In the period 1973 to 1976 outwith glam and before punk, there were a number of pop groups that came and went, some had a few hits some just 1 or 2. Do you remember any of them, or maybe some of the songs? Were they all bad, or were some passible?

 

Rubettes - Sugar baby love, Juke box jive..................... <_<

Kenny - The bump :puke2:

Pilot - January, It's magic..................I quite liked them :)

Paperlace - Billy don't be a hero, The night Chicago died... <_<

Hello - Tell him, New York Groove...... thought they were ok

Sailor - Glass of Champagne, Girls Girls Girls....... :)

Fox - Only you can, S-s-s-Single bed...............can't remember much about them :unsure:

First Class - Beach baby :puke2:

Arrows - A touch too much :unsure:

Splinter - Costafinetown ....liked this

Smokie - If you think you know how to love me, Living next door to Alice, Of Carol..... :) liked a few of their songs, but not all

Mud - Tiger Feet, Crazy, Lonely this xmas, Oh Boy, (guitarist Rob Davis penned No.1 songs later for both Kylie & Spiller) don't mind a bit of mud

Edited May 19, 200817 yr by brian91

yeah i remember all on that list...

 

it was an awfully bland time for pop and in general things were pretty dire.

 

sailor 'glass of champagne' was good, and has been given a new lease of life.... scooter have pinched it and changed the lyrics for their #1 album 'jumping all over the world' <_<

 

mud of course were another shoddywaddy, rock n roll revival act which though were quite good. i liked early mud, hypnosis for eg and 'tiger feet' was a classic pop song.

 

cockney rebel of course were outstanding, and i liked ronnie lane and slim chance 'the poacher' (74).

I forgot about Splinter - that song used to be played to death at the time on my local radio station. I liked Mud in 1974 and had Sugar Baby Love and Billy Don't Be A Hero. I loved the era at the time (didn't know any better really) but it's a drab period in respect.

 

EDIT: I had a feeling Splinter were a local group, and sure enough, they were - from South Shields in North Tyneside (the local station being Metro Radio in Newcastle). That explains why the song was played to death...

Edited May 20, 200817 yr by Robbie

The first I ever heard of Kenny's 'The Bump' was when Space Raiders sampled it for their big beat hit 'Glam Raid'. I saw it not long after on TOTP2 and thought it was ace - they did 'Fancy Pants' too didn't they?

 

Guuuuuillllty pleasures!

I love 'Sugar Baby Love' - it was huge in the UK, & Europe in 1974, &

it is ultra commercial. There is nothing wrong with a Pop Song being

created that is so obviously meant to sell truckloads of copies.

 

I like 'Glass Of Champagne', too - although, it is really heavily influenced

by Roxy Music from their earlier Songs like, 'Virginia Plain' (1972)

 

Arrows - I like 'A Touch Too Much' as well. Written by Nicky Chinn & Mike

Chapman, who did so many of the Hits of, Sweet, Mud, & Suzi Quatro. The

single has a heavily guitar based backing & intro, & a catchy chorus.

 

'Beach Baby' by First Class, was a bigger USA Hit, (No.4), than in the UK.

It is a very complex Single - lots of parts to it, & an Epic production.

 

I liked some Smokie Singles. They never had a UK No.1, but they had 3 in

Germany, where they were huge. (Sweet were bigger there too - 8 No.1's,

to only 1 for them in the UK).

 

And, I liked Hello's 1974 Cover of 'Tell Him', & their 1975 Hit, 'New York Groove'.

 

Cockney Rebel, I loved - 'Judy Teen', 'Mr. Soft', 'Make Me Smile' etc.

 

And I liked Mud - everything from their up-temp Pop, to their 2 Elvis Presley

styled pastiches - 'Lonely This Christmas' & 'The Secrets That You Keep'.

Edited May 20, 200817 yr by zeus555

interestingly, my record collection has only about a dozen or so records from these three years combined! thats how poor i rated pop in them dark days.

Dont forget The Wombles ...They had loads of hits during this period.

Dont forget The Wombles ...They had loads of hits during this period.

 

BUGGER! i was TRYING to forget them! :lol:

Oh dear, that list pretty much sums up the reason why Punk had to happen..... :lol: :lol:

British pop music was dieing on its backside in this period:

 

Slade & T-Rex went into a commercial decline; David Bowie moved away from pop/rock music towards plastic soul; Chinn & Chapman took over but were just a superior Stock Aitken & Waterman with better songs and acts. Steve Harley's Cockney Rebel were the best new British pop act of this period. Whilst 10cc were making the best British pop records of this period.

 

But oh dear at the Bay City Rollers, The Rubettes, Showaddywaddy, Smokie, Kenny, Paper Lace, The Wombles, The Goodies ....... and then you had the American domination by the Osmonds .... :puke2:

 

Whilst with Rock music, the likes of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd & Black Sabbath became too remote for their audience. The Rolling Stones & The Who had creatively peaked and were heading towards a terminal decline as a glorified oldies jukebox. Pomp/Prog rock was taking over thanks to the likes of Yes, ELP, Focus, Mike Oldfield, Queen & Jethro Tull....

 

.... No wonder the British music scene needed the kick up the jamms motherf...... that it received with Punk.

 

But - really - in 1976, it was ABBA who became the biggest Act in the

UK in the 1970's - and by the end of that Decade, they had outsold every

Record Act in the UK since 1970.....

 

And they did this while Punk was going on - it had Zero effect on ABBA,

or their UK Sales.....

^

 

Yes, but Abba were class musicians with brilliantly constructed pop songs (the same could be said for the BeeGees over the same period of time), that are difficult to beat, and still sound great today.

But - really - in 1976, it was ABBA who became the biggest Act in the

UK in the 1970's - and by the end of that Decade, they had outsold every

Record Act in the UK since 1970.....

 

And they did this while Punk was going on - it had Zero effect on ABBA,

or their UK Sales.....

 

true.... indeed i bought both abba and punk, in some ways maybe punk made abba more acceptable as punk advocated free choice, do anything you wanna do, so it became more acceptable to like more then one style of music. (as pre-punk styles were very polarised, you were expected to like one style of music )