Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, soul quartet The Floaters achieved one-hit wonder status very early in their careers with this novelty number 1. If you’re British and reading this, try and forget what you’d normally associate the word ‘floaters’ with…
Before
The group were formed in the Sojourner Truth housing projects by James Mitchell. He had been a singer in the Detroit Emeralds, who had scored a few hits earlier in the 70s. The line-up consisted of his baritone brother Paul and Larry Cunningham, Charles Clark and Ralph Mitchell (no relation) as tenors. They signed with ABC Records in 1976 and released debut single I Am So Glad I Took My Time to little fanfare. It closed their eponymous LP, released the following year. Most of the album was written by James, with fellow Detroit Emerald Marvin Willis and Arnold Ingram.
The version of Float On that opens the album is nearly 12 minutes long, with intros from each singer and their star signs. The music then, well, floats on languidly for half the track with the group singing the title. It’s the second half that was edited down to around four minutes that’s the much more well-known single.
Review
So Float On is understandably considered a bit of a joke. It’s very cheesy and camp, with each singer introducing themselves as if they’re taking part in video dating. It is considered all-important by The Floaters that all the ladies out there know their horoscope, which I assume was very popular in the 70s.
First up is Ralph, an Aquarius. He loves women who love their freedom. How kind of him. But they must also be able to hold their own. Charles is a Libra. He’s into quiet women who resemble ‘Miss Universe’, who will take him in their strong arms and say ‘Charles’. I guess for Charles, actions speak louder than words. Paul is a Leo, and he’s not fussy. He likes ‘all women of the world’ because they’re like ‘wild flowers’, if you know what he’s saying. I’m not sure I do, Paul? Last of the Lotharios is Larry, a Cancer. He likes women that love ‘everything and everybody’, because he loves ‘everybody and everything’. Can you try and elaborate further, Larry?
I’m ridiculing the lyrics to Float On, as most people do. But the fact is, it’s set to really beautiful music, particularly on the full version, where it gets chance to breathe properly. Take away the video dating and star signs, and it’s actually pretty cool and sexy. As a single though, the silliness smothers it, which is a shame. The music here is crying out to be sampled.
After
The Floaters only hit went to the top in the UK and New Zealand and two in the US. Nobody took them seriously after Float On though, and they never charted again properly. They did reach 28 on the Billboard R&B chart with their follow-up, a cover of Dusty Springfield’s You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me though. The Floaters had the dubious honour of being spoofed by British comedy troupe The Barron Knights on their hit Live In Trouble.
Our romantic heroes recorded another album for ABC, Magic, in 1978. They then moved to MCA for 1979’s Float into the Future. Their final album was Get Ready for the Floaters & Shu-Ga, released on Fee/WP in 1981.
The Outro
Like all good novelty hits, the song was used in an advert in the UK. Float On was rewritten for a memorable early-90s advert for Cadbury’s Creme Eggs. Produced by (I think) Aardman Animations, clay versions of the star signs tell us how they eat theirs. Taken the wrong way, it’s actually pretty filthy at times.
An early glimpse of the biggest pop star of the 80s. But not early enough, in a way. The Jacksons, when known as The Jackson 5, were one of the most exciting and successful acts of the late 60s and early 70s. And yet despite their first four singles becoming number 1 in the US, it took until 1977 for them to reach the pinnacle of the charts here.
Before
The Jackson 5, like it or not, began with Joe Jackson in Gary, Indiana. The strict disciplinarian who allegedly put his family through years of physical and mental abuse, couldn’t make it as a professional boxer. He then failed to become a pop star after a stint in the 50s as a guitarist in the Falcons. And so he became a crane operator instead and raised a family with his wife Katherine. Rebbie came first and went on to become a singer in the 70s. Then came Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, LaToya, twins Marlon and Brandon (Brandon died shortly after birth), Michael and Randy.
Joe returned home one day in 1964 to discover Tito had been playing with his guitar without permission. Although initially furious, he wondered if his children could achieve what he couldn’t. He became the manager of The Jackson Brothers – Jackie, Tito and Jermaine, with childhood friends Reynaud Jones and Milford Hite playing keyboards and drums. Within a year Michael, then only eight, was added to the line-up on congas. Soon after Marlon joined on tambourine and Joe renamed them The Jackson Five Singing Group. In 1966 they won their first talent show. That same year Janet, the youngest of the family, entered the world.
Jones and Hite were replaced by Ronnie Rancifer and Johnny Jackson and the band performed at talent shows around the region, soon also performing paid gigs. Little Michael began to outshine Jermaine and replaced him on lead, wowing crowds with his dance moves, mimicking the likes of James Brown. He later said he paid for his talent because Joe focused his strict ways specifically on him, helping to turn his own son into a superstar but permanently damaging his own child in the process.
Allegedly a gig by the band at Harlem’s Apollo Theater earned them their first celebrity fan. Gladys Knight was impressed and sent a demo tape to Motown Records, which was rejected. As was a recording of Big Boy, which became their debut single when Joe signed them to Steeltown Records in 1968. That July they supported Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers. Taylor was blown away my Michael and arranged a taped audition with Motown. Founder Berry Gordy Jr refused to sign any more ‘kid acts’ after Stevie Wonder, but he too couldn’t deny they had something special. They finally signed with Motown as The Jackson 5 in 1969.
It was decided that The Jackson 5 had a better chance to make a big first impression by claiming they were discovered by Diana Ross from The Supremes. Michael was billed as being eight, even though he was 10. Gordy had high hopes for his latest signing, even going so far as to assemble a crack team of songwriters specifically to create hits for The Jackson 5. He dubbed them The Corporation. And they certainly achieved their aim.
Their debut single, I Want You Back, was released that October. This effervescent funk and pop was one of the last great songs of the 60s, eventually topping the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1970. It peaked at two in the UK, which is criminal. Their debut LP, Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5, didn’t need Ross’s name to sell it after all. Second album ABC‘s title track was another stone cold classic and another US number 1, as was The Love You Save and ballad I’ll Be There, which came from their imaginatively titled Third Album. No act had ever achieved four number 1s with their first four singles before. And before the year was out they released a fourth album, Jackson 5 Christmas Album, featuring their energetic take on Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.
Jacksonmania was everywhere, and they overtook The Supremes as Motown’s bestselling group. The label made the most of it, licensing all manner of merchandise, including stickers, posters, colouring books and even a Saturday morning animated series. Michael’s star appeal was too big to limit to just the group and so he also began a solo career in 1971, reaching the top in the US with his ode to a rat, Ben. To a lesser degree of success, Jermaine followed.
Unfortunately, this tied in with the start of The Jackson 5’s commercial decline. Never Can Say Goodbye and Sugar Daddy went top 10 in the US in 1971 but after that their singles hovered around the bottom reaches of the top 20 in the US. In the UK they had two singles reach nine in 1972 – Looking’ Through the Windows and Doctor My Eyes. The Corporation split in 1973, which hardly helped matters. The title track to Dancing Machine in 1974 marked their foray into the emerging disco scene, and earned them a number two in the US. But the slide continued afterwards.
In 1975 The Jackson 5 released their final LP on Motown – the ominously titled Moving Violation. Joe and his sons were tired of low royalty rates and wanted greater creative control. They announced their decision at a press conference to garner interest from other labels. It worked. In June 1975 they signed with Epic Records for a much greater royalty rate. Well, most of them did. Jermaine had married into the Gordy family so decided not to rock the boat and remained with Motown. Joe replaced him with Randy, the youngest of the Jackson boys. As they were under contract with Motown until 1976, Gordy threatened to sue over the use of their group name, so they became known as simply The Jacksons.
Their eponymous album came out in 1976, and it looked like they’d made a wise move. They were teamed up with expert hitmakers Gamble and Huff and signed to their subsidiary, Philadelphia International Records. First single Enjoy Yourself was their biggest hit in two years, and then came Show You the Way to Go. Written and produced by Gamble and Huff, it featured Michael on lead and he joined the others on backing vocals too. Tito played guitar, Randy played bass and the rest of the music came from their label’s house band of session musicians, MFSB (meaning Mother Father Sister Brother).
Review
How strange that of all those initial massive pop hits by The Jackson 5, it was this more subtle track that gave them their only UK number 1. On first listen, you’d be forgiven for thinking, this is an album filler at best. But Show You the Way to Go is, for me, fascinating. It’s a strong sign The Jacksons were growing up, and Michael in particular. No longer the squeaky voiced cute little boy, he was maturing into just as talented an adult star and the others were fading into the background. Michael makes tentative steps into his signature sound, with the yelps and improvising pointing the way. Showing the way he’d go, in fact.
But then the song has this weird structure, where it sounds as though it’s coming to a natural end, but carries on. It’s even in the single edit and it’s like nothing I’ve ever heard in a number 1 before. It should make for a total mess, but Michael saves it with his interjections. The yelping on the fade out is of note too. It surely can’t have been performed in one take, which means it must be studio trickery – so is it early sampling? It almost sounds like 90s techno. So yes, what on first listen is far from an obvious chart-topper, makes for an intriguing listen. The other Jacksons deserve mentioning too. Those backing vocals, warm and comforting, work so well with the tenderness of the tune.
After
In a curious reversal of fortunes, this period in the Jacksons saw greater chart success than in the US. Their 1978 classic Blame It On the Boogie was a number eight hit here, didn’t even crack the US top 50. By this point they had been given total creative control, and the parent album Destiny was a huge success. It also featured the excellent Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground), written by Michael and Randy. And soon after the former’s solo career really took off thanks to 1979’s Off the Wall album.
In 1980 The Jacksons’ album Triumph lived up to its name, especially thanks to the disco epic Can You Feel It (number six in the UK), written by Michael and Jackie. But there was no escaping the fact that Michael had become a superstar and the rest of the brothers couldn’t match his talent and magnetism. Not that there appeared to be any bad blood. In 1983 on the US TV special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, The Jacksons reunited with Jermaine. It was the show on which Michael’s ‘Moonwalk’ to Billie Jean made headlines around the world.
In 1984, with Jermaine back on board, they recorded their bestselling album yet, Victory. However, it was essentially a collection of solo recordings. Their final UK top 20 single, State of Shock, was mainly a duet between Michael and Mick Jagger. Despite the success, this proved a tumultuous year for the group. Famously, while filming a Pepsi commercial with his brothers, Michael suffered burns to his scalp. Their tour was marred by Jackie suffering a leg injury, ticket issues and friction within the family.
Understandably, Michael felt it was time to concentrate purely on his own career. Marlon left soon after to go solo too, before quitting music entirely. One more album followed in 1989. The remaining four released 2300 Jackson Street and the title track featured Michael and Marlon as well. But it sold poorly and the brothers went on hiatus.
And that was it until September 2001, when all six reunited for two concerts filmed for TV, celebrating Michael’s 30th anniversary as a solo artist. Then in 2009, Jackie, Jermaine, Tito and Randy began filming a reality TV show centred around their plans to reform and record a new album to celebrate 40 years in showbiz. Everything changed a few days after filming in June when Michael died. It was turned into a series and named The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty. The surviving Jacksons recorded backing vocals for Michael’s previously unreleased This Is It, intended as the title track to his big comeback. Instead it became his epitaph.
There was talk of a reunion tribute tour and album from The Jacksons but it never transpired. Jermaine and Jackie released new music though. Then a tribute concert was in the running, to the extent Jackie, Tito and Marlon appeared alongside Katherine and LaToya for press conference. But Randy and Jermaine issued their own statement denouncing the idea as it was planned to coincide with the manslaughter trial of Michael’s doctor Conrad Murray. It went ahead anyway and in 2012 Jermaine joined the trio for the Unity Tour, which ended in 2013. In 2018, Joe died.
Although Michael had at times publicly spoken about the abuse suffered at his father’s hands, his brothers are always quick to jump to his defence. Whether this is a case of joint Stockholm syndrome, we’ll never know. At time of writing, Jermaine, Jackie, Tito and Marlon are publicising a political reworking of Can You Feel It.
The Outro
Obviously, there will be plenty more Michael Jackson to follow in due course, but I’ve decided to give The Jackson 5/The Jacksons and relevant solo careers a deeper listen. Forever overshadowed by Michael, for good and bad reasons, I feel it’s time the band’s career was reappraised away from the controversy of their most famous member’s life.
The Info
Written & produced by
Gamble and Huff
Weeks at number 1
1 (25 June-1 July)
Meanwhile…
26 June: Jayne McDonald is found battered and stabbed to death in Chapeltown, Leeds. Police suspect she is the fifth person to be murdered by the Yorkshire Ripper. McDonald was a 16-year-old shop assistant, not a prostitute, which brought a new level of revulsion to the Ripper’s crimes from the media.
1 July: Virginia Wade won the Women’s Singles title at Wimbledon.
US Grammy-winning soul singer Deniece Williams is probably best known for her US number 1 Let’s Hear It for the Boy from the musical drama Footloose. However, she had a UK number 1 seven years earlier with Free, which seems to have been mostly forgotten about. This is wrong.
Before
June Deniece Chandler was born 3 June 1951 in Gary, Indiana. She grew up singing gospel in a Pentecostal church but at home she particularly loved jazz singers like Nancy Wilson and Carmen McRae. Chandler went to Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland in the hopes of becoming a registered nurse, but she dropped out after a year and a half. Chandler had taken up a part-time job singing and also spent time working as a ward clerk and for a telephone company.
In 1968, as Deniece Chandler, she began recording for The Toddlin’ Tow group of labels in Chicago. Her debut was Love Is Tears. Her early work left little mark, but one song, I’m Walking Away, became popular with the Northern Soul scene in the UK. In 1969 she briefly joined and sang lead with The Lovelites.
In 1971 Chandler became Deniece Williams after marrying high-school sweetheart Kendrick Williams, Around this time, her cousin John Harris was working as a valet for his childhood friend Stevie Wonder. He introduced her to Wonder, and he asked her to join Wonderlove, his group of backing singers. And so Williams had the pleasure of performing on some of Wonder’s greatest work, including the albums Talking Book in 1972, Fulfillingness’ First Finale in 1974 and Songs In the Key of Life in 1976. Williams also featured on Syreeta’s 1974 LP Stevie Wonder Presents: Syreeta, Minnie Riperton’s Perfect Angel in 1974 and Roberta Flack’s Feel Like Makin’ Love a year later.
But in 1975 Williams decided to try again as a solo artist, befriending Earth, Wind & Fire’s Maurice White. He and record producer Charles Stepney set up production company Kalimba Productions and got her signed to Columbia. Williams worked with them on her debut album, This Is Niecy, released in 1976. A few months before it hit the shops, Stepney died. The first single to be released was Free.
Review
This sprawling sophisticated soul stretches out to 5.58 on the album, but unfortunately it’s hacked back to 2.50 in its single form. It’s a shame as it does take away some of its beauty. But then again, it’s too good a song to keep as just an LP track. Williams puts in a gorgeous performance, cooing and seducing, sweet and sensuous. It’s very refreshing to hear a woman singing about how she has no intention of sticking around once she’s spent the night with this guy. Excellent production from White and Stepney too. It’s very similar in sound to a Gamble & Huff classic, sung by Minnie Riperton. Free definitely deserves to be better known and it’s nice to see the British public sending something like this to the top of the charts for a fortnight.
After
Another single from This Is Niecy – That’s What Friends Are For – followed and also did well here, peaking at eight. White produced Williams’ follow-up album Song Bird alone, but a lone single, Baby, Baby My Love’s All for You only reached 32. In 1978 she guested on Johnny Mathis’ album You Light Up My Life and their duet from it, Too Much, Too Little, Too Late was a US number 1 and climbed to three on these shores. They decided to record a full album together, named after That’s What Friends Are For.
The next few years saw little in the way of chart success, bar It’s Gonna Take a Miracle (10 in the US) from 1982 LP Niecy. Another duet with Mathis, Love Won’t Let Me Wait, was released in 1984. But it was the title track to her next album, Let’s Hear It for the Boy, which saw her make a great comeback later that year. It reached two in the UK and was a US number 1, no doubt helped by its exposure in Footloose. The following year she worked with Wonder again, on his album In Square Circle.
In 1986 Williams went back to her roots, releasing the gospel album So Glad I Know. Over the past few years she had been nominated for many Grammys. She finally won two in 1987 – Best Female Soul Gospel Performance for I Surrender All and Best Duo or Group Gospel Performance with Sandi Patti for They Say. A year later she won Best Female Gospel Performance for I Believe in You. Understandably, with such plaudits coming her way, Williams began concentrating on gospel.
The Outro
Her output began to slow during the 90s but Williams did guest on Nancy Wilson’s 1990 album A Lady With a Song, George Duke’s 1992 album Snapshot and Stevie Wonder’s Conversation Peace in 1995. In 1998 she released This Is My Song, a gospel album that earned her Grammy number four, for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album. WIlliams’ last album to date is 2007’s Love, Niecy Style.
7 May: The third G7 summit is held in London. Also on this day, the 22nd Eurovision Song Contest is held in London. Marie Myriam wins for France with L’oisseau et l’enfant (The Bird and the Child). In second place were the UK thanks to Lynsey de Paul and Michael Moran’s Rock Bottom.
10 May: An explosion at Dounreay nuclear power plant is caused by potassium and sodium.
15 May: Liverpool become English Football League champions for the 10th time.
17 May: The Queen commences her Silver Jubilee tour in Glasgow.
Number 1 throughout the most memorable heatwave of the past 50 years, Liverpool soul quartet The Real Thing stepped out of David Essex’s shadow in style with the disco stylings of You to Me Are Everything.
Before
They formed in 1970 with Chris Amoo as lead singer, along with Dave Smith, Kenny Davis and Ray Lake. Originally they were The Sophisticated Soul Brothers and then Vocal Perfection. Pretty cheesy names. Fortunately manager Tony Hall saw a Coca-Cola billboard while waiting at traffic lights in Piccadilly Circus with their famous slogan ‘The Real Thing’ in huge letters.
Initially they performed soul covers of US hits, and landed a contract with EMI, releasing debut single Vicious Circle in 1972. They struggled to break through and David left. Even an appearance on Opportunity Knocks couldn’t turn their fortunes around.
What did make a difference was signing with Pye Records in 1975. Essex produced their initial sessions, resulting in the single Watch Out Carolina. They joined him on tour as his support act but it wasn’t just famous friends that opened doors for The Real Thing. Amoo’s brother Eddie, who had sung with 60s soul group The Chants, joined the band and the Amoos began writing together.
However, You to Me Are Everything was written by Ken Gold and Michael Denne. They were British but most of the material they had spent the last few years writing was sold to US musicians, such was the lack of UK soul groups.
Review
I’ve always had a soft spot for You to Me Are Everything. It has a infectious groove thanks to that wah-guitar, uplifting piano and luscious strings. The lyrics on the whole are a little too cliched to impress, though Gold and Denne get round this by explicitly saying ‘Words cannot express how much you mean to me’. One line that is great though is ‘So now you’ve got the best of me/Come on and take the rest of me’, implying they’ve already got on very well in the bedroom and although it won’t get better than that, perhaps they can get to know each other too? You to Me Are Everything is a great track for romancing down the disco, and in a year where quality number 1s are very thin on the ground, it stands out even more now. Great to see that Liverpool could do soul and disco, too.
After
The Real Thing nearly made it two in a row that year when Can’t Get By Without You stopped short at two. They finally released their eponymous debut LP and a third single from it, You’ll Never Know What You’re Missing, took them to 16 in 1977. Over the next few years they had several hits and misses, including Whenever You Want My Love, which reached 18 in 1977. Most successful was Can You Feel the Force?, a decent disco floorfiller, which may have caught on in part due to Star Wars. It reached five in 1979, but the follow-up Boogie Down (Get Funk Now) was their last hit for seven years, only reaching 33.
The Real Thing returned to working with David Essex in 1982, performing backing vocals, which they also did on his hit Me and My Girl (Nightclubbing). Then 10 years after their number 1, The Real Thing were back in the charts, courtesy of DJ Froggy, Simon Harris and KC. You to Me Are Everything (The Decade Remix 76-86) shot to five and Can’t Get By Without You (The Decade Remix II) went to six. Can You Feel the Force? (’86 Remix) was their final chart entry at 24.
In 2002 Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk and DJ Falcon released a single under the name Together called So Much Love to Give. It sampled The Real Thing’s Love’s Such a Wonderful Thing from 1977 and became a big club hit. Although they didn’t credit The Real Thing, N-Trance’s Kevin O’Toole and Dale Longworth did when they released their version of So Much Love to Give as The Freeloaders. It was a number nine hit.
The Outro
Lake died in 2000, and Eddie Amoo in 2018 during the making of a BBC Four documentary about the band. Everything – The Real Thing Story was shown in 2020.
The Info
Written by
Ken Gold & Michael Denne
Producer
Ken Gold
Weeks at number 1
3 (26 June-16 July)
Trivia
Births
28 June:Actress Lorraine Stanley 1 July: Actress Kellie Bright 7July:Actress Natasha Collins 8 July:Yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur 12 July:Actress Anna Friel 13 July:Actress Lisa Riley 14 July:Cricketer Geraint Jones
Deaths:
28 June:Actor Sir Stanley Baker 5 July: Comics artist Frank Bellamy
Meanwhile…
26 June–16 July: The legendary 1976 heatwave reaches its peak with a temperature of 26.7C every day of this period. For 15 consecutive days, (23 June-7 July), it reaches 32.2 C in London. For five consecutive days – the first being 26 June the temperature exceeded 35C. On 28 June, the temperature reaches 35.6C (96.1 °F) in Southampton, the highest recorded for June in the UK. And then on 3 July, thermometers recroded 35.9C in Cheltenham.
29 June: The Seychelles become independent of the UK.
7 July: David Steel is elected as the leader of the Liberal Party.
14 July: Ford launches the Fiesta, a small three-door hatchback.
Philly soul group The Stylistics notched up many hits in the 70s, thanks largely to the unique falsetto of Russell Thompkins Jr and slick production of Thom Bell. But by the time they had a number 1 in the UK their fortunes were sliding in the US and they had a new production team.
Before
The Stylistics came about when two Philadelphia vocal groups merged in 1968. The Monarchs – Thompkins, James Smith and Airrion Love, joined forces with James Dunn and Herb Murrell of the The Percussions. Two years later they recorded debut single You’re a Big Girl Now, written by their road manager Marty Bryant and Robert Douglas from their backing band Slim and the Boys. It became a regional hit for Sebring Records and got them signed with Avco Records. They re-recorded it and it reached seven in the US Billboard R&B chart in 1971.
Avco approached Bell to be their producer in the hope he could work his magic on them the way he had with The Delfonics. However he was unimpressed with their audition and only agreed to work with them because he liked Thompkins voice. Avco gave Bell creative control and so he built most songs around Thompkins. Within the year they were number three in the Billboard Hot 100 with You Are Everything. Two of their best-known hits followed in 1972 – Betcha by Golly, Wow and I’m Stone in Love with You, which were their first entries in the UK charts, at 13 and nine respectively.
The hits kept coming over the next few years, notably, in the UK, notably Rockin’ Roll Baby, reaching six in 1973, and most famous of all, the classic soul of You Make Me Feel Brand New. This duet with Love reached two here and in the US, where it became their biggest hit. But it was one of the last songs that Bell was involved with, and they split in 1974.
That same year they were teamed up with songwriters and producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, better known as Hugo & Luigi. Together they had co-written or co-produced big hits in the 50s and 60s including Twistin’ the Night Away, Shout and, and George David Weiss, Can’t Help Falling in Love. Also thrown into the mix was songwriter, producer and arranger Van McCoy. He had co-written the classic I Get the Sweetest Feeling in 1968. He became a pop star in his own right shortly before arranging Can’t Give You Anything (But My Love) when his disco smash The Hustle, produced by Hugo & Luigi, lit up the charts earlier in the summer of 75.
Review
There’s no escaping the fact working with Hugo & Luigi was considered a step down for The Stylistics, despite their new producers having an impressive pedigree themselves. I have mixed feelings about Can’t Give You Anything (But My Love) because it’s grown on me and if it is less slick, it’s a great chorus and has bags of energy, and Van McCoy’s arrangement, while very similar to The Hustle, doesn’t overpower the song and complements it well. The lyric is hardly original, a poor guy tells a woman he may not be able to promise much but his devotion.
Not only that, I’m not actually a fan of Thompkins’ falsetto. I love falsettos, but his is overdone I find. He gets away with it here though. You do have to wonder what is the point of the other singers though, there’s a great video of the group performing this on a rooftop, and the choreography is hilariously messy. But it’s all good fun in a rather cheesy, dated 70s way.
After
Although they were lucky if they scraped the top 50 in America in this era, the UK hits continued for a while for The Stylistics. Na-Na is the Saddest Word reached five, Funky Weekend climbed to 10, and an inevitable cover of Can’t Help Falling in Love hit four in 1976. $7,000 and You, in 1977, was their last chart entry. Their next producer was Teddy Randazzo and the group felt they were looking out-of-date next to disco. They ended the 70s with a small role in the film adaptation of the musical Hair (1979).
The Outro
The Stylistics were reunited with Bell in 1980, but couldn’t recapture the magic. Dunn left that year and Smith a year later. Raymond Johnson was recruited but when he left in 1985 they became a trio. To date, their last album was Love Talk, released in 1991. They continued to tour until 2000 when Thompkins left. Line-up changes have continued ever since, and Thompkins formed The New Stylistics in 2004.
The Info
Written by
Hugo & Luigi & George David Weiss
Producers
Hugo & Luigi
Weeks at number 1
3 (16 August-5 September)
Births
22 August: Actress Sheree Murphy
Meanwhile…
16 August: Football hooliganism was on the rise in the 70s, and on the opening day of the English league season, hundreds of fans were arrested at games across the country.
19 August: The campaign for the release of George Davis, convicted of armed robbery, culminated in Headlingley cricket ground being vandalised, causing the scheduled test match between England and Australia to be abandoned.
21 August: The unemployment rate reaches the 1,250,000 mark.
27 August: 14-year-old Tracy Browne is badly injured in a hammer attack on a country lane at Silsden, near Keighley.
Here’s an unexpected number 1 for a soul group who had a US chart-topper in 1963 and had struggled to get near that level of fame again. The Tymes kept on trying though, and were rewarded 12 years later with their one and only stint at pole position in the UK.
Before
The Tymes, hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had nearly 20 years under their belts when M/s Grace was released, having formed in 1956 as The Latineers. The line-up featured Donald Banks as bass, Albert Barry as first tenor, Norman Burnett as baritone and George Hilliard as second tenor. Learning the ropes on the local circuit, they became a quintet when George Williams became their lead vocalist in 1960.
They were signed to Cameo-Parkway in 1963 and were an instant US success, when debut single So Much in Love, written by Williams, topped the Billboard chart. It also reached 21 in the UK. Their debut LP, named after the single, also featured a popular cover of Wonderful! Wonderful!, previously a hit for Johnny Mathis. But after the title track of the follow-up, Somewhere, The Tymes couldn’t maintain their popularity. They tried releasing records on their own Winchester label, but it folded after two singles. Then they were dropped by MGM after another two releases. There was a brief comeback on Colombia in 1968 with a cover of People from the musical Funny Girl, which only scraped into the US chart but reached 16 in the UK. They were soon dropped again.
Longtime producer Billy Jackson bought them time at Gamble & Huff’s Sigma Sound studio in an attempt to get them signed, but to no avail. However, RCA decided to sign them. Meanwhile, John Hall of the band Orleans and his wife Johnanna had written a doo wop-style love song about a sophisticated lady called Miss Grace that wasn’t really suitable for his band, so they asked their publisher to pitch it elsewhere. She went to The Tymes, who were happy to oblige, though they did cleverly suggest making ‘Miss’ a ‘Ms’, a term growing in popularity in the mid-70s, which suggested a rather hip, progressive woman. It was the second single released from the album Trustmaker, and fingers crossed it would do well after You Little Trustmaker was a top 20 hit.
Review
M/s Grace has an elaborate opening, bringing to mind Gamble and Huff’s slick work. But it then turns into a more old-school, upbeat soul number, which is difficult to dislike. But I’m not sure there’s enough there to really love. It’s one of the more minor number 1s of the decade, but nonetheless, it would have been a welcome blast of sunny optimism, always needed in the post-Christmas malaise of January. There’s bags of energy, and it’s nice to hear of veterans who’ve struggled for years coming good. This nation does love the underdog.
The Outro
Weirdly, M/s Grace had the opposite effect to So Much in Love. While it was a number 1 in the UK, it tanked in the US. The UK revival of their fortunes didn’t last long either, as they never had another top 40 entry. After decades of the same line-up, by 1976 Berry and Hilliard had been replaced by Terri Gonzales and Melanie Moore. The former later recorded a solo album with Chic’s Nile Rodgers, and the latter worked with Chaka Khan. Williams died in 2004, aged 69, Banks in 2011, aged 72, and Hilliard in 2014, aged 73. Berry and Burnett remain, and still tour with a new line-up.
The Info
Written by
John & Johanna Hall
Producers
Billy Jackson & Mike Chapman
Weeks at number 1
1 (25-31 January)
Trivia
Deaths
16th Duke of Norfolk, Bernard Fitzalan-Howard – 31 January
Literally one of the biggest soul stars of the 70s, US singer-songwriter-producer-arranger Barry White was a disco pioneer, and You’re the First, My Last, My Everything is a prime example of his smooth, sexy résumé. Jokes about his weight aside, the ‘Walrus of Love’ sold millions in his lifetime, making him a chart heavyweight. Sorry.
Before
Barry Eugene Carter was born on 12 September 1944 in Galveston, Texas to Melvin A White and Sadie Marie Carter. They moved to South Central Los Angeles, California when he was young, and he fell in love with his mother’s classical records and began learning the piano, while his mother also taught him how to harmonise. Perhaps this explains the lush orchestration that would become one of his trademarks. One of the most obvious things to spring to mind is White’s baritone, with him since the day his voice dropped suddenly, aged 14. He later recalled his mother crying that his previously squeaky voice had gone forever.
At 16 White was sent to prison for stealing tyres, and while there his life changed when he heard Elvis Presley singingIt’s Now or Never (O Sole Mio). He vowed to go straight and focus on music. This was nearly taken away from him when he was arrested again shortly after his release for attempted murder. Luckily for him, the victim came out of a coma and was able to give a proper description of the attacker, thus proving White was innocent.
He joined The Upfronts and sang bass over six singles, beginning with Too Far to Turn Around in 1960. His debut solo single, as Lee Barry, was Man Ain’t Nothin’ in 1966 on Downey. For much of the 60s he worked as a songwriter and arranger for small labels in California, and he relied on welfare cheques to feed his family. Among the acts he worked with were The Bobby Fuller Four, and he also wrote music for The Banana Splits children’s TV series in 1968.
After years of plugging away, White got his big break in 1972 when Love Unlimited recorded debut album From a Girl’s Point of View We Give to You… Love Unlimited. They were an all-female soul trio in the mould of The Supremes that White had spent two years honing. The ballad Walkin’ in the Rain with the One I Love became a hit in the UK and US.
Then came The Love Unlimited Orchestra in 1973. The 40-piece were assembled by White to back Love Unlimited, but he also decided to release material by them in their own right, and Love’s Theme became a smash-hit and was one of the few instrumentals to top the Billboard Hot 100. It also climbed to 10 in the UK. Also in 1973, White was searching for a male singer to work with, and recorded some demos, but when his business partner Larry Nunes heard them, he loved White’s croon and said he should record them and take the spotlight. White didn’t agree and took some persuading, but he subsequently recorded enough to release an album, and from I’ve Got So Much to Give came his first solo hit, I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby, featuring a riff as heavy as the man himself, and his deep purring, it’s a soul classic.
With that and songs like Never, Never Gonna Give You Up from follow-up Stone Gon’, White became known as the go-to man to soundtrack sex. I wonder how many children came about to the music of White? We Brits had certainly never heard such steamy stuff in the singles chart.
Love Unlimited’s lead singer Glodean James became White’s second wife in 1974, and this was the peak of the Walrus of Love’s chart placings. His music became less raunchy and more celebratory of love in general with the singles from Can’t Get Enough. The almost-title track Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe, climbed to number eight on these shores before he hit the top spot.
You’re the First, the Last, My Everything was originally a country song written by White’s friend Peter Radcliffe back in 1953 but the singer couldn’t get You’re My First, You’re My Last, My In-Between recorded. When White was down on his luck, Radcliffe bought his children toys for Christmas, and White never forgot that. Songwriter Tony Sepe was shocked when Radcliffe played it to them both in the studio, finding it dated, but White told Radcliffe to stay away for three weeks and he’d turn it into a smash. When he heard the results, he cried.
Review
With a shortened intro from the album version, White purrs ‘We got it together, didn’t we?’ You can imagine him saying it with an after-sex cigarette in his hand. Try not to picture it too hard though… Rather than seducing his lover, this is a tribute to their love, and so there’s no wonder this became his safest hit, used at wedding discos and anniversary parties decades later. Like all White’s prime cuts, it’s made with the dancefloor in mind, with stabbing strings that make you want to punch the air or even slide along it on your knees depending on how much you’ve drunk.
And yet, it doesn’t click with me like it perhaps should. As a big soul, funk and disco fan it should be right up my alley, but there’s something about White’s work that stops me loving it. It’s perhaps the sad fact he’s considered a cliché now, and a bit of a joke due to his sweaty appearance and frilly shirts, a throwback to cheesier times. I prefer his filth from the year previous, and consider that more groundbreaking, but I certainly don’t deny as disco goes, this is superior to some of the tat that followed in its wake. And as a huge Pulp fan, I do enjoy White’s spoken word, lengthy, hypnotic intros. As did Jarvis Cocker, clearly.
After
The hits kept coming for White, for a few years, with plenty of top 10 action in the UK with singles like What Am I Gonna Do (number five), Let the Music Play (nine) in 1975 and You See the Trouble with Me (two) in 1976. Two years later his cover of Billy Joel’s Just the Way You Are was his last hit for nine years.
After six years of fame with 20th Century Records, White left in 1979 to set up his own label, Unlimited Gold, with CBS/Columbia Records. Unfortunately this coincided with a downturn in sales. Tastes were changing and disco was on its way out. The 80s were lean times and the label folded in 1983. Four years later the single Sho’ You Right briefly returned him to the charts.
In the 90s, disco came back in vogue, as the children of the 70s looked back on their youth, just as rock’n’roll had a revival in the 70s. White became a living legend and his 1992 album Put Me In Your Mix returned him to the US charts. In 1994 Practice What You Preach (from The Icon Is Love) reached 20 in the UK singles chart. He leant his voice to The Simpsons and appeared on Ally McBeal, and seemed happy to poke fun at himself. He wasn’t always as cool as his reputation suggested though, enjoy these outtakes of him losing his rag while recording a voiceover for Paul Quinn College. BBC comedies such as The Mary Whitehouse Experience and The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer liked to spoof the Walrus, the latter being particularly funny to the teenage me.
Ironically, White’s last album was called Staying Power, released in 1999. His health problems were catching up with him, and that year he was forced to cancel tour dates due to exhaustion and high blood pressure. In 2002 he was hospitalised due to kidney failure, and while undergoing dialysis and awaiting a transplant in May 2003 he suffered a severe stroke. White died on 4 July 2003, aged 58.
The Outro
Look past all the layers of irony, and White was very talented, and his songs of love were a positive force in disco. As the Fun Lovin’ Criminals sang on 1998 single Love Unlimited:
‘Barry White, saved my life and if Barry White, saved your life Or got you back with your ex-wife Sing Barry White, Barry White, it’s alright.’
The Info
Written by
Peter Radcliffe, Tony Sepe & Barry White
Producer
Barry White
Weeks at number 1
2 (7-20 December)
Trivia
Births
13 December:Radio DJ Sara Cox/Franz Ferdinand guitarist Nick McCarthy
Meanwhile…
15 December: In an attempt to save fuel at a time of Arab embargoes following the Yom Kippur War, new speed limits are introduced on Britain’s roads
18 December: The government pays £42,000 to families of victims of the Bloody Sunday riots in Northern Ireland.
We’ve had several acts on the blog now that started out on ITV talent show Opportunity Knocks, including Middle of the Road and Paper Lace, but here was the first and only number 1 by a band who rose to fame via New Faces. This series, produced by ATV for ITV, began in 1973 with presenter Derek Hobson introducing acts who would perform for four judges. Among those, and most notorious, was the sardonic Tony Hatch, the 70s version of Simon Cowell. But one act he did take a shine to were Mancunian group Sweet Sensation.
Before
This eight-piece were formed in 1971, consisting of lead vocalist Marcel King, Junior Daye, Vincent James and St Clair Palmer on backing vocals, plus Barry Johnson on bass, Roy Flowers on drums, Gary Shaugnessy on guitar and Leroy Smith on keyboards. Sweet Sensation were Manchester’s answer to the ‘Philly sound’, and by the time of their appearance on New Faces in 1974, this lush soul was growing ever more popular in the UK.
It’s worth noting that glam rock had been a totally white phenomenon, and now it was on the wane, soul and eventually disco were filling the gap. There were many more black acts at number 1 in 1974 then there had been for some time. And there hadn’t been a black British group at number 1 since The Equals in 1968. King was only 14 when they formed, making Sweet Sensation comparable to The Jackson Five due to his youthful falsetto. However, only King and Shaugnessy hailed from Manchester, the rest were from Kingston, Jamiaca, apart from Palmer, who was from St Kitts.
Hatch had prior number 1 success numerous times, with his wife Jackie Trent, among others, so Sweet Sensation landed on their feet when the well-connected producer took them under his wing and getting them a record deal with Pye in 1974. However, despite his patronage, debut single Snowfire tanked. They went back to the drawing board and enlisted David Parton to write Sad Sweet Dreamer, which featured Hatch and Trent on vocals too.
Review
It’s a fair approximation of Gamble & Huff’s masterful work, and tracks by The Stylistics, but it feels a bit stiff, low budget and ‘British’ by comparison. King’s falsetto is appealing and it’s ironic to hear a teen singing about putting things down to experience, but it feels more like a song to fill a gap for a week than a deserved number 1, which was exactly what it was really. One of the least memorable chart-toppers of the year, but by no means a bad song.
After
Sweet Sensation had found a winning formula but it proved short-lived. However, the follow-up Purely By Coincidence reached number 11 in 1975. Sad Sweet Dreamer was a good enough impersonation of Philly soul for the US too – it reached number 14 there. But that was pretty much it for the band. King left in 1975 and was replaced by Recardo “Rikki” Patrick. Their debut album, named after their number 1, did badly, and no more singles charted. In 1977 they took part in A Song for Europe but came eighth with You’re My Sweet Sensation. Pye dropped them and they split soon after.
In 1984, King tried to begin a solo career, and released Reach for Love on Factory Records. It was produced by New Order’s Bernard Sumner, and is considered a lost electro-soul classic now. It’s a great production from Sumner, and King’s voice is beautiful. Shaun Ryder of Happy Mondays apparently reckons it’s Factory’s best single, and ripped it off on Black Grape’s Get Higher in 1997.
The Outro
Sadly, King didn’t become a solo star and died of a brain haemorrhage in 1995, aged only 38. His former bandmate Johnson was also on Factory via the early underground dance outfit Quando Quango. Smith died in 2009 and James in 2019.
The Info
Written by
David Parton
Producers
Tony Hatch & David Parton
Weeks at number 1
1 (19-25 October)
Trivia
Births
20 October:Islamic terrorist Mohammad Sidique Khan
Meanwhile…
19 October: Conservative MP Keith Joseph makes a controversial speech in Edgbaston on the cycle of deprivation that effectively rules him out of high office. He left the leadership contest to replace Edward Heath and instead became one of Margaret Thatcher’s biggest supporters.
22 October: The IRA threw a bomb into an empty dining room in London’s Brook’s club.
Thanks to the crack hitmaking team of Gamble and Huff, the lush, string-laden ‘Philly sound’ was one of the foremost soul styles of the late-60s and 70s. When Will I See You Again made stars of The Three Degrees, an all-girl trio that had existed for over 10 years. They became the first black female group since The Supremes in 1964 to hit the top spot.
Before
The Three Degrees began circa-1963 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The original line-up featured high-school students Fayette Pinkney, Shirley Porter and Linda Turner, but Porter and Turner didn’t stick around and were replaced that year by Helen Scott and Janet Harmon. In 1965 they were discovered by producer and songwriter Richard Barrett and they were signed to Swan Records. Their first single, Gee Baby (I’m Sorry), was released in 1965, the same year Sheila Ferguson joined their label.
Scott left The Three Degrees in 1966 to start a family, and was replaced by Ferguson, and by the end of 1967 Harmon had gone too and Valerie Holiday was in place, with Ferguson mostly on lead vocals, backed by Pinkney and Holiday, the ‘classic’ line-up had arrived. Barrett signed them with Warner Bros., Metromedia and Neptune over the next few years, but fame eluded them.
Their first LP, Maybe, was released on Roulette Records in 1970, and from there they landed a cameo in action thriller The French Connection (1971), performing Jimmy Webb’s Everybody Gets to Go to the Moon.
Things fell into place in 1973 when they signed with Philadelphia International Records, co-owned by Gamble and Huff. The duo had been making hits together since The Soul Survivors’ Expressway to Your Heart in 1967, and had worked with Dusty Springfield, Wilson Pickett and Archie Bell & the Drells. Then in 1971 they formed their own label to go up against Motown Records. Some of their greatest and most famous work includes If You Don’t Know Me By Now by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Love Train by The O’Jays and Me and Mrs. Jones by Billy Paul – all slick, mature and memorable soul records.
The Three Degrees’ first job at the label was to record the vocals for TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia) by MFSB, which was the theme tune to the fondly remembered US soul/disco series Soul Train. Next they recorded the album The Three Degrees, and they began to make headway in the UK charts when The Year of Decision reached number 13.
When Will I See You Again was the third release from their eponymous LP, and it wasn’t popular with the trio. Ferguson later recalled that when Gamble played it to her on a piano, she threw a strop and said she was insulted he expected her to sing such a simple song. She admitted she was wrong after it had sold millions.
Review
And she was wrong, as it’s a lovely song and rightly considered a soul classic. It’s worth it just for those angelic sighs, really – The Three Degrees’ harmonies really are something special. They make the yearning at the heart of the song seem real and identifiable. Ferguson is in love, but she’s being kept hanging by a thread, but her feelings are so strong, she can’t give him up. But his lack of commitment is leaving her desperately unsure – it’s worth noting every single line in the song is a question. The music is gorgeous too, another string-laden, clean, deep production from Gamble and Huff.
After
The Three Degrees were finally mainstream stars, and are still remembered as being Prince Charles’ favourite group, as he revealed in the 70s. When Will I See You Again was the fourth best-selling single of 1974, and reached number two in the US. Further singles success was sporadic, but Take Good Care Of Yourself was a top 10 hit in 1975. The following year, they left Gamble and Huff and moved to CBS Sony/Epic Records, but Pinkney, the only remaining original member, departed after an argument with their manager over her relationship with singer Lou Rawls. Scott returned to the fold.
Their 1978 album with disco genius Giorgio Moroder, New Dimensions, was an inspired move, scoring three big hits with Giving Up, Giving In (number 12), Woman in Love (number three) and The Runner (number 10). They performed at Prince Charles’s 30th birthday party that year and rounded up the decade with their final hit, My Simple Heart (number nine) in 1979, and a TV special, The Three Degrees at the Royal Albert Hall, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Three Degrees had further albums and TV specials, but time had moved on. They were one of the first acts to jump on the Stock, Aitken and Waterman bandwagon in 1985, but to no avail. A year later, Ferguson, the most famous of the trio, left, and it was never the same after that. After several attempts to find a replacement, Scott and Holiday went with Cynthia Garrison, creating the longest lasting formation, from 1989-2010. In 1993 they recorded a new version of their chart-topper with Thomas Anders of German duo Modern Talking.
The Outro
Founder member Pinkney died in 2009 of acute respiratory failure, aged 61. In 2011 Garrison fell ill and was replaced by Freddie Pool. Their most recent album was Strategy: Our Tribute To Philadelphia, released in 2016. Pool, Holiday and Scott continue to perform. Ferguson has remained in the public eye since her 1986 departure, recording solo work and starring in TV and theatre. She was a contestant on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2004 and has also appeared in Celebrity MasterChef, The Weakest Link and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
The Info
Written & produced by
Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff
Weeks at number 1
2 (17-30 August)
Trivia
Births
23 August:Scottish actor Ray Park
Deaths
29 August:Actress Judith Furse
Meanwhile…
29 August: The final Windsor Free Festival was broken up by Thames Valley Police. The tactics used were so violent there was a public outcry.
I love George McCrae’s Rock Your Baby. One of my favourite number 1s of the 70s, this is a landmark in early disco music, thanks to the slinkiest of grooves and McCrae’s heavenly falsetto – and to think, his performance was the happiest of accidents. Finally, after seemingly endless 50s rehashes and tributes, here was a new sound.
Before
KC and the Sunshine Band were Florida-based disco pioneers, formed in 1973 by record store employee Harry Wayne Casey (aka KC) and TK Records engineer Richard Finch. The same year, Vince Aletti became one of the first to use ‘disco’ as a term to describe a genre, in Rolling Stone that September. Casey and Finch had begun releasing material with their new band and among the demos they worked on was Rock Your Baby.
The backbone of the track was courtesy of an early drum machine on a Lowry organ left in the TK Records studio, a rare sound back then. Casey took to the keyboards and Finch took care of the bass and real drums, and as they built up the track, they felt something magical. Finch told Songfacts ‘it was like God was in the building or something’. They paid KC and the Sunshine Band guitarist Jerome Smith $15 to lay down some licks and wrote lyrics inspired by Hues Corporation’s hit Rock the Boat. KC and the Sunshine Band were not an established act at this point, and Casey couldn’t reach those high notes, so who should they get to sing it? TK Records owner Henry Stone suggested soul singer Gwen MCrae, but fortune smiled on her husband, George, instead.
George Warren McCrae, Jnr was born 19 October 1944 in West Palm Beach, Florida, the second of nine children. He formed his own singing group, The Jivin’ Jets, before joining the US Navy in 1963. That same year, he married Gwen Mosley. Four years later, the McCraes reformed the group, but they split soon after, and they began working as a duo. Gwen signed a solo contract and began to have modest hits, so George became her manager. He was about to return to college to study law enforcement when he sang over Rock Your Baby.
Review
KC and the Sunshine Band are mainly remembered these days for catchy disco anthems, great blasts of fun, but perhaps short on substance. With Rock Your Baby, they created something magnificent, entering unchartered territory by adding the sweet soul voice of McCrae to a drum machine with a holy melding of man and machine. I Feel Love is the most magnificent disco song, but without Rock Your Baby, would we have got there?
The keyboard melody at the start is almost nursery rhyme-like, setting the scene for a tender serenade in which a blissed-out McCrae surrenders to his love – which is pretty unusual for this time. He’s no alpha male, and is letting her take the lead. Smith’s choppy guitar line is vital, even if it sounds very similar to Rock the Boat. This would in time become one of the key ingredients to the disco sound.
Rock Your Baby is sexual, of course, but it’s sensual and seductive more than anything. Listen to the way McCrae’s falsetto glides over the rhythm in an aural orgasm, and it can move like few disco songs can. The six-minute-plus album version is superior as it lets the song stretch and breathe. To be honest, I could listen to an hour-long mix of this and not tire of it.
After
Rock Your Baby sold millions and was number 1 in the UK, US and across Europe. It inspired John Lennon’s Whatever Gets You Thru the Night and ABBA’s Dancing Queen. Not bad for a debut solo single. McCrae, the first black artist to top the UK charts in nearly two years, is considered a one-hit wonder, but he actually had other popular material. Follow-ups I Can’t Leave You Alone and You Can Have It All went number nine and 23 respectively later in the year, and in 1975, It’s Been So Long climbed to number four, and I Ain’t Lyin’ reached number 12.
Also in 1975, Gwen recorded a reply to Rock Your Baby, Rockin’ Chair, on which George provided backing vocals. The following year, he and Gwen divorced, and Honey I became his last UK charting single. We Did It! was his last album for some time in 1979, as he left TK Records and went into semi-retirement.
In the meantime, KC and the Sunshine Band became one of the biggest disco acts on the planet, with a string of floorfillers that encapsulated the genre’s positivity. They recorded Rock Your Baby too, but only as an instrumental. It wasn’t until 1983 that they scored a UK number 1, with the effervescent Give It Up.
The Outro
McCrae surfaced again in 1984 with the album One Step Closer to Love, but it failed to chart. A remix of his number 1, known as the Frankfurst Mix, remixed by Paul Hardcastle, was released in 1986. He continued to make albums up until Do Something in 1996, then disappeared again, and has returned sporadically. He was part of Jools’ Annual Hootenanny in 2017. A cover of Rock Your Baby was a number eight hit for dance act KWS in 1992.
The Info
Written & produced by
Harry Wayne Casey & Richard Finch
Weeks at number 1
3 (27 July-16 August)
Trivia
Births
31 July:Actress Emilia Fox
Meanwhile…
15 August: The collapse of Court Line and its subsidiaries Clarksons and Horizon Holidays results in 100,000 holidaymakers stranded abroad.
