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.

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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…

426. 10cc – Dreadlock Holiday (1978)

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The Intro

By the time of their third and final number 1, 10cc weren’t half the band they used to be. Literally. Despite the success of their masterpiece, I’m Not in Love, creative differences had come to a head.

Before

While recording fourth LP How Dare You!, the two separate songwriting partnerships – Kevin Godley and Lol Creme and Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman – realised they were drifting further apart. Despite this it spawned two hit singes. Art for Art’s Sake reached five in 1975 and I’m Mandy, Fly Me peaked at six.

At the start of sessions for Deceptive Bends (1977), Godley and Creme decided to leave to make an album together. Although Stewart and Gouldman knew the working environment had got more and more difficult, they couldn’t believe Godley and Creme would be willing to walk out on 10cc at the peak of their commercial and creative powers. To make matters worse, Stewart and Creme were married to sisters.

10cc continued as a three-piece with tour back-up drummer Paul Burgess while Godley & Creme released the triple album Consequences, featuring comedian Peter Cook. Stewart and Gouldman likely felt vindicated when that album sank but their own gave them two hit singles – The Things We Do for Love (six) and Good Morning Judge (five). Having said that, Godley & Creme likely didn’t care too much as they were more concerned with doing things their way.

10cc then went on an international tour, bolstered by guitarist Rick Fenn, keyboardist Tony O’Malley and additional drummer Stuart Tosh, formerly of fellow chart-toppers Pilot. The tour was documented on Live and Let Live, released later the same year. O’Malley then left and was replaced by Duncan Mackay and the five-piece set to work on a new album, Bloody Tourists.

Its first single, Dreadlock Holiday, was inspired by a trip to Barbados that Stewart experienced with Moody Blues singer Justin Hayward. Stewart recalled seeing a white man trying to act cool to embarrassing effect, annoying a group of Afro-Caribbeans. This is where the lines ‘Don’t you walk through my words/You’ve got to show some respect’. The chorus, later misunderstood on every cricket highlights package on TV, came about when Gouldman, who was talking to a Jamaican who asked him if he liked cricket, replied ‘No, I love it!’.

The line-up featured Stewart on electric piano, organ, cabaza and vocals, Gouldman on bass, maracas and vocals, Fenn on guitar, backing vocals and organ, Burgess on cowbell, congas, marimba, triangle, agogô and timbales, Tosh on drums, backing vocals and tambourine and Mackay on Yamaha CS-80 synthesiser.

Review

Released in the decade that political correctness forgot, Dreadlock Holiday was a huge hit. But in more enlightened times it proves problematic. Musically, it’s perfectly fine. A good approximation of reggae, well-produced and infectious. But the problem is in the lyrics. Stewart and Gouldman could defend themselves by saying we’re supposed to be laughing at the white man here, thinking that the ‘four faces, one mad’ will leave him alone if he mentions cricket. It’s not good enough really because Jamaicans are certainly not portrayed in a good light either. This gang with ‘dark voices’ are going to rob him, because of course they’re poor criminals, because Jamaica. He manages to escape the gang, only to encounter a dope-dealing woman by the pool. Because Jamaica. Cricket, reggae, crime, drugs, sung in piss-taking cod-Jamaican accents. It’s not that far removed from Typically Tropical’s Barbados.

10cc, or at least Stewart and Gouldman should have known better. It’s a cheap joke and mean-spirited. How can this be the same band that recorded I’m Not in Love? You could argue that perhaps Godley and Creme wouldn’t have allowed something like this through, except they wrote Une Nuit a Paris, a song featuring comedy French accents. No, I think it’s just a case of rich white men not being half as clever as they can be and, well, it was the 70s.

The video to Dreadlock Holiday cheapens the song further. To save money (and possibly to avoid confronting any real-life scary Jamaicans), they filmed on the coast of Dorset instead. It looks about as summery as the field of the campsite in Carry On Camping (1969) and not like Jamaica at all. Director Storm Thorgerson (the man behind the cover of The Dark Side of the Moon) clearly encourages the actors to ham it up big time.

After

Dreadlock Holiday was the last proper 10cc hit. In 1979 Stewart was seriously injured in a car crash. A tour was cancelled and the band was put on hold. Originally planned as a 10cc project, Gouldman made the soundtrack to Animalympics (1980) alone. This animated comedy, made to tie in with the Moscow Olympics, has a special place in my heart as I became obsessed with it as a child. The music is great too.

Both Stewart and Gouldman consider this hiatus the beginning of the end for 10cc. Upon Stewart’s return, tastes had shifted and their next album, 1980’s Look Hear? featured contributions from the other band members, with little collaboration between the founding members. For the next LP, Ten Out of 10 (1981), 10cc were officially just Stewart and Gouldman, with the others demoted to session musicians. In a bid to do better in the US, they collaborated with singer-songwriter Andrew Gold and released a separate version in America with his contributions. They asked him to become a fully fledged member but he declined. His contributions made little difference to record sales.

For their ninth album Windows in the Jungle (1983), Stewart and Gouldman wrote together intending to make a concept album, but a desire to also make a hit single got in the way and it was another failure. That was it for 10cc, for a while. In the meantime, Godley and Creme had made several albums together and had two top three singles in 1981 – Under Your Thumb (number three) and Wedding Bells (seven). They also became very good at directing quirky and innovative pop videos for bands including The Police, Ultravox and Duran Duran. In 1985 they made a very memorable promo for their single Cry, featuring faces blending into each other. I remember being totally mesmerised and disturbed by it at the age of six.

After the split, Stewart worked as a producer for Sad Cafe, Paul McCartney and ABBA’s Agnetha Fältskog. Gouldman produced The Ramones and then formed the duo Common Knowledge with Gold, who changed their name to Wax. In 1985 Gouldman tried the Bob Geldof approach and assembled and produced an unusual group of musicians and celebrities dubbed The Crowd. Featuring, among others, Bruce Forsyth, Rolf Harris, Gerry Marsden, the Nolans, John Otway and Motörhead, they covered the Gerry and the Pacemakers 1963 chart-topper You’ll Never Walk Alone in aid of the Bradford City Disaster Fund. It went to number 1 and Marsden became the first person to do so with two versions of the same song.

In 1992 a 10cc reunion album was released. But …Meanwhile was actually a Stewart and Gouldman LP by and large. Godley and Creme were only on board to fulfil contractual obligations and mostly provided backing vocals. It didn’t fare as well as hoped but Stewart and Gouldman toured once more with former members and a few new ones, as captured on another live album, 1993’s Alive.

The next album, Mirror Mirror (1995), saw Stewart and Gouldman working apart in separate countries. Despite the latter’s initial objections an acoustic version of I’m Not in Love was released from it and actually gave them their first singles chart action in 17 years, reaching 29. Stewart left 10cc after the album tour, saying as far as he was concerned 10cc were finished.

Gouldman disagreed and has continued to perform live as 10cc ever since, with the help of Burgess and Fenn, plus Keith Hayman and Iain Hornal at present. Stewart refuses to speak to Gouldman because of his refusal to stop using the name and Creme has also been critical of the move. However, Godley and Gouldman recorded and performed together as GG/06 in 2006 and Godley also performed at the Royal Albert Hall with the band to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their formation in 2012.

The Outro

Despite my criticism of this final number 1, 10cc were one of the smartest acts of the 70s. The material by the original line-up is never dull and at times, in particular I’m Not in Love, brilliant. In a way, it’s amazing four such multi-talented men, all writers and performers, were able to work together for as long as they did.

The Info

Written by

Eric Stewart & Graham Gouldman

Producers

10cc

Weeks at number 1

1 (23-29 September)

Trivia

Births

23 September: Cartoonist Andy Fanton
25 September: Model Jodie Kidd

Meanwhile…

26 September: 23 Ford car plants were close due to strike action.

425. Commodores – Three Times a Lady (1978)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

Alabama funk outfit Commodores developed a softer soul sound thanks largely to chief songwriter Lionel Richie, who eventually left to become one of the biggest pop stars of the 80s. This was their most famous hit and sole chart-topper.

Before

The seven-piece formed from the ashes of two former student groups at Tuskegee Institute in 1968. From the Mystics came vocalist, keyboardist and saxophonist Richie, lead guitarist James McClary and William ‘WAK’ King on trumpet, rhythm guitar, keyboards and vocals. They were joined by three members of the Jays – Andre Callahan on vocals, drums and keyboards, Michael Gilbert on bass and trumpet and Milan Williams on keyboards and rhythm guitar. Another keyboardist, Eugene Ward, also joined them.

Legend has it they chose their new band name when King opened a dictionary and picked a random word. He pointed out later that they were lucky they didn’t become known as The Commodes.

The Commodores won a talent contest at their university and began performing at frat parties. Two years later the line-up changed when Callahan, Gilbert and Ward left. Ronald LaPread took up bass duties and James Ingram (not the famous singer with that name) became lead vocalist and drummer. At this point they were still performing covers but original material was creeping into setlists.

After performing in parking lots, fortune smiled on the Commodores when they landed a support slot on a tour with none other than The Jackson 5. This led to Motown Records signing them up.

Their recorded output got off to a blistering start with that fine instrumental funk classic Machine Gun, the title track of their 1974 LP, which peaked at 20 in the UK. Nothing like their latter career, this features Williams hammering away on the clavinet to great effect. Ingram had left two years previous to head to Vietnam, with his role replaced by Walter Orange, who also took up songwriting duties along with Richie.

Over the next few years they released several hard funk albums to mixed success. Their singles didn’t dent the UK charts, however. Things began to pick up when third album Movin’ On (1976) spawned Sweet Love, a softer track that hit five in the US and 32 in the UK. Success on these shores picked up in 1977 with their eponymous fifth album (renamed Zoom here), which contained the classic break-up anthem Easy. It reached four in the US and nine in the UK. Orange sang the funky follow-up Brick House (32 in Blighty).

A live album was released to bridge the gap while the band worked on their next album. The first song to be released from this was Three Times a Lady.

Richie was at a party to celebrate his parents’ 37th wedding anniversary. When his father toasted his mother and said ‘She’s a great lady, she’s a great mother, and she’s a great friend’, his son was inspired. Putting pen to paper, he came up with a gentle waltz that he dedicated to his wife Brenda, who he saw as once, twice, three times a lady.

However, he considered it too soft for his band. When they presented producer James Carmichael with ideas for the LP Natural High, Richie played Three Times a Lady on the piano but told everyone present it wasn’t for them. He had Frank Sinatra in mind. Carmichael thought it was too good to let go and insisted they record it.

https://youtu.be/VzIs3nKF98Y

Review

As we all know, Three Times a Lady became a massive hit, one of Richie’s most loved songs and a staple at wedding receptions. It’s not among my favourites though – it doesn’t hold a candle to Machine Gun, Easy or some of Richie’s solo love ballads. It’s just too gentle for me and doesn’t go anywhere to keep me interested. Richie sings it beautifully though. Some of the lyrics (and there’s not many) leave me slightly puzzled as the first verse is in past tense and suggests a relationship that’s ended for some reason:

‘Thanks for the times that you’ve given me,
The memories are all in my mind,
And now that we’ve come to the end of our rainbow,
There’s something I must say out loud’

Sounds like a goodbye doesn’t it? Not exactly what you want to sing to your new husband/wife for your first dance on your wedding night really but it’s far from the only misunderstood wedding song. All in all, it’s not bad, but I don’t consider it the classic so many others do.

After

Three Times a Lady topped the charts all over the world and moved Commodores up into a whole new level of fame. It was nominated for two Grammys and won several other awards. A similar and superior tune, Sail On from the album Midnight Magic, reached eight in the UK in 1979 and Still followed hot on its heels, peaking at four here but earning them their second US chart-topper.

Their next album Heroes in 1980 saw a drop in their sales and the single Wonderland only reached 40 here. It was their last top 40 hit for five years. Despite this they were doing well again in the US before long but Richie threw a spanner in the works in 1982 by announcing he was going it alone. Skyler Jett replaced him as lead singer. Then in 1983 McClary left to also go solo and he was replaced by guitarist-vocalist Sheldon Reynolds. Jett was gone by 1984 and his role was taken by former Heatwave frontman James Dean ‘JD’ Nicholas.

Just as the Commodores were coming to the end of the road with Motown, the title track of their 1985 album Nightshift saw them unexpectedly return to the charts. This touching tribute to soul stars Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson, who had both died the year previous, soared to three here and in the US.

The Outro

This return to fame proved short-lived, however. LaPread departed in 1986 and Reynolds a year later. His role was taken by David Battelene. While Richie continued to release hits on his own, Commodores were forgotten. A few more albums were released but made no mark. The last album to date was New Tricks in 1993 but Orange, Nicholas and King still tour the world as Commodores.

The Info

Written by

Lionel Richie

Producers

James Carmichael & Commodores

Weeks at number 1

5 (19 August-22 September)

Trivia

Births

19 August: Actor Callum Blue
27 August: Actress Suranne Jones

Deaths

28 August: Actor Robert Shaw
4 September: Suffragette Leonora Cohen
7 September: The Who drummer Keith Moon
9 September: Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid
15 September: Composer Edmund Crispin

Meanwhile…

20 August: Gunmen opened fire on an Israeli El Al airline bus in London.

25 August: With the aid of homemade water shoes, US Army Sergeant Walter Robinson ‘walked’ across the English Channel in 11 hours 30 minutes.

7 September: The Who’s wild drummer Keith Moon’s self-destructive ways resulted in his death. His body was found in in a flat owned by Harry Nilsson, who didn’t want to let Moon stay there as he believed it was cursed after Mama Cass died there. Moon died from a drug overdose aged 32.
Also that day, Prime Minister James Callaghan announced he would not call a general election for the autumn. Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher and Liberal leader David Steel accused Callaghan of ‘running scared’, in spite of many opinion polls showing that the minority government could win an election at that time with a majority.
And Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was stabbed with a poison-tipped umbrella while he walked across Waterloo Bridge in London. He died four days later.

15 September: German terrorist Astrid Proll was arrested in London.

19 September: British Police launched a murder hunt following the discovery of the dead body of 13-year-old newspaper boy Carl Bridgewater at a farmhouse near Kingswinford in the West Midlands. 

424. John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John – You’re the One That I Want (1978)

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The Intro

1978 was the year of Grease. Romantic leads John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John remained at number 1 for most of the summer with a song that was never in the original stage musical.

Before

The stage show had been created by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey and premiered in a Chicago, Illinois nightclub in 1971. It was set specifically in Chicago and based on Jacobs’s time at high-school there. Noticeably grittier than the later productions and film it spawned, there were a number of other differences. Most of the characters were Polish-American, Doug Stevenson played Danny Zuko and Leslie Goto was Sandy Dumbrowski. The T-Birds were known as the Burger Palace Boys. The only person from the cast of the original Grease to become famous was Marilu Henner, who played Marty. It had a much shorter running time, was shocking and had an almost entirely different soundtrack.

The team behind the musical made a deal to take the show to Off-Broadway in 1972. It became very popular and received seven Tony nominations. By the summer it was on Broadway itself, where it ran until 1980. Barry Bostwick played Danny and Carole Demas was Sandy. During the course of its run, several actors and actresses came and went, becoming famous and/or starring in the movie. Among the Dannys were Jeff Conaway (before becoming Kenickie) and Patrick Swayze. Richard Gere was Sonny and John Travolta was Doody. In 1973 Grease also started a UK run until 1974, featuring Gere, promoted to be Danny, and Stacey Gregg as Sandy. Paul Nicholas and Elaine Paige took over.

It was only a matter of time before someone decided to turn this musical into a movie. Robert Stigwood, manager of The Bee Gees and producer of Saturday Night Fever (1977), produced with Allan Carr, who had worked on Tommy (1975) and Saturday Night Fever. Randall Kleiser made his movie directing debut after being recommended by Travolta, one of the hottest talents of the era.

John Joseph Travolta was born 18 February 1954 in Englewood, New Jersey. His father was a Sicilian-American tire salesman and his mother an actress and singer. The Travolta children all wanted to follow in their mother’s footsteps. He dropped out of high school in 1971, aged 17 and moved to New York, where he landed the role of Doody. His first major role came in the horror Carrie in 1976 and that same year he had a Billboard top 10 hit with Let Her In. Landing the roll of Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever turned him into a superstar and so he was a natural choice to star as Danny in Stigwood’s latest project (although apparently Happy Days star Henry Winkler had turned it down). As well as suggesting Kleiser as director, Travolta reckoned pop and country singer Olivia Newton-John would make a great Sandy.

Newton-John was born in Cambridge on 26 September 1948. Her Welsh father had been an MI5 officer and worked on the Enigma project in the Second World War. Her maternal grandmother was Jewish Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born and her third cousin is comedian Ben Elton. In 1954, when she was six, the family emigrated to Melbourne, Australia.

Newton-John’s singing career began at the age of 14 when she formed all-girl group Sol Four. She entered and won a talent contest on TV show Sing, Sing, Sing and won a trip to the UK. Although reluctant to go, her mother encouraged her and while here she recorded debut single Till You Say You’ll Be Mine in 1966. When friend and fellow singer Pat Carroll moved to the UK, they formed a duo but she turned solo once more when he returned to Australia.

Music mogul Don Kirshner briefly hired Newton-John to feature in short-lived girl group Toomorrow. From there she released her first solo album, If Not for You in 1971. The title track, written by Bob Dylan and recorded by George Harrison the year previous, was a big hit, peaking at seven in the UK. Follow-up Banks of the Ohio did one better and a cover of Harrison’s What Is Life climbed to 16 a year later. Newton-John’s version of Take Me Home, Country Roads went to 15 a year later.

In 1974 Newton-John entered the Eurovision Song Contest for the UK. She finished fourth with Long Live Love but it did respectably enough chart-wise, reaching 11. Later that year she scored her first US chart-topper with I Honestly Love You and her second with Have You Never Been Mellow in 1975. Despite this and scoring several Grammys too, there was a backlash in the States over a foreigner recording country music. Nonetheless, Newton-John left the UK to live over there. She returned to the UK singles chart in 1977 with the ballad Sam, peaking at six.

Following a dinner party at Helen Reddy’s home in which she met Carr, Newton-John was offered the role of female lead, renamed Sandy Ollson and was told they would make the character Australian to accommodate her accent. However she was initially reticent, fearing she was too old at 28 to be playing a high-school senior. It’s fair to say she probably doesn’t regret changing her mind in the end.

The scene in which Danny and Sandy are finally reconciled had until the film been soundtracked by a song called All Choked Up. It was in similar in theme to You’re the One That I Want but as the name suggests, much closer musically to an Elvis Presley pastiche. It was decided that one of Newton-John’s top songwriters and producers, John Farrar, who was a fellow Australian and had featured in The Shadows from 1973-76 would write two brand new songs for the movie. One was Hopelessly Devoted to You and the other, You’re the One That I Want.

Neither really fitted with the rest of the soundtrack which mostly evoked the spirit of 50s pop and rock’n’roll. The former was a country-tinged love song in more in keeping with Newton-John’s usual output. Kleiser was not fond of the latter. Fortunately, the rest of the world didn’t really agree with the film’s director.

Review

Me neither. I’m a self-professed hater of musicals. And yet, there are a few exceptions and this is probably the biggest one. It’s certainly the most famous. Like many of my age, I was first shown Grease as a child in the early 80s. I remember being enthralled from the opening bars of The Bee Gees-written theme tune sung by Frankie Valli when a friend down my street loaded his VHS copy (the Gibbs really were on fire back then). I also remember being really disappointed when the animation ended and an actual film began. The disappointment soon dissipated though.

I loved everything about Grease. I didn’t understand all the risqué jokes and sexual stuff going on but I was bowled over by the characters and music, like most people. And I also think I was chuffed that Danny and Sandy got together and even then, knew that there was something very exciting about Newton-John wearing the tightest clothes I’d probably seen at that point while purring ‘Feel your way’. Not thrilled with the perm, though.

The pure pop brilliance of You’re the One That I Want never dims despite decades of overexposure. It’s unlikely I’d ever put it on by choice but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it every time I hear it. Pure cheese of course, but the strutting verses are cool and the chorus ultra-catchy. It’s always hilarious to watch Travolta miming to those legendary opening lines sung by him like a cat in pain and ‘It’s electrifying’ will never not be funny. Unfortunately I can’t hear it without singing ‘Those new yoghurts you’re supplying, they’re electrifying!’ due to a 90s advert for St Ivel Shape. Weird how these things stick.

After

I’d assumed until now that You’re the One That I Want reigned supreme for almost the whole of the summer of 1978 because Grease was a box office smash and this marks the happy ending of the movie. Amazingly, Grease hadn’t even been released in the UK at this point. The US release came on 16 June, the day before it topped the chart in the UK. The British premiere came on 14 September. So for many, the clip from the film used to promote this single was their introduction to Grease. Which means you can take that mammoth nine-week run, the longest of the decade (equalled by Bohemian Rhapsody and Mull of Kintyre/Girls School) mostly as a sign of sheer love of the song.

However by this point the term ‘new wave’ was being coined to describe the alternative music scene that had risen from the ashes of punk. To the young music fans of acts like Blondie and The Police, the sight and sound of You’re the One That I Want on Top of the Pops throughout that summer must have become a huge annoyance. The Boomtown Rats proved the point to great effect later that year.

Travolta and Newton-John went number 1 across the globe with this first release from what was to become the highest-grossing musical of all time up to that point. It soon became prone to spoofs, from the likes of The Goodies and sadly Hylda Baker & Arthur Mullard. This ageing duo, both comic actors (the latter a horrible bastard), dressed up as Sandy and Danny and performed a truly dire version on Top of the Pops, which took them to 22 in the chart later in 1978.

The Outro

As I write this, You’re the One That I Want is ranked the fifth biggest-selling single of all time. It’s unlikely this will change. In 1990 it saw chart action once more thanks to The Grease Megamix. This amateurishly edited medley of You’re the One That I Want along with Greased Lightnin’ and Summer Nights peaked at three. It remained popular for years though – it was still getting played in my student union in the late-90s. To mark the 20th anniversary of the Grease film phenomenon, a dance version called You’re the One That I Want (Martian Remix) climbed to four in 1998. I have no recollection of this whatsoever. Nor do I remember the London cast recording by Craig McLachlan and Debbie Gibson which reached 13 in 1993.

The Info

Written & produced by

John Farrar

Weeks at number 1

9 (17 June-18 August)

Trivia

Births

20 June: Footballer Frank Lampard
22 June: Race car driver Dan Wheldon
30 June: Comedian Romesh Ranganathan
2 July: Actor Paul Danan
23 July: Footballer Stuart Elliott
31 July: Coldplay drummer Will Champion/Racing driver Justin Wilson

Deaths

23 July: Footballer Tommy McLaren
30 July: Scottish Labour MP John Mackintosh
31 July: Actor Carleton Hobbs
14 August: Writer Nicolas Bentley/Nuclear physicist Norman Feather

Meanwhile…

17 June: Media reports suggest a general election is on the cards in the autumn as the Labour minority government led by James Callaghan appears to be coming to an end. Only four months previous the Conservatives were 11 points ahead but it now looked like Labour would return with a majority.

19 June: Ian Botham becomes the first cricketer to score a century and take eight wickets in one innings of a Test match.

21 June: An outbreak of shooting at a Post Office depot in Belfast between Provisional IRA members and the British Army results in the deaths of one civilian and three IRA men.
Also on this day, the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical Evita opens at the Prince Edward Theatre in London. 

6 July: 11 people are killed when fire breaks out in a sleeping car train in Taunton, Somerset.

7 July: The Solomon Islands are annexed to the Crown and made independent from the UK. 

25 July: Louise Brown becomes the world’s first human to be born from in vitro fertilisation in Oldham, Greater Manchester.

423. Boney M – Rivers of Babylon (1978)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

Boney M were one of the most popular disco acts of the 70s and scored one of the biggest number 1s of all time with this cover of a Rastafari song by The Melodians. In a year in which the singles charts were returning to importance after years of dominance by albums, Boney M were the most popular. And they were the first of several pop acts to spring from the mind of Frank Farian.

Before

Farian, born Franz Reuther in Kirn, Germany on 18 July 1941 had trained as a cook before moving into the music industry. As Frankie Farian he released his first single, Will You Ever Be Mine in 1967.

He wasn’t really making much of an impression until he recorded Baby Do You Wanna Bump in 1974. It was a remake of Jamaican ska singer-songwriter Prince Buster’s Al Capone from 1964. However, in the first of many performance and songwriter controversies from Farian, there was no mention of Prince Buster within the credits.

Farian provided all the vocals and when deciding on an alias for the release, he was inspired while watching an episode of Australian detective drama Boney. He just stuck an ‘M’ on the end for added mystery.

Slowly, the single picked up steam in the Netherlands and Belgium. Farian decided to put a group together to promote it on TV. The first line-up of Boney M in 1975 consisted of Montserrat-born model-turned-singer Maizie Williams, her Jamaican friend Sheila Bonnick and a dancer called Mike. Several changes took place before the group settled down in 1976 with Williams, Jamaican-British singer Liz Mitchell, Aruban exotic dancer Bobby Farrell and Jamaican Marcia Barrett.

Farian set to work on Boney M’s debut LP, Take the Heat Off Me. It became apparent that he couldn’t use either Williams’ or Farrell’s voices and would instead use his own along with Barrett’s (who had already recorded solo with Farrell) and Mitchell’s. Again, the response was initially lukewarm but Farian pushed them to tour constantly, performing at discos, clubs and even country fairs.

The breakthrough occurred when they appeared on West German TV show Musikladen in September wearing outlandish outfits during a performance of Daddy Cool. It shot to 1 in several European countries and peaked at five in the UK. Follow-up Sunny rose to number three over here. Disco was peaking and Boney M had come along at exactly the right time.

In 1977 they released second album Love for Sale and it spawned two hits – Ma Baker (number two) and Belfast (eight). Undertaking their first major tour, Farian lined up live musicians known as The Black Beauty Circus to provide backing.

Boney M’s first release of 1978 was taken from forthcoming third album Nightflight to Venus. Rivers of Babylon was written by Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton of rocksteady Jamaican act The Melodians. Released in 1970, the lyrics were adapted from the texts of Psalms 19 and mainly 137 in the Hebrew Bible. The latter expressed the thoughts of Jewish people in exile after the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC. It contains the line ‘By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.’

Rivers of Babylon was a big hit in Jamaica once the government lifted a ban on it and it became famous internationally after it appeared in the 1972 film The Harder They Come.

Featuring Mitchell on lead vocal and Barrett and Farian on backing vocals, the Boney M version showcased Farian’s standard disco-lite sound, removing all Rastafarian language from the lyrics. The initial single mix featured extra ad-libs from Mitchell and all single versions feature extra vocals from Farian as well as a different fadeout to the LP version. Initially, Dowe and McNaughton didn’t receive any songwriting credit until they rightly kicked up a fuss.

https://youtu.be/HTq7vE_5un4

Review

I’ve never liked Boney M and I can’t see that ever changing. This blog has helped shift my attitude to realise how good ABBA actually were, for example, but I think Boney M are so cheap, tacky and throwaway and re-listening now has made little difference.

There are disco versions of every style of song going but I find taking a song about Biblical plight in poor taste, or maybe that’s just down to my inbuilt dislike of Boney M. I guess though that it’s more respectful than other Boney M hits. Mitchell is a great singer, so there is that, but Farian’s vocals are awful, which makes me wonder how much worse Farrell’s must have been.

So here is another example of the madness of British record buyers. Not only was Rivers of Babylon the biggest-selling single of 1978 but it’s the seventh biggest-selling single OF ALL TIME. What the fuck?

After

After five weeks at the top, it was slipping down the charts and was at 20 when DJs began playing the B-side, a cover of traditional Caribbean nursery rhyme Brown Girl in the Ring. It became a hit in its own right and took the single all the way to number two. This seems highly unfair to me but it at least partly explains why something so poor could sell so well.

The Info

Written by

Frank Farian, George Reyam, Brent Dowe & Trevor McNaughton

Producer

Frank Farian

Weeks at number 1

5 (13 May-16 June) *BEST-SELLING SINGLE OF THE YEAR*

Trivia

Births

14 May: Scottish field hockey defender Emma Rochlin
22 May: Model Katie Price
6 June: The Libertines singer Carl Barât
9 June: Muse singer Matthew Bellamy

Death

18 May: Conservative MP Selwyn Lloyd
7 June: Nobel Prize laureate Ronald George Wreyford Norrish

Meanwhile…

16 May: 40-year-old prostitute Vera Millward is found stabbed to death in the grounds of Manchester Royal Infirmary. It is believed that she is the 10th woman to die at the hands of the Yorkshire Ripper and the second outside of Yorkshire.

17 May: Charlie Chaplin’s coffin, stolen 11 weeks previously, is discovered in a field near the Chaplin home in Corsier near Lausanne, Switzerland.

25 May: Liberal Party leader David Steel announces the Lib-Lab pact is to be dissolved at the end of the Parliamentary session by mutual consent, which would leave Britain with a minority Labour government.

3 June: Airline entrepreneur Freddie Laker is knighted.

8 June: Naomi James becomes the first woman to sail around the world single-handedly.

13–16 June: Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena make a state visit to the United Kingdom. He is made a Knight of the Order of the Bath and she becomes an honorary professor of the Polytechnic of Central London. How lovely. 

422. The Bee Gees – Night Fever (1978)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

In the 10 years since their last number 1, The Bee Gees had split, reunited and suffered wilderness years before a remarkable comeback. They rode the disco wave and set the charts alight with a string of hits and eventually returned to the top of the charts once more with this smooth song from the Saturday Night Fever (1977) soundtrack.

Before

Following their second number 1, I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You, The Bee Gees lost their lead guitarist, Vince Melouney. He had been the only non-Gibb brother to write and sing on a Bee Gees album, with the track Such a Shame on Idea. He did however feature on their fourth LP Odessa, a sprawling double album released in 1969. A single, First of May, reached six, but Robin wasn’t happy that his song Lamplight was relegated to the B-side. Such was the tension between he and Barry, he announced he was leaving the band to pursue a solo career.

Barry and Maurice continued, releasing the bizarrely named Cucumber Castle. During recording, they fired drummer Colin Petersen and hired Pentangle’s Terry Cox to finish the sessions instead. The first single from it, Don’t Forget to Remember, was a big hit, peaking at two. However, by the time the album was released in 1970, The Bee Gees were no more, and sales plummeted. Robin’s solo album Robin’s Reign was released around the same time, but planned releases by Barry and Maurice never saw the light of day.

It wasn’t long before they reunited. Robin rang Barry and they made amends, announcing The Bee Gees were back that August. The album 2 Years On followed, with new drummer Geoff Bridgford. The single Lonely Days did well in the US but not here. How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, from the LP Trafalgar, became their first US number 1, in 1971. That year, Alan Kendall became their lead guitarist.

Run to Me, from To Whom It May Concern, became their first top 10 hit in three years, climbing to nine in 1972. But their commercial appeal shrank hugely and their next albums, Life in a Tin Can (1973) and Mr Natural (1974), sank without trace. They found themselves performing in tiny Yorkshire clubs, with a new drummer, Dennis Byron.

Bolstered by former Strawbs keyboardist Blue Weaver, The Bee Gees moved to Miami, Florida and recorded their 13th album Main Course. Following the advice of manager Robert Stigwood and producer Arif Mardin, they adopted a disco sound and Barry began using a falsetto for the first time. The funky Jive Talkin’ rightly returned them to the mainstream, hitting number 1 in the US and five in the UK. They were bona fide superstars and followed up their Main Course with Children of the World a year later. First single You Should Be Dancing, featuring Stephen Stills on percussion, earned them another US number 1, reaching five in the UK.

After the release of live album Here at Last… Bee Gees… Live the Gibbs agreed to work on the film that made them a bona fide phenomenon. Saturday Night Fever was in post-production when the Bee Gees began recording for the soundtrack. The Bee Gees were recording their next album in France when Stigwood rang them and asked if they’d consider helping out and they originally refused, saying they hadn’t the time. They relented and, with nothing but a rough script as a guideline, recording demos. It’s weird to imagine, but before the Gibbs were involved, John Travolta was originally dancing to music by Boz Scaggs and Stevie Wonder when filming his famous dance scenes.

To say The Bee Gees got it right is an understatement. The soundtrack became enormously successful. You wouldn’t know from this collection of disco classics and soul ballads, primarily by the Gibbs, that the actual film was a gritty, bleak affair. It’s fair to say it marked the peak of the commercial appeal of disco, turning it into a true phenomenon. It’s one of the best-selling albums of all time and every single it spawned – How Deep Is Your Love, More Than a Woman, Stayin’ Alive and Night Fever, became global smashes and all became US chart-toppers. Amazingly, Night Fever was the only one of the four to be number 1 on these shores.

The film was originally going to be called Saturday Night and Stigwood was hoping his group would write a title track but The Bee Gees noted there were too many songs already out there with that name. They offered Night Fever but he wasn’t keen on that as a movie title, so they compromised and the film was renamed.

Among the demos began in April 1977, it was inspired by Blue Weaver noodling on a string synthesiser. He had been wanting to record a disco version of Theme From a Summer Place and when Barry heard it he knew they had the origins of a brand new song. Barry, Robin and Maurice completed the lyrics sitting on a staircase, which was how they wrote their first international hit New York Mining Disaster 1941.

Review

These days Night Fever is considered one of the least impressive Bee Gees hits of the era. I don’t agree with this. It’s not as good as Stayin’ Alive but that’s one of the best disco songs of all time. Night Fever is nearly just as good but for different reasons. The main issue seems to be that the chorus doesn’t have the same impact as the verses. That sense of urgency, in which Barry is so intense you can’t really understand what he’s saying, turns into lovely, gentle harmonies, and then the chorus is a more sedate but blissful affair. I love it.

The highlight of the song is the string synth, it’s just gorgeous and I can’t quite believe it’s not a real orchestral arrangement. And although The Bee Gees are rightly better remembered for their melodies than their lyrics, those verses are great so it’s a shame they’re almost unintelligible. They really capture the magic of a night on the dancefloor, totally lost in music.

After

The more famous Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb became, the more ridiculous and ripe for parodying their image became. The trousers got tighter. The hairy chests came out. The gold medallions displayed proudly, as they flashed those famous large pearly whites. It’s worth checking out the official video above. It was recorded in 1978 but unseen until 2004. Barry has no beard!

The Info

Written by

Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb & Maurice Gibb

Producers

Bee Gees, Albhy Galuten & Karl Richardson

Weeks at number 1

2 (29 April-12 May)

Meanwhile…

1 May: The early May Day bank holiday was enjoyed for the first time.

4 May: When Altab Ali was murdered in East London in a racially motivated attack, the British Bangladeshi community protested. 

6 May: Ipswich Town won the FA Cup for the first time, defeating Arsenal 1-0 in the final at Wembley.

10 May: Liverpool retained the European Cup with a 1–0 win over Club Brugge KV, also at Wembley.