Popular ’75
The first in what will be a regular run of reader participation features – one each time we reach the end of a year.
As you know, I give a mark out of 10 to each track. The rough expectation, over the course of 56+ years of #s, is that the number I give 1-5 to will roughly equal the number I give 6-10 to – but we will see. ANYWAY, at the end of every year I’m going to run a poll (below the cut) so you can have your say. All you have to do is vote for the ones you would have given 6 or more to (by whatever criteria you yourself would choose).
In other words – tick the ones you like! And, if you want, use the comments box for more general thoughts on the year and its qualities – what the list reflected, what it missed, and so on.
Loading ...Tom in FT / Popular • Pop/popular year poll • 1,649 views • Share/Save
I can see votes for this coming in behind the scenes but the graphs aren’t updating!
no they are – but we do that there ‘caching’ innit. i’m seeing 11 VOTERS here at the mo.
Oh – there some are!
Anyway, 1975 – for most under-40s it’s probably pretty difficult to recapture much of an idea of this year – after the glam and reggae booms; disco a big thing in the states but not so much here; teenpop a force but not an inspiring one…. all very transitional, or at least it inevitably seems that way to younger people whose impression of rock/pop history is going to be warped by the gravitational field of what’s coming.
I think – I will check this at home – that the marks I’ve given this year are low on average, lowest since ’67 maybe.
I feel like my vote for “Come On Up And See Me,” “Barbados,” “Space Oddity,” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” – and nothing else – looks like a warped idea of a joke ballot – but somehow I just didn’t get on board with most of this year’s cuts. I don’t know if it was a transitional time or if the production aesthetics weren’t my bag or what, but most of these just didn’t get their hooks into me.
Even as a music-obsessed 12/13-year old, I felt somewhat disconnected from the charts of 1975, and particularly in comparison to the years which preceded and succeeded it. Yes “transitional” is fair comment. Meanwhile, I was happily playing catch-up with prog…
This is like Eurovision! “Telly Savalas – nul points”
6 out of 20 from me is statistical evidence of an exceptionally underwhelming year from my perspective.
Oh, unlike lj this doesn’t give you the option of revoting. My apologies to the Stylistics (and to the 12 tracks I haven’t heard yet).
While we’re statting, here are my favourite five years so far (as determined by average mark given)
1. 1958, 2. 1966 (these two massively out in front), 3. 1971, 4. 1964, 5. 1974
(The worst are 52-3, 54, 60, 55, and 67)
Are you going to retrospectively enable this Tom ? (You may have already, I haven’t checked).
Yes! But not yet cos I don’t have time. When I put one up for an older year I will mention it in the comments of the current entry.
Poor year, voted for 7/20. 1977-1979 is one of my favourite eras for music though, so will be intriguing to find out how many of the songs that I love from that period actually made it to #1.
I voted for seven of these. It’s interesting to look at all the year’s No1s together, rather than one by one.
Looking at this lot, it suggests there was rather a void in the charts at the time – there must have been to allow Telly Savalas, Windsor Davies and Don Estelle and Billy Connolly to get to the top.
At the moment there is quite a gap in the voting after the top 4, and rightly so I think – these are the only four from this year which could be described as enduring “classics” (with the obvious exception of “Space Oddity” which wasn’t really from this year)
I’d be interested in participating in future polls from previous years if/when you do get around to it Tom.
Bah, my stupid werk PC hates FT polls.
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The lack of love for Johnny Nash is interesting – I gave it a 5, and from the comments I got the impression this sentiment was generally shared, so it’s amusing to see that almost nobody would push it that one mark higher. I think if we did a “most hated” poll it would hardly pick up any votes either.
There is one year coming up in the fullness of time where I would personally find it very difficult not to give practically every entry at least an 8 but that’s for the future.
I would be inclined to give a 5 to quite a lot of the ’75 entries – not wretched or fundamentally dislikeable, but not particularly inspiring either.
The NME ’75 critics’ EOY singles poll went like this, by the way, just to gain a different perspective; UK chart peaks in brackets:
1. No Woman No Cry – Bob Marley & The Wailers (22 – original ’75 chart run)
2. I’m Not In Love – 10cc (1)
3. Shame Shame Shame – Shirley & Co. (6)
4. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen (1)
5. Third Rate Romance – Amazing Rhythm Aces (none)
6. Fame – David Bowie (17)
= Young Americans – David Bowie (18)
8. King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown – Augustus Pablo (none)
9. Lady Marmalade – Labelle (17)
10. A Fool In Love – Frankie Miller (none)
= Welding – I. Roy (none)
12. Do It Again – Steely Dan (39)
13. Shoorah Shoorah – Betty Wright (27)
= Hurt So Good – Susan Cadogan (4)
15. Born To Run – Bruce Springsteen (none for the original studio recording)
16. 18 With A Bullet – Pete Wingfield (7)
17. Mendocino – Sir Douglas Quintet (none)
= Love Hurts – Jim Capaldi (4)
19. Swing Your Daddy – Jim Gilstrap (4)
= Dance With Me – Orleans (none)
For some reason I had it in my head that the NME didn’t pay much attention to disco until the later 70s, when enthusiasm increased as a side effect of hiring new blood for other reasons.
This was obviously totally wrong!
I for one would certainly have given Jimmy Gilstrap a high mark had he reached number one.
Who was it was saying standards weren’t making the trip by 1975? Jim Capaldi’s rendering of Love Hurts (and the Rock and Roll era certainly produced many standards of its own as well as reworked those of earolier decades, this being one of them) was nice enough but never set me aflame.
Nazareth had the big US hit with their cover version, though that didn’t make our charts until ’77.
The fact that I voted for no more than three songs must say something about my antipathy/apathy about most 70s music, to the extent that I even managed to surprise myself.
It may have been a mediocre year overall but those top four would surely have been exceptional in any year.
OK, here’s my Totally Subjective Top Thirty for 1975, based on Everyhit’s Top 100 for the year…
1. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
2. Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel – Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)
3. Gloria Gaynor – Never Can Say Goodbye
4. Hamilton Bohannon – Disco Stomp
5. Shirley & Company – Shame Shame Shame
6. Jigsaw – Sky High
7. Status Quo – Down Down
8. The Sweet – Fox On The Run
9. Abba – SOS
10. Helen Reddy – Angie Baby
11. Susan Cadogan – Hurt So Good
12. The Bee Gees – Jive Talkin’
13. David Bowie – Space Oddity
14. Greg Lake – I Believe In Father Christmas
15. The Average White Band – Pick Up The Pieces
16. Van McCoy – The Hustle
17. Minnie Riperton – Lovin’ You
18. Fox – Only You Can
19. Mud – Oh Boy
20. 10cc – I’m Not In Love
21. Art Garfunkel – I Only Have Eyes For You
22. Hot Chocolate – You Sexy Thing
23. Ray Stevens – Misty
24. KC & The Sunshine Band – That’s The Way (I Like It)
25. The Stylistics – Na Na Is The Saddest Word
26. Glen Campbell – Rhinestone Cowboy
27. The Four Seasons – Who Loves You
28. Jim Gilstrap – Swing Your Daddy
29. Wigan’s Chosen Few/Chuck Wood – Footsee/Seven Days Too Long
30. The Goodies – The Funky Gibbon
29. Wigan’s Chosen Few/Chuck Wood – Footsee/Seven Days Too Long
There has been scandalously scant use of the “kazoos as horn section” trope throughout pop’s rich history.
If I had to summarise the year’s Number Ones in a word, it’d probably be “frothy” – even beyond the obvious novelty hits, there’s a tendency towards relatively light-hearted material (even ‘Space Oddity’, I think has elements of this.)
And the self-indulgent stats: I own three of the chart-topping tracks (including an old 45 of ‘Ms Grace’ that my Dad had in his attic) and there were three I couldn’t remember hearing if you include the Mud record.
voted for six – queen, tammy, stylistics, harley, 10cc, bowie (probably rank them in that order also). LOVE that orleans sneaks onto that nme poll.
I am glad someone found it in their hearts to vote for Telly!
when i worked at wuxtry the telly album was always in the ‘now playing’ slot regardless of what was actually playing. still haven’t heard that telly track but his ‘i shall be released’ works well enough, his voice like some amalgam of nashville skyline dylan and johnny cash.
Space Oddity seems like a surprisingly rockist front runner.
happened to glance back at this and was a bit ashamed to realise i forgot to vote for Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)thus robbing it of it’s rightful 2nd place position…
That’s funny, it says I didn’t vote for 10cc, but I’m convinced I did.
The phantom NME Chart number ones of 1975; The Streets Of London, Please Mr Postman, Honey, Loving You, Moonlighting, You Sexy Thing. A lot of discrepancies between the two charts that year.
For a sense of context, here’s the same chart seen upside down. These are the singles that peaked at number 40 in the same chart in 1975;
8 Feb 60 Minute Man – The Trammps – 1 week
29 Mar My Man & Me – Lynsey De Paul – 1
12 Jul Long Lost Lover – The 3 Degrees – 1
20 Sep Yum Yum – The Fatback Band – 1
NME Readers’ poll for 1975 – ‘Best single’ category;
1. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
2. 10CC – I’m Not In Love
3. Bob Marley – No Woman, No Cry
4. Greg Lake – I Believe In Father Christmas
5. Led Zeppelin – Trampled Underfoot
6. David Bowie – Golden Years
7. Rod Stewart – Sailing
8. Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run
9. David Bowie – Fame
10. Roxy Music – Love Is The Drug
Post-Clough Derby County won the league, their season ending with a goalless draw against relegated Carlisle. That’s from memory, but my memories of the 1975 pop year are of a similar non-event. You don’t have to be under 40, Tom, to think that it was a poor year. And if Jim Capaldi’s Love Hurts made it into NME’s Top 20 singles of the year, that shows how little was happening underground.
(Somebody there probably got one of the white label/press kits of Big Star’s Sister Lovers, though.)
As with 1960, it was a year of novelties (Running Bear, Whispering Grass) and lack of direction due to a major boom (R&R, Glam) imploding with surprising rapidity (no deaths or prison – yet – for the Glam heroes, though, so less obvious explanation). Kenny’s Fancy Pants and Hello’s New York Groove were great pop 45s, but no rivals to Hell Raiser or Cum On Feel The Noize.
Studio technology to blame? There’s a distinct thinness of sound and a squeakily dry, reverb-free sound on ’75 recordings. Think of Ian Hunter’s Once Bitten Twice Shy and compare it to Mott’s Roll Away The Stone; Roy wood’s Oh What A Shame vs Angel Fingers, Hold Me Close vs Rock On. I should understand the reason for this, but I don’t.
Oh, I see that the ‘Barbados’ forum is still closed… But I still thought that you might rather enjoy Pan’s People’s Christmas TOTP interpretation;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FjWmUsp73Y