Popular '75

no they are – but we do that there ‘caching’ innit. i’m seeing 11 VOTERS here at the mo.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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

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.

Space Oddity seems like a surprisingly rockist front runner.

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

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

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.

1975’s US number ones in full:

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds – Elton John
Mandy – Barry Manilow
Please Mr Postman – The Carpenters
Laughter In The Rain – Neil Sedaka
Fire – Ohio Players
You’re No Good – Linda Ronstadt
Pick Up The Pieces – Average White Band
Best Of My Love – The Eagles
Have You Never Been Mellow – Olivia Newton John
Black Water – Doobie Brothers
My Eyes Adored You – Frankie Valli
Lady Marmalade – Labelle
Lovin’ You – Minnie Riperton
Philadelphia Freedom – Elton John
Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song – BJ Thomas
He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You) – Tony Orlando & Dawn
Shining Star – Earth Wind & Fire
Before The Next Teardrop Falls – Freddy Fender
Thank God I’m A Country Boy – John Denver
Sister Golden Hair – America
Love Will Keep Us Together – Captain & Tennille
Listen To What The Man Said – Wings
The Hustle – Van McCoy
One Of These Nights – The Eagles
Jive Talkin’ – The Bee Gees
Fallin’ In Love – Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds
Get Down Tonight – KC & The Sunshine Band
Rhinestone Cowboy – Gen Campbell
Fame – David Bowie
I’m Sorry/Calypso – John Denver
Bad Blood – Neil Sedaka
Island Girl – Elton John
That’s The Way I Like It – KC & The Sunshine Band
Fly Robin Fly – Silver Convention
Let’s Do It Again – Staple Singers

A whacking great 14 of these never even reached the UK Top 50. BJ Thomas’s lovely lazy thing was a Radio 2 staple, but Bad Blood? Fire? Fallin’ In Love? Don’t think I’ve ever heard these, on the radio or anywhere. Disco taking a grip late in the year, and some real corkers.

Isn’t it odd that John Denver only had one (monster) hit in the UK? Four number ones in the US; nothing wrong with I’m Sorry, or his Jacques Cousteau tribute Calypso.

Welcome back to you – and welcome back to TPL. Glad to see you’re ploughing on.

Welcome back to the Green Dome, Marcello!

A hearty welcome back, and our thanks to Lena too. And you’ve been eased back into the routine with some nice MOR music I see!

TPL does its second double album in a week, though this one is perhaps schmaltzier than the previous one.

Happy Birthday MC!

His version of ‘Land Of A Thousand Dances’ (on the b-side of the ‘It’s Not Unusual’1980’s 12inch)is pretty intense sixties soul – probably the kind of stuff Otis Redding was on about when he called him the greatest white soul singer.

TPL moves on to present the year’s biggest seller.