless voice. In at 23. At 18, Judy Collins returns for a 3rd chart hit, 5 years after Both Sides Now, with a cover of much-recorded showtune classic Send In The Clowns, Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music more recently had Dame Judi Dench singing this classic, but Judy Collins version is pretty flawless vocally, if not emotionally.

Gladys Knight leaps to 20, hang on while I try to remember the way we were...yes that’s right, that long spoken intro segueing into the main actual song. I hope to watching her sing this in 2 weeks time on the day I get back from holiday, as the Pip-less Gladys will be in town and I’ve never had the pleasure. Till then I’ve Got To Use My Imagination, which was her last chart hit here in 1974. Oh I love a good tenuous link! Life is soooooo pleasingly circular sometimes. There’s A Raincoat at 35, no not a dirty mac, he loves you for your mind (not your body) and sounds uncannily like Sparks on this flop track (en route to being in late 70’s band Tonight, apparently), while there’s a Stripper at 36 - not that famous instrumental, no, this is a sombre ballad about a girl who DOES perform for the dirty mac brigade in Soho. Quill who? No idea but it’s on itunes, very unexpectedly!

At 38, Hello get a third hit, this time covering Amen Corner’s 1968 funtastic Bend Me Shape Me (or covering the US cover hit from The American Breed if you are American). The original 1966 version was recorded by The Outsiders, and co-written by Scott English, who’d just been back in my charts with Brandy, the original of the song made famous by Barry Manilow, Mandy. The song more recently featured as a Bender love-interest tune on Futurama, so that’s cool enough for me. Meanwhile, Dutch band The Cats pop back with Be My Day, which sneaked briefly into my chart in 1974, this time at 39, just ahead of The Stylistics Sing Baby Sing at 40, now 3 years of falsetto soul chart entries and counting.

1 ( 8 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
2 ( 2 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
3 ( 1 ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker
4 ( 14 ) IMAGINE ME IMAGINE YOU Fox
5 ( 4 ) STAND BY YOUR MAN Tammy Wynette
6 ( 3 ) SAVE ME Silver Convention
7 ( 10 ) AUTOBAHN Kraftwerk
8 ( 5 ) I WANNA DANCE WIT’ CHOO (DO DAT DANCE) Disco Tex And The Sex-o-lettes
9 ( 6 ) STAND BY ME John Lennon
10 ( 13 ) WOMBLING WHITE TIE AND TAILS The Wombles



11 ( 7 ) PAPA OOM MOW MOW The Sharonettes
12 ( 18 ) SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT Eric Clapton
13 ( NEW ) THREE STEPS TO HEAVEN Showaddywaddy
14 ( 9 ) MONY MONY Tommy James And The Shondells
15 ( NEW ) LISTEN TO WHAT THE MAN SAID Wings
16 ( 12 ) CHILD OF LOVE Caston And Majors
17 ( 11 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band
18 ( NEW ) SEND IN THE CLOWNS Judy Collins
19 ( 26 ) THANKS FOR THE MEM’RY (WHAM BAM THANK YOU MA’AM) Slade
20 ( 49 ) THE WAY WE WERE/TRY TO REMEMBER Gladys Knight And The Pips



21 ( 15 ) DING-A-DONG Teach-In
22 ( 16 ) SEND SOME LOVE Lelly Boone
23 ( NEW ) THE IMMIGRANT Neil Sedaka
24 ( 19 ) (YOUR LOVE KEEPS LIFTING ME) HIGHER AND HIGHER Jackie Wilson
25 ( 29 ) I GET THE SWEETEST FEELING Jackie Wilson
26 ( 42 ) DON’T DO IT BABY Mac And Katie Kissoon
27 ( 21 ) HONEY Bobby Goldsboro
28 ( 23 ) HURT SO GOOD Susan Cadogan
29 ( 20 ) I AM WOMAN Helen Reddy
30 ( 31 ) I DO I DO I DO I DO I DO Abba



31 ( 22 ) SKIING IN THE SNOW Wigan’s Ovation
32 ( 24 ) PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM The Elton John Band
33 ( 25 ) REACH OUT I’LL BE THERE Gloria Gaynor
34 ( 43 ) DISCO QUEEN Hot Chocolate
35 ( NEW ) I LOVE YOU FOR YOUR MIND (NOT YOUR BODY) A Raincoat
36 ( NEW ) THE STRIPPER Quill
37 ( 30 ) HOLD ON TO LOVE Peter Skellern
38 ( NEW ) BEND ME SHAPE ME Hello
39 ( NEW ) BE MY DAY The Cats
40 ( NEW ) SING BABY SING The Stylistics



41 ( 35 ) HAWAII FIVE-0 The Ventures
42 ( 37 ) HITCHIN’ A RIDE IN THE MOONLIGHT Middle Of The Road
43 ( 32 ) JIGSAW GIRL Clifford T. Ward
44 ( 34 ) SWING YOUR DADDY Jim Gilstrap
45 ( 33 ) FOX ON THE RUN The Sweet
46 ( 27 ) LOVE LIKE YOU AND ME Gary Glitter
47 ( 28 ) ONLY YESTERDAY The Carpenters
48 ( 50 ) SENDING OUT AN S.O.S. Retta Young
49 ( 17 ) WHERE IS THE LOVE Betty Wright
50 ( 36 ) LOST AND FOUND Whiskey Mac

Posted by: popchartfreak Jun 21 2015, 09:18 PM

27th May 1975

Silver Convention get a week on top with their debut record, Save Me, and under-rated lush disco track with a great vocal hook and an even better strings section hook. European disco had arrived! Up to 5, Wings are listening carefully for news of Paul McCartney’s 6th top 5 since leaving The Beatles, while straight in at 6 Roy Wood gets his first solo entry for a year, his 4th solo hit, not including 8 with Wizzard, 1 with ELO, and 6 with The Move for a grand total of 19, 2 ahead of Paul McCartney at this time.

New at 15, it’s the start of a long list of cover versions of Four Seasons hits (not including those more or less contemporary during the 60’s): The Proud One is even better than the original version, and one of The Osmonds best singles, it just hits the right balance of harmony and vocal passion, and the song is fantastic. It’s no surprise to me that Jersey Boys became a massive show, The Four Seasons have such a massively great back catalogue of songs and a fascinating rags to riches to rags to riches story. Hey You - it’s Bachman-Turner Overdrive with a 3rd single chart entry, though sadly a flop in the real world it’s in at 18, one ahead of Status Quo, who enter with Roll Over Lay Down, a typically riff-heavy 6th goodie from Quo.

At 41, The Bee Gees return a year on from the soulful Mr. Natural and show they have gone the whole soul-funk hog. Jive Talkin’ gets labelled disco, but it’s more funky than that, and the later falsettos that conquered the world are restrained. It’s a fantastic change in musical direction, very different from their previous 7 years of a dozen chart entries (not to mention several cover hits from The Marbles, Nina Simone and co). White funk vocalists weren’t unknown (see KC/ Average White Band for starters) but it was unheard of for a ballad/pop band to transform a decade into their career into another genre. It was big pop news. It was also a bandwagon that others followed within a few years when it became a huge worldwide hit.

Speedy Keen was the lead vocalist on Thunderclap Newman’s utterly brilliant social themed chart-topper in 1969 (with a hand from Pete Townsend) - that was the 3rd single I ever bought with my own pocket money in Singapore, so I had a bit of nostalgia going for Speedy when he went solo and got a bit of airplay with Someone To Love. It’s a nice ballad, but he never made a success out of his solo career and died young. Jackie Blue, on the other hand, was a huge US hit single, and UK flop inexplicably (it did get some airplay), a sort of bitter-sweet country-harmony pop in the vein of The Eagles, and it’s also a brilliant song that deserves to be better known. Fab. Happily DJ Paul Gambaccini on Radio One was keeping me in touch with the American charts, along with the American Forces Network and DJ Kasey Casem, aka Shaggy from Scooby Doo.




1 ( 6 ) SAVE ME Silver Convention
2 ( 1 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
3 ( 2 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
4 ( 3 ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker
5 ( 15 ) LISTEN TO WHAT THE MAN SAID Wings
6 ( NEW ) OH WHAT A SHAME Roy Wood
7 ( 13 ) THREE STEPS TO HEAVEN Showaddywaddy
8 ( 4 ) IMAGINE ME IMAGINE YOU Fox
9 ( 7 ) AUTOBAHN Kraftwerk
10 ( 5 ) STAND BY YOUR MAN Tammy Wynette

11 ( 8 ) I WANNA DANCE WIT’ CHOO (DO DAT DANCE) Disco Tex And The Sex-o-lettes
12 ( 9 ) STAND BY ME John Lennon
13 ( 20 ) THE WAY WE WERE/TRY TO REMEMBER Gladys Knight And The Pips
14 ( 23 ) THE IMMIGRANT Neil Sedaka
15 ( NEW ) THE PROUD ONE The Osmonds
16 ( 12 ) SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT Eric Clapton
17 ( 10 ) WOMBLING WHITE TIE AND TAILS The Wombles
18 ( NEW ) HEY YOU Bachman-Turner Overdrive
19 ( NEW ) ROLL OVER LAY DOWN Status Quo
20 ( 11 ) PAPA OOM MOW MOW The Sharonettes



21 ( 18 ) SEND IN THE CLOWNS Judy Collins
22 ( 22 ) SEND SOME LOVE Lelly Boone
23 ( 17 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band
24 ( 21 ) DING-A-DONG Teach-In
25 ( 14 ) MONY MONY Tommy James And The Shondells
26 ( 30 ) I DO I DO I DO I DO I DO Abba
27 ( 16 ) CHILD OF LOVE Caston And Majors
28 ( 34 ) DISCO QUEEN Hot Chocolate
29 ( 24 ) (YOUR LOVE KEEPS LIFTING ME) HIGHER AND HIGHER Jackie Wilson
30 ( 25 ) I GET THE SWEETEST FEELING Jackie Wilson

31 ( 35 ) I LOVE YOU FOR YOUR MIND (NOT YOUR BODY) A Raincoat
32 ( 36 ) THE STRIPPER Quill
33 ( 19 ) THANKS FOR THE MEM’RY (WHAM BAM THANK YOU MA’AM) Slade
34 ( 27 ) HONEY Bobby Goldsboro
35 ( 28 ) HURT SO GOOD Susan Cadogan
36 ( 45 ) FOX ON THE RUN The Sweet
37 ( 33 ) REACH OUT I’LL BE THERE Gloria Gaynor
38 ( 32 ) PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM The Elton John Band
39 ( 31 ) SKIING IN THE SNOW Wigan’s Ovation
40 ( 48 ) SENDING OUT AN S.O.S. Retta Young



41 ( NEW ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees
42 ( 37 ) HOLD ON TO LOVE Peter Skellern
43 ( 38 ) BEND ME SHAPE ME Hello
44 ( 44 ) SWING YOUR DADDY Jim Gilstrap
45 ( NEW ) SOMEONE TO LOVE Speedy Keen
46 ( NEW ) JACKIE BLUE Ozark Mountain Daredevils
47 ( 29 ) I AM WOMAN Helen Reddy
48 ( 26 ) DON’T DO IT BABY Mac And Katie Kissoon
49 ( 41 ) HAWAII FIVE-0 The Ventures
50 ( 39 ) BE MY DAY The Cats

Posted by: popchartfreak Jul 30 2015, 09:45 PM

3rd June 1975

It’s another in a long run of one-weeker’s on top as Roy Wood gets his final solo number one, Oh What A Shame, and his last ever bar numerous returns of the Wizzard christmas classic. To be fair, it’s OK but nothing special, I just happened to be a major Roy Wood fan, so that gives him a grand total of 3 consecutive solo number ones in 3 years, plus 4 consecutive Wizzard chart-toppers, the first 1972 Electric Light Orchestra single and number one (10538 Overture) and a chart-topper in 1969 with Blackberry Way. A total of 9 number ones means the only act that could compete in terms of numbers of chart-toppers were song-writers Chinn-Chapman who also had 9 (with Mud and Sweet), although if I cheated and included Beatles solo singles it would be 12 for the Fabs (plus loads pre-chart, frankly they would be clear in front anyway).

In at 6, it’s a new entry for 10CC and their 6th Top 10 (including Hotlegs, which was 10CC more or less), and it’s a radical departure as they bring in lush multi-tracked vocals on one of the great ballads of all-time, a gorgeous love song which is all about lost love despite the title I’m Not In Love. The lads always, always clever, and in this case heart-breakingly showing they can be clever-emotional as well as clever-witty or clever-bitter or clever-playful. For me, the most consistently under-rated act of the 70’s, musically varied and with a 60’s pedigree already as teenage hit-makers. I’m Not In Love was recently featured to great effect at the start of Guardians Of The Galaxy, Marvel movie sci-fi blockbuster. Quite right too...

Elsewhere, Neil Sedaka’s poignant The Immigrant goes top 10, his 3rd, Kenny grab an instant top 20 hit with new entry Baby I Love You OK at 18 outdoing both their previous UK singles chart big hits in my charts, where they didn’t quite grab me much. At 22 the fantastic Jackie Blue is up 24 places, just ahead of fab smooth soul track Walkin’ In Rhythm, from The Blackbyrds. At 25 the fun African-rhythm chugging disco sounds of Hamilton Bohannon’s Disco Stomp give him 2 top 40 hits in a row, as Billy Swan re-enters his original version of the cover of Elvis Presley’s Don’t Be Cruel into my charts after Mike Berry beat him to it, in at 28.

Speedy Keen gets his first top 40 since mega-number one Something In The Air in 1969, while actual 1969 hit I’m Gonna Make You Mine is back again for Lou Christie at 31. At 40 Tony Orlando is now top-billing Dawn, and getting less bubblegum and increasingly MOR on his 8th chart hit in 4 years, and another UK flop, though it was enormous in the USA. In at 41, it’s Jason Sinclair doing a reggae cover of a song I loved from way back, End Of The World, and which had already charted when reissued for Skeeter Davis earlier in the year. The arrangement is pure Ken Boothe, the vocal is pretty naff, not altogether unsurprisingly as it’s an attempt at a proper hit from the very rude, crude and successful Judge Dread. None of his UK chart hits got radio play, and though I did have Big Six on a compilation album I didn’t chart it, or Big Seven, or Big Eight, or...you get the picture.

Finally, at 50, it’s a Bad Time with Grand Funk Railroad, who had already hit my top 5 with their version of The Locomotion in 1974, following in the wake of Little Eva’s original in 1972. Bad Time is their own song, and was eventually covered in 1995 by The Jayhawks to great effect when it finally became a UK hit 20 years late for Grand Funk to chart with it. As I like music-links, Neil Sedaka went out with Carole King in High School and wrote Oh Carol for her, which became a hit. Carole wrote her own songs (with boyfriend/future hubby Gerry Goffin) when she was also a teenager, and like Neil had a creative singer-songwriter resurgence in the early 70’s. Oh Carol was a hit all over again in the UK in 1972, as was Carole’s It Might As Well Rain Until September. As was Carole’s hit song for her babysitter Little Eva, The Locomotion, which Grand Funk covered successfully in 1974. Another song much covered written by Carole was Halfway To Paradise, as recorded originally by Tony Orlando in the early 60‘s before the hits dried up and he morphed along into the group Dawn bigger and better. The other weekend I went to see the Carole King Musical, Beautiful, which I enjoyed much, albeit in a more domestic style than the similarly life-story-based Jersey Boys. I do enjoy linked themes.



1 ( 6 ) OH WHAT A SHAME Roy Wood
2 ( 4 ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker
3 ( 3 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
4 ( 2 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
5 ( 5 ) LISTEN TO WHAT THE MAN SAID Wings
6 ( NEW ) I’M NOT IN LOVE 10CC
7 ( 7 ) THREE STEPS TO HEAVEN Showaddywaddy
8 ( 1 ) SAVE ME Silver Convention
9 ( 8 ) IMAGINE ME IMAGINE YOU Fox
10 ( 14 ) THE IMMIGRANT Neil Sedaka

11 ( 19 ) ROLL OVER LAY DOWN Status Quo
12 ( 11 ) I WANNA DANCE WIT’ CHOO (DO DAT DANCE) Disco Tex And The Sex-o-lettes
13 ( 9 ) AUTOBAHN Kraftwerk
14 ( 15 ) THE PROUD ONE The Osmonds
15 ( 18 ) HEY YOU Bachman-Turner Overdrive
16 ( 10 ) STAND BY YOUR MAN Tammy Wynette
17 ( 12 ) STAND BY ME John Lennon
18 ( NEW ) BABY I LOVE YOU O.K. Kenny
19 ( 16 ) SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT Eric Clapton
20 ( 13 ) THE WAY WE WERE/TRY TO REMEMBER Gladys Knight And The Pips



21 ( 21 ) SEND IN THE CLOWNS Judy Collins
22 ( 46 ) JACKIE BLUE Ozark Mountain Daredevils
23 ( NEW ) WALKIN’ IN RHYTHM The Blackbyrds
24 ( 32 ) THE STRIPPER Quill
25 ( NEW ) DISCO STOMP Hamilton Bohannon
26 ( 28 ) DISCO QUEEN Hot Chocolate
27 ( 22 ) SEND SOME LOVE Lelly Boone
28 ( RE ) DON’T BE CRUEL Billy Swan
29 ( 45 ) SOMEONE TO LOVE Speedy Keen
30 ( 25 ) MONY MONY Tommy James And The Shondells



31 ( NEW ) I’M GONNA MAKE YOU MINE Lou Christie
32 ( 20 ) PAPA OOM MOW MOW The Sharonettes
33 ( 29 ) (YOUR LOVE KEEPS LIFTING ME) HIGHER AND HIGHER Jackie Wilson
34 ( 40 ) SENDING OUT AN S.O.S. Retta Young
35 ( 17 ) WOMBLING WHITE TIE AND TAILS The Wombles
36 ( 23 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band
37 ( 24 ) DING-A-DONG Teach-In
38 ( 41 ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees
39 ( 31 ) I LOVE YOU FOR YOUR MIND (NOT YOUR BODY) A Raincoat
40 ( NEW ) HE DON’T LOVE YOU (LIKE I LOVE YOU) Tony Orlando and Dawn

41 ( NEW ) END OF THE WORLD Jason Sinclair
42 ( 30 ) I GET THE SWEETEST FEELING Jackie Wilson
43 ( 27 ) CHILD OF LOVE Caston And Majors
44 ( 34 ) HONEY Bobby Goldsboro
45 ( 35 ) HURT SO GOOD Susan Cadogan
46 ( 36 ) FOX ON THE RUN The Sweet
47 ( 37 ) REACH OUT I’LL BE THERE Gloria Gaynor
48 ( 38 ) PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM The Elton John Band
49 ( 39 ) SKIING IN THE SNOW Wigan’s Ovation
50 ( NEW ) BAD TIME Grand Funk Railroad




The weather in 1975 was hot hot hot. I know this cos I was well into revision mode for GCE O Levels, at home and at school in free periods. Happy days, to be honest, I enjoyed myself thoroughly in the 6th form block, there were no bullies for the first time in my school life, and it was the best school year I’d had since 1970, socially. I probably should have just gone straight into A levels in retrospect as I wouldn’t have been trying to play catch-up on coursework for a change. Hey ho, the past is the past. Music was still my main love, of course, at 17.

Posted by: popchartfreak Aug 1 2015, 03:04 PM

10th June 1975

10CC get their 3rd number one inside 3 years, as heartbreaker I’m Not In Love breezes deservedly to the top. Donna in 1972 was a 50’s teen pastiche of sorts, and Wall Street Shuffle in 1974 was a bitter brilliant rock attack on greedy brokers and bankers, so they certainly could never be accused of sticking to a format. Highest new entry is 1972 soul classic Have You Seen Her returning the top 5, as it is a reissued double A side hit with 1972 former-chart-topper of mine Oh Girl, which enters at 19 listed on it’s own. I never understood how the huge US hit was such a minor UK hit. Both tracks would be covered in the 90’s minus the Eugene Record soulfulness.

This all bad news for Status Quo who hit 6 with Roll Over Lay Down for a 5th top 10, but who would otherwise have a new peak of 2 if not for all the oldies hogging the top 5. Hamilton Bohannon and The Blackbyrds also go top 10, as 2 major classics (for me) enter at 11 and 15. The Hustle was a new sophisticated disco instrumental (mostly) sound signaling in a new disco dance and a chorus of Do It and Do The Hustle under the creative production of Van McCoy who was also busy writing and producing other soul acts at the time. Fab! Ray Stevens had continued to pop into my charts since his 1970 chart-topper Everything Is Beautiful, but most of them were novelty tracks. This was his first proper comeback with a seriously brilliant country re-invention cover of Johnny Mathis’ haunting ballad Misty. Uptempo, catchy, great arrangement, and for my money the best country record since Johnny Cash hit my top spot in 1972 with A Thing Called Love.

Funk and soul rules as Earth, Wind & Fire debut at 20 with Shining Star, a UK flop, but a good record. Verdine White is currently back with Flo Rida in the singles charts, and the band had a recent good new single some 39 years on. Nuff said. Another more novelty-ish example of the genre is in at 21 for Tony Camillo, the shouty, funky Dy-no-mite. Lynn Paul is back at 29, with new advert-song It Oughta Sell A Million, and Nazereth return at 38 with a fab rock-it-up cover of cult 60’s Tomorrow single My White Bicycle, their 4th chart entry. At 48, another rock cover, this time The Doobie Brothers get a 2nd hit with the fab Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While) a Holland-Dozier-Holland gem that hit for Kim Weston and The Isley Brothers in the 60’s.



1 ( 6 ) I’M NOT IN LOVE 10CC
2 ( 2 ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker
3 ( 3 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
4 ( 4 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
5 ( NEW ) HAVE YOU SEEN HER The Chi-Lites
6 ( 11 ) ROLL OVER LAY DOWN Status Quo
7 ( 25 ) DISCO STOMP Hamilton Bohannon
8 ( 1 ) OH WHAT A SHAME Roy Wood
9 ( 23 ) WALKIN’ IN RHYTHM The Blackbyrds
10 ( 10 ) THE IMMIGRANT Neil Sedaka



11 ( NEW ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
12 ( 22 ) JACKIE BLUE Ozark Mountain Daredevils
13 ( 18 ) BABY I LOVE YOU O.K. Kenny
14 ( 9 ) IMAGINE ME IMAGINE YOU Fox
15 ( 5 ) LISTEN TO WHAT THE MAN SAID Wings
16 ( NEW ) MISTY Ray Stevens
17 ( 8 ) SAVE ME Silver Convention
18 ( 13 ) AUTOBAHN Kraftwerk
19 ( NEW ) OH GIRL The Chi-Lites
20 ( NEW ) SHINING STAR Earth, Wind And Fire

21 ( NEW ) DYNOMITE Tony Camillo’s Bazuka
22 ( 12 ) I WANNA DANCE WIT’ CHOO (DO DAT DANCE) Disco Tex And The Sex-o-lettes
23 ( 7 ) THREE STEPS TO HEAVEN Showaddywaddy
24 ( 26 ) DISCO QUEEN Hot Chocolate
25 ( 38 ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees
26 ( 16 ) STAND BY YOUR MAN Tammy Wynette
27 ( 17 ) STAND BY ME John Lennon
28 ( 15 ) HEY YOU Bachman-Turner Overdrive
29 ( NEW ) IT OUGHTA SELL A MILLION Lynn Paul
30 ( 31 ) I’M GONNA MAKE YOU MINE Lou Christie

31 ( 14 ) THE PROUD ONE The Osmonds
32 ( 24 ) THE STRIPPER Quill
33 ( 19 ) SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT Eric Clapton
34 ( 28 ) DON’T BE CRUEL Billy Swan
35 ( 27 ) SEND SOME LOVE Lelly Boone
36 ( 40 ) HE DON’T LOVE YOU (LIKE I LOVE YOU) Dawn featuring Tony Orlando
37 ( 34 ) SENDING OUT AN S.O.S. Retta Young
38 ( NEW ) MY WHITE BICYCLE Nazereth
39 ( 37 ) DING-A-DONG Teach-In
40 ( 36 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band



41 ( RE ) DO YOU WANNA DANCE Joe And Didi
42 ( 29 ) SOMEONE TO LOVE Speedy Keen
43 ( 30 ) MONY MONY Tommy James And The Shondells
44 ( 20 ) THE WAY WE WERE/TRY TO REMEMBER Gladys Knight And The Pips
45 ( 32 ) PAPA OOM MOW MOW The Sharonettes
46 ( 33 ) (YOUR LOVE KEEPS LIFTING ME) HIGHER AND HIGHER Jackie Wilson
47 ( 50 ) BAD TIME Grand Funk Railroad
48 ( NEW ) TAKE ME IN YOUR ARMS (ROCK ME) The Doobie Brothers
49 ( 39 ) I LOVE YOU FOR YOUR MIND (NOT YOUR BODY) A Raincoat
50 ( 21 ) SEND IN THE CLOWNS Judy Collins



In TV, Captain Pugwash finally ended, to my relief, as I’d hated it as long as it had been running, cheap crap compared to Top Cat, Flintstones, Tom & Jerry, any Hanna Barbera and even The Magic Roundabout. Jaws premiered in the States a few days after this chart, and became a sensation, moving on to be all-time box-champ (not allowing for inflation, of course, as Gone With The Wind was and still is the biggest film of all-time). It made Steven Spielberg the Director of the moment and along with the great TV movie Duel, made me a fan of his. The John Williams score, that head dropping out of the hole in the boat, the camera angles, all top stuff. There was a shark too!

Posted by: popchartfreak Aug 1 2015, 08:54 PM

17th June 1975

The chart goes haywire as I get to be home-based, left-alone unsupervised in our RAF Innsworth, Gloucester, house for a week as my parents and brother go to Skeggy for a week’s holiday while I revise and do exams. The weather was scorching, and my record player was faulty so I was playing my 2 new singles in the downstairs radiogram, notably The Hustle which leaps to number 1 and well over 2 months of 1-week-only number ones. The Hustle was, and is, fab. Even better is the one at 2, Misty, with Ray Stevens leaping to get his second-highest chart hit. Fab. An even bigger jump for Tony Camillo’s Bazuka as funky Dynomite hits 3 for a top 5 clear-out, bar The Chi-Lites up to 4.

Highest new entry at 6 is a Mud oldie dating from their 1973 tango-glam days, which I loved, Moonshine Sally, and was a RAK cash-in as they changed labels and went self-written. It’s also their 8th top 10, and sounds not entirely (and unsurprisingly) like early Sweet - some of their hits were rejected singles for The Sweet. The gorgeous Jackie Blue hits the 10, Nazereth cycle into the top 20, the Bee Gees jive in, and in at 16 3 years after it failed to make my charts (non-top-30 hits were excluded, sadly) the brilliant Break from Aphrodite’s Child, a Greek prog-rock outfit that spawned Demis Roussos and Vangelis, neither of whom feature much on this track as the group was disintegrating, but what a record to go out on, just brilliant.

At 21, new in thanks to a free flexi-disc music magazine giveaway I bought, Olivia Newton-John’s rather good Please Mr. Please - it would get a formal release 2 years later, after hitting the US charts. Van McCoy’s B side cover of Disco Tex pops in at 28, just behind the man himself, as my Roxy fandom brings in Eno’s second chart entry, a year after Seven Deadly Fins (which I still can’t buy) he does possibly the most unlikely cover ever (which is also not available on itunes) - The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Had I been charting tracks outside the UK top 30 in 1972 there would have been 2 versions in my charts from Robert John (the big US hit) and Dave Newman (the UK minor hit), but Eno gets my first official chart entry with it a good 7 years ahead of Tight Fit. Wimoweh! In at 31, Steve Harley has a 4th chart entry with another Mr. - Raffles this time, not Soft. Tammy Wynette has another country oldie chart in the UK and in at 36, the rather oddly juxtaposed song about divorce to follow-on her standing by her man. No pleasing some people! At 41, Bobby Goldsboro is back for the 4th time, following up his 1968 oldie chart-topper with a newie not quite in the same league. Finally, the fab Johnny Nash returns after a 3 year absence with Tears On My Pillow, his 7th hit since his 1968 debut, Hold Me Tight.



1 ( 11 ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
2 ( 16 ) MISTY Ray Stevens
3 ( 21 ) DYNOMITE Tony Camillo’s Bazuka
4 ( 5 ) HAVE YOU SEEN HER The Chi-Lites
5 ( 7 ) DISCO STOMP Hamilton Bohannon
6 ( NEW ) MOONSHINE SALLY Mud
7 ( 9 ) WALKIN’ IN RHYTHM The Blackbyrds
8 ( 10 ) THE IMMIGRANT Neil Sedaka
9 ( 1 ) I’M NOT IN LOVE 10CC
10 ( 12 ) JACKIE BLUE Ozark Mountain Daredevils



11 ( 4 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
12 ( 2 ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker
13 ( 3 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
14 ( 8 ) OH WHAT A SHAME Roy Wood
15 ( 6 ) ROLL OVER LAY DOWN Status Quo
16 ( NEW ) BREAK Aphrodite’s Child
17 ( 19 ) OH GIRL The Chi-Lites
18 ( 20 ) SHINING STAR Earth, Wind And Fire
19 ( 38 ) MY WHITE BICYCLE Nazereth
20 ( 25 ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees



21 ( NEW ) PLEASE MR. PLEASE Olivia Newton-John
22 ( 14 ) IMAGINE ME IMAGINE YOU Fox
23 ( 13 ) BABY I LOVE YOU O.K. Kenny
24 ( 18 ) AUTOBAHN Kraftwerk
25 ( 29 ) IT OUGHTA SELL A MILLION Lynn Paul
26 ( 17 ) SAVE ME Silver Convention
27 ( 22 ) I WANNA DANCE WIT’ CHOO (DO DAT DANCE) Disco Tex And The Sex-o-lettes
28 ( NEW ) GET DANCING Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
29 ( NEW ) THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT Eno
30 ( 15 ) LISTEN TO WHAT THE MAN SAID Wings



31 ( NEW ) MR. RAFFLES (MAN IT WAS MEAN) Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
32 ( 30 ) I’M GONNA MAKE YOU MINE Lou Christie
33 ( 48 ) TAKE ME IN YOUR ARMS (ROCK ME) The Doobie Brothers
34 ( 27 ) STAND BY ME John Lennon
35 ( 26 ) STAND BY YOUR MAN Tammy Wynette
36 ( NEW ) D.I.V.O.R.C.E. Tammy Wynette
37 ( 24 ) DISCO QUEEN Hot Chocolate
38 ( 35 ) SEND SOME LOVE Lelly Boone
39 ( 39 ) DING-A-DONG Teach-In
40 ( 40 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band

41 ( NEW ) AND THEN THERE WAS GINA Bobby Goldsboro
42 ( 28 ) HEY YOU Bachman-Turner Overdrive
43 ( 23 ) THREE STEPS TO HEAVEN Showaddywaddy
44 ( 36 ) HE DON’T LOVE YOU (LIKE I LOVE YOU) Dawn featuring Tony Orlando
45 ( NEW ) TEARS ON MY PILLOW Johnny Nash
46 ( 47 ) BAD TIME Grand Funk Railroad
47 ( 41 ) DO YOU WANNA DANCE Joe And Didi
48 ( 37 ) SENDING OUT AN S.O.S. Retta Young
49 ( 33 ) SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT Eric Clapton
50 ( 31 ) THE PROUD ONE The Osmonds

As I said, I’d been left Home Alone at 17, and enjoyed having the place to myself, making a daily Instant Whip to cool off from the heat, playing tennis with schoolmate Pete when not revising or in school doing exams, watching exciting Ebola-predicting Survivors on TV, and Top Of The Pops in colour for a change instead of on my black and white portable. I fancied a frozen sweet to cool down so tried freezing a banana in the deep freeze. When I thawed it out a bit it turned to brown mush. Worth trying that one for yourself! I was left in charge of brother’s hamster, who lived in the shed in his cage - and the little bugger escaped never to return. I still get the blame for that one, though I don’t see how I would have left the door open! The shed wasn’t locked mind you. All in all I was having the best time in my life since leaving Singapore 4 years earlier, cos exams have never worried me - I find revision tedious, and just have to have background music on (Radio 1) which would explain the frantic chart activity as I got to hear so much of the playlist, a bit overkill for poor 10CC who plummeted with an actual classic, from the top.

Posted by: popchartfreak Aug 5 2015, 08:40 PM

24th June 1975

yet another one-weeker on top as fab Van McCoy is ejected by fabber Ray Stevens and Misty, one of the oldest songs to top my chart at that point, a whopping 20 years old. Well, it WAS before I was born! 20 years old is quite recent to me these days! Anyway the terrific country arrangement gives Ray his 3rd chart-topper, following Everything Is Beautiful in 1970 and The Streak in 1974. Nazereth’s My White Bicycle meanwhile changes gear and pedals to 5, a second top 5 for them surpassed only by Bad Bad Boy in 1973 which hit 2. After slowly climbing, The Bee Gees finally jive into the top 10 with the funktabulous Jive Talkin’, and get their biggest track since 1971 and 8th top 10 in total (including Robin’s solo hits) or 10th top 10 song, including The Marbles and Nina Simone covers.

The highest new entry is in at 7 for pop husband and wife team Captain And Tenille, a great US chart-topping cover of Neil Sedaka’s Love Will Keep Us Together, one which not only wasn’t a single for him, it was released as a freebie flexi-disc at the time to boot. Rather co-incidentally his own The Immigrant is booted out of the top 10. In at 19 Syreeta’s back with some help from ex-husband Stevie Wonder, both on the song, the production and backing vocals, for the caribbean-sounding uptempo Harmour Love. They’d been working together for 5 years by then (just take a look at any early 70’s writing credits for Stevie Wonder songs, she’s the other half of the Wonder/Wright credits, including songs they gave away like It’s A Shame (to the Motown - or Detroit - Spinners).

At 23 it’s a chart debut for Sister Sledge with a 2-year-old pop soul funky dance track which sounded like a Jackson 5 record at the time, due to 14-year-old Kathy Sledge’s lead vocal. Sadly the Top Of The Pops performance seems to have been wiped cos I recall they looked as young as they sounded. It would be another 4 years before they claimed their Chic-tastic bit of immortality that just kept on giving through the following decades, but this was a great little pop track. In at 27, veteran Frankie Valli is back again with his 3rd chart entry, and after many a Four Seasons cover version, with the soulful and under-rated Swearin’ To God, which is a more laid-back MOR groove following on from Can’t Take My Eyes Off You 8 years earlier, without the hook, but with that fab guitar solo that pops up, and a female duet vocal assist from Patti Austin. Like all of his greatest hits, bar one (Grease), it was sort of a Four Seasons song, insasmuch as Bob Crewe co-wrote it but without Bob Gaudio’s usual leading melody - but it was great anyway.

In at 40, The Three Degrees get a 5th entry (including MFSB tracks), with Long Lost Lover, as The Rubettes exclaim Foe Dee O Dee for a 5th chart visit, and as the 50‘s glam-rock sound brings diminishing returns ahead of some subsequent actual varied singles releases. At 48, Dean Martin’s 50’s crooner classic Memories Are Made Of This brings back memories of his TV Variety show for me as it gets reissued to give him a second chart entry 6 years on from Gentle On My Mind. At 49, Alvin Stardust’s glam-days are also on the diminishing returns bandwagon, Sweet Cheatin’ Rita being his 6th entry, but an improvement on his two previous dull ballads. Finally, popping in briefly at 50, an American chart hit, or rather an America Chart hit 3 years after their last one, the fab Horse With No Name and that fantastically-riffed Ventura Highway, as substantially borrowed by Janet Jackson 30 years later. Although they got their break in the UK, as sons of American servicemen in the UK, they became rather big in the States and rather not-very-big-at-all in the UK forever after, which is a shame cos their pseudo-Neil Young beginnings became rather sweetly pseudo-Eagles harmony singles which carried on well into the 80’s. Sister Golden Hair was a chart-topper in the States, and hardly a hit anywhere else, but I liked it at least!



1 ( 2 ) MISTY Ray Stevens
2 ( 1 ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
3 ( 5 ) DISCO STOMP Hamilton Bohannon
4 ( 4 ) HAVE YOU SEEN HER The Chi-Lites
5 ( 19 ) MY WHITE BICYCLE Nazereth
6 ( 20 ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees
7 ( NEW ) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER Captain And Tenille
8 ( 6 ) MOONSHINE SALLY Mud
9 ( 3 ) DYNOMITE Tony Camillo’s Bazuka
10 ( 10 ) JACKIE BLUE Ozark Mountain Daredevils

11 ( 7 ) WALKIN’ IN RHYTHM The Blackbyrds
12 ( 8 ) THE IMMIGRANT Neil Sedaka
13 ( 16 ) BREAK Aphrodite’s Child
14 ( 11 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
15 ( 12 ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker
16 ( 13 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
17 ( 9 ) I’M NOT IN LOVE 10CC
18 ( NEW ) HARMOUR LOVE Syreeta
19 ( 15 ) ROLL OVER LAY DOWN Status Quo
20 ( 25 ) IT OUGHTA SELL A MILLION Lynn Paul



21 ( 21 ) PLEASE MR. PLEASE Olivia Newton-John
22 ( 29 ) THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT Eno
23 ( NEW ) MAMA NEVER TOLD ME Sister Sledge
24 ( 18 ) SHINING STAR Earth, Wind And Fire
25 ( 33 ) TAKE ME IN YOUR ARMS (ROCK ME) The Doobie Brothers
26 ( 17 ) OH GIRL The Chi-Lites
27 ( NEW ) SWEARING TO GOD Frankie Valli
28 ( 14 ) OH WHAT A SHAME Roy Wood
29 ( 46 ) BAD TIME Grand Funk Railroad
30 ( 31 ) MR. RAFFLES (MAN IT WAS MEAN) Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel



31 ( 26 ) SAVE ME Silver Convention
32 ( 24 ) AUTOBAHN Kraftwerk
33 ( 22 ) IMAGINE ME IMAGINE YOU Fox
34 ( 32 ) I’M GONNA MAKE YOU MINE Lou Christie
35 ( 41 ) AND THEN THERE WAS GINA Bobby Goldsboro
36 ( 30 ) LISTEN TO WHAT THE MAN SAID Wings
37 ( 45 ) TEARS ON MY PILLOW Johnny Nash
38 ( 28 ) GET DANCING Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
39 ( 27 ) I WANNA DANCE WIT’ CHOO (DO DAT DANCE) Disco Tex And The Sex-o-lettes
40 ( NEW ) LONG LOST LOVER The Three Degrees

41 ( 34 ) STAND BY ME John Lennon
42 ( 35 ) STAND BY YOUR MAN Tammy Wynette
43 ( 40 ) GET DOWN TONIGHT K.C. And The Sunshine Band
44 ( 39 ) DING-A-DONG Teach-In
45 ( 38 ) SEND SOME LOVE Lelly Boone
46 ( 23 ) BABY I LOVE YOU O.K. Kenny
47 ( NEW ) FOE-DEE-O-DEE The Rubettes
48 ( NEW ) MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS Dean Martin
49 ( NEW ) SWEET CHEATIN’ RITA Alvin Stardust
50 ( NEW ) SISTER GOLDEN HAIR America

Posted by: popchartfreak Sep 9 2015, 05:59 PM

1st July 1975

The hot summer continues with Captain And Tenille’s irresistibly bouncy version of Neil Sedaka’s Love Will Keep Us Together on top, and presiding over a chart packed with cover versions and oldies. To be fair, apart from disco and soul, and the tail-end of glam, there wasn’t a majorly exciting new music scene and I was quite happy to start filling-in with oldies. There are 18 reissues and 6 cover versions, which is half the chart give or take! The highest new entry is one of those classic oldies, as The Shangri-Las get reissued yet again and return at 5 three years after topping my chart on it’s last comeback. This time it wasn’t a UK hit again - until 1976 when a rival reissue also came out and they were combined for chart sales purposes and a third UK hit for the girls. The motorbike death song is still classic.

Syreeta gets a 3rd top 10 in a row, as ex-hubbie’s Stevie Wonder’s Harmour Love gives her a break again. You can clearly hear his vocals on the chorus, enough for a “featuring” credit these days. 1972 obscure classic (I absolutely adore this record these days) Break also breaks - into the 10 for Aphrodite’s Child, as the highest actual new record enters at 11 for T.Rex, Marc Bolan’s biggest hit for 2 years with New York City and a return to my lapsed affections, though his album track Venus Loon should have been a single in 1974 as it was better and more commercial than the previous single or 2. At 12 and 13 it’s a double A side single reissue split for my chart purposes, the Simon & Garfunkel cover at 13 (Feelin’ Groovy) and my preferred Anything Goes at 12 - the 1934 Cole Porter musical had already brought a top 10 cover for Gary Shearston in 1974 (I Get A Kick Out Of You), but this racy-for-the-30’s song actually predated that in my affections since the late 60’s, and it’s flower-power beat-group harmony updating.

Even older than those, Telstar from The Tornadoes was so well-known to me (we had the single from 1966 onwards and I played it to death) to the point that by 1975 it had lost some of it’s shine and only enters at 16, but oh what a classic it is, Joe Meek’s ground-breaking 1962 instrumental was out-of-this-world in sound, so futuristic sounding as all of these odd electronic sounds came out of nowhere and soonly inhabited the world of Doctor Who on TV. It sounds like nothing else, then or now, though Saint Etienne had a fab Telstar-inspired go on You’re In A Bad Way. It would, needless to say, have topped my hypothetical chart for a long run in the 60’s. In at eighteen with a bullet, I obviously was having a larf with Pete Wingfield’s amusing record industry pastiche, which also broke in the States, and in one week actually WAS eighteen with a bullet on the charts to my amusement.

Sister Sledge and Frankie Valli both go top 20, David Essex keeps his top 30 run going with new entry Rolling Stone, though his weakest single to date at 27, while early 60’s classic Sealed With A Kiss is a reissued hit for Bryan Hyland at 28. A great ballad, but not actually one I knew that well during the 60’s, it was revived after doing well in a Radio 1 Top 100 Listeners Fave chart in 1974, but the Hyland song that I was obssessed with in the early 60’s was Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, one of my first ever pop single loves as a nipper. At 33 it’s a fabby disco-soul track the romping High Wire from Linda Carr & The Love Squad, still sounding great to my ears, even if she never had another glorious moment in the pop sun, in her native USA or the UK. Bryan Ferry returns with yet another solo oldies cover, this time a 1938 song known as a Billie Holliday recording, in at 40 but not one of my fave Ferry tracks. Unlike the Linda Lewis scorchingly fast BPM disco track cover of It’s In His Kiss, another 60’s oldie (Betty Everett) I didn’t know at the time. Linda really shows off her range in this definitive cover version of what is better known as The Shoop Shoop Song, still the most exciting version. I was sad to see Linda not getting singer-songwriter success by this time, but this was a great compensation. Cher’s karaoke version, I’m sorry, is plodding in comparison. Love Cher and all that, but....

At 42, another cover version, this time of a Blue Mink flop from 1974 called Get Up, given the Silvia Robinson All-Platinum Records funk treatment and a more catchy title - 7654321 (Blow Your Whistle) - sees the dubiously named Rimshots in my chart where Blue Mink had missed out from lack of radio play (though I did buy the original single in the bargain bins before I even knew it was the same song, because it was Blue Mink). At 46 Olivia’s back before her pop mag freebie flexi track had departed my chart (Follow Me wasn’t as good either as Please Mr Please) and that’s a long bit of chart chat done phew!



1 ( 7 ) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER Captain And Tenille
2 ( 1 ) MISTY Ray Stevens
3 ( 2 ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
4 ( 5 ) MY WHITE BICYCLE Nazereth
5 ( NEW ) LEADER OF THE PACK The Shangri-Las
6 ( 6 ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees
7 ( 3 ) DISCO STOMP Hamilton Bohannon
8 ( 18 ) HARMOUR LOVE Syreeta
9 ( 13 ) BREAK Aphrodite’s Child
10 ( 4 ) HAVE YOU SEEN HER The Chi-Lites



11 ( NEW ) NEW YORK CITY T.Rex
12 ( NEW ) ANYTHING GOES Harpers Bizarre
13 ( NEW ) 59TH BRIDGE STREET SONG (FEELIN’ GROOVY) Harpers Bizarre
14 ( 23 ) MAMA NEVER TOLD ME Sister Sledge
15 ( 27 ) SWEARING TO GOD Frankie Valli
16 ( NEW ) TELSTAR The Tornadoes
17 ( 14 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
18 ( NEW ) EIGHTEEN WITH A BULLET Pete Wingfield
19 ( 8 ) MOONSHINE SALLY Mud
20 ( 22 ) THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT Eno



21 ( 12 ) THE IMMIGRANT Neil Sedaka
22 ( 11 ) WALKIN’ IN RHYTHM The Blackbyrds
23 ( 10 ) JACKIE BLUE Ozark Mountain Daredevils
24 ( 15 ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker
25 ( 16 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
26 ( 17 ) I’M NOT IN LOVE 10CC
27 ( NEW ) ROLLING STONE David Essex
28 ( NEW ) SEALED WITH A KISS Bryan Hyland
29 ( 9 ) DYNOMITE Tony Camillo’s Bazuka
30 ( RE ) D.I.V.O.R.C.E. Tammy Wynette



31 ( 20 ) IT OUGHTA SELL A MILLION Lynn Paul
32 ( 21 ) PLEASE MR. PLEASE Olivia Newton-John
33 ( NEW ) HIGH WIRE LInda Carr And The Love Squad
34 ( 40 ) LONG LOST LOVER The Three Degrees
35 ( 28 ) OH WHAT A SHAME Roy Wood
36 ( 25 ) TAKE ME IN YOUR ARMS (ROCK ME) The Doobie Brothers
37 ( 19 ) ROLL OVER LAY DOWN Status Quo
38 ( 29 ) BAD TIME Grand Funk Railroad
39 ( 26 ) OH GIRL The Chi-Lites
40 ( NEW ) YOU GO TO MY HEAD Bryan Ferry



41 ( NEW ) IT’S IN HIS KISS Linda Lewis
42 ( NEW ) 7654321 (BLOW YOUR WHISTLE) The Rimshots
43 ( 31 ) SAVE ME Silver Convention
44 ( 32 ) AUTOBAHN Kraftwerk
45 ( 33 ) IMAGINE ME IMAGINE YOU Fox
46 ( NEW ) FOLLOW ME Olivia Newton-John
47 ( 36 ) LISTEN TO WHAT THE MAN SAID Wings
48 ( 34 ) I’M GONNA MAKE YOU MINE Lou Christie
49 ( 38 ) GET DANCING Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
50 ( 42 ) STAND BY YOUR MAN Tammy Wynette





Talking of bargain bins, my fave place in Gloucester to get hold of flop records a year or two after flopping for 5p or 10p (well within my limited budget based on babysitting for RAF families for 50p or £1 a night at weekends) was an old-fashioned music-shop off the beaten track on Southgate Street (where actual instruments or TV’s and the like were bought). It had a side-line in non-chart albums and singles - these were catered for quite heavily in those days by HMV, Boots, WHSmiths, Woolworths, not to mention an independent small store in the shopping mall, and a market stall to boot, among others - so it was a bit of a treat to get hold of more obscure stuff from 1974/5. Long-gone decades ago now of course, I note the new (to me) pedestrianised area there still looks like the premises are vacant on google map...shame!

Posted by: popchartfreak Sep 11 2015, 07:49 PM

8th July 1975

Back on top for a second week at 1, Ray Stevens is still Misty and outdoes The Streak’s one week on top, but not 1970’s Everything Is Beautiful. Harpers Bizarre take Anything Goes into the top 10, and T.Rex also return to the upper reaches (hooray!). Brian Hyland leaps to 11 with an oldie (yet newie for me) as Sealed With A Kiss gives me new 60’s heart-throb nostalgia sounds. Highest new entry at 17 is novelty record Barbados by Typically Tropical, which went all the way to 1 on the UK singles chart. It was amusing for a couple of weeks and then started to grate, and these days it’s a definite no-no as the singer is most certainly not from Barbados.

From nowhere, and 5 years late, Brotherhood Of Man get a follow-up hit (it was big in Europe, and probably got spins on Radio Luxembourg) and this wasn’t the 1970 United We Stand line-up, this was the Save Your Kisses For Me 1976 vintage line-up (which is still amazingly sporadically touring together), with only Tony Hiller writer/producer the ongoing link. Kiss Me Kiss Your Baby is a bit of cheerful fluff and I still like it a lot more than some of their big hits! In at 30, The Sweet follow-up a great self-penned single with another one, the fab Action, as later covered by Def Leppard, and so good it could have been written by Chinn-Chapman. The boys obviously were paying attention while they turned down tracks that Mud ended up grabbing, and with an eye on the bigger picture.

At 38, US hit Wildfire for Michael Murphey, all about a horse, not a Legion Of Super-Heroes member (sadly), gallops slowly in, while Wigans Ovation follow-up the Skiing In The Snow, at 39, and Per-So-Nal-Ly I rather liked it. At 40 David Cassidy returns after a short break and a new record label (RCA), and a rather famous song. I Write The Songs was written by Bruce Johnstone, sometime Beach Boy, and recorded by Captain & Tenille for their Love Will Keep Us Together album. David beat them to the single hit though - at least in the UK where Darlin’ David was still popular: I’ll be honest, this is still the only version I can tolerate, David had such an idiosyncratic vocal style that he convinces lyrically where other versions sound like mush. Yes, I’m especially pointing the finger at USA singles chart-topper Barry Manilow who took all emotion out of the song, created OTT blandness and had a huge hit where David coulda woulda shoulda. Sorry, Manilow fans, Bazza just couldn’t emote like ol’ Dave. Just like Mandy/Brandy, then. Lastly, in at 47, Elton goes all introverted and serious, a very dark choice of single that didn’t really do the usual business, though in retrospect it’s pretty damn fine - Someone Saved My Life Tonight says it all on the tin.


1 ( 2 ) MISTY Ray Stevens
2 ( 3 ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
3 ( 1 ) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER Captain And Tenille
4 ( 5 ) LEADER OF THE PACK The Shangri-Las
5 ( 4 ) MY WHITE BICYCLE Nazereth
6 ( 6 ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees
7 ( 12 ) ANYTHING GOES Harpers Bizarre
8 ( 7 ) DISCO STOMP Hamilton Bohannon
9 ( 10 ) HAVE YOU SEEN HER The Chi-Lites
10 ( 11 ) NEW YORK CITY T.Rex



11 ( 28 ) SEALED WITH A KISS Brian Hyland
12 ( 13 ) 59TH BRIDGE STREET SONG (FEELIN’ GROOVY) Harpers Bizarre
13 ( 8 ) HARMOUR LOVE Syreeta
14 ( 18 ) EIGHTEEN WITH A BULLET Pete Wingfield
15 ( 15 ) SWEARING TO GOD Frankie Valli
16 ( 14 ) MAMA NEVER TOLD ME Sister Sledge
17 ( NEW ) BARBADOS Typically Tropical
18 ( 9 ) BREAK Aphrodite’s Child
19 ( 16 ) TELSTAR The Tornadoes
20 ( 42 ) 7654321 (BLOW YOUR WHISTLE) The Rimshots



21 ( NEW ) KISS ME KISS YOUR BABY Brotherhood Of Man
22 ( 17 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
23 ( 30 ) D.I.V.O.R.C.E. Tammy Wynette
24 ( 33 ) HIGH WIRE LInda Carr And The Love Squad
25 ( 41 ) IT’S IN HIS KISS Linda Lewis
26 ( 27 ) ROLLING STONE David Essex
27 ( 26 ) I’M NOT IN LOVE 10CC
28 ( 40 ) YOU GO TO MY HEAD Bryan Ferry
29 ( 19 ) MOONSHINE SALLY Mud
30 ( NEW ) ACTION The Sweet



31 ( 25 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
32 ( 24 ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker
33 ( 21 ) THE IMMIGRANT Neil Sedaka
34 ( 23 ) JACKIE BLUE Ozark Mountain Daredevils
35 ( 22 ) WALKIN’ IN RHYTHM The Blackbyrds
36 ( 29 ) DYNOMITE Tony Camillo’s Bazuka
37 ( 37 ) ROLL OVER LAY DOWN Status Quo
38 ( NEW ) WILDFIRE Michael Murphey
39 ( NEW ) PER-SO-NAL-LY Wigan’s Ovation
40 ( NEW ) I WRITE THE SONGS David Cassidy



41 ( 38 ) BAD TIME Grand Funk Railroad
42 ( 45 ) IMAGINE ME IMAGINE YOU Fox
43 ( 43 ) SAVE ME Silver Convention
44 ( 36 ) TAKE ME IN YOUR ARMS (ROCK ME) The Doobie Brothers
45 ( 32 ) PLEASE MR. PLEASE Olivia Newton-John
46 ( 46 ) FOLLOW ME Olivia Newton-John
47 ( NEW ) SOMEONE SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT Elton John
48 ( 39 ) OH GIRL The Chi-Lites
49 ( 44 ) AUTOBAHN Kraftwerk
50 ( 50 ) STAND BY YOUR MAN Tammy Wynette

In film, Jaws was wowing the USA, turning Stephen Speilberg into a sensation, and sharks into a big baddy, in the UK - it wasn’t. Yes, in those days the UK really was the poor relation. We had to suffer months of hype before it was finally released just before christmas. I am SO happy that is a thing of the past in these internet days, cos it just REALLY pissed me off having to wait for things (and still does, when UK release dates are held-back for downloading music I purposely don’t download them when they finally get released. When it’s on-air on-sale I buy it immediately if it sounds good). Pastiches were in Mad magazine, DC Comics had Superman shark-inspired tales, and rubber sharks were everywhere - and still I waited. And waited. And waited. It was worth it though, a fantastic film and an early christmas present. I didn’t go and pay to see any of the cash-in sequels though, my tolerance and patience only goes so far....

Posted by: popchartfreak Sep 12 2015, 04:05 PM

15th July 1975

3 weeks for Ray Stevens at 1, T.Rex get their first top 5 in 2 years, Typically Tropical shockingly go top 5 too with Barbados - shocking to hear the “Captain” of a passenger plane allowing smoking. Times really have changed, these days you choke on recycled air instead. Fort a 4th week, The Bee Gees big comeback record stalls at 6, will Jive Talking ever go top 5? The Sweet get a second consecutive top 10, as they spring into Action, and Linda Lewis disco’s to 10 with a future Cher UK chart-topper. In at 17, Gloria Gaynor gets a 3rd top 20 chart entry following up 2 number one’s with the decent All I Need Is Your Sweet Lovin’, this time not a disco cover version, but still the highest new entry.

Roy Orbison does a Harper’s Bizarre, and gets 2 new entries from a double-A sided reissued hit, at 21 it’s the childhood major fave woulda-been chart-topper Oh Pretty Woman, and at 22, the torch ballad It’s Over which is one my parents loved (by this time we had his Greatest Hits album) and one which I have come to worship with the passing of the years. There is no way Oh Pretty Woman would have failed to top my charts in 1964, aged 6, so may as well say it’s a comeback to my charts rather than a debut. Roy Orbison, of course, has a perfect voice, and was a brilliant songwriter to boot, no male singer could deliver tortured lost love songs quite like Roy, and even if his career had fallen off the radar in the disco and glam era, he was still loved. It’s Over is genius and would eventually top my charts in later decades.

Bimbo Jet, in at 30, were a French eurosynthdisco act who brought the largely instrumental holiday hit El Bimbo chart action in Europe and the UK, as latin-flavoured as it sounds. It’s still very catchy, and fun, in a good way. Used in The Police Academy films apparently - not that I recall it! Finally, Chris Spedding is in at 48 with the great Motor Bikin’ a glam rock ‘n’ roll revival-sound that wouldn’t have sounded too out of place in the punk era, sounds like The Clash were “influenced” by it to my ears anyway. Chris never quite made it, very sadly, as a solo star, apart from this one hit single, but he was highly regarded in the music biz, and appeared on hit singles and albums for numerous other acts: Paul McCartney, Joan Armatrading (Me Myself I), Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds, Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson, Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music, Brian Eno, Art Garfunkel, not to mention producer of The Sex Pistols first demo’s. As if all that wasn’t enough he was also a member of The Wombles, on Top Of The Pops, on tour, on record, so in a way this was just a spin-off project!

1 ( 1 ) MISTY Ray Stevens
2 ( 2 ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
3 ( 3 ) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER Captain And Tenille
4 ( 10 ) NEW YORK CITY T.Rex
5 ( 17 ) BARBADOS Typically Tropical
6 ( 6 ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees
7 ( 7 ) ANYTHING GOES Harpers Bizarre
8 ( 30 ) ACTION The Sweet
9 ( 4 ) LEADER OF THE PACK The Shangri-Las
10 ( 25 ) IT’S IN HIS KISS Linda Lewis



11 ( 11 ) SEALED WITH A KISS Brian Hyland
12 ( 12 ) 59TH BRIDGE STREET SONG (FEELIN’ GROOVY) Harpers Bizarre
13 ( 8 ) DISCO STOMP Hamilton Bohannon
14 ( 5 ) MY WHITE BICYCLE Nazereth
15 ( 13 ) HARMOUR LOVE Syreeta
16 ( 20 ) 7654321 (BLOW YOUR WHISTLE) The Rimshots
17 ( NEW ) ALL I NEED IS YOUR SWEET LOVIN’ Gloria Gaynor
18 ( 9 ) HAVE YOU SEEN HER The Chi-Lites
19 ( 21 ) KISS ME KISS YOUR BABY Brotherhood Of Man
20 ( 24 ) HIGH WIRE LInda Carr And The Love Squad



21 ( NEW ) OH PRETTY WOMAN Roy Orbison
22 ( NEW ) IT’S OVER Roy Orbison
23 ( 23 ) D.I.V.O.R.C.E. Tammy Wynette
24 ( 15 ) SWEARING TO GOD Frankie Valli
25 ( 38 ) WILDFIRE Michael Murphey
26 ( 14 ) EIGHTEEN WITH A BULLET Pete Wingfield
27 ( 28 ) YOU GO TO MY HEAD Bryan Ferry
28 ( 22 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
29 ( 27 ) I’M NOT IN LOVE 10CC
30 ( NEW ) EL BIMBO Bimbo Jet



31 ( 26 ) ROLLING STONE David Essex
32 ( 16 ) MAMA NEVER TOLD ME Sister Sledge
33 ( 18 ) BREAK Aphrodite’s Child
34 ( 31 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
35 ( 32 ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker
36 ( 47 ) SOMEONE SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT Elton John
37 ( 19 ) TELSTAR The Tornadoes
38 ( 34 ) JACKIE BLUE Ozark Mountain Daredevils
39 ( 33 ) THE IMMIGRANT Neil Sedaka
40 ( 35 ) WALKIN’ IN RHYTHM The Blackbyrds




41 ( RE ) THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT Eno
42 ( 36 ) DYNOMITE Tony Camillo’s Bazuka
43 ( 29 ) MOONSHINE SALLY Mud
44 ( 42 ) IMAGINE ME IMAGINE YOU Fox
45 ( 43 ) SAVE ME Silver Convention
46 ( 39 ) PER-SO-NAL-LY Wigan’s Ovation
47 ( RE ) IT OUGHTA SELL A MILLION Lynn Paul
48 ( NEW ) MOTOR BIKIN' Chris Spedding
49 ( RE ) I DO I DO I DO I DO I DO Abba
50 ( 50 ) STAND BY YOUR MAN Tammy Wynette





On TV, there was a mass-offending paedophile sat in an armchair every Saturday evening, smoking cigars, and trying to fix kids dreams and wishes as a sideshow to his preferred activities, and on the same night a future campaigner on child protection on That’s Life (Hi Esther), so I suppose you could argue the BBC were being even-handed if nothing else. On import the final season of the great Alias Smith And Jones, the brilliant Star Trek, the eternal Bilko (Phil Silvers Show), Top Of The Pops, and The Old Grey Whistle Test were all must-watch for me. On the news Apollo unexpectedly blasted-off for a final time, to take Deke Slayton, Tom Stafford and Vance Brand to a Soviet Soyuz meeting-in-space. As first dates go, it was quite pricey, but it set a trend to this day now that the USA has no manned blast-off’s to space any more and it’s reliant on Russia entirely to get to the Space Station. So, from Communism problems ahead getting in the way, to opening up a joint approach, and of late a frosty relationship that neither can afford to leave, as the costs would be a tad high. Obviously it was a political stunt, rather than anything of import, and money wasted that could have been better spent on actual space science, but hey ho.

There was also The Detectives: actually more of a case of the BBC not committing to regular weekly broadcasts of US cop or private eye shows, so running them less frequently under the header instead. This week Harry O, David Janssen was terrific in this series, second only to The Rockford Files in traditional 70’s cop shows (till Hill Street Blues debuted and changed everything, the format, the style, the quality). No idea what was on ITV (as I watched it much less frequently), other than Man About The House and Rising Damp, and later on in September the debut of Space 1999, Gerry Anderson’s follow-up live action series to the fab UFO with Mission:Impossible’s Martin Landau and Barbara Bain (and ma & pa of Buffy’s Drusilla) which promised much but never really got over the silly premise - the moon gets knocked out of orbit and flies off into the universe, with Moonbase Alpha meeting aliens and other worlds on it’s impossible faster-than-light-speed journey across the galaxy, yet somehow slowing down to a crawl to have some adventures on a regular basis. More importantly, it forced me to choose between watching Doctor Who, or the new series - it was a ratings battle in some UK regions only, and one which Doctor Who won rather conclusively.

Posted by: popchartfreak Sep 12 2015, 09:30 PM

22nd July 1975

It’s a Beach Boys summer classic in at 1 for me - Summer of ’69 totally, and one I was mad on then, yet which bizarrely was just a minor American hit despite going top 10 in the UK. Co-written by Brian Wilson and his dad Murray, Break Away most likely flopped due to Capitol Records having the hump as the Boys were leaving the label fed up with American lack of label support for their releases. As it’s a gorgeous melody, great harmonies, and the final Brian Wilson production for some years, that it was a big European hit seems to suggest they were right about Capitol Records. Anyways, hit my 2 in 1969, and 6 years on gives the boys their first chart-topper (I’d already been given the single by friends of my parents, Pete & Jill), and quite right too as The Beach Boys should have had chart-toppers in my pre-chart days.

The Bee Gees join the top 5 ranks, their 8th including Robin’s solo hits (or 6th without), Brian Hyland takes the 1962 oldie into the top 10 too, and highest entry at 9 is yet another 60’s song - this time the Four Seasons Sherry is covered by Adrian Baker, future part-time touring Beach Boy and Four Seasons member (yes ACTUAL original bands). In between he produced Liquid Gold and had hits as Gidea Park with medleys of...yes, Beach Boys and Four Seasons songs. Can’t fault his taste in music, and the falsetto abilities helped the lads on tour no end. Sherry’s not bad, and already at least the 5th Four Seasons cover to go UK top 10, 3 of them chart-toppers, where the originals under-performed. The ongoing musical and film success of the boys songs and life story goes some way to making amends. Now, if only The Beach Boys would do the same, their life story is even MORE fraught than mere gangsters and debts, and the songbook is even better. Not likely while the life-story squabbles still go on, though, so it’ll be down to the last man standing...

In at 15, it’s veteran Scot rocker Alex Harvey finally getting his chart breakthrough with a live cover version of (yet again) a 60’s classic, this time Tom Jones UK chart-topper from 1968 - also predating my chart, and also woulda given The Voice a number one in my chart, cos the original is fabulous. This rocky version is slowed-down, quirky, playful and quite different - and also fabulous. In at 24 it’s an actual new song, Sparks get a 5th chart hit in a row with Get In The Swing, another playful post-glam track. In at 27, another oldie, the late Jim Croce (2 years dead by then) had a string of American hits, none of them UK hits, but most of them chart hits for me, starting with Bad Bad Leroy Brown in 1972, and the biggest (and future number one following Guardians Of The Galaxy) Time In A Bottle in 1974, but I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song never charted till now. It’s still sweet-sad. Another big US star was Aussie Helen Reddy, and she also under-performed in the UK, but she’s on her 3rd of the year with Bluebird entering at 30, having had Angie Baby at on already.


In at 41, it’s a massive disco funk classic from K.C. and The Sunshine Band, as That’s The Way (I Like It) makes it 4 out of 4, including 2 number ones in my chart. K.C. never had the same level of success in the UK as the USA, except before they broke, and after they’d had the run of 70’s hits, bizarrely. With this exception. The single is rightly recognised as a major dance anthem 40 years on, even though it took quite a while to chart in the UK it did eventually go top 5, and has been covered loads over the years. The original is perfect though, and my love for KC over-rid the crappy music journalists sniffy attitude of the time, I was most put-out when the History Of Rock series in the 80’s failed to even mention KC never mind give him the credit he deserved, being somewhat regarded as disposable and unworthy, because he was white most likely in part, and being guilty of disco love in part. Phew! Finally, at 46, Susan Cadogan brings some nice reggae back, Love Me Baby following-up the much better Hurts So Good.



1 ( NEW ) BREAK AWAY The Beach Boys
2 ( 1 ) MISTY Ray Stevens
3 ( 3 ) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER Captain And Tennille
4 ( 2 ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
5 ( 6 ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees
6 ( 7 ) ANYTHING GOES Harpers Bizarre
7 ( 11 ) SEALED WITH A KISS Brian Hyland
8 ( 8 ) ACTION The Sweet
9 ( NEW ) SHERRY Adrian Baker
10 ( 10 ) IT’S IN HIS KISS Linda Lewis



11 ( 4 ) NEW YORK CITY T.Rex
12 ( 12 ) 59TH BRIDGE STREET SONG (FEELIN’ GROOVY) Harpers Bizarre
13 ( 5 ) BARBADOS Typically Tropical
14 ( 17 ) ALL I NEED IS YOUR SWEET LOVIN' Gloria Gaynor
15 ( NEW ) DELILAH The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
16 ( 16 ) 7654321 (BLOW YOUR WHISTLE) The Rimshots
17 ( 19 ) KISS ME KISS YOUR BABY Brotherhood Of Man
18 ( 21 ) OH PRETTY WOMAN Roy Orbison
19 ( 13 ) DISCO STOMP Hamilton Bohannon
20 ( 14 ) MY WHITE BICYCLE Nazereth



21 ( 9 ) LEADER OF THE PACK The Shangri-Las
22 ( 20 ) HIGH WIRE LInda Carr And The Love Squad
23 ( 18 ) HAVE YOU SEEN HER The Chi-Lites
24 ( NEW ) GET IN THE SWING Sparks
25 ( 22 ) IT’S OVER Roy Orbison
26 ( 15 ) HARMOUR LOVE Syreeta
27 ( NEW ) I’LL HAVE TO SAY I LOVE YOU IN A SONG Jim Croce
28 ( 24 ) SWEARING TO GOD Frankie Valli
29 ( 46 ) PER-SO-NAL-LY Wigan’s Ovation
30 ( NEW ) BLUEBIRD Helen Reddy



31 ( 31 ) ROLLING STONE David Essex
32 ( 28 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
33 ( 29 ) I’M NOT IN LOVE 10CC
34 ( 25 ) WILDFIRE Michael Murphey
35 ( 32 ) MAMA NEVER TOLD ME Sister Sledge
36 ( 23 ) D.I.V.O.R.C.E. Tammy Wynette
37 ( 30 ) EL BIMBO Bimbo Jet
38 ( 26 ) EIGHTEEN WITH A BULLET Pete Wingfield
39 ( 34 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
40 ( 35 ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker



41 ( NEW ) THAT’S THE WAY (I LIKE IT) K.C. And The Sunshine Band
42 ( 42 ) DYNOMITE Tony Camillo’s Bazuka
43 ( 33 ) BREAK Aphrodite’s Child
44 ( 41 ) THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT Eno
45 ( 36 ) SOMEONE SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT Elton John
46 ( NEW ) LOVE ME BABY Susan Cadogan
47 ( 37 ) TELSTAR The Tornadoes
48 ( 38 ) JACKIE BLUE Ozark Mountain Daredevils
49 ( 39 ) THE IMMIGRANT Neil Sedaka
50 ( 40 ) WALKIN’ IN RHYTHM The Blackbyrds

Posted by: popchartfreak Sep 14 2015, 08:55 PM

29th July 1975

It’s yet again another oldie in at 1 as the Summer Of ’69 nostalgia continues with the first record I tried to buy hits number one for the second time, and for the 6th week in total, it’s the awesome In The Year 2525 from Zager And Evans. Such a great futuristic folk track, if a very dim view of the future of Man. Some of the predictions are already here, gulp! Up to 5 it’s Delilah, as covered by the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, giving an entire top 6 of oldies or cover versions. Happily up 30 to 11 it’s KC’s latest classic cos that’s the way I like it, and just to prove he had so many songs he could afford to give them away and produce them to boot, in comes George McCrae with his 4th KC hit at 24. It’s Been So Long. Well, actually just a few weeks since he last dropped out of my charts, but this was very much his second best hit after Rock Your Baby hit my top spot.

Linda Carr and David Essex hit the top 20, and in at 37 it’s another oldie, from 1972, and the non-UK-hit debut of Steely Dan, finally getting a chart breakthrough after some near misses with their greatest record, the laid-back smooth west coast jazzrock of Do It Again. Steely Dan and Walter Becker solo very much stuck to this template for their entire career, give or take more or less jazzy versions, but oh my word it’s classy and impeccably produced. Love it. At 38, 53rd and 3rd with a cover of Daddy Dewdrop’s USA hit Chick A Boom. Jonathan King has claimed it’s not a pseudonym for another of his numerous novelty hit records. It sounds like him, and naming a supposed boyband after a gay cruising area in New York City doesn’t convince me otherwise...! In at 45, Rupert Fisher with a cover of Our Day Will Come, a great song, and a version I haven’t heard in 40 years by someone who doesn’t appear much on the net - except to say it was on RSO, home of the Bee Gees, so it was probably a soul MOR version. Maybe! In at 46, Smokey, the latest Chinn-Chapman band, glam was dead, Sweet and Mud had left the fold, and it was straight over to country-rock-flavoured ballads for If You Think You Know How To Love Me, with a tad Rod Stewart vocals from Chris Norman going on.



1 ( NEW ) IN THE YEAR 2525 Zager And Evans
2 ( 1 ) BREAK AWAY The Beach Boys
3 ( 2 ) MISTY Ray Stevens
4 ( 3 ) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER Captain And Tennille
5 ( 15 ) DELILAH The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
6 ( 10 ) IT’S IN HIS KISS Linda Lewis
7 ( 4 ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
8 ( 8 ) ACTION The Sweet
9 ( 9 ) SHERRY Adrian Baker
10 ( 5 ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees



11 ( 41 ) THAT’S THE WAY (I LIKE IT) K.C. And The Sunshine Band
12 ( 7 ) SEALED WITH A KISS Brian Hyland
13 ( 22 ) HIGH WIRE LInda Carr And The Love Squad
14 ( 14 ) ALL I NEED IS YOUR SWEET LOVIN' Gloria Gaynor
15 ( 6 ) ANYTHING GOES Harpers Bizarre
16 ( 12 ) 59TH BRIDGE STREET SONG (FEELIN’ GROOVY) Harpers Bizarre
17 ( 11 ) NEW YORK CITY T.Rex
18 ( 18 ) OH PRETTY WOMAN Roy Orbison
19 ( 13 ) BARBADOS Typically Tropical
20 ( 31 ) ROLLING STONE David Essex

21 ( 24 ) GET IN THE SWING Sparks
22 ( 17 ) KISS ME KISS YOUR BABY Brotherhood Of Man
23 ( 19 ) DISCO STOMP Hamilton Bohannon
24 ( NEW ) IT’S BEEN SO LONG George McCrae
25 ( 20 ) MY WHITE BICYCLE Nazereth
26 ( 26 ) HARMOUR LOVE Syreeta
27 ( 27 ) I’LL HAVE TO SAY I LOVE YOU IN A SONG Jim Croce
28 ( 30 ) BLUEBIRD Helen Reddy
29 ( 16 ) 7654321 (BLOW YOUR WHISTLE) The Rimshots
30 ( 37 ) EL BIMBO Bimbo Jet



31 ( 21 ) LEADER OF THE PACK The Shangri-Las
32 ( 23 ) HAVE YOU SEEN HER The Chi-Lites
33 ( 33 ) I’M NOT IN LOVE 10CC
34 ( 32 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
35 ( 39 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
36 ( 35 ) MAMA NEVER TOLD ME Sister Sledge
37 ( NEW ) DO IT AGAIN Steely Dan
38 ( NEW ) CHIC-A-BOOM 53rd And 3rd
39 ( 29 ) PER-SO-NAL-LY Wigan’s Ovation
40 ( 40 ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker



41 ( 28 ) SWEARING TO GOD Frankie Valli
42 ( 25 ) IT’S OVER Roy Orbison
43 ( 36 ) D.I.V.O.R.C.E. Tammy Wynette
44 ( 34 ) WILDFIRE Michael Murphey
45 ( NEW ) OUR DAY WILL COME Rupert Fisher
46 ( NEW ) IF YOU THINK YOU KNOW HOW TO LOVE ME Smokey
47 ( 38 ) EIGHTEEN WITH A BULLET Pete Wingfield
48 ( 48 ) JACKIE BLUE Ozark Mountain Daredevils
49 ( 49 ) THE IMMIGRANT Neil Sedaka
50 ( 50 ) WALKIN’ IN RHYTHM The Blackbyrds


So what was I doing in July? Exams were done, the weather was scorching and sunny, so that meant all change, as my days in the 6th form came to a sad end. Unlike the previous school years from 1972/73 and to an extent 74, I was really sad for it to end, I actually enjoyed being at school. Now it was decision time (again) as dad had heard he was being posted back to RAF Swinderby for the 3rd time, and we were beginning a process to get some house-squatting rent-dodging tenants (grandma lived in Liverpool renting with her man and being soft-hearted let some gitty family live in her house for either low rent or no rent, at which point they decided to try and claim the house for themselves. To get over this she signed it over to mum and dad with a view to moving to Mansfield to live in the house we were born in (that’s me, my brother, and mum) when dad left the RAF in 1980. That meant my schooling was yet again buggered up, and with A levels preferable to finding a job that meant I was to be packed up to go to Mansfield in September rather than start back then move again. Basically, my education was a constant mess, constantly changing schools, and having no ongoing mates to grow up with. It was even worse for my brother, who more or less gave up on education from this point onward. For now, though, lazy hazy days of summer, reading DC comics, playing music, playing tennis with Peter Palmer and Ian Galloway (who was applying for the RAF), watching TV and just hanging out basically. I didn’t want to leave Gloucester, to be honest.

Posted by: popchartfreak Apr 27 2016, 08:25 PM

5th August 1975

It’s a second week on top second-time round for Zager And Evans 1969 classic, joined lower down at 28 by Peter Sarstedt’s lovely forgotten track Frozen Orange Juice which charted first time round simultaneously with In The Year 2525. Highest new entry is The Single Girl at 6, a sweet song from 1967 from Sandy Posey which I’d gone mad on while I lived in Singapore 5 years earlier, but which wasn’t eligible to chart (I didn’t chart oldies, so made up for it now as it became a UK hit all over again). Linda Carr treads the top 10 High Wire and Gloria Gaynor gets a 3rd top 10 in a row, as The Stylistics get the top entry by a current record, in at 13 with Can’t Give You Anything (But My Love) - a fab Van McCoy arrangement and their best record since Betcha By Golly Wow 3 years earlier.

Glen Campbell returns at 14 with a bang after an absence of over 4 years, the anthemic Rhi
nestone Cowboy, Glen truly back on the fab sort of form that saw him dominate my charts in 1969 and 1970. Into the 20 for Sparks, George McCrae and Helen Reddy for the 4th, 4th and 3rd time respectively. At 26 it’s a cover of the Michel Legrand 1971 film theme Summer Of ’42, lush disco style by Biddu, a British-based Indian-born disco-pop producer of Kung Fu Fighting and I Love To Love fame, and later of Asian music. It’s a terrific melody and a nice version.

Back to the 50’s at 30 for the original Everley Brothers hit version of All I Have To Do Is Dream, a 1969 top 5 for Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry, and by now positively ancient from my then point of view, 17 years old. At 49 the even better Everley’s 1960 oldie Cathy’s Clown pops in, as Buffy Sainte-Marie brings her 1972 chart hit back at 50 - I’m Gonna Be A Country Girl Again. That leaves actual new stuff from The Moments at 36, following up Girls without any Whatnauts (Dolly My Love), Peter Skellern’s 3rd hit (Hard Times) at 40, and Mike McGear’s second solo entry, a co-write with brother Paul McCartney this time, at 45 - Dance The Do was also produced by Macca, but was sadly the end of Mike’s career when it flopped, and the end of The Scaffold too, Lily The Pink, Thank U Very Much and Liverpool Lou and all.


1 ( 1 ) IN THE YEAR 2525 Zager And Evans
2 ( 2 ) BREAK AWAY The Beach Boys
3 ( 5 ) DELILAH The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
4 ( 4 ) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER Captain And Tennille
5 ( 3 ) MISTY Ray Stevens
6 ( NEW ) THE SINGLE GIRL Sandy Posey
7 ( 9 ) SHERRY Adrian Baker
8 ( 13 ) HIGH WIRE LInda Carr And The Love Squad
9 ( 14 ) ALL I NEED IS YOUR SWEET LOVIN' Gloria Gaynor
10 ( 7 ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony



11 ( 11 ) THAT’S THE WAY (I LIKE IT) K.C. And The Sunshine Band
12 ( 6 ) IT’S IN HIS KISS Linda Lewis
13 ( NEW ) CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING (BUT MY LOVE) The Stylistics
14 ( NEW ) RHINESTONE COWBOY Glen Campbell
15 ( 8 ) ACTION The Sweet
16 ( 10 ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees
17 ( 24 ) IT’S BEEN SO LONG George McCrae
18 ( 21 ) GET IN THE SWING Sparks
19 ( 28 ) BLUEBIRD Helen Reddy
20 ( NEW ) A CHILD’S PRAYER Hot Chocolate



21 ( 12 ) SEALED WITH A KISS Brian Hyland
22 ( 17 ) NEW YORK CITY T.Rex
23 ( 15 ) ANYTHING GOES Harpers Bizarre
24 ( 16 ) 59TH BRIDGE STREET SONG (FEELIN’ GROOVY) Harpers Bizarre
25 ( 30 ) EL BIMBO Bimbo Jet
26 ( NEW ) SUMMER OF ’42 Biddu Orchestra
27 ( 18 ) OH PRETTY WOMAN Roy Orbison
28 ( NEW ) FROZEN ORANGE JUICE Peter Sarstedt
29 ( 22 ) KISS ME KISS YOUR BABY Brotherhood Of Man
30 ( NEW ) (ALL I HAVE TO DO IS) DREAM The Everley Brothers



31 ( 23 ) DISCO STOMP Hamilton Bohannon
32 ( 25 ) MY WHITE BICYCLE Nazereth
33 ( 26 ) HARMOUR LOVE Syreeta
34 ( 33 ) I’M NOT IN LOVE 10CC
35 ( 34 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
36 ( NEW ) DOLLY MY LOVE The Moments
37 ( 37 ) DO IT AGAIN Steely Dan
38 ( 38 ) CHIC-A-BOOM 53rd And 3rd
39 ( 35 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
40 ( NEW ) HARD TIMES Peter Skellern

41 ( 29 ) 7654321 (BLOW YOUR WHISTLE) The Rimshots
42 ( 27 ) I’LL HAVE TO SAY I LOVE YOU IN A SONG Jim Croce
43 ( 31 ) LEADER OF THE PACK The Shangri-Las
44 ( 32 ) HAVE YOU SEEN HER The Chi-Lites
45 ( NEW ) DANCE THE DO Mike McGear
46 ( 40 ) THE ISRAELITES Desmond Dekker
47 ( 36 ) MAMA NEVER TOLD ME Sister Sledge
48 ( 20 ) ROLLING STONE David Essex
49 ( NEW ) CATHY’S CLOWN The Everley Brothers
50 ( NEW ) I’M GONNA BE A COUNTRY GIRL AGAIN Buffy Sainte-Marie



This week in 1975: Viking 1 heads for Mars and we will get to see the surface of the Red Planet - I can’t tell you both how exciting and yet sort-of disappointing it was to see rocks and sand. We didn’t expect to see aliens stood there, but it was just flat and dull and earth-like - it would take decades before we got to see dramatic images of Mars, though understandably they wanted to land somewhere predictably flat and safe and boring first time round.

UK television was largely rubbish, bar Top Of The Pops (Jimmy Savevil sadly, so not likely to be repeated even it still exists), as the hot weather continued. Best shows were repeats of the best western series ever Alias Smith And Jones which had veteran guests Buddy Ebsen and Ida Lupine, and then there was actual veteran show Casey Jones, starring Alan Hale Jr and dating from 1957, but which was always being repeated in the 60’s for kids.



As it was the school holidays (hooray!) the BBC started weekday TV early at 10am with kids shows, and didn’t close down until 11.30pm!! Wacky Races was on too, ditto Here Come The Double Deckers starring future Aswad member Brinsley Forde, and current It Ain’t Half Hot Mum cast member Melvyn Hayes. Tom & Jerry was delighting everyone in the days before it got banished for being too violent (it’s not real, no-one dies!), and Star Trek was reaching the mid-point of it’s first repeat run with Assignment:Earth, starring huge fave of mine Terri Garr. Another fave show High Chaparral was still being repeated, as Blue Boy gets left in charge of the ranch. Long overdue a Box set DVD release!

An actual new US detective episode of Harry O, the wonderful David Janssen, Henry Darrow (ex-High Chaparral) and Juliet Mills guest-starred - also no DVD box set! A drama starring the great William Windom as President Truman considered why he decided to drop the second atom bomb days after Hiroshima. Cheerful stuff. We also said goodbye to Top Of The Form the next week, a quiz show for posh Grammar School kids. At least that’s how I remember it, and a quick google confirms Hugh Grant and Hillary Benn were on the show. Think it’s fair to say no school I ever went to would have been welcome...think it’s fair to say I wasn’t remotely sad it got cancelled. The closest the posh BBC ever came to showing life as I knew it was in sitcoms: the decent The Liver Birds or the tedious Til Death Us Do Part, or of course Coronation Street.

Posted by: popchartfreak Apr 30 2016, 06:57 PM

12th August 1975

1967 single The Single Girl tops my chart 5 years later than it would have done if I had let oldies into my 1970 chart, and Sandy Posey does a sweet helpless girlie countrypop song that wouldn’t go down too well these days, but I still love it anyway. Sensational Delilah is up to 2 for Alex Harvey, Glen Campbell gets his 8th top 10, George McRae gets his 3rd inside 12 months, and highest new entry is from Ray Stevens, hot off Misty topping my chart, at 11 with his album track cover of April Stevens and Nino Tempo’s early 60‘s cover of the 1939 US chart-topper (phew!) Deep Purple. Ray did it country style, and it should have been the follow-up single, guaranteed hit. Sadly it wasn’t released, so Donny & Marie covered it a year later and got the hit. Ray is also in at 20 with Lady Of Spain, a 1931 standard, and an updated cover like most of the other tracks on his Misty album. Both tracks were played on Rosko’s Round Table record review show on Radio 1. I recorded them!

In at 14, Procol Harum return after a 3-year break with the fab Pandora’s Box, and 8 years since A Whiter Shade Of Pale first hit it classic. Annoyingly it was their last hit. Biddu and Bimbo Jet take 2 instrumentals into the 20, Action is new at 25 for The Sweet, their second self-written hit, and a great driving rockpop track miles away from the bubblegum of Funny Funny 4 years earlier. Buffy Sainte-Marie goes top 30 for the second time with her Country Girl, as a real Country girl Billie-Jo Spears lays her Blanket On The Ground, covering number 29 for a bit of slap and tickle. I heard this in a club not long ago and it sounded surprisingly fresh and fab played loud. Talking of Country, there’s another cover at 30, of The Everley Brothers 50‘s track All I Have To Do Is Dream - which was 30 the week before! The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band were faves of mine, known to me from the soundtrack and movie Paint Your Wagon - they would have also had a 1970 chart hit had I allowed it, with Hand Me Down That Can O’ Beans. Fun! This single is for me the best version of the song, and never a hit. Pah!

Chris Spedding rides his Motor Bikin’ back, this time into the 40, while The Glitter Band split from Gary a year earlier (wonder why.....) and are back for the 6th time without him for some Love In The Sun, and sounding totally not Glam Rock-ish. At 42 it’s Rod Stewart entering his major label megastar period, and starting as he means to go on - with a cover version. Yes, it’s the very famous Sailing, a song I loved in 1972 in it’s original folk Sutherland Brothers version. That flopped sadly, so Rod knew a good song when he heard one, slowed it down dramatically, sucked the life out of it, and delivered an anthem. Still prefer the original.

At 43, and an American hit, the theme tune to The Rockford Files - not only the best Private Detective series of all-time (still) starring the fantastic James Garner, but also the best theme tune, as delivered by the consistently good theme show writer Mike Post. This was his best one. Hello are back for the 5th time with their best record, the Bo-Diddley-rhythm-ed New York Groove. Play loud and singalong, New. York. Groove. I”M BACK! Back in the New York Groooove! Fab! Eric Clapton’s also back with another laid-back reggae cover, his 3rd, this time tackling Bob Dylan’s haunting Knocking On Heaven’s Door, which charted 2 years earlier. One of those rare instances where Bob has the definitive version of his own song, it still hasn’t been bettered and many have tried.



1 ( 6 ) THE SINGLE GIRL Sandy Posey
2 ( 3 ) DELILAH The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
3 ( 1 ) IN THE YEAR 2525 Zager And Evans
4 ( 2 ) BREAK AWAY The Beach Boys
5 ( 4 ) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER Captain And Tennille
6 ( 5 ) MISTY Ray Stevens
7 ( 14 ) RHINESTONE COWBOY Glen Campbell
8 ( 17 ) IT’S BEEN SO LONG George McCrae
9 ( 9 ) ALL I NEED IS YOUR SWEET LOVIN' Gloria Gaynor
10 ( 7 ) SHERRY Adrian Baker



11 ( NEW ) DEEP PURPLE Ray Stevens
12 ( 19 ) BLUEBIRD Helen Reddy
13 ( 10 ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
14 ( NEW ) PANDORA’S BOX Procol Harum
15 ( 26 ) SUMMER OF ’42 Biddu Orchestra
16 ( 25 ) EL BIMBO Bimbo Jet
17 ( 20 ) A CHILD’S PRAYER Hot Chocolate
18 ( 12 ) IT’S IN HIS KISS Linda Lewis
19 ( 16 ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees
20 ( NEW ) LADY OF SPAIN Ray Stevens



21 ( 13 ) CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING (BUT MY LOVE) The Stylistics
22 ( 11 ) THAT’S THE WAY (I LIKE IT) K.C. And The Sunshine Band
23 ( 8 ) HIGH WIRE LInda Carr And The Love Squad
24 ( 27 ) OH PRETTY WOMAN Roy Orbison
25 ( NEW ) ACTION The Sweet
26 ( 22 ) NEW YORK CITY T.Rex
27 ( 28 ) FROZEN ORANGE JUICE Peter Sarstedt
28 ( 50 ) I’M GONNA BE A COUNTRY GIRL AGAIN Buffy Sainte-Marie
29 ( NEW ) BLANKET ON THE GROUND Billie-Jo Spears
30 ( NEW ) (ALL I HAVE TO DO IS) DREAM The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band



31 ( 23 ) ANYTHING GOES Harpers Bizarre
32 ( 24 ) 59TH BRIDGE STREET SONG (FEELIN’ GROOVY) Harpers Bizarre
33 ( 21 ) SEALED WITH A KISS Brian Hyland
34 ( 36 ) DOLLY MY LOVE The Moments
35 ( 37 ) DO IT AGAIN Steely Dan
36 ( 38 ) CHIC-A-BOOM 53rd And 3rd
37 ( 40 ) HARD LOVE Peter Skellern
38 ( RE ) MOTOR BIKIN' Chris Spedding
39 ( 18 ) GET IN THE SWING Sparks
40 ( 30 ) (ALL I HAVE TO DO IS) DREAM The Everley Brothers



41 ( NEW ) LOVE IN THE SUN The Glitter Band
42 ( NEW ) SAILING Rod Stewart
43 ( NEW ) THE ROCKFORD FILES Mike Post
44 ( NEW ) NEW YORK GROOVE Hello
45 ( NEW ) KNOCKING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR Eric Clapton
46 ( 31 ) DISCO STOMP Hamilton Bohannon
47 ( 32 ) MY WHITE BICYCLE Nazereth
48 ( 34 ) I’M NOT IN LOVE 10CC
49 ( 35 ) IN THE SUMMERTIME Mungo Jerry
50 ( 39 ) I’M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM YOU Tami Lynn
[i]

Posted by: popchartfreak May 2 2016, 07:54 PM

19th August 1975

It’s Alex Harvey’s sensational live version of Tom Jones’ Delilah at 1, it’s such a shame the Top Of The Pops footage is (probably) long gone, they were great to watch. Tom would probably have topped my chart too had I started my charting a few months earlier, but he got there eventually in the 80’s. Up 14 to 2, it’s Bimbo Jet and the wacky latin euro-instrumental El Bimbo, as another instrumental goes top 10 for Biddu.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band leap into the 20, and Rod is Sailing up to 21, but the highest new entry at 18 is David Bowie’s (essentially) funk combo with John Lennon, Fame, his first US chart-topper, funky and nothing like anything either had done before, Bowie spotting a dance funk trend ahead of the game as usual for his Plastic Soul period. At 24 (and also a superhero Womble in at 49) it’s Mike Batt getting his second solo entry to add to his 7 Wombling hits, the TV summer variety show theme song Summertime City (it was Seaside Special, boasting acts like Abba on it), and a pretty good pop song too.

In at 31, the best track off the Venus And Mars album from Wings, and I was aghast it wasn’t the follow-up single to the fab Listen To What The Man Says - Magneto And Titanium Man was a fab superhero-themed catchy tune with a great McCartney vocal and a host of multi-track harmonies. Instead they went with the not-commercial Letting Go, so by the time it got officially released late in 1975 it missed the top 50, bubbling under instead. At 36, Otis Redding’s great soulful 1965 version of Smokey Robinson’s My Girl becomes his second chart entry, and beats the Temptations definitive version into my charts. At 37, an obscure funk track that had the cool dance-floors grooving, the rather good Crystal World by Crystal Grass - it sounds like a cop TV show theme, and if that brass riff sounds familiar, that’s because it was sampled by S’Express for the brilliant UK chart-topper Theme From S’Express.

At 44, Julie Ann, Kenny’s 4th and least-good single, rather annoyingly ahead of The Eagles returning after 3 years away with the brilliant One Of These Nights. I’m often a fan of single edits, they sometimes snip off the meandering and create a taut perfect 3 or 4 minute single, and the edit is the best version. In with a bang, haunting, moving, great harmonies, and for my money their best record. At 48, the last gasps of glam rock show on Suzi Quatro as I May Be Too Young scrapes in, and at 50, it’s the still touring and performing Brett Marvin And The Thunderbolts. Who they? Essentially, a 1968 pub rock band who struck in 1972 with a terrific novelty hit Seaside Shuffle, under the Jona Lewie-led pseudonym Terry Dactyl And The Dinosaurs. 3 years later, Jona had fled for solo pastures, and the band had a chart go with this nice Rock-A-Hula ditty. Yay!



1 ( 2 ) DELILAH The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
2 ( 16 ) EL BIMBO Bimbo Jet
3 ( 1 ) THE SINGLE GIRL Sandy Posey
4 ( 3 ) IN THE YEAR 2525 Zager And Evans
5 ( 4 ) BREAK AWAY The Beach Boys
6 ( 5 ) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER Captain And Tennille
7 ( 7 ) RHINESTONE COWBOY Glen Campbell
8 ( 8 ) IT’S BEEN SO LONG George McCrae
9 ( 15 ) SUMMER OF ’42 Biddu Orchestra
10 ( 6 ) MISTY Ray Stevens

11 ( 11 ) DEEP PURPLE Ray Stevens
12 ( 30 ) (ALL I HAVE TO DO IS) DREAM The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
13 ( 14 ) PANDORA’S BOX Procol Harum
14 ( 17 ) A CHILD’S PRAYER Hot Chocolate
15 ( 10 ) SHERRY Adrian Baker
16 ( 23 ) HIGH WIRE LInda Carr And The Love Squad
17 ( 35 ) DO IT AGAIN Steely Dan
18 ( NEW ) FAME David Bowie featuring John Lennon
19 ( 9 ) ALL I NEED IS YOUR SWEET LOVIN' Gloria Gaynor
20 ( 13 ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony



21 ( 42 ) SAILING Rod Stewart
22 ( 22 ) THAT’S THE WAY (I LIKE IT) K.C. And The Sunshine Band
23 ( 29 ) BLANKET ON THE GROUND Billie-Jo Spears
24 ( NEW ) SUMMERTIME CITY Mike Batt
25 ( 12 ) BLUEBIRD Helen Reddy
26 ( 20 ) LADY OF SPAIN Ray Stevens
27 ( 28 ) I’M GONNA BE A COUNTRY GIRL AGAIN Buffy Sainte-Marie
28 ( 19 ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees
29 ( 18 ) IT’S IN HIS KISS Linda Lewis
30 ( 26 ) NEW YORK CITY T.Rex



31 ( NEW ) MAGNETO AND TITANIUM MAN Wings
32 ( 21 ) CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING (BUT MY LOVE) The Stylistics
33 ( 25 ) ACTION The Sweet
34 ( 43 ) THE ROCKFORD FILES Mike Post
35 ( 45 ) KNOCKING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR Eric Clapton
36 ( NEW ) MY GIRL Otis Redding
37 ( NEW ) CRYSTAL WORLD Crystal Grass
38 ( 38 ) MOTOR BIKIN' Chris Spedding
39 ( 24 ) OH PRETTY WOMAN Roy Orbison
40 ( 33 ) SEALED WITH A KISS Brian Hyland



41 ( 41 ) LOVE IN THE SUN The Glitter Band
42 ( 31 ) ANYTHING GOES Harpers Bizarre
43 ( 32 ) 59TH BRIDGE STREET SONG (FEELIN’ GROOVY) Harpers Bizarre
44 ( NEW ) JULIE ANN Kenny
45 ( NEW ) ONE OF THESE NIGHTS The Eagles
46 ( 34 ) DOLLY MY LOVE The Moments
47 ( 37 ) HARD LOVE Peter Skellern
48 ( NEW ) I MAY BE TOO YOUNG Suzi Quatro
49 ( NEW ) SUPERWOMBLE The Wombles
50 ( NEW ) HAWAIIAN HONEYMOON Brett Marvin And The Thunderbolts



At the cinema, a bit of a cult classic snuck out unnoticed by me - I was barely aware of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (based on the 1973 stage musical), and it took the release of the movie Fame in 1980 to bring it home to me that it was becoming a bit of a fun audience interaction cult - so when I eventually got to see it on TV, it was already sort-of familiar. Quirky, macabre, tuneful, funny, it remains enormously loveable. Just look at what it’s got to love: Tim Curry’s show-stopping performance as Dr Frank N. Furter, a sweet transvestite from Transylvaniurrrrr, Richard O’Brien in his own musical as the humorless Riff Raff, award-winning actor Susan Sarandon singing in her underwear, Meatloaf as a leather motorcycle monster ahead of his Bat Out Of Hell, a chorus featuring UK nation’s favourite Christopher Biggins, and songs like The Time Warp and Dammit Janet. It also features my fave quote, Tim Curry’s mid-song whispering about antici............................Pation. Fab.

Posted by: popchartfreak May 4 2016, 07:47 PM

26th Aug 1975

It’s another new chart-topper, and an actual new song in the week when the oldies invasion keeps on growing - there is only one actual new song among the oldies and cover-versions debuting. I say song, actually it’s a fun French eurodisco instrumental (mostly) El Bimbo from Bimbo Jet. Some might say cheesy, but it even charted in the USA as well as much of Europe and cropped up in the Police Academy movies. The version shown is really the B side with added “Bimbo”s (not the ladies!) and assorted vocals, but it’s great fun anyway.

Up to 4, Nitty Gritty Dirt band’s cover, while highest new entry is my 1972 top 3 track Walkin’ In The Rain With The One I Love, Love Unlimited’s second Barry White biggie of the year. Of course he was married to Glodean James, one of the trio of girls, so that never hurt their success. The track is pure schmaltz soul perfection, right down to the Barry White telephone call end-song and the rainfall effects. Love it. Into the 10, Mike Batt, Steely Dan’s 1972 classic, and Procol harum.

Going top 20: Rod the not-so-Mod Sailing, Mike Post opening up The Rockford Files, at new at 22 it’s another old soul classic, this time Freda Payne’s spine-tingling 1970 lament to her new hubby who isn’t the man she’d expected he would be between the sheets. The Eagles fly up to 28, and Eric Clapton has knocked on the door of the Top 30 successfully. At 34 Dan McCafferty is the first of 3 versions of Out Of Time to chart in 1975 - Dan is taking a solo break from Nazareth for a good version of the Rolling Stones’ song, as charted big by Chris Farlowe in 1966 in the UK singles chart. In the wake of Dan doing it, both the Stones and Chris versions get reissued and all 3 make the UK singles chart - and mine! Talking of multiple cover versions, Brazil, the 1939 Brazilian latin-rhythm classic song, as featured in movies and jazz cover versions from the 1940’s onwards, is done disco style in the UK charts by 2 acts, The Ritchie Family is the much better version but was beaten in the chart race by the quicker-off-the-mark Crispy & Company version, which is a bit weedy actually, though the song is great. In at 45.

That leaves Gladys Knight free to start delving into her big US hits of the early 70’s Buddah label that all stiffed in the UK, hot off her The Way We Were success. First one up: Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me, nice enough soul ballad. At 50, The Carpenters cover Neil Sedaka’s lovely Solitaire (Record Mirror had a free flexi disc of Neil’s original, still have it), though Andy Williams had already had the big UK hit so it was never going to set the charts alight, but did well enough. Karen’s sad songs were always her forte. That leaves the new song to enter: Bad Company feel Like Makin’ Love, a rock treat, fab guitar, passionate Paul Rodgers vocals, it was almost like Free were back (his previous band), though this was their only track to rate that highly - so good Pauline Henry covered it in the 90’s. I hadn’t liked Can’t get Enough in 1974, so this is their chart debut - and swansong!



1 ( 2 ) EL BIMBO Bimbo Jet
2 ( 3 ) THE SINGLE GIRL Sandy Posey
3 ( 1 ) DELILAH The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
4 ( 12 ) (ALL I HAVE TO DO IS) DREAM The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
5 ( NEW ) WALKING IN THE RAIN WITH THE ONE I LOVE Love Unlimited featuring Barry White
6 ( 24 ) SUMMERTIME CITY Mike Batt
7 ( 9 ) SUMMER OF ’42 Biddu Orchestra
8 ( 8 ) IT’S BEEN SO LONG George McCrae
9 ( 17 ) DO IT AGAIN Steely Dan
10 ( 13 ) PANDORA’S BOX Procol Harum



11 ( 4 ) IN THE YEAR 2525 Zager And Evans
12 ( 5 ) BREAK AWAY The Beach Boys
13 ( 21 ) SAILING Rod Stewart
14 ( 14 ) A CHILD’S PRAYER Hot Chocolate
15 ( 18 ) FAME David Bowie featuring John Lennon
16 ( 34 ) THE ROCKFORD FILES Mike Post
17 ( 6 ) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER Captain And Tennille
18 ( 10 ) MISTY Ray Stevens
19 ( 7 ) RHINESTONE COWBOY Glen Campbell
20 ( 22 ) THAT’S THE WAY (I LIKE IT) K.C. And The Sunshine Band



21 ( 11 ) DEEP PURPLE Ray Stevens
22 ( NEW ) BAND OF GOLD Freda Payne
23 ( 23 ) BLANKET ON THE GROUND Billie-Jo Spears
24 ( 27 ) I’M GONNA BE A COUNTRY GIRL AGAIN Buffy Sainte-Marie
25 ( 16 ) HIGH WIRE LInda Carr And The Love Squad
26 ( 20 ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
27 ( 32 ) CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING (BUT MY LOVE) The Stylistics
28 ( 45 ) ONE OF THESE NIGHTS The Eagles
29 ( 19 ) ALL I NEED IS YOUR SWEET LOVIN' Gloria Gaynor
30 ( 35 ) KNOCKING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR Eric Clapton

31 ( 15 ) SHERRY Adrian Baker
32 ( 41 ) LOVE IN THE SUN The Glitter Band
33 ( 48 ) I MAY BE TOO YOUNG Suzi Quatro
34 ( NEW ) OUT OF TIME Dan McCafferty
35 ( 36 ) MY GIRL Otis Redding
36 ( 37 ) CRYSTAL WORLD Crystal Grass
37 ( 28 ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees
38 ( 29 ) IT’S IN HIS KISS Linda Lewis
39 ( 30 ) NEW YORK CITY T.Rex
40 ( 25 ) BLUEBIRD Helen Reddy



41 ( 26 ) LADY OF SPAIN Ray Stevens
42 ( 31 ) MAGNETO AND TITANIUM MAN Wings
43 ( 38 ) MOTOR BIKIN' Chris Spedding
44 ( 44 ) JULIE ANN Kenny
45 ( NEW ) BRAZIL Crispy & Company
46 ( NEW ) BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ME Gladys Knight And The Pips
47 ( NEW ) FEEL LIKE MAKIN’ LOVE Bad Company
48 ( 40 ) SEALED WITH A KISS Brian Hyland
49 ( 33 ) ACTION The Sweet
50 ( NEW ) SOLITAIRE The Carpenters



This month in the news: Dmitri Shostakovich died - I remember this as a kid in my school music class (3 years earlier) used to write his name in his schoolbooks the way other teens wrote T.Rex, Bowie, David Cassidy or The Osmonds. Bit of a classical music fan! On a happier note Charlize Theron was born, though I wouldn't know about that for another 30-odd years. On tragic notes, there was a pub bombing by the IRA in Belfast killing 5 people, and in Birmingham, The Birmingham Six were convicted for the bombings there in 1974 - wrongfully, of course, thanks to the police deciding who was guilty and making the evidence appear to fit and forcing confessions. The police always have, and always will, make huge mistakes because they are people, no different from anyone else other than feeling a bit cocksure about themselves and banding together when they should be speaking out against injustice. In the USA serial-killer Ted Bundy was captured (hooray!) and then escaped prison to kill again (see previous police comments these apply internationally).

In Ethiopa, Emporer Hailie Salassie was assassinated (though that wasn't announced for another 16 years), in the Far East Laos opted for invading Communist armies, and PVC food packaging was banned in the USA after it was found to cause cancer. On a scientific note, a supernova that exploded 6,000 light years away became visible to the naked eye for a week. Sadly, I didn't spot it.....

Posted by: Popchartfreak Apr 6 2018, 07:56 PM

1st September 1975

It's another reissued oldie in at 1 for Edison Lighthouse, which had 2 weeks on top over 5 years previously - fairly obviously, age 17, I was heavily getting onto the 1969-72 period and rediscovering "old" faves (or as I would consider anything 3 to 6 years old these days, "recent"). That's bad news for The Eagles who are cruelly robbed of a number one with their best record - they never came close, though Don Henley did top my charts eventually. In fact with multiple Ray Stevens covers, and the Nitty Griity Dirt Band, Billie-Joe Spears, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Glen Campbell it's quite the country chart...

In at 6 it's a comedian, who was suddenly very hot - it was the other side (a comedy skit) that was partly selling the record, but Funky Moped was pretty catchy and amusing, and ironically higher charting than the much more cool Motor Bikin'. Mike Post's classic TV theme deservedly goes top 10, and Pilot's 1974 Top tenner in my charts is out again (and still bloody under-performed despite a re-recording) - Just A Smile is their best record, though they still had future non-hit goodies before morphing into their producer's 80's Alan Parsons Project.

The old standard Indian Love Call is Ray Stevens official follow-up to Misty, a poor choice as Deep Purple is the commercial-sounding track (see Donny & Marie in 1976), but is new in anyway, just ahead of an absolute bonafide classic as Abba kickstart their classic period with SOS at 26. For some inexplicable reason I liked it at the time (it was their 5th chart entry in my lists, 6 if you count the cover of Honey Honey which robbed them of a big hit) but I didn't absolutely worship the ground it walks on for a few years. I do now, and it duly topped my charts 25 years late.

The Jackson 5, busy morphing into Epic-label Jacksons, were getting the milking-Motown treatment during 1974/5, not least this single which was completely ignored by all, but Time Explosion was decent enough to chart at 27. In at 34, a fabulous studio-musicians single with a vocalist-for-hire soaring I'm On Fire. Sadly Tina Charles wasn't slim and blonde and wasn't invited to front the band on Top Of The Pops - they found someone who was instead (and who they didnt invite back for Dr. Kiss Kiss in 1976), so Tina suitably had a Biddu-produced long run of disco singles hits instead, so ya boo to you.

At 43, the fabulous Lesley Gore, her of gay-icon You Don't Own Me and It's My Party (among many) is back with a new song that got radio play - and no sales. Immortality was a goodie. It's also her last first and last appearance on my chart with new material, though You Don't Own Me topped my chart shortly after she died. Desmond Dekker extends his run of hits to 6 years, and Leo Sayer to 2 years, now found Moonlighting. Leo is still kicking in concert, a must-see in a small venue.

1 ( NEW ) LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) Edison Lighthouse
2 ( 28 ) ONE OF THESE NIGHTS The Eagles
3 ( 4 ) (ALL I HAVE TO DO IS) DREAM The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
4 ( 6 ) SUMMERTIME CITY Mike Batt
5 ( 1 ) EL BIMBO Bimbo Jet
6 ( NEW ) FUNKY MOPED Jasper Carrott
7 ( 9 ) DO IT AGAIN Steely Dan
8 ( 16 ) THE ROCKFORD FILES Mike Post
9 ( 2 ) THE SINGLE GIRL Sandy Posey
10 ( 5 ) WALKING IN THE RAIN WITH THE ONE I LOVE Love Unlimited

11 ( 3 ) DELILAH The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
12 ( 10 ) PANDORA’S BOX Procol Harum
13 ( NEW ) JUST A SMILE Pilot
14 ( 7 ) SUMMER OF ’42 Biddu Orchestra
15 ( 8 ) IT’S BEEN SO LONG George McCrae
16 ( 22 ) BAND OF GOLD Freda Payne
17 ( 11 ) IN THE YEAR 2525 Zager And Evans
18 ( 12 ) BREAK AWAY The Beach Boys
19 ( 14 ) A CHILD’S PRAYER Hot Chocolate
20 ( 13 ) SAILING Rod Stewart

21 ( 18 ) MISTY Ray Stevens
22 ( 17 ) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER Captain And Tennille
23 ( 19 ) RHINESTONE COWBOY Glen Campbell
24 ( 15 ) FAME David Bowie featuring John Lennon
25 ( NEW ) INDIAN LOVE CALL Ray Stevens
26 ( NEW ) SOS Abba
27 ( NEW ) TIME EXPLOSION The Jackson 5
28 ( 34 ) OUT OF TIME Dan McCafferty
29 ( 32 ) LOVE IN THE SUN The Glitter Band
30 ( 20 ) THAT’S THE WAY (I LIKE IT) K.C. And The Sunshine Band

31 ( 47 ) FEEL LIKE MAKIN’ LOVE Bad Company
32 ( 43 ) MOTOR BIKIN' Chris Spedding
33 ( 33 ) I MAY BE TOO YOUNG Suzi Quatro
34 ( NEW ) I’M ON FIRE 5,000 Volts featuring Tina Charles
35 ( 23 ) BLANKET ON THE GROUND Billie-Jo Spears
36 ( 30 ) KNOCKING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR Eric Clapton
37 ( 26 ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
38 ( 27 ) CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING (BUT MY LOVE) The Stylistics
39 ( 21 ) DEEP PURPLE Ray Stevens
40 ( 24 ) I’M GONNA BE A COUNTRY GIRL AGAIN Buffy Sainte-Marie

41 ( 46 ) BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ME Gladys Knight And The Pips
42 ( 44 ) JULIE ANN Kenny
43 ( NEW ) IMMORTALITY Lesley Gore
44 ( NEW ) SING A LITTLE SONG Desmond Dekker
45 ( NEW ) MOONLIGHTING Leo Sayer
46 ( 25 ) HIGH WIRE LInda Carr And The Love Squad
47 ( 29 ) ALL I NEED IS YOUR SWEET LOVIN' Gloria Gaynor
48 ( 37 ) JIVE TALKING The Bee Gees
49 ( 38 ) IT’S IN HIS KISS Linda Lewis
50 ( 39 ) NEW YORK CITY T.Rex

Posted by: King Rollo Apr 7 2018, 12:00 PM

Good to see Funky Moped here. The "funky moped" line in a deep voice was sung by Bev Bevan. Jasper and Bev were in the same year at school and briefly worked together in a furniture shop before they became famous.

Posted by: Popchartfreak May 12 2018, 05:42 PM

QUOTE(King Rollo @ Apr 7 2018, 01:00 PM)

Posted by: Popchartfreak May 12 2018, 06:29 PM

8th September 1975

It's a first week on top for the country cover of the old Everly Brothers song which first charted in 1969 in my charts for Glen Campbell & Bobbie Gentry. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band version is my fave version to date, though. Pilot return to the top 10 a year on with Just A Smile, their best (forgotten) record, and the highest new entry is a song from Swedish act Harpo (not the Marx Brother) which took a year to make the UK charts, but which I loved right off the bat. More than I loved the latest Abba single which stalled at 26 for the girls providing vocal backup for Harpo - incredible as it sounds it took me some years to become convinced of the genius that is SOS, though it was my 3rd fave Abba single to date.

In at 12, Showaddywaddy get a 4th top 20 with the Buddy Holly cover (50's covers quite the theme in the 70's, as nostalgia always works in 2-decade cycles), as 60's fab songstress Lesley Gore leaps into the 20 with new material. Tina Charles gets her first top 20 (It says 5000 volts on the label, but they were never great again and Tina was), and Al Matthews enters at 23 with the soul goodie Fool. Disco Tex is back as I buy his I Wanna Dance Wit Choo in the bargain bins and like his new single too Boogie Flap, in at 27 for his 3rd top 30. Or I should say "their" as the songwriters/producers/group-members were Kenny "Swing Your Daddy/High Wire/Lady Marmalade & other Chelsea Records hits" Nolan and Bob "Four Seasons" Crewe.

Desmond Dekker grabs his first (and last) new top 30 hit in 5 years, Jonathan King covers a European cheesy holiday smash (as was his wont, trying to beat out the George Baker Selection original) and gets a huge UK hit with Una Paloma Blanca, a pretty naff song by any standards, though I was blinded by pop star loyalty for a while. It does at least namecheck Una Stubbs, Paloma Faith and Blanca Jagger. Honest...!

At 46, David Essex back on form with a song that was obviously going to be huge the first time I heard it - Hold Me Close - Ray Stevens re-enters Lady Of Spain for 4 on the chart an actual Ed Sheeran/Drake-style chart invasion stylee for 1975 (I was ahead of the game, clearly), as US hit singles Rocky (Austin Roberts) and Fallin' In Love Again (Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds' countryrock goodie) keep the new entries flowing. Another Hamilton (Bohannon) has a 2nd chart entry, and finally Reparata debuts (strictly speaking) or returns after a gap of 7 years (had I started my charts a few months earlier in 1968) since the fab Captain Of Your Ship with her Delrons. Shoes is a cover of a European hit that borrowed some of the rhythms of her previous pop hit and combined them with a certain "hey! hey!" Greek-Russian-stylee rhythm. Good single.

1 ( 3 ) (ALL I HAVE TO DO IS) DREAM The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
2 ( 1 ) LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) Edison Lighthouse
3 ( 4 ) SUMMERTIME CITY Mike Batt
4 ( 6 ) FUNKY MOPED Jasper Carrott
5 ( 2 ) ONE OF THESE NIGHTS The Eagles
6 ( 7 ) DO IT AGAIN Steely Dan
7 ( 9 ) THE SINGLE GIRL Sandy Posey
8 ( 13 ) JUST A SMILE Pilot
9 ( 5 ) EL BIMBO Bimbo Jet
10 ( NEW ) MOVIE STAR Harpo featuring Agnetha & Frida

11 ( 8 ) THE ROCKFORD FILES Mike Post
12 ( NEW ) HEARTBEAT Showaddywaddy
13 ( 43 ) IMMORTALITY Lesley Gore
14 ( 34 ) I’M ON FIRE 5,000 Volts featuring Tina Charles
15 ( 25 ) INDIAN LOVE CALL Ray Stevens
16 ( 23 ) RHINESTONE COWBOY Glen Campbell
17 ( 24 ) FAME David Bowie featuring John Lennon
18 ( 11 ) DELILAH The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
19 ( 17 ) IN THE YEAR 2525 Zager And Evans
20 ( 18 ) BREAK AWAY The Beach Boys

21 ( 21 ) MISTY Ray Stevens
22 ( 22 ) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER Captain And Tennille
23 ( NEW ) FOOL Al Matthews
24 ( 15 ) IT’S BEEN SO LONG George McCrae
25 ( 14 ) SUMMER OF ’42 Biddu Orchestra
26 ( 26 ) SOS Abba
27 ( NEW ) BOOGIE FLAP Disco Tex & The Sex-o-Lettes
28 ( 10 ) WALKING IN THE RAIN WITH THE ONE I LOVE Love Unlimited
29 ( 44 ) SING A LITTLE SONG Desmond Dekker
30 ( 32 ) MOTOR BIKIN' Chris Spedding

31 ( 31 ) FEEL LIKE MAKIN’ LOVE Bad Company
32 ( 30 ) THAT’S THE WAY (I LIKE IT) K.C. And The Sunshine Band
33 ( 12 ) PANDORA’S BOX Procol Harum
34 ( 27 ) TIME EXPLOSION The Jackson 5
35 ( 16 ) BAND OF GOLD Freda Payne
36 ( 41 ) BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ME Gladys Knight And The Pips
37 ( 37 ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
38 ( 38 ) CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING (BUT MY LOVE) The Stylistics
39 ( 39 ) DEEP PURPLE Ray Stevens
40 ( 19 ) A CHILD’S PRAYER Hot Chocolate

41 ( NEW ) UNA PALOMA BLANCA Jonathan King
42 ( 28 ) OUT OF TIME Dan McCafferty
43 ( RE ) LADY OF SPAIN Ray Stevens
44 ( 29 ) LOVE IN THE SUN The Glitter Band
45 ( 35 ) BLANKET ON THE GROUND Billie-Jo Spears
46 ( NEW ) HOLD ME CLOSE David Essex
47 ( NEW ) ROCKY Austin Roberts
48 ( NEW ) SHOES Reparata
49 ( NEW ) FALLIN’ IN LOVE AGAIN Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds
50 ( NEW ) HAPPY FEELING Hamilton Bohannon

Posted by: Steve201 May 17 2018, 10:32 AM

Would Fame by David Bowie rechart for you in 1989 again?

Posted by: Popchartfreak May 19 2018, 08:51 AM

QUOTE(Steve201 @ May 17 2018, 11:32 AM)

Posted by: Popchartfreak May 31 2018, 06:51 PM

15th September 1975

It's a first week on top for The Wombles man Mike Batt, and his Seaside Special theme tune, a jolly pop romp that would have sounded just as good as Wombletime City. Other than that it's a decidedly 50's and 60's retro chart, which was pretty incredible given I was only 17 and didnt have much in the way for nostalgia for anything much more than 12 years old. Pilot reach a new peak a year late with Just A Smile at 4, Tina Charles gets a first top 10 with I'm On Fire, and soulman Al Matthews shoots up to 8. Showaddywaddy's Buddy Holly cover gives them a 3rd top 10 in a row - but I wouldn't hold your breath expecting that to happen ever again! Meanwhoile Lesley Gore gets a new track into the top 10 6 years ahead of her It's My Party topping the UK charts - for someone else.

David Essex launches right into the top 20 with Hold Me Close having chart-topper written all over it - UK chart-topper at any rate, poor ol' David never did top my chart despite coming close many times. Reparata also steps her Shoes into the 30, just ahead of the highest new entry from The Supremes, giving them 7 years of chart hits with flop single He's My Man - or at least 2 of them, new girl Scherrie Payne had replaced Jean Terrell who had replaced Diana Ross. 60's folkie Paul Simon also returns, as with The Supremes, for the first time in 2 years with Gone At Last, and more astoundingly The Four Seasons re-invent their sound, add two new co-lead-singer members, get Frankie Valli on verses lead and grab their first huge hit with new material since 1967 - predating my charts, bar the oldie UK hit The Night, which led to this track. Bob Gaudio still does the magic songwriting, though with another parter, Judy Parker.

Art Garfunkel joins his old ex-duo-mate entering the chart, and covers a 1934 standard in a dreamy, slowed-down style, the lovely I Only Have Eyes For You, previously most-famous in a doo-wop version by The Flamingos. One place behind at 40, Hello are back with a 4th chart entry, and their best record, the Bo Diddley-rhythm-ed fab New York Groove, yet another of many songs by Russ Ballard recorded by other acts outside Argent and his solo career. Another veteran act also returns with one of many UK 70's hits, The Drifters with Johnny Moore still on lead provided the ideal outlet for British songwriters, in this case Barry Mason & Roger Greenaway, writers of many famous pop hits, and There Goes My First Love, though this marked the point at which they started to get a bit samey for me.

Van McCoy is still at 44 with The Hustle, and guess what, he's also at 49 with his early 60's goodies When You're Young And In Love, a Ruby & The Romantics track that became better known in the 1967 cover by The Marvelettes and huge hit in 1984 for The Flying Picketts in the UK. This version was US minor Billboard soul hit for teen singer and actor Ralph Carter (star of US black sitcom Good Times) - though there was also a competing version which also charted at that time, this was the one I got to hear. That leaves The Goodies' Nappy Love, and their pastiche of 50's teen heart-throbs in at 50. Somehow they had managed to get 5 songs into my chart in under a year, but the best thing they did was the flip of this one - Wild Thing, The Troggs song done for an episode of their TV show which was genuinely funny: "Wild Thing! Hold Me. Tight. Not. Quite. That. Tight"


1 ( 3 ) SUMMERTIME CITY Mike Batt
2 ( 1 ) (ALL I HAVE TO DO IS) DREAM The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
3 ( 2 ) LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) Edison Lighthouse
4 ( 8 ) JUST A SMILE Pilot
5 ( 7 ) THE SINGLE GIRL Sandy Posey
6 ( 10 ) MOVIE STAR Harpo featuring Agnetha & Frida
7 ( 14 ) I’M ON FIRE 5,000 Volts featuring Tina Charles
8 ( 23 ) FOOL Al Matthews
9 ( 12 ) HEARTBEAT Showaddywaddy
10 ( 13 ) IMMORTALITY Lesley Gore

11 ( 4 ) FUNKY MOPED Jasper Carrott
12 ( 15 ) INDIAN LOVE CALL Ray Stevens
13 ( 6 ) DO IT AGAIN Steely Dan
14 ( 9 ) EL BIMBO Bimbo Jet
15 ( 5 ) ONE OF THESE NIGHTS The Eagles
16 ( 16 ) RHINESTONE COWBOY Glen Campbell
17 ( 46 ) HOLD ME CLOSE David Essex
18 ( 27 ) BOOGIE FLAP Disco Tex & The Sex-o-Lettes
19 ( 30 ) MOTOR BIKIN' Chris Spedding
20 ( 11 ) THE ROCKFORD FILES Mike Post

21 ( 31 ) FEEL LIKE MAKIN’ LOVE Bad Company
22 ( 48 ) SHOES Reparata
23 ( 26 ) SOS Abba
24 ( 19 ) IN THE YEAR 2525 Zager And Evans
25 ( 20 ) BREAK AWAY The Beach Boys
26 ( 18 ) DELILAH The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
27 ( NEW ) HE’S MY MAN The Supremes
28 ( NEW ) GONE AT LAST Paul Simon featuring Phoebe Coates
29 ( 17 ) FAME David Bowie featuring John Lennon
30 ( NEW ) WHO LOVES YOU The Four Seasons

31 ( 21 ) MISTY Ray Stevens
32 ( 22 ) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER Captain And Tennille
33 ( 35 ) BAND OF GOLD Freda Payne
34 ( 41 ) UNA PALOMA BLANCA Jonathan King
35 ( 24 ) IT’S BEEN SO LONG George McCrae
36 ( 25 ) SUMMER OF ’42 Biddu Orchestra
37 ( 29 ) SING A LITTLE SONG Desmond Dekker
38 ( 32 ) THAT’S THE WAY (I LIKE IT) K.C. And The Sunshine Band
39 ( NEW ) I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU Art Garfunkel
40 ( NEW ) NEW YORK GROOVE Hello

41 ( 47 ) ROCKY Austin Roberts
42 ( 28 ) WALKING IN THE RAIN WITH THE ONE I LOVE Love Unlimited
43 ( 49 ) FALLIN’ IN LOVE AGAIN Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds
44 ( 37 ) THE HUSTLE Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
45 ( 38 ) CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING (BUT MY LOVE) The Stylistics
46 ( 33 ) PANDORA’S BOX Procol Harum
47 ( 39 ) DEEP PURPLE Ray Stevens
48 ( NEW ) THERE GOES MY FIRST LOVE The Drifters
49 ( NEW ) WHEN YOU’RE YOUNG AND IN LOVE Ralph Carter
50 ( NEW ) NAPPY LOVE The Goodies