Le Freak memories of a Tunisian hotel disco and threats from the local female-student-botherers. Classic record. She i didnt like at the time but i have grown to love it via elvis costello and Substitute an exciting chart topper for me and all i think went Gold at the time for 500000 sales always a marker of a big hit. Fab!

Substitute is my favourite out of those three. We had another song by Clout in the 70s Rock edition of the 20th Century song contest. Le Freak is a disco classic and She is an OK ballad, much covered.

Among tomorrow's entries will include rectifying what was clearly a BMRB error and creating our first controversial moment of the rundown!

Very surprised to see 'Le Freak' here considering it peaked at #7, but very much here for it! Huge disco classic that would send Chic on the way to shaping much of early 80s pop.

None of these three are the on the BMRB top 100 for the decade

Le Freak is a fun and good disco track.

She by Charles Aznavour is very pre-rock and roll 50s crooner. Also similar to Demis Roussos and Julio Iglesias.

I dont know Substitute well the chorus melody reminds me of Wild Thing by the Troggs.

97. ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL- Pink Floyd (521,200)*

 

1979

6 weeks on chart

Peak position: 1

 

Here’s the final No 1 of the 1970’s then, written as a three part composition it was part two which was lifted as a single to become their sole chart topper and indeed only UK single of the decade for them!  Wiki covers all three parts as:

“During "Part 1", the protagonist, Pink, begins building a metaphorical wall around himself following the death of his father. In "Part 2", traumas involving his overprotective mother and abusive schoolteachers become bricks in the wall. Following a violent breakdown in "Part 3", Pink dismisses everyone he knows as "just bricks in the wall."

Part two was written as a protest song against oppressive schooling and even featuring a choir for chilling effect, it remains probably their defining moment, at least chart wise. This missed out on the BMRB top 100 list for an unknown reason, but considering it sold a million during it's run at least half a million had to be before the end of the decade, and that despite the Christmas week sales not being included!

96. MERRY XMAS EVERYBODY- Slade (522,800)*

 

1973

9 weeks in chart

Peak position: 1

 

Well this is rather lower than it (probably) should be on the list.  Slade’s 6^th and final chart topper has of course become a Christmas staple over the years after it was the festive No 1 for 1973.  It started life as a melody Holder composed in 1967 but then disguarded, when it was proposed the group write a Christmas single it was brushed down and given new lyrics then recorded on a hot day in July in New York.  Of course the Christmas week is missing sales wise which would have pushed it further up the list but panel sales wise this is your lot!  It also creates chart history when it replaced  Gary Glitter’s “I Love You Love Me Love”- the first instance of consecutive No 1 hits entering the charts at No 1 (and not replicated for another 16 years).

95. RASPUTIN- Boney M (525,100)

 

1978

10 weeks in chart

Peak position: 2

 

Svengali Frank Farian to the rescue again with this recanting of the tale of Rasputin set to a disco beat, though lyrics suggesting he was definitely the lover of the queen remain disputed by historians!  It was also (apparently) something of a hit in the Soviet Union at the time reviving the reputation of the man himself, here it was held off the top by Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta despite selling over 100,000 a week at its height.  The first of 4 acts to appear 3 times on the list!

'Another Brick In The Wall' is easily my favourite to fall so far! 1979 was an exceptional year for chart toppers.

Rasputin died on the 30th December in Saint Petersburg, Russia

Boney M member Bobby Farrell also died on the 30th December in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

( 104 years apart )

Edited yesterday at 11:071 day by mrpopquiz

'Another Brick In The Wall' is fantastic, one of the great Christmas #1s from the most unlikely source, considering Pink Floyd had released so few singles. 'Rasputin' is a fun one and my favourite Boney M song.

Well slade is an oddity then as both glitter and slade went on to be reported million sellers! Record sales at the time prob went up due to the 3 day week and power cuts. There was nothing else to do! No tv beyond 10pm birth rate increased 9 months later but at least records and radio were still on. 😇

Chic le freak selling makes sense as late 78 was also a big selling period as people treated themselves to fancy new entertainment systems with records cassettes and radio all included. Old bulky stereograms on the way out!

4 hours ago, Popchartfreak said:

Well slade is an oddity then as both glitter and slade went on to be reported million sellers! Record sales at the time prob went up due to the 3 day week and power cuts. There was nothing else to do! No tv beyond 10pm birth rate increased 9 months later but at least records and radio were still on. 😇

Chic le freak selling makes sense as late 78 was also a big selling period as people treated themselves to fancy new entertainment systems with records cassettes and radio all included. Old bulky stereograms on the way out!

Though presumably less opportunity to buy as the record shops were shut?

Obviously there is a big sales week missing for Slade which helps to explain- though Slade never sold a million in the 70s of the track (it was certified as Paltinum in December 1980) and Alan Jones gave it sales of 989,000 in February 1980 which fits. This however does not account for the variation needed to reconcile both figures so we return to the first post for the explaination (in particular point 3 that sales outside the top 50 are not known, and point 4 that Saturday sales were seldom collected) plus it could have been selling significiantly outside the panel shops and this cannot be sorted out by the standard multiplier. In any eventuality that's all the panel sales show for it

'Another Brick In The Wall' and 'Rasputin' are great. Both got charting remixes much later by Eric Prydz and Majestic respectively. Slade is a bit noisy but OK.

I think BMRB coped very well with standard hits but the truly popular ones are mostly under represented on the list which lends weight to the theory that the really big hits are not reflected fully in the panel sales. There is a huge example of this (well more than 1) that I'll deal with at the end of the thread when we cover songs in the BMRB top 100 but aren't on this list. From memory I don't think Woolworths provided sales to the BMRB (they only signed on for Gallup) so that may also account for a difference. They may have multiplied up for the scale of the market but maybe not weighed it properly.

For example, let's say there were 1,000 record shops in 1977 (for arguments sake) of which 50 provided data to BMRB, BMRB may have thought "OK we're sampling 5% of the market so if we multiply by 20 then we get an idea what the market is selling overall". That's fine but the other question (which Galluped worked out)- is that you need to know what % of the market the other 95% of shops are selling. Gallup "weighted" their samples so gave different allowances to sales of records depending on where they were sold - for instance 300 copies of a record sold in HMV on Oxford Street in London is not likely to be selling the same in a Woolworths in a small town in northern Scotland.

Anyway we're just speculating and unless anyone wants to volunteer some info from the time when they working for BMRB then we kind of have what we have.

5 hours ago, Popchartfreak said:

Well slade is an oddity then as both glitter and slade went on to be reported million sellers! Record sales at the time prob went up due to the 3 day week and power cuts. There was nothing else to do! No tv beyond 10pm birth rate increased 9 months later but at least records and radio were still on. 😇

Yes but you couldn't play your records during a power cut John.., Slade sold loads after Xmas too.

Edited 20 hours ago20 hr by CRAZY CHRIS

Rasputin is one the most annoying records to me that many people seem

to love.

For my weakest decade music knowledge wise, I know most of these so far.

Why did I think Slade sold a million of Merry Xmas Everybody in the 70s?

Another Brick In The Wall is certainly the best of those three and was my introduction to Pink Floyd. I wouldn't have known any of their other songs at that point. The Slade single is not one of my favourite Christmas songs.