The U.K. 70s Singles & Albums Chart General Discussion Thread.

As I've posted the album chart for the last week in April 1970, I might as well post the equivalent singles chart. So here it is:

1. Dana All Kinds Of Everything
2. Norman Greenbaum Spirit In The Sky
3. Simon And Garfunkel Bridge Over Troubled Water
4. Andy Williams Can't Help Falling In Love
5. Mary Hopkin Knock Knock Who's There
6. Pipkins Gimme Dat Ding
7. Bob And Marcia Young, Gifted And Black
8. Stevie Wonder Never Had A Dream Come True
9. Jimmy Ruffin Farewell Is A Lonely Sound
10 Blue Mink Good Morning Freedom
11 The Four Tops I Can't Help Myself
12 Cufflinks When Julie Comes Around
13 Lee Marvin Wand'rin' Star
14 Frijid Pink House Of The Rising Sun
15 Creedence Clearwater Revival Travellin' Band
16 The Band Rag Mama Rag
17 Tom Jones Daughter Of Darkness
18 Kenny Rogers And The First Edition Something's Burning
19 Pickettywitch That Same Old Feeling
20 Juicy Lucy Who Do You Love
21 Joe Dolan You're Such A Good Looking Woman
22 Roger Whittaker I Don't Believe In If Anymore
23 England World Cup Squad Back Home
24 Radha Krishna Temple Govinda
25 Elvis Presley Don't Cry Daddy
26 The Beatles Let It Be
27 The Hollies I Can't Tell The Bottom From The Top
28 The Who The Seeker
29 Steam Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye
30 Rufus Thomas Do The Funky Chicken
31 The Move Brontosaurus
32 White Plains I've Got You On My Mind
33 Julie Felix If I Could (El Condor Pasa)
34 Diana Ross & The Supremes With The Temptations Why (Must We Fall In Love)
35 Sacha Distel Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head
36 The Dave Clark Five Everybody Get Together
37 Rolf Harris Two Little Boys
38 Frank Sinatra My Way
39 The Jackson 5 I Want You Back
40 Boris Gardiner Elizabethan Reggae
41 Edgar Broughton Band Out Demons Out
42 Des O'Connor I'll Go On Hoping
43 Canned Heat Let's Work Together
44 Dorothy Squires Till
45 Deep Feeling Do You Love Me
46 Shocking Blue Mighty Joe
47 Peter, Paul And Mary Leavin' On A Jet Plane
48 Don Fardon Belfast Boy
49 The Tremeloes By The Way
50 The Maytals Monkey Man

A mixed bag, but plenty of keepers. Eurovision had been and gone, with the winner Dana & runner up Mary Hopkin in the UK Top 5. I much prefer Ms Hopkin's wistful pop liltings to the bargain basement Sound Of Music-lite reject that's All Kinds Of Everything.


Some Motown nuggets there. J5's debut is a gobsmacker. Always liked Jimmy Ruffin, and whilst his US chart forays had dried up we couldn't get enough of him over here. Loved The Four Tops and their reactivated Can't Help Myself is pop's absolute bees knees.


Canned Heat; The Maytals; Simon & Garf; The Band; Norman Greenbaum; CCR; Edgar Broughton Band; The Move. All fab 45s. House Of the Rising Sun is a classic song, with The Animals turning in a great version, but for me Detroit's Frijid Pink give it some unbeatable killer fuzz & scuzz. Marvellous.


The Who's Seeker is one of their lesser known singles, yet one of their best. As for The Hollies I don't think they put a foot wrong singles-wise between '64 and '74. I Can't Tell The Bottom From The Top - with Elton on piano - is fab. (For some unknown reason the German pic sleeve substitutes You for I!)


The late '60s and early '70s were a great time for reggae chart single. Here's one of the best: Bob & Marcia covering Nina Simone's Young Gifted & Black........

 

Did you see this from a few years back? She's 87 now, bless her. I have very strong and decidedly male remembrances of that album cover.

 

I remember seeing it but had since forgotten about it... I may have even pulled the album out and played it as a result... I think she still looks great and pretty stylish (appreciate that's 12 years ago!)

 

Didn’t Mary Hopkin dislike her song?

In fact, was there a 60s/70s U.K. Eurovision act who did like their song?

 

Ms Hopkin said singing it was "so embarrassing", and "the ultimate humiliation". Poor lamb, it must have been really traumatic having a #2 on the UK chart, a big hit across Europe, plus an Australian smash. Some folk are never satisfied! Sandie moaned non-stop about Puppet on a String; Lulu loathed Boom Bang-a-Bang; Clodagh Rodgers despised Jack in the Box; Livvy was sniffy about Long Live Love; and Cliff's still harping on about how he was swindled out of a win by General Franco 56 years ago! (Forum faves Brotherhood of Man, having zilch artistic ambitions to start with, were 'over the moon' about theirs!)

Anyway, here's the best Eurovision UK entry from the '70s, IMO: Beg Steal or Borrow. (Best ever would be Gina G's Ooh Aah.)

 

I think it says a lot that "All Kinds Of Everything" only topped the "official" chart. Everywhere else - New Musical Express, Melody Maker and Music Now - this piece of cavity-inducing sweets could only make #2, kept out first by Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water," then by Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit In The Sky." As Music Now's charts were drawn solely from samples of WH Smith stores, seems the Smith clientele seemed, say, a bit put off by Dana's "sentiments"? (As were those who patronised the stores NME and MM sampled, however much less they were than when the "official" charts were born.)

As for Ms. Hopkin's little entry, it didn't see U.S. single release until two years later, in 1972.

 

I’ve said it before, but I can’t understand why people who enter Eurovision complain about their songs. If you do put yourself forward for the show, you’re pretty guaranteed to get a crappy song! At least Mary wouldn’t have the indignity of notching up many more hits after this. Which probably suited her! Lulu wasn’t exactly having hits falling out of her backside either. You think she’d celebrate Boom Bang A Bang instead of boycotting it for 50 years!

As for Olivia, she was lucky she had America beginning to show interest as she’d have been on the scrap heap otherwise. Or even worse, back to appearing on Cliff’s TV show!

I actually think Save Your Kisses For Me was a great Eurovision song… It’s corny and cringey, but catchy enough for you to remember the chorus after a couple of listens. Brotherhood of Man appreciated the opportunity and would have probably happily sung Long Live Love in Salvation Army costumes if asked!

As for the New Seekers, Beg, Steal… is actually pretty close to what they were doing at the time. Doesn’t really sound like Eurovision at all. Just a pleasant pop song.

 

Okay, and now what I got from this lot: #2, 3, 6, 14, 15, 17, 25, 26, 30, 38 and 47.

As to what was selling on the American side, here's the tale o' the tape.

 

Ms. Newton-John was indeed lucky, with her U.S. success (and apparently she's thanked Helen Reddy for that, but . . . I digress). I should note that Clodagh Rodgers, up to "Jack In The Box," had singles (but not albums) ish'd on U.S. RCA; that was the last single of hers ever issued Stateside, and it didn't sell bupkis there. "Boom Bang-A-Bang" was very likely the catalyst to Lulu's falling out with producer Mickie Most and moving to Atco to try to spread her musical wings. (Which, as many have noted, was always uneven - like her career in general.) Epic in the U.S. must've shared her hatred of it because they never put it out either on LP or 45. Ms. Rodgers and Ms. Shaw also weren't exactly burning up U.S. music or variety shows with their respective presences. I've mentioned that the only "Puppet On A String" I've liked was the wholly different number of two years before by Elvis - it suited his being a "puppet" of Col. Parker perfectly.

As for Dana - I seem to recall she actually titled her memoir All Kinds Of Everything. . . .

. . . although in the years since, her chart career seemed rather spotty and erratic, no?

 

I almost certainly read this at the time. I was absolutely besotted with You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic (I still am). I had been a (very young) Mott fan from about 1973 but I sort of missed Ian's early solo career, largely because after his first single it did not make much impact on the charts and I did not have access to other influences at that stage. There was a big fuss in the music press about Schizophrenic though and that bought Ian back to my attention. A love affair was rekindled and has continued to this day, literally as I took delivery of the RSD vinyl of his new album today.

 

Alongside Mr Hunter, Wow was my other obsession in April '79. I think Lionheart is fine. It may have been a little rushed but there is some great stuff on it. I was really surprised when Hammer Horror stiffed. It is a personal favourite.

 

I don't think any of Mary Hopkin's hits were particularly to her taste. She was very young and given a huge push by McCartney in an almost Svengali like manner but she wasn't comfortable in the role of pop star and soon retreated into the folk world that was closer to her heart.

 

November 1973.

 

Their debut is fab from start to finish. Bob Harris sneered "mock rock", but I view that as a compliment. Shock rock; cock rock; mock rock; frock rock; punk rock; hard rock etc etc. It's all there, mixed up and maxed out. One of the most influential albums of all times, from a thrilling, outlandish, set of freakos, who were far more than Stones wannabes. And like some of the best artists they were akin to a musical shooting star; gloriously bold & brilliant, yet gone in a flash.

 

Mary Hopkin wasn't that fond of any of her hits. I like them, especially 'Temma Harbour', but she was right about 'Knock Knock'. Her best stuff came after her hits dried up, but most of it wasn't released for decades. Valentine, recorded between 1972 and 1980, is wonderful. It sounds like a coherent album.

 

Morrissey's favourite single of all time*... the whole album's a killer

Like the 'appearances at Biba' in Kensington... never seen that on a single or album ad before

* (I'm sure we've done this one before too!)

 

I loved Clodagh Rodgers when I was about three. That single, 'Come Back And Shake Me'. She was on TV a lot. It was just an instinctive like, as it would be with Olivia a couple of years later (though the love didn't run as deeply as it would for Livvy). She did a chocolates advert, but I can't remember which chocs they were. Contrast, maybe. I'm sure Clodagh and this chap were playing Chess in the ads, so Contrast would make sense. And every time, I would pipe up, "I like her!"

 

Striking advert for Alice Cooper's break-through album Love It To Death. Released March 1971. (UK #28)



The uncensored album front cover:


Eighteen - a US #21 single - wasn't released in the UK until the last week of April 1971; several months after its American release.


Their second single off the album, Caught In A Dream, was released in the US the same week - end of April '71 - as Eighteen was released in the UK !


And here's a gobsmacking live (1971) American TV performance of Eighteen & Black Juju (last track on Side One of the album). Oh to have been in that audience!

 

Oh, absolutely nothing wrong with the song, All Kinds Of Everything, though Dana looking about ten, beautifully innocent, with what must have seemed a fairytale.

Rather more world weary (did you bring this cover up @Andy Smith?), are the brilliant and sadly departed:


Sinéad O'Connor & Terry Hall - All Kinds Of Everything





Sinéad's smile.....

 

Yeah Tim, saw it quite by chance on a late night music prog. Can't even remember which, but it was enough for me to go out and grab the parent album asap. Still love this version.

 

All Kinds Of Everything could very well rot your teeth, but it’s another great Eurovision song. And it has to be said Dana sings it perfectly.

 

It reminds me of Nicole, A Little Love: wholesome or gruesome, depending on taste!!

 

I don’t really remember Clodagh that well. A bit before my time, music wise. A decent singer, and you’d have thought if Olivia could crack America, there’s no real reason why she couldn’t do the same.

 

Talking of all of yesterday's: Classic UK music shop Our Price to relaunch

 

But it was never that good in the first place.