Glam rock

476. Roxy Music – Jealous Guy (1981)

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The Intro

The final number 1 tribute to John Lennon in 1981 didn’t come from Double Fantasy, and it wasn’t from his classic album Imagine. Except it was, in cover form. Jealous Guy was released as a tribute by one of the most influential glam rock and art-pop bands of the 70s – Roxy Music.

Before

In 1970, when 25-year-old Bryan Ferry from County Durham lost his job at at a girls’ school for holding record listening sessions, he decided to form a new band. He had been in groups before, including the Gas Board, with bassist Graham Simpson. Ferry and Simpson advertised for a keyboardist and decided to enlist Andy Mackay. Although Mackay owned a synthesiser, rare in those days, he preferred to play saxophone and oboe. He persuaded Ferry and Simpson to also add a fellow lover of avant grade music that he had met at university. And so Brian Eno, who wasn’t a musician but could manage to operate the synth, as well as a reel-to-reel tape machine. was brought in as ‘technical adviser’. Next up was guitarist Roger Bunn and finally. classically trained timpanist Dexter Lloyd on drums.

Mark one of Roxy Music was complete, with the name derived from Ferry picking ‘Roxy’ out from a list of old cinemas. He decided the word conjured up ‘some faded glamour’ but ‘didn’t really mean anything’. After discovering there was already a US band called Roxy, so was born Roxy Music.

The band was in danger of being over before it had begun when Ferry auditioned late that year to become the new singer for King Crimson. Although Robert Fripp and Peter Sinfield decided Ferry didn’t suit their band, they saw talent, and helped him to get Roxy Music a contract with EG Records.

After recording demos in early 1971, Bunn left the group. He was replaced by David O’List, former guitarist with The Nice. One of the unsuccessful applicants, Phil Manzanera, was employed as a roadie. At the end of the year, Roxy Music finally made their live debut, at the Friends of the Tate Gallery Christmas Show. Ferry’s band were not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill band.

O’List didn’t stick around long, quitting Roxy Music in February 1972 after a fight with Thompson at their audition with EG Management. When he failed to turn up for the next rehearsal, his job was given to Manzanera, who had been privately learning the band’s repertoire.

Roxy Music signed with EG Management, who financed the production of their eponymous debut LP. Although unimpressed at first, Island Records boss Chris Blackwell relented and the album was released in June. Weird and occasionally wonderful, Roxy Music was avant grade glam that captured the imagination of record buyers, housed in a seedily glamorous cover that would become their trademark. However, Simpson left after it was recorded, and was replaced by Rik Kenton.

Kenton was around long enough to take part in the recording of one of the most impressive debut singles of all time. Virgina Plain shot to four in the charts and made Roxy Music pop stars – albeit unusual ones. David Bowie’s appearance on Top of the Pops that year to promote Starman is rightly feted as a great TV moment, but the sight of Roxy Music on the same show also left its mark.

In January 1973, Kenton left the band and was replaced by John Porter, who had been a member of the Gas Board. Second album For Your Pleasure, released two months later, saw Chris Thomas replace Sinfield on production duties. Their second single, Pyjamarama, was a non-album release and peaked at 10.

Eno departed after Roxy Music toured the album, due to increasing differences with Ferry. Fans lamented the loss, but he did pretty well for himself, as we know. Eno’s replacement was 18-year-old multi-instrumentalist Eddie Jobson from Curved Air. What he lacked in experimentalism, he made up for in technical accomplishment. Porter also left, becoming a successful producer for The Smiths and Ferry in his solo years. John Gustafson of The Merseybeats briefly took up bass duties.

Third album Stranded, released in 1973, saw Mackay and Manzanera joining Ferry as songwriters. Ferry also began to seemingly become the posh sophisticate figure he had previously adopted ironically, and has been ever since. The single Street Life was a number nine smash. The next LP, Country Life, was the first to enter the US album chart, and featured the UK number 12 single All I Want Is You. The sexy, slinky Love Is the Drug deservedly became their biggest hit to date in 1975, peaking at two behind the reissue of Space Oddity. But a year later, following their tour of its parent album Siren, Roxy Music went on hiatus.

In 1979 a new line-up released the album Manifesto. Ace’s Paul Carrack replaced Jobson on keyboards, while Gustafson was also gone, with bass duties split between Alan Spenner and future Adam and the Ants member Gary Tibbs. Luther Vandross featured on backing vocals. Manifesto contained two of Roxy’s biggest hits in Angel Eyes (four) and Dance Away (two).

Thompson was injured during the recording of their first album of the 80s, Flesh + Blood, and quit soon after its release. From then on, the core trio of Ferry, Mackay and Manzanera were joined by session musicians. Their seventh LP featured Oh Yeah and Over You, which both reached five. Any sense of experimentalism in the group’s sound had been gradually removed and replaced by smooth sophistication, in keeping with Ferry’s look.

After Lennon’s murder in December 1980, Roxy Music added a cover of Jealous Guy to their live set while they toured Germany. This 1971 plaintive ballad was perfectly in keeping with Roxy’s repertoire.

Jealous Guy began in 1968 as a spiritual Beatles song called Child of Nature. Lennon was inspired by a lecture from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and was one of a plethora of tunes considered for The Beatles and demoed at George Harrison’s Esher home. Although it wasn’t selected, the song was also performed in 1969 during the Get Back sessions, where it was referred as On the Road to Rishikesh. The tune was fully formed, but the lyrics felt unfinished, and the song disappeared.

Two years later, Lennon reworked the song for Imagine, creating a personal, confessional soft rock song about his failings and inadequacies towards his wife Yoko Ono… although there are theories out there that consider it may really be about his feelings for Paul McCartney during their bitter post-Beatles years. Despite being one of his most famous solo songs, Jealous Guy was not released by Lennon in his lifetime as a single.

Review

Roxy Music were at their best in the early years, when their music was more adventurous. Eno leaving was a big loss, and the more Ferry seemed to transform into a real-life posh playboy, the less interesting his band were.

This version of Jealous Guy is inferior to the delicate original. Phil Spector was not exactly known for his subtlety, but his production on Lennon’s version is light and even a little ethereal. Whether because they rushed this out or not, Roxy’s version is pure 80s schmaltz, particularly due to Mackay’s sax on the chorus line. Watching Ferry crooning away in the video like an early 80s catalogue model just makes me want to laugh, rather than enjoy or appreciate this alleged tribute. Whether this cover was well-intentioned or not, it comes across a rather cynical cash-in – and one which obviously paid off. But then, when it comes to Roxy Music, I’m more of an In Every Dream Home a Heartache kind of guy than a Jealous Guy.

After

In 1982, Roxy Music released their eighth and last LP, the critically acclaimed Avalon. The first single, the decent ballad More Than This was their final top 10 hit, peaking at six. The title track reached 13, followed by Take a Chance with Me, which soldiered on to 26. After they toured the album, Roxy Music dissolved in 1983 and the core trio all went solo – Ferry having had a parallel solo career since 1973.

In 2001, Ferry, Mackay, Manzanera and Thompson reunited and toured to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary. The latter two, and Eno, contributed to Ferry’s 11th solo album Frantic the following year. Roxy Music reformed in 2005 to play at the Isle of Wight Festival and Live 8 Berlin, and announced a new album was on the cards – with Eno contributing too. Instead, material from the album was used for Ferry’s 13th solo album, Olympia, released in 2010. Manzanera later claimed the Roxy reunion album was permanently shelved.

Despite this, Roxy Music continued to tour in 2010 and 2011. They teamed up once more in 2022 to celebrate their 50th anniversary.

The Outro

Roxy Music are an acquired taste and a lot of it depends on how much Ferry you can stomach. Nonetheless, there’s gold littered throughout their career.

The Info

Written by

John Lennon

Producers

Bryan Ferry & Rhett Davies

Weeks at number 1

2 (14-27 March)

Trivia

Births

27 March: Northern Irish footballer Terry McFlynn

Deaths

14 March: Cricketer Ken Barrington/Screenwriter Billie Bristow
17 March: Actor Nicholas Stuart Gray/Literary critic QD Leavis
19 March: Journalist John Deane Potter
22 March: Journalist Dudley Carew
23 March: Motorcycle racer Mike Hailwood (see ‘Meanwhile‘)/Football administrator Bob Wall
24 March: Organist George Charles Gray
26 March: Biologist CD Darlington

Meanwhile…

17 March: The Conservative government, already unpopular, was met with anger when Chancellor of the Exchequer Geoffrey Howe revealed further public spending cuts in the Budget.

21 March: Home Secretary William Whitelaw allows Wolverhampton council to place a 14-day ban on political marches, due to growing problems with militant race riots.
Also on this day, Tom Baker is replaced by Peter Davison in Doctor Who, and ‘Mike the Bike’ Hailwood is seriously injured in a car crash.

22 March: A minority of Tory MPs are reported to be planning a leadership challenge against the increasingly unpopular Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

23 March: The government imposes a ban on animal transportation on the Isle of Wight and southern Hampshire following an outbreak of foot and mouth disease.
Also on this day, Hailwood dies from his injuries two days earlier.

26 March: The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was formed by ‘Gang of Four’ Labour Party defectors Shirley Williams, Bill Rodgers, Roy Jenkins and David Owen.

369. Mud – Oh Boy (1975)

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The Intro

Mud were always too in thrall with the 50s, and clowning around far too much, to go down in history as glam rock lynchpins, which is a shame as Tiger Feet is one of my favourite number 1s of the 70s, and Lonely This Christmas is one of the more memorable festive number 1s. But this third and final number 1 shows how stale they, and the movement that made them famous, was becoming.

Before

Fresh from the success of their Christmas number 1, Mud tried to gain a Valentine’s Day chart-topper with The Secrets That You Keep. They nearly managed it too, reaching three. Their next single was a cover of Oh Boy! by The Crickets, which had reached three in 1958 and came from their debut album The ‘Chirping’ Crickets. Meaning Chinnichap were only involved with production this time around, and soon, their partnership with the band was over.

Review

I can’t work out why Chapman and Chinn, who had proven time and time again how to get the best out of pop for several years by this point, chose to suck this rock’n’roll classic of all its energy and turn it into a stately stadium rock-style stompalong. It does the song and Mud a disservice, and although smothering the production with harmonies perhaps masks its weakness to an extent, it also means there’s barely any sign of singer Les Gray. In the original, Buddy Holly puts across brilliantly the excitement of waiting to meet a lover that night. You get none of that feeling here.

There’s also a strange section where a mystery woman sings too, which is even weirder when you watch it being performed in the video above. If you don’t, Mud briefly pretend to hang a cleaner who mimes this part…

After

Further Mud releases came thick and fast throughout 1975, but the band parted ways with Chinnichap and they left RAK. Moonshine Sally, L-L-Lucy and Show Me You’re a Woman all went top 10, and they were briefly joined by keyboardist Andy Ball. They also appeared in a bizarre musical comedy called Never Too Young to Rock. In 1976 they moved away from glam, and the number 12 hit Shake It Down was a decent stab at disco. A cover of Bill Withers’ classic Lean on Me was their final hit, reaching seven that December. That year, Gray was part of the Green Cross Code public information campaign Children’s Heroes.

By 1978 they were signed to RCA Records, and Brian Tatum had joined as keyboardist, but Gray decided to try a solo career and quit. Mud tried to carry on, and hired Margo Buchanan as their new singer, but they couldn’t recapture the spark, and they split in 1979. The original incarnation of the band performed one final time, at drummer Dave Mount’s wedding, in 1990.

In 1980 Gray began a new incarnation, dubbed Les Gray’s Mud, that he toured with in various incarnations for the rest of his life. While fighting throat cancer, he died in the Algarve, Portugal in 2004. Les Gray’s Mud continued as Mud II with the rest of the original band’s blessing. Mount died in 2006. Bassist Ray Stiles joined The Hollies in 1986 and is still with them now. Guitarist Rob Davis, known for dressing up as a woman on stage, had the most prominent career post-Mud. Following a chance meeting with dance producer Paul Oakenfold in the late-80s, he began writing lyrics to club tunes. In 2000 he had two number 1 smashes – Toca’s Miracle by Fragma and then Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) by Spiller. Most famously, he co-wrote Kylie Minogue’s classic Can’t Get You Out of My Head with Cathy Dennis in 2001.

The Outro

Oh Boy was, I think, Chinnichap’s last number 1, after several years of chart domination.

The Info

Written by

Sonny West, Bill Tighman & Norman Petty

Producers

Mike Chapman & Nicky Chinn

Weeks at number 1

2 (3-16 May)

Meanwhile…

3 May: West Ham United won the FA Cup for the second time, by beating Fulham 2-0 in the final at Wembley Stadium. Alan Taylor scored both goals.

366. Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel – Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) (1975)

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The Intro

Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) is one of the best examples of a song where the original intention of the writer is largely ignored by the masses. Like REM’s The One I Love, a spiteful song that has, because of its title, become popular at weddings, for example, with little attention paid to the lyrics. Steve Harley’s number 1 is to most a song about positivity, about enjoying yourself, about seeing the ones you love and soaking up the good vibes. For Harley, it was a giant ‘fuck you’ to the original Cockney Rebel, who dared to question his authority. He showed them who was right, and how, with this glam rock classic.

Before

Harley was born, ironically, Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice on 27 February 1951 in Deptford, London. His father was a milkman and his mother a semi-professional jazz singer. He contracted polio aged two, and between the ages of three and 16 he spent a total of four years in hospital. Aged nine, Nice began classical viola lessons, and guitar a year later. While recovering from major surgery in 1963, aged 12, he fell in love with literature, enjoying the poetry and prose of giants including DH Lawrence and Virginia Woolf, and the lyrics of Bob Dylan, all of which would influence his music as he grew older. At 15 he wrote an autobiographical poem called ‘The Cockney Rebel’.

At 17 Nice left school and became a trainee accountant at the Daily Express before making the move into reporting, working for a variety of regional newspapers in Essex before settling with the East London Advertiser. Becoming disillusioned, Nice moved into the folk club scene in 1971, performing on line-ups featuring John Martyn and Ralph McTell, and busking on the underground He grew his hair and refused to wear a tie in his day job, and got the sack in 1972. His replacement was Richard Madeley.

Before the year was out, Nice’s stage name became Steve Harley, and he decided to form a glam rock band. The original Cockney Rebel consisted of Harley as singer, his friend from the folk scene Jean-Paul Crocker on electric violin, Stuart Elliott as drummer, Paul Jeffreys on bass and Nick Jones on guitar. Jones was quickly replaced by Pete Newnham but Harley decided Cockney Rebel were not going to be your average glam rock outfit. They ditched guitars and Milton Reame-James became their keyboardist. Labels were soon showing an interest in their demos, and they signed with EMI Records.

The first Cockney Rebel LP, The Human Menagerie, was released in 1973. Debut single Sebastian was a number two hit in Belgium and the Netherlands but never troubled the UK charts. Harley set to work writing a hit single, and proved he could when Judy Teen soared to five in 1974. With Alan Parsons, he co-produced follow-up album The Psychomodo, which featured number eight hit and inspiration for a classic 80s advert, Mr Soft.

By the time that single had reached the top 10, Cockney Rebel effectively didn’t exist. Harley has always maintained the understanding within the group was that he was the songwriter, but Crocker, Reame-James and Jeffreys chose to quit after demanding they be allowed to contribute. While Harley searched for a new band he released his debut solo single Big Big Deal, which proved to be anything but. Shortly afterwards, with Elliott back on drums, he hired guitarist Jim Cregan, who had played bass for Family, keyboardist Duncan Mackay and bassist George Ford. To ensure everyone knew where they stood this time around, the group was renamed Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, and they recorded their first album together, The Best Years of Our Lives.

Harley penned Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) within days of the original Cockney Rebel split. Harley was distraught and very bitter, and had the idea to write a dark blues song in order to get his feelings off his chest. One day in November as the new group were recording, Harley performed Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) as a slow dirge. Parsons saw something in it but suggested they speed it up and rephrase the chorus and Harley agreed. One of the masterstrokes was the addition of tacets before the verses, which is the deliberate use of silence. As Talk Talk singer Mark Hollis wisely noted, the space between the sounds can be as important and effective as the music. It added drama to the song, and although it’s been played to death so it’s impossible to imagine hearing it for the first time, it will have left the listener wondering what was on Harley’s mind next.

The instrumental break was originally to be a saxophone, but Cregan had the idea to play it on his guitar and give it a flamenco feel. Harley has noted since how difficult it’s been over the years for band members to perform live, as it was in fact three composite takes. The addition of female backing singers was another masterstroke. As well as Yvonne Keeley, Linda Lewis and Liza Strike there was Tina Charles, who would be number 1 a year later with I Love to Love. After having them sing the chorus, Harley liked the idea of having them add some ‘oooh la la la’ as a nod to Rubber Soul-era Beatles. The excitement grew throughout recording. Harley’s revenge was going to be very sweet. When the finished product was played to EMI’s head of A&R, Bob Mercer, he was blown away and uttered only two words. ‘Number one.’

Review

It might be considered a ‘glam’ tune, but to me Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) is pure pop brilliance from that memorable intro to the fade. Parsons deserves more credit for wrapping Harley’s barbed lyrics inside a shiny chart-friendly package. Not that Harley doesn’t deserve all the credit he has received over the years, once Parsons set him on the right path. I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I am among those who has misunderstood part of this song over the years – it’s only now that I discover it isn’t ‘I’ll do what you want, running wild’, but ‘Or do what you want, running wild’. Which is a key part of Harley’s message to Cockney Rebel Mk1 really. By all means, come and watch me now, see how well I’m doing without you, it’ll put a smile on my face… or just do what you want, because I don’t care really what you do anymore.

Perhaps Harley and Parsons’ success in making a pop classic did too good a job in masking the real message, as the backing vocals, as great as they are, distract from the lyrics. I’ve also only just discovered he makes it explicit who his ire is directed at, the second line being ‘And pulled the rebel to the floor’ – an obvious reference to Cockney Rebel. Of course, you could argue that Harley is being precious and needs to get over himself, but even then you’d be hard pushed to argue what a great, slick tune this is, and that it never gets old.

In 2015 it was reported the single had sold around 1.5 million copies, and the Performing Rights Society have confirmed it as one of the most played songs in British Broadcasting history, and over 120 covers, and counting, have been recorded.

After

Fresh off the back of their number 1, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel released The Best Days of Our Lives, which reached five in the album chart, and Mr. Raffles (Man, It Was Mean) was a top 13 singles hit. However, Harley produced the next album Timeless Flight alone, and it was a failure. More experimental than their previous LP, the critics slated it and its singles tanked. The final album by the band, Love’s a Prima Donna, fared better thanks to a faithful and timely cover of The Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun. Released in the long, hot summer of 1976, it was their final hit, reaching 10.

Harley featured on The Alan Parsons Project’s album I, Robot in 1977, and that July he announced Cockney Rebel were no more. He moved to America to work on his debut solo album, but Hobo with a Grin, released in 1978, fared badly. It featured his friend Marc Bolan’s final studio performances before his shock death. When his next album The Candidate also tanked a year later, he was dropped by EMI.

The 80s were, in Harley’s own words, his wilderness years. When The Best of Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel was released in 1980, along with a reissue of Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me), he formed a new Cockney Rebel. Over the next few years they had failure after failure, despite working with big-name producers like Midge Ure and Mike Batt. However, Andrew Lloyd Webber was planning a single to promote The Phantom of the Opera, and Batt suggested Harley audition to be the male voice on the title track. Harley succeeded and together with Sarah Brightman they had a number seven hit on their hands in 1986. He starred as The Phantom in the video, and won the audition to play him on stage, but the role was given to Michael Crawford instead.

1986 also saw the debut of an advert that fascinated and terrified my six-year-old self in equal measure, which Harley was inadvertently responsible for. Trebor had rewritten Mr Soft as the soundtrack to an advert for their Softmints, and asked Harley to record it, but he declined and an effective soundalike was used. The quirky, catchy song was perfect for this bizarre ad, as you can see here. So successful was the long-running campaign, Mr Soft was re-released in 1988. Years later when Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) was used to advertise Viagra, Harley wittily remarked that Mr Soft would have been more appropriate.

In 1989 another Cockney Rebel incarnation was created and Harley would flit between solo and band work for years to come. Upon its fourth reissue, Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) was back in the top 40, thanks to its use in a Carlsberg advert. It reached 33. Only two years later it was in the public eye again thanks to it being featured in The Full Monty. Harley branched out into radio work in 1999 when he became the presenter of Radio 2’s nostalgic The Sounds of the Seventies. It was so popular he would end up presenting it all year round until it ended in 2008.

Harley became involved with the charity Mines Advisory Group in 2002, later becoming an ambassador. The first album released under the Cockney Rebel name in 29 years, The Quality of Mercy, saw the light of day in 2005. A 30th anniversary remix of Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) was also released that year, and the original garnered attention yet again in 2015 when Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May began a campaign to download the song to help Harley pay for a speeding fine. He reunited with the most successful incarnation of Cockney Rebel for a tour performing The Best Days of Our Lives in full, also in 2015.

The Outro

The Cockney Rebel leader unveiled his sixth solo album, Uncovered in 2020. Consisting of some of his favourite material by other artists, he released The Beatles’ I’ve Just Seen a Face as a single, but the intended tour was postponed due to COVID-19.

And what became of the original Cockney Rebel? Elliott remained as Harley’s drummer throughout his career, and Jeffreys and Reame-James had some success in the prog rock band Be-Bop Deluxe, while Crocker performed with his brother in obscurity. Jeffreys was among those who died in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. He was with his bride returning from their honeymoon.

Of MKII, Cregan became a session musician, working mostly with Rod Stewart. Mackay appeared on Kate Bush’s first three albums and George Ford went off the radar. He died in 2007.

The Info

Written by

Steve Harley

Producers

Steve Harley & Alan Parsons

Weeks at number 1

2 (22 February-7 March)

Trivia

Deaths

22 February: Violist Lionel Tertis
26 February: Police officer Stephen Tribble (see ‘Meanwhile…’, below)
28 February: Writer Neville Cardus
3 March: Theatre organist Sandy MacPherson/Poet TH Parry-Williams

Meanwhile…

26 February: 22-year-old Metropolitan Police officer Stephen Tibble is shot and killed after giving chase to a fleeing Provisional IRA member.

28 February: The Moorgate tube crash kills 43 people and injures 74 when a London Underground train failed to stop at the Northern city Line’s southern terminus and smashed into its end wall. It is considered the worst peacetime accident on the London Underground. 

1 March: Aston Villa, chasing promotion from the Football League’s Second Division, win the Football League Cup with a 1-0 victory against Norwich City at Wembley Stadium.

4 March: Comedy acting legend Charlie Chaplin, 85, is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. 

7 March: The body of teenage heiress Lesley Whittle, who disappeared from her home in Shropshire in January, is discovered in Staffordshire. She had been strangled on a ledge in drains below Bathpool Park near Kidsgrove. 

362. Mud – Lonely This Christmas (1974)

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The Intro

Christmas 1974, and anyone refuting the claim glam had become too in thrall of the past would have been hard pushed to defend Mud’s second number 1 of the year. Rushing together an Elvis Presley spoof for the festive market, they took Slade’s Christmas crown with Lonely This Christmas.

Before

To say the preceding 12 months had been good for Mud would be an understatement. They started the year with 1974’s biggest seller, and one of my favourite chart-toppers, Tiger Feet, then a number two with the inferior soundalike The Cat Crept In, and a respectable number six with Rocket. They also released a cover of In the Mood under the name ‘Dum’, which failed to chart.

The well was perhaps starting to run dry for Chinnichap’s songwriting, but they’d had a very impressive run over the last few years, and seeing the excitement the chart battle between Slade and Wizzard caused in 1973, they no doubt thought one of their acts could be in with a shout. If they could pull it off, it would be their third number 1 of the year.

There was some strong competition though. Mike Batt’s Wombles had enjoyed a good year and Wombling Merry Christmas was bound to do well, plus there was Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet close to the top spot. Elvis too.

Speaking of which, how can you talk about Lonely This Christmas without comparing it to the work of ‘the King’? Although you could point out it’s more akin to his early-60s work than 50s material – Are You Lonesome Tonight? is the obvious song to note – there’s also his cover of Blue Christmas to consider, which he recorded in 1957. And of course, singer Les Gray’s voice was similar to Presley’s in general and it gave him an excuse to be the country’s best-selling Elvis impersonator over the holidays.

Review

Now Lonely This Christmas is no Tiger Feet, nor is it of the same class as Merry Xmaƨ Everybody, but I’ve always been fond of it, and the sheer nerve of releasing it amuses me. The clip below, from Top of the Pops, of Gray miming sincerely to a sinister-looking (aren’t they all?) ventriloquist puppet is a classic, bizarre TV moment. Mud have always struck me as charming chancers who somehow lucked into being in the right place and the right time, and the sight of them struggling to keep a straight face when performing this proves it.

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

It’s not for everyone. It certainly doesn’t have the universal appeal of Slade or Wizzard’s festive classics, and the only way you could get emotionally attached to it would be if you really were unlucky enough to be going through a break-up with someone, and even then, you can’t, because the whole song is a joke, and you’d feel like you were being laughed at. But come on, it’s Christmas, a time for taste to go out the window. Embrace the tackiness, like a nation exhausted from elections and terrorism did at the time. It’s also quite a funny way for Chinnichap’s chart dominance and number 1s together to come to an end, although there was Mud’s final number 1, produced by them, to come.

The Outro

So that’s 1974. An eclectic mix of pop, late glam, with a welcome return of some reggae and soul into the mix. Things were about to steadily slide downhill as the 70s progressed further. It seems the more the country slid into the economic doldrums, the worse the singles chart became.

The Info

Written & produced by

Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman

Weeks at number 1

4 (21 December 1974-17 January 1975)

Trivia

Births

6 January 1975: Radio DJ Jason King

Deaths

21 December 1974: Artist James Henry Govier

Meanwhile…

22 December 1974: A rotten year for Conservative Party leader Edward Heath ends with his London home bombed by the Provisional IRA. Fortunately he wasn’t in but only cheated death by 10 minutes.

24 December: Former Labour government minister John Stonehouse is discovered living in Australia after having faked his own death. He is quickly arrested by Australian police, who initially believe that he is Lord Lucan.

6 January 1975: Brian Clough, the recently sacked former manager of Leeds United, is appointed manager of Second Division strugglers Nottingham Forest.

14 January: 17-year-old heiress Lesley Whittle is kidnapped from her home near Bridgnorth in Shropshire.

351. Gary Glitter – Always Yours (1974)

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The Intro

Thankfully, this is the last time I’ll have to write about Gary Glitter as I’ve reached the last of his three number 1s. After his previous, I Love You Love Me Love, Glitter began 1974 with the sentimental ballad Remember Me This Way. It was his first move away from the template he and Leander had set with Rock and Roll, Parts 1 and 2, towards a more ‘classic’ rock’n’roll sound, and it stalled at number three.

Review

Always Yours is more upbeat, but also features an overtly retro sound, akin to a low-budget Wizzard (I assume by this point The Glitter Band were playing on Glitter’s recordings). The only reason any respectable person could have for listening to Glitter’s songs these days is that those early Leander productions were pretty unique. This isn’t, and it’s sorely lacking that distinctive Leander guitar drone. It’s another sign that glam was leaning too heavily on the past. Sure, it was always an important element, but Bowie, Wizzard and T. Rex had more going for them. Out of all Glitter’s bestselling songs, this is one I had never heard, or perhaps I had but it made as much of an impression on me then as now – very little. At least the lyrics aren’t too seedy.

After

If you were in any doubt as to where the talent was in the Glitter and Leander partnership, consider that after Always Yours, ‘The Leader’ had only three more top 10 hits in the 70s – Oh Yes! You’re Beautiful (number two) in 1974 and Love Like You and Me (number 10) and Doing Alright with the Boys (number six) in 1975. All three were co-written and produced by Leander. Glitter worked with Mark Munro instead on his third album G. G. (1975), and sales dwindled.

Glitter announced his retirement in 1976 to spend more time with his new partner, though his financial problems probably played a large part in the decision too. Less than two years later he made the first of approximately 217 comebacks, back with Leander. But A Little Boogie Woogie in the Back of My Mind (later covered by Shakin’ Stevens) only reached number 31 upon his return. He declared himself bankrupt in 1977, and would do so again in the 90s.

From the early-80s, Glitter settled into his role as a niche performer reminding everyone of the glam years, and would reappear every so often, usually around Christmas. It was in 1984 that he enjoyed his first top 10 hit in nine years when Another Rock and Roll Christmas reached number seven. He recorded a new version of his first number 1, I’m the Leader of the Gang (I Am!) with female metal band Girlschool in 1986. He probably liked their name and would have been disappointed to find out they were grown women.

Then in 1988 Glitter found himself back on Top of the Pops courtesy of arch pranksters Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty. The duo were taking a break from their Justified Ancients of Mu Mu project to create a house version of the Doctor Who theme. Realising the ‘Glitter beat’ worked better, they instead made a mash-up of the theme with Rock and Roll, Part 2 and The Sweet’s Block Buster !. As The Timelords, they had their first number 1 with Doctorin’ the Tardis, and later released Gary in the Tardis, in which Glitter sang lines from his hits here and there. It’s quite a performance. He also (sort of) went to number 1 the following December thanks to Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers using Another Rock and Roll Christmas on Let’s Party.

By the 90s Glitter was firmly established as a national treasure. He opened a restaurant called Gary’s Glitter Bar “Leader of the Snack”. He also launched his own record label, and continued to release new and old material that would always be bought by his die-hard fans. In 1995 he started making money out of Oasis’s use of Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again on the opening track of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Hello. A year later he nearly cost Roger Daltrey an eye while swinging a mic around during rehearsals for the revival tour of Quadrophenia.

And then he was found out. On 18 November 1999, Glitter took his computer to a PC World in Bristol for repair. He asked the technician not to look at his files. The technician did, and found indecent images and videos of children. When Glitter went to collect the computer the following day he was arrested and his houses raided, where further sordid material was found. ‘The Leader’ found himself cancelled pretty swiftly, with his scene in the forthcoming Spice Girls film Spice World severely cut. In March 1998 he was charged with over 50 offences including downloading indecent images, child sex and indecency. In November 1999 Glitter was cleared of sexual assault but he pleaded guilty to 54 charges of making indecent photographs of children under 16 and was sentenced to four months in jail and placed on the sex offender register. Nobody wanted to be in that gang apart from, incredibly, his hardcore followers, seemingly in a state of denial.

Afterwards, Glitter fled to Spain, then Cuba, then Cambodia after the press uncovered his wherabouts. In late 2002 he was detained over allegations against young boys and was deported. In 2005 he was living in Vietnam and further allegations followed, resulting in his arrest in November. He managed to avoid execution by firing squad when the child rape charge was dropped a month later, but in March 2006 he was sentenced to three years in prison. Glitter claimed UK tabloids had set him up. He suffered a heart attack while behind bars and was released in 2008. 19 countries refused to allow him in, and he agreed to return to the UK, where he was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

ITV’s Exposure documentary on Jimmy Savile in October 2012, threw Glitter in the spotlight once more, when it was alleged he raped an underage girl in Savile’s dressing room. So it wasn’t a huge shock when he became the first person to be arrested as part of Operation Yewtree. Glitter went to prison once again, in February 2015, convicted for 16 years for attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a girl under 13. Glitter will be 87 when he’s released if he serves the full term. That’s if he makes it that far, as he’s suffered heart problems for years.

The Outro

Glitter was one of the first modern examples of cancel culture. As I’ve said several times in this blog, he’s a rare example of a musician whose misdemeanours have been considered impossible to separate from the artist. His appearances on Top of the Pops repeats on BBC Four have been removed, along with those of his partner in crime, Savile, who inadvertently sent him to prison for probably the last time. The controversy of the use of Rock and Roll Part 2 in Joker (2019) brought him back in the public eye, and despite the fact it’s been proven he won’t make any money from royalties, I get the feeling he’ll have got off on making the news again.

His erasure is deserved, as research for this blog has proved he did nothing to make his music worth listening to again. The talent all lay with Leander, and his production skills in those early years remains different and interesting. Glitter was an opportunist, from lucking his way into working with a great producer at the right time, to his terrible crimes.

The Info

Written by

Gary Glitter & Mike Leander

Producer

Mike Leander

Weeks at number 1

1 (22-28 June)

Trivia

Births

22 June: Labour MP Jo Cox

349. The Rubettes (Arranged by Gerry Shury) – Sugar Baby Love (1974)

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The Intro

The Rubettes’ retro 50s and 60s vibe fitted right in with the tail end of the glam years, yet the best element of their sole number 1, Sugar Baby Love – that soaring, Frankie Valli-style falsetto, wasn’t from a member of the band. Somehow, a demo became a number 1 single for a month.

Before

The idea of the band originated in 1973 from the head of A&R at Polydor Records, Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington. Together, they had been in The Pete Best Four and went on to write songs, including soul favourite Nothing but a Heartache in 1969. Bickerton and Waddington were considering writing a rock’n’roll musical and had come up with four retro bubblegum pop songs – Sugar Baby Love, Tonight, Juke Box Jive and Sugar Candy Kisses (which became a hit for Mac and Katie Kissoon). In October 1973 they arranged for demos of the tracks to be recorded, with the possibility of putting the first in the running for a shot at the Eurovision Song Contest. They assembled, among others singer Paul Da Vinci for the lead, backed by keyboardist Pete Arnesen and drummer John Richardson, among others.

With the song demos finished, they offered the material to Leicester-based rock’n’roll revivalists Showaddywaddy (which would have been highly appropriate) who turned them down, as did former vocalist with The Move, Carl Wayne. Bickerton and Waddington decided to clean up Sugar Baby Love but in essence release the original demo, under a random 50s-sounding name, hence The Rubettes. What they didn’t expect was to then have to quickly assemble a real group to promote the song when it started to gain momentum. And it posed a problem, as Da Vinci wasn’t able to join them as he was under a solo contract elsewhere. Richardson and Arnsesen returned, and joining them were Alan Williams as singer, Tony Thorpe on guitar, Mick Clarke on bass and Bill Hurd on keyboards. The Rubettes were bedecked in white suits and cloth caps to help them stand out in these days of frequently outlandish outfits.

Review

But it’s Da Vinci’s stunning falsetto that stands out on Sugar Baby Love, both uplifting and sad at the same time and conjuring up the hits of The Four Seasons. Unfortunately, as good as it is, that’s really all the song has going for it. It could be that I’m not a fan of doo-wop and Valli in general, but I’ve never enjoyed Sugar Baby Love. Perhaps because it was only ever meant as a demo, it strikes me as being an empty, soulless pastiche, and a warning that glam was running out of ideas, if you can even really call it glam.

The idea of the song is better than the reality. Da Vinci is urging the listener not to make the same mistake as him. He clearly regrets hurting his love, and implores them to ‘Love her anyway, love her everyday’, which is a good lyric, to be fair.

After

Nobody was any the wiser as Williams mimed along to the demo on Top of the Pops, which they only lucked their way on to after Sparks had problems with work permits. This must have been pretty annoying for the Mael Brothers, as Sugar Baby Love kept This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us from the top spot. I wonder how Da Vinci felt, too?

The next two singles, Tonight and Juke Box Jive, came from the original demos too, and the latter in particular did well, reaching number three at the end of the year. I Can Do It reached number seven in 1975, but then they started to lose their ground, and they ditched the doo-wop. Arnsesen left later that year, followed by Hurd in 1976. They reached number 10 with the country-styled Baby I Know, sang by Thorpe, and never had another top 40 entry. He departed the band in 1979 following arguments.

The Rubettes dissolved in 1980. Since then, they have followed the well-trodden path of reforming, splitting into several different versions, and going to court over the use of the band’s original name, which lets face it, is what gets the punters flocking to see these bands of yesteryear. Currently, there’s The Rubettes featuring Alan Williams, The Rubettes featuring John, Mick, & Steve (February 2019) and The Rubettes featuring Bill Hurd.

As for Da Vinci, he reached number 19 with solo hit Your Baby Ain’t Your Baby Anymore in 1974. Further failed attempts followed, so in 1977 he went back to session work. He wrote Any Way You Do It, the first single by disco group Liquid Gold in 1978, and in 1981 he sang on Tight Fit’s Back to the 60’s Part II medley.

The Outro

Luke Haines’s indie rock band The Auteurs released a song called The Rubettes in 1999, which referenced their number 1.

The Info

Written by

Wayne Bickerton & Tony Waddington

Producer

Wayne Bickerton

Weeks at number 1

4 (18 May-14 June)

Trivia

Births

27 May: Presenter Denise van Outen
5 June: Ventriloquist Nina Conti

Deaths

10 June: Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester

Meanwhile…

20 May: The first meeting was held by The Centre for Policy Studies, a Conservative social market think tank established by Keith Joseph, Margaret Thatcher and Alfred Sherman.

28 May: Following a strike by unionists, power-sharing in the Northern Ireland Assembly collapses.

1 June: An explosion at Flixborough chemical plant kills 28 people and seriously injures 36. Had it happened on a weekday the numbers would have been much higher.

5 June: Snow Knight, ridden by Brian Taylor, was victorious in the Epsom Derby. The odds were 50/1.

8 June: Jon Pertwee became the third actor to relinquish the role of The Doctor in Doctor Who, citing the death of his friend and TV enemy Roger Delgado in 1973. The final episode of ‘Planet of the Spiders’ saw Pertwee regenerate into Tom Baker.

10 June: The Queen’s last surviving royal uncle, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, dies at his home in Northamptonshire, seven years after his last public appearance. His funeral is held at Windsor Castle on 14 June.

348. ABBA (Bjorn, Benny, Anna & Frida) – Waterloo (1974)

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The Intro

I’m not giving you earth-shattering news when I point out that ABBA are one of the best-selling groups of all time. But here’s a few statistics to set the ball rolling. With nine UK number 1s between 1974 and 1980, they’ve had more than any other mixed-sex group in history. Seven of those number 1s occurred in the 70s, which is the most any single act had in that decade. They were the first group from a non-English-speaking country to have consistent success in English-speaking charts like the UK, US, Canada and Australia. Estimates suggest that their total sales are over 150 million. They’re easily the most successful group to have ever entered the Eurovision Song Contest, and ABBA Gold is one of the best-selling compilations of all time.

ABBA became cool again in the 90s, with their songs turned into the musical Mamma Mia! in 1999, before it was adapted into a hit film in 2008, spawning a sequel a decade later. In 2020 it was reported that they just might be making a comeback, though that could just be wishful thinking for a world turned on its heels that needs the pop bliss conjured up by Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid once more.

And yet despite all this – and I’m in agreement that Dancing Queen is one of the best number 1s of all time – a lot of ABBA’s output does little for me. I think a lot of it is down to the sheer overload during my 20s of ABBA covers and media coverage shoving them down the nation’s throats. Some truly awful acts were recording their songs, and they may have become guilty by association in my mind. Perhaps I will now grow to appreciate them more, as I work my way through their biggest hits?

Before

Before I look at the song that first made them stars, some background knowledge, as the story usually begins with ‘Swedish pop group ABBA entered Eurovision and became famous’.

Songwriter Benny Andersson, from Stockholm, joined his first band, The Hep Stars, aged 18, as their keyboardist. They were known as Sweden’s answer to The Beatles and often performed covers of international hits. Soon, Andersson was composing original material for them, and scored his first Swedish hit with No Response in 1965.

While touring, occasionally The Hep Stars would cross paths with folk-skiffle group The Hootenanny Singers, who featured Björn Ulvaeus as their songwriter and guitarist. In June 1966 the duo wrote their first song together, Isn’t It Easy to Say, which was recorded by The Hep Stars. The manager of The Hootenanny Singers (and later founder of Polar Music), Stig Anderson, encouraged them to write together more often. Andersson and Ulvaeus became friends and would occasionally join each other on stage in their respective bands, both of which were fracturing by 1969. Their first real hit together, written with Anderson, was Ljuva sextital (Sweet Sixties), recorded by Brita Borg that year.

Also in 1969, Andersson submitted Hej, Clown into Melodifestivalen 1969, the competition to decide Sweden’s Eurovision entry that year. He narrowly lost out, but he did meet a singer there called Anni-Frid Lyngstad, and within the month they had become a couple.

Lyngstad had become a jazz singer in 1967, winning national talent competition New Faces and appearing on television with the song En ledig dag (A Day Off). She signed with EMI Sweden and in early 1968 while appearing on TV she briefly met a singer named Agnetha Fältskog, who was performing her self-penned first single, Jag var så kär (I Was So in Love). A few months later Fältskog met Ulvaeus for the first time. In May 1969 they met again on a TV special and fell in love.

In 1970 Andersson and Ulvaeus recorded an album together called Lycka (Happiness). Both Lyngstad and Fältskog featured on the LP, with the latter co-writing a song. The two couples performed together for the first time while on holiday in Cyprus in an impromptu performance for soldiers stationed there. That November they presented a cabaret show, Festfolket (Party People) in Gothenburg, performing material by all four, but it was panned, and further collaborations were shelved, but not for long, as Hej, gamle man from Lycka, credited to Bjorn & Benny but featuring all four, became their first hit in Sweden.

Ulvaeus and Fältskog married in July 1971, and began performing live with Andersson regularly soon after. The collaborations became more frequent, and in 1972 the Swedish hit People Need Love was credited to Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid. Anderson had also encouraged them to make another attempt at entering Eurovision that year. They missed out again, but Säg det med en sång” (Say It with a Song), performed by Lena Anderson (another Anderson!), also did well in Sweden, and may have even done well in the US had it been on a bigger label.

In 1973, they tried for Eurovision again with Ring Ring, a direct, catchy pop song with interesting production techniques designed to emulate Phil Spector’s ‘Wall of Sound’, and English-translated lyrics by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody. This was a good little pop song, but Eurovision still wasn’t ready for them. Despite that, it became the title track of their first album, credited to Björn Benny & Agnetha Frida. Anderson recognised this name was a bit unwieldy though, and began referring to them as ABBA, using the first letter of each member’s first name. It was also the name of a fish-canning company based in Gothenburg, and the band asked Abba for their blessing. They said it was fine as long as they didn’t do anything to make them feel shame for the association. I’m sure they were happy with the way things turned out.

In late 1973 the group was invited to take part in Melodifestivalen 1974, and set to work finding a song. They considered Hasta Mañana, sang by Fältskog, but decided to work on something that gave Fältskog and Lyngstad an equal chance to shine. Waterloo, originally titled Honey Pie, was inspired by the nostalgic rock’n’roll sound of Wizzard’s 1973 number 1 See My Baby Jive, and the lyrics came from Anderson.

Waterloo was a brave move for Eurovision, as at the time, the standard template was to use dramatic ballads, sung in the mother tongue of the country being represented. From 1973, the language rule was lifted, and Anderson and ABBA knew if they could garner a Eurovision win with an English language song, they could make it big beyond the competition.

Recording commenced on 17 December 1973, featuring regular ABBA session musicians Janne Schaffer on guitar (he wrote the guitar and bass parts), Rutger Gunnarsson on bass and Ola Brunkert on drums. Swedish and English versions were recorded, with German and French versions recorded in March and April 1974 respectively. The French version was adapted by Claude-Michel Schönberg, who later went on to co-write Les Misérables.

Review

I’ve a new-found appreciation of the fact Waterloo was something new for Eurovision, and I loved See My Baby Jive, so I should love the retro jive of Waterloo. The lyric is a clever conceit too – it’s a bold move to start a pop song in the mid-70s with ‘My my/At Waterloo Napoleon did surrender’ and to compare a historical moment with surrendering your love to someone. And I have always liked the way Andersson attacks the piano here. I just can’t love Waterloo, for some reason. I’d never listen to it by choice. One for the ‘admirable, but doesn’t connect with me’ pile.

But Waterloo connected like no Eurovision song ever had before with the public, or probably since. Credited to ABBA (Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida) in Sweden and ABBA (Björn, Benny, Anna & Frida) in the UK, it was released on 4 March, and on 6 April, they made history at The Dome in Brighton, rocking out in their glam rock-influenced outfits and huge platforms. The beautiful Faltskog particularly stood out – you could easily argue she may be the most beautiful woman to ever grace the pop world, without wishing to sound sexist. After winning the competition, ABBA partied all night in – of all places – the Napoleon suite of the Grand Brighton Hotel. Waterloo climbed the charts and a month later, they were number 1 in the UK. They also topped the charts all over Europe, and went top 10 in the US, but surprisingly didn’t hit number 1 in Sweden.

After

For a while however, it appeared ABBA could end up a one-hit wonder in the UK. Their second album, also named Waterloo, didn’t light up the charts, and a European tour led to cancelled dates due to poor ticket sales. Would ABBA become a footnote in 70s pop?

The Outro

Of course not. Waterloo was voted the best Eurovision song of all time at Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005.

The Info

Written by

Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus & Stig Anderson

Producers

Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus

Weeks at number 1

2 (4-17 May)

Trivia

Births

7 May: Singer Lynden David Hall

Deaths

9 May: Writer LTC Rolt

Meanwhile…

4 May: Liverpool win the FA Cup for the second time with a 3-0 victory over Newcastle in the final at Wembley, with two goals from Kevin Keegan and one from Steve Heighway.

6 May: The inauguration of full electric service on British Rail’s West Coast Main Line through to Glasgow.

17 May – The Loyalist paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force carries out the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in the Republic of Ireland. 34 people died in the bombings, which caused the single deadliest death toll in the Troubles

345. Alvin Stardust – Jealous Mind (1974)

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The Intro

Gary Glitter wasn’t the only 60s has-been to become a glam icon in the 70s. Thanks to a singer-songwriter called Peter Shelley (not the Buzzcocks singer), minor pop star Shane Fenton assumed the mantle of Alvin Stardust. Among the hits that followed was this sole number 1.

Before

Fenton was originally Bernard William Jewry, born 27 September 1942 in Muswell Hill, Middlesex. The Jewrys moved to Mansfield in Nottinghamshire when he was still young, and his mother ran a boarding house often used by singers and entertainers. He made his stage debut in a pantomime at the age of four. As a boarder at Southwell Minster Collegiate grammar school he fell in love with blues, jazz and rock’n’roll, listening to the American Forces Network and Radio Luxembourg.

Jewry got to know a local band called Johnny Theakstone and the Tremeloes, and he helped them carry their equipment. However, Theakstone died suddenly as a result of a childhood illness that had weakened his heart. The group split up, but a former member was later contacted by the BBC’s Saturday Club radio show. Theakstone had sent in an audition tape, calling himself Shane Fenton. Theakstone’s mother gave the band her blessing to reform and give it a go, and Jewry was asked to join the band as Fenton. Shane Fenton and the Fentones went down well and signed to Parlophone in 1961. Several minor hits followed, most notably Cindy’s Birthday in 1962. Jewry even featured in the Billy Fury vehicle Play It Cool that year, but soon after, the group split.

Jewry spent his years out of the spotlight in music management, and performed at small venues alongside his first wife Iris Caldwell (sister of Rory Storm). In the meantime, Shelley had worked his way into the music industry in the mid-60s, working under EMI producer Norman Newell. He became a talent scout for Decca Records, discovering number 1 artists Amen Corner, among others. In 1973 he co-founded Magnet Records with Michael Levy, and the first release on the label was My Coo Ca Choo, written, produced and performed by Shelley under the alias Alvin Stardust. Not the most original moniker considering David Bowie was still using Ziggy Stardust as a name in 1973. But then, Shelley wasn’t expecting a hit when he appeared on children’s TV show Lift Off with Ayshea under that name.

My Coo Ca Choo, stormed the charts, leaving Shelley with a conundrum as he had no desire to continue performing, but didn’t want to be a one-hit wonder either. Jewry’s manager suggested him and for the second time, he stepped into an alias, only this time he was more successful.

Bowie said that Ziggy was based on 50s rock’n’roller Vince Taylor, and Jewry’s look as Alvin Stardust was an even more overt tribute, with his huge quiff, sideburns and black leather outfit. And the black gloves topped things off nicely, creating a pretty menacing figure. The new Stardust’s first appearance on Top of the Pops, miming to My Coo Ca Choo, caused quite a stir, actually scaring some children at the time, and I have to confess I found it a little unnerving in my teens when I first saw him via a UK Gold repeat. That might sound ridiculous now, but seeing a lone figure hovering in front of some lights, stood stock still and staring down the lens, holding the mic in an unusual way, looked quite menacing. It did the job anyway, and Stardust’s debut went to number two.

Review

Unfortunately, despite second single Jealous Mind getting the all-important top spot, it’s not half as memorable as My Coo Ca Choo and is barely remembered these days. I’d guess that Shelley quickly knocked this off to capitalise on the momentum, in the hope that more of the same would suffice, which it did, but only for a week in 1974.

It’s very similar, plundering that same 50s greaseball-meets-Norman Greenbaum guitar sound, but it’s rather lacklustre. Stardust does a decent job of sounding like Shelley on the chorus (and Buddy Holly with the vocal tics) but sounds different on the verses, making it uneven. But not half as uneven as the guitar track, which is all over the place! I’m not sure if it’s Shelley performing it, but I kind of admire the fact it’s doing its own thing in a way. It’s not enough to save the track though. Which is a shame, as I’ve a soft spot for Stardust.

After

His hits continued for a while, particularly throughout 1974 with Red Dress and You You You in the top 10, but Good Love Can Never Die (1975) was his last top 20 hit for six years.

Stardust had come along at the tail end of glam, and wasn’t able to adapt quick enough. He did however feature in a famous public information film for the Green Cross Code campaign ‘Children’s Heroes’ in 1976. Stardust’s is the most memorable, due to him pointing menacingly at the naughty children with his one black glove, and incredulously exclaiming ‘you must be out of your tiny minds!’. Watch here, and enjoy.

Stardust had a successful comeback in 1981 with a cover of Pretend, previously a number two hit for Nat ‘King’ Cole in 1953. It was Stardust’s first release on hip indie label Stiff Records, and I can still remember the sleeve for this peering out of my big brother’s record box. The rest of his Stiff releases did indeed stiff, but he was back in the top 10 via Chrysalis with I Feel Like Buddy Holly and I Won’t Run Away in 1984. He attempted to enter Eurovision in 1985 but came third in A Song For Europe with The Clock on the Wall.

It was around this time Stardust moved into the acting game, with a lead role in the Lloyd Webber–Rice musical Cricket in 1986. Other similar roles came in Godspell, David Copperfield – The Musical and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In 1989 he presented his very own Sunday morning children’s series on ITV, It’s Stardust. In 1995, Stardust had a regular role in Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks. His second marriage, to actress Liza Goddard, came to an end after he converted to Christianity, and he remarried again, with actress Julie Paton. Adam, a son from his first marriage, became drum’n’bass DJ Adam F in the 90s.

The Outro

In 2010, Stardust released I Love Rock’n’Roll, an album featuring new recordings of his old hits. Four years later he was weeks away from releasing a brand new album, Alvin, when he died on 23 October from prostate cancer, aged 72.

The Info

Written & produced by

Peter Shelley

Weeks at number 1

1 (9-15 March)

Meanwhile…

10 March: 10 miners are killed in a methane gas explosion at Golborne Colliery near Wigan, Lancashire.

11 March: Convicted armed robbers Kenneth Littlejohn and brother Keith, who claim to be British spies in the Republic of Ireland, escape from Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison.  

15 March: Architect John Poulson, embroiled in a major political bribery scandal in 1972, is jailed for five years for corruption.

344. Suzi Quatro – Devil Gate Drive (1974)

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The Intro

1973 had been a great year for the songwriting/production duo ‘Chinnichap’, but 1974 was even better. Tiger Feet became the year’s biggest-selling single, then after four weeks it was usurped by another Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman single. US singer and bassist Suzi Quatro was back at the top of the charts with another glam-pop-rock showcase for her skills. And there was certainly more stability in the charts than there was in Downing Street (see ‘Meanwhile…’).

Before

Quatro had remained a presence in the UK charts since her first number 1, Can the Can, a year previous. 48 Crash, the opening song on her eponymous debut album, climbed to number three, and Daytona Demon, a standalone single, number 14. She also played on Cozy Powell’s Dance With the Devil, a number three hit in January 1974, written by their record label owner Mickie Most of Rak Records. Devil Gate Drive was the first fruits of her second album Quatro, although it didn’t appear on that LP’s original UK tracklisting. Like Can the Can, it featured Len Tuckey on guitar (he and Quatro were married between 1976 and 1992) and Alastair McKenzie on keyboards, but Dave Neal replaced Keith Hodge on drums.

Review

Devil Gate Drive is Quatro’s most famous song, very similar in style to Can the Can, but more pop-friendly. It’s more overtly indebted to rock’n’roll – Chinnichap’s favourite era, clearly. The Devil Gate Drive in question seems to be the actual gates to hell, and Quatro points out how humans start sinning as young as the age of five. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this is an insightful look at the human condition, but it’s cleverer than it appears, as Quatro knows that sinning can make us ‘come alive’. Quatro, you leather catsuit-wearing temptress. It makes a very nice change to hear her imploring everyone to get behind her, and hearing a load of burly male voices shouting back, rather than the screaming girls you’d have heard in pop most of the time. There’s some nice piano work from McKenzie too. It’s no Tiger Feet, but not bad at all.

After

A couple more hits followed for Quatro in 1974 – Too Big reached number 14 and The Wild One went to number seven, and then the law of diminishing returns began to apply. Critics of Quatro argue she was a mere novelty rather than a female role model, and was given substandard material by Chinnichap all along and her own material wasn’t good enough either. However in 1977 she not only had her first top 30 hit in three years with Tear Me Apart, she finally got noticed in the US thanks to her role as Leather Tuscadero in hugely popular nostalgic sitcom Happy Days. She appeared several times and was even offered a spin-off, such was the popularity of her character, but Quatro declined for fear of being typecast. The following year, If You Can’t Give Me Love showcased a more mellow sound and was her biggest hit since Devil Gate Drive (number four), and She’s In Love With You reached number 11 in 1979.

In 1980 Quatro’s contract with Most expired and she moved to Chapman’s Dreamland Records, but it marked a decline in her fortunes. It folded a year later, and she was without a label.

For much of the 80s Quatro could be found in more acting roles as well as releasing music. She starred in ITV comedy drama Minder in 1982, and crime drama Dempsey and Makepeace in 1985. The following year she featured alongside Bronski Beat and members of The Kinks on a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” for the BBC’s Children In Need. Then in 1987 she (sort of) returned to number 1 thanks to her appearance on the Ferry Aid cover of The Beatles’ Let It Be, which raised money for the charity set up in the aftermath of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster.

The Outro

Since then, Quatro has continued to release albums, which continue to sell to the fans who grew up in those heady glam rock days. Back to the Drive in 2006 saw her return to her heavier rock roots, and was her first charting album since Rock Hard in 1980. Andy Scott from The Sweet was the producer, and the title track was written by Chapman. Her autobiography, Unzipped, was released in 2007, and the most recent Quatro album, No Control, was released in 2019.

Trivia

Written & produced by

Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman

Weeks at number 1

2 (23 February-8 March)

Trivia

Deaths

23 February: Radio sports commentator Raymond Glendenning

Meanwhile…

27 February: As the country went to the polls, controversial Conservative MP Enoch Powell announced his resignation from the party in protest against Edward Heath’s decision to take Britain into the EEC.

28 February: Heath’s plan backfired badly. The General Election results in the first hung parliament since 1929. The Tory government held 297 seats, Labour, 301, and the largest number of votes. Heath made plans to form a coalition with Jeremy Thorpe’s Liberal Party in order to cling on to power.

4 March: Heath failed to convince the Liberals to form a coalition and therefore announced his resignation as Prime Minister, paving the way for Harold Wilson to become Prime Minister for the second time with Labour forming a minority government.[5]

6 March: An improved pay offer by the new Labour government results in the end of the latest miners’ strike.

7 March: The Three-Day Week came to an end. For now, with Labour back in power, things began to stabilise and improve with the unions.

343. Mud – Tiger Feet (1974)

/ robbarker1979 / 2 Comments

The Intro

Early 1974 was peak ‘Chinnichap’, with the writers/producers responsible for two number 1s in a row. This first one took Mud out of the minor leagues and made them one of the biggest names in glam rock. And rightly so, because Tiger Feet is a classic pop anthem and one of my favourite number 1s of the 70s. If you don’t love Tiger Feet, you are dead already.

Before

The origins of the Surrey quartet begin with singer Thomas Leslie ‘Les’ Gray, born in Carshalton on 9 April 1946. Gray was a self-taught musician who originally played trumpet in a jazz band while still at school, before forming a skiffle group called The Mourners. When he left education he wrote commercials for cinema advertising legends Pearl & Dean, and then worked for Moss Bros.

By 1966, The Mourners featured guitarist Rob Davis, who had joined with drummer Dave Mounts, his companion in several previous bands. Along with bassist Ray Stiles, they became Mud that February. The following year they released their debut single on CBS Records, the very 1967-sounding Flower Power. It failed to make an impression, and nor did their next few singles, released on Phillips, over the next three years.

With psychedelia largely over, Mud were sinking (sorry) until they met impresario Mickie Most, whose Rak Records were fast becoming the hippest label around when they joined. Much like The Sweet before them, as soon as they began working with their new writers and producers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman (despite being on different labels), things swiftly improved.

In 1973 they scored three top 20 singles – Crazy (number 12), Hypnosis (number 16) and best of the three, Dyna-Mite, which climbed to number four. With the Chinnichap template of pop-rock, Gray’s sideburns and deep Elvis-style vocal and Davis’s increasingly outlandish get-up, Mud became a fully fledged glam band with this single, which had originally been rejected by labelmates The Sweet. And then came Tiger Feet.

But what the hell is it actually about, if anything? Much like Can the Can, it’s likely they just stumbled upon a phrase they liked and worked it into a song. Clearly, in general though, Tiger Feet is a come-on to some ‘dance hall cutie’, and Gray sees her as a kind-of sexual predator in the way she cuts a rug (I’m lost at ‘tiger lights’ though). Which is ironic, considering the dance that Mud and their crew made up to this song – which may be the least sexy ever witnessed in pop.

Review

It may look ridiculous, but let me say in all seriousness that watching Mud performing the Tiger Feet dance is for me one of the most uplifting moments in pop music. It encapsulates the power of pop, and glam in particular, to make grown men act and look as stupid as possible, with all worries abandoned, totally lost in the moment. At the music night I used to DJ at with friends, I would, without shame, perform said dance time and time again, and I am proud of the fact. Everyone should try it.

So, yes, I am a huge fan of Mud’s first number 1. Ignore the words and any notion of being cool and feel the rip-roaring, childlike glee running wild throughout, from the manic rhythm guitar at the start to the ‘t-t-t-t-t-t-t-tiger feet’ at the song’s fade. It’s very difficult to analyse something so stupid and brilliant too much, so just enjoy it.

The Outro

Just like Slade, Mud gave the country some much-needed light relief in particularly trying times. This is 70s pop at its best.

The Info

Written & produced by

Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman

Weeks at number 1

4 (26 January-22 February) *BEST-SELLING SINGLE OF THE YEAR*

Trivia

Births

30 January: Actor Christian Bale
6 February: Sports presenter Ed Chamberlin
11 February: Footballer Nick Barmby
13 February: Singer Robbie Williams
22 February: Singer-songwriter James Blunt/Radio DJ Chris Moyles

Deaths

29 January: Novelist HE Bates

Meanwhile…

4 February: One of the Provisional IRA’s most shocking attacks took place when 11 people, three of whom were civilians, were killed in the M62 coach bombing. 

7 February: In the midst of the Three-Day Week, Prime Minister Edward Heath, called a General Election for 28 February, asking who governed, he or the unions. During the campaign, the Labour Party and Trades Union Congress agreed a ‘Social Contract’ intended to produce wage restraint. 
Also this day, Grenada became independent of the UK.

8 February: The death toll from the M62 coach bombing reaches 12 with the death in hospital of a seriously injured 18-year-old soldier.

12 February: BBC One first aired the classic children’s series Bagpuss, made by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate’s Smallfilms in stop-motion animation. 

14 February: Birmingham City centre forward Bob Latchford becomes Britain’s most expensive footballer in a £350,000 move to Everton. 
Also this day, opinion polls showed the Conservative government in the lead for the forthcoming election.