FIRST HOUR
1-2-3 (Len Barry)
(1965)... with that big, vibrant ’60s sound, just about the closest that a British act ever came to matching those legendary Motown anthems of that era
Radancer (Marmalade)
(1972)... inevitably they will always be remembered for their cover of The Beatles' Ob-la-Di Ob-la-Da, but Marmalade deserve credit for making each new release noticeably different to the one before. Radancer, fair to say, is Marmalade at their rockiest
The Great Pretender (Freddie Mercury)
... from the first of today's featured years ... a '50s hit for The Platters which was a perfect fit for Freddie's flamboyant style. His version reached # 4 and returned to the Top 40 six years later
Eccentrically named one hit wonders
Mirror Mirror (Pinkerton's Assorted Colours)
(1966) .... bass player Stuart Colman went on to present a rock n'roll show on BBC Radio 1 and became well known as a record producer who worked with Shakin' Stevens, Cliff Richard and Billy Fury
Who Do You Think You Are? (Candlewick Green)
(1974) ... having recently won ITV's Opportunity Knocks, they signed a record deal with Decca and soon had a hit on their hands. Jigsaw did well in Europe with the same song , a year before their UK Top 10-er Sky High. Who Do You Think You Are was successfully revived in the '90s by Saint Etienne
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I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down (Ann Peebles)
(1973) .... successfully covered by Paul Young in the '80s - her best known song also became more widely known thanks to someone else's version The Peebles original is on the way later....
Newsround Tameside: 35 years ago ~ 1987
The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades (Timbuk 3)
... one-off hit for husband and wife Pat and Barbara MacDonald who hailed from Wisconsin, USA
Surrender (Swing Out Sister)
... at the time, they were a two-thirds Manchester band ~ singer Corinne Drewery hailed from Nottingham, but keyboard player Andy Connell and drummer Martin Jackson were both Manchester lads
Alone Again (Or) (The Damned)
... punk pioneers who had recently had a resurgence after covering an epic song from the late '60s (Eloise, 1986, # 3). This time, they revived another song from the same era by American band Love which was widely admired and had been a turntable hit here, but was nowhere near as well known
If You Let Me Stay (Terence Trent D'Arby)
... debut single which did much better here (# 7) than in his native US. More hits followed until the mid '90s but the highest placed came almost immediately ~ Wishing Well (1987, # 4) and Sign Your Name ( early 1988, #2)
Magic Smile (Rosie Vela)
........ she successfully enlisted two of her musical heroes, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen and Walter Becker to play on her debut album Zazu. Though critically acclaimed, it went largely unnoticed in the U.S, but fared better in Europe. Magic Smile, the single taken from it, made the Top 30 [W]
When A Man Loves A Woman (Percy Sledge)
.. soul classic which had peaked at # 4 back in 1966 and did even better second time around (# 2). It was one of a handful of '60s classics given a new lease of chart life in '87 thanks to those iconic Levi ads ~ others were Marvin Gaye's I Heard It through The Grapevine and Stand By Me by Ben E. King
Coming Around Again (Carly Simon)
... album title track and hit single here and in America, which also featured in Heartburn, a film starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Carly's occasional UK chart hits during the '70s and '80s seemed to follow a pattern of every five years or so ~ the aptly titled Coming Around Again is next on the list after Why (1982) ~ preceded by the Bond theme Nobody Does It Better (The Spy Who Loved Me) in '77. Her UK debut was in late '72 / early '73 with You're So Vain, followed , just a few weeks later, by The Right Thing To Do [W]
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SECOND HOUR
Do It All Over Again (Spiritualized)
(2002) ... 'space rock'/ new wave psychedelic band from Rugby, Warwickshire who clocked up half a dozen Top 40 singles from the mid '90s to the early '00s ~ Do It All Over Again was one of them, critically acclaimed for its 'lush soundscape or 'wall of sound' production. It also benefits hugely from having such an instantly hummable tune
Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress (The Hollies)
(1972) ... stalled at a lowly # 32 in the UK, probably because it didn't have the usual trademark Hollies harmonies. Allan Clarke is the lone vocalist on a song with a superb bluesy guitar riff inspired by the American 'swamp rock' of Creedence Clearwater Revival and ther ilk. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it became one of The Hollies' biggest ever hits in the US, peaking at # 2, held off the top spot by a fellow export from this side of the pond - Gilbert O'Sullivan [W]
Captain Of Your Ship (Reparata & The Delrons)
... teaser track for our second featured year ~ unusual in its atmospheric use of sound effects (foghorn, ship's bell, Morse code), psychedelic instrumentation and treatments including electric sitar, backwards piano, filtered vocals and phasing. Lead singer Mary Aiese O'Leary told Mojo magazine in May 2008, "I thought it was horrible — the foghorn, the way they had changed my voice with effects. But I grew to like it, and it afforded the opportunity to go over to London ... In America, it fizzled. People in England liked quirkier stuff, and Captain of Your Ship'was quirky." The single failed to make the Billboard Hot 100 but reached # 13 our side of the Atlantic. With its use of special effects, it was inevitable the track would later be 'sampled' (Doin' The Do - Betty Boo, 1990) [*W]
Absolutely Lyricless ~ the instrumental break
... with an ' R & R' connection in the titles
Raunchy (Bill Justis)
(1958) ... legend has it that this was the tune that a young George Harrison played on his guitar, determined to impress John Lennon and Paul McCartney so they would let him join their band which, in those days, was known as The Quarry Men. Needless to say, George passed the audition - the rest is history...
Robot (The Tornados)
(1963) ... they managed a couple more modestly sized hits after finding fame with Telstar ~ this was one of them
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I Can't Stand The Rain (Ann Peebles)
(1973)... as promised earlier, her soulful song which was later reinvented as a disco-tastic floor filler as played on the show a few weeks ago.(Eruption, 1978, # 5)
Hooked (Cobain Jones)
(2020)... the young Tameside singer-songwriter who credits The Beatles among his main influences and recently was the live support for Paul Weller. With a timeless, melodic quality, Hooked was his first official single ~ a song, as befits the title, with a memorable 'hook' which, once it's in your head, is likely to stay there. You can see Cobain, along with Alex Spencer another young rising star from our area and many more from far and wide, at the Made in Manchester music festival at Astley Sports Village, Dukinfield on Saturday 28 May
Newsround pre-Tameside: 54 years ago ~ 1968
Something Here In My Heart (The Paper Dolls)
... like The Spice Girls, three decades later. they were known by their nicknames One of the trio, Tiger, was really Susie Mathis, who became a familiar, much-loved radio voice in our region in the '80s and '90s
Ain't Nothing But A House Party (The Showstoppers) ...dance floor filler which was the one and only chart appearance by the four-piece African-American vocal group formed in Philadelphia
Blue Eyes Don Partridge)
... one-man band, king of the buskers, who looked set to be a one-hit wonder but made it two Top 10-ers in a row with this successful follow-up to his debut Rosie
This Wheel's On Fire (Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity)
... one of the year's stand-out singles. taking Bob Dylan's song and turning it into an eerie duet enlivened by a swirling, psychedelic organ sound. For a younger generation, This Wheel's... is best known as the AbFab song ~ theme of the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous
Me The Peaceful Heart (Lulu)
.... bright and breezy, positively upbeat, destined for the Top 10 in the era when she had her own Saturday night TV show It's Lulu, watched by millions on BBC 1
I Don't Want Our Loving To Die (The Herd)
... completing a hat-trick of hits for The Herd, who, soon afte, went their separate ways Lead singer - guitarist Peter Frampton teamed up with ex-Small Faces frontman Steve Marriott to form Humble Pie before achieving worldwide success in his own right in the '70s. Keyboard and bass player Andy Bown joined Status Quo, initially as a session man and then as a full time member of the band from '77 [W]
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SHOW THEME:
Rhapsody In Blue (Rick Wakeman)
written by George Gershwin, arranged by Tony Visconti
from the album Rhapsodies (A&M Records, 1979)
[W]: Source: Wikipedia
Please bear in mind: it's a live show and so, occasionally I might need to change the running order, leave a song out, or play an unplanned extra song which will not be shown in this weekly music blog.
If you missed any of the show, you can catch up online after 15:00 on Sunday 13/02/2022:
