280 Hello The Real Thing - You To Me Are Everything

Chart  entered  : 5  June  1976

Chart  peak : 1

Number  of  hits  : 11

This  was  a  big  turn-up  for  me  as  I  remembered  their  second  single  from my  first  days  of  listening  to  Radio  One  and  had  long  since  assumed  that  no  one  from  that  era  would  now  break  through. It  was  certainly  well  deserved  as  this  was  their  ninth  single  on  their  third  label.

The  band  was  formed  in  1970  by four  teenage   black  kids  from  Liverpool, Dave  Smith, Ray  Lake , Kenny  Davis  and  Chris  Amoo  whose  elder  brother  Eddie  was  in  a  longstanding  Liverpool  vocal  group  The  Chants. The  latter's  claim  to  fame  was  once  having  The  Beatles  back  them  at  The  Cavern  in  November  1962  but  Eddie's  memories  of  that  night  are  a  bit  dodgy  as  he  was  only  twelve  at  the  time; I  suspect  he  may  not  have  joined  the  group  until  later. Six  different  labels  between  1963  and  1974  attempted  to  convert  The  Chants'  popularity   in  their  home  town  into  national  success  but  couldn't  do  it. Eddie  had  to  join  his  kid  brother's  band  in  1975  to  make  it  big.

As  I  said  above   their  second  single  "Plastic  Man"  is  the  only  one  of  their  pre-fame  singles  I  know  and  that's  the  way  it's  going  to  stay  for  the  time  being; by  an  odd  fluke  it's  the  only  one  on  You  Tube  or  Spotify.  I  don't  know  whether  there's  a  legal  issue  or  just  a  Kraftwerkian  desire  to  erase  that  history  but  all  their  compilations  take  "You  To  Me  Are  Everything"  as  Year  Zero. If  it's  the  latter  reason  it's  doubly  odd  because  Eddie  wrote  most  of  them  despite  not  being  in  the  band  at  the  time. For  the record  the  singles  were ; on  Bell  ( 1972 )  "Vicious  Cycle ; on  EMI  ( 1973-5 ) "Plastic  Man", " Listen  Joe  McGintoo" , "Check  It Out" , "Vicious  Cycle" ( re-recorded ), "Daddy  Dear"  ; on  Pye  ( 1975  onwards ) "Stone  Cold  Love  Affair " "Watch  Out  Carolina" . "Plastic  Man" - which  I've  just  heard  for  the  first  time  in  42  years - suggests  they  had  nothing  of  which  to  be  ashamed. I  think  it's  an  admonition  to  some  poseur  but  it's  a  fast  and  furious  collision  of  The  Temptations' *  urban  funk, the  riotous  percussion  of  Osibisa  and  the  Gibson  Brothers'  passionate   vocals. It's  chaotic  and  over-produced  but  by  some  distance  their  best  record.

Despite  some  airplay and  presumably  a  big  push  from  EMI  as  it  was  the  first  single  under  that  imprint  it  didn't  do  any  better  than  the  ones  that  followed  it,  Davis  left  at  some point  in  this  run  and  they  continued  as  a  trio. They  also  made  an  appearance  on  Opportunity  Knocks.  Once  they'd  signed  with  Pye ,  Eddie  finally  decided  to  quit  The  Chants  and  come  into  the  band. David  Essex  took  them  under  his wing  to  some  extent. They  opened  for  him  on  tour  in  1975  and  sang  on  his  single  "Rolling  Stone". He  in  turn  wrote  and  produced  "Watch  Out  Carolina".

Which  brings  us  to  the  Popular  link  Real Thing  

**  Coincidentally  the  Temptations  also  released  a  completely  different  song  with  the  same  title  at  the  same  time. It's   tuneless  and  plodding, grossly  inferior  to  the  boys' song.