Comments on: Popular ’75

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:01:34 +0000

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

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:13:36 +0000

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.

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:19:59 +0000

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

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:48:33 +0000

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

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:28:54 +0000

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.

By: Drucius

Drucius — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:00:37 +0000

That’s funny, it says I didn’t vote for 10cc, but I’m convinced I did.

By: crag

crag — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:35:20 +0000

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…

By: DV

DV — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:10:25 +0000

Space Oddity seems like a surprisingly rockist front runner.

By: o sobek!

o sobek! — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:29:33 +0000

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.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:36:14 +0000

I am glad someone found it in their hearts to vote for Telly!

By: o sobek!

o sobek! — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:21:21 +0000

voted for six – queen, tammy, stylistics, harley, 10cc, bowie (probably rank them in that order also). LOVE that orleans sneaks onto that nme poll.

By: Chris Brown

Chris Brown — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:54:05 +0000

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.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:07:40 +0000

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.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:53:52 +0000

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

By: rosie

rosie — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:47:14 +0000

It may have been a mediocre year overall but those top four would surely have been exceptional in any year.

By: Doctor Mod

Doctor Mod — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:06:10 +0000

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.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:23:18 +0000

Nazareth had the big US hit with their cover version, though that didn’t make our charts until ’77.

By: rosie

rosie — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:56:18 +0000

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.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:28:35 +0000

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!

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:06:30 +0000

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)

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:59:48 +0000

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.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:52:19 +0000

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.

By: jeff w

jeff w — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:51:15 +0000

Bah, my stupid werk PC hates FT polls.

“Loading…………”

By: vinylscot

vinylscot — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:43:56 +0000

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.

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 08:34:37 +0000

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.