“I had the second verse and the chorus, but somehow I couldn’t get the song started properly. Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge, who were married at the time, were in town. They had just had a huge hit, ‘Why Me, Lord?’ written by Kris. Their recording had won a Dove Award for them. I called Kris and asked him to help me with the first verse. He had written songs for my company, Buckhorn Music, and we’d had some pretty big hits as a publisher.

“When I showed him how I started the song, ‘I’m just a mortal . . .’ he looked at me and said, ‘Why don’t you say, “I’m only human, I’m just a man . . .” I said, ‘That’s good! That’s what I need.’ We finished the first verse in about twenty minutes. The lines just flew out from each of us.”

I am sure I remember reading, on some other Popular thread, some pretty negative comments about the “1000 UK Number One Hits” book by Kutner & Leigh. In that book, the authors say that they (or someone gathering info for the book) approached Kristofferson about the song and he said he had very little – possibly nothing – to do with its composition. Of course to believe the story we would have to assume that the book accurately documented what Kristofferson said, that Kristofferson’s memory was accurate and so on and so on.

Like Tom said it really stands out in the listing of 1979 number ones -like a turkey twizzler in a Harrods hamper.

I can’t remember the reason. It could have been a joint No.1 with a rule dictating which title actually gets the honour.

The “rules” today prevent there ever being a possibility of a joint No.1 single.

I also remember that for a while they would say this in voice-over, i.e. without letting the deaf kids know. Until they got a bunch of letters from parents (presumably hearing ones)….

It would appear from this article –
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/03/11/heart-operation-agony-of-singing-star-lena-martell-86908-20347207/

that at that time Lena was outselling Britney and Kylie in Scottish record shops during that period.

So she wasn’t all bad. ;-)

Marcello is right about that niche in Scottish light entertainment that this comes from. It’s remarkably well entrenched, as anyone who has ever experienced Sydney Devine’s Tiny Bubbles or Crystal Chandeliers will testify.

BTW I loved Iris William’s He was beautiful. 79 marked my falling wildly, extravagantly and inappropriately in love and – er – that other thing that goes along with it*. Iris’s swooping belter, Randy Vanwarmer’s Just when I needed you most (search out Dolly’s take on this and weep!) to and Sad Cafe’s Every Day Hurts were my songs. I think I was living in a parallel universe.

* Have just realised that the Number 1 at time of said event was We Don’t Talk Anymore, and its parent album Wired for Sound was given by me to said gent as he decamped Glasgow for Oxford. It took me another eight years to graduate, qualify and get a job that would let me make a similar journey.

I always remember Pat Keysell telling the kids who were thinking of sending in shite for the gallery: “Sorry. We can’t return any”. The reason for this, of course, was that it enabled Vision On to simply bin straight away all the tons of rubbish which didn’t make the gallery before consigning to the same fate those which did.

The music throughout the show was excellent. My personal fave was the flute piece featuring the clock.

I see he went to my alma mater Maidstone College of Art, nice to know Tracy Emin isn’t the only famous graduate of the place.

http://www.dewolfe.co.uk/musicsearch/cd_tracks.php?cdnumber=DEWEB%2001

One of the first times I noticed how different instruments could be ‘treated’ differently and sound interesting.

Q: What is the Gallery music called?

A: Well to be honest, it depends how old you claim to be as to which Gallery music you mean. With ‘Vision On’, the best-known Gallery music was the brilliant ‘Leftbank 2′ by the Lance Gambit Trio. It was referred to as “the Gallery theme” by all those on the programme. Another used was ‘Cavatina’ played by John Williams. Others associated with ‘Vision On’ were ‘Accroche-Toi Caroline!’ (Claude Vasori), ‘Java’ (Al Hirt) and the absolutely unforgettable ‘Gurney Slade’ by Max Harris.

Sadly there was news just the other day that Tony Hart has had to give up art due to illness, but what a legend.