Season eleven contemporary music.

Well here we go again on another trip through seventies music, this one concentrating on the early months of 1974 as we travel with The Doctor and Sarah through mediaeval earth to Metebelis Three.

When this series begins, on December 15th 1973, sitting at the top of the singles chart in the classic Slade single Merry Xmas Everybody.
Glam Rock, of which Slade were unfortunate to be grouped in, had hit a peak in 1973, the likes of Marc Bolan, The Sweet, Wizzard, David Bowie and Gary Glitter had all seen huge singles successes in that year, but by the end of 1973 musical tastes were changing and Glam was slowly breathing its last.
The charts were pretty varied around this time with artists all vying for sales during the lucrative Christmas market, the charts are littered with the likes of Matt Munro, Perry Como, Andy Williams, The Four Tops, Cliff Richard (riding on the success of his latest film Take Me High which co starred former Who girl Deborah Watling)

The top ten for 5th January 1974 looks like this

10 Street Life Roxy Music
9 Roll Away The Stone Mott The Hoople
8 Lamplight David Essex
7 The Show Must Go On Leo Sayer
6 Paper Roses Marie Osmond
5 My Coo Ca Choo Alvin Stardust
4 I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday Wizzard
3 I Love You Love Me Love Gary Glitter
2 You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me The New Seekers
1 Merry Christmas Everybody Slade.

There's a couple of true Christmas classics there. 1973 was the year for Christmas songs obviously!

I heard the Leo sayer song a few times when I was a kid, as my Mum was a big fan. :)

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Originally Posted by SiHart

There's a couple of true Christmas classics there. 1973 was the year for Christmas songs obviously!

:)

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Yes, Elton's Step Into Christmas is still in the top thirty having peaked at 24. Other notable Christmas hits are Steeleye Span with Gaudete and the usual novelty hits from Max Bygraves, Wink Martindale (both with the same song) and Drupi. No doubt that year there were more than one or two novelty records which didn't make the charts.

Perhaps it was the fab & groovy Jo Grant leaving the series that heralded the end of Glam Rock.

Season 11 certainly tones down the glitter and sparkle of Season 10 - especially Carnival of Monsters!

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Originally Posted by Rob McCow

Perhaps it was the fab & groovy Jo Grant leaving the series that heralded the end of Glam Rock.

Season 11 certainly tones down the glitter and sparkle of Season 10 - especially Carnival of Monsters!

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You could be right. Jo was very fashion concious, and I did feel sometimes that watching Dr. Who was a bit like watching an edition of Top of the Pops, especially Carnival of Monsters with Vorg and Shurna's glittery outfits. Season 11 does tone down that glittery, glam feel, and seems all the more ordinary for it, and with less and less input in the charts from the biggest Glam Rock groups the charts seemed more ordinary too, but there were still some memorable singles around during this period.

Yup, some true Christmas classics there that have stood the test of time with Slade and Wizzard, the latter in particular one of my all time fave Christmas songs. I like Gaudete too - not the sort of song that gets played on the radio these days, but I first heard it in a Latin lesson in the early 80s when our teacher brought the single in and played it in a pre-Christmas lesson, and I've got it on a Christmas compilation CD and usually give it a spin most years.

Elsewhere, particularly keen on Roll Away the Stone by Mott the Hoople and as S11 began, The Carpenters were just hanging on in the Top 20 with Top of the World, which had been Top 5 in November.

I'm still too young to remember it all at the time, mind! :p

Ok, now that we're talking about Invasion of the Dinosaurs, let's take a look at what the singles charts for those weeks, 12th January 1974 to 16th February 1974, looked like.

For the week ending 12th January Slade still held firmly on to the top spot with their huge Christmas hit, but the following week, 19th January, following a late boost in sales The New Seekers took the number one position with the excellent You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me.
The New Seekers had been around since 1969 after the original sixties Seekers broke up. The New Seekers immediately gained a following on the folk circuit, and their first single, Melanie Safka's Look What They've Done To My Song was a minor UK hit. The line up of the group at this time were Eve Graham, the lovely Lyn Paul, Marty Kristian, Peter Doyle and Paul Layton. This line up would remain through the run of the groups hits during the early part of the seventies beginning with Never Ending Song of Love, which reached number two in the summer of 1971. Their next hit though would be much bigger.
I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing began life as a Coca Cola jingle which was re-worked into a full song and became the group's biggest hit at the end of 1971, and which stayed at number one for four weeks.
They were chosen to represent Britain in the Eurovision song contest in 1972 with the song Beg Steal Or Borrow, losing out to Luxembourg's Vicki Leandros with Come What May. Beg Steal Or Borrow reached number two on the UK charts.
A spate of lesser placed singles followed for the next twelve months or so, including a total chart miss for the early ecological song We've Got To Do It Now in September 1973 before You Won't Find Another Fool gave them their second number one.
After the success of I Get a Little Sentimental Over You in March 1974 The New Seekers decided to split, Peter Doyle had already left and pretty blonde, Lyn Paul pursued a solo career, scoring a minor hit in 1975 with It Oughta Sell a Million, another Coca Cola jingle.
Amid much publicity, The New Seekers re-formed, with a slightly different line-up, in 1976, but the singles they released in those latter years could never match the success of their early seventies output, the biggest hit from that period was 1978's Anthem (One Day In Every Week) reaching number 21 spending a total of ten weeks on the charts.
The New Seekers still exist in various forms today, remaining popular on the cabaret and 70's revival circuit with a mighty back catalogue of hits.

Other new entries in the chart for week ending 19th January 1974 include Alice Cooper's Teenage Lament '74, Ronnie Laine's How Come, The Sweet with Teenage Rampage and Mud's Tiger Feet which became something of an anthem for them and which spent a mighty five weeks at number one. More on that one later.

A Christmas number one not chosen by a 3 month elimation reality show. Let us mock the 70s now ...

Between the end of Season 10 and the beginning of Season 11, albums I like that were released were as follows:

Queen - Queen
Genesis - Genesis Live
Selling England By the Pound - Genesis
Quadrophenia - The Who
On the Third Day - Electric Light Orchestra

Of course, December 1973 saw the release of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - not quite my favourite Black Sabbath album, but it's a good'un nevertheless.

Moving onto 1974, we saw the following albums that I enjoy released before the final part of Planet of the Spiders:

Rush - Rush
Burn - Deep Purple
Queen II - Queen
Second Helping - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Diamond Dogs - David Bowie

of these, Deep Purple's Burn is my favourite, introducing Ian Gillan and Roger Glover's replacements, David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes (respectively) to the band. And WOW! What an album. And the two that followed it (Stormbringer and Come Taste the Band) would only build on that!

In the period 26th January - 16th February 1974 Mud held the number one position in the singles chart with a massive hit in Tiger Feet, easily one of their best singles.
Mud had signed to Mickie Most's RAK label in 1973 after seven years in the musical wilderness struggling to get hits. Their first single for RAK, Crazy, written and produced by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, was an immediate success, and paved the way for later hit singles, Hypnosis, Dyna Mite, Tiger Feet, The Cat Crept In, Rocket, Lonely This Christmas, The Secrets That You Keep, Oh Boy.
Tiger Feet, the best selling single of 1974 prevented The Sweet's Teenage Rampage from getting to number one.
Other notable singles in these weeks came from Cozy Powell with Dance With The Devil, Dutch group Golden Earring's Radar Love, Lulu with a cover of Bowie's Man Who Sold The World and Stevie Wonder's Living For The City from the brilliant album Innervisions.
By the time of the first episode of Death to the Daleks, leather clad rocker Suzi Quatro was number one with Devil Gate Drive, a hard driving rock song in typical Quatro style. It was her fifth single and second number one within a year, the previous June Can The Can had been number one for one week, Devil Gate Drive spent two weeks on top of the charts. Like Mud before her, Quatro was signed to the RAK label and her hits were written and produced by Chinn/Chapman.
The Top Twenty for the week ending 16th MArch looks like this:

20 Happiness is me and you Gilbert O'Sullivan
19 Jambalaya The Carpenters
18 Love's Theme The Love Unlimited Orchestra
17 School Love Barry Blue
16 Never Never Gonna Give You Up Barry White
15 Burn Baby Burn Hudson Ford
14 Ma He's Making Eyes At Me Lena Zavaroni
13 Rebel Rebel David Bowie
12 Candle In The Wind Elton John
11 I Get A Little Sentimental Over You The New Seekers
10 Wombling Song The Wombles
9 It's You Freddie Starr
8 Jet Paul McCartney/Wings
7 Remember (Sha La La La Lee) Bay City Rollers
6 Devil Gate Drive Suzi Quatro
5 You're Sixteen Ringo Starr
4 The Most Beautiful Girl In The World Charlie Rich
3 The Air That I Breathe The Hollies
2 Jealous Mind Alvin Stardust
1 Billy Don't Be A Hero Paper Lace

Paper Lace were a Nottingham based band who appeared on Opportunity Knocks in late '73. They were spotted by songwriters Mitch Murray and Pete Callander who offered to record them and gave them Billy, an anti war song.
The song and the group caught on and it spent three weeks at number one on the Bus Stop label, its biggest success.

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Lulu with a cover of Bowie's Man Who Sold The World

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YGTBFKM?!?!??! How come I've never heard of this?! Or are you just making facts up and sneaking them into your chart info?

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5 You're Sixteen Ringo Starr

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I'm slightly worried by this song!

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Originally Posted by Rob McCow

YGTBFKM?!?!??! How come I've never heard of this?! Or are you just making facts up and sneaking them into your chart info?

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:-D Lulu's cover version, produced by the man himself, and can be heard on backing vocals and plays sax, got to number three, its B side is also a Bowie cover, Watch That Man, and is equally as good.
There was to be an album, if I remember correctly Lulu recorded at least another two tracks if not more, but due to "contract difficulties" it never emerged. However, "Man Who Sold The World" is available on several cds, most notably "The Best Glam Rock Album In The World Ever" which includes loads of Glam artists and singles from this period. And an album from Lulu herself called, surprise surprise "The Man Who Sold The World" and includes that track and Watch That Man and all her late seventies singles like Boy Meets Girl, Take Your Mama For A Ride, Heaven And Earth And The Stars and 1974 Bond theme The Man With The Golden Gun.

Ringo's track is also a cover, You're Sixteen was originally recorded in 1960 by rockabilly star Johnny Burnette.It features in the 1973 film American Graffitti. Paul McCartney guests on Ringo's contemporary album titled, surprisingly, Ringo, and can be heard playing the kazoo on this single.

glad you're paying attention there :)

There's some good songs in that line up. I especially love Rebel, Rebel and Jet. And, of course, The Wombling Song is a complete classic!

Let's take a look at the singles charts for the weeks Monster of Peladon aired.

For the first two episodes of Monster, Paper Lace held sway at number one with Billy Don't Be A Hero, preventing The Hollies with The Air That I Breathe and country star Charlie Rich with The Most Beautiful Girl In The World from getting to the top.
For the w/e 6th April we had a new no. one in the form of Terry Jacks' Seasons In The Sun which then spent four weeks at number one.
Jacks Had previously been a member of The Poppy Family who'd had a big American hit in 1970 with Where Are You Goin' Billy, and which became a minor UK hit in the same year.
Seasons In The Sun, an English translation of a French hit written by Jacques Brel, was recorded in Vancouver in 1973. Susan and Terry Jacks, of Poppy Family fame, made the decision to record the song when the Beach Boys, who were considering recording a version with Terry Jacks producing, decided to abandon their recording. The Jacks recorded it instead, changing the tone of the song, originally about Brel's wife's infidelity, to a song about a young man's impending death and messages to his friends. Terry Jacks later released it on his own label. It immediately topped the record charts in the U.S. (where it was released on Bell Records), Canada, and the UK, selling over 14 million copies worldwide.

Jacks' version was released in the United States in December 1973, and made the Billboard Hot 100 a month later. On March 2, 1974, the song began a three-week run at No. 1 atop the Hot 100, and remained in the top 40 until almost Memorial Day weekend. Although he released several other singles that were moderately successful in Canada, "Seasons in the Sun" would become Jacks' only major solo hit in the United States. He did score another top twenty hit in the UK later in '74 with another Brel song, If You Go Away.
Over the years Seasons has been covered by many artists, most notably Westlife who took the song again to the top of the UK charts as a Christmas no. one in 1999.

Back to 1974, and the top twenty for w/e 27th April looks like this

20 He's Mistra Know It All Stevie Wonder
19 Don't Stay Away Too Long Peters and Lee
18 Long Legged Woman Dressed In Black Mungo Jerry
17 Seven Seas Of Rhye Queen
16 Golden Age Of Rock n Roll Mott The Hoople
15 Billy Don't Be A Hero Paper Lace
14 Emma Hot Chocolate
13 Rock Around The Clock Bill Haley and the Comets
12 Remember Me This Way Gary Glitter
11 I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door Little Jimmy Osmond
10 A Walkin' Miracle Limmie and Family Cookin'
9 Homely Girl The Chi Lites
8 Doctor's Orders Sunny
7 Everyday Slade
6 You Are Everything Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye
5 Angel Face Glitter Band
4 Remember You're A Womble The Wombles
3 The Cat Crept In Mud
2 Waterloo ABBA
1 Seasons In The Sun Terry Jack

Of course!! A couple of notable new entries in that weeks chart, at two ABBA, who's Eurovisoin success is legendary, Olivia Newton John is there at 22 with Her Eurovision entry, Long Live Love, others from that years line up will appear in the chart over the coming weeks, Gigliola Cinquetti with Go, and Mouth and McNeil with I see A Star.
Also in this chart we have Genesis with I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) Wizzard with Rock n Roll Winter, The Osmonds old record label cashing in on their success with a re-issue of one of their old singles, I Can't Stop, and soon to be huge, the Bay City Rollers have a new entry at 35 with Shang A Lang.

The best two songs on that list are at #20 and #17 respectively!

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Originally Posted by Rob McCow

The best two songs on that list are at #20 and #17 respectively!

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Well, tbh if it hadn't been for no. 13 you probably wouldn't have had any of them.

The Mungo Jerry and Mott the Hoople tracks are very good, and Errol Brown's performance on Top of the Pops definately sold Emma and made that one such a memorable Hot Chocolate hit.

Was Rock Around the Clock re-released for any particular reason in 1974, Steve?

And Season in the Sun... that is a great song, I really like that one, there's something very distinctive about the way it's sung, makes it very memorable IMHO. I can well believe (though didn't know it until reading Steve's excellent post above) that it was such a big hit.

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Originally Posted by Andrew Curnow

Was Rock Around the Clock re-released for any particular reason in 1974, Steve?

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Well I had to look it up, but it was featured in George Lucas's 1973 film American Grafitti, and uses some great fifties and early sixties classics as its soundtrack. I suppose it was inevitable that some of the tracks would gather attention, it certainly seemed to inspire Ringo Starr as he covered Johnny Burnette's You're Sixteen on his album Ringo.

Thanks! :)

SO! We've reached Planet of the Spiders. It's May 1974 and the charts...well!!

Just one word.......

SPARKS! :gunshot:gunshot

More later!:)

Sparks is an American rock and pop band formed in Los Angeles in 1970 by brothers Ron (keyboards) and Russell Mael (vocals), initially under the name Halfnelson. Best known for their quirky approach to songwriting, Sparks' music is often accompanied by intelligent, sophisticated, and acerbic lyrics and an idiosyncratic, theatrical stage presence, typified in the contrast between Russell's wide-eyed hyperactive frontman antics and Ron's sedentary scowling.
Though the band's long career has seen them successfully pioneer many different musical genres; including glam pop, power pop, electronic dance music, mainstream pop and most recently chamber pop, Sparks have created their own unique musical universe. While achieving chart success in various countries around the world including United Kingdom, Germany, France, and the United States, they have enjoyed a cult following since their first releases. Sparks have been highly influential on the development of popular music, in particular on the late 1970s scene, when in collaboration with Giorgio Moroder (and Telex subsequently), they reinvented themselves as an electronic pop duo, and abandoned the traditional rock band line up. Their frequently changing styles and visual presentations have kept the band at the forefront of modern, artful pop music. They are held in esteem by such bands and performers as Morrissey, Kurt Cobain, Franz Ferdinand, Arcade Fire, Sonic Youth, Ramones, Duran Duran, Bjork, Depeche Mode, New Order, Def Leppard, Faith No More, The Pixies, Mark Burgess of the Chameleons and They Might Be Giants, all of whom cite Sparks as a major influence.
Sparks first hit the UK charts in May 1974 with an awesome single in This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us, which soared to number two. But to be fair they had gained something of a cult following in London after a residency at The Marquee which saw, on at least one occassion, Queen as their opening act. An appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test led to wider interest where host Bob Harris compared the band to a cross between Zappa's Mother's of Invention and the Monkees.
At this time a re-issue of their self titled debut album and its follow up A Woofer In Tweeters Clothing gathered much attention and critical acclaim, and a deal with Island records in 1973 produced the breakthrough album Kimono My House and the aforementioned This Town Ain't Big Enough.. and appearances on Top Of The Pops.
The follow-up albums, Propaganda and Indiscreet, the latter produced by Tony Visconti, were similarly successful and produced the hit singles "Looks, Looks, Looks", "Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth" and "Something For The Girl With Everything".
In 1979 they turned to Donna Summer's producer Giorgio Moroder to come up with an electronic album that was to influence emerging electro pop artists. The album No. One In Heaven gave Sparks an unprecedented three single hits, The Number One Song In Heaven, Beat The Clock and Tryouts For The Human Race, and were all huge disco hits.
Although they never had anymore big UK single hits, Sparks remained popular on the continent and their album releases were always critically acclaimed, Whomp That Sucker, Angst In My Pants, Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins,
the masterpiece that is Lil' Beethoven, Hello Young Lovers and, my personal favourite 2007s Exotic Creatures of The Deep featuring the single Good Morning and my fave track She Got Me Pregnant. Also in this period, the duo appeared in the video for Justin Hawkins's cover of "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us", in which Ron and Russell play the referee and MC at a darts match between Hawkins and darts champion Phil Taylor. This version of "This Town" reached No. 6 in the UK charts.

Some of this post is obviously copied and pasted from various sites around the net, some of it is original, but I could enthuse on and on about Sparks, I've followed their music since 1974 and their story is not over yet, they still tour, perform and record today, and are just as acclaimed in whatever they do, their latest work is a performance of chamber music based on the life of Ingmar Bergman.
I'd urge anyone here to check out some of their stuff. Various compilations of their work are available, all of it interesting, I don't think you'll be bored.

I'll give anyone who's keeping up with my muses here about the music of the seventies a chance to recover from this post, cos some record buyers in 1974 :flash preferred the superficial sounds of The Rubettes and took their record Sugar Baby Love to number one, keeping Sparks off the top, shame on us. More about them next time.

So... Sparks eh? They do seem to be the kind of band that if you're into them, you're in all the way! I don't know a huge amount about them, but I do know they have a good sense of humour.

The Rubettes emerged at the tail end of the glam rock movement, wearing trademark white suits and cloth caps on stage. Their first and biggest hit was "Sugar Baby Love" (1974) which was a number one in the United Kingdom, going on to sell around 500,000 copies in the UK and three million copies globally. Two million copies were sold in France alone, an achievement matched by no other British group.
"Sugar Baby Love" along with three other songs, was recorded for Polydor in October 1973 at Landsdown Studios in Holland Park, London by a group of session musicians featuring the distinctive falsetto lead vocal of Paul Da Vinci (real name: Paul Prewer). Da Vinci would not however become a member of the band put together by John Richardson but would pursue solo work. His one and only UK hit came a little later in 1974. Your Baby Ain't Your Baby Anymore, reaching number 20.
"Sugar Baby Love" was the Rubettes only UK #1 and sole U.S. Top 40 entry. In November 1974 NME music magazine reported that The Rubettes, The Glitter Band and Mud were among the UK bands who had roles in a new film titled Never Too Young To Rock.
The Rubettes went on to have a number of other hits across Europe during the mid 1970s such as "Tonight", "Juke Box Jive" and "I Can Do It" sung by Alan Williams, mostly written by the Bickerton-Waddington songwriting team. The Rubettes success encouraged Bickerton and Waddington to set up State Records, so that ten months after the release of "Sugar Baby Love", the fourth Rubettes single "I Can Do It" was on the State label

The band were to abandon glammy nostalgia to enter more serious territory. "Under One Roof" (1976) a portrayal of a gay man disowned and later murdered by his father; along with Rod Stewart's "The Killing of Georgie", was one of the few songs that tackled the topic of homophobia. Their most successful self composed hit was the country rock styled ballad "Baby I Know", which reached number 10 in the UK and Germany in 1977. They played as a quintet since early 1975 and always as a quartet since mid 1976 (Bill Hurd became an out-off-staff member). After Thorpe's departure in 1979, the group's success began to dwindle.

For this week only the TOP 40 for the week ending June 8th 1974.

40 W.O.L.D. Harry Chapin
39 Behind Closed Doors Charlie Rich
38 Ooh I Do Lynsey De Paul
37 I'd Love You To Want Me Lobo
36 He's Misstra Know it all Stevie Wonder
35 Getting Over You Andy Willaims
34 Rock and Roll Winter Wizzard
33 Personality Lena Zavaroni
32 Year Of Decision Three Degrees
31 I Want To Give Perry Como
30 The Sound Of Philadelphia MFSB
29 Guilty Pearls
28 Homely Girl Chi-Lites
27 Can't Get Enough Bad Company
26 The Man In Black Cozy Powell
25 Spiders And Snakes Jim Stafford
24 Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me Elton John
23 Waterloo ABBA
22 Liverpool Lou Scaffold
21 Summer Breeze Isley Brothers
20 Remember You're A Womble The Wombles
19 Red Dress Alvin Stardust
18 Jarrow Song Alan Price
17 I Can't Stop The Osmonds
16 A Touch Too Much Arrows
15 (You Keep Me) Hanging On Cliff Richard
14 Shang A Lang Bay City Rollers
13 The In Crowd Bryan Ferry
12 Go Gigliola Cinquetti
11 Don't Stay Away Too Long Peters and Lee
10 Break The Rules Status Quo
9 If I Didn't Care David Cassidy
8 I See A Star Mouth and McNeil
7 Judy Teen Cockney Rebel
6 The Night Chicago Died Paper Lace
5 There's A Ghost In My House R Dean Taylor
4 The Streak Ray Stevens
3 Hey Rock and Roll Showwaddywaddy
2 This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us Sparks
1 Sugar Baby Love The Rubettes

Not many distinctive singles there. The Harry Chapin one at forty should have done better, we've got the usual middle of the road fare from Andy Williams and Perry Como, Year of Decision from The Three Degrees was only a sampler of what was to come, they would hit number one in August with When Will I See You Again, in fact, their record label, Philadelphia, was the nearest and biggest rival to Motown during this period of the seventies. The Isley Brothers with Summer Breeze is a classic, from the album Three Plus Three, which also contains their other big hit, That Lady. Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel's first hit Judy Teen is another good one, they'd been something of a cult for a while. Ray Stevens with The Streak was to go to number one in a week or two. Streaking had become a national craze at this time and most days the papers featured front page news of sporting events being disrupted by this disgracful behaviour.:-D
Twenty-five-year-old Australian Michael O'Brien was the first known streaker at a major sporting event when on April 20, 1974, he ran out naked onto the ground of an England vs. France Rugby Union match at Twickenham. He was captured by a police man, PC Bruce Perry, who covered his genitals with his police helmet. The photograph of O'Brien under arrest became one of the most reproduced photographs of a streaker. O'Brien, long-haired, bearded and naked in front of a jeering and cheering crowd is surrounded and supported by bobbies as he is arrested. The policeman's helmet is on display in the museum at Twickenham.

Ah! Happy days.

I hope you've all enjoyed my ramblings about the contemporary music, trivia and some news events for the period December 1973 to June 1974.:)

Looking forward to doing it all again soon.