Cliff Richard

461. Olivia Newton-John/Electric Light Orchestra – Xanadu (from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1980)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

The 1980 musical fantasy Xanadu was a box office failure, even inspiring the Golden Raspberry Awards. But the soundtrack album, featuring Olivia Newton-John, Electric Light Orchestra, Cliff Richard and the Tubes, was a global smash. And the theme gave Newton-John her third chart-topper and – surprisingly – ELO’s sole number 1.

Before

1978 was a mammoth year for Newton-John. The Australian pop star and actress became a superstar thanks to her role as Sandy in Grease. And together with co-lead John Travolta, she was a chart mainstay, with two lengthy number 1s – You’re the One That I Want and Summer Nights. So enduring was the image of Newton-John, sexed-up and dressed in tight black leather at the film’s finale, she adopted it for her next LP, Too Hot, released at the end of the year. Its first single, A Little More Love, was a worldwide hit and peaked at four. But 1979 was a barren year for UK singles success.

She began 1980 by duetting with Andy Gibb on I Can’t Help It in the US, as well as a TV special – Hollywood Nights. Then came Xanadu. Originally conceived as a low-budget film cashing in on the roller-disco craze, it grew in scale as big names joined the production, most notably Newton-John and the legendary dancer Gene Kelly, in what was toby his final role.

Xanadu, directed by Robert Greenwald, was based on the 1947 movie Down to Earth, which also featured Kelly. The new film was named after the nightclub setting, which in turn referenced Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1816 poem Kubla Khan. However, the filming ran into difficulties due in large part to several script changes. The soundtrack LP was split, with tracks by Newton-John (plus Richard, the Tubes and Kelly) on side one. All tracks there were written by John Farrar, who before writing You’re the One That I Want had been in The Shadows. Side two exclusively featured ELO, with the final song featuring both acts together on the title track.

ELO was originally conceived by Roy Wood, singer-songwriter in 1969 chart-toppers The Move. He spoke to fellow Brummie Jeff Lynne of psychedelic pop act The Idle Race, about a new group that would ‘pick up where The Beatles left off’, employing classical instruments on a full-time basis. Lynne liked the idea but was determined to try and find fame with his own group rather than join The Move to get things started. But by January 1970, when Trevor Burton left The Move, he’d changed his mind – on the condition that he and Wood concentrated on their new project – the Electric Light Orchestra.

That summer, a track intended to be a B-side for The Move developed into the first ELO track. And what a debut 10538 Overture was, when it finally hit the shops in 1972. Written by Lynne, with around 15 Chinese cello parts played and overdubbed by Wood, there had been nothing like it before, and it reached nine in the charts. The debut eponymous ELO LP had been released the previous December, and was and is still known in the US as No Answer, due to a misunderstood note left by a United Artists Record Executive. Their call to the UK to find out the name of the album had resulted in ‘no answer’. This album features a far less slick sound than later work, and features only three core members – Lynne, Wood and Bev Bevan on drums.

The Move finally became defunct shortly before the release of 10538 Overture and around the time of ELO’s live debut, which saw the trio joined by Bill Hunt on keyboards and French horn, Andy Craig, Hugh McDowell and Mike Edwards on cello, Wilfred Gibson on violin and Richard Tandy on bass. This line-up proved short-lived, as the making of the second ELO album later in 1972 saw a raft of departures. First Craig, then – most importantly, Wood, who among other reasons cited being unable to hear the classical instruments over the electric when performing live. Wood took Hunt and McDowell with him and of course, went on to form Wizzard, who scored two number 1s with See My Baby Jive and Angel Fingers (A Teen Ballad) in 1973. With Wood’s departure no doubt in mind, Lynne ensured that all band members were properly amplified when playing gigs from then on.

Wood only featured on two tracks on ELO 2, released in 1973. Neither were the cover of Roll Over Beethoven, which soared to six in the singles chart. The new line-up included Tandy switching to keyboards to replace Hunt, plus new recruits Mike du Albuquerque picking up the bass and cellist Colin Walker. Third single Showdown showcased a new, funkier direction and surprisingly missed out on the top 10, finishing at 12.

Further changes came during the making of the next LP, On the Third Day. Gibson was sacked, Walker quit and Mik Kaminski joined as violinist. Then McDowell bounced back from Wizzard during the end of recording. Concept album Eldorado was released in 1974 and saw the end of Lynne multi-tracking strings and using a full orchestra instead. Albuquerque left during recording.

Lynne took on a deliberately more commercial sound and the line-up finally stabilised after Eldorado. Kelly Groucutt became their bassist and Melvyn Gale replaced Edwards as a cellist. The next album, Face the Music, saw ELO deservedly score a number 10 hit with Evil Woman in 1975.

Sixth LP A New World Record (1976) was the first to feature the classic ELO logo and their first top 10 UK album. It spawned three great singles – Livin’ Thing (my favourite) peaked at four, and then in 1977, Rockaria! climbed to nine and Telephone Line reached eight. And later that year came the huge, multi-platinum Out of the Blue. First single Turn to Stone did respectably (18), but in 1978 Mr Blue Sky, Wild West Hero and Sweet Talkin’ Woman all reached six. The first and latter are obviously classic pop songs.

ELO were now massive, and so were their gigs at the time. Taking a leaf out of George Clinton’s book, Lynne and co performed in front of a spaceship, with elaborate lasers and smoke machines, on a huge world tour dubbed ‘The Big Night’, which was the highest-grossing tour ever at the time. They also performed a record-setting eight sold-out gigs at Wembley Arena.

ELO’s fame peaked in 1979 with the multi-platinum LP Discovery. Featuring a mix of ultra-glossy pop and rock with disco influences, this album contained four top 10 singles – Shine a Little Love (six), The Diary of Horace Wimp (eight), the highlight, Don’t Bring Me Down (three) and Confusion/Last Train to London (eight).

Whoever had the idea of Newton-John and ELO for the soundtrack to Xanadu, it was a great move. A side each for the lead actress, fresh from Grease, and one of the biggest bands of the late 70s. Throw in legends Richard and Kelly, plus a hip band in the Tubes, and it was bound to do well. And it was certainly way more successful than the film itself.

However, initially the signs weren’t promising in the UK. Newton-John’s Magic was released first and although it was a US number 1, it couldn’t manage better than 32 here when released in May. ELO’s I’m Alive came next and climbed to 20. It was time to bring out the big one.

Review

Xanadu was written by Lynne as an ELO song with Newton-John in his place as lead singer. It’s easy to see why people rushed out to make it number 1 for a fortnight in the summer of 1980. Especially as there had been two months of sad ballads in the top spot beforehand.

Although disco was fading in popularity and the ridiculous Disco Demolition Night had taken place the previous year, Xanadu was designed as a coke-fuelled floorfiller. It ticks lots of boxes, and I can remember playing my brother’s single as a boy and loving it. Which makes sense as it’s like a hit of pure sugar from a bag of sweets. And yet, if you strip away Lynne’s sheen, it sounds rather throwaway now. The soaring chorus is strong – with piano flourishes reminiscent of Dancing Queen – but the rest doesn’t leave much of a mark. It’s an argument you could make about a fair bit of ELO’s material. Of course, there’s classics in there like Mr Blue Sky and Livin’ Thing, but sometimes the production is hiding substandard material. I would bet on many buyers listening to Xanadu once or twice and then forgetting all about it. It doesn’t help that, as I keep banging on about here, that there are so many classic chart-toppers in 1980. Xanadu doesn’t stand the test of time as well as I’d expected it to.

The official video to Xanadu, is, I assume, taken from the film itself. It’s predictably flashy, with a predictably stunning Newton-John mining among roller-skaters and even body-poppers, in a sign of things to come. There’s no sign of ELO at all. The effects may be dated, and I’ve no idea what’s going on at the end when Newton-John turns blue and then ends proceedings in a Marilyn Monroe-style pose in white. But it’s all rather charming, thanks in large part to Newton-John.

After

Press screenings of Xanadu were cancelled, which raised suspicions that Universal weren’t confident. The suspicions proved true, and it sunk at the box office, despite critics applauding the soundtrack. A double feature of Xanadu and Can’t Stop the Music inspired the first ever Golden Raspberry Awards (or Razzies), highlighting the worst in cinema every year since. Greenwald won the initial Worst Director Award and his movie was nominated six more times.

One further track was lifted from the soundtrack. It’s love theme, Suddenly, was a Newton-John/Richard duet, and it reached 15. Refusing to let the failure of the film curtail her career, she followed the project with her most successful album, Physical, in 1981. The surprisingly risqué title track, hidden behind a memorable ‘keep fit’ video, was a Billboard number 1, but somehow only made it to seven on these shores. Newton-John also made a video version of this album, with a short film for every song. One song, Landslide, was her final UK hit for eight years, reaching 18 in 1982. A year later she starred with Travolta once more, but the romantic fantasy Two of a Kind was a flop. Nevertheless, as with Xanadu, the accompanying album did well.

Newton-John’s fortunes began to slide with the release of her 1985 LP Soul Kiss, and she went on hiatus after giving birth to daughter Chloe in 1986. She returned in 1988 with the album The Rumour, but although the title track was written and produced by Elton John, it failed to make an impact. The next album – her last to be produced by Farrar – was Warm and Tender, and it also got nowhere. It took the nostalgia of The Grease Megamix in 1990 to return her to the charts, peaking at three. In 1992, a planned comeback was waylaid when she discovered she had breast cancer on the same weekend her father died. Fortunately she recovered, and added cancer awareness to her impressive resume of charity and humanitarian work.

Gaia: One Woman’s Journey was released in 1994. Co-produced by Newton-John, this album chronicled her time with cancer. In 1995 she reunited with her showbiz pal Richard for his musical Heathcliff, and their duet Had to Be finished up at 22. In 1998, the Martian Remix of You’re the One That I Want did extremely well, becoming a number four hit.

Newton-John concentrated on releasing material in Australia from then on, but occasionally toured the UK. She married John Easterling in 2008, and continued to act, including two cameos in popular US musical comedy drama Glee. Occasionally she’d reunite with Travolta, including on the charity festive album This Christmas in 2012, or to celebrate the Grease phenomenon.

In 2017, Newton-John’s cancer returned and spread to her back. Despite significant pain, she was able to relieve her pain with cannabis oil. But on 8 August 2022 she died, aged 73. As a mark of respect, Melbourne and Sydney lit up some of their most famous landmarks.

Two more ELO tracks were released from the Xanadu soundtrack – All Over the World (one of Lynne’s best, which went to 11) and Don’t Walk Away (21). Next came their sci-fi concept LP Time in 1981, on which they replaced their trademark strings with synths. Its first single, Hold On Tight, was their last top 10 hit, peaking at four. The last Time release, The Way Life’s Meant to Be, could get no higher than a paltry 85.

Lynne wanted to release a double album in 1983, but CBS blocked the plan and he was forced to edit down Secret Messages to a single LP. This, combined with dwindling ticket sales and arguments with his manager Don Arden, took their toll. He decided to wrap up ELO. Rock ‘n’ Roll Is King sold respectably, reaching 13, but no further singles made the charts.

Bevan went to play for Black Sabbath, while Lynne concentrated on production, working with the Everly Brothers and ABBA’s Agnetha Fältskog. He also collaborated with Tandy on the soundtrack to Electric Dreams (1984). However, ELO were contractually obligated to complete one more album, so Lynne, Bevan and Tandy reunited to record Balance of Power, released in 1986. The first single it spawned, Calling America, was their final top 40 hit (28). ELO leader Lynne disbanded the group once more and produced George Harrison’s comeback album Cloud Nine in 1987, before the duo joined supergroup The Traveling Wilburys.

ELO returned to life in 2000 with the release of the box set Flashback featuring, among various out-takes, an inferior new remake of Xanadu. A year later a new album, Zoom, was released featuring only Lynne from the classic line-up – bar Tandy on one track. A new line-up followed, with Tandy returning to the fray, for a planned world tour, that never materialised.

Lynne and Tandy eventually returned under the name Jeff Lynne and Friends for Children in Need in 2013. They went down so well, the project expanded into Jeff Lynne’s ELO in 2014. A tour and a new album, Alone in the Universe, followed in 2015, but Tandy left a year later. ELO were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. The last Jeff Lynne’s ELO album to date was From Out of Nowhere in 2019.

The Outro

Xanadu grew a cult following over the years, with a spin-off musical hitting Broadway in 2007.

The Info

Written & produced by

Jeff Lynne

Weeks at number 1

2 (12-25 July)

Trivia

Births

18 July: DJ Gareth Emery/TV news presenter Tasmin Lucia-Khan/Engineer Scott James Remnant
19 July: Liberty X singer Michelle Heaton

Deaths

14 July: Welsh poet Andiron Talon Davies
15 July: Scottish painter Dorothy Johnstone
18 July: Theatre director Robert Kidd
21 July: Physiologist Isabella Leitch
23 July: Poet Olivia Manning
24 July: Comic actor Peter Sellers (See ‘Meanwhile…’)

Meanwhile…

19 July-3 August: Great Britain and Northern Ireland win five gold, seven silver and 9 bronze medals at the controversial Olympic Games in Moscow.

22 July: Unemployment hits nearly 1.9 million – a 44-year high.

24 July: Shortly after dinner with his former Goon friends Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan, actor and comedian Peter Sellers dies of heart failure. He was 54.


Every 60s Number 2

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The Intro

Back to my occasional number 2 spin-offs. I’ve nearly finished writing my reviews of every 70s number 1, and realised I hadn’t yet done the runners-up of the 60s. And it’s a wonder, because some of the greatest number 2s in history came about in the 60s. One in particular is so good, I’m thinking it’s already a foregone conclusion that it’s the winner. While this is very likely, it still gives me chance to listen to some old favourites and a surprising large amount I’d never heard before.

So, as usual, I’ll pick a best and worst for each year of the decade, and then an overall pick for best and worst of the decade. And the songs I run through reached no higher than number 2, so future and past number 1s aren’t included.

1960

A very typical mix rock’n’roll tracks and rather dull traditional pop kicks the decade off. Cliff Richard and The Shadows crop up A LOT in this list and here’s the first. Voice in the Wilderness, thanks to some nice guitar from The Shadows, is probably his best of the decade, from the film, Expresso Bongo. Johnny Preston’s Cradle of Love is far less weird than his chart-topper Running Bear, but it’s still pretty odd lyrically, as it’s full of nursery rhyme references. Connie Francis had some great number 1s, but the double A-side Mama/Robot Man is poor in comparison. Particularly the former. The latter, sadly, isn’t the brilliant indie-funk by The Aliens. Duane Eddy crops up for the first time with Because They’re Young, co-produced by Lee Hazlewood. And Elvis Presley is here too, with the B-side of It’s Now or Never. Nice barrelhouse piano, but it’s not up there with his classics. As usual, Shirley Bassey hurts my ears with her version of As Long as He Needs Me from Oliver!. The year ends with one of the more famous early singles here, Save the Last Dance for Me by The Drifters.

The Best

Percy Faith –Theme from ‘A Summer Place’

This was a surprise. Perhaps I picked it because it was the one I was most familiar with, but it still seems odd it won out. Not normally my sort of thing at all but the tune is simply very good isn’t it? The original version had lyrics and was written for the 1959 film starring Sandra Dee.

The Worst

Connie Francis – Mama/Robot Man

Ugh. I expected better from Francis after her great chart-toppers. Mama is awful. Yes it is an Italian song, from the 40s, but listening to her over-the-top performance in Italian is cringeworthy and it’s really dated compared to her own rock’n’roll-style numbers. Robot Man is more like it, a catchy pop number about how Francis would prefer a robot boyfriend as it wouldn’t let her down… Just a shame it’s not the indie-funk classic by The Aliens that shares its title.

1961

Only a small selection, but they’re all pretty good. Duane Eddy is back with another pretty cool instrumental. Pepe originally featured in a musical comedy of the same name. Eddy’s version has some nice, raucous backing vocals. It’s followed by Eurovision runner-up Are You Sure? by The Allisons. Not my sort of thing, but this slice of dreamy teen pop has some lovely harmonies. Bobby Darin can always be relied upon to put in a great effort, and his punchy, swinging version of 1930s standard Lazy River is no exception. US pop star Ricky Nelson’s double A-side Hello Mary Lou/Travelling Man is of course more famous for the rock’n’classic former, written by Gene Pitney. The other track has some annoying bass backing vocal, which I should have known were by The Jordannaires, Elvis Presley’s backing singers. Elvis’s influence appears on Billy Fury’s version of the 1925 tango Jealousy, which is pretty good.

The Best

Jimmy Dean – Big Bad John

I often run a mile from country-western music, but Big Bad John is one cool customer, despite being familiar to me because of its use in adverts for Domestos bleach in the 80s (Big Bad Dom). Nice sparse, menacing production, about a miner who killed a man over a Cajun queen.

The Worst

John Leyton – Wild Wind

Nothing wrong with Leyton’s number two at all, it’s just the least attention-grabbing of the 1961 batch. Despite also not being as great as his 1961 number 1 classic Johnny Remember Me, it’s a powerful performance by Leyton, and manages to capture the sound of a wild wind pretty well.

1962

A big, eclectic batch to wade through here. Midnight in Moscow (a Russian tune originally known as Moscow Nights) outstays its welcome a bit but it’s a pleasant enough jazz tune by Morecambe and Wise’s favourite guests, Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen. Acker Bilk’s famous instrumental Stranger on the Shore follows and slows things down nicely enough but I’m not sure why it’s as highly regarded as it is. Guess you had to be there. First British song to go to number 1 in the US, incidentally. Fascinatingly low vocal from teenager Helen Shapiro on Tell Me What She Said, and it really makes an otherwise average pop song stand out. Then it’s… The Big O! As always, Roy Orbison is in fine voice with Dream Baby, but this is rather average by his standards. Is it because he’s not depressed enough? The original Hey! Baby, performed by Bruce Channel, isn’t half as annoying as the DJ Ötzi version, released in 2000. Channel turned John Lennon on to the harmonica, as used in Love Me Do, fact fans. Cliff Richard and The Shadows are back with some better material this time – Do You Want to Dance/I’m Looking Out the Window and It’ll Be Me. The first and third of these are pretty good. Cheeky chipper Cockney Joe Brown disappoints with A Picture of You… I didn’t know he pretended to be American? Speaking of comedy accents, Pat Boone’s Speedy Gonzales has some hilarious cliched Mexican wailing at the start, and then none other than Mel Blanc, voice of Speedy himself, makes an appearance! Bobby Darin is back with Things but it’s a bit cheesy and somewhat of a letdown. Couple of novelty dance classics to round things up – what is it about these that makes them still fresh? I’m talking about Little Eva’s The Loco-Motion and Let’s Dance by Chris Montez.

The Best

Chubby Checker – Let’s Twist Again

Easily the best track so far. This just hasn’t dated at all. It’s fun, catchy and Checker’s voice is unique and still sounds great. The 1960 original The Twist is still almost as good, too. My only problem with Let’s Twist Again is that I keep expecting The Fat Boys to interject.

The Worst

Del Shannon – Swiss Maid

Well, this is a million miles from Shannon’s classic Runaway. You can give early-60s songs some leeway for being politically incorrect, but this is also totally forgettable.

1963

The year in which pop music changed forever. Thankfully. Easy listening is still around, and Can’t Get Used to Losing You by Andy Williams was later a hit for The Beat. I was looking forward to hearing Jet Harris and Tony Meehan as I enjoyed the former Shadows members’ number 1 Diamonds. But Scarlett O’Hara was a bit of a let down other than the drum break. Harris isn’t even on it, but Joe Moretti of Johnny Kidd and The Pirates is. Then, we’re full swing into the Beatles era with the first cover of the Fab Four. There’s no escaping the fact that Billy J Kramer with The Dakotas’ version of Do You Want to Know a Secret? sorely misses the backing vocals of Lennon and McCartney. There’s another instrumental by The Shadows next, but Atlantis comes across as a lacklustre rewrite of Wonderful Land. Freddie and the Dreamers were a pleasant surprise – Garrity’s weird dance always made me think of them as laughable, but I’m Telling You Now is a great example of beat music. And The Searchers’ Sugar and Spice, written by Tony Hatch, has also aged well. Nice jangly guitar and backing vocals. But then there’s Cliff – always Cliff, never far away – ready to bring things back down to earth. Two this year – a run-of-the-mill cover of 50s number 1 It’s All in the Game, and then he’s back with The Shadows, bossing a lady around on Don’t Talk to Him. It’s rubbish, but there is a good guitar solo. Were it not for John, Paul, George and Ringo, I’d most likely say Then He Kissed Me by The Crystals was the pick of 1963. It’s aged very well.

The Best

The Beatles – Please Please Me

Even with their earliest, most basic material, The Beatles are streets ahead of their competitors in 1963. It’s in the harmonica, the harmonies, the energy. Everything really. I’ll always prefer Love Me Do, and hardcore fans would argue Please Please Me was a number 1 anyway, but not in the ‘official’ chart this blog uses as reference.

The Worst

Ned Miller – From a Jack to a King

Bog-standard 60s country-pop that’s totally forgettable.

1964

Things are looking up in this year. I assumed The Swinging Blue Jeans’ Hippy Hippy Shake was a Beatles soundalike, but the song is actually from 1959. It’s a great, welcome burst of energy to this playlist. Gerry and the Pacemakers’ I’m the One is OK, but doesn’t compare to their three chart-toppers. Unlike Bits and Pieces by The Dave Clark Five. The percussion on this top slice of the Tottenham Sound was achieved by two members drunkenly stomping on an exercise board. Also loved Just One Look by The Hollies, though originally by Doris Troy. The Bachelors typically slow things down to a crawl and sound very old-fashioned compared to recent fare. But their version of I Believe, a 1953 number 1, does have an impressive ending. Jamaican teenager Millie Small’s My Boy Lollipop is one of the most famous ska songs of all time, and still sounds great. I really struggle with Frankie Valli’s voice most of the time, and Rag Doll by The Four Seasons is no exception. Gene Pitney is another matter, however. He always puts in a great performance, even with lacklustre material like I’m Gonna Be Strong. Rounding things off nicely is Downtown, that classic Bacharach and David song by Petula Clark that is way better than either of her number 1s.

The Best

The Kinks – All Day and All of the Night

Totally excellent, still. This is the first runner-up for the number 1 spot that will have made The Beatles sit up and take notice that the rest were catching up. I think I prefer this to their chart-topper You Really Got Me. Together, these Kinks songs invented heavy metal.

The Worst

Brian Poole and The Tremeloes – Someone, Someone

An obscure B-side by The Crickets deserves to be left obscure after hearing this version by a frequently disappointing beat also-rans.

1965

Oh god, Cilla Black’s version of You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling is up first… It’s not quite as bad as I feared. Ah, actually, I’ve just got to the ending. Arrrggghhh. Although the lyrics to Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders’ The Game of Love sound rather sexist in 2022, it’s a great tune and over all too quickly for me. It’s quickly followed up by another great track. Well, the chorus to Them’s Here Comes the Night is great at least, with Van Morrison sounding great. But the verses are crap! That’s Jimmy Page in session guitarist role, incidentally. Peter and Gordon’s cover of Buddy Holly’s True Love Ways contains typically lovely harmonies, but the tune’s not up to much. I wonder if the harmonica on The Everly Brothers’ The Price of Love is them returning the favour of their influence on The Beatles? Heart Full of Soul has a spellbinding intro, and this track by The Yardbirds is one of the first examples of raga rock thanks to Jeff Beck’s work. But the rest of the track sadly doesn’t live up to that initial sound. Ah, but then we have We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place, and this classic by The Animals leaves most other 1965 number twos for dust. Love that keyboard sound. The first ever song by prolific hitmakers Rogers Cook and Greenaway follows, and You’ve Got Your Troubles by The Fortunes has aged well. If You’ve Gotta Go, Go Now by Manfred Mann is OK, but kind of gets lost in the crowd. It’s not nearly as good as their chart-topper – also originally by Bob Dylan. Andy Williams’ version of Almost There is fairly forgettable.

The Best

The Who – My Generation

Pete Townshend was really pissed off one day to discover the Queen Mother had ordered his hearse to be towed away from a street in Belgravia because she was offended by the sight of it. He got on a train and wrote ‘People try to put us down/Just because we get around’ and came up with one of the best songs to never make it to number 1. Still rocks hard. Still electrifying. And it never will get old.

The Worst

Cliff Richard – Wind Me Up (Let Me Go)

Oh dear. Cliff is a little tin soldier, but unlike the Small Faces classic Tin Soldier, this leaves little impression. Might have been better with The Shadows helping out.

1966

Things start to get weirder, and there’s some brilliant stuff here. You Were on My Mind by Crispian St Peters is pretty decent mid-60s pop. I love this period of The Rolling Stones. There’s a great edge to the music, dark nihilistic lyrics by Mick Jagger, and Bill Wyman’s bass sounds great on 19th Nervous Breakdown. The Mindbenders’ version of A Groovy Kind of Love still sounds lovely. That’s 10cc’s Eric Stewart on the vocal. The Hollies are back with another cool track – I Can’t Let Go has an exciting intro nice chiming guitars and as always with Graham Nash and co, great harmonies. The Lovin’ Spoonful’s Daydream shows the counterculture starting to make a mark in the charts, and this lazy, sloping tune never grows old. And nor does Sloop John B! One of my favourite Beach Boys classics might have innocent enough lyrics but anyone who’s ever overdone it at a festival gets the double meaning of the lyrics. And then another classic! Wild Thing by The Troggs is another evergreen product of its time. Such primitive simplicity, and I love the flute. Cool baroque pop from good old Gene Pitney next, and Nobody Needs Your Love is one I didn’t know but enjoyed. Great chorus. I have to confess I’d totally forgotten about Black is Black until now. Shame on me, because it’s ace. Very Stonesy groove and a similarly dark mood to it from the the Spanish group Los Bravos. We sample the lighter side of The Who next with I’m a Boy. Not bad, but the lyrics would probably stir quite a reaction if it came out these days. It’s worth bearing in mind that it was planned for a musical about a future in which you could order the sex of your children. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich were weird weren’t they? I mean, the name suggests that anyway, obviously, but still… Anyway, Bend It! is lots of fun, with it’s quirky Greek sound. The Troggs return with another horny blast of their brand of pop. I Can’t Control Myself is underrated. The Hollies return with Stop Stop Stop, but it’s not up there with previous records. Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James has interesting Beatles-style lyrics but the tune is a bit average. Gimme Some Lovin’ still sounds brilliant. Not bad for half an hour’s work by The Spencer Davis Group. What Would I Be is a huge step in the wrong direction after so much great progressive pop, but I have to confess I can’t help but like old Valerie Doonican.

The Best

The Beach Boys – God Only Knows

For any song to rank above this selection, it obviously has to be great. Well this is better than that. This beautiful, tender, transcendental love sone still towers above the crowd. One of the greatest opening couplets of all time, some of the most beautiful, swoon some vocals from Carl Wilson, and the genius of his brother Brian. It’s simply breathtaking.

The Worst

The Seekers – Morningtown Ride

Oh man. What a dour note to end such a great batch of songs from. Boring, nauseous and overly sentimental pap from the Australian folk group.

1967

A storming start to another brilliant year of selections. The Donovan classic Sunshine Superman shows psychedelia had arrived. Half of Led Zeppelin – Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones – are on this as session musicians. Next up is The Move’s debut single, and Night of Fear is OK, but better was to come from them. Matthew & Son is more fun than Cat Stevens’ later work, and it’s one I’ve loved since childhood. It’s named after the tailor that made his suits, incidentally. I’m happy to report I’ve never seen The Sound of Music, but I can’t deny that Edelweiss is a lovely tune, sung here by Vince Hill. Comedian Harry Seacombe puts in a typically over-the-top performance of This Is My Song, also a number 1 this year for Petula Clark. The Mamas & the Papas’ Dedicated to the One I Love is a sweet number, and I like the piano break. The Kinks’ Waterloo Sunset… well, what a classic. Ray Davies penned one beautiful track here and this could easily rank as the song of the year really. Alternate Title! This was The Monkees’ Randy Scouse Git, named after a line singer Micky Dolenz heard on the sitcom Till Death Us Do Part, but their record label decided it was too risky to call it that here. It’s brilliant. Vikki Carr’s It Must Be Him drags things down somewhat. Could have sworn it was Cilla Black singing it. Matters remain mundane thanks to the Tom Jones ballad (It Looks Like ) I’ll Never Fall in Love – co-written by Lonnie Donegan. Next, there’s a triple-bill of great psych-pop. Excerpt from A Teenage Opera by Keith West is mad but catchy as hell and a fascinating glimpse into a musical that never got made. Famously the first ever song to be played on Radio 1, Flowers in the Rain sees the return of The Move and then there’s Traffic’s Hole in My Shoe, which was also a number two hit for Nigel Planer as The Young Ones‘ hippy Neil in 1984. The Dave Clark Five’s Everybody Knows isn’t a patch on their better-known tracks and then Tom Jones returns with the middling and maudlin I’m Coming Home. Finally, it’s the Magical Mystery Tour double EP, in which The Beatles rounded off an incredible year with songs from their ill-received movie, shown on Boxing Day on BBC One. The title track is fun psych-pop, Your Mother Should Know, probably my least favourite, nonetheless ends the film nicely. I Am the Walrus is one of the year’s highlights. A classic production, with a fascinating angry vocal from Lennon. The Fool and the Hill is lovely and wistful, and then Flying follows, a rare instrumental credited to the entire band. And the last track, George Harrison’s Blue Jay Way, holds a special place in my heart, as believe it or not, it’s the song that really turned me on to the Fab Four.

The Best

The Beatles – Penny Lane/Strawberry Field Forever

Well, this was a foregone conclusion, really. The Beatles are my favourite band of all time and Strawberry Fields Forever is probably their best song in my eyes. It’s frankly criminal that Release Me should have made this their first single since 1963 to not make it to number 1. I don’t know what I can add to the millions of words written about this double-bill, but just to say that it’s a great example of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s strengths and differences in songwriting. Penny Lane, however, I probably find a little overrated (I better prepare myself for some criticism for saying that!). Whereas Strawberry Fields Forever encapsulates the LSD experience so well. George Martin deserves a lot of credit for joining two different versions of Lennon’s vision together, one dreamy and pastoral, one far darker. Just incredible.

The Worst

Engelbert Humperdinck – There Goes My Everything

In a year of such brave experimentation and forward-thinking pop, Humperdinck deserves singling out for somehow outperforming some of the greatest songs ever made (see above) with MOR pap, and this is a good example of that genre.

1968

As albums began to overtake singles in popularity, there’s a noticeable drop in quality this year. Having said that, Tom Jones is back but we all know Delilah is a fan favourite for a reason – it’s way superior to his previous dreary ballads here. Next up, a real blast from the past. Simon Says, by 1910 Bubblegum Company, is a song I haven’t heard since primary school. Put a smile on my face and I like the keyboard. Humperdinck is back with more MOR. Bobby Goldsboro’s Honey is a so-so ballad about a man’s dead wife, that reminds me of Uncle Peter on The Smell of Reeves & Mortimer, who broke out into it during the first series. Then it’s The Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp by country singer Johnny Darrell is totally new to me here and came as a pleasant surprise. There’s some great drumming in this soaringly jolly tale about a woman with 14 children and an alcoholic husband who turns to prostitution. Similarly, there’s also Little Arrows by Leapy Lee. No idea who that is and this was also previously unheard by me. It’s cool and sounds like the theme to some weird children’s show. Lincoln pop group The Casuals were former Opportunity Knocks winners and their Jesamine is OK, I guess. Barry Ryan with the Majority’s Eloise had a similar effect on me, but I did particularly like the orchestral slowdown. Nina Simone’s medley of tracks from Hair, Ain’t Got No, I Got Life, is of course, excellent thanks to a brilliant performance by the legendary singer. So What You Do, which was new to me, isn’t as good, but it’s a decent enough slow. And then, there’s the always enjoyable Build Me Up Buttercup by The Foundations.

The Best

Small Faces – Lazy Sunday

Evergreen psych-pop classic by one of the better bands of the decade. Singer Steve Marriott’s over-the-top Cockney vocal was inspired by an argument with The Hollies, who accused him of having never sung in his own accent. I just wish that lovely outdo lasted a bit longer, it’s a sudden contrast after the catchy silliness of the better-known knees-up majority of the song.

The Worst

Engelbert Humperdinck – A Man Without Love

Sigh. I mean, this is actually better than his previous hits here, but that’s not saying much at all.

1969

We’re nearly there folks. Gentle on My Mind is better known due to Glenn Campbell’s version, but it’s Dean Martin here, with a predictably great vocal. Not bad. Then, it’s Lulu with her Eurovision winner Boom Bang-a-Bang. Now, I’m not a fan of Lulu at all and think she’s really overrated, but I have a bit of a soft spot for this! I thought Mary Hopkin was a one-hit wonder, but I was surprised when I heard Goodbye that I didn’t realise it was her. Like her number 1, this was written and produced by McCartney. Herman’s Hermits’ My Sentimental Friend is pretty decent, and I really like the chorus. Fleetwood Mac’s Man of the World is even better – it’s a lovely melancholy blues with a really gentle vocal by the soon-to-leave Peter Green. Classic uplifting gospel next courtesy of the Edwin Hawkins Singers. Did you know that this famous live version of Oh Happy Day is based on a gospel arrangement from 1967 of a hymn that dates back to 1755? Well, if it isn’t Elvis Presley next! It’s his all-too-short-lived revival period too, so In the Ghetto towers over many of his number 1s. It was his first top 10 hit in three years. Robin Gibb had at this point fallen out with brothers Barry and Maurice and was going it alone. Saved by the Bell got him off to a great start but it wasn’t long before he was a Bee Gee once more. I’m all for a depressing ballad but I feel like this is a bit much. And then the next act to narrowly miss number 1 was… The Bee Gees! Yep, Barry and Maurice’s Don’t Forget to Remember isn’t a patch on the material that sparked their disco comeback. Clearly they worked better as a trio. Much better is the return of Fleetwood Mac here with, other than Albatross, their best track with Green. The only negative aspect to Oh Well is that they didn’t do more with that riff, because it’s as good as any early Led Zeppelin. The second part of the track is cool, but not nearly as cool. The Tremeloes are back without Brian Poole, and the ironically titled (Call Me) Number One is not bad at all. I love the epic guitar, and it’s an interesting oddity, all in all. It’s better to finally have Stevie Wonder show up then him not feature at all, but there are so many better songs by this genius than Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday. And the decade of almost-chart-toppers comes to an end with Kenny Rogers’ Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town. It’s OK – nice scratchy guitar – but a strange track to end the decade on. Not as strange as the song that beat it to number 1, though.

The Best

Plastic Ono Band – Give Peace a Chance

Cynics may scoff at the simplistic message here but personally I think we could do with this song more than ever right now, writing as Russia and America potentially go to war. It’s a historic song, as it’s the first solo single by a Beatle, even though they were still together at this point. Written and recorded during his Bed-In in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with new wife Yoko Ono, it was credited as a Lennon-McCartney track because the former felt he owed the latter for helping him on the final Beatles chart-topper. Featuring comedian Tommy Smothers on guitar and backing vocals from celebrity friends including Petula Clark and Timothy Leary, you could argue it’s the first rap song, really, as Lennon shouts at a list of names including some of the backing singers, the chorus is endearing and so’s that primitive percussion.

The Worst

Lou Christie – I’m Gonna Make You Mine

I’ve got precious little to say about this track by the American soft-rock singer-songwriter. Nondescript will do, I guess.

The Best 60s Number 2 Ever is…

The Beatles – Penny Lane/Strawberry Field Forever

Not only is this the best 60s single to only just miss out on the top spot, it’s most likely the best of all time, and that’s down to Lennon’s track, which pays tribute to the garden of a children’s home he played in when he was a boy. Beginning as a simple folky number, the techniques The Beatles and Martin used to turn this into the final result were awesome, and much like Tomorrow Never Knows, served notice to the Fab Four’s fans that the days of Beatlemania, and now, anything goes in pop. So many highlights – the changeover from the original gentle, lighter take 7 into the intense take 26. The mellotron. The swarmandal. Ringo Starr’s drums. The unnerving, pitch-shifted vocal. The noise of the fade-back-in. ‘Cranberry sauce’. Amazingly, before his death Lennon complained that this track was sabotaged and badly recorded. I could go on forever, and I wish this track did.

The Worst 60s Number 2 Ever is…

The Seekers – Morningtown Ride

The majority of ‘worst’ number 2s from each year are just too dull and nondescript to pass comment on. I’ve forgotten most of them already to be honest. But this really stood out as being offensively bad to me. It’s so bloody twee, it’s painful.

The Outro

Coming into this with the knowledge that classics such as Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever, My Generation and All Day and All of the Night narrowly missed out at becoming number 1, I knew this was going to be a really enjoyable batch of songs. However, there were also way more I’d never heard of, too, particularly in 1968 and 69. Which makes me wonder if I’m only scratching the surface of 60s pop. But then I also wonder, is that for the best? Could it be that, yes, the 60s was an amazing time for music, but is it also an overrated decade at the same time? Because with the exception of 1965-67, there was a lot of average stuff to wade through. The classics remain so, though, and it was certainly more enjoyable than Every 50s Number 2.

441. Cliff Richard – We Don’t Talk Anymore (1979)

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The Intro

Remember this guy? Once a mainstay of this blog, the ‘Peter Pan of Pop’ hadn’t topped the charts since Congratulations won Eurovision in 1968. 11 years later, Cliff Richard’s comeback, which began with Devil Woman, was complete with this 10th number 1.

Before

The Shadows, who often acted as Richard’s backing band, with who he shared many hits and number 1s, decided to split at the end of 1968. Their last single together was Don’t Forget to Catch Me, which reached 21. Despite being unfashionable, he still had a large enough following to notch up plenty of hits, ending the 60s with two top 10 hits in 1969 – Big Ship (eight) and Throw Down a Line (with Shadows guitarist Hank Marvin), climbing to seven.

The 70s began with Richard fronting his own BBC series, It’s Cliff Richard, which ran from 1970 to 1976 and featured the singer with musical friends including Marvin and Olivia Newton-John. His 50th single, the intriguingly named Goodbye Sam, Hello Samantha, went all the way to six in 1970. Many of Richard’s singles for the first half of the 70s were in line with his Christian beliefs – I’m not going to listen to them all to find out, but I’d put money on Jesus (1972) being a prime example.

Having been considered almost as much an actor as a singer in his peak years of the 60s, Richard gave up his film career after starring in the film Take Me High in 1973. He also had another bash at the Eurovision Song Contest that year. Power to All Our Friends finished third that year. Apparently he was so nervous during the competition he took valium and his manager struggled to wake him. It was at least a big hit, climbing to four and earning him his best chart performance for the next six years.

The next couple of years were lean for the not-very-mean machine. His only single in 1974, (You Keep Me) Hangin’ On did OK (13), but he messed up in 1975 when he chose to cover Conway Twitty’s Honky Tonk Angel. Richard recorded a video, 1,000 singles were pressed up and EMI expected it to perform well, but when Richard discovered ‘honky tonk angel’ was Southern American slang for a prostitute, the whiter-than-white pop star was horrified and insisted it was withdrawn. What on earth would God have made of it? This meant that, for the first time in his career, Richard had gone a calendar year without a chart entry.

However, it was decided that, rather than continue down the purely righteous path Richard seemed hell-bent on, he should be repackaged as a rock singer. At the time this must have seemed laughable, and to be honest I’m struggling to imagine it while typing this. But, good Lord, it worked!

Teaming up with Bruce Welch (another guitarist from the Shadows) on production duties, the nicely titled LP I’m Nearly Famous was an unexpected smash. And not only commercially – guitarists Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton were just two of the rock stars spotted wearing ‘I’m Nearly Famous’ badges in honour of the comeback kid. Although Miss You Nights (15) was a ballad, the follow-up, Devil Woman, is a classic slab of pop-rock, with a hell of a chorus. And listen, that’s Cliff Richard singing a song with ‘devil’ in it! With punk rock rearing its ugly head, a more edgy Cliff Richard was very timely.

The comeback didn’t last long though. The next album, Every Picture Tells a Story, spawned only one hit – My Kinda Life (number 15 in 1977). Perhaps feeling he must atone for his sins, Richard then released an album of Christian gospel called Small Corners in 1978. Neither that or his next pop LP, Green Light, performed well. 1978 was also the year Richard reunited with The Shadows for concerts at the London Palladium, as captured on Thank You Very Much.

Despite appearing on stage with Welch once more, the Shadows guitarist didn’t produce his next album, Rock’n’Roll Juvenile. That honour went to Terry Britten, who had worked with Richard many times in the past. Recording sessions began back in July 1978 but vocals weren’t begun until January 1979.

We Don’t Talk Anymore was recorded in one day, five months later. For some reason, Welch received production credit for Richard’s 10th number 1. It was written and arranged by Alan Tarney, a new collaborator, who also played guitar, keyboards, synthesiser and bass on the track, as well as performing backing vocals. On drums was his former bandmate in Quartet, Trevor Spencer.

Review

It’s no Devil Woman, but We Don’t Talk Anymore is a decent pop song and Richard’s best number 1 since Summer Holiday in 1963. I have to confess that I used to think this came much later in his career, and was a Stock Aitken Waterman production from the late-80s or early-90s. It’s something about that catchy, melancholic yet soaring chorus combined with a very light production sound. In its own way, it’s as contemporary as Are ‘Friends’ Electric? with its keyboard-heavy arrangement. Though not nearly as good.

Has to be said though, I’ve never heard Richard sound so passionate. I mean, it’s not exactly a raw, emotional performance – this is Cliff Richard we’re talking about after all. But he gives it a rare bit of oomph! The verses are pretty bog-standard ‘my woman has left me’ and not much to write home about – it’s all about the earworm of the chorus really, and the emotion at the end. Weird lyrical phrasing too – ‘It’s so funny/How we don’t talk anymore’. None too shabby. With The Beatles long gone and Elvis Presley six feet under, Richard could still sell records, when he tried.

The video for We Don’t Talk Anymore is as 70s as it gets, featuring Richard and band performing amid a smoky stage, Richard occasionally merging into himself through a dated but charming kaleidoscopic effect.

After

Cliff Richard fared better in the 80s than the 70s, regularly appearing in the upper reaches of the charts. But it would be seven years before his 11th number 1, for which he shared billing with a series named after one of his most famous chart-toppers…

The Info

Written by

Alan Tarney

Producer

Bruce Welch

Weeks at number 1

4 (25 August-21 September)

Trivia

Births

14 September: Rugby league player Stuart Fielden

Deaths

27 August: Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (see ‘Meanwhile…’)
28 August: Doreen Knatchbull, Baroness Brabourne
29 August: Painter Ivon Hitchens

Meanwhile…

27 August: Lord Mountbatten of Burma, cousin to the Queen and uncle of the Duke of Edinburgh, was assassinated by a Provisional IRA bomb while on board a boat when holidaying in the Republic of Ireland. His 15-year-old nephew Nicholas Knatchbull and boatboy Paul Maxwell were also killed, and Dowager Lady Brabourne died from injuries sustained a day later.
Also that day, 18 British soldiers were killed in Northern Ireland at the Warrenpoint ambush.

30 August: Two men were arrested in Dublin and charged with the murder of Lord Mountbatten and the three other victims of the bombing.

2 September: Police found the body of 20-year-old student Barbara Leach in an alleyway near Bradford city centre. She was to be named as the 12th victim of the Yorkshire Ripper.

5 September: The Queen lead mourning at the funeral of Lord Mountbatten.
Also on this day, Manchester City paid a British club record fee of £1,450,000 for Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Steve Daley.

8 September: Wolverhampton Wanderers broke the record by paying just under £1,500,000 for Aston Villa and Scotland striker Andy Gray. 

10 September: British Leyland announced production of MG cars would cease in the autumn of 1980. 

14 September: The government announced plans to regenerate the London Docklands through housing and commercial developments.

21 September: A Royal Air Force Harrier jet crashed into a house in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, killing two men and a boy. 

384. Slik – Forever and Ever (1976)

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The Intro

Here is surely one of the strangest and most obscure number 1s of the 70s, perhaps of all time. Before his solo career, before Band Aid, before Ultravox, Midge Ure was in a group called Slik, who briefly lorded it over the charts with a bizarre mix of Gothic horror and Bay City Rollers-style pop.

Before

Slik started out as Glasgow-based heavy-rock band Salvation in 1970. The original line-up featured the McGinlay brothers, Kevin and Jim, Nod Kerr, Mario Tortolano, and Ian Kenny. The line-up changed several times but stabilised in 1972 with Kevin on vocals, Jim on bass, Kenny Hyslop on drums, Billy McIsaac on keyboards and Jim Ure on guitar. In a bid to avoid the confusion of having two Jims in the band, their bassist suggested Ure say his backwards, and he became ‘Mij’, which in time became ‘Midge’, and stuck for the rest of his life. They became the house band at Glasgow discothèque Clouds, where they would perform cover versions.

In April 1974 Kevin McGinlay left Salvation to pursue a solo career. Ure assumed singing duties while remaining as guitarist. That November they became Slik. They signed with Polydor and adopted pseudonyms – Ure was already Midge, Hyslop became Oil Slik, McGinlay was Jim Slik and McIsaac was now Lord Slik. Slik suited up to live up to their name, and ditched glam rock to work with pop songwriters Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. Together the duo had scored three number 1s over the years with Sandie Shaw, Cliff Richard and the England 1970 World Cup squad. Their most recent group to benefit from their skills was the Bay City Rollers, and very well they were doing too.

Slik didn’t initially have the same success. Debut single Boogiest Band in Town on Polydor in 1975 got nowhere. So they ditched the suits and, for some reason, swapped them for baseball shirts, probably to try and break the US. They also signed with Bell Records. Interestingly, Ure has claimed in the past that he was approached by Malcolm McClaren to be the singer of the Sex Pistols.

This isn’t Demis Roussos’ Forever and Ever, which would come later in the year. Slik’s song had originally been released by the pop group Kenny earlier that year on their album The Sound of Super K. It’s worth noting that their version is almost as odd as Slik’s, it just isn’t as well produced and is lacking bounce. Unlike their hit The Bump.

Review

I can still recall the first time I saw this on a BBC Four repeat of Top of the Pops. It blew my mind. Who the hell decided the opening section should insinuate we were about to hear some proggy, concept single or Black sabbath style metal obscurity? Considering Kenny and Slik’s version starts the same way, it must have been Martin and Coulter’s idea. It had me on the edge of my seat. I thought I was about to be treated to a forgotten surreal masterpiece. How the hell did this get to number 1? And is that really Midge Ure singing it? Thinking about it though, did this idea of an atmospheric opening help inspire Vienna?

Once the verses switch to the chorus, it becomes apparent how it got to number 1. It sounds like a Bay City Rollers reject, and it was. I’m all for schizophrenic singles, but the transition here is far from seamless, and although the chorus is catchy, as soon as it begins, my interest dissipates until the next verse. But I am an awkward sod. If I was whoever Ure is singing to here, I’d stay well away. He’s clearly assumed the role of a schizophrenic.

After

Slik, Martin and Coulter tried to repeat their surprise success with the follow-up Requiem, but only got to 24. This wasn’t helped by Ure being injured in a car accident which forced the band to cancel promotional appearances. Their eponymous LP soon followed, but didn’t even dent the top 40. In March 1977 Jim McGinlay left to be replaced by Russell Webb for Slik’s final tour dates. Desperate to ride the next musical wave, they changed their name to PVC2 and became a punk band. Only one single was released though, Ure’s Put You in the Picture, and it didn’t chart. They split up that September, with Ure joining The Rich Kids, former Sex Pistol Glen Matlock’s new band. More on them when we get to Ultravox.

As for the rest of Slik, Webb, Hyslop and McIsaac added Alex Harvey’s cousin Willie Gardner to their group and became Zones. They made one album, Under Influence, released in 1979, but they then split. Webb and Hyslop joined The Skids. McIsaac left the music business but made a return in the 90s with the Billy McIsaac Band.

The Outro

Weirdly, this is the first of two songs called Forever and Ever to reach number 1 in 1976, as Demi Roussos achieved the same accolade when an EP featuring his song topped the charts that summer.

The Info

Written & produced by

Bill Martin & Phil Coulter

Weeks at number 1

1 (14-20 February)

Trivia

Births

20 February: The Darkness drummer Ed Graham

Meanwhile…

19 February: Iceland breaks off diplomatic relations with the UK over the Cod War.

327. Donny Osmond – The Twelfth of Never (1973)

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The Intro

You just couldn’t keep the Osmonds down for long in the early-70s. After a brief fightback from glam rock acts, they were back at the top once more, this time it was golden boy Donny with his second number 1.

Before

Since his last solo number 1, Puppy Love, Donny’s voice had broken. Despite this, and while the Osmonds experimented with rock on the unlikely classic, Crazy Horses, he ploughed the same furrow of romantic ballads from the 50s and 60s. The title track of his fourth solo album, Too Young, climbed to number five, and double-A-side follow-up Why/Lonely Boy reached number three. With two albums per year, not counting LPs released with his siblings, you certainly can’t accuse the Osmonds of laziness. They were milked for all they were worth, which was a fortune.

The first track off his fifth album, Alone Together, The Twelfth of Never dates back to 1956. Penned by Jerry Livingston (who co-wrote songs on Disney’s Cinderella) and Paul Webster (the lyricist on 1953 best-seller Secret Love), the tune was inspired by the 15th-century English folk tune The Riddle Song.

Crooner Johnny Mathis was the first to record it, a year later, as the B-side to his hit Chances Are, but he didn’t think much to the song. Then Cliff Richard released a version in 1964, which reached number 8.

Review

Coming after Block Buster ! and Cum On Feel the Noize only makes The Twelfth of Never seem that much duller than it already is. Osmond’s voice may have broken but he still seems too young to be singing about how he’ll love his girl forever. It needs a crooner with gravitas, and is far better suited to Mathis. It has a pretty nice tune, but the lyrics have aged – and the ending in which is noted that the twelfth of never is ‘a very long time’… no kidding!

The Outro

Mike Curb and Don Costa’s production is polished but barely conceals a rather lacklustre affair, when all is said and done. Not as nauseating as Puppy Love though, and certainly better than his little brother Jimmy’s effort.

The Info

Written by

Jerry Livingston & Paul Francis Webster

Producers

Mike Curb & Don Costa

Weeks at number 1

5 (31 March-6 April)

Trivia

Births

3 April: Actor Jamie Bamber

Meanwhile…

1 April: Value-added tax (VAT) first came into effect, and phase 2 of the Price and Pay Code came into effect, restricting rises in pay and prices as a counter-inflation measure.

6 April: Peter Niesewand, a correspondent of The Guardian newspaper and the BBC, was jailed in Rhodesia for an alleged breach of the Official Secrets Act.

298. T. Rex – Hot Love (1971)

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The Intro

In March 1971, singer-songwriter Marc Bolan appeared on Top of the Pops to promote T. Rex’s second single Hot Love, as shown below. His stylist, Chelita Secunda, had suggested he wear glitter under his eyes, and it was this appearance that spearheaded the glam rock movement and gave Bolan the stardom he had strived for. Forget ‘Mungo-mania’ – ‘T. Rextasy’ was the first true pop phenomenon in the UK since ‘Beatlemania’. Pop was rejuvenated.

Before

Bolan was born Mark Feld on 30 September 1947. He was raised in Stoke Newington, East London until the Felds moved to Wimbledon in southwest London when he was a young boy. Around this time he, like so many of his contemporaries, fell in love with rock’n’roll, particularly stars like Chuck Berry and Eddie Cochran. He was only nine when he was given his first guitar and he formed a skiffle band, and soon after he was playing guitar for Susie and the Hula Hoops, whose singer was 12-year-old Helen Shapiro, who would have two number 1s in 1961 with You Don’t Know and Walkin’ Back to Happiness.

Feld was expelled from school at 15 and around this time became known as ‘The Face’ due to his good looks. He joined a modelling agency and appeared in catalogues for Littlewoods and John Temple wearing Mod getup just as The Beatles were first making waves.

In 1964 Feld made his first known recording, All at Once, in which he aped Cliff Richard. Next, he changed his name to Toby Tyler when he became interested in the music of Bob Dylan, and he began to dress like him too. His first acetate was a cover of Blowin’ in the Wind.

The following year, he signed with Decca Records and changed his name to Marc Bowland, before his label suggested Marc Bolan. First single, The Wizard, featured Jimmy Page and backing vocalists The Ladybirds, who later collaborated with Benny Hill. None of his solo singles, in which he adopted a US folk sound, made any impact.

Simon Napier-Bell, manager of The Yardbirds and John’s Children, a struggling psychedelic rock act, first met Bolan in 1966 when he showed up at his house with a guitar, proclaiming that he was going to be a big star and wanted Napier-Bell to work with him. Bolan was nearly placed in The Yardbirds but was placed in John’s Children as guitarist and songwriter in March 1967 instead. The group were outrageous, and Bolan proved to be a good fit, writing the single Desdemona, which was banned by the BBC for the lyric ‘lift up your skirt and fly’. Only a month later, they toured as support for The Who but were soon given their marching orders for upstaging the headliners (Bolan would whip his guitar with a chain). John’s Children also performed at The 14-Hour Technicolour Dream at Alexander Palace that month. Yet by June Bolan had left the group after falling out with his manager over their unreleased single A Midsummer Night’s Scene.

Bolan formed his own group, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and after one rushed, disastrous gig, he pared the band down to just himself and their drummer, Steve Peregrin Took, who would play percussion and occasional bass alongside Bolan and his acoustic guitar. For the next few years, Tyrannosaurus Rex amassed a cult following, with Radio 1 DJ John Peel among their biggest fans. Bolan’s fey, whimsical warbling could get a bit much at times, and I speak as a lover of 60s psychedelia, but the signs of a very talented singer-songwriter are there right from their debut single Debora and first album, the brilliantly titled My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair… But Now They’re Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows (1968), produced by Tony Visconti. Peel even read short stories by Bolan on their albums.

This was the last album to feature Took, who had been growing apart from Bolan, who was working on a book of poetry called The Warlock of Love. Bolan’s ego didn’t take kindly to the thought of Took contributing to songwriting, so he replaced him with Mickey Finn for fourth album Beard of Stars, released in March 1970. David Bowie’s follow-up to Space Oddity, The Prettiest Star also came out that month, with Bolan on guitar. The single tanked.

As the new decade dawned, Bolan was outgrowing Tyrannosaurus Rex, and was simplifying his songwriting while reintroducing an electric band setup to the mix. Visconti had been abbreviating the band’s name to T. Rex for a while on recording tapes, and while Bolan didn’t appreciate it at first, he decided to adopt the name to represent the next stage of development.

While preparing to release their first material in their new incarnation, Bolan replaced The Kinks as headlining act at the Pilton Festival at Worthy Farm, the day after Jimi Hendrix died on 19 September. 50 years on, it’s known as Glastonbury Festival, the king of the UK festival scene.

T. Rex released their first single, Ride a White Swan in October. This, simple, catchy layered guitar track caught on, and finally Bolan had a hit on his hands, narrowly missing out on the number 1 spot due to Clive Dunn’s Grandad in January 1971. T. Rex’s eponymous debut also went top 10 in the album charts. Bolan was now famous, but he needed to capitalise and go one better to avoid being a one-hit wonder.

Hot Love was recorded on 21 and 22 January at Trident Studios – the week Ride a White Swan peaked at number two. Seizing the moment, Bolan decided to flesh out T. Rex’s sound and adopt a classic four-piece line-up. With new bassist Steve Currie making his recording debut, Bolan and Visconti hired Bill Fifield as drummer, leaving Finn relegated to just handclaps. After helping out on T. Rex, this single saw the return of Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman on backing vocals. The duo had been founding members of The Turtles, and as Flo & Eddie had recently been part of Frank Zappa’s group The Mothers of Invention. Kaylan and Volman’s slightly unhinged harmonies became an integral part of the classic T. Rex sound.

Review

Although Ride a White Swan served notice that Bolan was moving on from his old self-limited sonic boundaries, the lyrics were still very much the Tolkien whimsy of your average Tyrannosaurus Rex track. Hot Love featured a more simplistic, direct lyrical approach. Bolan is merely telling you about his lover.

Taken as read, much of T. Rex’s lyrical output can seem childish, sometimes even ridiculous, yet most of the time Bolan pulls it off, and he does so here. I’ve always admired the chutzpah of the lines ‘Well she ain’t no witch and I love the way she twitch – a ha ha’ and the charming camp of ‘I don’t mean to be bold, a-but a-may I hold your hand?’ but I’d never noticed the ludicrous ‘I’m a labourer of love in my persian gloves – a ha ha’ before. My favourite lyric of recent memory, right there.

There’s no point spending too much time dissecting Bolan’s words though, it’s more about the feel they add to his songs, and Hot Love feels sexy, which isn’t a label you could ever give his Tyrannosaurus Rex material. It’s fascinating to me how a voice that’s so fey, singing such daft words, can at the same time be so sensual.

The tune displays a key ingredient of glam rock – 50s rock’n’roll. Bolan has updated a simple bluesy riff and, thanks to the input of Visconti’s glossy studio sheen and string arrangement, updated it for 70s audiences. Kaylan and Volman’s backing vocals keep a certain strangeness in place and stop things getting too smooth, but this is a high definition Bolan that hadn’t been heard before, and Hot Love is just one reason why Visconti is rightly one of the most famous producers of all time.

The second half of Hot Love shifts into a ‘La-la-la-la-la-la-la’ Bolan, Kaylan and Volman singalong, akin to Hey Jude, but faster and weirder. It’s a real earworm, and no doubt helped it to number 1, but I find it goes on a bit too long, and I prefer the first half personally. Having said that, it really does show up the previous number 1, Baby Jump, as lumpen and turgid by comparison. A much-needed breath of fresh air in the charts, to put it mildly.

After

Released on 12 February on Fly Records, Hot Love rocketed up the charts, in part thanks to those famous Top of the Pops appearances. Bolan displayed star material in spades, and was perhaps the first musician since Elvis Presley to prove that image could be a vital ingredient in pop. Looking every inch the rock star with his glitter and guitar, he made glam rock about appearance as well as the sound, and other acts like Slade and friend/rival Bowie were watching and taking notes.

The Outro

The 70s were often a drab, moribund decade. Glam rock may have been a peculiarly British phenomenon that didn’t catch on elsewhere in the way Beatlemania did, but in the UK it was sorely needed, and brought about some of the best number 1s of the next four years. Bolan was integral in this.

T. Rex would prove to have a formula that Bolan couldn’t advance much from, and his star burnt out quick, but in the early 70s he gave pop the kick up the arse it needed. There are better T. Rex songs. However, Hot Love is one of the most important number 1s of the decade.

The Info

Written by

Marc Bolan

Producer

Tony Visconti

Weeks at number 1

6 (20 March-30 April)

Trivia

Births

23 March: Scottish actress Kate Dickie/TV presenter Gail Porter
27 March: Scottish racing driver David Coulthard
31 March: Cricketer Paul Grayson/Scottish actor Ewan McGregor
2 April: Cricketer Jason Lewry
3 April: Conservative MP Douglas Carswell
11 April: Liberal Democrat MP John Leech
16 April: Actress Belinda Stewart-Wilson
18 April: Scottish actor David Tennant

Deaths

20 April: Actor Cecil Parker

Meanwhile…

1 April: All restrictions on gold ownership were lifted in the UK. Since 1966 Britons had been banned from holding more than four gold coins or from buying any new ones, unless they held a licence.

11 April: 10 British Army soldiers were injured in rioting in Derry, Northern Ireland.

15 April: The planned Barbican Centre in London was given the go-ahead.

18 April: A serious fire at Kentish Town West railway station meant that the station remained closed until 5 October 1981.

19 April: Unemployment reached a post-World War Two high of nearly 815,000.

27 April: Eight members of the Welsh Language Society went on trial for destroying English language road signs in Wales.
Also on this day, British Leyland launched the Morris Marina, which succeeded the Minor.

291. Freda Payne – Band of Gold (1970)

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The Intro

Multi-talented American singer Freda Payne enjoyed an impressive six weeks at number 1 with this soul track, featuring noteworthy lyrics that have been much misunderstood over the years due to cuts made before its release.

Before

Freda Charcillia Payne was born in Detroit, Michigan on 19 September 1942. Her younger sister was Scherrie, who became the final lead singer of The Supremes in time. Growing up, the elder Payne enjoyed female jazz singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, which would later have an impact on her singing style. She attended the Detroit Institute of Musical Arts as a teenager, and also recorded jingles for the radio, as well as taking part and winning various talent shows.

In the early 60s Payne toured as a jazz singer with big names such as Quincy Jones and Bill Cosby, leading to her debut album in 1963, After the Lights Go Down Low and Much More!!! for Impulse! Clearly, exclamation marks were popular back then. Three years later came the follow-up How Do You Say I Don’t Love You Anymore for MGM Records, and TV appearances on various chat shows.

Payne spent the next few years dipping her toes into acting, until 1969 when she was contacted by old friends and hitmakers Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland Jr. Holland-Dozier-Holland had left Motown in 1968 and formed their own label, Invictus, also home to Chairmen of the Board and the first Parliament album, Osmium. Her first single for Invictus was the long-forgotten Unhooked Generation. Holland-Dozier-Holland then offered her Band of Gold, which they’d written with Ron Dunbar, but due to their dispute with Motown, they were forced to use the pseudonym Edyth Wayne in the credits.

Band of Gold touched on an unusually adult theme for its time. It’s about a recently wed woman, already separated from her husband, due to their honeymoon going awry. They ended up sleeping in separate rooms, with her hoping he would return and try to make love to her once more.

So, what went wrong? The ambiguous lyrics have been open to interpretation – her husband must surely be impotent, or gay? Over the years, Band of Gold became popular in the gay community thanks to the latter theory, one that was borne out by an interview Lamont Dozier did for Songfacts (songfacts.com), where he confirmed the husband loved his new wife, but was unable to get it up as he was a secret homosexual.

But according to Dunbar, the original version of Band of Gold explains exactly what the issue was. The first verse originally ended with ‘And the memories of our wedding day, and the night I turned you away.’ The original bridge also said ‘Each night, I lie awake and I tell myself, the vows we made gave you the right, to have a love each night’. Apparently, Payne has also said she didn’t want to record Band of Gold because she felt too old to come across like a naive, virginal teenager. So there we have it – the poor guy, believed to have been unable to get it up for all these years, was given the cold shoulder from his new wife, and walked out. A messy start for the poor newlyweds, and we’ll never know if they ironed out their differences.

Review

I was surprised upon first listen to hear this was number 1 for so long. Not because it isn’t decent – it is, but it took a few listens to make an impact on me. It helps if you pay attention to the lyrics, which I didn’t at first, and I assumed it was about a guy cheating on his bride, or something along those lines. Payne performs it well, sounding indignant (which also helped create the confusion – she sounds like she’s been let down between the sheets) and hurt at the same time. The stomping rhythm is very Motown, and the tune gets under the skin eventually.

I also like the electric sitar, played by session guitarist Dennis Coffey, who also played on Edwin Starr’s War, among others. Lead guitar comes from Ray Parker Jr, that’s right, the man behind the theme to Ghostbusters in 1984. The backing vocals were performed by Scherrie, Pamela Vincent, Joyce Vincent Wilson and Telma Hopkins. Wilson and Hopkins would soon be members of Dawn, number 1 artists with Tony Orlando in 1971 and 1973.

After

Band of Gold had a formidable run, and reached number three in the US, but Payne couldn’t get anywhere near repeating the feat. Deeper and Deeper, released at the end of the year, reached number 33 in the UK, but none of her singles reached the top 40 after that. However, Bring the Boys Home, her anti-Vietnam War single, did well in her home country in 1971

Payne left Invictus in 1973, and signed with Capitol Records in 1977, releasing three disco albums between then and 1979. Hot was her final LP for 16 years.

Sensing her music career was stalling, Payne concentrated on acting in the 80s. She also briefly hosted her own talk show in 1981, Today’s Black Woman. Only one single was spawned in this decade – In Motion, in 1982.

In 1995 Payne recorded a comedy album, called, bizarrely Freda Payne Sings the (Unauthorized) I Hate Barney Songbook: A Parody. Was she not a fan of the purple dinosaur? The following year came the festive  Christmas With Freda and Friends, featuring a duet with her sister.

The new millennium began with the soul singer appearing on the big screen alongside comedian Eddie Murphy in Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000). She’s been releasing music sporadically ever since, and recorded Saving a Life, a duet with Cliff Richard, in 2011, which led to her supporting him on a UK tour. Her last album to date is Come Back To Me Love in 2014 – was this a message for Darlene?

The Outro

Band of Gold is a curious number 1, sounding rather like a forerunner to disco and yet very much old-school Motown at the same time. Rather a bridge between what had passed and what was to come. It’s been covered several times since, by stars including Belinda Carlisle, but nobody has matched Payne’s original.

The Info

Written by

Edyth Wayne & Ron Dunbar

Producers

Brian Holland & Lamont Dozier

Weeks at number 1

6 (19 September-30 October)

Trivia

Births

29 September: Actress Emily Lloyd

4 October: Footballer Richard Hancox/Footballer Jason Cousins

5 October: SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh

10 October: Olympic rower Sir Matthew Pinsent

11 October: Footballer Andy Marriott

Meanwhile…

19 September: The first Glastonbury Festival was held. Then known as the Worthy Farm Pop Festival, farmer Michael Eavis had been inspired after attending a blues festival at the Bath & West Showground. 1500 watched Tyrannosaurus Rex headline after The Kinks pulled out.

3 October: Tony Densham, driving the ‘Commuter’ dragster, set a British land speed record at Elvington, Yorkshire, averaging 207.6 mph over the flying kilometre course.

5 October: BBC Radio 4 first broadcast the consumer affairs magazine programme You and Yours, a mainstay to this day.

15 October: The new Conservative government created the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of the Environment.
Also this day, Thames sailing barge Cambria, the last vessel trading under sail alone in British waters, loaded her last freight, at Tilbury.

19 October: British Petroleum announced it had found a large oil field in the North Sea.

23 October: The Mark III Ford Cortina went on sale.