1977

404. Deniece Williams – Free (1977)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

US Grammy-winning soul singer Deniece Williams is probably best known for her US number 1 Let’s Hear It for the Boy from the musical drama Footloose. However, she had a UK number 1 seven years earlier with Free, which seems to have been mostly forgotten about. This is wrong.

Before

June Deniece Chandler was born 3 June 1951 in Gary, Indiana. She grew up singing gospel in a Pentecostal church but at home she particularly loved jazz singers like Nancy Wilson and Carmen McRae. Chandler went to Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland in the hopes of becoming a registered nurse, but she dropped out after a year and a half. Chandler had taken up a part-time job singing and also spent time working as a ward clerk and for a telephone company.

In 1968, as Deniece Chandler, she began recording for The Toddlin’ Tow group of labels in Chicago. Her debut was Love Is Tears. Her early work left little mark, but one song, I’m Walking Away, became popular with the Northern Soul scene in the UK. In 1969 she briefly joined and sang lead with The Lovelites.

In 1971 Chandler became Deniece Williams after marrying high-school sweetheart Kendrick Williams, Around this time, her cousin John Harris was working as a valet for his childhood friend Stevie Wonder. He introduced her to Wonder, and he asked her to join Wonderlove, his group of backing singers. And so Williams had the pleasure of performing on some of Wonder’s greatest work, including the albums Talking Book in 1972, Fulfillingness’ First Finale in 1974 and Songs In the Key of Life in 1976. Williams also featured on Syreeta’s 1974 LP Stevie Wonder Presents: Syreeta, Minnie Riperton’s Perfect Angel in 1974 and Roberta Flack’s Feel Like Makin’ Love a year later.

But in 1975 Williams decided to try again as a solo artist, befriending Earth, Wind & Fire’s Maurice White. He and record producer Charles Stepney set up production company Kalimba Productions and got her signed to Columbia. Williams worked with them on her debut album, This Is Niecy, released in 1976. A few months before it hit the shops, Stepney died. The first single to be released was Free.

Review

This sprawling sophisticated soul stretches out to 5.58 on the album, but unfortunately it’s hacked back to 2.50 in its single form. It’s a shame as it does take away some of its beauty. But then again, it’s too good a song to keep as just an LP track. Williams puts in a gorgeous performance, cooing and seducing, sweet and sensuous. It’s very refreshing to hear a woman singing about how she has no intention of sticking around once she’s spent the night with this guy. Excellent production from White and Stepney too. It’s very similar in sound to a Gamble & Huff classic, sung by Minnie Riperton. Free definitely deserves to be better known and it’s nice to see the British public sending something like this to the top of the charts for a fortnight.

After

Another single from This Is Niecy – That’s What Friends Are For – followed and also did well here, peaking at eight. White produced Williams’ follow-up album Song Bird alone, but a lone single, Baby, Baby My Love’s All for You only reached 32. In 1978 she guested on Johnny Mathis’ album You Light Up My Life and their duet from it, Too Much, Too Little, Too Late was a US number 1 and climbed to three on these shores. They decided to record a full album together, named after That’s What Friends Are For.

The next few years saw little in the way of chart success, bar It’s Gonna Take a Miracle (10 in the US) from 1982 LP Niecy. Another duet with Mathis, Love Won’t Let Me Wait, was released in 1984. But it was the title track to her next album, Let’s Hear It for the Boy, which saw her make a great comeback later that year. It reached two in the UK and was a US number 1, no doubt helped by its exposure in Footloose. The following year she worked with Wonder again, on his album In Square Circle.

In 1986 Williams went back to her roots, releasing the gospel album So Glad I Know. Over the past few years she had been nominated for many Grammys. She finally won two in 1987 – Best Female Soul Gospel Performance for I Surrender All and Best Duo or Group Gospel Performance with Sandi Patti for They Say. A year later she won Best Female Gospel Performance for I Believe in You. Understandably, with such plaudits coming her way, Williams began concentrating on gospel.

The Outro

Her output began to slow during the 90s but Williams did guest on Nancy Wilson’s 1990 album A Lady With a Song, George Duke’s 1992 album Snapshot and Stevie Wonder’s Conversation Peace in 1995. In 1998 she released This Is My Song, a gospel album that earned her Grammy number four, for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album. WIlliams’ last album to date is 2007’s Love, Niecy Style.

The Info

Written by

Deniece Williams, Hank Redd, Nathan Watts & Susaye Greene

Producers

Maurice White & Charles Stepney

Weeks at number 1

2 (7-20 May)

Trivia

Births

13 May: Actress Samantha Morton

Meanwhile…

7 May: The third G7 summit is held in London.
Also on this day, the 22nd Eurovision Song Contest is held in London. Marie Myriam wins for France with L’oisseau et l’enfant (The Bird and the Child). In second place were the UK thanks to Lynsey de Paul and Michael Moran’s Rock Bottom.

10 May: An explosion at Dounreay nuclear power plant is caused by potassium and sodium.

15 May: Liverpool become English Football League champions for the 10th time.

17 May: The Queen commences her Silver Jubilee tour in Glasgow. 

403. ABBA – Knowing Me, Knowing You (1977)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

Following the rightful success of one of the greatest singles of all time – namely Dancing Queen, ABBA were becoming superstars. They followed it up with another of their most famous songs. But Money, Money, Money didn’t become their fifth UK number 1, narrowly missing out by peaking at two. Their fourth album Arrival was chock full of hits though and was mined further.

Before

Knowing Me, Knowing You was recorded on 23 March 1976 at Metronome Studios. It marked a turning point in the band’s career. Gone was the jollity and Europop stylings of Waterloo. This was where things got interesting. Although we’re not at the point in which the two couples were getting divorced, relations in the band had become strained. As Björn Ulvaeus wrote the lyrics, you would imagine he and Agnetha Fältskog were already having problems. Originally the song had the working title Ring It In and then the prophetic Number 1, Number 1. As with most tracks on Arrival, it featured Rutger Gunnarsson on bass (he also looked after the string arrangement) and Ola Brunkert on drums.

Review

I’ve always been more interested in the soap opera-style drama behind ABBA than the majority of the songs I’ve heard by them. It’s fascinating that a superstar group of two couples could end up cataloguing their breakups so poignantly. Give me that over the cheesiness of their early years anytime. So I’m a big fan of Knowing Me, Knowing You.

‘No more carefree laughter’, the opening line, is a very effective signpost that ABBA were in trouble, despite years of success still to come. Anni-Frid Lyngstad takes the lead here and she commits a great performance, documenting her walk through a silent, empty house alone, remembering the good times. Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson’s production fits the glacially cold mood perfectly (as does the opening of the video, the sun beaming down in the winter snow) and then the chorus is ABBA at their best.

Somehow, despite years of association with Steve Coogan’s immortal comic character Alan Partridge, you can still hear it and be impressed, not amused at the fact the chat show host adopted such an inappropriate song as his catchphrase. It stands head and shoulders above any of the other 1977 number 1s so far. It also captures the sadness of the inevitability of the split. They know each other so well, she can see there is no going back this time – ‘this time we’re through’.

Great backing vocals from Ulvaeus too, echoing Frida’s sentiment well. Just to remind us ABBA haven’t totally given up on glam, there’s a very memorable solo after the choruses, with Ulvaeus coming over all Mick Ronson. Fältskog interjects in verse two with some sexy whispering. To be fair Fältskog could make anything sexy, even divorce. I realise that, speaking as someone who likes to point out how he doesn’t generally get all the fuss about ABBA, I’ve had nothing but high praise indeed for the last two singles I’ve covered. Andersson also looked back in 2004 and called them some of ABBA’s greatest work.

One thing that doesn’t get mentioned about ABBA is how iconic their videos are. Knowing Me, Knowing You was, like most, directed by future Academy Award nominee Lasse Hallström. Simple, yet effective, those shots of the members confronting each other face-to-face or back-to-back are as memorable as the song itself.

After

Knowing Me, Knowing You was rightly one of the biggest-selling songs in the UK of 1977 and began a second run of three consecutive chart-toppers in a row for Benny, Björn, Frida and Agnetha. It’s been covered by a diverse range of acts including Cilla Black, A-Teens and Right Said Fred. And as already mentioned, it took on a whole new life as the theme tune to Knowing Me, Knowing You… with Alan Partridge, the radio and TV series that introduced us to one of the greatest comedy characters of all time.

The Info

Written by

Benny Andersson, Stig Anderson & Björn Ulvaeus

Producers

Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus

Weeks at number 1

5 (2 April-6 May)

Meanwhile…

2 April: The legendary horse Red Rum wins the Aintree Grand National for the third time. 

11 April: London Transport’s Silver Jubilee AEC Routemaster buses are launched. 

18–30 April: The Embassy World Snooker Championship moves to Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre, where it attracts TV coverage for the first time. 

23 April: National Front marchers clash with anti-Nazi protesters in London.
Also on this day, prostitute Patricia Atkinson is murdered in Bradford. Police believe she is the fourth woman to be killed by the Yorkshire Ripper.

29 April: British Aerospace is formed to run the nationalised aviation industry.

5 May: The Conservatives make gains at local council elections, including winning the Greater London Council from Labour.

402. Manhattan Transfer – Chanson D’Amour (1977)

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The Intro

Manhattan Transfer were, like many chart-toppers of the 70s, in thrall to the past. But they went further back then the rock’n’roll retro bands like Showaddywaddy. They paid tribute to swing, jazz and acapella music. Surprisingly, the second incarnation of the group found themselves at number 1 in the UK for three weeks in the early spring of 1977.

Before

Founder member of both versions of the group was Tim Hauser. He had dabbled in doo-wop in his youth but moved into a career in advertising. Then in 1969 he formed The Manhattan Transfer. Named after a novel by John Dos Passos, set in New York City at the dawn of the Jazz Age. The original line-up also featured Erin Dickins, Marty Nelson, Pat Rosalita and Gene Pistilli. Signing to Capitol Records, they released one album, Jukin’ in 1971. Unlike the later incarnation, the quintet also covered rock and country genres. Capitol declined to release another LP and The Manhattan Transfer split up.

In 1972 Hauser was working as a taxi driver in New York when waitress Laurel Massé got into his cab. They got talking about music and it transpired she had ambitions to make it big. Hauser clearly hadn’t given up on his dream either. Soon after he met jazz singer Janis Siegel at a party. She had recorded a single as a member of Young Generation (not Engelbert Humperdinck’s mates) and had been a member of folk trio The Loved Ones. An idea began to form and Hauser decided to invite Massé and Siegel to be members of a new Manhattan Transfer and they recorded some demos before starting live performances.

Among the crowd at one of the early shows was session drummer Roy Markowitz, who had played with Don McLean. Markowitz was part of the band in the Broadway version of a hit musical called Grease and he suggested one of the cast members could be a good fit for The Manhattan Transfer. Alan Paul, who played both Johnny Casino and the Teen Angel, agreed to join their ranks. Markowitz produced a demo and sent it to Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records and he agreed to sign them. Their eponymous LP was released in 1975, featuring bona fide jazz musicians including trumpeter Randy Brecker. They were an instant success in the US, with debut single Operator reaching 22. That same year they hosted a four-week series on CBS. A cover of 30s jazz tune Tuxedo Junction was their first taste of UK fame – it peaked at 24 in 1976. That summer they released the album Coming Out, which featured Chanson D’Amour, which has a connection to one of the very first UK number 1s. The LP featured a certain Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner and Dr John.

Chanson D’Amour, French for ‘Love Song’, had been written by US songwriter and producer Wayne Shanklin, who gave it to Art and Dotty Todd in 1958. The husband-and-wife duo had charted in the UK in 1953 with the original version of Broken Wings. It went to six, but a cover by vocal group The Stargazers became the first UK number 1 by a British group later that year. The older generation, somewhat frightened and unsure about rock’n’roll, loved this taste of more gentle times and it was a big hit.

Acclaimed producer Richard Perry worked with Manhattan Transfer on Coming Out, and he liked their demo of Chanson D’Amour. They recorded their number 1 version in one take, featuring Siegel on lead. Backing the group were John Barnes on piano (not that John Barnes), Steve Paietta on accordion, Ira Newborn and Ben Benay on guitar, Andy Muson on bass and Jim Gordon on drums.

Review

I have never enjoyed this track. And that’s for not one, but two reasons. Siegel’s vocal is so over-the-top it’s painful. She’s trying to sound like Edith Piaf but comes across more like Edith Artois in sitcom ‘Allo! ‘Allo!. Every syllable is stretched out interminably. And then there’s the ‘rat-a-tat-a-tat’. My god, it’s irritating. It’s not even amusing to me as a ‘so bad it’s good’-style novelty number 1. Not a lot else to say, really. The most interesting aspect is the fact it’s produced by Perry, making it his second UK number 1 in a row, as it toppled his first, When I Need You by Leo Sayer.

After

Despite its success in the UK and in many other countries, Chanson D’Amour was only a moderate hit in the States. Further UK hits followed in Blighty, including Walk In Love (number 12) and On a Little Street in Singapore (number 20), both in 1978. The following year Massé was involved in a car accident and left the group, to be replaced by Cheryl Bentyne. The single Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone went to 25 in 1980. Also on its accompanying album, Extensions, was Birdland, an instrumental by Weather Report, which now had lyrics and earned Siegel a Grammy for Best Jazz Fusion Performance. In 1981 their version of The Boy from New York City was a big hit Stateside, climbing to seven, and they won a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. A version of A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square won the Grammy for Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices. And there were more. Until I Met You (Corner Pocket) saw them pick up the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. And then in 1982 – Route 66 won them the Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group. Impressive stuff.

Manhattan Transfer’s last charting single was Spice of Life, written by former Heatwave member and Michael Jackson collaborator Rod Temperton. It peaked at 19 in the UK. Yet more Grammy nominations and wins were to come, though. 1985 album Vocalese had 12 nominations – at the time second only to Thriller for most nominated single album ever. It won two – Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group, and Best Arrangement for Voices. In 1987 their album Brasil won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. No more albums released until 1991’s The Offbeat of Avenues. Its track Sassy won a Grammy in 1992 for Best Contemporary Jazz Performance, Instrumental. It was their 10th.

The Outro

The rest of the 90s saw the acclaim slide but Manhattan Transfer diversify, with The Christmas Album in 1992 and children’s album The Manhattan Transfer Meets Tubby the Tuba in 1995. They continued through the 00s with material like The Symphony Sessions, a collection of orchestral reworkings of previous material and The Chick Corea Songbook in 2009. This was their last album for nine years, as health problems crept up on the members. Original member Rosalia died in 2011. Bentyne left several times to battle Hodgkin’s lymphoma, replaced first by Margaret Dorn in 2011, then Katie Campbell in 2014. Hauser, the founder member and only person to bridge both incarnations, passed away in 2014 of cardiac arrest. He was replaced by Trist Curless. Pistilli died in 2017. The following year Manhattan Transfer’s last album to date, The Junction, was released.

The Info

Written by

Wayne Shanklin

Producer

Richard Perry

Weeks at number 1

3 (12 March-1 April)

Trivia

Deaths

26 March: Composer Madeleine Doing
1 April: Partitioner of India Cyril Radcliffe, 1st Viscount Radcliffe

Meanwhile…

14 March: The government reveals inflation has pushed prices up by nearly 70% within three years.

15 March: Car manufacturers British Leyland announce their intention to dismiss 40,000 toolmakers who have gone on strike at the company’s plant in Birmingham. 

23 March: The government wins a vote of no confidence after Prime Minister James Callaghan strikes a deal with David Steel, the leader of the Liberal Party.

401. Leo Sayer – When I Need You (1977)

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The Intro

Diminutive singer-songwriter Leo Sayer may be short in stature, but he was a big star in the 70s. From 1973 onwards he was a regular in the top 10 but it took four years to finally reach the pinnacle of the charts with the soft rock ballad When I Need You.

Before

Gerard Hugh Sayer was born on 21 May 1948 in Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, where he attended St Peter’s Catholic Primary School. Then he moved on to Blessed Robert Southwell in Goring-by-Sea and then West Sussex College of Art and Design, where he studied commercial art and graphic design. When he was 18, Sayer was working as a hall porter at the King’s Hotel in Hove. He became a hero when a serious fire broke out on the first floor and he assisted with saving elderly guests. Sayer ended up in danger himself but was rescued by builders working on nearby flats.

By the late-60s he was frontman in Terraplane Blues Band, before forming the group Patches in 1971 with drummer David Courtney, who had previously played with former number 1 singer Adam Faith. Patches were hoping the connection would pay dividends as Faith was moving into music management. Although Faith wasn’t that impressed with the group, he did think Sayer had potential and agreed to work with him.

Sayer began recording songs he co-wrote with Courtney at the studio of Roger Daltrey. The Who’s lead singer was impressed with what he heard, and was trying to kickstart a solo career. His debut, Giving It All Away, was written by Sayer and Courtney and produced by Faith. Peaking at five in the charts, Daltrey never surpassed this achievement again. Sayer’s debut single followed that same year but Why Is Everybody Going Home failed to chart. It became the closing track on his first LP, Silverbird.

Sayer’s second single, however, made him a star. The Show Must Go On was a music-hall-style song about making the wrong choices in life. He memorably promoted the single appearing on TV dressed and made-up as a pierrot clown. It took him all the way to number two. Second album Just a Boy (1974) spawned One Man Band, which reached six and Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance), which climbed to four. The latter became his first US hit when it went all the way to four. With a canny knack in catchy pop, a lot of charisma and energy and that unmistakable 70s afro, Sayer became a frequent presence on Top of the Pops.

His third album Another Year continued his winning ways in 1975 with Moonlighting stalling at two. He and Courtney had gone their separate ways and Sayer wrote this LP with Supertramp bassist Frank Farrell. He and Faith also stopped working together after this album and he went to the US to record Endless Flight. With a bigger production budget and Richard Perry at the helm, it was his most commercial work yet and the first single from it, the ultra-catchy disco pop tune You Make Me Feel Like Dancing gave him a number 1 in the US, Canada and New Zealand. Despite being his signature song, it was his third single to not make it past the runner-up spot. Finally, Sayer cracked it with When I Need You.

This love song was penned by Albert Hammond and Carole Bayer Sager. Hammond, father of Albert Hammond Jr from The Strokes, was a singer and has been very successful for decades in writing hits for Glenn Campbell, Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, Ace of Base and Westlife, to name a few. Singer-songwriter Bayer Sager has an Academy Award, a Grammy and two Golden Globes to her name and later married and worked with Burt Bacharach. Together, these pedigree songsmiths were bound to strike gold. This track actually first appeared as the title track to Hammond’s 1976 LP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVmBXm9OfDo

Review

I’m not sure what to make of Sayer to be honest. I used to think he seemed a nice unassuming guy, happy to play the fool (literally in the case of The Show Must Go On). I formed this opinion after seeing him fall off a running machine on the Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer ill-fated game show Families at War. You can see the clip here. It starts with him sat on someone’s back performing this very number 1. So surely he has a good sense of humour. But then my opinion fell rapidly after seeing him take part in Celebrity Big Brother in 2007. He came across as a childish prima donna, eventually storming out because he couldn’t be provided with clean underwear. And during one of his hissy fits, he accidentally gave a thumbs up to the camera rather than the finger. Look. Silly sod.

But let’s give him the benefit of the doubt as that series did strange things to people and let’s get back to 1977. And I think When I Need You is a decent single if you like 70s torch songs. Perry’s production is slick and top-notch, capturing that soft rock FM sound so well. Sayer portrays the sensitive pop star separated from his loved one well. Though they’re miles apart, it’s OK as he can picture her when he closes his eyes. Sounds cliched now (and the video above in which he wanders forlornly along a beach is definitely cheesy) but it captures the mood better than other songs of this type.

I prefer the falsetto-sung happy-go-lucky You Make Me Feel Like Dancing personally but When I Need You is better than, say If You Leave Me Now or Don’t Give Up on Us. The song works because you could imagine it as a love letter not to just one person, but all Sayer’s fans. And ‘It’s cold out, but hold out, and do like I do’ is a nice little punching-the-air moment.

It’s a class line-up performing the track, featuring award-winning composer James Newton Howard on synth, occasional Rolling Stones saxophonist Bobby Keys, Michael Omartian on electric piano, session guitarist Dean Parks on electric guitar, Jeff Porcaro (soon to join Toto) on drums and legendary session bassist Willie Weeks.

After

When I Need You finally got Sayer the number 1 he craved, and became his second US chart-topper too. It was a worldwide hit and also the first of two Perry-produced number 1s in a row. It’s somewhat of a standard, having been covered by Perry Como, Rod Stewart, Celine Dion, Cliff Richard and, erm, Will Mellor. But Sayer’s is the one everyone remembers.

The Outro

Normally at this point I’d run through the rest of Sayer’s career, but as he unexpectedly featured on a number 29 years later, you’ll have to wait. It’s cold out, but hold out.

The Info

Written by

Albert Hammond & Carole Bayer Sager

Producer

Richard Perry

Weeks at number 1

3 (19 February-11 March)

Trivia

Births

2 March: Coldplay singer Chris Martin
9 March: Actress Rita Simons
10 March: Radio DJ Colin Murray

Deaths

19 February: Anthony Crosland

Meanwhile…

22 February: Labour MP David Owen replaces Anthony Crosland as Foreign Secretary after his death three days earlier.

1 March: Prime Minister James Callaghan threatens to withdraw state assistance to British Leyland, insisting they put an end to strike action.

400. Julie Covington – Don’t Cry for Me Argentina (1977)

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The Intro

Before becoming another hit musical for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, Evita, their story of former Argentine First Lady Eva Perón, was a concept album. Such was its immediate popularity, this song, performed by singer and actress Julie Covington went all the way to the top. Despite the long-term success of Lloyd Webber and Rice’s music through the decades, few of their songs have stayed in the public consciousness. This one definitely has.

Before

Lloyd Webber and Rice first met in 1965. The former was a 17-year-old composer, the latter a 20-year-old aspiring pop songwriter. Their first work together was The Likes of Us, a musical based on the life of Thomas John Barnardo. They produced a demo in 1966, but it wouldn’t be performed in public until 2005. Their first performed work is one of their most famous – Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 1968. Jesus Christ Superstar followed. The hugely successful rock opera began life as a concept album in 1970 and Lloyd Webber and Rice decided to repeat this formula with their next project, Evita, based on the life of Perón, the second wife of Argentine leader Juan Perón. The idea originated when Rice listened to a Radio 4 documentary about Perón’s wife.

Don’t Cry for Me Argentina appears at the opening of the first and second acts and near the end of the show. They selected an all-star cast of British pop stars in the LP’s cast, including former Manfred Mann members Paul Jones and Mike d’Abo, Mike Smith from the Dave Clark Five, Barbara Dickson and singer and actress Julie Covington in the lead role.

Covington, a Londoner, was born 11 September 1946. She attended Brondesbury and Kilburn High School, where she began acting. She took part in two Edinburgh festivals and won the first ever Edinburgh Festival Fringe Best Actress Award. Her career in singing began with performing material by Pete Arkin and Clive James after joining the Footlights while at teachers’ training college in Cambridge. In 1967, while studying at Homerton College, Cambridge, she was invited to appear on The Frost Report. This earned her a recording contract with Columbia Records and she released her debut album, While the Music Lasts.

Covington’s career went from strength to strength throughout the 70s. She starred in the musical Godspell alongside fellow number 1 artist David Essex in 1971. Two years later she starred as Janet Weiss in the original production of The Rocky Horror Show. For the next few years she appeared on Play Away and regularly as part of the National Theatre and Royal Court Theatre. Lloyd-Webber saw her performing in cabaret one night in 1976, and recognised her from her role in acclaimed ITV musical drama Rock Follies. This series, following the exploits of a female rock band called The Little Ladies, won multiple BAFTAs, and the punk band Buzzcocks got their name from a Time Out review of the series with the headline ‘It’s the buzz, cocks!’, which was a reference to Covington’s character Dee. With her short cropped hair, Covington even resembled a punk at the time. She was intrigued by the idea of Evita, wondering how on earth Lloyd Webber and Rice could make a commercial musical out of Perón’s life.

Don’t Cry for Me Argentina was among the first, piano-only, demos for Evita. Despite reticence that they weren’t going to sell many records, MCA agreed to release the album, and the cast began recording the album at Olympic Studios in 1975. The completed version of this single featured Johnny Kidd and The Pirates’ guitarist Joe Moretti, plus Simon Phillips on drums, Mo Foster on bass, Ray Russell on guitars, Anne Odell on keyboards, David Snell on harp and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. As it came to completing the album, Lloyd Webber and Rice couldn’t decide on the song’s title, flitting between It’s Only Your Lover Returning and All Through My Crazy and Wild Days, amid fears that mentioning Argentina may reduce commercial appeal. Shortly before the LP was mixed, Lloyd Webber suggested the line ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’ was a good fit. It originated from an epitaph on a plaque at Perón’s grave in the La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.

Review

Stirring, stately strings set the tone as the song begins. We are to picture Covington as Evita, addressing the crowd from the balcony of the Casa Rosada. It’s a powerful performance from Covington, full of nuance, sometimes gentle and hesitant in the opening, other times defiant. It’s as complex a rendition as Rice’s lyrics, which I’ll be honest, took some researching. I’ve said before on this blog that most musicals just leave me cold, and I’ve never seen or heard Evita, nor do I know much about the history behind Perón’s story.

All this can’t help but affect my enjoyment of this number 1, which is highly regarded by so many. But for that reason I tried to appreciate it more this time around, and I could. A classy rendition of a complex, mature moment in pop. I’d still never seek it out otherwise though.

After

Although Covington totally owned her role on the LP, playing the part of a hard-right political leader didn’t sit comfortably with her. She had wanted the song to remain tucked away on the album and turned down planned TV appearances, including Top of the Pops, resulting in a montage of images of Perón as a promo video. When Radio 1 refused to add it to their playlists, Lloyd Webber and Rice thought it would sink. But the BBC changed its mind eventually and it helped push the song up the charts. When Don’t Cry for Me Argentina reached number 1, Covington was in the audience on Top of the Pops.

Lloyd Webber and Rice won the Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically with their number 1 later in the year. Naturally they asked Covington to reprise her role when planning the stage show of Evita, but were likely unsurprised when she declined. The part went to Elaine Page instead. In 1982 the song took on a whole new meaning due to the Falklands War, and when the UK was victorious, the song was heard in many pubs, sung sarcastically by gloating Brits. The BBC refused to play the former number 1 during the conflict and it was also banned in the Philippines during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, as the life of his wife Imelda was said to mirror Perón’s.

The Outro

When the stage version of Evita opened, Covington had moved on, starring in the English National Opera’s version of The Seven Deadly Sins. That year, 1978, was a big one for Covington, as she also performed the role of Beth in Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds. She also peaked at number 12 with a cover of Alice Cooper’s Only Women Bleed, taken from her eponymous album. It was her first LP in seven years and also her last. After that, she notably appeared in the 1982 National Theatre production of Guys and Dolls and has mostly disappeared from the public eye since.

The Info

Written & produced by

Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice

Weeks at number 1

1 (12-18 February)

Trivia

Births

18 February: Triathlete Chrissie Wellington

Meanwhile…

13 February: Foreign Secretary Anthony Crosland has a massive stroke. He does not regain consciousness and dies six years later in hospital.

15 February: The very first Aardman Animations character, Morph, is introduced on BBC children’s TV series Take Hart, hosted by Tony Hart.

399. David Soul – Don’t Give Up on Us (1977)

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The Intro

US actor David Soul had for many years been a frustrated singer, until his role in the 70s cop drama Starsky & Hutch enabled him to achieve his dream. Thanks to his fame, he was able to bag two UK number 1s in 1977.

Before

David Richard Solberg was born in Chicago, Illinois on 28 August 1943. Of Norwegian extraction, his father was a Lutheran minister and his mother a teacher. The Solbergs moved regularly when he was growing up. While studying at the University of the Americas in Mexico City (rather than accept an offer from the Chicago White Sox to play baseball), he was inspired to learn the guitar, and so began his love for music, playing Mexican folk songs.

At some point in the mid-60s Solberg began going by the name David Soul and would perform in New York without making much impact. He hit upon the idea of concealing his identity and became The Covered Man. The gimmick worked and he was hired by The William Morris Agency and he garnered TV appearances, most notably on The Merv Griffin Show in 1966. Unfortunately when he unmasked on the same show the year later, proclaiming ‘My name is David Soul, and I want to be known for my music’, the bookings dried up.

It did however get him noticed and he began to get work as an actor instead, making his TV debut in an episode of Flipper, then an episode of Star Trek. In 1968 he became a regular on comedy series Here Comes the Brides, which ran for another two years. Clint Eastwood cast him for a role in Dirty Harry sequel Magnum Force, released in 1973.

Then came the big one. In 1975 he landed the part of Detective Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson in ABC’s Starsky & Hutch along with Paul Michael Glaser as David Michael Starsky. This action drama series became huge and perhaps made Soul decide the time was right to try his hand at music once more, or someone at the label Private Stock Records could smell opportunity.

Soul was teamed with Tony Macaulay, a proven hitmaker with a considerable track record, having written and produced number 1s for The Foundations, Edison Lighthouse and The New Seekers. He had been tied up for much of the 70s in a legal dispute with his publishers. His win on appeal proved a landmark case for artists to challenge the terms of their contracts.

Review

Soul’s first number 1 is a very typical 70s slushy ballad, and very similar to If You Leave Me Now. Unfortunately the hook isn’t as catchy as Chicago’s, but the song as a whole is perhaps stronger, as it doesn’t tail away into nothingness. It’s lyrically similar too. Soul and his love have had a bust-up. Sounds quite serious too, as in the middle-eight he says ‘I really lost my head last night’. But he’s now full of regret and, not blessed with the strongest of voices, his meekness fits the theme of the song quite well. But if Soul hadn’t been starring in one of the most successful TV imports of the decade at the time, I doubt this would have topped the charts.

The Outro

Don’t Give Up on Us went to number 1 in the US too, and Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Soul would be back at the top before the year was out.

The Info

Written & produced by

Tony Macaulay

Weeks at number 1

4 (15 January-12 February)

Trivia

Births

24 January: Actress Hayley Tamaddon
5 February: Sailor Ben Ainslie
5 February: Footballer Jason Euell

Deaths

24 January: Chief of the Air Staff Sir Andrew Humphrey

Meanwhile…

29 January: Seven Provisional IRA bombs explode in London’s West End but there are no fatalities or serious injuries.

4 February: Police find an IRA bomb factory in Liverpool.

5 February: 28-year-old homeless woman Irene Richardson is murdered in Leeds, at nearly the exact location where prostitute Marcella Claxton was injured in an attack nine months earlier. Police believe that this murder and attempted murder may be connected, along with the murders of Wilma McCann, Emily Jackson and the attempted murders of at least three other women.

10 February: The three IRA terrorists involved in the 1975 Balcombe Street Siege in London are sentenced to life imprisonment on six charges of murder.