Winter of Discontent - Every UK Number 1

The Intro

Simultaneously one of the hottest and coolest new wave bands, US six-piece Blondie were also one of the most successful, notching up five UK number 1s in under two years (and another in 1999). Heart of Glass melded new wave, rock, disco and pop with a slither of punk attitude, and it’s their best single.

Before

Blondie’s beginnings start back in New York in 1973. Guitarist Chris Stein joined rock band the Stilettoes. He began a romantic relationship with one of their vocalists – Debbie Harry. She had been a waitress, a Playboy Bunny and a member of folk-rock group the Wind in the Willows in the late-60s. Harry and Stein decided to leave the Stilettoes and start a new band in 1974. Together with former bandmates Billy O’Connor on drums and Fred Smith on bass, they became Angel and the Snake that August.

Two months later and with only two gigs under their belts, they changed their name to Blondie. As the whole world knows, Harry was one of the most beautiful women in the world, and would turn heads wherever she went. Among no doubt filthier shouts, lorry drivers would bark ‘Hey, blondie!’ at her as they drove by her walking down the street.

Fast forward to spring 1975 and Blondie’s line-up had changed several times – including experimenting with female backing singers. Drummer Clem Burke then joined them, along with Gary Valentine on bass. They became regular performers at hip joints CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, wowing crowds with power-pop and Harry’s stage presence. A few months later they recruited keyboardist Jimmy Destri to fill out their sound.

Signing with Private Stock Records, their eponymous debut LP was released in December 1976. It made little of an impression, and first single X Offender sank without trace, despite them supporting Iggy Pop on tour. However, the follow-up In the Flesh became a number two hit in Australia after being played by accident on TV (they were supposed to be showing X Offender).

Blondie decided to buy back their contract and switched to the British label Chrysalis Records. Blondie was re-released on Chrysalis in October 1977 and the critics began to take note. Nevertheless Valentine left the group and they recorded second album Plastic Letters as a four-piece, released in 1978.

The first single from the album Denis (a cover of a 1963 song by Randy and the Rainbows) finally saw their commercial stock rise – all the way to number two in the UK, where the music papers made a story out of Harry battling it out for the top spot with another strong female pop star, namely Kate Bush, who won out with Wuthering Heights. Denis did reach the top spot in the Netherlands and Belgium though, and when the next 7-inch, (I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear peaked at 10 in the UK, it seemed Blondie were here to stay. They were.

Hiring Frank Infante on guitar and British bassist Nigel Harrison, the six-strong Blondie toured the UK and became one of the first new wave acts to hit the mainstream. Here at last was a rock group in which the men stayed out of the spotlight. It shone fully on Harry, who had star power like few others at the time.

In a clear attempt to really leave their mark on the pop scene, Blondie worked with a big-name producer. Australian Mike Chapman had been half of ‘Chinnichap’ with Nicky Chinn. Together they wrote and produced glam rock number 1 classics by The Sweet, Mud and Suzi Quatro. The latter proved particularly appropriate, as Chapman had experience in helping female rock stars climb the charts with catchy commercial pop songs.

Blondie’s Chapman-produced third album Parallel Lines was released in September 1978. first single Picture This climbed to 12 and Hanging on the Telephone peaked at five. Their first number 1 was next.

Heart of Glass was one of Blondie’s earliest tracks. Originally known as Once I Had a Love, it was written by Harry and Stein and 1974 and demoed a year later. Although slower and funkier than the released version, It had a disco influence right from the start, having been influenced by one of the genre’s earliest hits – The Hues Corporation’s Rock the Boat (1974). Harry later recounted that the lyrics to Heart of Glass weren’t directed personally to a former love of hers, it was written as a ‘plaintive moan about lost love’. They tried it as a ballad and even reggae over the years, but it never quite worked.

Blondie remained in thrall to disco, to the consternation of some rock die-hards, over the years, occasionally adding dance floor hits to their setlists. Harry expressed her love of the work of producer Giorgio Moroder in the NME early in 1978, and the band surprised a CBGB crowd with a cover of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love later that year.

When it came to meeting Chapman to start work on Parallel Lines, the producer asked Blondie to show him what they could record. At the end he asked if there was anything else, and the band sheepishly decided to perform Heart of Glass. Despite their reticence, Chapman loved it and saw a potential hit. Blondie began to agree, but having also become fans of Kraftwerk, wanted to recreate the futuristic sounds of the German innovators as well as Moroder’s hits.

The six-piece assembled at the Record Plant in New York in June 1978 to record Heart of Glass. Unusually at the time, a rock band chose to build the song around a drum machine. The Roland CR-78 had only been released earlier that year, and it was Stein and Destri who introduced it to the studio, having bought one from a store in Manhattan. Destri in particular had a lot to do with the sound of Heart of Glass and brought in some synthesisers. Other technology used in the production included the Roland SH-5 and Minimoog.

Review

Heart of Glass is one of my favourite number 1s of the 70s and one I’ll never tire of. It never dates either. You could argue the 80s began right here and it certainly had an influence on music over the next few years. It’s icy, cool as fuck and one of the greatest disco tracks of all time – despite not actually being that easy to dance to. I love the lyrics, which suit Harry’s ‘not arsed mate’ attitude. Yes, she was once in love. She’s not any more, and you only have to listen to the first few lines to know she’s totally over it.

The lyrics to Heart of Glass are fascinating. What actually is a heart of glass? Does she have a heart of glass or does he? If it’s him, does she mean she’s cut herself because of him? Or does she mean she’s discovered her heart is fragile and he broke it into pieces? Hard to tell, because although she’s given the impression she’s moved on, the choruses suggest otherwise. In the second one Harry suggests he’s cheated on her, and she sings ‘I’m the one you’re using, please don’t push me aside’. ‘Mucho mistrust’ also suggests infidelity.

It’s worth noting that, as far as I can tell, Heart of Glass is the first chart-topper to contain a swear word of sorts. Blondie decided to try and get away with one instance of ‘Soon turned out, it was a pain in the ass’ in both the single and album mixes. It soon got replaced on the radio with another ‘heart of glass’, but good on them for trying! The song then ends on that catchy-as-hell, resigned ‘Ooh ooh ooh, ah-ah’, which comes across as another ‘ah, fuck it’.

With Heart of Glass, Blondie and Chapman really melded those influences of Moroder and Kraftwerk together to create something unique. Like I Feel Love, it feels like it could go on forever and that wouldn’t be a bad thing. I listened to 45 minutes of different versions of this in one go and I only began to tire towards the end. And like Kraftwerk, its machine-like, but scratch the surface and there’s human emotions underneath.

For the single, Chapman beefed up the sound and accentuated the double-tracked bass drum. For me, the best version is the 5:50 ‘Disco Version’ released as a 12-inch. Unlike a lot of 12-inch mixes of the time, it doesn’t sound like bits have been unnecessarily tacked on. It sounds like the natural version, just for letting the rhythm stretch out that bit longer.

The promo video to Heart of Glass was directed by Stanley Dorfman, a British director who did just that on the very first edition of Top of the Pops. The film begins with aerial shots of New York, slowly revolving like a mirrorball, before showing the streets of the city and landmarks including the Ed Sullivan Theatre and Studio 54. Although we’re meant to get the suggestion the latter is where this is filmed, it was actually made in a long-forgotten, short-lived club.

The rest of the video alternates between close-ups of Harry miming and mid-distance shots of the rest of the band ‘performing’. Harry looks particularly drop-dead gorgeous here, her hair slightly dishevelled, in a silver dress with one shoulder strap. Her bored, slightly pissed-off performance really suits the song and apparently came about through a genuine sulk. Harry wanted to dance but she was told to stay still. She wasn’t keen on Dorfman after that and didn’t appreciate all the close-ups. Nonetheless, it’s an iconic performance.

After

Heart of Glass was a deserved global smash and number 1 in most countries, including the US. Harry became a pin-up and hero to millions of teens and were a breath of fresh air. With this song toppling Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick, 1979 was shaping up to be a hell of a year for pop.

The Info

Written by

Debbie Harry & Chris Stein

Producer

Mike Chapman

Weeks at number 1

4 (3 February-2 March)

Trivia

Births

13 February: Labour MP Rachel Reeves

2 March: Comedian Jocelyn Jee Esien

Deaths

14 February: Conservative MP Reginald Maudling – 14 February

19 February: Comedian Wee Georgie Wood

Meanwhile…

9 February: Trevor Francis signed for Nottingham Forest. He was the first player to sign a deal worth £1 million.

12 February: The Winter of Discontent continued, with more than 1,000 schools closed due to the heating oil shortage caused by the lorry drivers’ strike.

14 February: Talks between unions and the government, known as the ‘Saint Valentine’s Day Concordat’ marked the end to the Winter of Discontent.

15 February: However, the damage was done. Opinion polls showed the Tories up to 20 points ahead of Labour.

22 February: Saint Lucia became independent of the UK.

1 March: Scotland voted for a Scottish Assembly in the devolution referendum. However this was less than 40% of the electorate, which meant it wasn’t followed through.
Also on this day, Wales voted against devolution.

The Intro

So we reach the end of 1978. Finally, the singles chart and pop in general has become important to the public once more. Singles by Wings, Boney M and John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John remain among the biggest sellers of all time. Punk may have never officially had a number 1, but its presence had shaken pop up, and god was it needed. As the 70s draws to a close, the chart-toppers take on a whole new freshness and 1979 is the most exciting year for pop number 1s in over 10 years.

Before

But first, this. Manufactured disco quartet Boney M capped off an enormously successful year with the festive number 1. Rivers of Babylon had been number 1 for five weeks in the spring/summer of 1978. It was the bestseller that year and is still the seventh best-selling single of all time in the UK. The album it came from, Nightflight to Venus, was also huge and also spawned Rasputin. Number 1 across Europe, it stalled at two here, and unlike most of their oeuvre, I can enjoy that one. Maybe.

In November, the mastermind behind Boney M, Frank Farian, assembled the group to hastily record a Christmas single. He decided to cover Mary’s Boy Child, which had been the UK Christmas number 1 for US singer Harry Belafonte in 1957.

If you read my review of that single when it was live here, or have since read my book Every UK Number 1: The 50s, you’ll know it was composed by Jester Hairston. His friend, who he was at the time sharing a room with, asked Hairston to write him a song for a birthday party. He came up with the calypso tune He Pone and Chocolate Tea but it was quickly forgotten about. But when the composer Walter Schumann asked Hairston for a festive song for Schumann’s Hollywood Choir to perform in 1956, he reworked He Pone and Chocolate Tea and it became Mary’s Boy Child. Belafonte heard the choir’s rendition and recorded it that year, before releasing a longer version the following year. It was the latter which took the Christmas top spot.

Farian, the opportunist that he was, decided to tack a new song on the end, therefore ensuring he and Fred Jay would receive royalties.

Review

Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Love may be the 12th biggest-selling UK number 1 of all time, but it leaves me as cold as the weather that winter. This is the weakest Christmas number 1 since Little Jimmy Osmond in 1972. Farian takes a stately festive ballad and gives it the cheesy disco-lite touch. He keeps it similar enough to the original to perhaps encourage record buyers ready for some 50s nostalgia, while making it disco enough for the young at the time. The result is a tacky, boring affair. And if it wasn’t already too long, the Oh My Lord section then starts up and it seems as though Boney M are never going to stop. I love Christmas tackiness, but I find it very hard to think of any positives here.

After

Boney M’s huge sales dropped from here on in. In 1979 they reached 10 with Painter Man. But Hooray! Hooray! It’s a Holi-Holiday peaked at three that summer and remained a kids’ holiday club staple well into the 80s. Their next album Oceans of Fantasy spawned double A-side Gotta Go Home/El Lute, which reached 12 and I’m Born Again, which went to 35. Their last new song to reach the top 40 was the interestingly named We Kill the World (Don’t Kill the World). It only got to 39 in 1981. That same year, the dancer Bobby Farrell, who mimed to Farian’s vocals, was sacked for being too unreliable.

In 1982 Reggie Tsiboe replaced Farrell but it made little difference to Boney M’s decline. Farrell eventually returned but in 1986 Farian had got bored and pulled the plug on Boney M after their eighth LP Eye Dance. For the rest of the 80s, various incarnations of Boney M existed, with or without Farian’s approval. In 1988 the ‘classic’ line-up reunited without him briefly.

There was a renewed interest in the group in 1992, thanks to Mega Mix, a number seven hit which also featured a remix of Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord. The only noteworthy member of Boney M at this point was singer Liz Mitchell, who Farian once described as the only irreplaceable member of the group. The following year Brown Girl in the Ring (Remix) took them to 38. Another remix, Ma Baker (Somebody Scream), is their last hit to date, peaking at 22 in 1999.

In 2010 Farrell died of heart failure, aged 61. Mitchell tours as Boney M, featuring Liz Mitchell (well you would, wouldn’t you?). Marcia Barrett, who sang the a cappella intro to Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord, lives in Berlin. Maizie Williams, who never sang on any original studio recordings by Boney M, now performs them live.

The Outro

Farian was the man behind another manufactured group. He formed the duo Milli Vanilli in 1988. Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus never sang a note but they became one of the biggest names of the era. He promised them he’d cover their backs but when the miming scandal broke, Farian fired them and announced they never sang for real on their records. Something that hadn’t bothered the pop world when Boney M were at large destroyed Milli Vanilli, and Pilatus was found dead in 1998 of a suspected drink and drugs overdose.

The Info

Written by

Jester Hairston, George Reyam, Frank Farian & Fred Jay

Producer

Frank Farian

Weeks at number 1

4 (9 December 1978-5 January 1979)

Trivia

Births

16 December: Actor Joe Absolom
23 December: Model Jodie Marsh

Deaths

23 December: Academic Malcolm Caldwell (see ‘Meanwhile…’)

Meanwhile…

14 December 1978: The Labour minority government narrowly survives a vote of confidence.

21–22 December: BBC One and BBC Two are taken off air when the BBC members of the ABS union decide to strike over pay. The following day, the union calls its radio members out on strike. This leads to the merging of BBC Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 into one national radio network. From 4.00pm that day, the management runs a schedule of news and music. BBC One controller Bill Cotton begins to panic that the strike will ruin ratings over the all-important Christmas period. He prepares two Christmas schedules for BBC One, one if there is no strike, and one filled with repeats and films if there is. Luckily for him, the BBC and ABS go to the government’s conciliation service ACAS, and a deal is reached by 10pm on 22 December, with the unions getting a 15% pay rise. All BBC TV and radio services return to normal service by lunchtime on 23 December.

23 December: Marxist writer Malcolm Caldwell is shot dead in Cambodia shortly after meeting Pol Pot.

5 January 1979: Lorry drivers go on strike, causing new shortages of heating oil and fresh food. With terrible freezing conditions damaging the economy at the same time, Labour’s ‘Winter of Discontent’ had begun.