FIRST HOUR
I Wanna Stay With You (Gallagher & Lyle)
(1976) ... duo who had been around for a fair few years before breaking through with this, their debut hit, although they previously tasted chart success as members of McGuinness Flint (Malt & Barley Blues, When I'm Dead And Gone) back in '71
In The Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett)
(1965) ... signature song for one of the greatest soul voices of his generation. Only one other song in his career came close to matching In The Midnight Hour's chart peak of # 12 ~ his cover of The Beatles' Hey Jude (1969, # 16)
You're In A Bad Way (Saint Etienne)
... from the first of today's featured years ~ one of several chart entries for Saint Etienne during the '90s and the first half of the '00s
Small steps or huge strides?!
Walk Right Back (The Everly Brothers)
(1961) ... Perry Como, Anne Murray and Andy Williams head the list of artists to cover the song which the Everlys took to No.1 in the UK
When You Walk In The Room (The Searchers)
(1964) .... the line-up still playing in recent years includes the group's 1959 co-founder John McNally and bass guitarist Frank Allen who joined shortly before they recorded When You Walk In The Room
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Mockingbird (The Belle Stars)
(1982)... sandwiched in between The Clapping Song and Sign of The Times, The Belle Stars' cover of a '60s song by Inez and Charlie Foxx surprisingly, missed out on the Top 40. A version of Mockingbird by Carly Simon and James Taylor in the mid '70s was similar sized hit in the UK to the original (#34 and #33 respectively)
Newsround Tameside: 28 years ago ~ 1993
Regret (New Order)
... lead single from the album of the same name, which made the Top 10 here and in several other countries and was New Order's biggest hit in the US
Oh Carolina (Shaggy)
... two weeks at the top for a re-working of a song originally recorded by Jamaican vocal trio The Folkes Brothers, way back in 1958. The legendary Prince Buster produced The Folkes ~ and later covered the song himself
Is It Like Today (World Party)
... the only Top 20 hit for 'a band' who had only recently expanded to a trio having been effectively a solo platform for multi-instrumentalist Karl Wallinger, previously of The Waterboys. His other main claim to fame was writing She's The One, 1999 chart-topper for Robbie Williams
Young At Heart (The Bluebells)
... proving yet again how the music we hear in those ad breaks could influence the chart, as a long disbanded Scottish indie band suddenly found themselves at # 1 with a song which had already been a Top 10-er nine years earlier. Its even greater success second time around came courtesy of Volkswagen, or, more to the point, the advertising agency which hit upon Young At Heart as the perfect song for their campaign. The Bluebells were persuaded to re-convene, albeit for a limited time only, to appear on Top of The Pops
The Love I Lost (West End featuring Sybil)
... successfully re-working Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes' soulful ballad from '74 ~ and ending up with a much bigger hit in the UK, a # 3 compared with # 21 for the Blue Notes
After All (The Frank & Walters)
... Irish band with their one and only UK hit. Their name was inspired by two 'real old characters' in Cork, their home city
This Time (Dina Carroll)
... one of six hit singles from So Close, her debut long player which became one of the year's biggest selling albums
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SECOND HOUR
The Legend of Xanadu (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich)
(1968) .... a whip cracking No.1 which proved to be the pinnacle of their success. After creating The Legend, their impressive run of form began to falter
I Could Be Happy (Altered Images)
(1981) ... second chart success for the group led by Clare Grogan, around the same time she also starred in one of the top films of that era, Gregory's Girl. Only in the closing scenes does it finally become clear that her character Susan is the girl for Gregory (John Gordon Sinclair)
Wedding Bell Blues (Fifth Dimension)
... teaser track for our second featured year from the easy listening American vocal group whose name has been mentioned in recent weeks by radio presenters and music reviewers trying to think of a style of music to compare with when describing a current single by Jessie Ware ~ coming soon...
Absolutely Lyricless ~ the instrumental break
... with a classical connection
Asia Minor (Kokomo)
(1961) ... you wouldn't know it from the title, but instantly recognisable as a poppy, slightly tongue in cheek?! version of Grieg's Piano Concerto, long before Eric Morecambe gave us 'all the right notes ~ but not necessarily in the right order' in the classic Morecambe & Wise sketch with conductor Andre Previn. Back in the early '60s, the BBC, in its infinite wisdom, apparently deemed the Kokomo record to be lacking in respect to the great composer ~ and promptly banned it from being broadcast
Joy (Apollo 100)
(1972) ... uptempo electronic / prog rock re-working of Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. By then we were clearly into more tolerant times as far as music was concerned. Far from being banned like the Kokomo track, Apollo 100 made it on the BBC Radio 1 daily playlist
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Remember Where You Are (Jessie Ware)
(2021)... as promised, a stand-out song of the present day with echoes of the past. Although some people have suggested Fifth Dimension as a possible influence, Jessie has hinted that her inspiration may have been a 1970 song by Minnie Riperton - Les Fleurs (The Flowers)
Spanish Harlem (Ben E King)
(1960)... first of two US Top 10-ers after leaving The Drifters ~ a great performance but out-performed chart-wise by the follow up Stand By Me, his own composition. Spanish Harlem failed to trouble the UK chart and Stand By Me was only a modest sized hit until its much later reissue in 1987. Spanish Harlem was a UK hit for Aretha Franklin (1971, # 14)
Reflections: 51 years ago ~ 1970
Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy (The Tams)
... made the UK Top 40 two years after it had charted in America. Another of their old songs was destined for much greater belated success this side of the pond ~ Hey Girl Don't Bother Me went all the way to the top in '71
Knock Knock Who's There (Mary Hopkin)
... UK entry for Eurovision ~ it finished second in the contest, pipped at the post by Ireland and made it to # 2 on the chart. The winning song is on the way...
The Witch's Promise (Jethro Tull)
... completing a hat-trick of Top 10 singles following the previous year's Living In The Past (# 3) and Sweet Dream (# 7). The Witch's Promise (# 4) - officially a double A side, sharing top billing with Teacher ~ was intended to be the last stand-alone single from the band. Frontman Ian Anderson said Tull would issue singles from future albums in order to gain radio play, but he was not particularly interested in promoting them (Source: Wikipedia)
Good Morning Freedom (Blue Mink)
... cheery tune made all the more memorable by its unusual 'b-bee-ba-pa...' hook line
All Kinds of Everything (Dana)
... two weeks at # 1 for Ireland's first-ever Eurovision winner. It was only the second song sung in English to win the contest outright (the first being Sandie Shaw's Puppet On A String in 1967 with Lulu's Boom Bang-a-Bang sharing first place two years later). (Source: Wikipedia)
Let's Work Together (Canned Heat)
... essentially the same song as Let's Stick Together, which became a huge hit for Bryan Ferry in '76. American R&B singer and musician Wilbert Harrison wrote both sets of lyrics, recording Let's Stick... in 1962 and Let's Work... in '69.
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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)
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.
- MW
