Shakin’ Stevens

484. Aneka – Japanese Boy (1981)

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The Intro

In some ways, early 80s pop was progressive. New romantics were blurring the gender lines and make up was worn by many men in music videos. But then you have this example of cultural appropriation set to an admittedly very catchy tune. But understandably, Scottish folk singer Mary Sandeman, AKA one-hit wonder Aneka, would rather forget Japanese Boy.

Before

Sandeman, born 20 November 1948 in Edinburgh, had released her first record on Thistle Records in 1965. Memories of the Mod wasn’t a Who-inspired record – it was a short selection of traditional Gaelic ballads, that she most likely sang at The Royal National Mòd, which was a Celtic version of the Welsh Eisteddfod.

A few more singles followed, and in 1979 Sandeman released her first album, Introducing Mary Sandeman, on Fleet. Sandeman was working with songwriter and producer Bob Heatlie, and expressed an interest in recording a commercial pop song. Heatlie was sceptical that Sandeman was suited to this, and so he put off the idea, despite constant reminders from Sandeman. Eventually, the frustrated singer told Heatlie she had set up an appointment to record a demo of his non-existent song. Heatlie cobbled together an oriental-sounding chorus with snippets of lyrics from previous material.

The demo of Japanese Boy was rejected by Berlin-based Hansa Records several times, but eventually they were signed. The duo figured Sandeman would need a new look, more in keeping with the song, and so they dressed her in a kimono and wig. And she would need a more fitting name, too, so they leafed through a German telephone directory. They liked ‘Anika’, but Sandeman insisted she became ‘Aneka’, as a link to her surname. The fact that this was a German name, not Japanese, didn’t seem to matter to them – or record buyers, for that matter.

Japanese Boy was released in July and soon climbed the charts, eventually toppling Green Door at the end of August.

Review

Conflicting feelings here. The politically correct me thinks Japanese Boy is a terribly dated song that should be consigned to history – which may well be how Aneka feels, considering she’s never attempted to go back to it. A Scottish folk singer, dressed up as a geisha, pretending to be Japanese, is really not a good look in 2024. The lyrics are pretty poor too – they read like something a teenager writing their first song might come up with.

But, but, but. It really is catchy as hell. Incredibly so. There’s hook upon hook here – however cliched they might be. The production is also great, sounding surprisingly modern for a 1981 potboiler. This is one of the most infectious number 1s of 1981 so far, which is amazing really, considering its up against some of the greatest chart-toppers of the decade. Both my daughters, 12 and nine, also now love it, despite the eldest understanding how tacky and dated the concept is. I would argue Japanese Boy deserves to be better known – but it’s incredibly obvious why it isn’t in this day and age.

The video to Japanese Boy is a bit of a disappointment, as I’d have hoped for some kind of terrible Carry On-style short film based around Aneka searching far and wide for her guy. Instead, it’s simply Aneka stood against a primitive backdrop. This Top of the Pops appearance, featuring backing dancers waving around Japanese paper parasols.

After

Japanese Boy was only number 1 for a week, but Hansa Records tried to capitalise, by commissioning an album. However, nothing else from the LP charted, including the unusual follow-up, Little Lady, for which Aneka dropped the oriental look and became an aristocratic lady. This clip is an interesting watch. Then came Ooh Shooby Doo Doo Lang, a total change of tack, in which Aneka sang from the point of view of a singer permanently relegated to backing vocals. It drops the early electro styles of the last two singles, and sounds more like a comedy song from The Two Ronnies. Although both Little Lady and Ooh Shooby Doo Doo Lang did quite well around Europe, they sank in the UK.

Sandeman, a mother of two young children at the time, was smart and continued to perform traditional material, performing at the Edinburgh Festival the night she went to number 1. Two more Aneka singles followed – Heart to Beat and Rose, Rose, I Love You, over the next two years, but Sandeman then dropped the name. She gave up music for good in the 90s.

In 2006, Justin Lee Collins tried to get Sandeman to take part in a performance of one-hit wonders for Channel 4, but she refused. She was interviewed by The Daily Record in 2011, who reviewed she was working as a tour guide in Stirling.

The Outro

Japanese Boy was rejected in Japan for sounding too Chinese. Heatlie went on to write for Shakin’ Stevens, and was the man behind his 1985 festive number 1, Merry Christmas Everyone.

The Info

Written by

Bobby Heatlie

Producer

Neil Ross

Weeks at number 1

1 (29 August-4 September)

Trivia

Births

2 September: Cricketer Chris Tremlett
3 September: Television presenter Fearne Cotton

Deaths

29 August: Billiards player Joyce Gardner/Radiologist James Ralston Kennedy Paterson
30 August: Actress Rita Webb
31 August: Motorcycle racer Dave Potter
3 September: Novelist Alec Waugh

    Meanwhile…

    1 September: Filling stations started selling motor fuel by the litre.

    483. Shakin’ Stevens – Green Door (1981)

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    The Intro

    Ghost Town had spent three weeks at number 1, soundtracking the country’s dissent over rising unemployment. What did it take to reunite the country? It took the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles II and Lady Diana Spencer, and the retro rock’n’roll of Shakin’ Stevens, who was at the peak of his fame with Green Door.

    Before

    Shaky-mania was a very real thing back then. Grandparents and parents loved the Welsh pop star, who had filled in the sizeable gap left by the death of Elvis Presley, boys thought he was cool, and girls swooned.

    Stevens’ cover of This Ole House had topped the hit parade in the spring, and so it was a case of striking while the iron was hot. Work began on his fourth album, the imaginatively titled Shaky. Adopting the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ methodology, it featured a mix of self-penned Stevens numbers and covers of 50s rock’n’roll tunes. The first fruits of Shaky to see the light of day was the original track You Drive Me Crazy, which was a strong track and rushed out hot on the heels of This Ole House. It was brand new, but could easily have been mistaken for a 50s or 60s hit. It very nearly became Shaky’s second number 1, but it was kept off the top spot by Stand and Deliver!, by the UK’s other hottest pop star of 1981.

    Perhaps sensing that Stevens could repeat the success of his last number 1 by releasing a song the old folks would remember from their youth, Philips Records released his cover of Green Door.

    Green Door had been written by US orchestra leader Bob ‘Hutch’ Davie, with lyrics by Marvin J Moore, in 1956. The original version was recorded by Jim Lowe, a singer-songwriter and radio presenter. The green door in question refers to the entrance to a private club, that Lowe is desperate to enter. He can hear laughter, an old piano which is being played ‘hot’, and can see smoke coming through the keyhole. Lowe’s recording, which became number 1 in the US and eight in the UK, is an interesting production, on which Davie played piano, that he sped up to give it a honky tonk sound.

    In the UK, Lowe’s version was eclipsed by Frankie Vaughan’s, which reached number two. Vaughan, known as ‘Mr Moonlight’, was hugely popular in the UK, and in time he would have two number 1s. However, Lowe’s version is the superior one.

    Review

    I don’t know if it’s age or nostalgia, but here I am bigging up Shaky, whose version of Green Door is better than Lowe’s and Laine’s. It is very similar to the latter, but where normally I’d prefer an authentic primitive 50s production over a glossy 80s take, that isn’t the case here.

    Producer Stuart Colman gives it sheen but also some oomph. It’s catchy as hell and to be fair, the country must have been ready for a party after all the civil unrest that had been going down that summer. And yet, it’s only a few months since I reviewed This Ole House, and I marked that down considerably, despite both singles being very, very similar. Perhaps Stevens caught me on a good day, this time.

    Or perhaps it was the silliness of the video that made me warm to Green Door. Shaky’s videos are always good for an easy laugh, and this is no exception. Just like This Ole House, the director is taking things very literally (possibly the same director?). Stevens jumps around in front of some, yes, green doors in much the same way he jumped off the old house (yes, really). There are repeated shots of an eye looking through a keyhole, a piano… you get the message. Then he finally gets inside the club and gets the chance to do some Elvis-style gyrations on the piano. It’s ridiculous, but in a good way, and I can totally see why he must have seemed so cool to me as a little lad.

    After

    After spending nearly all of August 1981 at the top of the singles chart, the parent album Shaky was released, and went on to be his most successful LP ever, also reaching number 1. It’s Raining, also from the album, peaked at 10, but he would soon be back at pole position.

    The Outro

    Green Door is obviously squeaky clean and upbeat. But it also took on a more sinister meaning for me, thanks to its reworking for a 1976 public information film, that continued to be shown well into the 80s. Looking at it now, it’s really not scary, but it did its job when I was a boy, as after seeing it I’d be too scared to answer the door to anyone. Cheers, Central Office of Information!

    The Info

    Written by

    Bob Davie & Marvin J Moore

    Producer

    Stuart Colman

    Weeks at number 1

    4 (1-28 August)

    Trivia

    Births

    8 August: S Club 7 singer Bradley McIntosh
    11 August: Scottish singer-songwriter Sandi Thom
    17 August: Conservative Party MP Johnny Mercer/Actor Chris New
    20 August: Ben Barnes
    27 August: Comedian Olivia Lee
    28 August: Scottish Labour Party leader Kezia Dugdale

    Deaths

    5 August: Poet Molly Holden/Clarinettist Reginald Kell
    9 August: Landowner Ralph Bankes
    10 August: Civil servant Sir Alan Lascelles/Anglican clergyman James Parkes
    12 August: Royal Navy captain Howard Bone
    15 August: Lawyer Sir Humphrey Waldock
    16 August: Cinematographer Denys Coop
    18 August: Second World War pilot Athol Forbes
    19 August: Actress Jessie Matthews
    21 August: Journalist JRL Anderson
    22 August: First World War nurse Mairi Chisholm
    24 August: Physician Margery Blackie
    26 August: Television producer Peter Eckersley
    28 August: Record producer Guy Stevens

    Meanwhile…

    1 August: Kevin Lynch became the seventh IRA hunger striker to die.

    2 August: Less than 24 hours later, Kevin Lynch became the eighth.

    8 August: Thomas McElwee became the ninth.

    9 August: Broadmoor Hospital is criticised when double murderer Alan Reeve became the second prisoner to escape there in three weeks. 

    17 August: An inquiry opened for the Moss Side riots.

    20 August: Michael Devine was the 10th IRA hunger striker to die in prison.
    Also on this day, Minimum Lending Rate ceased to be set by the Bank of England.

    25 August: Britain’s largest Enterprise Zone was launched in Tyneside.

    27 August: 31-year-old Moira Stuart was appointed to be the first black newsreader on the BBC. 

    478. Bucks Fizz – Making Your Mind Up (1981)

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    The Intro

    One of the most enduring pop images of the early 80s is the skirt-ripping routine of 1981 Eurovision Song Contest winners Bucks Fizz. This is the story of how their entry, Making Your Mind Up, brought about their creation and became their first of three number 1 singles.

    Before

    Allegedly, songwriter Andy Hill wrote Making Your Mind Up in 1980 with a view to entering it in the UK’s Eurovision qualifying contest, A Song for Europe. Hill’s girlfriend, singer Nichola Martin, suggested Hill team up with a musician called John Danter, who she could sign up to her publishing company, which would enable her to own half the rights to the song, as Hill was signed elsewhere. Hill had been a member of Rags, a group who failed to win the 1977 A Song for Europe.

    That October, Hill and Martin recorded a demo with the singer Mike Nolan, who had worked with the latter before. Nolan had been in the boyband Brooks, who were put together by Freya Miller, who became Shakin’ Stevens‘ manager. Another original member of Brooks was Chris Hamill, later known as Limahl.

    Two months after the demo was recorded, Making Your Mind Up was selected out of 591 submitted entries to be one of the eight finalists. Martin had decided to name the performer as ‘Buck’s Fizz’, in honour of her favourite drink, so when she discovered the song had been picked, she needed to act fast and create a group featuring Nolan.

    In January 1981, Martin contacted Cheryl Baker, who she remembered from the 1978 Eurovision group Co-Co. Baker had previously been in the band Bressingham Spire, which also featured the soon-to-be Radio 1 DJ Mike Read. Worried that Baker, disillusioned after Co-Co’s loss, may say no, Martin also auditioned for another female vocalist, plus a second male singer. The winners were Jay Aston and Stephen Fischer. When Baker agreed to take part, Martin decided to keep Aston anyway, as her vocal complemented Baker’s well. Aston had trained to be a dancer and actress, as well as a singer, and had taken part in the 1978 Miss England contest, where the act during the interval had been Co-Co.

    Fischer threw a spanner in the works when it turned out he was contracted to appear in the musical Godspell, so he was out. A year later Fischer was the male member of the duo Bardo, who came seventh in Eurovision with the song One Step Further (a number two hit).

    Martin found a replacement in Bobby G, a singer/guitarist/actor who had impressed in previous editions. On 11 January 1981, Bucks Fizz (what happened to the apostrophe?) met for the first time and Jill Shirley, who had been in Rags with Martin, agreed to be their manager. This meant Martin and Hill could now concentrate on their own entry for A Song for Europe, Have You Ever Been in Love?.

    During rehearsals for Making Your Mind Up, the attention-grabbing skirt ripping routine during the lyric ‘see some more’ was hit upon. But by who, remains a mystery. It could have been routine choreographer Chrissie Wickham, formerly of Hot Gossip, who spent two days with the group. Martin, Baker and Aston have all laid claim to the concept too. I’d personally go with Martin, as the Top of the Pops performance that Rags made in 1977 when promoting Promises Promises has something rather similar as they remove their, er, rags.

    Martin and Shirley scored a recording deal for Bucks Fizz with RCA Records, and Hill went with the group to record Making Your Mind Up at Mayfair Studios in London. The record, featuring Alan Carvell on backing vocals, was done and dusted in a week.

    Review

    I have a lot of time for Making Your Mind Up and I feel no shame. It’s pure cheese of course, but it’s so bloody charming and fun. The lyrics are mostly nonsensical – aren’t most Eurovision entries? But, there is some meaning in there – it seems to be about someone playing the field that might have found someone to stick with, but they need to stop being indecisive.

    Not that the words really matter when you have a tune like this on your hands. Making Your Mind Up is so sugary sweet, it was always going to go down well at home, and abroad – and the latter is helped by what sounds like an accordion in the latter half.

    This is one of those songs that defies analysis, really. It’s pure pop and if you can’t enjoy it, you may be dead inside. It’s leagues ahead of the other UK winners before this point, and I prefer it to Waterloo, too. And Bucks Fizz were the perfect vehicle to promote this song. You’ve got the Ken dolls, Nolan and G, for the girls, Baker has mumsy appeal for the mums and grans, and Aston was very popular with the dads – as was the skirt-ripping when they sing ‘If you wanna see some more’ the last time.

    That routine of course featured in the official video for Making Your Mind Up, which starts with the group cheekily waving their arses for an adoring crowd before breaking into song and dance. There’s no bells or whistles here – it’s for all intents and purposes a Top of the Pops or Eurovision performance, really.

    After

    On 11 March, Bucks Fizz won A Song for Europe, beating even Liquid Gold, a popular act at the time. A Top of the Pops performance followed, which helped the single enter the charts at 24, before soaring to five a week later.

    Eurovision was held at the RDS Simmonscourt in Dublin on 4 April 1981. Bucks Fizz performed 14th that evening, and despite a rather off-key performance (which may or may not have been down to nerves or a mic mix-up), they became the fourth winners from the UK, after Sandie Shaw, Lulu and Brotherhood of Man. Two weeks later, Making Your Mind Up became the third UK winner to then become number 1. The record eventually sold four million worldwide, and Bucks Fizz were one of the hottest groups of 1981.

    The Outro

    In 2013, BBC Radio 2 listeners voted Bucks Fizz’s debut the best Eurovision entry of all time. The skirt-rip routine was spoofed endlessly, has appeared in numerous Eurovision entries since 1981, and was even copied by Mick Jagger and Tina Turner at Live Aid in 1985.

    The Info

    Written by

    Andy Hill & John Danter

    Producer

    Andy Hill

    Weeks at number 1

    3 (18 April-8 May)

    Trivia

    Births

    23 April: Actress Gemma Whelan
    25 April: Paralympian sprinter John McFall
    3 May: Charlie Brooks
    5 May: Singer Craig David

    Deaths

    19 April: Labour Party MP Colin Jackson
    21 April: Antiques caretaker Dorothy Eady/Pianist Ivor Newton/Electrical engineer Lesley Souter
    22 April: Liberal Party politician Philip Rea, 2nd Baron Rea
    23 April: Olympic rower Sir James Angus Gillan
    24 April: Mathematician JCP Miller
    25 April: Indologist Isaline Blew Horner
    26 April: Robert Garioch
    28 April: T Rex bassist Steve Currie/Educationalist Marjorie Rackstraw/Businessman Bernard Mason
    1 May: Actor Barry Jones
    2 May: Unionist politician Joseph Foster
    4 May: Zoologist Alan William Greenwood
    5 May: IRA member Bobby Sands (see ‘Meanwhile…‘)
    6 May: Film director Gordon Parry

    Meanwhile…

    20 April: Steve Davis, 23, wins the World Snooker Championship for the first time.
    Also on this day, skirmishes break out in Finsbury Park, Forest Green and Ealing in London. 100 people are arrested and 15 police officers are injured.

    23 April: Unemployment passes the 2,500,000 mark.

    29 April: Peter Sutcfliffe admits to the manslaughter of 13 women, on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

    5 May: 27-year-old republican and Provisional IRA member Bobby Sands died following his hunger strike in Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison, one month after becoming MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.
    Also on this day, Peter Sutcliffe’s trial begins at the Old Bailey in London.

    7 May: Labour’s Ken Livingstone becomes leader of the Greater London Council.

    477. Shakin’ Stevens – This Ole House (1981)

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    The Intro

    The UK’s bestselling artist of the 80s was Welsh singer Shakin’ Stevens. Hard to believe, several decades later. But with Elvis Presley gone, there was a gap in the market for old-school, good-time 50s rock’n’roll with an 80s sheen. The first of Shaky’s three chart-toppers had been a number 1 for Rosemary Clooney back in 1954.

    Before

    Stevens was born Michael Barratt in Ely, Cardiff on 4 March 1948. The youngest of 11 children, Barratt was a teenager in the mid-60s when he formed his first band The Olympics, who soon changed their name to The Cossacks, and quickly changed again to The Denims.

    Barratt became associated with the Young Communist League – although he later said this was only because the person who booked their gigs was also in the YCL, who held a lot of sway back then through association with leading stars such as Pete Townshend.

    By 1968, Barratt was an upholsterer and milkman during the week, and a would-be pop star at the weekend, performing in clubs and pubs around South Wales. He had long admired retro Penarth-based band The Backbeats, occasionally featuring as their guest vocalist. That year he became their full-time singer. When local impresario Paul ‘Legs’ Barrett saw them perform, he suggested a repackage of the group. With his old school friend Steven Vanderwalker in mind, Barratt and co became Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets.

    The future looked bright, at first. Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets signed to Parlophone Records in 1970 and released their first album, A Legend, produced by Dave Edmunds. However, the group spent the vast majority of the 70s touring Europe to minor success, and achieved next to nothing in the UK.

    In 1977, producer Jack Good (the man behind early TV music series Six-Five Special) was working on Elvis!, a musical based on the life and recent death of ‘the King’. Good wanted three men to play Presley in different stages of his life, and he chose Tim Whitnall as young Elvis, Stevens as prime Presley, and PJ Proby for the Las Vegas era.

    Elvis! was only planned to run for six months, so The Sunsets waited for Stevens to return. But the musical was a hit and ran for a further two years. Stevens released an eponymous LP in 1978 with Track Records, and appeared on Good’s revival of his TV show Oh Boy! and Let’s Rock.

    In late-1979, Freya Miller became his new manager, and she told him to ditch The Sunsets. She was right, as he signed with Epic Records and released Take One!. The first single to be released was a cover of Buck Owens’ Hot Dog, and it became his first hit, reaching 24. Stevens, together with new producer Stuart Colman, never looked back. Which is ironic as his music was constantly doing just that.

    His second album Marie, Marie, was released in October 1980. The title track, an old song by The Blasters, broke the top 20, peaking at 19. But the next single, Shooting Gallery, couldn’t crack the top 40. It took Stevens’ take on NRBQ’s 1979 arrangement of a former UK number 1 to really catapult Stevens to the big time.

    This Ole House is – I believe – the first instance of a number 1 by two different artists in two different decades. In Every UK Number 1: The 50s, I wrote about its creation:

    ‘Stuart Hamblen was an alcoholic, gambling-addicted singer-songwriter and radio personality. He was constantly getting into scrapes and being bailed out, thanks to his charm. In 1949, he decided to take a different path, converting to Christianity after attending one of Billy Graham’s rallies. He was fired from his radio show for refusing to do beer commercials, and then he gave up his vices.

    While out hunting with a friend one day, he came across an abandoned shack on a mountain. Upon inspection, they found a dog guarding a dead body. Allegedly, he came up with the lyrics while riding back down the mountain. So the “ole house” in question is in fact the body you leave behind when you die.’

    Actress and singer Rosemary Clooney took This Ole House for a week on 26 November 1954, around the time of the release of White Christmas, in which she starred alongside Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.

    Review

    I gave Clooney’s recording of this song – featuring Thurl Ravenscroft, voice of Tony the Tiger, a thumbs up, and I stand by it. It’s one of the best pre-rock’n’roll chart-toppers, and one of the rare number 1s of those first few years you can genuinely enjoy.

    I also commented on my thoughts on Shaky in that review:

    ‘It never occurred to me that This Ole House could be about anything other than house renovation. To me, and probably most children of the late-70s and early 80s, it conjures up happy memories of Shakin’ Stevens hanging around an old building in the video of his 1981 cover version. What with this, his cover of Green Door, and his love of denim, I think I assumed “Shaky” was some sort of singing builder as a child’.

    Returning to this song, and video, all these years later, nothing has changed. Stevens’ version is serviceable enough, and sums up his appeal. It’s nostalgic but removes the grit and grime of earlier versions, making it swing more but in a very early 80s way that adds nothing exciting or original.

    Although it’s hard to be overly critical of Stevens for nostalgic reasons (something that’s going to be a potential problem with lots of 80s chart-toppers for me), one listen to the NRBQ version (This Old House) lowers my opinion more. They’re almost exactly the same, apart from the lead vocal by their singer Terry Adams –which is arguably better than Stevens’ rendition. It’s music for grandparents and children, not a 45-year-old music snob.

    After

    Such was the success of Stevens’ This Ole House, his LP Marie, Marie was retitled to share its name. Many more hits followed, and his second number 1, Green Door, wasn’t far away.

    The Outro

    In 2005, Stevens, fresh off the back of an appearance on ITV’s Hit Me Baby One More Time, re-released This Ole House along with a cover of P!nk’s Trouble. The double A-side reached 20.

    The Info

    Written by

    Stuart Hamblen

    Producer

    Rock Masters Productions

    Weeks at number 1

    3 (28 March-17 April)

    Trivia

    Births

    1 April: S Club 7 singer Hannah Spearritt
    10 April: Atomic Kitten singer Liz McClarnon

    Deaths

    28 March: Cartoonist Bernard Hollowood/Artist Helen Adelaide Lamb
    29 March: Racing driver David Prophet
    30 March: Olympian athlete Douglas Lowe
    31 March: Playwright Enid Bagnold
    1 April: Writer Dennis Feltham Jones
    3 April: Labour Party MP Will Owen
    4 April: Journalist Donald Tyerman
    7 April: Ice hockey player Lorne Carr-Harris/Music producer Kit Lambert
    8 April: Film composer Eric Rogers
    13 April: Actor Albert Burdon/Novelist Gwyn Thomas
    14 April: Composer Christian Darnton
    15 April: Actor Blake Butler
    16 April: Political activist Peggy Duff/Cricketer Eric Hollies
    17 April: Palaeontologist Francis Rex Parrington

    Meanwhile…

    28 March: Controversial Ulster Unionist Enoch Powell warned of racial civil war.

    29 March: The first London Marathon was held.

    30 March: The Academy Award-winning historical sporting drama Chariots of Fire was released.

    4 April: Bucks Fizz became the fourth UK act to win the Eurovision Song Contest, with future number 1 Making Your Mind Up.
    Also on this day, Oxford University student Susan Brown became the first female cox in a winning Boat Race team. And cancer survivor Bob Champion won the Grand National with his horse Aldaniti.

    5 April: The UK Census was conducted.

    10 April: IRA member Bobby Sands, on hunger strike in Northern Ireland’s Maze prison, was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone in a by election.

    11 April: Rioting in Bristol resulted in more than 300 injured people (mostly police officers).

    13 April: Home Secretary William Whitelaw announced a public inquiry into the Brixton riot.

    294. Dave Edmunds – I Hear You Knocking (1970)

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    The Intro

    As 1970 drew to a close, November’s number 1s seemed to symbolically bid farewell to the 60s. So, what next? Glam was around the corner, but in the meantime, the Christmas number 1 looked back to pop’s past, as Welsh singer-songwriter spent six weeks at the top with a cover of a 50s R’n’B tune.

    Before

    David William Edwards was born in Cardiff on 15 April 1944. Musically gifted as a child on the piano, at the age of 10 he formed The Edmund Bros Duo with his elder brother Geoff. They both formed The Stompers around 1957, with Dave on lead guitar and Geoff on rhythm. From there the younger Edmunds had brief stints in several groups before becoming lead singer of rockabilly trio The Raiders, who formed in 1961.

    In 1966 Edmunds, following a brief spell in The Image, shifted to a blues-rock sound and formed a short-lived outfit called Human Beans, who mutated into the trio Love Sculpture. Their second single, a novelty high-speed reworking of Sabre Dance, which climbed to number five after getting the attention of DJ John Peel. After two albums Love Sculpture split in 1970.

    Edmunds returned to Wales and learned how to recreate the sounds of the R’n’B and blues songs of the 50s by himself, and made plans to record a cover of blues classic Let’s Work Together by Wilbert Harrison, until he heard Canned Heat’s version. Around this time he worked with Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets, helping the 80s hitmaker score his first recording contract.

    Fortunately, Edmunds heard Smiley Lewis’s I Hear You Knocking while driving, and noted he could use the backing track he’d already recorded for Let’s Work Together and make a cover of Lewis’s song. It was also a track he knew from Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets’ repertoire.

    The original, written by New Orleans bandleader Dave Bartholomew (who had co-written the 1959 Elvis Presley number 1 One Night) and released by Lewis in 1955, is a straightforward slice of piano-driven 50s R’n’B, but Edmunds went full on blues-rock. He played every part on his version, using heavy compression to create an unusual, direct sound.

    Review

    Edmunds’ I Hear You Knocking is a quirky choice for Christmas number 1, but of course, being at the top of the charts on 25 December wasn’t an ‘event’ back then. The weird production is attention-grabbing to begin with. Most unusual of all is the vocal track, which sounds like it’s being sung down a bad phone line, or is coming out of a damaged transistor radio. I’m not sure if Edmunds was aiming for a dated 50s sound, but if so, it doesn’t quite come out like that. It gets a bit annoying after a while, whatever the intention.

    The chorus is memorable, and the slide guitar is effective, and I enjoy Edmunds’ shouting out ‘Smiley Lewis!’ and other rock’n’roll star names from the 50s in the instrumental break. I can see why listeners would have enjoyed a bit of basic blues-rock for a while. Not sure how it stayed at number 1 for six weeks, though.

    After

    Despite the success of I Hear You Knocking, it took Edmunds two years to release his debut album, Rockpile, which was mostly a collection of more oldies. He had left it too late to capitalise. Or maybe he wasn’t bothered about doing so anyway. He spent the next few years producing rock and blues acts like Brinsley Schwarz, Foghat and The Flamin’ Groovies. However, his two singles Baby I Love You and Born to Be With You reached the top 10 in 1973.

    In 1974 Edmunds had a brief role in the David Essex film Stardust, and helped with the soundtrack. A year later came his second solo LP, Subtle as a Flying Mallet. Then his friendship with Nick Lowe from Brinsley Schwarz resulted in their new group Rockpile. Due to being on different labels they were unable to record until 1980 but would guest on each other’s solo material for the next few years.

    In 1979 Edmunds scored his last top 10 hit with Girls Talk, written by Elvis Costello. Rockpile only recorded one album, 1980’s Seconds of Pleasure, before splitting up due to arguments between Edmunds and Lowe. Edmunds went back to mainly producing, and worked with big names including Paul McCartney, Status Quo, Stray Cats, The Everly Brothers and kd Lang. He had a US hit with Slipping Away in 1983 though, written and produced by ELO’s Jeff Lynne.

    Edmunds went into semi-retirement in the mid-80s, but he did tour with Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band in 1992 and 2000. After a couple of albums released online, he began touring in his own right again in 2007. Edmunds performed I Hear You Knocking on Jools’ Annual Hootenanny in 2008 and then Sabre Dance in 2009. His last album was On Guitar… Dave Edmunds: Rags & Classics in 2015, featuring instrumental covers. After a final show in July 2017, Edmunds retired from music.

    The Outro

    1970 was an interesting, eclectic year for number 1s, with several well-remembered chart-toppers. Lots were in thrall to the past, though, with the departure of The Beatles leaving the music world wondering what to do. Fortunately, T. Rex were now on the scene, having scored a number two hit with Ride a White Swan. Marc Bolan would soon have his first number 1.

    The Info

    Written by

    Dave Bartholomew

    Producer

    Dave Edmunds

    Weeks at number 1

    6 (28 November 1970-8 January 1971) *CHRISTMAS NUMBER 1*

    Trivia

    Births

    29 December 1970: Singer Aled Jones  
    31 December:     Welsh rugby union player Louise Rickard
    1 January     1971: Football referee Andre Marriner/BBC newsreader Suzanne Virdee
    5 January    : TV presenter Jayne Middlemiss
    7 January:     TV presenter Joanne Malin

    Deaths

    26 December: Olympic athlete Lillian Board(see below)
    31 December    : Composer Cyril Scott

    Meanwhile…

    26 December: Olympian athlete Lillian Board, died in Munich, West Germany, after a three-month battle against cancer. She was 22.

    31 December 1970: Although Paul McCartney had announced his departure from The Beatles earlier in 1970, it was made official when he filed a lawsuit against the other three on this day to dissolve their partnership.

    1 January 1971: The Divorce Reform Act 1969 came into effect, which allowed couples to divorce after a separation of two years (five if only one agrees). This ruling resulted in a sharp rise in divorces over the next two years.

    2 January: The new year got off to a shocking start for football fans when a stairway crush at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow during a match between Rangers and Celtic killed 66 and left many more injured.

    3 January: BBC Open University broadcasts began.

    8 January: Uruguayan left-wing urban guerrilla group Tupamaros kidnapped Geoffrey Jackson, the British ambassador to Uruguay, in Montevideo. He was held captive until September.