There was another 'Action' early 70s glam rock song?! Only know (Piece of the) Action by The Sweet.

18 (41) BACK STABBERS - The O'Jays

Another classic I loved at the time and still bloody love even more, what a classic Philadelphia production, great lyrics, Back Stabbers is as eternally relevant as a message for a song as it has always been (in general terms, even if this is strictly about girlfriend-stealers, I have always seen it as a general message for life where some people are concerned). This hit was also the announcement of the arrival of two song-writing teams that would drop classic after soul classic in the 70's - Leon Huff of Gamble & Huff (the producers/main songwriter/owners of Philadelphia International), and Mcfadden/Whitehead who would end the decade with their own classic soul hit as artists as well as songwriters. As for The O'Jays, Gamble & Hugg rescued them from a decade of underwhelming recordings and launched them properly with Back Stabbers, the trio were among the top soul/harmony vocalists who were equally fabulous in solo vocal spots, on this record Eddie Levert and Walter Williams are basically sharing lead vocal duties with back-up from 3rd member William Powell and assorted others. William tragically died aged only 35 in 1977 from cancer. Eddie and Walter have kept on going, though sadly not as a recording act beyond the 80's - though Eddie's kids had hits as Levert. I really can't pick between Eddie and Walter's vocals here, both are amazing singers. What could be better than opening your hit career with a classic - see the late Angie Stone's sample for her great I Wish I Didn't Miss You in the early 2000's - would be to have another classic ready and waiting. No, not the follow-up, 992 Arguments (that's 123 in the list), the one that's on the album that they held back for 1973 single release. That will be popping up here, as year of release.

17 (NEW) WISHING WELL - Free

My first introduction to Free wasn't THAT record at all - I didn't get to hear All Right Now until it was a hit again in the summer of 1973, following up on this early 1973 rock classic that should be better remembered than it is. Love the message, love the riffs which gel into the production more than the showy riffs of the monster famous hit from 1970. Prior to Wishing Well came A Little Bit Of Love which sort of falls in between both All Right Now and Wishing Well, but falls short of the 100 at 202. It's good, and I'd much rather hear it than the overplayed All Right Now, after that track kept coming periodically back in the charts every few years into the the 90's - albeit that time in a Clearmountain Remix version, just as Wishing Well did when it topped my charts the same year having just missed out on a top 100 year-end slot in 1973. 50 years on and Wishing well ranks 17th of 1972, the year of release. Best thing they ever did, and the last new hit they ever had - it was break-up and Bad Company in lead singer Paul Rodgers future until he stood in as Queen vocalist following the death of Freddie Mercury in the 90's.

16 (33) STORM IN A TEACUP - The Fortunes

I loved this song in 1972, and have loved it ever since. What a tune, courtesy of Lynsey De Paul soon-to-be-hitmaker. I even did an Art piece at school at the time - design an album cover based on a song, and a storm inside a giant teacup was a no-brainer. It was the only subject I came top in at the end of school-year results. The British band The Fortunes had had some mid-60's hits including the woulda-been-a-number-one-for-me all-time fave You've Got Your Troubles, which I adore to this day from 1965 onwards, and then had another big USA hit in 1971 with the fabulous Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again, mystifyingly not a UK hit, which spearheaded some more hits for the band, produced and arranged by Rogers' Cook & Greenaway - see Blue Mink, New Seekers, and multiple other hit-making songs. Lynsey De Paul popped in to see them, offered Storm In A Teacup and away it went into the charts. Lead vocalist Rod Allen had a great vocal appeal to me, possibly from memories of the Pirate Radio song Caroline, or the famous coke Jingles Things Go Better With Coke, It's The Real Thing as well as the hits, I just loved his range and emotions on the right song, Storm in A Teacup being the right song number 3. Is it a bit too middle-of-the-road pop for serious music consideration? Nah. It's fabulous. If you don't trust me, ask John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten. He also loves it, and it still pops up on very oldies radio now and again at a time when the early 70's have gone the way of the 60's in being banished from mainstream radio bar The Famous Hits. Me, I love it more now than I even did at the time, because it gets to me emotionally.

15 (NEW) I'LL BE AROUND - The Detroit Spinners

The Detroit Spinners had been having hits in the USA for almost a decade, under the name the Spinners, but in the UK there was already a folk band using that name, so in came The Motown Spinners for 1970's It's A Shame, and then when they changed labels The Detroit Spinners for a decade of UK hits - which never included this gem. For some reason unknown I'll Be There never got picked up on in the UK, which is bizarre as the Philadelphia smooth-soul sound was starting to take off in the wake of The Delfonics and The Chi-Lites hits so this classic soul track shoulda been a shoo-in. Not only was it not a hit, but I never got to hear it even once that I recall, and it was left to Terri Wells 1984 hit dance cover to introduce me to the song. That was a very good track, but when I got to hear the original it was obvious to me that it rates right up there with another of their classics still to come. Love it. We are totally into their classic Thom Bell era at this point, with lead singer Bobby Smith's velvet-smooth vocals lending the immaculate productions a finishing touch. Soul music to me is all about emotion, and I'll Be There is about as positive and heart-warming as they come.

14 (NEW) I SAW THE LIGHT - Todd Rundgren

One of the great pities about hit singles is the many great songs and acts that never manage to get one. Todd Rundgren is one of those artists - the closest he got was I Saw The Light scraping into the UK 50 after being a big US smash, which meant this genius summery feel-good melodic diamond was excluded from my charts in the cold January of 1973, as my charts were limited to UK top 30 tracks then. A shame as it definitely would have made my year-end top 100, and time has been even-more kind, with the track recently doing well following use in an advert, meaning it's better-known than one might expect for a relative flop. Todd started off in the group Nazz in the late 60's with an early version of a song still pending on this list, but was never one to get tied down and moved over into producing other acts, having acclaimed albums, occasional US hits across the decades, and dabbling in all sorts of genres of music, not least electronic music, progrock, and powerpop. Who has he produced? Badfinger, Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell, XTC, Sparks, to name-drop a few of the less-mainstream acts he chose to help-out. Todd is still working and got back together with Sparks 50 years on to produce/appear on 2022 track Your Fandango. It's as quirky as one must expect from both of them. This fabulous track, though, shows Todd could quite happily do radio-staple Gorgeous West Coast-flavoured melodic rock if he felt like it.

13 (71) COULD IT BE I'M FALLING IN LOVE - The Detroit Spinners

I'm using the word "gorgeous" a lot at this top end of the run-down, and Could It Be I'm Falling In Love is total gorge, written by 2 songwriters I've never heard of Mystro and Lyric, sounding very like a Thom Bell pseudonym on top of his production with the lush MFSB orchestra arguably giving us the first obviously-Philly-sounding Sound Of Philadelphia hit. It went top 10 for me and the UK in the spring of 1973 and ended the year as 71st in the listing, but like so many early Philly hits, they proved to have legs in the long run. It was a hit again in 1977 as part of an EP of Spinners songs, and Jaki Graham and David Grant had a top 5 UK smash cover in 1985, which was also pretty damn fine and gorgeous - but not quite topping the original. Fairly obviously, I'm well into the Spinners circa 1972/3 - later hits were good, but not quite in the same league for me, and none of them will be rated this high!

12 (16) AIN'T NO SUNSHINE - Michael Jackson

Plaintive. There's a word I might choose to use for young Michael Jackson's vocal abilities pre-puberty. Ain't No Sunshine had been a smash classic soul hit in 1971 for Bill Withers, but made no inroads in the UK and most of us (including me) were oblivious to the amazing song until Motown decided to gift a single on the UK in lieu of an inferior single off the album in the US. We got the better deal. This made a great double whammy for Bill as his Lean On Me also charted at the same time (see #23), and these days it's a toss-up which version of Ain't No Sunshine I love more - but I think it's Michael version. The Jackson 5 star was being set up for solo success before his voice broke - you never what is going to happen! - and he got hat-trick of top 10 hits in the UK in 1972, the first of them just grabbing a slot in 1971 listings by virtue of release date. Got To Be There showed a stunning range and a mature emotional ability to sing for a kid that was the same age as me - 13 - and that we'd already had hints of on Jackson 5 ballads like I'll Be There and Never Can Say Goodbye. There wasn't a chance in Hell I could hit any of those notes, then or now, and I think Michael's early stuff needs a lot more love than it gets in his huge back catalogue. Especially his performance on Ain't No Sunshine. With all due respect to modern pop or soul-based singers, let's see them try and match it, cos I'm fairly sure most would struggle to even keep up.....

11 (3) METAL GURU - T. REX

Marc Bolan was peaking when this came out, Metal Guru was irresistibly Glam-Rock-Catchy-Hook-Rifftastic top-notch T. Rex in the schools-out early summer of 1972, and I loved this track. In terms of singles they couldnt put a foot wrong from Ride A White Swan in 1970 through to the summer of 1973, and then that was it, the music scene changed and bar a few minor hits they never were quite as exciting again as they were in 1971 and 1972. So, this ends in the 1972 rundown as the top Bolan track, just as it did at the time, albeit 8 places lower and short of a Medal position. I still love it though. It's not quite as ominous as Get It On, as singalong as Hot Love or as blistering a riff as 20th Century Boy, but it remains exciting to me now as it did when I heard it for the first time as a 14-year-old.

On 19/04/2025 at 17:09, TheSnake said:

There was another 'Action' early 70s glam rock song?! Only know (Piece of the) Action by The Sweet.

There was indeed, sorry I missed the question, I was madly downloading the next song and missed it! Def Leppard covered Action , but I only know a rockabilly cover of Solid Gold Easy Action, that was an unusual choice! 😄