I find the Slade track incredibly annoying. I've mentioned my fear of the Pink Floyd track several times now so I won't do so again... and the Boney M track is decent enough, the production is undeniably catchy

94. CHANSON D’AMOUR- Manhattan Transfer (525,900)

 

1977

13 weeks in the chart

Peak position: 1

 

A #6 hit in 1958 for Art and Dotty Todd in the US, it was largely overlooked since and failed to make it big internationally until Manhattan Transfer stumbled on it in 1976 and recorded this version.  The lead singer made a purposeful effort to sound like Edith Piaf and the song actually hit it big in France but flopped in their native US initially.  It then went on to conquer all of Europe including the UK before eventually making No 16 in the US.

93. HOLD ME CLOSE- David Essex (526,000)

 

1975

10 weeks in chart

Peak position: 1

 

Jeff Wayne produced track which became Essex’s second and final chart topper.  It helped cement his position as the heartthrob of choice by the end of 1975 for those not swayed by the Bay City Rollers.  Essex had returned to the stage by the end of the 70s and of course tipped up in “Eastenders” in the 2010’s

92. GIVE A LITTLE LOVE- Bay City Rollers (529,800)

 

1975

9 Weeks in chart

Peak Position: 1

 

 

They could no wrong in 1975 when Rollermania swept the UK sending this to the top just as it its predecessor “Bye Bye Baby”.  This was, at least, an original composition taking just a fortnight to make the top and was gone from the charts after 9 weeks showing how concentrated those sales must have been.

17 hours ago, Gezza said:

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

I think shops were mostly open during the day to keep things ticking over - except Sundays, no shops on sundays at all in those days - but dont quote me on that! I was hunched up with my transistor radio on Radio Luxembourg on those dark TV-less nights. It was schools and factories that closed for sure to conserve power, but I dont remember mum and dad being off work (Forces NAAFI shop and RAF)....it was a long time ago though!

Re: panel sales, I wouldnt be at all surprised if they were all over the place during that period, as they were during postal strikes previously, not to mention Saturday sales were the biggest day of sales as we all headed into town to do the shopping and buy records as well, so that all fits in with the analysis!

Thanks for the data!

Floyd is a classic biggie chart-topper for me, Slade is the biggest chart record on my charts to never top my charts, but like many I dont really need to hear it at Xmas anymore! Give A Little Love benefitting from enthusiastic and sometimes histrionic younger girls buying anything in 1975 that featured tight flared Scottish trousers too short for the legs 😇 David Essex usually appealed more to older, more mature girls not likely to burst out crying at the drop of a hat and his songs were way better.

Chanson D'amour a nice retro biggie after 1976 was the year of nostalgia for the 30's and 40's loads of old hits and songs. A bit like the 80's and 90's now.

Ratatatata

I had to create a topic book about the '70s in primary school and interviewed my mum for it, as she was born in the late '60s. This was the first time I'd heard of the Bay City Rollers as she explained they were her favourite group as a little girl! I was quite surprised by their sound when I eventually checked them out as a lot of her taste is not too far removed from mine. I guess it improved in the '80s

David Essex was one of my nan's celebrity crushes so both of these fangirl-heavy acts covered in my family. I'm not crazy about any of this trio of songs but 'Hold Me Close' is the best of them, a song I mostly associate with adverts, although 'Rock On' is his most interesting for me.

Who remembers the chant:

B A Y

B A Y

B A Y C I T Y

With an R O double L E R S

Bay City Rollers are the best !

In case anyone is interested the book I mentioned is called The Pop Industry Inside Out by Michael Cable (1977) with a chapter on charts and panel sales. A few mentions on the panel of shops used: they are nationwide, and any local-selling records are immediately excluded from the chart (eg football team songs); the ID of these shops (all volunteers, no money paid) was a closely-guarded not-very-secret, so lower end figures could be adjusted by hiring in helpful buyers; sudden surges in sales are checked by reference to shops outside the panel shops to compare. The panel Sales logbook was used immediately to log a sale so it was never going to be secret for long. 50% of record sales take place on friday and saturday.

The sample of shops was always a problem, as big-selling shops like Woolworths, Boots and W H Smith couldnt be arsed to take part - so a huge section of the record-buying public were never represented by the more specialist shops making up the panel reporting. (I expect that may explain differences between reported sales and panel estimates. Woolies were the cheapest for singles so most people went there, and only popped into the others if they'd sold out or it wasnt stocked in the first place - they didnt much bother with non-top 30 tracks except those guaranteed to be popular and in the chart the next week. Soon as they dropped out the top 50 they were in the bargain bin at half price, which of course made no difference to chart panel sales either way).

That 1976 chart panel sales-only chart is for week 17 the first week of Fernando at number 1. It actually had lower sales after 3 weeks at 2: 3,442 vs 3825, 5171 & 4566 behind Brotherhood Of Man. BOM had sales of 3,128 after 3 weeks of 10053, 7416 and 5316. Silver Star at 6 on 1,721 had previous sales of 139, 550, and 1186. Number 50 had panel sales of 234, with previous of 187, 215 and 169 so the margins down the lower end are wafer thin and 3 relatives shopping a few panel shops could easily get you into the top 50 if in the Star Breakers top 10!

So I have the panel sales for week 17 in total and in part for previous 3 weeks. I used the ratio of sales to create my personal chart sales that I've stuck with ever since. My word, I was very keen on charts back then! 😇