270 Hello Kraftwerk - Autobahn

Chart  entered : 10  May  1975

Chart  peak : 11

Number  of  hits  : 10

The  surprise  hit  single  of  1975  and  certainly  the  most  epochal; music  would  never  be  the  same  again  once  these  guys  went  overground.

The  band  themselves  certainly  saw  this  single,  and  the  LP  it  was  culled  from,  as  a  new  beginning; no  band  has  been  less  keen  on  people  exploring  their  earlier  work. The  three  previous  Kraftwerk  LPs  haven't  been  officially  available  for  decades - Florian  Schneider  was  fond  of  dismissing  them  as  "archaeology"  and  though  Ralf  Hutter  suggested   in  2006  that  they  might  finally  be  re-released   with  the  band's  blessing  we're  still  waiting. Without  youtube   I  wouldn't  be  able  to  write  this  post.  On  one  level  it  did  offer  some  consumer    protection  ; not  everyone  who  bought  "The  Model"  would  appreciate  their  earlier  material  but  I  suspect  that  isn't  the  real  reason, more  like  bloody-minded  control  freakery. It's  not  as  if  there  any  Laughing  Gnome - style  embarrassments  lurking  there.

Kraftwerk  started  to  germinate  when  organist  Ralf  Hutter  and  flautist  Florian  Schneider, both  born  just  after  the  war  , met  at   a  prestigious  musical  college  in  Dusseldorf. They  both  joined  a  band  called  Organisation  alongside  three  other  students  and  managed  to  interest  RCA  in  signing  them. They  released  one  album  "Tone  Float"  in  1969  which, not  being  under  the  band's  full  control, can  be found  on  Spotify. It's  hard  work. The  20  minute  title  track  takes  up  the  whole  of  side  one  and  is  a  percussion-heavy  stoner  jam  with  no  recognisable  rhythm  or  melody; the  shorter  tracks  on  side  two  aren't  any  easier  although  at  least  the  title  of  "Rhythm  Salad"  gives  you  some  warning  what  to  expect. As  a  reference  point  it's  related  to  early  post-Syd  Pink  Floyd  but  taken  much  further. Interestingly  Ralf  doesn't  have  a  composer  credit  for  any  of  it.

The  band  broke  up  when  the  album  didn't  sell  but  Ralf  and  Florian  continued  to  work  together  now  under  their  preferred  name  of  Kraftwerk  ( literally  "power  station" ).  The  line-up  fluctuated  over  the  next  few  years; there  was  even  a  brief  period  in  1971  when  Ralf  left  the  band  to pursue  architectural  studies  though  he's  present  on  all  the  albums.

Their   first   eponymous  LP   came  out  in  1970. It  comprised  two  instrumentals  on  each  side . Andreas  Hohmann   provided  the  drumming  on  Side  One  while  Klaus  Dinger  , later  of  Neu did  the  business  on  Side  Two. The  percussive  drive  at  the  start  and  end  of  opening  track  "Ruckzuck"  promises  something  more  purposeful  but  then  you  get  lost  in  the  boring  drones  of  "Stratovarius"  and  "Megaherz" . However  "Von  Himmel  Hoch"  is  something  different ; even without  lyrics  it's  clear  the  track  is  about  the  terrifying  bombardment  of  the  German  cities  in  the  last  years  of  World  War  Two  and  the  track  with  its  weird.  inhuman,  electronic  noises  popping  up  seemingly  at  random  and  powerful  bursts  of  Cozy  Powell  like  drumming   effectively  evokes  the  terror  and  confusion  of  an  air  raid.

When  Ralf  rejoined  Florian  they  set  to  work  on  "Kraftwerk  2"  which  doesn't  feature  any  other  musician,  relying  on  preset  rhythms  for  the  beat  where  necessary. In  that  sense  it's  inching  a  bit  closer  to  their  trademark  sound. The  17 minute  "Kling  Klang"  introduces  a  warmer  less  abrasive  feel  though  it  still  studiously  avoids  any  melody. Everything  else  is  beatless  and   experimental, ( with  guitar  surprisingly  prominent )  playing  around  with  sound  rather  than  constructing  a  coherent  piece  of  music.

"Ralf  und  Florian"  from  1973  was  again  recorded  as  a  duo.  Synthesisers  are  much  more  prominent  and  it's  a  lot  easier  on  the  ear  although  actual  tunes  are  still  absent. As  the  album  was  moderately  successful  in  Germany  the  duo  had  to  do  some  promotional  chores  and  recruited  Wolfgang  Flur  , a  dark-haired  handsome  drummer  who  could  have  been  the  band's  pin-up  if  they'd  needed  one.

And  so  we  come  to  "Autobahn". It's  a  much-condensed   version  of    the   22  minute  title   track  on  their  breakthrough  1974  album  released  in  November  1974. The  brilliantly realised  idea  was  to  replicate  a  car  journey  on  a  German  motorway  with  ignition  noises, passing  cars  and  going  under  bridges  while  a  stately  tune  played  on  the  radio. It  was  also  Kraftwerk's  first  "song"  with  a  minimal  lyric  that  referenced  the  Beach  Boys's  Fun  Fun  Fun   with  affectionate  cheek  ( this  has  been  disputed  by  Wolfgang  but  since  he  didn't  actually  feature  on  the  track  he  may  not  have  been  in  a  position  to  know ) .. The  album  version  has  some  guitar  and  flute  in  one  passage  but  this  wasn't  included  on  the  single. It  was  far  from  being  the  first  single  to  use  a  synth - Chicory  Tip's  risible  but  surprisingly  durable  Son  Of  My  Father  was  a  number  one  in  1972  for  instance - but  Kraftwerk  were  the  first  successful  group  to  embrace  an  all-electronic  sound. Even  their  immediate  disciples  Ultravox,  OMD  and  the  Oakey-led  Human  League  had  at  least  one  conventional  instrument  on  most  of  their  records.  

Conventional  wisdom  says  this  was  a  hit  after  their  appearance, now  augmented  by  an  extra    percussionist  Karl  Bartos  ,on  Tomorrow's  World  ( ironically  a  programme  which  derived  much  of  its  irritated  audience  through  immediately  preceding  Top  of  the  Pops  on  a  Thursday ) . I  can't  find  the  date  of  that  broadcast  so  I  can't  verify  or  deny  the  claim  but  as  the  song  was  a  big  hit  internationally  ( including  reaching  number  25  in  the  US )  it's  doubtful  it  needed  Raymond  Baxter's  endorsement.         

269 Goodbye Neil Sedaka- The Queen of 1964

Chart  entered : 22  March  1975

Chart  peak : 35

A  fortnight  after  Duane  another  fifties  survivor   made  his  final  mark  on  the  charts. It  had  looked  like  Neil  was  another  victim  of  the  Beatles  blitzkreig; his  last  hit  in  the  UK  in  the  sixties  was  in  1963  and  he  disappeared  from  the  US  charts  a  couple  of  years  later. Neil's  smarmy  self-regard  makes  him  difficult  to  love  but  it  also  makes  him  very  resilient  and  he  refused  to  accept  his  career  was  over. He  was  still  in  demand  as  a  writer  and  wrote  hits  for  5th  Dimension  and  Patti  Drew  in  the  sixties. He  identified  Australia  as  the  most  fertile  ground  for  a  comeback  and  started  having  new  hits  there  as  early  as  1969. In  1972  he  fetched  up  in  Manchester  and  teamed  up  with  the  guys  who  were  to  become  10cc , recording  two  albums  at  Strawberry  which, along  with  the  US  recorded  "Laughter  In  The  Rain"  yielded  a  steady  stream  of  UK  hits, none  of  them  particularly large,  but  enough  to  make  his  presence  felt  once  more. I  liked  them  and  was  sorry  when  they  stopped  coming. Late  in  1973  he  bumped  into  Elton  John ; when  Elton  realised  he  didn't  have  an  American  label  he  signed  him  to  Rocket  and  put  together  a  highlights  LP  from  his  last  three  European  LPs  under  the  title  "Sedaka's  Back"  and  he  was. Just  six  weeks  before  this  one  hit  the  UK  charts  he  was  number  one  in  the  States  with  "Laughter  In  the  Rain".

I  hadn't  heard  "The  Queen  of  1964"   for  nearly  40  years. It  was  the  second  single  from  his  "Overnight  Success "  album  ( although  it was  substituted  for  the  song "Tit  For  Tat" when  the  album  was  issued  in  the  States  under  the  title "The  Hungry  Years".  Written  by  Neil  and  long  term  lyricist  partner  Howard  Greenfield  it's  a  rather  mean-spirited  third  person  narrative  about  a  showbiz  groupie  called  Stage  Door  Jenny  who's  got  a  bit  long  in  the  tooth. The  tone  shifts  from  comedy  in  the  second  verse  concerning  a  fictitious  liaison  with  Mick  Jagger  to  her   lonely  death  in  the  third. The  theatrical  oohs  and  aahs  in  each  verse  only  make  it  seem  more  heartless. It  is  a  good  tune  though  with  Neil  setting  it  to  a  calypso  melody  with  flutes  and  maracas  keeping  it  bright  and  bubbly  and  his  sweet  pure  voice  letting  you  hear  every  word.

Neil's  departure  at  this  point  makes  it  an  awkward  writing  task  as  he  was  releasing  different  singles  in  the   UK  and  the  US . While  this  was  in  the  charts  here, in  America  he  was  having  a  bigger  hit  with  another  song  from  the  "Laughter  In  The  Rain"  album,  "The  Immigrant"  an  exquisite  song  inspired  by  John  Lennon's  problems  getting  a  visa. No  one  does  a  florid  piano  ballad  better. It  was  released  here  in  May. It  got  some  airplay  and  the  lyrics  appeared  in  Words; The  Record  Songbook   but  failed  to  chart. In  June  he  had  a  US  hit  with  "That's  When  The  Music  Takes  Me"  which  had  made  number  18  here  in  1973. Three  months  later  he  got  to  the  top  of  the  US  chart  again  with  "Bad  Blood"  which  had  flopped  here  in  the  autumn  of  1974 . Listening  to  its  rather  stilted  attempt  at  funk  ( with  prominent  backing  vocals  from  Elton )   I  think  we  called  it  right.   As  a  writer  he  also  had  the  US   biggest hit  of  the  year  with  The   Captain  and  Tenillie's   version  of  "Love  Will  Keep  Us  Together",  a  record  I  particularly loathe  despite  it  only  being  a  minor  hit  here.  At  the  end  of  the  year  the  releases  got  into  sync  with  the  re-recorded  version  of  "Breaking  Up  Is  Hard  To  Do"  released  at  the  same  time  in  both  markets. I  prefer  the  original  to  the  slow  jazz  of  the  re-make  which  got  to  number  8  in  the  US.

Neil's  next  single  in  April  1976  was  "Love  in  the  Shadows"  ( US : 16 )  an  awkward  disco  tune  with  Neil  struggling  to  fit  Phil  Cody's  words into  the  melody  ( such  as  it  is )   and  an  out  of  place  guitar  solo. It  came  from  his  new  LP  "Steppin  Out" . The  single  choices  then  diverged  with  the  UK  getting  the  soppy  country  pop  of    "No  1  With  A  Heartache"   and  the  US  getting  the  uptempo  adultery-endorsing  title  track  ( US  : 36 )  which  again  has  Elton  on  backing  vocals  and  betrays  more  than  a  hint  of  his  musical  influence,  He  then  squeezed  out  another  single  in  the  US   with  "You  Gotta  Make  Your  Own  Sunshine"  which  sounds  suspiciously  like  a  re-write  of  "Love  Will  Keep  Us  Together"   and  peaked  at  52.

By  this  time  Neil  and  Elton's  friendship  had  cooled  and  Neil  was  not  happy  with  the  terms  for  renegotiating  his  contract. He  moved  to  Elektra.  His  first  album  for  them  was  "A  Song" , produced  by  George  Martin , trailed  by  his  own  version  of  "Amarillo"  the  song  he'd  written  for  Tony  Christie  back  in  1971. It  made  number  44  in  the  US  in  June  1977. The  follow-up  , the  bossa  nova  holiday  anthem  "Alone  At  Night"  failed  to  chart  at  all  and  it  was  clear  his  fortunes  were  on  the  wane  again. None  of  the  singles  from  his  1978  disco  LP "All  You  Need  Is  The  Music",  the  title  track  and  "Sad  Sad  Story"  in  the  US  and  the  ballad  "Love  Keeps  Getting  Stronger  Every  Day"  in  the  UK , made  the  charts.

In  `1979  the  single  "Letting  Go" ( classic  Sedaka )  came  and  went  without  attracting  any attention  but  its  parent  album  "In  The  Pocket"  released  in  1980  included  one  more  trick  up his  sleeve. A  track  from  the  previous  LP " Should've  Never  Let  You  Go  " was  re-worked  as a duet  with  his  lookalike   daughter  Dara. The  relative  novelty  of  the  inter-generational  duet  on the  classy  Streisand-esque  ballad  made  it  a  big  hit  ( number  19 ) but  it  was  a  false  dawn  and neither  would  trouble  the  chart  again.

His  last  album  for  Elektra  was  1981's  "Neil  Sedaka : Now" although  despite  the  title  many  of  the  tracks  were  recordings  of  songs  he'd  given  to  other  artists  . The  first  single  was  "My  World  Keeps  Slipping  Away"  which  was  originally  recorded  by  Connie  Francis. The  follow-up  was  "Losing  You".

After  taking  a  break  to  mourn  the  death  of  his  father  Neil  re-emerged  on  the  Curb  label  in  1983. His  first  LP  "Come  And  See  About  Me"  was  all  covers. The  singles  were  Ashford  and  Simpson's  "Your  Precious  Love",  another  duet  with  Dara  and   a   wine  bar  funk  take  on  "Rhythm  of  the  Rain". With  his  lyricist  Howard  Greenfield  laid  low  by  AIDS  , Dara  became  his  main  writing  partner  on  his  next  LP  "The  Good  Times" in  1986. There  was  only  one  single  "Love  Made  Me  Feel  This  Way"  which  attempts  to  update  his  sound  a  bit  with  synth-y  touches   and  treated  electronic  voices  but  it  sounds  really  clumsy.

Curb  dropped  him  and  he  had  a  low  profile  for  the  rest  of  the  eighties. In  1991  he  put  some  new  songs  on  a  new  compilation  "Timeless-The  Very  Best  of  Neil  Sedaka "  and  got  an  ill-judged  invitation  to  do  "The  Miracle  Song"  in  a  wild  card  slot  on  Top  of  the  Pops . What  the  bemused  audience  made  of  this  middle-aged  guy that  most  had  never  heard  of    singing  a  soporific  ballad  at  his  piano  I  couldn't  say. By  this  time  an  appearance  on  the  programme  was  no  longer  any  guarantee  of  a  hit  and  so  it  proved  although  a  subsequent  televised  concert  made  the  album  a  sizeable  hit.

Since  then  Neil  has  been  a  durable  concert  performer  still  going  at  75  but  his  recording  have  been  mainly  re-workings  of  older  material  for  an  endless  stream  of  compilations, partly  because  RCA  have  been  awkward  about  licensing  the  originals.  

268 Goodbye Duane Eddy* - Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar

( * and  the  Rebelettes )

Chart  entered : 15  March  1975

Chart  peak  : 9

Although  he  fell  a  few  months  short  of  breaking  Paul  Anka's  record , Duane's  was  the  more  surprising  comeback. Anka  had  rekindled  his  US  chart  career   back  in  1969  so  it  was  always  likely  that  one  might  cross  over  but  Duane  hadn't  troubled  the  US  Hot  100  since  1964  and  had  latterly  been  working  as  a  producer.

In  1975  Duane, now  shaggy-haired  and  hirsute , teamed  up  with  hit  producer  Tony  Macaulay  who  wrote  this  song  with  ex-Seeker  Keith  Potger. It's  about   a  50/50  split  between  vocal  and  instrumental  passages. The  Rebelettes  were  three  black  girls  but  I've  no  idea  what  they  were  called  or  whether  they  were  the  same ones  that  had  backed  Duane  on  some  of  his  early  60s  hits. Sounding  surprisingly  like  the  Abba  girls they  trill  a  song  about  being  in  thrall  to  a guitar  player  ( lyrically  very  similar  to  Killing  Me  Softly )  although  it's  also  in  part  a  complaint  about  his  neglect  of  her. When  they  shut  up  Duane  then  plays  the  same   catchy   melody  on  his  bass  strings  in  his  usual  fashion. Macaulay  adds  strings, and  then  oboe  in  the  coda  to  give  the  song  a  lushly  romantic  feel. It's  a  nostalgic  treat  that  deserved  its  success  although  as  far  as  radio  is  concerned  it  never  existed.

Duane  went  on  to  do  the album  "Guitar Man"  with  Macaulay  but  was  unable  to  score  with  the  follow-up  singles. "The  Man  With  The  Gold  Guitar" in  June  1975 is  very  much  in  the  same  mould  with  another  attractive  tune  by  Macaulay  and  Barry  Mason  but  perhaps  another  dose  of  self-mythologising  was  too  much. "Love  Confusion " from  October  avoids  this  trap  and  is  a  great  girl  group  pastiche  but  Duane's  role  is  reduced  and  the drummer  ( Clem  Cattini ? )  is  equally  prominent  on  the  record.

I  don't  think  any  of  these  records  were  released  in  the  US  but  Duane  headed  back  there   and  in  November  1976  released  a  version  of  "You  Are  My  Sunshine  credited  to  "Duane  Eddy  featuring  Deed  ( his  wife ) and  some  very  good  friends"  ( actually  Ry  Cooder, Willie  Nelson  and  Waylon  Jennings ). They  do  the  song  in  a  slowed-down  country  vein; Duane  plays  one  note  at  a  time  and  it's  a  surprise  it  hasn't  cropped  up  on  some  David  Lynch  project.

Since  then  Duane  has  only  recorded  sporadically, In  1986  he  re-emerged  to  guest  on  Art  of  Noise's  re-working  of  his  1959  hit  "Peter  Gunn"  , a  profitable  liaison  for  both  parties  since  it  reached  number  8  in  the  UK ( equalling  their  highest  placing at  the  time ) and  number  50  in  the  US  ( his  first  hit  there  for  22  years ) .  It  also  won  the  Grammy  for  Best  Rock  Instrumental  of  1986.  

Encouraged  to  return  to  the  studio  he  recorded  the  album  "Duane  Eddy"  in  1987  helped  out  by  a  huge  cast  of  celebrity  admirers  including  George  Harrison  and  Paul  McCartney.  The  single  "Rockestra  Theme"  was  written  (  it  originally  appeared  on  Back  To  The  Egg  ) and  produced  by  McCartney. He  also  plays  bass  on  the  track.  With  the  eighties  production  Duane's  low  twang  is  almost  indistinguishable  from  a  Peter  Hook  bassline  and  it's  the  best  thing  on  the  track  which  would  have  benefitted  from  the  absence  of  the   "Why  haven't  I  had  any  dinner ? "  interjections  - Macca's  wacky  humour  at  its  worst. "Spies"  was  another  collaboration  with  the  Art  of  Noise  , an  original  tune  by  Anne  Dudley  and  J J  Jeczalik   but  a  homage  to  Bond  and  other  sixties  spy  thrillers  with  a  couple  of  nice  sax  breaks. Despite  all  the  endorsements  the  album  didn't  sell  and  is  largely  forgotten.

Duane  didn't  release  anything  under  his  own  name  in  the  nineties  but  occasionally  popped  up as  a  guest  on  records  by  Hank  Marvin  , Hans  Zimmer  and  Foreigner. His  profile  in  the  noughties  was  even  lower  but  he  returned  to  the  UK  in  2010 to  play  a  sold  out  show  at  the  Royal  Festival  Hall, This  led  on  to  the  album  "Road  Trip"  , a  collaboration  with  Richard  Hawley  in  2011  which  contains  the  marvellously  incongruous  "Bleaklow  Air",  Duane's  Arizona   twang   decorating  a   lovely  mournful  tune  inspired  by   Derbyshire's  most  godforsaken  stretch  of  peat  moorland. Apart  from  that  one  and  the  hard  rocking  "Primeval"  with its  bracing  sax, the  album's  a  bit  musak-y,  a   dignified  swansong  ( probably- Duane's  77  in  April )  but  nothing  very  exciting.    

267 Hello Barry Manilow - Mandy

Chart  entered : 22  February  1975

Chart  peak : 11

Number  of  hits : 18

So  we  enter  1975 , a   year  almost  universally  maligned  as  a  musical  wasteland  between  glam  and  punk , a  nadir  in  the  story  of  pop. Bob  Stanley : "1975  was  a  year  of  tame  pop -the  tamest  ever - and  myriad  novelties ".  There's  something  in  that  but  I  would  argue  that  in  chart  terms  1976  was  even  worse  - remember  that  single  didn't  chart  until  December - and  there  have  certainly  been  worse  years  in  the  ensuing  decades ; 1989 , the  year  of  Stock  Aitken  and  Waterman  and  Jive  Bunny,  immediately  comes  to  mind. And  as  we  shall  see   two  incalculably  influential  acts  made their  chart  debuts  in  this  year.

Barry  isn't  one  of  them. He  was  born  Barry  Pincus  in  1943  to  a  Jewish  couple  in  Brooklyn. Manilow  was  his  mother's  maiden  name. He  started  working  as  a  backroom  boy  at  CBS  which  helped  him  pay  for  studies  at  a  performing  arts  school.  He  first  made  an  impression  by  riting  the  musical  score  for  an  off  Broadway  musical  The  Drunkard  in  1964.  Work  started  flowing  fast; he  wrote  a  number  of  high  profile  advertising  jingles  and  worked as  a  musical  director  on  TV  notably  for  Ed  Sullivan. He  started  performing  as  part  of  a  duo  with  Jeanne  Lucas  in  a  New  York  club.

Barry  made  his  first  recordings  as  leader  of  a  session  collective  called  Featherbed  who  released  two  singles  produced  by  Dawn's  Tony  Orlando  in  1971. The  first  was  "Amy"  an  overproduced  but  still  listenable  pyschedelic-tinged  pop  song , the  second  was  an  early  version  of  his  signature  song  "Could  It  Be  Magic" given  a  cabaret  pop  arrangement  ( which  Barry  hated )  for  which  Orlando  gave  himself  a  co-composer  credit.  Neither  bothered  the  charts.

Later  that  year  Barry  was  taken  on  as  musical  director  and  producer  by  Bette  Midler . He  worked  on  her  first  two  albums  and  tours. He  released  his  eponymous  debut  album  in  July  1973  to  little  acclaim. The first  single  was  "Cloudburst" with  the  seven-minute  Chopin-cribbing  version  of  "Could  It  Be  Magic"  on  the  flip. "Cloudburst"  sets  my  teeth  on  edge, a  Broadway  jazz  tune  by  John  Hendricks  gabbled  ridiculously  fast. It  wasn't  a  hit.

Barry's  record  company  Bell  was  taken  over  by  Columbia  in  1974  and  the  new  label  Arista  was  launched. Its  head  Clive  Davis  favoured  Barry  and  took  a  personal  interest  in  his  development. When  Barry  was  recording  his  second  LP  "Barry  Manilow  II"  he   persuaded  him  to  include  a  version  of  the  Scott  English  hit  "Brandy" , re-titled  to  avoid  confusion  with  the  subsequent  hit  single  of  the  same  title  by  Looking  Glass. Released  as  a  single  in  October  1974  in  the  US  it  quickly  found  its  way  to  number  one.

The  song  is  a  regretful  lament  for  a  lost  girlfriend  that  wasn't  fully  appreciated  at  the  time.  Barry  and  arranger  Joe  Renzetti  stripped  out  the  ornate  Bee  Gees-inspired  instrumentation   and  smoothed  out  the  lumpy  rhythm  in  the  chorus  for  a  sweeping  piano  and  strings  extravaganza  more  akin  to  Neil  Sedaka. Barry's  rather  ordinary  voice  somehow  makes  it  less  self-pitying  and  more  romantic; like  Arnold  Schwarzenegger  in  movies  he  was  able  to turn  ineptitude  to  his  own  advantage.

Barry  went  on  to  make  some  pretty  awful  records  but  this  is  something  of  a  guilty  pleasure  unlike  its  execrable  resurrection  by  the  stools  on  stools a  few  decades  later. This  might  in  part  be  due  to  being  the  first  rude  mishearing  of  a  lyric  I  can  recall. Playground  wisdom  held  that  he  was  singing  "Well  you  kissed  me  and  stopped me  from  shagging". Not  being  familiar  with  the  last  word  I  was  not  quite  accurately  informed  that  it  was  another  word  for  stripping. Accordingly  when  it  was  played  on  the  coach  radio  on  a  boys  only  school trip  to  Old  Trafford   everyone  sang  lustily  along . And  so  Barry  is  associated  with  my  first  steps  inside  a  football  ground, then  unbelievably a  Second  Division  one, Manchester United  having  swapped  places  with  Carlisle  United   the  previous  May. I  don't  recall  much  other  than  standing  around  bemused  while  others  slavered  at  the  sight  of  Stuart  Pearson's  muddy  boots  in  the  dressing  room.    

266 Goodbye Gene Pitney - Blue Angel

Chart  entered : 2  November  1974

Chart  peak : 39

Gene  had  hurdled  Beatlemania  well  enough  scoring  a  couple  of  number  2s  in  the  mid-sixties and  a  steady  string  of  top  tenners. By  the  time  "Something's  Got  A  Hold  Of  My  Heart" started  dropping  from  its  number  5  peak  in  1967 it  was  clear  that  his  heyday  had  passed  but unlike  many  of  his  contemporaries  his  fanbase  was  strong  enough  to  give  him  minor  hits when  he  had  the  right  song.

"Blue  Angel"  was  written  by  Roger  Cook  and  is  a  cautionary  observation  of  a  childhood  friend  who  became  a  prostitute  and  drug  addict  when  she  didn't  make  it  as  a  singer, one  of  a  number  of  songs  about  fame  casualties  around  this  time  ( see  also  It  Never  Rains  in  Southern  California  and  Emma ) . The  jaunty  music  hall  backing  disguises  the  nature  of  the  song  well  so  the  bluntness  of  the  third  verse's  lyric  e.g "Your  flesh  is  just  a  souvenir  of  London  for  a  while " ( shades  of  The  Jam's  Butterfly  Collector )  comes  as  quite  a  jolt  . It  goes  without  saying  that  Gene's  delivery  is  impeccable,  teasing  out  all  the  pathos  in  the  song. In  Australia  it  made  number  two.

The  immediate  follow-up  was  "Trans-Canada  Highway"  a  rather  episodic  country  pop  tune  about  running  off  with  a  lawman's  wife. It's  not  a  bad  song  but  the  pace  doesn't  really  suit  Gene's  style. It  was  a  Top  20  hit  in  Australia, his  last  new  song  to  chart  in  any  Anglophone  country. "Train  Of  Thought "  from  October  1974   was  a  US  hit  for  Cher  in  1974. Gene  gives  it  a  disco  treatment  with  electric  piano  and  sax  breaks  and  it  wouldn't  have  been  out  of  place  on  the  Saturday  Night  Fever  soundtrack. I  haven't  heard  "You  Are"  from  April  1976  but  " Hold  On"  an  early  song  from  Chris  de Burgh  gets  a  kitchen  sink  production  and  is  the  sort  of  overblown  ballad  that  only   Gene  can  really  pull  off. It  was  his  final  single  for  Bronze.

Gene  signed  for Epic  and  released  "Sandman"  in  February  1977  a  Neil  Diamond-ish  country  pop  number  that  takes too  long  to  get  to  the  chorus.  "Love  On  Our  Hands"   is  light  Dooleys  pop  with  some  nasty  synthesiser  sounds  and  a   young  love  lyric  that's  a  bit  undignified  for  someone  of  Gene's  standing.

At  the  end  of  1977  Gene  released  his  final  single  for  over  a  decade  and  drove  the  point  home  by  doing  a  medley  of  two  different  songs  called  "It's  Over"  the  Roy  Orbison  classic  and  a  Jimmie  Rodgers  number. It's  a  skilfully  executed  finale  but  wasn't  a  hit  and  perhaps  he  didn't  want  it  to  be.

Gene  retired  from  the  recording  studio  and  established  a  routine  of  touring  for  six  months  of  the  year  and  spending  the  rest  of  the  time  with  his  family  which  he  largely  stuck  to  for  the  rest  of  his  life. His  profile  in  the  eighties  was  subterranean  until  1988  when  Marc  Almond  recorded  "Something's  Gotten  Hold  Of  My  Heart "  for  his  album  The  Stars  We  Are . When  it  was   decided  to  release  it  as  a  single  Almond  tentatively  approached  Gene  who  was  up  for  a  full  duet  and  just  weeks  later  had  the  number  one  single  that  had  always  eluded  him. Meanly  Radio  One  , having  long  since  consigned  Gene  to  Radio  Two, insisted  on  playing  the  album  version  except  on  chart  rundowns  despite  the  fact  that  if  Almond's  previous  solo  career  was  anything  to  go  by  it  wouldn't  have  got  close  to  number  one  without  Gene. For  this  piece  of  Stalinism  they  perhaps  deserved  the  Bannister  blitkreig.

Gene  re-released  the  "It's  Over"  medley  as  a  follow-up  but  it  didn't  make  the  charts. He  was  then  tempted  back  into  the  studio  to  record  some  fresh  covers  to  pair  up  with  his  biggest  hits  on  the  album  "Backstage: The  Greatest  Hits  And  More". None  of  them  are  very  inspired  and  his  voice  has  lost  some  of  its  power. A  girl  in  the  office  I  worked  in  at  the  time  regularly  went  to  see  him  with  her  mum  and  said  he  had  a  younger  guy  with  him  on  stage  to  fill  up  the  gaps. The  album  sold  modestly  and  his  version  of  Sayer  and  Courtney's  "In  My  Life"  ( very  dull )  went  nowhere  as  a  single

Gene  accepted  that  his  return  to  the  spotlight  was  temporary  and  resumed  his  normal  schedule. His  last  TV  performance  was  unfortunately  an  oft-repeated  miming  disaster  on   This  Morning  where,  after  a  grovelling  introduction  from  Richard  Madeley , the  crew  cocked  up  the  playback  so  the  record  started  without  Gene  being  able  to  hear  it. Thankfully  he  saw  the  funny  side  of  it. Gene's  last  recording  was  a  duet   part  on  "Half  Heaven  Half  Heartache"  as  recorded   by  June  Olivor.

In  April  2006  Gene was  found  dead , fully  clothed  ,on  a  hotel  bed  in  Cardiff  after  a  successful  concert  there. He  was  a  fitness  fanatic  but  his  heart  had  just  stopped. A  good  way  to  go  if  you  ask  me.      

265 Goodbye Paul Anka* - ( You're ) Having My Baby

( * featuring  Odia  Coates )

Chart  entered : 29  September  1974

Chart  peak : 6

Paul  smashed  Jerry's  comeback  record  with  this  one, his  first  UK  hit  in  12 years  and  his  first  in  the  Top  10  since  1959. There's  a  nice  symmetry  to  a  run  that  began  with  him  serenading  his  babysitter  ending  with  him  about  to  need  one.

There's  a  mystery  here. The  song  got  to  number  6  and  it  was  in  the  Top  20  for  6  weeks  but   I  have  no  contemporary   memory  of  it  at  all  and  this  was  a  time  when  listening  to  the  charts  was  a  religious  ritual  for  me. All  the  records  that  were  in  the  chart  at  the  same  time   are  familiar  but  when  this  came  up  in  a  quiz  in  the  late  eighties  and  team-mates  looked  to  me  as  the  pop  guru  I  hadn't  a  clue. I  know  I  missed  at  least  one  Top  of  the  Pops  around  this  time  because  I've   never  seen   the  Robert  Wyatt  appearance  that  people  still  talk  about  but  was  there  any  other  reason  that  could  account  for  it (  an  airplay  ban  perhaps ) ?  Answers  on  a  postcard  please.

What  makes  this  hole  all  the  more  intriguing  is  that  many  people  loathe  this  record  and,  by  extension,  its  author, with  a  vehemence  that  transcends  the  normal  "Justin  Bieber  sucks"  response   in  musical  criticism. Simon  Frith  in  his  book  Taking  Popular  Music  Seriously  is  one,   citing  "( You're )  Having  My  Baby "  as  an  example  of  bad  music  for  relying  on  false  sentiment. Actually  it's  difficult  to  know  how  Frith  could  be  so  sure  Paul  didn't  mean  it  when  he'd  fathered  four  of  his  five  daughters  by  this  point.

The  syrupy  nature  of  the  record  is  one  thing  but  where  the  song  really  needled  people  was / is  the  line  "You  could  have  swept  it  from  your  life  but  you  wouldn't  do  it "  which  feminists , fiercely  protective  of  the  recent  Roe  vs  Wade  decision, interpreted  as  a  Pro-Life  message. The  previous  line  "Didn't  have  to  keep it  wouldn't  put  you  through  it "  implying  that  Paul  would  have  been  OK  with  an  abortion  made  things  worse  with  its  suggestion  that  the  girl  would  have  needed   his  absolution. It  was  picked  to  shreds. The  "My " in  the  title  should  have  been  "Our " ; Paul  tacitly  acknowledged  this  by  changing  it  in  performance  before  dropping  it   from  his  set  altogether. His  friend  Odia  Coates  is  already  in  a  subservient  position  on  the  record; effectively  she's  just  parroting  the  lines  he's    sung   before  her  and  then  she  didn't  appear  in  the  promo  film  at  all.  None  of  this  stopped  the  record  reaching  number  one  in  the  US  but  Paul  was  showered  with  negative  awards  from  women's  organisations  and  the  criticism  continues  to  this  day.

I  don't  find  the  record  offensive   but  it's  not  very  good  either. The  melody  lines  on  the  electric  piano  are  surely  cribbed  from  Elton  John's  Daniel   and  his  vocal  is  very  rough   , sounding  strained  and  off-key  throughout. Perhaps  I  simply  tuned  out  straightaway.

Britain  turned  its  back  on  him  after  this  but  he  was  still  a big  star  in  America  for  a  while churning  out  more  middle  of  the  road  romantic  ballads  assisted  by  Coates. In  the  follow-up  "One  Man  Woman/ One  Woman  Man"  ( US : 7 )  he's  an  adulterer  cheating  on  a  faithful  wife. "I  Don't  Like  To  Sleep  Alone ( US : 8 )  sounds  like  its  remorseful  sequel. The  rather  robotic  "There's  Nothing  Stronger  Than  Our  Love" ( US; 15 )  completes  the  trilogy. "Times  Of  Your  Life"  was  a  glutinous  advertising  jingle  he  sang  but  didn't  write  for  Kodak  which  gave  him  his  last  Top  10  hit  in  the  US  in  1976.

Thereafter  his  chart  fortunes  fell  off  quite  dramatically, possibly  due  to  the  emergence  of  a  big-nosed  New  Yorker  working  in  a  similar  field  who  we'll  be  coming  to  soon  enough. The  country-tinged  "Anytime"  peaked  at  33  and  the  interminable , meandering  "Happiness"  which  he  seems  to  be  making  up  as  he  goes  along  somehow   got  to  number  60.

By  1977  Odia  Coates  was  on  Epic  trying  to  kick  start  a  solo  career  and  Paul  wrote  and  accompanied   her  on  the   disco  single  "Make  It  Up  To  Me  In  Love  Baby". It's  very  average  and  didn't  trouble  the  charts. "Everybody  Ought  To  Be  In  Love " ( US : 75 )  which  I  haven't  heard  and  the  schmaltzy  "My  Best  Friend's  Wife"  ( US : 80 )  closed  his  account  with  United  Artists.

His  first single  on  RCA, the  maudlin  piano  ballad  "Brought  Up  In  New  York"  missed  out  on  the  charts  but  the  hardly  livelier  "This  Is  Love"  ( not  written  by  Paul )   restored  him  as  far  as  number  35  despite  Paul  sounding  like  he's  got  sinus  trouble. In  1979  he  teamed  up  with  Barry  Mann  and  Cynthia  Weil  for  the  awful  self-congratulatory  "As  Long  As  We  Keep  Believing"  which  didn't  chart.

His  first  single  of  the  eighties  was  "I  Think  I'm  In  Love  Again"  which  is  indistinguishable  from  a  Manilow  ballad. "I've  Been  Waiting  For  You  All  Mt  Life "  is  more  Neil  Diamond  but  not  much  better  though  it  reached  number  48. "Lady  Lay  Down "  is  a   country  cover  and  a  good  cure  for  insomnia.

By  1983   he  was  on  Columbia  and  scored  his  final  US  hit  with  "Hold  Me  Til  The  Morning  Comes"  , a  boring  ballad  chock  full  of   awful  eighties  synth  programming   and  drum  machine  sounds  and  the  inevitable  dentist  drill  guitar  solo. Its  belated  follow-up  "Second  Chance"  an  AOR  rocker  on  which  he  sounds  remarkably  like  Michael  McDonald was  his  last  record  for  some  time.

Paul's  most  famous  recording  of  the  eighties  was  a  secretly-recorded  foulmouthed  rant  at  his  backing  band  for  being  loose  and  not  sticking  to  instructions.  It's  a  source  of  some  classic  phrases - "Don't  make  a  fucking  maniac  out  of  me ", "The  guys  get  shirts "  and  "I  slice  like  a  hammer".

Paul's  next  single  was  a  co-write  with  McDonald . It  was  a  duet  with  Julia  Migenes  on  "No  Way  Out "  for  the  Kevin  Costner  film  of  the  same  name  in  1987. The  film  was  good; the  song  is  tedious  in  the  extreme.

Paul  dabbled  in  acting  in  between  live  commitments,  guest  appearances   and  recording  the  odd  LP  that  wasn't  released  outside  Canada. In  2005  he  went  down  the  Pat  Boone  route  and  recorded  an  album  of  rock  covers  re-worked  as  big  band  numbers  "Rock  Swings". For  some  strange  reason  Jon  Bon  Jovi  helped  him  out  on  it.  Even  more  bizarrely  enough  people  over  here  liked  the  idea  of  "Smells  Like  Teen  Spirit "  and  "Wonderwall"  re-imagined  as  Bobby  Darin   swing  tunes  to  get  it  to  number  9  in  the  charts  although  a  second  volume  two  years  later  was  taking  the  joke  too  far.  His  latest  album  "Duets  "  was  released  last  year.    
  

 

 

264 Hello The Commodores - Machine Gun

Chart  entered :  24th  August  1974

Chart  peak  : 20

Number  of  hits : 16

The  advent  of  disco  also  brought  about  a  resurgence  of  the  instrumental  hit  - I'm  struggling  to  think  of  any   to  be  found  in  the  glam  rock  canon - and  that's  how  Alabama's  Commodores  first  broke  into  the  charts.

Like  Showaddywaddy,  The  Commodores  were  formed  from  a  merger  of  two  existing  groups , the  Mystics  and  The  Jays  at  Tuskegee  Institute  in  1968. Lionel  Ritchie  , Thomas  McClary  and  William  King  from  the  former  joined  Milan  Williams  ( and  two  other  guys  who  were  quickly  replaced  by  Ronald  LaPraed  and  Walter  Orange )  from  the  latter  to  form  The  Commodores  , a  name  plucked  at  random  from  a  dictionary. Most  of  them  were  multi-instrumentalists  who  regularly  swapped  roles  but  the  most  common  line  up  was  Ritchie-vocals, McClary -  guitar, King - trumpet, Williams -  keyboards , LaPraed - bass  and  Orange - drums.

The  band  were  not  an  overnight  success. They  had  a  short  spell  on  Atlantic  in  1969  where  they  released  one  single,  the  instrumental  "Keep  On  Dancing"  which  is  an  interesting  blend    of  early  Chicago   and  James  Brown  with  some  great  drumming  but  not  that  strong  a  melody. Their  big  break  came  in  1972  when  they  supported  The  Jackson  Five  on  tour  and   were  signed  up  to  Motown's  West  Coast  subsidiary  Mowest.

Their  first  single  "The  Zoo  ( The  Human  Zoo )  was  released  in  March  1972  and  is  a  riotous  mess. The  song  was  written  and  produced  by  Gloria  Jones  and  Pam  Sawyer  and  is  apparently  a  Marvin  Gaye  -ish  consciousness  anthem  although  you  wouldn't  know  it  from  the  terrible  production  which  has  Thomas's  guitar  too  high  in  the  mix  and  renders  most  of  the  lyrics  unintelligible. There's  also  just  too  much  going  on  on  the  record  though  that  didn't  stop it  becoming  a  favourite  at  Wigan  Casino. A  cleaned  up  version  was  on  their  debut  LP  "Machine  Gun"  the  following  year.

In  January  1973  they  released   "Don't  You  Be  Worried"  a  more  conventional  pop  soul  number  co-written  by  Walter  who  perhaps  did  the  Levi  Stubbs- esque   vocal   as  well  because  it's  certainly  not  Lionel. Despite  its  lack  of  chart  success  it  must  have  pleased  someone  because  they  were  promoted  to  the  main  label  for  their  next  one ," Are  You  Happy "  in  August. It's  a  languid  downbeat  urban  soul  number  that  sounds  like  the  theme  song  to  some  forgotten  blaxploitation  movie  with  Diahann  Caroll  living  on  welfare. It  doesn't  work  because  Lionel's  light  vocal  doesn't  seem  in  the  least  bit  concerned  about  the  subject  matter.

This  was  the  song  that  broke  them  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic, another  sleeper  hit  that  was  actually  released  in  April. The  tune  was  written  by  Milan  although  named  by  Berry  Gordy  who  said  Milan's  clavinet  work  reminded  him  of  gunfire. I  can't  hear  that  myself  I  must  say. What  it  is  is  an  infectious  itchy  funk  number , clearly  influenced  by  Stevie  Wonder but  those  high-pitched  clavinet  lines  give  it  some  distinction   ( and  will  crop  up  again  in  late  eighties  R  &  B  ).  It  gives little  indication  that  the  group  would  go  on  to  record  the  most  soporific   number  one  of  the  decade  and  numerous  pale  imitations  thereafter  but  then  artists  don't always  take  the  road  you  would  have  chosen.

263 Hello K.C. and the Sunshine Band - Queen of Clubs

Chart  entered : 17  August  1974

Chart  peak : 7

Number  of  hits : 13

After  a  run  of  artists  that  America  wasn't  very  interested  in  we  tackle  a  group  that  were  a  much  bigger  deal  over  there  than  here. I  don't  think  I'd  heard  this  one  for  forty  years  but  it  was  still  familiar  because  1974  was  a  memorable  summer. New  families  had  moved  in  on  our  road  bringing  new  playmates, we  went  on  holiday  to  St  Annes, there  was  an  alarming  fire  at  the  chemical  works  just  up  the  road   and  then  a  murder  just  three  doors  away  but  most  of  all , there  was  the  knowledge  that  we  were  going  to  a  newly-opened  school  in  September  a  couple  of  miles  away  in  Rochdale, my  mother  having  decided  to  yank  us  from  St  Mary's  after  one  argument  too  many  with  the  husband-and-wife  team  who  ran  it. I  have  mixed  feelings  about  it  now. It  would  have  been  nice  to  finish  off  my primary  education  in  Littleborough  and  I  missed  out  on  a  great  teacher  who  I  got  to know  some  years  later.  On  the  other  hand  I  was  spared  two  years'  acquaintance  of  a  new  girl  who  went  to  St  Marys  as  we  left  - Deborah  Ward,  if  you're  reading  this  you  were  - perhaps  still  are -  a  grade  A  bitch. I  digress...

Despite  their  name  K.C.  and  the  Sunshine  Band  were  initially  a   studio  duo , singer  and  keyboard  player  Harry  Wayne  Casey and  his  songwriting  partner,  bassist  Richard  Finch.  Both  of  them  worked  for  T. K.  Records  in  Florida , Richard  having  the  more  senior  position.  A  bit  later  when  their  efforts  started  to  pay  off  and  the  need  to  play  live  became  an  issue  they  added  two  more  members  to  the  band  who  were  already  working  at  TK   as  session  musicians, guitarist  Jerome  Smith  and  drummer  Robert  Johnson.  On  stage  they  swelled  to 12  people  with  percussionists, a  brass  section  and  female  backing  singers , some  of  whom  were   also  present  on  the  records, but  those  four  were  the  only  official  members.

TK  Records  owner  Henry  Stone  was  indulgent  towards  their  efforts  and  gave  them  studio  time  to  work  on  some  songs. The  first  to  be  released  was  "Blow  Your  Whistle"  released under  the  name  KC  and  the  Sunshine  Junkanoo  Band  ( it's  a  type  of  Bahamian  rhythm )  in  September  1973.  There's  not  much  of  a  song  to  its  two  and  a  half  minutes . Harry  sings  a  few  exhortations  to  dance  and  make  music  but  the  spine  of  the  record  is  a  low-slung  bassline  - God  knows  why  Richard  allowed  Harry  to  be  credited  as  sole  author - winding  among  the  exuberant  percussion  and  chatter. It's  far  closer  to  War  than  what  we'd  generally  think  of  as  disco  despite  the  piercing  whistles.

Their  second  single  was  "Sound  Your  Funky  Horn "  ( which  became  their  second  UK  hit  )  in  December  1973. Harry  co-wrote  it  with  Clarence  Reid  who  made  a  name  for  himself  as  Blowfly  an  R  & B  Judge  Dread  although  the  lyrics  to  SYFH  seem  innocent  enough, just  a  series  of  instructions  to  the  musicians  to  lock  into  the  groove. The  whistles  have  been  replaced  by  a  horn  section  who  fill  up  all  the  spaces  while  Harry  sings  in  his  raspy  voice.  that    sounds  more  suited  to  rock  than  smooth  soul.

Harry's  voice  became  an  issue  with  the  duo's   next  song   "Rock  Your  Baby"  because  he  couldn't  hit  the  high  notes  required. It  was  touted  around  other  singers  coming  into  TK's  studios  and   the  little  known  George  Macrae  pounced  on  it.  The  song  of  course  was  an  international  sensation  and  number  one  in  every  market  that  mattered. Harry  and  Richard  hadn't  written  the  first  disco  record  but  it  was  the  genre's  Rock  Around  The  Clock   selling  over  10  million  copies  worldwide. Macrae  proved  unable  to  sustain  his  success  to  the  extent  that  he  doesn't  qualify for  a  post  here  but  the  song  established  its  writers  as  very  hot  property  indeed.

Their  next  single  was  this  one , a  third  track  from  their  LP  "Do  It  Good". It  was  written  by  Harry  and  an  outside  writer  Willie  Clarke. Ostensibly  an  expression  of  admiration  for  a   young  lady  whose  presence  is  required  for  a  party  to  swing  it's  long  been  thought  of  as  a  paean to  cocaine  and  the  lyrics  certainly  lend  themselves  to  that  interpretation  which  is  perhaps  why  you  don't  hear  it  on  the  radio.  Musically  it  picks  up  the  pace  from  their  previous  singles  with  a  pulsing  bassline  and  truncated  little brass  riffs  - The  Jam's  Precious  certainly  suggests  Mr  Weller  was  listening - for  urgency  and  the  euphoric  high  in  the  chorus  provided  by  the  falsetto  howls  of  Macrae  ( uncredited  but  he  could  hardly  complain  now ). Harry's  singing  isn't  technically  perfect  but  that  hardly  matters  on  such  an  exciting seize-the-  moment   record.

262 Hello Mike Oldfield - Mike Oldfield's Single ( Theme from Tubular Bells )

Chart  entered  : 13  July  1974

Chart  peak  : 31

Number  of  hits  : 18

Here's  the  decade's  most  reluctant  superstar; like  Pink  Floyd  the  singles  chart  doesn't  give  a  true  reflection  of  his  status.

Mike  is  a  doctor's  son  from  Reading  born  in  1953. He  was  a  teenage  guitar  prodigy  playing in  folk  clubs  from  an  early  age,  In  1967  he  formed  the  folk  duo  The  Sallyangie   with  his older  sister  Sally  who  by  happy  chance  had  gone  to  school  with  Marianne  Faithful.  She enlisted  Mick  Jagger  to  help  them  record  some  demoes.  They  were  signed  to  Transatlantic Records  and  released  their  only  album "Children  of  the  Sun"  in  1969.

"Children  of  the  Sun"  is  very  much  a  product  of  its  time.  The  duo's  blend  of   Tyrannosaurus  Rex , Fairport  Convention  and  Simon  and  Garfunkel  is  a  quaint  product  of  the  late  60s  British  folk  scene.  All  the songs  were  composed  by  the  siblings  giving  full  rein  to  Sally's romantic  medieval  bent  which  at  times  makes  it  unbearably  fey. Nor  is  she  as  good  a  singer  as  she  thinks  and  some  of  the  high  notes  are  physically  painful to  hear . I  think  Mike  would  be  the  first  to  admit  that  he  hasn't  got  much  of  a  voice  and  his  harmonies  and  occasional  solo  lines  are  barely  adequate. Yet  there  is  something  there  beside  his  liquid  guitar  playing  and  at  times  it  captures  that  very  English  pastoral  bent  as  well  as  anyone  else.  They  also  released  "Two  Ships ",  a  Mary  Hopkin-ish  pop  song  not  written  by  the  duo   and  produced  by  Shel  Talmy,  on  which  it's  hard  to  detect  any  input  from  Mike  at  all. That  was  it  apart  from  the  release  of  a  more  typical   outtake  "Child  of  Allah"   in  1972 , three  years after  their  split  and  on  a  different  label. I  don't  know  what  the  story  behind  that  is.

Mike  then  formed  a  short lived  duo  Barefoot  ( not  the  same  band  who  had  a  single  on  Pye  in  1971 )  with  his  brother  Terry. often  wrongly  assumed  to  have  been  the  flautist  on  Sallyangie  recordings. They  didn't  record  anything  before  Mike  joined  a  group  called  The  Whole  World  who  were  put  together  by  ex-Soft  Machine  vocalist  Kevin  Ayers  to  tour  his  first  solo  LP. Mike  was  mainly  employed  as  a  bassist  but  did  some  guitar  work  as  well. The  tour  was  actually  cut  short  because  the  bon  viveur  Ayers  didn't  enjoy  the  grind  of  touring  but  Mike  hung  around  to  play  on  two  of  his  subsequent  albums  , "Shooting  At  The  Moon" in  1970  and  "Whatevershebringswesing"  the  following  year. He  is  the  author  of  the  music  on  "Champagne  Cowboy  Blues "  on  the  latter  though  not  credited  as  such. It's  a  dreary  dirge  as  a  song  but  the  guitar  solos  are  worth  hearing.

Mike  was  also  doing  session  work  and  fatefully  made  first  contact  with  Richard  Branson's   fledgling  Virgin  operation  when  he  went  to  the  Manor  Studios  near  Oxford  with  soul  singer  Arthur  Lewis  in  September  1971.  He  found  two  guys  there  who  liked  the  instrumental  opus  he  was  putting  together  and  they  came  back  with  an  offer  of  a  week's  free  studio  time  to  complete  it.

I've  already  written  about  Tubular  Bells  ( a  long  time  ago  now )  TB. The  album  was  originally  released  a  year  before  this  single  and  to  awaken  American  interest  parts  of  the    first  eight  minutes  of  Side  One  were  excerpted  by  staff  at  Atlantic  for  a  three  minute  single  including  the  bit  used  by  The  Exorcist   which  made  it  a  big  US  hit  ( his  only  one ).  The  editing  was  poor  and  Oldfield  hadn't  been  consulted  about  the  release. Although  he  was  already  working  on  the  follow-up  album  "On  Hergest  Ridge"  he  told  Virgin  that  if  they  wanted  a  single  to  further  promote  "Tubular  Bells "  in  the  UK  he'd  sort  it  out  himself.

This  single ( Virgin's  first  actually )  is  a  development  of  a  brief  waltz  time  section on  Side  Two  of  the  album. It  works  very  well  as  an  evocative    instrumental  in  its  own  right  and  having  heard  it  before  I  bought  the  album, I  was  slightly  disappointed  that  the  melody  passes  by  so  briefly  on  the  latter. I'm  sure  the  part  in  brackets  must  have  caught  some  people  out   who  wanted  the  music  they'd  heard  in  the  horror  film  and  confusion  may  have  depressed  its  chart  position.    

261 Hello Showaddywaddy - Hey Rock And Roll

Chart  entered  : 18  May  1974

Chart  peak  : 2

Number  of  hits : 23

Showaddywaddy  are  usually  instantly  dismissed  as  a  cabaret  covers  band  catering  for  the  nostalgia  market; Bob  Stanley's Yeah  Yeah  Yeah  doesn't  even  mention  them. Yet until  Cheryl  and  her  cohorts  in  this  century,  they  were  by  some  distance  the  most  successful   band  ever  launched  through  a  TV  talent  show  ( they're  actually  tied  with  Girls  Aloud  on  number  of  hits  but  the  girls  take  them  on  average chart  position )  and  in  big  Romeo  Challenger  they  had  pop's  first  black  drummer  ( both  Hot  Chocolate  and  The  Equals  had  a  white  guy  behind  the  kit ).

Despite  their  retro  image  the  band  were  all  still  in  their  twenties. They  were  based  in  Leicester  but  didn't  all  come  from  the  city originally. The  first  two  to  work  together  were  singer  Bill  "Buddy"  Gask  and  drummer  Malcolm  Allured  who  formed  The  Golden  Hammers  a  covers  band  who  worked  the  European  club  circuit  in  the  mid-60s. After  a  couple  of  years  they  went  their  separate  ways   but  reunited  in  the  early  seventies  and  reformed  the  band  with  guitarist  Russ  Field  and bassist  Rod  Deas. They  had  something  of  a  biker  image.

Another  band  on  the  Leicester  scene  were  Choise  featuring  Dave  Bartram (vocals), Trevor  Oakes ( guitar) and  Geoff  Betts  who  later  changed  his  name  to  Al  James  ( bass ) . They  got  to  make  a  single  in  1970  with  a  young  Mike  Batt  as  producer  and  arranger, a  cover  of  Simon  and  Garfunkel's  "Cecilia". Despite  that  they  generally  wrote  their  own  material. In  1973  they  sacked  their  drummer  and  recruited  Romeo  through  a  newspaper  ad. Romeo  had  spent  the  past  couple  of  years  playing  in  the  Leicester  hard  rock  band  Black  Widow  who'd  started  out  as  Satanists  and  had  a  hit  album  ( before  Romeo's  time )  on  the  coat-tails  of  Black  Sabbath. They  then  toned  the  occult  stuff   down  to  reach  a  wider  audience  but  only  succeeded  in  losing  their  original  following  and  neither  of  their  subsequent  albums  sold; CBS  dropped  them  before  the  third  one  with  Romeo  came  out.

Romeo  had  hardly  sat  down  behind  his  kit  before  Choise  decided  to  amalgamate  with  The  Hammers  after  both  played  in  the  same  pub  one  night. Reluctant  to  sack  anybody , Showaddywaddy  had  two  men  for  every  role  which  allowed  some  of  the  musicians  to  drop  their  instrument  and  join  the  two  frontmen  in  slick  dance  routines. I'm  not   quite  sure  when  they  adopted  the  multi-coloured  teddy  boy  look  but  it  was  in  place  for  their   appearance   on  New  Faces  in  autumn  1973. They  performed   a  medley  of  Cochran  and  Holly  classics  and  won  hands  down.  Mickie  Most  was  very  impressed  and  tried  to  sign  them. They  came  second  in  the  All  Winners  show  at  the  end  of  the  year; Dave  has  alleged  that  the  winner  was  already  under  contract  to  Most. The  band  had  a  queue  of  record  companies trying  to  sign  them  but  settled  for  Bell.

Showaddywaddy's  colour  coded  drapes  removed  the  last  vestiges  of  menace  and  rebellion  attaching  to  the  teddy  boy  style  from  the  fifties. Down  in  World's  End,  a  half-Jewish  entrepreneur  who'd  previously  made  a  living  selling  ted'  threads  realised  it  was  time for  something  new...

"Hey  Rock  And  Roll"  was  their  debut  single  released  in  April  1974. Like  most  of  their  early  singles  it  was  their  own  composition  ( they  only  stuck  exclusively to  covers  for  their  singles  after  1976  when  their   self-written  flop  "Take  Me  In  Your  Arms"  was  immediately  followed  by  "Under  The  Moon  Of  Love"  just  missing  out  on  a  platinum  disc )   with  a  lead  vocal  by  Buddy  . Former  Springfield  Mike  Hurst  was  the  producer.

The  song  is  rock  and  roll  through  the  glam  filter  of  label mate  Gary  Glitter  ( minus  his  now-cloying  narcissism ) and  Cozy  Powell.  The  hook  is  the  almighty  triple  bass  drum  thump  punctuating  each  line  of  the  football  chant  chorus  inviting  their   platform-booted  audience  to  stamp  along  on  a  ( hopefully ) sprung  floor. It's  as  subtle  as  a  headbutt  but  effective  enough. Like  Sweet's  Teenage  Rampage  earlier  in  the  year  the  intro  rises  out  of  crowd  noise  and  Dave  shouts  an  introduction  to  the  band. The  rest  of  the  song  is  just  fluff, recycled  Chubby  Checker   stuffing  in  as  many  lyrical  cliches  about  "record  machines " hand  jives" "my  limousine" and  "blue  jeans"  as  will  scan  or  rhyme. Buddy  delivers  it  with  his  limited  range  of  Holly  and  Presley  mannerisms  while  Dave  ad  libs  on  the  final  chorus. Within  a  year  he  would  completely  eclipse  Buddy  as  lead  singer  with  his  more  distinctive  voice,  at  least  as  far  as   singles  were  concerned.

No  they  weren't  going  to  change  the  world  but  they  were  contenders  for  the  rest  of  the  decade.