Season 7 Contemporary music
Her we go again then, on to more familair territory this time, for me anyway, it's time to take a look at the very first of the charts for the seventies.
With the "Summer of love" three years behind us, and with hippy festival Woodstock still in recent memory from just one year prior to these charts, we find little of the hippy idealism in the early months of 1970.
However, Joni Mitchell and Melanie Safka, both full of hippy ideals, would make inroads in the early part of the sevenies with some stunning and fascinating albums, Mitchell with Ladies of the Canyon and Blue amongst others over a four decade run, Safka with Candles in the Rain, The Good Book and Gather Me, the latter containing her biggest single hit in Brand New Key at the end of 1971.
For now though we'll take a look at the charts for w/e 3rd January 1970.
20 Nobody's Child Karen Young
19 Green River Creedence Clearwater Revival
18 Loneliness Des O'Connor
17 But You Love Me Daddy Jim Reeves
16 The Liquidator Harry J Allstars
15 Love Is All Malcolm Roberts
14 (Call Me) Number One The Tremeloes
13 Durham Town (The Leavin') Roger Whittaker
12 Good Old Rock n Roll Dave Clark Five
11 The Onion Song Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
10 Without Love Tom Jones
9 Tracy Cufflinks
8 Winter World Of Love Engelbert Humperdinck
7 All I Have To Do Is Dream Bobbie Gentry and Glen Campbell
6 Yester-Me-Yester-You-Yesterday Stevie Wonder
5 Melting Pot Blue Mink
4 Suspicious Minds Elvis Presley
3 Sugar Sugar Archies
2 Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town Kenny Rogers
1 Two Little Boys Rolf Harris.
The album charts of this week contain such luminaries as The London Cast of rock musical Hair, The Soundtracks of Oliver, The Sound Of Music (yes, still hanging around) and the film Easy Rider, some prog rock from the Court of King Crimson, Led Zepellin II, The Stones Let It Bleed, Motown Chartbuster vol. 3 and The Beatles at number one with Abbey Road.
A couple of tracks I'd like to highlight in the singles chart are Melting Pot from Blue Mink and of course Rolf's number one, Two Little Boys.
Roger Coulam (born Roger Keith Coulam, 26 April 1944, England) (organist) formed Blue Mink in the autumn of 1969, with Madeline Bell (vocalist), Roger Cook (vocalist), Herbie Flowers (bassist), and Barry Morgan (drummer) (born November 1944, London died 1 November 2007). Most of the songs were written by Cook and Roger Greenaway.
Flowers, Morgan and the guitarist Alan Parker all worked with Coulam at London's Morgan Studios. The four of them recorded several backing tracks, with which Coulam approached soul singer Bell and Greenaway (who had been half of David and Jonathan) as vocalists. Greenaway declined, but put forward Cook (the other half of David and Jonathan)
The band's debut single "Melting Pot", written by Cook and Greenaway, was recorded with this line-up and released on 31 October 1969 on the Philips label (catalogue BF1818), with the B-side "Blue Mink" (penned by Alan Parker); it charted at #3 in the UK Singles Chart. The lyrics espouse a world which becomes one big melting pot where different races and religions are to be mixed, 'churning out coffee coloured people by the score'. The second verse controversially included the term Chinkies which, although common British slang at the time, might sound insensitive to the modern listener, undercutting the song's intent. The (often misheard) later verses examine the possibiltes of diversity in religion and of a mixing of the class system. An American cover version entitled 'People Are Together' by soul singer Mickey Murray proved too radical for American radio and failed to get any meaningful airplay.
You may recognise a few names there, Madeleine Bell's strident vocals grace many an early seventies album as backing singer, while Herbie Flowers worked with T. Rex and early eighties band Sky, but is more famous for having written Clive Dunn's novelty hit Grandad, Christmas number one at the other end of 1970.
Rolf's number one was written in 1902 and became a popular music hall song of the time, made popular by Harry Lauder. It describes the story of two boys who grow up to fight in the American Civil War.
In 1969 Rolf briefly visited folk musician Ted Egan during a tour of Arnhem Land in Australia. Egan sang him the song, which Harris recorded on tape. Back in the UK, Harris persuaded his television producer to incorporate the song into his BBC variety show. Harris discovered he had lost the tape and rang Egan, 10,000 miles away in Canberra, and asked him to sing the song over the phone. Alan Braden arranged the song for the TV show, and a favourable audience reaction prompted Harris to record and release it as a single. The song reached #1 on the singles chart in December 1969, where it stayed for six weeks, thus becoming the first number-one single of the 1970s. On BBC Radio Blackburn in 1979, Margaret Thatcher picked it as a favourite song
In October 2008, Harris announced he would re-record the song, backed by North Wales' Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir, to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I. Proceeds from the new release went to The Poppy Appeal. Harris was inspired to make the recording after participating in My Family at War, a short series of programmes in the BBC's Remembrance season, which was broadcast in November 2008. He discovered that the experiences of his father and uncle during World War I mirrored the lyrics of the Civil War song.
Harris sung an a cappella version of the song during the Concert to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in London in June 2012. It was an impromptu performance to fill a gap while Stevie Wonder's band was getting ready for their set. The assembled audience in front of Buckingham Palace and along The Mall sang along. However, Harris had only just started the second verse when Lenny Henry cut him short as the band was ready. Henry was then promptly booed for the interruption.
