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_20...y_Vol_1_206.jpg

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!).

 

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.

 

John, possible you have another two or three Eurovision related # 1s (Save Your Kisses For Me, Making Your Mind Up, not sure about Love Shine A Light).

 

Here is Lyn Paul - Love :

 

 

Wonderful song, didn't heard it before, obviously should be # 1 in my retrospective.

 

John, possible you have another two or three Eurovision related # 1s (Save Your Kisses For Me, Making Your Mind Up, not sure about Love Shine A Light).

 

Here is Lyn Paul - Love :

 

 

Wonderful song, didn't heard it before, obviously should be # 1 in my retrospective.

Ahh thanks Alex! I have no memory of it at all so guess I only heard it once or twice but it's really sweet:-)

 

Muchos gracias!

 

Other Eurovision toppers? I'm afraid that's it until love city groove and then nothing till the 00s and there's been loads in the last 10 yearsB-)

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

 

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!

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

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

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.

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

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

 

 

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.

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!

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.

 

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

 

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!

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....

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.

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

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.

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.