I wonder where people stand on this rock-historical issue:
Do you think the Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen" actually sold enough to get to No.1 but was prevented from doing so by some means or other?
Total Voters: 87
Poll closes: May 23rd, 2008 @ 4:00 pm
Loading ...Note that this isn’t the same as “Should it be covered on Popular?” I’ll make that decision when the time comes (or may have already made it!).
Written by Tom on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 | 636 views |
The UK's 1000+ Number One Hits since 1952, reviewed, in order, irregularly, for as long as I can bear to keep doing it. A history of pop in the shape of a chart.
If you enjoy Popular please link to it or tell your friends about it. The more people we have commenting and sharing their views on these songs, the better.
Index of reviews and scores so far
Popular FAQ
Popular on Twitter
Tom invented Freaky Trigger on a bus journey in the mid-90s. Typically, it took him 5 years to do anything about it. He also runs a marketing blog - blackbeardblog.com - and writes about pop music for whoever wants it.
Site is © the contributors, 1999–2008
Site powered by Wordpress using many wonderful plugins.
FT's and everybody elses Mark G on May 21st, 2008
Yeah, by the french band, name escapes me, um….
FT's Tom on May 21st, 2008
I wanted to get an idea of
- what people thought about it and
- the facts behind the story (such as are known)
And I have a feeling the threads are going to be heavy enough anyway so this little preview won’t exactly harm matters.
LondonLee on May 21st, 2008
I always put The Cars hit down to the picture disc, it was a real novelty at the time. I think the same thing happened with ‘Pop Muzik’ which originally came out in an odd format of some kind I can’t remember now
I bought The Photos album too, weren’t they also hyped as the English, brunette version of Blondie?
The sales of ‘God Save The Queen’ had nothing to do with it being on the Bollocks album, when that came out everyone was pissed off that it had all the singles — and b-sides - on it which was considered a very un-punk thing to do. It’s almost as if it was some kind of…rock and roll swindle.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on May 21st, 2008
lee is precisely right abt the crossness many felt that the LP had all the singles on it — i boycotted it totally, and only have a copy now bcz my (less ideologically
insanepure) sister bought one, which has ended up as “mine” bwahahaclassic headfvck mclaren quote (that i trot out with tiresome abandon) re the first single: “of course, the REAL fans aren’t buying it”
FT's Drucius on May 21st, 2008
I never bought NMTB, which makes me uber-kewl. My previously Queen, Genesis, etc loving big brother did. QED.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on May 21st, 2008
yeah heh i think left school just in time (caveat: still muddled here) to miss the floorcrossing rush as the uber-prog gang all belatedly switched their votes — really honestly there were only three of us, me, chris f, and an odd friendless kid call ant
sistrah becky was less ideological but she DID have a school punk rock group — rigorous enough never to play or even OWN instruments (take that muso progsters!)– in which she wz becky bondage (idea stolen later by someone not very famous) and her best friend linda was lin bin (and is still in fact known as “bin”)
FT's DJ Punctum on May 21st, 2008
Other albums released in the same week as NMTB:
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Street Survivors
Various Artists - Feelings
Graham Parker And The Rumour - Stick To Me
Queen - News Of The World
Frankie Vaughan - 100 Golden Greats
Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass - 40 Greatest
Electric Light Orchestra - Out Of The Blue
Gladys Knight And The Pips - 30 Greatest
LondonLee on May 21st, 2008
I bought one of those, not NMTB.
Billy Smart on May 21st, 2008
My 12″ of Pop Muzik is supposed to have two separate tracks on the same side - which one it is that plays being dependent upon where you put the needle (there’s a Monty Python LP that also does this). Or so it says on the sleeve - it always seems to just play Pop Muzik whenever I put it on.
It’s a shame that we won’t be going on to discuss Pop Muzik in greater detail. So close.
FT's DJ Punctum on May 21st, 2008
A shame because “Pop Muzik” is the beginning of time. I’ll try to sneak it in if we get bored with the rabbits, though.
vinylscot on May 21st, 2008
I bought the Photos album too - got it signed by the lovely Wendy Wu at a record shop in Glasgow - It’s recently out on CD with the bonus album included… and “Irene”’s still a bloody great song!
Back to Pistols/Rod - I seem to remember at the time a lot of the controversy being based around the “fact” that GSTQ got a Silver Disc before Rod, although it had never been above him in the charts. I know that could be down to someone at Virgin making sure they got theirs a.s.a.p.,whereas Rod’s label may have been a little less concerned, but does anyone have any more info on that angle?
And to those who say there was no hoohah at the time, I’m with Marcello on this one - there was certainly hoohah up here, and if Glasgow cared that much about the Pistols, you can bet your bottie the rest of the UK did too!
Billy Smart on May 21st, 2008
I certainly listen to Out Of The Blue more than NMTB… Though I think that I would possibly be pushing revisionism a bit to far if I claimed that it was superior. I’d have to think about it first before I made a definitive value judgement, though.
wichita lineman on May 21st, 2008
Agree with Marcello and Vinylscot that there was indeed a hoo-hah at the time. I remember being shocked it didn’t go to no.1 in it’s third week (in at 11, up to 2… would’ve made sense) but instead dropped back to 4.
Come on, someone out there must be in touch with an ex-BMRB cat!
Seeing as the Pinkees got a mention earlier and may not later - wasn’t Danger Games expelled from the charts? I seem to recall it took an age to climb the chart then got banned at its chart peak.
The Cars got airplay on Capital but (this is just from memory) Radio 1 avoided it, maybe because they thought it had cheated its way into the chart with that cunning pic disc. A bunch of 50s R&R re-issues made the top 75 around this time because they came on picture discs too. I always hated the bloody things.
And of course the GSTQ affair could have all been the BMRB accidentally cocking thing up. In Feb ‘82 there were some rather odd stop/start chart jumps for Soft Cell’s Say Hello Wave Goodbye (20, 18, 3, 5…), J Geils Band’s Centrefold (26, 17, 3, 5…), Haircut 100’s Love Plus One (36, 12, 11, 4…) and others.
The weirdest chart run ever possibly belongs to the Four Seasons’ Silver Star in ‘76 (16, 6, 9, 3, 21, 16… can anyone think of a stranger one?). And a few weeks before that came one of the phantom number ones, a chart topper for all of half a day.
GSTQ could’ve just been another victim of this kinda zaniness, rather than a “fix”…
FT's DJ Punctum on May 21st, 2008
From memory Danger Games’ Top 40 run was something like 30-27-8-12-29 so that probably tells its own story.
The early ‘82 hiccups were IIRC due to the ASLEF train strike at the time and consequent delay in sales info being relayed back to the BMRB (in those pre-computer days). They may have experimented with tallying sales up to Friday rather than Saturday, but of course this missed out the busiest record buying day of the week and also meant a delayed reaction effect from TOTP appearances and so forth. It wasn’t long after that when Gallup got the nod for the new chart contract from ‘83 onwards.
Arguably the weirdest Top 40 run of any single of the pre-immediate marketing era - “Stereotypes”/”International Jet Set” by the Specials, 31-25-6-22-23.
wichita lineman on May 21st, 2008
Good call. I remember thinking Stereotypes had wrecked the Specials run of Top 10s, then all of a sudden…
Danger Games went 30-30-27-8-12… definitely odd but does anyone else remember a news story about it?
Billy Smart on May 21st, 2008
Re 38: What kind of novelty-shunning soul could hate the cheerful picture disc? They can certainly imprint themselves into your mind whenever you hear a song.
Whenever ‘I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man’ by Prince is playing, for instance, I always imagine the great man spinning around in a yellow suit , the needle scoring through his head - then torso - and legs ninety times a minute…
LondonLee on May 21st, 2008
“My 12″ of Pop Muzik is supposed to have two separate tracks on the same side”
That was it! I had the Monty Python double-groove album too, really freaked me out when I played side 2 and this entirely different set of sketches from what I’d heard before started. I had no idea it had this gimmick and thought I’d wandered into some alternate dimension.
vinylscot on May 21st, 2008
Alex Harvey’s “Boston Tea Party” did a fair bit of yo-yo-ing too - new entry at 21, then 23, 16, 19, 13, 28, 17, 30 before behaving normally and dropping down the charts in a dignified manner.
For such an amazing live band it seemed odd to me at the time that every time they went on TOTP they went down the following week, then went back up when they weren’t on!
crag on May 21st, 2008
Theres also a Kate Bush 12″ of The Sensual World with a ‘double groove’ that would play a vocal and instrumental version depending on where your needle landed.
Sigh, arent mp3s so much less fun?…
FT's Tom on May 21st, 2008
Yes if only there was some way of randomising which MP3 was played!!!
Chris Brown on May 21st, 2008
@Vinylscot 36 - Silver, gold and platinum discs are awarded for units shipped, rather than copies actually sold, so it’s certainly possible that there were more copies of the Pistols record on the shelves (especially if the Virgin shops put in a big order).
I have a vague idea that the bit about the Pinkees being ruled out rings some sort of bell, but I’m away from my reference books now.
FT's Drucius on May 22nd, 2008
Vinylscot #43: “For such an amazing live band it seemed odd to me at the time that every time they went on TOTP they went down the following week, then went back up when they weren’t on!”
Possibly a bit less odd when you remember what they looked like.
FT's DJ Punctum on May 22nd, 2008
RESPECT THE ORIGINAL LEX
FT's and everybody elses Mark G on May 22nd, 2008
I second that “Stereotypes” chart run, the strangest/most suspicious one ever. On the TOTP rundown, they were represented by a still photo and a brief snatch of “International Jet Set”, the instrumental ‘double-a’ side.
Re double sided: The failure usually was that they’d pick two tracks with differing duration, so if you had played “M Factor”, you had to wait 2 mins before it got to the runout groove.
There was one track, by Mum and Dad, about daredevil bikers: One version he makes the jump to general cheering, the other version he crashes, taken to hospital, the pulse meter ‘dies’…. Freakiest thing on record sing “Disturbance” by The Move.
wichita lineman on May 22nd, 2008
Re SAHB. Even aged 11 and susceptible to most pop wackiness, Alex Harvey looked like an old drunk (in a pitiful way rather than a theatrical way) and that guy with Pierrot make-up? And covering DELILAH??? Jesus.
Putting ‘Sensational’ in front of their name was a bit of a giveaway too, like The Brilliant Corners, Fabulous Poodles and other no-hopers (Incredible Bongo Band being an honourable exception). The only time I’ve revisited Harvey’s gang was on a tour bus where the (intimidating surf-dude) driver insisted on playing them. Just as well it wasn’t a DVD.
I wonder if picture discs or picture sleeves would have influenced SAHB’s chart positions?
vinylscot on May 22nd, 2008
Mr Lineman, you appear to be a Philistine. Some more research is required, on your part.
wichita lineman on May 23rd, 2008
Yes that was a bit strong wasn’t it. I’ll stand by the ‘clowns in pop’ line, and that none of those groups are brilliant, fabulous or sensational, but feel free to recommend an Alex Harvey starting point to me and I’ll research away.
vinylscot on May 23rd, 2008
Thank you Mr Lineman. For listening, it really depends if you want to get to know SAHB, or Alex Harvey.
For SAHB, stick with the first three albums, “Framed”, “Next” and “The Impossible Dream”. Listen out for Zal’s playing - he wasn’t just a strutting pierrot, he was also a damn fine rock guitarist.
The band have periodically reformed, and released a live album in 2006 entitled “Zalvation”. It was unfortunately rather poor, suffering from abysmal production and a weak front man.
Zal himself recently announced his retirement from the music business, and the band’s future is once again uncertain.
Earlier Alex solo stuff is worth a listen, and there have been a couple of decent compilations released over the last couple of years.
There’s a good 2CD compilation called “Considering the Situation” which covers both solo and SAHB stuff - if you’re only going to get one, get this one. It serves both as a good overview and a starting point if you decide to look further.
Best of luck!
FT's DJ Punctum on May 23rd, 2008
This is an excellent starter’s pack for Alex; 2 CDs, one devoted to his early (mainly sixties) work with the Soul Band and as a soloist, and one to the pick of the SAHB stuff - takes you through his entire history and puts everything he did in its context. Excellent sleeve notes, too.
vinylscot on May 23rd, 2008
Well said DJP! Great minds, etc…
Maybe we are a little biased as we could always call Alex one of our own.
I often wondered WTF possessed the label (Vertigo) to record their live album in London instead of Glasgow, where he sold out several nights at the Apollo on the same (brief) Christmas tour. It was only about my fifth or sixth time at the Apollo and it remains one of the best gigs I’ve every attended - I presume it was all down to the cost - a false economy I would have thought.
FT's DJ Punctum on May 23rd, 2008
My dad took me to one of those nights at the Apollo and it’s still one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen in my life.
I always think of my dad when I think of AH - they were more or less the same age, died more or less at the same time for the same reason - and he was a real inspiration to me in the sense that if you had the aura, the ability, the magic, age really was nothing but a number in the music business, and also that he could cite Marvel Comics and film noir and Christ knows what else, put it all together and make it work, botb visually and musically. I always thought to myself that if I wanted to form a band when I grew up I would make it like SAHB…a total experience (it hasn’t happened yet, but who knows?)…
He’d be 73 now and I would have loved to see him doing “Framed” dressed as bin Laden, as he would surely have done…
Waldo on May 28th, 2008
There is not a single doubt that GSTQ was the legitimate number one but was kept off the top so as not to embarrass Brenda. It’s as simple as that. What I find surprising is that Tom has thrown this curve at us now when we still have quite a way to go before we get to it naturally on our travels. We shall surely discuss it then, as I for one have very strong feelings about this issue which have not gone away in time. And of course talking about it at the proper time also does not antagonise Master S Bunny (BSc Hons), who is nothing if not the fruit of Tom’s own loins, which makes it even more surprising that he has been abused so needlessly.
FT's Tom on May 28th, 2008
The problem is - and despite the slightly disingenuous disclaimer at the end of the post this is partly why I did the poll - the “illegitimate” #1 was also a legitimate #1 for 3 weeks before the SPs. So if I’m considering the SPs as legitimate too, discussion on THAT #1 also falls under the Bunny’s remit.
But yes, in retrospect a mistake to poll so early. Luckily everyone talked about Chart Runs and Alex Harvey instead!
Waldo on May 29th, 2008
Since I was absent from Popular when this vote was taken, my own view would be to ignore GSTQ in its own right, since the fact of the matter is that it did not top the chart according to Guinness and we would simply be entering “Stranger On The Shore”/”Please Please Me/”Picture Of You” territory, even though the denying of GSTQ was nefarious and nothing else.
Tom - Sorry if my remarks came across as astringent to you. My defence?
“Don’t blame it on the sunshine,
Don’t blame it on the moonlight,
Don’t blame it on the good times,
Blame it on the Bunny!”
DJ Punctum on May 29th, 2008
I played “GSTQ” at the last but one Club Popular. About three people danced to it. It was a disgrace.
FT's Tom on May 29th, 2008
Too early! I played it at the one at the Polar Bear later on and it got some solid pogoing going.
DJ Punctum on May 29th, 2008
I’m tempted somewhat by this four-song-set deal at CP next week but really we’re talking non-stop Scooter all round aren’t we?
LondonLee on May 29th, 2008
I remember being very drunk at a party near Sloane Square in the late 70s, I was having a piss when someone put on GSTQ so I zipped up, went racing into the living room and starting jumping around like an idiot, in the process knocking over some Australian student who proceeded to get very aggressive offer me “outside” for a fight. Ah, them were the days.
Waldo on May 30th, 2008
I assume you promptly took Skippy to school, Lee?!
LondonLee on May 30th, 2008
I’m a lover not a fighter.
DJ Punctum on May 30th, 2008
Ah…I’ve heard it all before Lee, he told Mark McManus he was his forever kangaroo, do you remember?
Waldo on May 30th, 2008
Christ, Lee. You bottle job! NO FUTURE FOR YOUUUU!!!!!! And another thing, you should never have zipped up before leaving the bog. The correct punk response would have been to steam back to the living room, tool in hand and finish your slash there…ALL OVER THAT AUSSIE LURKER’S FUCKING SHOES!!!!!!!
Erithian on May 30th, 2008
Honestly, this is how Chelsea fans talk when they get together…
LondonLee on May 31st, 2008
I did once actually have a piss all over a friend of mine who was passed out drunk in the back garden at another party. How punk rock is that?
Waldo on May 31st, 2008
I remember at about this time being on a tube waiting to leave Brixton, which is a terminus on the Victoria Line. A large woman (African rather than West Indian) was sat diagonally opposite me. There were about five of us in the carriage and we had admittedly been waiting longer than expected for the tube to shift. Much more unexpected, though, was when the lady in question suddenly left her seat, walked to the still open doorway, pulled up her drawers, crouched down and contributed a piss puddle the size of a duckpond before returning to her seat and sitting down. Simply marvellous! My own special place, in common with most bladdered up lads, was the good old red phone box, always ready and reliable. From Nine Elms down to Clapham I must have played them all.
Happy Days!
LondonLee on June 1st, 2008
I made it a point to know where the Gents was in every pub, cafe and fast food joint in the West End so if ever I got caught short I could go straight in and make a beeline right for it like I was a regular punter.
Though I did once have a pee on the top deck of a bus.
This conversation has taken a very strange turn…
Waldo on June 1st, 2008
You started it, son!