Whenever I hear tracks such as R Dean
Taylor’s ‘There’s a Ghost in My House’, Cockney Rebel’s ‘Judy Teen’ or
Showaddywaddy’s debut ‘Hey, Rock’n’Roll’ I can almost smell the new-mown grass
and post-football sweat!
Another big hit in the summer term was
‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For the Both of Us’ by Sparks.
Back then, it had mere novelty value but now I regard it as a Seventies
classic. Russell Mael’s frantic falsetto and the peculiar piano poses of
brother Ron – dubbed by us ‘the Sparks loony’ – made for an unusual act.
Nevertheless, the song left me breathless, and still does. Later, they turned
down the pace for ‘Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth’ but the result was
also highly entertaining. They’ve never stopped working either. While not often
troubling the charts, they’ve been consistent darlings of UK music journos.
American-born, maybe, but surely approaching the status of British national
treasures.
A young Scottish group called The Bay
City Rollers were beginning to win the hearts of schoolgirls, with four top ten
singles. Some long-haired art-rockers with a really ugly lead singer also released
some interesting records, the best being ‘Killer Queen’. We were to hear a lot
more from them! Leo Sayer’s career began at the start of the year in clown’s
costume and make-up, performing the engagingly quirky ‘The Show Must Go On’
then the character was discarded for another entertaining top five single,
‘Long Tall Glasses’. However, there were also some appealing songs from
performers more commonly linked to the previous decade.
Lulu took an unexpected change of
musical direction with David Bowie’s ‘The Man Who Sold the World’, The Rolling
Stones were back on form with ‘It’s Only Rock’n’Roll’ (the one with the promo
film featuring the boys being slowly submerged in bubbles!) and The Hollies
brought out possibly their best single, ‘The Air That I Breathe’,
featuring a brilliant guitar intro and haunting vocals from Allan Clarke.
Paul McCartney & Wings had huge success
with their album ‘Band on the Run’, and I enjoyed the title track.
It was one of those singles with three distinct sections which works a treat.
The album cover was also memorable for featuring Paul, Linda and Denny dressed
as escaping prisoners posing with a very mixed bunch of celebrities, from
Michael Parkinson to film star James Coburn and boxer John Conteh! Only The
Carpenters’ ‘Singles 1969-73’ sold more albums than ‘Band on the Run’ that
year.
Coincidentally, Alan Price and The
Scaffold each made the top ten simultaneously with songs celebrating the towns
of their birth. Not earth-shattering, but both the autobiographical ‘Jarrow
Song’ and ‘Liverpool Lou’ were very catchy tunes, also heard and hummed on the
Mayflower School field.
The American heartthrobs were starting
to lose their grip. The Osmonds showed Louis Walsh and Boyzone the future with
‘Love Me For a Reason’ but there were no chart-toppers for Donny, Jimmy or
David Cassidy. Britain was crying out for a teenybopper idol of our own, and he
emerged in the form of David Essex.
He was unusual, possibly unique in
progressing from musical theatre to pop. The previous year, ‘Rock On’ had been
dark, dangerous, moody and mysterious, hitting number three. While playing on Essex’s curly-haired
photogenic looks, it was not pop as I knew it. ‘I’m Gonna Make You a Star’
changed all that. The Eastender became a fun entertainer with a winning smile,
and, contrary to his lyric, definitely became ‘super hip’ and not at all ‘out
of style’! 1975’s ‘Hold Me Close’ took him even closer to his London roots.
On the other hand, the glorious era of
Glam was dissolving, but not before a few last hurrahs. Suzi Quatro and Alvin
Stardust topped the charts early in ’74 with ‘Devil Gate Drive’ and ‘Jealous
Mind’, respectively, while Slade narrowly missed the top spot with the
semi-acoustic ‘Far, Far Away’. Gary Glitter did manage it with ‘Always Yours’,
but his backing group emerged from his silvery shadow as The Glitter Band and
out-sold it with the drum-heavy ‘Angel Face’.
Away from Wizzard, Roy Wood released
some solo stuff (sans wig), most notably the excellent ‘Forever’,
on which he inevitably sang, wrote, produced and played all the instruments.
Thereafter, whether on his own or with the band, his new music never really
connected with me again. Rediscovering his Move material from the Sixties, such as the dreamy 'Blackberry Way',
provided adequate compensation.
Despite the more flamboyant costumes
and ear-rings of Rob Davis, I’m not sure whether Mud were truly Glam rockers.
Yes or no, the group were definitely the most successful singles artists of
1974. ‘Tiger Feet’ was fun from start to finish, as this TOTP performance
proves,
topping the year’s sales chart. The dance moves also live on to this day! ‘When
the Cat Crept In’ provided more of the same and then in December there was Les
Gray’s unashamed Elvis impression on ‘Lonely This Christmas’. I’ll never forget
the TOTP performance with the spoken section mimed by a ventriloquist’s dummy.
A sad, mawkish song which made you smile; only Mud could do that.
From an early age, if you’d asked me
what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d have said a drummer. Even in the
Sixties, when TOTP came on I’d take the fat wooden knitting needles from Mum’s
case, arrange the cushions on an armchair and away I’d go! I don’t recall
having a particular role model. Not Ringo, Charlie Watts, not even the manic
Keith Moon of The Who.
I suppose I paid more attention to
drummers who sang; Dave Clark and The Tremeloes’ Dave Munden spring to mind. In
1974, there was another candidate in the bearded form of Phil Wright from
Nottingham’s finest, Paper Lace. No ‘Britain’ Got Talent’ or ‘X Factor’ in
those days (hallelujah!) but the Seventies equivalent ‘Opportunity Knocks’
produced a few chart-toppers of its own. Paper Lace enjoyed a year of success,
starting with ‘Billy, Don’t be a Hero’. A pleasant enough song, with words we
could all sing, it was the third biggest-seller of 1974, but not exactly stuff
to make young boys determined to buy a drum set!
Cozy Powell was a different kettle of
fish. Here was a genuine rocker: dark
hair, pointy face and studded, leather wristband. At the start of ’74 he
reached number three with what must have been the first drumming (near-)
instrumental hit, ‘Dance with The Devil’. I
even have the 7” single somewhere! ‘Na na-na-na’ was a more conventional
pop-rock song from Cozy’s band, but I liked it, too. I don’t remember him
troubling the charts again, other than as rent-a-drummer for Whitesnake,
Rainbow and others. Probably the last time I pulled out the knitting needles,
too.
Drums were not particularly prominent
on ‘Seasons in the Sun’ but, hot on the heels of ‘Billy, Don’t be a Hero’, it
gave us another number one we could all sing along to. The lyrics had undergone
various transformations from Jacques Brel’s harsher, sardonic French original,
but Canadian Terry Jacks’ version was a sentimental ballad which went on to
sell millions worldwide. What I remember was TOTP spending weeks trying to
locate film of Terry Jacks performing the song, having had to make do with
endless re-runs of Pan’s People swaying to the melody. They finally tracked
down a performance of Jacks just before it was displaced by the Eurovision
winner.
And what a winner that was! Held in
Brighton, the Contest resulted in a first triumph for Sweden, the first by a
band and the first sung in English by a non-UK nation. The victors were, of
course, ABBA; the song, ‘Waterloo’. I
recall first the conductor dressed as Napoleon, then the foursome seemed even
more outlandish in glam-rock outfits. Cliff Richard, it wasn’t! If the Swedes
weren’t sufficiently different, heaven knows what the continental audience
thought of The Wombles as the interval act!
Although it signalled a dramatic
sea-change in the competition, I didn’t especially like ‘Waterloo’ at the time.
Yes, I preferred it to Olivia Newton-John’s old-style jolly Eurovision stomper
but then who didn’t?! The ’74 Contest also stands out in my mind because no
fewer than four of that year’s participants made the UK top ten. They were all
very different, too, each with their own appeal. Besides Abba and Olivia, there
were oddball Dutch duo Mouth and MacNeal (‘I See a Star’) and Italian Gigliola Cinquetti (‘Si’) who’d won ten years
previously. It was probably the first and last time our charts had such a
continental look, and had so many Eurovision songs I liked.
1974 also brought us a couple of
chart-toppers which played on social and cultural flavours of the day. For some
reason, the practice of people stripping off and enlivening/ruining* (*delete
as applicable) sporting events by ‘streaking’ (i.e. running around naked) had
gathered momentum, mainly in the States. The versatile, tongue-in-cheek
American Ray Stevens knocked up a cheeky novelty song ‘The Streak’ which duly
sold plenty on both sides of the Atlantic. It amused schoolkids like me of
course, but fortunately none of us was tempted to streak ourselves!
That autumn, it was kung fu’s turn to
hog the UK pop spotlight. Bruce Lee had died the previous year but I wonder
what he’d have made of Jamaican Carl Douglas and ‘Kung Fu Fighting’. More
martial farce than martial arts, it was nonetheless a catchy chunk of funk-pop
which caught the zeitgeist. Huu-hh! It wasn’t really “a little bit frightening”
but Douglas and his producer/co-writer Biddu certainly “did it with expert
timing”. Hahh!
Another Jamaican chopped ‘Kung Fu
Fighting’ from the top spot. I had, and still have, a soft spot for Ken
Boothe’s smooth ‘rock steady’ cover of David Gates’ ‘Everything I Own’.
Or ‘Anyting I own’, as Boothe insisted on singing. Until Bob Marley hit the
mainstream, this was my favourite reggae-ish song. In fact, it probably still
is.
Another beautiful slow number was Hot
Chocolate’s ‘Emma’. The group famously enjoyed a top ten single in each year of
the Seventies but it wasn’t until this tear-jerker that I sat up and took
notice. Most of their hits were more up-tempo but the rhythm and lyrics of
‘Emma’ were absorbing. Watch this clip
and I dare you not to be moved by Errol Brown’s performance, especially his
eyebrows. Somebody, just give him a hug! While this was the year of classic
ballads ‘Candle in the Wind’ and ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’, it was
Errol, not Elton, for me.
Back at the lower end of the spectrum
of ‘cool’, two other acts caught my ear and eye. The Rubettes sprung from
nowhere to pop royalty status in 1974 thanks to ‘Sugar Baby Love’ and that
piercing falsetto intro by early lead vocalist Paul da Vinci. I actually
preferred their December hit ‘Juke Box Jive’ by which time their much-parodied
(mainly by The Goodies!) white berets and jackets were losing their novelty
value! Also, what use was our brand new colour TV if the costumes were
black and white?!
The other ‘band’ had their origins not
in a studio but in a series of children’s books and subsequent TV series. Yes,
folks, I’m talking about those cuddly litter-pickers from Wimbledon and
Eurovision entertainers, The Wombles. Their debut was simply the programme’s
theme tune: “Underground, overground, wombling free….” and seemed destined to
be a one-hit wonder. After all, what can you do with a bunch of imaginary furry
creatures? The vocals sounded to me like Bernard Cribbins who’d narrated the TV
animation, but of course in reality the music, production and singing were all
the responsibility of Mike Batt, then still in his early twenties. How was I to
know that Batt was a talented composer and musician who would turn The Wombles
into one of 1974’s biggest-selling acts? The second single, ‘Remember You’re a Womble’,
proved his pedigree. Indeed, it had all the hallmarks of Roy Wood and
tongue-in-cheek 10cc, which is high praise indeed: a nod to rock’n’roll here, a
burst of folky fiddle there and a catchy chorus. Of course, the lyrics were
hardly awe-inspiring. You didn’t want to be heard walking to school singing:
“When it's foggy
on the common and you just can't see
And I womble into you and you womble into me”!
And I womble into you and you womble into me”!
Yet it was a genuine pop-rock song,
and the magic formula also took ‘We Wish You a Wombling Merry Christmas’ to
number two. Why it’s rarely played or featured on Christmas compilations is
beyond me. It’s neglect on a criminal scale! In between they even introduced
audiences simultaneously to Mozart and waltz via ‘Minuetto Allegretto’. Fun,
educational and, thanks to their tidying exploits on Wimbledon Common,
environmentally-friendly icons, too. The Wombles were way ahead of their time!
For all the likeable chart entrants
I’ve mentioned, at the time I felt there were few stand-out songs. My
contemporary favourite was ‘I Get a Kick out of You’, which Australian folkie
Gary Shearston took to number seven.
I’d no idea it had been a Cole Porter composition from the Thirties; I just
loved the acoustic rhythm and the violin bit in the middle!
Meanwhile, the charts were starting to
fill with a new American sound. Motown had been everywhere for a decade but now
we were hearing danceable records featuring lush production with strings (e.g.
Barry White) and brass (including Hues Corporation’s ‘Rock the Boat’). I
particularly recall being struck by the piercing ‘whoooos’ on the fast and
furious ‘Queen of Clubs’ by KC and The Sunshine Band. Then there were the
stuttering vocals on Bachman Turner Overdrive’s ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’,
forever linked in my head with Harry Enfield’s Nineties DJ comedy creation
‘Nicey’: “Let’s ROCK!"
Yet perhaps the most enduring song
from 1974 was another co-written and produced by Harry (KC) Casey, and
recorded, purely because he happened to be in the studio at the time, by George
McCrae. ‘Rock Your Baby’
lured you in with that sexy shuffle beat, followed by that keyboard melody and
disco guitar, before George’s stunning falsetto took you to a different place
altogether. It sounded like a love song but with such an infectious rhythm made
you want to dance at the same time. It has been retrospectively labelled the
first disco number one but at the time it was just a delicious record with the
falsetto, open shirt and keyboards pre-dating the Saturday Night Fever Bee Gees
by three years. Disco had arrived!
No comments:
Post a Comment