Music

435. Gloria Gaynor – I Will Survive (1979)

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The Intro

US soul singer Gloria Gaynor’s disco classic I Will Survive was originally an afterthought, a B-side, with little studio sheen added. It’s now considered a feminist and LGBTQ+ anthem and is a karaoke mainstay.

Before

Gaynor was born Gloria Fowles on 7 September 1943 in Newark, New Jersey. Music was a constant in her youth, with her father Daniel singing and playing ukulele as part of a nightclub group called Step ‘n’ Fetch-it. The Fowles were a large, poor family – five boys and two girls, including Gloria. Four brothers formed a gospel group but she wasn’t allowed to join them. The family moved to a housing project in 1960 and a year later Fowles graduated.

She became a singer in a local nightclub and within a few years she was part of jazz and R’n’B group The Soul Satisfiers. In 1965, as Gloria Gaynor, she released her debut single She’ll Be Sorry. It was produced by Johnny Nash, later to have a UK number 1 with Tears on My Pillow (I Can’t Take It). It was Nash who had suggested she change her name.

Nothing came of it but Gaynor spent years becoming experienced at performing live. Then in 1973 she was signed to Columbia Records by Clive Davis and released another flop, Honey Bee.

Gaynor hit pay dirt when she signed to MGM Records and released debut album Never Can Say Goodbye in 1975. The first side consisted of a remake of Honey Bee, plus covers of soul classics Never Can Say Goodbye and Reach Out, I’ll Be There. Thanks to an uncredited Tom Moulton, this record contained a historic first – it was the first album to consist of one long continuous mix of the tracks. This earned Moulton the title ‘father of the disco mix’. The title track became a hit single, peaking at two in the UK and nine in the US. Reach Out, I’ll Be There then reached 14 on these shores.

It began to look like Gaynor would be a flash in the pan as singles from Experience Gloria Gaynor didn’t grab the attention of the public. One exception was a cover of jazz standard How High the Moon, which climbed to 33 in 1975. Her next few albums – I’ve Got You (1976), Glorious (1977) and Gloria Gaynor’s Park Avenue Sound (1978) all bombed.

Gaynor’s next LP, Love Tracks, was recorded for release in November 1978. A month before that came the single Substitute. Her label Polydor thought this former Righteous Brothers track would be a worldwide hit as it had been for South Africa girlband Clout. However, several DJs – including Richie Kaczor of Studio 54 – began taking note of the B-side, I Will Survive, instead.

It had been written by two former Motown producers, Dino Fekaris and Freddie Perren. The latter had co-written three Jackson 5 US number 1s – I Want You Back, The Love You Save and ABC. After being sacked by Motown, Fekaris was unemployed and wrote the lyrics to I Will Survive after seeing a song he’d written for Rare Earth being used on TV. He took it as a sign things would work out. And they did.

Fekaris and Perren formed their own production company and made Reunited with Peaches and Herb, which became a hit. Afterwards they decided to give I Will Survive to the next singer they worked with. Gaynor was the lucky one.

https://youtu.be/ARt9HV9T0w8

Review

On Gaynor’s previous hits, her voice was pitched up in order to make her songs faster for playing on the dancefloor. And as with most disco songs, the productions would feature a more polished, layered production. It’s interesting to consider whether I Will Survive would have been treated the same way had it been considered for the A-side originally. I’m not sure it would have the same power if it had been.

The highlight of the track is Gaynor’s raw, soulful performance. You really feel the hurt and anger in her voice and the message of the song suits an untamed vocal without any studio trickery. Though the performance is raw and the production understated, the piano at the beginning and the strings after the chorus do a great job of adding to the drama of the song.

Pop songs about love going wrong often portray the ‘loser’ as weak. Even the icy cool Debbie Harry lets the mask slip briefly in Heart of Glass. But what Gaynor does is fool us into thinking she’s not over her heartbreak during those opening lines. But once she sings ‘And I grew strong, and I learned how to get along’, the song moves up a notch, and from then on, Gaynor sounds like someone you shouldn’t mess with as she belts out those lyrics to I Will Survive.

Obviously, I Will Survive has survived and will always be considered one of the highlights of the disco era. It’s an alluring theme for a song, that of empowerment for the underdog, so there’s no wonder it was adopted, as previously mentioned, by feminists and the LGBTQ+ movement, both fighting back against an era in which political correctness wasn’t high on the agenda of mainstream culture.

However, although there is a lot to enjoy here, I Will Survive is not up there with my favourite disco songs. A lot of that, to be fair, isn’t down to the song, or to Gaynor. It’s the way it’s been done to death over the years by the media. It’s all the parodies. It’s drunk people bawling it when leaving the pub, followed by It’s Raining Men. It’s just a bit tiresome, sadly.

I used to wonder why Gaynor’s performance seemed slightly weird in the video to I Will Survive. It was filmed at the New York discotheque Xenon. Her stance is unusual and she looks genuinely pained. She was. Giving the song a whole new dimension is the fact that in 1978 Gaynor fell over a monitor on stage during a choreographed tug-of-war with her dancers. She was paralysed from the waist down and thought she would never walk again. Surgery helped Gaynor back on her feet but she recorded the song, and the video, in a lot of pain and wearing a back brace. It wasn’t until further surgery in 2018 that the pain went away.

As for the rollerskating dancer in the video, that was Sheila-Reid Pender from skating group The Village Wizards. Gaynor and Pender were filmed separately and didn’t meet until 2014 at a book signing event held for Gaynor’s autobiography, We Will Survive.

After

The song was a global smash and topped the charts in many countries. It came along just in time, as by the end of the year the disco backlash, mainly a thinly veiled excuse for homophobes, racists and sexists to vent anger, had begun.

Hits were few and far between from then on. Let Me Know (I Have a Right) climbed to 32 in the UK in 1979 but it was four years before her next success. She became a Christian in 1982 and distanced herself from what she considered a sinful past. Then in 1983 her version of I Am What I Am also became adopted by the gay community as an anthem and climbed to 13 in the UK chart.

For the rest of the 80s Gaynor continued to release music but nothing troubled the mainstream. DJ and producer Shep Pettibone remixes of I Will Survive were released in 1990. They didn’t chart, but Phil Kelsey’s remix in 1993 coincided with a nostalgic interest in disco and peaked at five. With Gaynor back in the public eye she turned to acting in the late 90s, with cameos in That 70s Show and Ally McBeal.

The Outro

Gaynor continues to release albums sporadically, and of course, I Will Survive has been revisited many times over her career, with remixes, Spanish language versions and lyrics sometimes rewritten to reflect her Christian beliefs and also referencing tragedies such as Hurricane Harvey in Texas in 2017. Her most recent album, the roots gospel collection Testimony, earned Gaynor her second Grammy, 20 years after her first.

There’s been many covers of I Will Survive over the years and the rock version by Cake in 1996 is well worth a mention.

The Info

Written by

Dino Fekaris & Freddie Perren

Producer

Dino Fekaris

Weeks at number 1

4 (17 March-13 April)

The Info

Births

9 April: Actor Ben Silverstone
10 April: Singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Deaths

19 March: Actor Richard Beckinsale
23 March: Footballer Ted Anderson
24 March: Founder of Tesco Sir Jack Cohen
30 March: Tory MP Airey Neave

Meanwhile…

17 March: Nottingham Forest defeat Southampton 3-2 at Wembley Stadium to win the Football League Cup for the second year running. 

18 March: Three men are killed in an explosion at the Golborne colliery in Golborne, Greater Manchester. 

22 March: Sir Richard Sykes, ambassador to the Netherlands, is shot dead by a member of the Provisional IRA in the Hague. 

28 March: The Labour government loses a motion of confidence by just one vote, which forces a General Election.

29 March: Prime Minister James Callaghan announces a General Election will be held on 3 May. Having missed the chance to call one before the Winter of Discontent swayed public opinion against Labour, all the major opinion polls point towards a Conservative win, which would make Margaret Thatcher the first female Prime Minister.

30 March: Tory Northern Ireland spokesman Airey Neave is killed by an Irish National Liberation Army bomb in the car park of the House of Commons.

31 March: The Royal Navy withdraws from Malta. 

4 April: 19-year-old bank worker Josephine Whitaker is murdered in Halifax. Police believe she is the 11th woman to be murdered by the Yorkshire Ripper. 

434. The Bee Gees – Tragedy (1979)

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The Intro

The Bee Gees rounded off an astounding few years with a fourth number 1. It was to mark the start of another downward slide in their fortunes, however.

Before

Thanks to the disco boom and their part in the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, the Gibb brothers were everywhere in the late-70s. After Night Fever became their third UK number 1, the LP was mined further. Yvonne Elliman’s version of If I Can’t Have You was a US number 1. The Tavares’ version of More Than a Woman was a number seven hit in the UK. In March 1978 songs by The Bee Gees held the number 1 and two spots in the US with Night Fever and Staying Alive – a feat unrivalled since The Beatles. Five songs written by the Gibbs were in the top 10 at once over there that month, too.

Barry Gibb and brother Robin wrote Emotion, a number 11 UK hit for their Australian friend Samantha Sang and The Bee Gees performed backing vocals and Barry wrote the classic theme to the smash-hit cinema adaptation of Grease, sung by Frankie Valli – a US number 1. It wasn’t a good time to be alive if you weren’t a fan of the Gibbs.

However, not everything they touched turned to gold. They starred in their manager Robert Stigwood’s famous flop Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, based on The Beatles’ concept album, in 1978. The critics hated it and the public ignored it. They featured heavily on the soundtrack too. But at least while working on the film, the Gibbs did co-write the excellent Shadow Dancing for their younger brother Andy, which also became a US number 1.

From there, they went to work on their follow-up to Saturday Night Fever. Spirits Having Flown, their 15th album, was co-produced by Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. Galuten has claimed that it was he, Richardson and Barry who did most of the work, though keyboardist Blue Weaver disputes this. They both agree that Robin took on more of a behind-the-scenes role, active in songwriting and offering feedback during the recording process. He performed only one solo lead vocal, on Living Together, amounting to the least work he had featured on a Bee Gees album since the 60s. It wasn’t a happy time for Maurice, who was an alcoholic and struggling with back pain. Although he recorded bass parts, he didn’t know they were later overdubbed.

In a bid to prove they weren’t just about filling disco dance floors, the first single from Spirits Having Flown was the ballad Too Much Heaven. It was another US number 1, and peaked at three in the UK. That single and the next, Tragedy, had been written by Barry, Robin and Maurice earlier the same day as Shadow Dancing.

Review

I’ve mixed feelings about Tragedy. I’ve never been much of a fan until relistening for the blog just now. I previously found it overblown and too melodramatic, with the Gibbs harmonies, which I normally enjoy, just too much. Now, I can see it’s a decent enough tune, just not up there with the likes of Staying Alive and Night Fever. I mainly like the bubbling synth sound on the verses. But it outstays its welcome somewhat and is a sign the Gibbs were starting to slide creatively. Though nobody can deny they’d had a bloody good run.

After

It would be eight years before The Bee Gees next held the top spot in the UK. Just as with psychedelia at the close of the 60s, the genre the Gibbs had aligned themselves with, disco, became unfashionable. The Bee Gees were much more successful at the point though, and had farther to fall. The backlash became so strong, they were forced into writing hits for others.

The Outro

Tragedy would return to the top of the charts in 1998 when it became half of a double A-side with Heartbeat for the dance-pop group Steps. It became their signature song and led to a stupid trademark dance as well. Shorn of the synths, it’s not as good as the original.

The Info

Written by

Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb

Producers

The Bee Gees, Karl Richardson & Albhy Galuten

Weeks at number 1

2 (3-16 March)

Trivia

Births

12 March: The Libertines singer Pete Doherty

433. Blondie – Heart of Glass (1979)

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The Intro

Simultaneously one of the hottest and coolest new wave bands, US six-piece Blondie were also one of the most successful, notching up five UK number 1s in under two years (and another in 1999). Heart of Glass melded new wave, rock, disco and pop with a slither of punk attitude, and it’s their best single.

Before

Blondie’s beginnings start back in New York in 1973. Guitarist Chris Stein joined rock band the Stilettoes. He began a romantic relationship with one of their vocalists – Debbie Harry. She had been a waitress, a Playboy Bunny and a member of folk-rock group the Wind in the Willows in the late-60s. Harry and Stein decided to leave the Stilettoes and start a new band in 1974. Together with former bandmates Billy O’Connor on drums and Fred Smith on bass, they became Angel and the Snake that August.

Two months later and with only two gigs under their belts, they changed their name to Blondie. As the whole world knows, Harry was one of the most beautiful women in the world, and would turn heads wherever she went. Among no doubt filthier shouts, lorry drivers would bark ‘Hey, blondie!’ at her as they drove by her walking down the street.

Fast forward to spring 1975 and Blondie’s line-up had changed several times – including experimenting with female backing singers. Drummer Clem Burke then joined them, along with Gary Valentine on bass. They became regular performers at hip joints CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, wowing crowds with power-pop and Harry’s stage presence. A few months later they recruited keyboardist Jimmy Destri to fill out their sound.

Signing with Private Stock Records, their eponymous debut LP was released in December 1976. It made little of an impression, and first single X Offender sank without trace, despite them supporting Iggy Pop on tour. However, the follow-up In the Flesh became a number two hit in Australia after being played by accident on TV (they were supposed to be showing X Offender).

Blondie decided to buy back their contract and switched to the British label Chrysalis Records. Blondie was re-released on Chrysalis in October 1977 and the critics began to take note. Nevertheless Valentine left the group and they recorded second album Plastic Letters as a four-piece, released in 1978.

The first single from the album Denis (a cover of a 1963 song by Randy and the Rainbows) finally saw their commercial stock rise – all the way to number two in the UK, where the music papers made a story out of Harry battling it out for the top spot with another strong female pop star, namely Kate Bush, who won out with Wuthering Heights. Denis did reach the top spot in the Netherlands and Belgium though, and when the next 7-inch, (I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear peaked at 10 in the UK, it seemed Blondie were here to stay. They were.

Hiring Frank Infante on guitar and British bassist Nigel Harrison, the six-strong Blondie toured the UK and became one of the first new wave acts to hit the mainstream. Here at last was a rock group in which the men stayed out of the spotlight. It shone fully on Harry, who had star power like few others at the time.

In a clear attempt to really leave their mark on the pop scene, Blondie worked with a big-name producer. Australian Mike Chapman had been half of ‘Chinnichap’ with Nicky Chinn. Together they wrote and produced glam rock number 1 classics by The Sweet, Mud and Suzi Quatro. The latter proved particularly appropriate, as Chapman had experience in helping female rock stars climb the charts with catchy commercial pop songs.

Blondie’s Chapman-produced third album Parallel Lines was released in September 1978. first single Picture This climbed to 12 and Hanging on the Telephone peaked at five. Their first number 1 was next.

Heart of Glass was one of Blondie’s earliest tracks. Originally known as Once I Had a Love, it was written by Harry and Stein and 1974 and demoed a year later. Although slower and funkier than the released version, It had a disco influence right from the start, having been influenced by one of the genre’s earliest hits – The Hues Corporation’s Rock the Boat (1974). Harry later recounted that the lyrics to Heart of Glass weren’t directed personally to a former love of hers, it was written as a ‘plaintive moan about lost love’. They tried it as a ballad and even reggae over the years, but it never quite worked.

Blondie remained in thrall to disco, to the consternation of some rock die-hards, over the years, occasionally adding dance floor hits to their setlists. Harry expressed her love of the work of producer Giorgio Moroder in the NME early in 1978, and the band surprised a CBGB crowd with a cover of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love later that year.

When it came to meeting Chapman to start work on Parallel Lines, the producer asked Blondie to show him what they could record. At the end he asked if there was anything else, and the band sheepishly decided to perform Heart of Glass. Despite their reticence, Chapman loved it and saw a potential hit. Blondie began to agree, but having also become fans of Kraftwerk, wanted to recreate the futuristic sounds of the German innovators as well as Moroder’s hits.

The six-piece assembled at the Record Plant in New York in June 1978 to record Heart of Glass. Unusually at the time, a rock band chose to build the song around a drum machine. The Roland CR-78 had only been released earlier that year, and it was Stein and Destri who introduced it to the studio, having bought one from a store in Manhattan. Destri in particular had a lot to do with the sound of Heart of Glass and brought in some synthesisers. Other technology used in the production included the Roland SH-5 and Minimoog.

Review

Heart of Glass is one of my favourite number 1s of the 70s and one I’ll never tire of. It never dates either. You could argue the 80s began right here and it certainly had an influence on music over the next few years. It’s icy, cool as fuck and one of the greatest disco tracks of all time – despite not actually being that easy to dance to. I love the lyrics, which suit Harry’s ‘not arsed mate’ attitude. Yes, she was once in love. She’s not any more, and you only have to listen to the first few lines to know she’s totally over it.

The lyrics to Heart of Glass are fascinating. What actually is a heart of glass? Does she have a heart of glass or does he? If it’s him, does she mean she’s cut herself because of him? Or does she mean she’s discovered her heart is fragile and he broke it into pieces? Hard to tell, because although she’s given the impression she’s moved on, the choruses suggest otherwise. In the second one Harry suggests he’s cheated on her, and she sings ‘I’m the one you’re using, please don’t push me aside’. ‘Mucho mistrust’ also suggests infidelity.

It’s worth noting that, as far as I can tell, Heart of Glass is the first chart-topper to contain a swear word of sorts. Blondie decided to try and get away with one instance of ‘Soon turned out, it was a pain in the ass’ in both the single and album mixes. It soon got replaced on the radio with another ‘heart of glass’, but good on them for trying! The song then ends on that catchy-as-hell, resigned ‘Ooh ooh ooh, ah-ah’, which comes across as another ‘ah, fuck it’.

With Heart of Glass, Blondie and Chapman really melded those influences of Moroder and Kraftwerk together to create something unique. Like I Feel Love, it feels like it could go on forever and that wouldn’t be a bad thing. I listened to 45 minutes of different versions of this in one go and I only began to tire towards the end. And like Kraftwerk, its machine-like, but scratch the surface and there’s human emotions underneath.

For the single, Chapman beefed up the sound and accentuated the double-tracked bass drum. For me, the best version is the 5:50 ‘Disco Version’ released as a 12-inch. Unlike a lot of 12-inch mixes of the time, it doesn’t sound like bits have been unnecessarily tacked on. It sounds like the natural version, just for letting the rhythm stretch out that bit longer.

The promo video to Heart of Glass was directed by Stanley Dorfman, a British director who did just that on the very first edition of Top of the Pops. The film begins with aerial shots of New York, slowly revolving like a mirrorball, before showing the streets of the city and landmarks including the Ed Sullivan Theatre and Studio 54. Although we’re meant to get the suggestion the latter is where this is filmed, it was actually made in a long-forgotten, short-lived club.

The rest of the video alternates between close-ups of Harry miming and mid-distance shots of the rest of the band ‘performing’. Harry looks particularly drop-dead gorgeous here, her hair slightly dishevelled, in a silver dress with one shoulder strap. Her bored, slightly pissed-off performance really suits the song and apparently came about through a genuine sulk. Harry wanted to dance but she was told to stay still. She wasn’t keen on Dorfman after that and didn’t appreciate all the close-ups. Nonetheless, it’s an iconic performance.

After

Heart of Glass was a deserved global smash and number 1 in most countries, including the US. Harry became a pin-up and hero to millions of teens and were a breath of fresh air. With this song toppling Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick, 1979 was shaping up to be a hell of a year for pop.

The Info

Written by

Debbie Harry & Chris Stein

Producer

Mike Chapman

Weeks at number 1

4 (3 February-2 March)

Trivia

Births

13 February: Labour MP Rachel Reeves

2 March: Comedian Jocelyn Jee Esien

Deaths

14 February: Conservative MP Reginald Maudling – 14 February

19 February: Comedian Wee Georgie Wood

Meanwhile…

9 February: Trevor Francis signed for Nottingham Forest. He was the first player to sign a deal worth £1 million.

12 February: The Winter of Discontent continued, with more than 1,000 schools closed due to the heating oil shortage caused by the lorry drivers’ strike.

14 February: Talks between unions and the government, known as the ‘Saint Valentine’s Day Concordat’ marked the end to the Winter of Discontent.

15 February: However, the damage was done. Opinion polls showed the Tories up to 20 points ahead of Labour.

22 February: Saint Lucia became independent of the UK.

1 March: Scotland voted for a Scottish Assembly in the devolution referendum. However this was less than 40% of the electorate, which meant it wasn’t followed through.
Also on this day, Wales voted against devolution.

432. Ian Dury and The Blockheads – Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick (1979)

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The Intro

In 1979, anything seemed possible in pop. Need proof? How about outsider misfits Ian Dury and The Blockheads scoring a number 1 with the new wave classic Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick?

Before

Frontman Ian Robins Dury was born 12 May 1942 in Harrow Weald, Middlesex. His father William was absent for long periods, so mother Peggy took him to live with her parents in Cornwall. After the Second World War the Durys moved to Switzerland, where William chauffeured for a millionaire. In 1946 the family went to live in Essex with her sister, but WIlliam remained.

At the age of seven Dury contracted polio, which he believed he caught in a swimming pool during the 1949 epidemic. In and out of hospital for two years, the illness resulted in the paralysis and withering of his left leg, shoulder and arm. He went to Chailey Heritage Craft School in East Sussex, which also served as a hospital. Children were taught to toughen up and learn a trade but his mother wanted Dury to be more academic so he switched to the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe, then aged 16, the Walthamstow College of Art. In 1967 he served under pop artist Peter Blake, who that year co-designed the legendary album sleeve for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

In 1970, while occasionally painting illustrations for The Sunday Times, Dury formed the pub rock band Kilburn and the High Roads. In 1974 they signed to Dawn Records and recorded two albums, for which he sang and wrote lyrics. Despite a support slot with The Who, they disbanded in 1975.

Meanwhile, in 1974 pop group The Loving Awareness Band formed, releasing only one album in 1976. In 1977 they split and its bassist Norman Watt-Roy and drummer Charlie Charles joined Dury and pianist/guitarist Chaz Jankel in their new band. An LP was recorded but they struggled to find a record label, perhaps in part due to Dury’s unique and unusual appearance.

Eventually however they found a home with the independent label Stiff Records. Their first release, credited to Dury alone, was Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, which was a critical success and became a slogan in itself. The album New Boots and Panties!! followed and although sales were modest at first, it’s now regarded as perhaps his finest work, including fan favourites like Billericay Dickie.

Watt-Roy and Charles’ former bandmates, guitarist John Turnbull and keyboardist Mick Gallagher, joined the line-up, as did former Kilburn and the High Roads saxophonist Davey Payne, who had played on New Boots and Panties!!. Inspired by the name of a song from the album, they became Ian Dury and The Blockheads when the next single Sweet Gene Vincent was released. Their next single, another fan favourite, was What a Waste, became their first hit when it peaked at nine in 1978. New wave was becoming increasingly popular, and this was the year of its first chart-topper, Rat Trap.

According to Jankel, who co-wrote the track, Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick was written in Rolvenden, Kent during a jam session between him and Dury. The tune was apparently inspired by a piano part on Wake Up and Make Love with Me, the opener on New Boots and Panties!!. Dury once claimed the lyrics had been written three years previous and after his death a typed manuscript from 1976 showed the lyrics, nearly fully formed, along with ideas for the music (‘drums and fuzz bass doing Roy Buchanan volume trick’). His daughter Jemima said he was working on the track as early as 1974.

The track was recorded in the Workhouse Studio on Old Kent Road in London. Unusually, an uncredited Laurie Latham produced it by recording The Blockheads live, situated in different places around the studio, with Dury sat in the centre. There were allegedly 28 takes recorded, but it was the second that was selected. Despite this, Latham was unhappy with the finished result. He was unhappy that Watt-Roy’s bass wasn’t loud enough. It’s hard to disagree, as that bassline is amazing and certainly one of the highlights. He was also unhappy with the vocal and piano, and he has a point that the piano does drop out just before the final verse. To my ears though, this kind of adds to the song’s unique power. Jankel was far more happy with the recoding. After they finished, he rang his mother to tell her he’d just recorded his first number 1.

Review

I’d argue that Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick is one of the coolest chart-toppers of all time, certainly up to this point. There’s so much to love about it – the aforementioned bassline (how is he playing that?), the ultra-catchy rollicking piano from Jankel, the way it turns from rock’n’roll and blues into cosmic funk, with Payne playing two saxophones at once, and of course Dury’s gravelly, occasionally unhinged performance of childlike lyrics that – and this has genuinely only just occurred to me – refer to sex. It is odd how his delivery seems more restrained after the funk section… or is it just because that stands out so much? Here’s a track I’ll never tire of hearing.

The video has left a lasting impression on me too. It was directed by Laurie Lewis, an old art school friend of Dury’s, who filmed the band performing the track on stage. It has an unreal, disturbing quality, and as a child I was at once frightened and entranced by Dury.

On 27 January, Turnbull, Watt-Roy and Charles were sat outside a cinema listening to a car radio when they heard the news they had toppled the Village People from the top spot. Dury was on a beach in Cannes when hotel staff gave him the news and brought him a bottle of champagne. To celebrate, the whole band bought Moss Bros suits for their Top of the Pops performance. Dury normally bought his whole wardrobe bar footwear and underwear second hand (hence his debut LP’s title). It started to look as though the record may sell a million, and Stiff announced that whoever the millionth buyer was, they would receive a mystery prize. Sales stalled however and it didn’t sell a million until downloads were counted towards sales. Nobody received a prize.

After

The group followed this up with the first LP credited to The Blockheads as well as Dury – Do It Yourself. They didn’t like to include singles on their albums, with neither their number 1 nor number three follow-up, Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3, featuring. The latter track is also excellent and among their best.

Jankel and Dury’s relationship had begun to sour, and the former left The Blockheads in 1980. Former Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson replaced him for the recording of the album Laughter. The single I Want to Be Straight, also released that year, was their final charting single, at 22. The next, Sueperman’s Big Sister, was their last. Dury was drinking heavily, and it was taking its toll.

In 1981 Dury teamed up with Jankel and reggae duo Sly and robbie to record his second solo album Lord Upminster. It was poorly received, though it did include the controversial Spasticus Autisticus, which went from being banned by the BBC to being performed at the 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony. It’s a shame Dury wasn’t around to see it. Around this time, Andrew Lloyd Webber asked him to write the libretto for Cats. He refused, later saying, ‘I hate Andrew Lloyd Webber. He’s a wanker isn’t he?’.

Dury signed a solo deal with Polydor and The Blockheads disbanded. He instead recorded with the jazz-influenced Music Students, and his commercial and critical appeal floundered upon the release of their 1984 album 4,000 Weeks’ Holiday. They did however record the memorable Profoundly In Love with Pandora, the theme to ITV’s 1985 adaptation of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4. Also that year, fellow number 1 artist Paul Hardcastle remixed Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick, re-recording all the instrumental parts with keyboards.

Dury had tons of natural charisma, making it inevitable that he would make the move into acting. In 1986 he had a cameo in Roman Polanski’s Pirates and his most notable role was in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover in 1989. He also, despite his hatred of Lloyd Webber, wrote a musical, called Apples with an accompanying album released that same year.

Ian Dury and The Blockheads briefly reformed for a tour of Japan in 1987. Three years later they got together again to play two benefit concerts for the family of Charles, who had died of cancer. Steven Monti replaced him on drums. That December, with Merlin Rhys-Jones augmenting them on guitar and Will Parnell on percussion, they recorded a live album, Warts & Audience. They toured Spain, minus Jankel, the following month.

In 1992 Dury released his seventh solo LP, The Bus Driver’s Prayer & Other Stories. It featured all The Blockheads minus Watt-Roy. Jankel returned from California in 1994 when Ian Dury and The Blockheads were invited to reform for Madness’s festival Madstock at Finsbury Park – the perfect warm-up act for the Nutty Boys. Sporadic gigs followed.

The Outro

In 1996 Dury was diagnosed with cancer. After recovering from an operation, he reunited with The Blockheads to record their first album since Laughter in 1980. Mr Love Pants, released in 1997, was considered a return to form. It was to be their final album. Monti was replaced soon after by Dylan Howe and Payne left soon after, with Gilad Atzmon becoming their new saxophonist.

Sadly this line-up was cut short when Dury died of cancer on 27 March 2000, aged 57. A true original, Dury was a giant of new wave but refused to be pigeonholed and is sadly missed. But thankfully, you can hear his influence in the music of his son Baxter Dury, and The Blockheads continue to perform. These days, Jankel, Watt-Roy, Gallagher, Turnbull and Atzmon perform with John Roberts on drums. Dave Lewis also appears on sax, and Dury’s friend and minder Derek the Draw writes and sings alongside Jankel.

The Info

Written by

Ian Dury & Chaz Jankel

Producer

Laurie Latham

Weeks at number 1

1 (27 January-2 February)

Births

27 January: Actress Rosamund Pike

Deaths

2 February: Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious (see Meanwhile…)

Meanwhile…

1 February: Liverpool grave-diggers call off a strike which has delayed dozens of burials.

2 February: Simon John Ritchie, aka Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, is found dead in New York’s Chelsea Hotel, having suffocated on his own vomit after a heroin overdose. Vicious was on bail for the second degree murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, who had been found stabbed to death on 12 October 1978.

431. Village People – Y.M.C.A. (1979)

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The Intro

An unmistakeable blast of brass from an enduring classic heralds the start of one of the best years for number 1s the UK has ever seen.

Before

Village People sprang from an idea formed in the heads of French producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo. As Can’t Stop Productions, they had enjoyed a few hits in Europe in the mid-70s. Getting a taste for success they decided to set their sights on the US.

Moving to New York City in 1977, the duo were working on music when Morali was handed a demo tape by an actor and singer called Victor Willis, who had starred in the original Broadway production of The Wiz. Apparently Morali said to Willis ‘I had a dream that you sang lead vocals on my album and it went very, very big’. Willis agreed to be lead on the 1977 album Village People, which featured songs by Phil Hurtt and Peter Whitehead to backing by the studio band Gypsy Lane.

The name ‘Village People’ was used to pay tribute to Greenwich Village, an area of Manhattan famous for its large gay population. Morali was gay and had attended a costume ball there. He greatly admired the outlandish outfits used to portray American male stereotypes. Perhaps he and Morali could do similar with Willis and their new group?

Morali’s first recruit was Felipe Rose. He claimed indigenous American descent so he was chosen to dress as a Native American. Willis picked Alex Briley, who eventually settled on a GI uniform. Others chosen were Mark Mussler (construction worker), Dave Forrest (cowboy) and Lee Mouton (biker). Joined by Whitehead, they were used to promote the first Village People hit San Franciso (You Got Me).

Morali and Belolo decided they needed a more permanent line-up to promote the next album Macho Man, released in 1978. They took out ads in New York theatre trade magazines which read ‘Macho Types Wanted: Must Dance and Have a Moustache’. Randy Jones replaced Forrest, Glenn Hughes was the new leather biker and David Hodo replaced Mussler. The classic line-up was formed, and they enjoyed their first hit with the title track of their second album.

What does YMCA stand for? While working on the third LP Cruisin’, Morali apparently asked Willis. The Young Men’s Christian Association had been founded in 1844 with the aim of putting Christian principles into place by promoting a healthy body, mind and spirit. In the US of the 1970s, typical YMCA residents were often homeless or people with other life issues. In the gay community, the YMCA was a popular cruising spot.

Willis could see Morali thought it would be a great idea for a Village People track. However, Willis has also since claimed he wrote the song and it was totally innocent and not intended as a gay anthem, but rather a promotion of a place black young men could enjoy sport.

Review

It’s interesting to note that Boney M, a manufactured disco group, were toppled in 1979 by another manufactured disco group. However, where Boney M were soulless and tacky, Village People’s number 1 has some fire in its belly. Willis really belts it out, turning the YMCA into a religious experience. The backing music is lively – there’s the brass, of course, but it’s the disco bass I like most.

How do you review a song like Y.M.C.A. though? It’s one of those cheesy anthems that’s played to death, almost too famous to clinically dissect. It’s also now lost of its original meaning, played at every party, wedding, any event where an instant floorfiller is needed. And you just know the floor will be full of people who can’t dance, doing the embarrassing spelling out of the chorus.

Apparently the dance originated on an episode of Dick Clark’s American Bandstand on the day it reached number 1 in the UK. After they performed the song, Clark showed the group the audience spelling the initials out and they decided to use it. Jones commented years later that it may have sprung from a misunderstanding – the Village People used to raise their hands above their heads and clap to the chorus but the crowd may have thought they were spelling ‘Y’.

The memorable video was filmed in July 1978. Featuring the group miming and dancing around New York City, it’s a pretty fascinating look at the city during pretty gritty times.

After

Y.M.C.A. went to the top pretty much everywhere, though stalled at two in the US. They followed it up with In the Navy, which is pretty much the same song but simply swaps one institution for another. It’s good though, and Willis is in fine form again. It reached number 1 across Europe but peaked at two here. Then came Go West, later a number two smash for Pet Shop Boys but only a number 15 hit for the Village People in 1979.

It was the last single to feature Willis, who left during the pre-production of the group’s doomed loose biopic Can’t Stop the Music, co-written and co-produced by Allan Carr, one of the men behind the smash-hit Grease. Willis was replaced by Ray Simpson, brother of Valerie Simpson of Ashford & Simpson fame.

In 1980 the title track of the movie climbed to 15 in the UK, but it was their last hit. Disco was on the wane and the Village People were starting to look like a fad. The movie was a critical and commercial flop. By the end of the year Forrest had left, replaced by Jeff Olson. The following year Morali and Belolo had taken notes that new wave was more popular and they made the Village People ditch their outfits and make them look more like a Spandau Ballet support act. Nobody was interested in a new-look Village People and their album Renaissance.

Willis rejoined briefly to work on the next album Fox on the Box, released in 1982. The outfits returned but Hodo and Simpson left and were replaced by Mark Lee and Miles Jaye. Their last proper album for 33 years was Sex Over the Phone, released in 1985.

There was a resurgence of interest in the Village People as the 90s began, but Morali died of AIDS-related complications in 1991. Three years later they recorded Far Away in America with the German national football team for their World Cup campaign. Hughes left in 1995 and was replaced by Eric Anzalone. The biker from the classic line-up died of lung cancer in 2001.

Willis was arrested in 2007 on drugs and weapons-related charges but his life picked up when he married that same year. He also began to perform live for the first time in 28 years and 2012 he won a landmark case, recapturing writing credits and a 33% share in the Village People’s Y.M.C.A, In the Navy, Go West and Magic Night. Eventually he also managed to get Belolo’s name removed from the credits. Then in 2017 he won the license for the name of the group and the characters, returning as their lead singer and with a brand new line-up behind him. The following year the festive album A Village People Christmas was released. A year later, Belolo died.

The Outro

The Village People remain much-loved, a beacon of light during the Winter of Discontent and a happy reminder of disco and, despite their comical appearance, were actually good for the gay movement. Y.M.C.A. is their biggest legacy and has been used time and again and spoofed just as much, in the media. Weirdly, its history took a dark turn when, for reasons unknown, US president and all-round evil Nazi bastard Donald Trump began using it at rallies when trying to be re-elected in 2020. Initially Willis was fine with this but then relented and demanded he stop. Whether it was his own decision or he felt the understandable pressure from the Black Lives Matter movement, we don’t know, but he was happy enough for Trump to use it at first, unfortunately.

Luckily for the whole world, this story has a happy ending as Y.M.C.A. is now remembered as the soundtrack to Trump finally fucking off as he left the White House in January 2021.

The Info

Written by

Jacques Morali, Henri Belolo & Victor Willis

Producer

Jacques Morali

Weeks at number 1

3 (6-26 January)

The Info

Births

20 January: Singer Will Young
21 January: Journalist Johann Hair

Deaths

16 January: Actor Peter Butterworth
23 January: Liberal MP Frank Owen

Meanwhile…

Prime Minister Jim Callaghan made the Winter of Discontent 10 times worse when he returned from an international summit to the industrial unrest. The Sun newspaper reported him as saying: ‘Crisis? What Crisis?’. He didn’t actually say it but many think this the beginning of the end for Labour.

15 January: Rail workers began a 24-hour strike.

22 January: Tens of thousands of public-workers, including hospital workers, rubbish collectors, school caretakers, gravediggers and airport staff, began the biggest mass strike since 1926.

Christmas book plug

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Need a Christmas present for a fan of music, nostalgia, social history and pop culture?

Try Every UK Number 1: The 50s, available on Amazon for £10.99 in paperback, £3.99 on Kindle or signed copies are available in the Store section here for £10.

Store

The UK singles chart is the soundtrack to our lives and a barometer of the nation’s mood and tastes. And ever since 1952, the battle for the number one spot has had us all talking as well as dancing.

In this fascinating spin-off from everyuknumber1.com, as seen in the Daily Mirror, music journalist Rob Barker comprehensively reviews all the best-sellers of the Fifties, delving into the wild lives of the artists and the real stories and secrets behind the hits. He also counts down the influential events that shaped them, as we moved from rations to never having it so good.

Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Cliff Richard were among those who transformed the lives of young people throughout Britain, and taught a country battered by war how to have fun again.

Find out which chart topper was written by an illiterate rapist who formed his own prison band. Who was the first woman to top the charts? And which hitmaker lives on as Cockney rhyming slang?

Every UK Number 1: The 50s has all the answers on the decade in which pop took its first steps, before rock’n’roll shouldered in and left the baby boomers all shook up.

430. Boney M – Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord (1978)

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The Intro

So we reach the end of 1978. Finally, the singles chart and pop in general has become important to the public once more. Singles by Wings, Boney M and John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John remain among the biggest sellers of all time. Punk may have never officially had a number 1, but its presence had shaken pop up, and god was it needed. As the 70s draws to a close, the chart-toppers take on a whole new freshness and 1979 is the most exciting year for pop number 1s in over 10 years.

Before

But first, this. Manufactured disco quartet Boney M capped off an enormously successful year with the festive number 1. Rivers of Babylon had been number 1 for five weeks in the spring/summer of 1978. It was the bestseller that year and is still the seventh best-selling single of all time in the UK. The album it came from, Nightflight to Venus, was also huge and also spawned Rasputin. Number 1 across Europe, it stalled at two here, and unlike most of their oeuvre, I can enjoy that one. Maybe.

In November, the mastermind behind Boney M, Frank Farian, assembled the group to hastily record a Christmas single. He decided to cover Mary’s Boy Child, which had been the UK Christmas number 1 for US singer Harry Belafonte in 1957.

If you read my review of that single when it was live here, or have since read my book Every UK Number 1: The 50s, you’ll know it was composed by Jester Hairston. His friend, who he was at the time sharing a room with, asked Hairston to write him a song for a birthday party. He came up with the calypso tune He Pone and Chocolate Tea but it was quickly forgotten about. But when the composer Walter Schumann asked Hairston for a festive song for Schumann’s Hollywood Choir to perform in 1956, he reworked He Pone and Chocolate Tea and it became Mary’s Boy Child. Belafonte heard the choir’s rendition and recorded it that year, before releasing a longer version the following year. It was the latter which took the Christmas top spot.

Farian, the opportunist that he was, decided to tack a new song on the end, therefore ensuring he and Fred Jay would receive royalties.

Review

Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Love may be the 12th biggest-selling UK number 1 of all time, but it leaves me as cold as the weather that winter. This is the weakest Christmas number 1 since Little Jimmy Osmond in 1972. Farian takes a stately festive ballad and gives it the cheesy disco-lite touch. He keeps it similar enough to the original to perhaps encourage record buyers ready for some 50s nostalgia, while making it disco enough for the young at the time. The result is a tacky, boring affair. And if it wasn’t already too long, the Oh My Lord section then starts up and it seems as though Boney M are never going to stop. I love Christmas tackiness, but I find it very hard to think of any positives here.

After

Boney M’s huge sales dropped from here on in. In 1979 they reached 10 with Painter Man. But Hooray! Hooray! It’s a Holi-Holiday peaked at three that summer and remained a kids’ holiday club staple well into the 80s. Their next album Oceans of Fantasy spawned double A-side Gotta Go Home/El Lute, which reached 12 and I’m Born Again, which went to 35. Their last new song to reach the top 40 was the interestingly named We Kill the World (Don’t Kill the World). It only got to 39 in 1981. That same year, the dancer Bobby Farrell, who mimed to Farian’s vocals, was sacked for being too unreliable.

In 1982 Reggie Tsiboe replaced Farrell but it made little difference to Boney M’s decline. Farrell eventually returned but in 1986 Farian had got bored and pulled the plug on Boney M after their eighth LP Eye Dance. For the rest of the 80s, various incarnations of Boney M existed, with or without Farian’s approval. In 1988 the ‘classic’ line-up reunited without him briefly.

There was a renewed interest in the group in 1992, thanks to Mega Mix, a number seven hit which also featured a remix of Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord. The only noteworthy member of Boney M at this point was singer Liz Mitchell, who Farian once described as the only irreplaceable member of the group. The following year Brown Girl in the Ring (Remix) took them to 38. Another remix, Ma Baker (Somebody Scream), is their last hit to date, peaking at 22 in 1999.

In 2010 Farrell died of heart failure, aged 61. Mitchell tours as Boney M, featuring Liz Mitchell (well you would, wouldn’t you?). Marcia Barrett, who sang the a cappella intro to Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord, lives in Berlin. Maizie Williams, who never sang on any original studio recordings by Boney M, now performs them live.

The Outro

Farian was the man behind another manufactured group. He formed the duo Milli Vanilli in 1988. Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus never sang a note but they became one of the biggest names of the era. He promised them he’d cover their backs but when the miming scandal broke, Farian fired them and announced they never sang for real on their records. Something that hadn’t bothered the pop world when Boney M were at large destroyed Milli Vanilli, and Pilatus was found dead in 1998 of a suspected drink and drugs overdose.

The Info

Written by

Jester Hairston, George Reyam, Frank Farian & Fred Jay

Producer

Frank Farian

Weeks at number 1

4 (9 December 1978-5 January 1979)

Trivia

Births

16 December: Actor Joe Absolom
23 December: Model Jodie Marsh

Deaths

23 December: Academic Malcolm Caldwell (see ‘Meanwhile…’)

Meanwhile…

14 December 1978: The Labour minority government narrowly survives a vote of confidence.

21–22 December: BBC One and BBC Two are taken off air when the BBC members of the ABS union decide to strike over pay. The following day, the union calls its radio members out on strike. This leads to the merging of BBC Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 into one national radio network. From 4.00pm that day, the management runs a schedule of news and music. BBC One controller Bill Cotton begins to panic that the strike will ruin ratings over the all-important Christmas period. He prepares two Christmas schedules for BBC One, one if there is no strike, and one filled with repeats and films if there is. Luckily for him, the BBC and ABS go to the government’s conciliation service ACAS, and a deal is reached by 10pm on 22 December, with the unions getting a 15% pay rise. All BBC TV and radio services return to normal service by lunchtime on 23 December.

23 December: Marxist writer Malcolm Caldwell is shot dead in Cambodia shortly after meeting Pol Pot.

5 January 1979: Lorry drivers go on strike, causing new shortages of heating oil and fresh food. With terrible freezing conditions damaging the economy at the same time, Labour’s ‘Winter of Discontent’ had begun.

429. Rod Stewart – Da ‘Ya’ Think I’m Sexy? (1978)

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The Intro

Rod Stewart was derided by many for jumping on the disco bandwagon with Da ‘Ya’ Think I’m Sexy? and it began his transformation into a figure of fun. However, it’s one of the more enjoyable of his six number 1s.

Before

After his fourth chart-topping single kept The Sex Pistols from number 1 (so we’re led to believe – see First Cut Is the Deepest/I Don’t Want to Talk About It) in 1977, he remained in the upper reaches of the singles chart. One of his most popular tunes, the love song You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim) peaked at three. It was the first release from his eighth album, Foot Loose & Fancy Free.

Next up was Hot Legs/I Was Only Joking, a number five hit in 1978. The former, a Rolling Stones-style raunchy blues number, hasn’t aged well, with lyrics like ‘Are you still in school?’ and ‘Hot legs oh you’re pussy’s whipped/Hot legs I just love your lips’. He later wisely changed these last lines.

A huge football fan (and former player), Stewart then teamed up with the national Scotland squad for their 1978 World Cup song Ole Ola (Mulher Brasileira). It fared better than the team’s performance in the tournament. Despite manager Ally MacLeod’s bold claims, they were unable to get past the first round. The song climbed to four.

Setting to work on his ninth LP, Blondes Have More Fun, Stewart developed an increasingly outlandish look. With his peroxide bouffant and tight spandex, he began to resemble a prostitute. Seeing an ever-growing number of fellow rock stars adopting disco (best of the bunch was The Rolling Stones’ sleazy Miss You), Rod the Mod went full throttle down the disco avenue.

Released on 10 November, a week before the album, Da ‘Ya’ Think I’m Sexy? was co-written by Stewart with his drummer Carmen Appice (formerly of Vanilla Fudge) and producer and musician Duane Hitchings. However, several other names should be on those credits, really. The chorus is remarkably similar to Brazilian singer Jorge Ben’s 1972 track Taj Mahal. A lawsuit ensued which ended in Ben’s favour. However, in a potentially sly move to avoid him making royalties from the track in the future, Stewart donated them all to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Stewart claimed in his 2012 autobiography that it was an unconscious steal on his part and Taj Mahal had stuck in his brain after hearing it at the 1978 Rio Carnival. He did admit to purposefully stealing from elsewhere though. The yearning synth line in Da ‘Ya’ Think I’m Sexy?, which is the highlight of the track, came from Bobby Womack’s 1975 soul song (If You Want My Love) Put Something Down On It. Now that’s a great title, isn’t it?

https://youtu.be/Hphwfq1wLJsn

Review

As we all know, Da ‘Ya’ Think I’m Sexy? has become synonymous with Stewart’s image as an egotistical, leopard-skin-wearing joke. There’s been countless spoofs – perhaps the most memorable being from Kenny Everett in the early 80s. A friend of Stewart’s, he performs this song glammed up as him, strutting around in the same stupidly tight spandex Stewart wears in the real video. His arse grows ever bigger, eventually causing the DJ to fly off into the sky.

It’s worth noting though, and it hadn’t really occurred to me before, that the song isn’t about him. It’s another of his character studies and it only takes a read of the first verse to realise this. A guy in a nightclub wants to try his luck with a girl, but ‘He’s so nervous, avoiding all the questions/His lips are dry, her heart is gently pounding’. As if Stewart would be nervous in that situation! Come the second verse he’s worked up the courage to ask her back to his ‘high-rise apartment’. We even get a porn-style saxophone interlude, which is clearly there to symbolise them getting it on. Come the last verse, it’s dawn and it sounds like he may have talked up his situation as he confesses he has no milk or coffee for a pick-me-up after their night of passion but, in a nice play on words ‘Never mind sugar, we can watch the early movie.’

Da ‘Ya’ Think I’m Sexy? has been in my mind for decades as a song to laugh at. So it came as a surprise to find myself enjoying it upon this review. It’s a lot more fun and less ‘worthy’ than his earlier number 1s and the third-person narrative adds a new dimension to the song. Also, Phil Chen’s disco bass is great and the aforementioned synth line is even better, despite beingstolen. Not so good when the sax mirrors it at the climax, though, and Stewart’s voice isn’t the right type for the chorus, I’d argue. He rather bludgeons it.

I’d say the video is a big reason for this song and Stewart himself becoming a joke. He stars as the guy in the song, sat with his prey, watching himself and his band on a little TV on the bar. Inbetween the footage on stage, in which Stewart’s outfit is somehow actually more ridiculous than Everett’s, we cut to Rod the Mod and the girl, about to get it on, while watching him and the band on TV. In case you’re not sure what the song is about, Stewart gets on the floor and humps thin air. The interplay between him and the band is good knockabout fun though. For the dawn scene, they remain clothed and the band are still on TV, which suggests either Stewart gets off on a looped performance of himself, or they’ve just fallen asleep for a minute or so.

After

This, Stewart’s last UK number 1 of the 70s, also went to the top around the world. In 1997, UK dance act N-Trance released a cover version, featuring Rod the Mod’s vocal on the chorus, which peaked at seven. It’s not a patch on their best work, Set You Free.

The Outro

Written by

Rod Stewart, Carmen Appice & Duane Hitchings

Producer

Tom Dowd

Weeks at number 1

1 (2-8 December)

Trivia

Births

6 December: Screenwriter Jack Thorne
7 December: Historian Suzannah Lipscomb

428. The Boomtown Rats – Rat Trap (1978)

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The Intro

After a total of 16 weeks at the top of the charts in 1978, suddenly John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John were served notice. In a real changing of the guard moment, The Boomtown Rats became the first new wave act (and first Irish band) to have a number 1. They commemorated this on Top of the Pops (as seen below) by yawning and ripping up photos of Travolta. Enough of the 50s revival – the groundwork laid by punk finally paid off with Rat Trap.

Before

So what actually is new wave? It’s not as straightforward as explaining psychedelia or punk. It’s basically used as a loose term to describe what punk evolved into. However it dates back to before then.

Music critics like Nick Kent were using it as early as 1973 to describe acts including The Velvet Underground and New York Dolls. Other US acts that came later, including Blondie and Talking Heads, have little to do with punk but are certainly described as new wave.

To me, new wave is an effective way of describing the new underground (soon to turn mainstream) pop acts that wanted to shake up the staid pop scene of the mid- to-late-70s. Not as stylised as punk, they often came from pub-rock acts that brought some much-needed excitement to music.

It’s interesting to note that often decades are said to not ‘begin’ until several years after they have, ie, the 60s started with The Beatles in 1963, the 70s began with glam in 1973. If so, you could argue the 80s began several years early thanks to new wave. There’s certainly a very welcome injection of excitement and quality in the number 1s I’ll be reviewing from here on in for some time to come. Even as early as 1978 though, some bands didn’t like being referred to as new wave. XTC’s single This Is Pop took aim at the concept – to singer-songwriter Andy Partridge, his group were simply a new pop band.

The Boomtown Rats began as The Nightlife Thugs in Dún Laoghaire, Dublin in 1975. Guitarist Garry Roberts and keyboardist Johnnie Fingers had decided to form a band and recruited Bob Geldof, a former New Musical Express journalist, as singer, plus bassist Pete Briquette, guitarist Gerry Cott and drummer Simon Crowe. Roberts hated their name and threatened to resign unless they changed it. Geldof came up with the name that stuck – he’d been reading Woody Guthrie’s autobiography Bound for Glory, in which Guthrie mentioned a gang of children called The Boomtown Rats.

The Irish music scene was moribund at the time and The Boomtown Rats shook things up with exciting performances of covers by The Who, Bob Marley and The Rolling Stones. Thanks in part to Geldof’s media contacts, by the summer of 1976 the band were performing in the UK and were signed to Ensign Records soon after.

In August 1977 The Boomtown Rats released debut single Lookin’ After No. 1 and they were an instant hit. It reached two in Ireland and 11 in the UK. A month later came their eponymous debut album, which also spawned Mary of the 4th Form. It peaked at 15 here. The Rats transformed from a pub rock band to one heavily influenced by Bruce Springsteen thanks to Geldof’s songwriting. And it’s worth noting that their producer was a young Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange – future husband of Shania Twain. Producing The Boomtown Rats was his first taste of success, with much more to come.

Second album A Tonic for the Troops came out in 1978 and they continued to do well, with She’s So Modern reaching 12 and Like Clockwork made it to six. Which left one more single to come.

Review

Despite the importance of Rat Trap as a sign of pop morphing once more into something new, it’s rather forgotten about. Obviously, Geldof’s later career as one of the men behind Band Aid/Live Aid has overshadowed anything The Boomtown Rats did but I Don’t Like Mondays is much better remembered than this track. And I can kind of see why.

While listening for research it occurred to me the only thing that’s ever stuck with me from this song (and I can imagine it’s the case with everyone else) is the sax refrain, played by Alan Holmes. It’s a great opening, before the song settles down and starts to sound rather similar to Squeeze’s Cool for Cats, also recorded in 1978.

Rat Trap is the tale of bored teenagers Billy and Judy and the track is clearly indebted to Bruce Springsteen both lyrically and sonically. Billy and Judy are bored of their lives and longing for escape. It’s epic in scale and you could also argue it’s progressive rock in the way it changes tack into several different sections. Yet I guess the main difference is the simplicity of the different parts and the youthful energy is more indebted to punk than prog. Scanning the lyrics, there’s some great stuff, especially in the second verse:

‘Billy don’t like it living here in this town,
He says the traps have been sprung long before he was born,
He says “Hope bites the dust behind all the closed doors,
And pus and grime ooze from its scab crusted sores”

And yet, yes I can think of a fair few new wave songs from around this time that might have been more deserved than Rat Trap. I’ve listened to it again several times and it’s one to admire and interest rather than really love. It was perhaps a case of ‘right place, right time’, with young record buyers deciding enough was enough and deciding to get behind anything that could get rid of that bloody Grease film.

The Outro

The video featured The Rats reading Rat Trap by Craig Thomas, which didn’t actually have any link to the song other than its name. It was directed by up-and-coming filmmaker David Mallett. In 1978 he made this, Bicycle Race by Queen and Blondie’s Hanging on the Telephone. Over the next few years he made some of the most imaginative videos for some of the greatest pop of the era, particularly with his work for David Bowie. We’ll be hearing more from those two.

The Info

Written by

Bob Geldof

Producer

Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange

Weeks at number 1

2 (18 November-1 December)

Meanwhile…

20 November: Buckingham Palace announces Prince Andrew is joining the Royal Navy.

23 November: Birmingham nightclub Pollyanna’s lifts its ban on black and Chinese revellers, after a one-year investigation by the Commission for Racial Equality concluded the nightclub’s entry policy was racist.

29 November: 22-year-old Nottingham Forest defender Viv Anderson becomes England’s first black international footballer, appearing in their 1–0 friendly win over Czechoslovakia at Wembley Stadium. Six months previous he had become the first black player to feature in an English league championship winning team and was also on the winning side in the Football League Cup final. And yet here I am 43 years later writing in a week in which several black England players were bombarded with racist messages after missing penalties in the Euro 2020 final.

30 November: An industrial dispute closes down The Times newspaper until 12 November 1979.

427. John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John – Summer Nights (1978)

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The Intro

John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John spent 16 weeks at the top of the charts in 1978 thanks to their starring roles in the film adaptation of Grease. First You’re the One That I Want for nine weeks and then this for seven more. If you weren’t a fan of Travolta, this period must have been hard work.

Before

Grease hadn’t even been released in the UK when their first chart-topper reigned supreme that summer. But the soundtrack album was already familiar. Frankie Valli’s brilliant performance of the Barry Gibb-penned theme tune had been a number three hit, then You’re the One That I Want. Next up to have a release was the only single so far to feature in the hit Broadway stage show.

Cleverly released in late-August to tie in with the end of summer, Summer Nights was written by the show’s creators Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey as a comical duet in which Danny Zuko and Sandy Dumbrowski (as she was known before Newton-John’s casting resulted in a name change) separately relay their blossoming relationship to classmates. Danny shows off to the Burger Palace Boys, as the T-Birds were originally known, acting like a proper lad. Unbeknownst to him, at the same time Sandy us telling the Pink Ladies a very different story about Danny’s sweet side.

Summer Nights was written when Grease transferred to Broadway. Before then, this scene in the original show was soundtracked by the song Foster Beach. In addition to Travolta and Newton-John, the soundtrack version featured other cast members on backing vocals, including Jeff Conaway as Kenickie and Stockard Channing as Rizzo on backing vocals.

Unlike the previous two singles from the film, Summer Nights actually sounds musically like the 50s, which is the era it’s set. Sort of, anyway. The film is set in 1958 but the backing vocals to this song are lifted from Da Doo Ron Ron (1963) and Breaking Up Is Hard to Do and Surfin’ Bird – both from 1962.

Review

Summer Nights doesn’t really work as a standalone song the way You’re the One That I Want does. It is, however, a great standout scene in the film and musical. Catchy and witty, there’s a lot of fun to be had in the lyrics showing the differences between how teenage boys and girls remember summer loving – it’s just that it works even better when you can see the cast giving it their all. According to these, the number one concern for the boys is how far Danny got and for the girls, whether he owns a car? The ‘tell me more, tell me more’ is a real earworm and the aforementioned 50s/60s backing vocals too. Newton-John’s vocal is suitably sweet/twee and Travolta… well, OK, always a better actor than singer, but he plays the part well and he has a great grasp of comedy.

Speaking of Travolta and comedy… obviously, there’s two parts of this song that have to be mentioned. Even as a very young boy, I couldn’t help but find his final ‘oh’ hilarious. Whose idea was it to go with that take?! I get that the point was that Danny’s tough-guy facade goes out of the window when he really thinks back to that summer, but it’s so camp it’s unreal. And then his wailing of ‘Niiiiiiiiights!’, hand aloft, triumphantly… Fair play to Travolta for capturing the sound of Frankie Valli, but it comes totally out of the blue and is just too much! Of course, you can’t imagine the song without those parts, it’s all part of the fun.

After

With the film released in UK cinemas a few weeks after this single, the momentum soon propelled Summer Nights to number 1, only seven weeks after You’re the One That I Want topped the charts. The soundtrack album, still one of the biggest sellers of all time, was mined for further singles, all hits too. Newton-John went to two with Hopelessly Devoted to You, closely followed by Travolta doing the same with Sandy. Then Greased Lightnin’ peaked at 11. Fast-forward to 1991 and the latter, combined with You’re the One That I Want and Summer Nights, were remixed sloppily but to great success as The Grease Megamix, which became a top three hit.

Following the mammoth success of the movie Grease, the musical was revived in London in 1979. Among the cast of this Grease were Tracey Ullman as Frenchy and Su Pollard as Cha-Cha. The film’s producers Allan Carr and Robert Stigwood made a sequel, Grease 2, released in 1982. Starring Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer, it didn’t achieve a smidgeon of the original’s success, but I have a lot of time for it. 11 years later the musical was revived in the UK again, this time featuring, among its cast, Craig McLachlan, Debbie Gibson, Darren Day, Shane Ritchie and Luke Goss from Bros.

A year later the US was treated to a Broadway revival followed by a tour, featuring tons of celebrities along the way including Rosie O’Donnell, Linda Blair, Chubby Checker, Micky Dolenz and Sheena Easton. Frankie Avalon reprised his movie role as Teen Angel in further US tours in 1996 and 2003. The leads for Broadway and West End revivals in 2007 were decided by viewers of reality series in the US and UK. Grease returned to the US once more in 2008 and then the UK in 2017, this time featuring Tom Parker from The Wanted as Danny. Within weeks of writing this blog, the latest UK version, delayed due to COVID-19, will begin touring, with Peter Andre as Teen Angel. It’s choreographed by Arlene Phillips.

The Outro

Whatever happened to John Travolta, though, eh? As we know, he’s led a career of ups and downs. His next film Moment by Moment, also made in 1978, was panned. It looked like a blip as the 1980 film Urban Cowboy was another hit (though not to the extent of his big 70s films) but it was followed by a string of failures. Notably, in 1983, Two of a Kind – a romantic comedy which reunited him as Newton-John – and Staying Alive, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. Matters weren’t helped by him turning down roles in several blockbusters, including American Gigolo (1980), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and Splash (1984).

Things picked up eventually, thanks to his role in 1989 hit comedy Look Who’s Talking, easily his biggest success since Grease. Two sequels also did well, but he was truly revived critically and commercially in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in 1994. He received an Academy Award nomination for his role as Vincent Vega and scored his third iconic role to date. Back in the A-list, he starred in popular movies including Get Shorty (1995), Face/Off (1997) and Primary Colors (1998).

Travolta’s career suffered another setback in 2000 when he made Battlefield Earth. This sci-fi drama was a big deal for the actor. Travolta is a practicing scientologist (yeah, sorry) and it was based on a novel by the controversial religion’s founder, L Ron Hubbard, who had asked Travolta to make it. The film bombed. He remained busy afterwards, but the general quality of his roles fell somewhat. In 2007 he starred in the remake of Hairspray, his first musical since Grease. Travolta has been on hiatus since the untimely death of his wife Kelly Preson in 2020.

Newton-John was to have another number 1 in 1980 with the Electric Light Orchestra, so we’ll return to her when we get to Xanadu.

The Info

Written by

Jim Jacobs & Warren Casey

Producer

Louis St. Louis

Weeks at number 1

7 (30 September-17 November)

Births

7 October: Classical trumpeter Alison Balsom
25 October: Footballer Russell Anderson
26 October: Footballer Jimmy Aggrey

Deaths

17 October: Mountain climber Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz
28 October: Cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth

Meanwhile…

17 October: A cull of Grey seals in the Orkney and Western Islands was reduced after a public outcry. 

23 October: The government announced plans for a new single exam that would replace O Levels and CSEs.

25 October: A ceremony marked the completion of Liverpool Cathedral, whose foundation stone was laid in 1904.

27 October: Four people were killed and four others were wounded in a shooting spree which began in a street in West Bromwich and ended at a petrol station in Nuneaton. The following day, 36-year-old Barry Williams was arrested in Derbyshire for the shootings.

3 November: Dominica gained its independence from the UK.

4 November: A baker’s strike which had led to panic buying resulted in many bakeries imposing bread rationing.

10 November: The panic buying stops as most bakers go back to work. Fancy having all those days off, loafing around…