I give marks out of 10 to every song – based on whatever criteria you like, here’s your opportunity to say what you’d have given more than 6 to from 1976. Tick as many as you like.
Loading ...And use the comments to discuss the year as a whole, if you like.
Tom in FT /Popular • featured content/Pop/popular year poll • 9,617 views
All, 1–25, 26–50, 51–75, 76–100, 101–125, 126–150, 151–175, 176–200, 201–225, 226–250, 251–275, 276–300, 301–325, 326–350, 351–375, 376–400, 401–425, 426–450, 451–475, 476–500, 501–525, 526–551.Back up to post. More comments: All, 1–25, 26–50, 51–75, 76–100, 101–125, 126–150, 151–175, 176–200, 201–225, 226–250, 251–275, 276–300, 301–325, 326–350, 351–375, 376–400, 401–425, 426–450, 451–475, 476–500, 501–525, 526–551.
All the UK number ones since 1952, reviewed in order and rated by whim. As featured on Radio 2, The Times, Metro, Paul Cornell's LiveJournal, etc etc.
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re 50:I was just thinking that cutting the TOTP’s completely defeats the object but it looks as though from 12 May things will be remedied.
other things:
Paul Nicholas:
Maybe Paul Nicholas isn’t saying he likes reggae BY Paul McCartney or Stevie Wonder but “hey all you soul (Stevie) or rock (Paul) fans who think reggae’s crap even your idols are biggin’ it up”. And that sort of fits in with the lines about “my sister’s got boogie my brother’s got rock”.
And by “like it used to be” he probably means jump-up stuff from the golden days off ’68-’71 rather than the rootsier stuff prevalent in 1976. Probably analysing this far too much!
Pretty impressed by his live performances (think both appearances were different) – he really throws himself into it vocal and dance wise – suppose that’s his experience from live musical theatre holding him in good stead.
Slick:
When they first appeared a couple of months before they must have been the first (vaguely) cutting edge group* to have appeared on TOTP with short hair since about 1962/63. It does look pretty radical compared with anything else we seen so far.
As opposed to solo/one member only eg David Bowie, drummer/vocalist of Four Seasons the other week etc, who’s effect is sort of muted by their long haired backing musicians/fellow band members.
Bellamy Brothers:
I didn’t know they got to No 21 with this in 2008! They also had a very unusual hit on the American country charts in 1982 called “Get Into Reggae Cowboy” and in 1998 released an album called “Reggae Cowboys” so they obviously really dug it. Good on ‘em – I’d never heard of Country & Western reggae before!Probably not what Paul Nicholas was on about :-)
Electric Light Orchestra
surprised like Smokie the other week that they had a complete flop and how many non-chart records they featured.
Andrea True Connection
The only porn actress chart act?
Finally this period is memorable for me as around this time I found a “Disco 45″ magazine (the only edition of a magazine full of pop songwords I ever owned)on the way to school which I kept in my desk for a few weeks) and it had lyrics to ‘Silver Star’, ‘Movie Star’, ‘Reggae Like It Used To Be’ and ‘Jungle Rock’(I loved singing that one) in it “. I’ve spent the next 35 years wondering what a Ring Gang Goo was…
Disco 45 used to just play the records to get the lyrics. Often, getting them completely wrong.
“When I was principal,
I always used to meet
Joeys awful strong
Bet your life dear, they’re putting us on…”
So, anyway, there doesn’t seem to be any show this week. Is that ‘like’ how it was in 1976?
That’s a bit of a let-down -I treated that thrown away, pages-missing, rain-wrinkled copy of ‘Disco 45′ I had like holy writ. Aside from ‘Look-In’ (which only had a relatively small amount of pop -albeit glossy posters- in it)it was the first pop magazine I ever owned – back in my junior school days.Don’t think I had another music magazine until a few years later when I was 13 or 14.
BBC iplayer only has the 30 min version of this weeks!
It was truly grim this week. J J Barrie was there, on his way to the top of course, and the look of contempt from the young women stood in front of him said everything. It’s nice to think that within a few short months many of these girlies were in all likelihood punkettes.
#55 – yeah, “truly grim” sums it up well, from start to finish with barely an intermission….
Mud – Shake It Down.
They’ve done better than this, much better. Some dreadful green shirts with enormous collars and flares in the same colour… Very Smashie and Nicey shades, too…
Frankie Valli – Fallen Angel
Unremarkable if not entirely hideous middle-of-the-road ballad. The odd good spot, both harmony and melody-wise. Westlife have done far worse in this genre..
The Stylistics – Can’t Help Falling In Love With You (with Ruby Flipper dancers)
as discussed above. I didn’t realise how much flares were still in as late as 76. It’s why punk had to happen, etc….
Barry Manilow – Tryin’ To Get The Feeling Again
Non-chart single. thankfully. Oh God, turn those horns off! Gets worse as it goes on, with overstated emphasis towards the end…
Robin Sarstedt – My Resistance Is Low
In fact, this might be why punk had to happen. It makes the Barry Manilow track sound ground-shaking and exciting in comparison…and then it gets a bit all Stutz Bear Catz…1930s/40s female vocals “Resist me baby”. A car-crash of a song…Another green jacket and shiny green shirt with massive collars. I was about to suggest this could improve on repeated listening, but he had to spoil it with a superfluous “low” at the end
The Sutherland Brothers & Quiver – Arms of Mary
This group’s item of inappropriately green clothing is a spotted waistcoat. As for the song, mellow, inoffensive AOR/MOR radio stuff. Far worse examples of this style are around…even if the song doesn’t really go anywhere musically. Dire Straits were doing this sort of stuff with the bass a lot later..
JJ Barrie – No Charge
Everything that could possibly be said about this song has surely already been said here….
Cliff Richard – Devil Woman
Green scarf. Not the best Cliff number, nor the worst.
Abba – Fernando (video)
OK
(end credits) Johnnie Taylor – Disco Lady
Not a promising start
the iPlayer page promised the Stones (i’m guessing with “Fool to Cry”) but then didn’t deliver – things have reached a bad state when Cliff is the liveliest performer on the show
That’s probably true in respect of this show, but Sir Cliff is intermittently a great pop performer, and Devil Woman is one of his strong songs, despite — or really because of –the intense (not to say bizarre) sexual anxiety of its lyric.
#58 – This is true, Mark. “She’s gonna get you from behind…” Not the sort of record I’d care to play to me Auntie Nora. You old rascal, Cliff!!!
40 minute version is on iplayer now! Inc. Fool To Cry, which is quite gorgeous – that organ line, the falsetto, and Jagger as fool, weak for once.
Chelovek, you nutter! Hoagy Carmichael’s My Resistance Is Low a car crash? Granted, Robin Sarstedt is a great ad for autotune (check the ‘harmony’ at 19.05), but the song’s a peach. Yes, he was Peter’s brother (and Eden Kane’s). Reached no.3, two places short of creating an unlikely trilogy of Popular entries.
Shake It Down was Rob Davies’s first attempt at writing a disco hit – I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to hear it as a forerunner of Groovejet.
B Manilow – odd sitting position and BBC orchestra scupper this, as I think it’s one of his best singles, and a no.10 hit in the US. Not sure about that “make my knees start to quiver” line though.
Cliff – solid career re-positioner, good call from Sukrat on the “bizarre sexual anxiety”. Written by JJ Barrie’s sister? Did I hear that right?
BazMan was pushed endlessly during this time, but he barely troubled the charts between 1975 and 1980. Most of his “biggest” songs weren’t hits.
“Copa” got to number 22 ‘eventually’, and I would wager you’d need 15 guesses and a long long time before you guessed the title of his bigget chart hit…
I’m catching up here, but nobody’s mentioned Tina Charles’ “Love me like a lover” (as opposed to what?)
And, also, nice to see Ian Stewart features greatly on “Fool to Cry”
Mac and Katie Kissoon: OK, so that’s two not-hits. See, it’s not a good idea to only limit the show to ‘chart entries only’ but this week is not helping.
JJ Barrie: Five Dollars for mowing the lawn? How big was the damn lawn? At 1976 prices, that’s £40 in todays money isn’t it?
Cliff: Wichita#60, you heard wrong, it’s JJBarrie’s wife that wrote “Devil Woman” apparently. Wikipedia has it: “”Devil Woman” was written by Terry Britten and Christine Holmes and first recorded by Holmes under the name Kristine.”
re :62
At least Mac and Katie Kissoon were in the Top 50 and in those days a large proportion of big hits entered the charts in the upper 30s or 40s.But I agree stuff like Barry Manilow and at least one track just about every week didnt get so much as a sniff at the charts – its makes that comment by the “we only featured big hits” even more ridiculous.
Re 62 – ah yes, Kristine Sparkle as she was also known. Did a coupling of middling glam 45s on Decca and a whole album on Decca which I’ve never seen. As Christine Holmes she made several more middling 45s in the 60s, but recorded one absolute cracker called Here Comes My Baby which eventually came out on an RPM Dream Babes cd.
(zzzzzzzzzzz)
Sorry.
The Kristine Sparkle album has come out on CD. Not sure if it’s still in print but it really isn’t a lost classic.
Also Ms Holmes was a regular on Crackerjack and wasn’t she one of the Family Dogg?
Oh, Kristine Sparkle, a ‘special guest’ often on Kids Pop TV, if I remember…
People stayed away in droves from her singles, but hey, that’s nostalgia for yer.
I don’t know where else to place this. Kathy Kirby has passed away at 72. Despite her limited chart success, Kathy was an enormous star back in the early mid sixties and represented the UK at Eurovision where she finished our customary second, this time behind a typically pervy Serge Gainsbourg song.
RIP La Kirby.
Indeed – had it not been for Beatles Band, KK’s “Secret Love” would have been the Xmas number one for ’63. Had a pretty wretched life after her mentor/lover Eric Ambrose died in ’71 but at her best (e.g. “Soon I’ll Wed My Love”) she was pretty awesome.
Correction: Bert Ambrose.
Right, this week:
City Boy. It had to happen, I don’t remember this song at all. OK, they did have a minor hit with 5705, but this is unsurprisingly this weeks miss. And it’s been off 10 mins, and I can’t remember it again.
Whereas Lee Garrett, I do remember as I met the dude about a week before this, he was in “Derek’s Records” when I popped in. I got introduced, and he gave me a copy of the single and signed it.
Slik, “got to get into the top ten” um, nope.
Andrea True, yes I remember this performance. They didn’t ask her back on did they?
The most striking thing is how little the chart changed from one week to the next. Jimmy James, Slik this week are back on with new performances of songs they’ve done already, and Paul Nicholas coming up as well…
So, this is the 30min version, so who’s been missed? (The Stones last time, unbelieveable, unless they are coming up in a week or two)
Oh, and Pete Budd, the singer of The Wurzels reminds me of Pete Shelley doing “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays”. “Now that were both past our fifties” mad me think, so I looked it up, and actually they were all in their mid thirties.
Re70: yes the charts really were glacially slow in those days – I know that from when I had a period or recording the Top20 off the radio in summer/autumn 1977 and how the same tracks seemed to be the chart week after week with probably about 1 or 2 new entries.
I know time’s much slower when you’re a child but they were very very slow moving.
I think that’s why people go on about unlike today their being “real hits in those days” that everyone was conscious off including the proverbial whistling milkman.
Has that really been the case since the early 80s?
Lee Garrett – big revival track towards the end of the night in certain jazz/funk/soul clubs around 1983. Safari Club in Windsor played it every week.
City Boy: oh, it’s my Economics tutor. Trying very hard indeed with hands in the air etc. but sparse-looking audience not getting it at all, or, far more likely, not wanting it in the first place.
Lee Garrett trying EXTREMELY hard to inject oxygen into the studio but the song has no song, so to speak. Like all else with this show, it breathes the stale molecules of make do and mend.
“Requiem” remains an extraordinary piece of schizophrenic work; Midge already getting ready for “Vienna” in the verses and abruptly wishing he were somewhere, or someone, else when the song turns into a failed Austrian Eurovision entry.
Ruby Flipper and “Love Hangover”; the average Club Poptimism intake could have done (and indeed did do) much better. Tolerated by 15 million viewers (including myself) – how? Ah yes, “no competition.”
“Must dash now. I’m off to buy the new Jimmy James and the Vagabonds single.” You’ll not hear that said.
One marvels (if “marvel” is the right verb) that any of this middle-range stuff got anywhere near the charts. The whole thing – was there even an audience for DLT’s underpowered and underinterested links? – reminded me of a Soviet state department store. Every expense spared.
Gladys and the Pips utterly fab but Lena reckons they dressed down from what they might have worn on Soul Train and the like. No doubt they looked at a nation which took three years to get “Midnight Train To Georgia” into the top ten and was about to send the Wurzels to number one and decided the gown and tuxedos weren’t worth packing.
As for the Wurzels; wow, I had forgotten that Davy Jones endured such hard times in the seventies.
Thing is ”I’ll Go Where Your Music Takes Me” was easily the second (admittedly distant) best thing on the show after Gladys and her Pips.
Still, despite the presence of DLT this week was still a great improvement from the previous, which was beyond dire.
Personally I’m waiting for the flag-waving, phony-party-atmosphere era to kick in sometime around the early-to-mid 80′s.
I’ve just seen this week’s TOTP on the iplayer – what an appalling version of “You’re My Everything” – Lee Garrett really tried his hardest against unconquerable odds but as with so many suffered due to the very unfunky BBC musicians attempts to recreate the backing. The average karaoke backing is better
#70 “5705″ – a minor hit? That’s extremely uncharitable. How big does a record have to be before it escapes the “minor” table.
I think the Slik record’s quite clever, I was very impressed by it first time. I’ve a particular soft spot for those who manage to rhyme different parts of speech, so the heavily pronounced rhyme (them / requiem) did the trick for me, and also the very first time I watched it, the wreck-wreck-requiem sequence seemed like a neat touch.
Unfortunately, the second trick wears particularly thin – it’s a bit like a Two Ronnies musical arrangement. One’s initial reaction is replaced by admiration and tolerance.