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Post by Earl Purple on Dec 22, 2015 8:35:14 GMT 1
Rat Trap is a brilliant song and I also like it better than I Don't Like Mondays. One of my favourite UK #1s of all time. They and Blondie were my favourite bands of 1978 when I was 13 years old.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2015 15:02:26 GMT 1
13. ABBA - Waterloo (1974)
One thing that ABBA cannot be accused of is being a manufactured group. Their lives and musical careers had been linked for many years, long before they won Eurovision in 1974. Their performance in Brighton was pretty near faultless, with a superb song and a quartet who were (at the time) very comfortable with each other, and already very experienced in the music world.
Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus had been members of different groups in the mid-1960's. Andersson was the writer and keyboardist in "The Hep Stars", an act which topped the Swedish charts with several songs. Running parallel to this was Bjorn Ulvaeus and his involvement with "The Hootenanny Singers", a less successful group who were mainly known for their cover of "The green green grass of home".
The two men did occasionally cross paths when the groups performed together, and in 1966 came a significant moment when they wrote their first ever song together called "Isn't it easy to say". This was followed by another significant moment when Producer Stig Andersson noticed their potential and persuaded them to work together on a more permanent basis, becoming their Manager. Strangely it wasn't until 1969 that the duo actually wrote their first hit single - "Ljuva Sextital" - which sounds intriguing but actually only translates as "Sweet Sixties".
Agnetha Faltskog had already reached number one in Sweden with a self-written song. She and Ulvaeus became an item in 1969, at around the same time that Andersson met Anni-Frid Lyngstad. She had won a national talent competition in 1967 which had secured a recording contract, but she found success elusive until Andersson started producing her songs in 1971.
The quartet were performing together from around 1970. They did release a number of singles, but these were under the unwieldy names of "Bjorn & Benny" or other combinations of the individuals. The story of how they became ABBA has been covered at #62 and #35 in this thread, and their first release under this new name was in 1973.
ABBA had tried their luck before in The Eurovision Song Contest - or at least the Swedish qualification competition, which was named "Melodifestivalen". They had written for another artist during the qualifying for 1972, but that song only finished 3rd and therefore wasn't selected. ABBA themselves submitted "Ring Ring" in 1973, which despite being tipped as a potential winner of Eurovision itself, also didn't even qualify, again only finishing 3rd.
So would "Waterloo" be third-time lucky? Well, the group nearly didn't enter it at all. They contemplated trying a different song - "Hasta Manana" - but thought "Waterloo" would work better as it focussed more on the vocal abilities of the two females. It was a shrewd move. The song qualified for the contest nearly 100 points ahead of the second-placed Swedish hopeful, and then trounced everybody in the contest itself, scoring a third more points than second-placed Italy.
"Waterloo" hit the top in many of the major European charts - it even went top 10 in America. It has been voted (with some justification) as the best Eurovision song ever. The group had chosen a glam-rock image for their performance, and had cited "See My Baby Jive" as a major inspiration. It is perhaps the greatest song they ever recorded.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2015 22:39:56 GMT 1
12. Adam & The Ants - Prince Charming (1981)
I cannot really describe how big a fan I was of this group; their image, the video's, and the exuberant music. It's a memory I still have now. Adam & the Ants were enormous in this year, although I was too young at the time to fully understand their early struggles and the involvement of Malcolm McLaren.
As mentioned previously (#55 and #38), The group was originally formed as just "The Ants" in the 1970's. Ostensibly they recorded punk-themed songs, and in the early years underwent many changes in personnel. The group certainly had opportunities to make it big; they recorded a session with John Peel in 1978; underwent numerous tours, often with bands such as Siouxsie & The Banshees; and they also signed with a major record label in the shape of Decca.
One problem in the late 1970's was their choice of single releases. None of them made the charts. There are several reasons - DJ's not understanding the song's meanings and thus steering clear, the songs not really being "punk"-themed (as such), and poor reviews from music publications. Decca had to let them go.
In late 1979, the group signed with Do-It records and released their debut album "Dirk Wears White Sox". It made the group (and Adam Ant) into cult figures, but he really wanted commercial success. Adam asked Malcolm McLaren to manage the group, and McLaren's first significant act was to take nearly all the members of The Ants and form a new group called Bow Wow Wow. Initially Adam was not impressed, but McLaren explained to him that such a drastic change was required, and the two worked together in the spring of 1980 to form a new version of The Ants.
By the time of "Prince Charming", Adam & The Ants were one of - if not the - biggest groups in the country. This song became their sixth top-10 hit in a period of only around 10 months. The song itself was inspired by Beau Brummel, The French Revolution and general 18th century fashion. As with so many massive hits of this time, there was a memorable video, directed by Mike Mansfield (who helmed all three of Adams chart-topping videos). The image of Diana Dors and the famous dance/march are still as fresh today as they were in 1981.
Nearly 30 years later, Rolf Harris tried to sue the writers of "Prince Charming" (Stuart Goddard and Marco Pirroni) for plagiarism, claiming that they had ripped off his 1965 song "War Canoe". There is no doubt that the songs are very similar, but "War Canoe" itself is a traditional song - Harris' version was a re-arrangement rather than an original song. Harris had even tried to stir the hornets nest in late 1981 by deliberately re-issuing his song when "Prince Charming" was riding high in the charts. An out-of-court settlement was agreed in 2010 and a rumoured £5000 was paid to Rolf Harris.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 23, 2015 0:27:04 GMT 1
Do It Records was owned and run by Robin Scott, aka M of "Pop Muzik" fame. Lacked the wherewithal to match Mr Goddard's ambitions but scored a few hits with cash-in releases. All of which were bloody brilliant.
A particularly clever exegesis of plagiarism - by partly ripping off the "Wipeout" riff.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2015 10:24:58 GMT 1
11. Thunderclap Newman - Something In The Air (1969)
On the very first post of this thread, I mentioned that I wouldn't be able to include The Who. Well, Pete Townshend can have his moment of glory here; he co-produced and played on this single. It was written by John "Speedy" Keen, and is an absolutely outstanding song.
Pete Townshend and John Keen had actually been in the same year at school in Acton. Keen moved into the world of music, working as the road manager for John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and was also a keen biker (from where he got the "speedy" nickname). He also shared a flat with Townshend, and for a while worked as his chauffeur.
Keen also fancied himself as a songwriter. His song "Armenia City In The Sky" was included on The Who's "Sell Out" album in 1967, and was the only album track ever written specifically for The Who by a non-member. If anyone could spot a talented song-writer then it was Pete Townshend. He could see, in John Keen, someone with song-writing potential, someone who just needed the right guidance and a skilled set of backing musicians to help.
Townshend gathered together a very interesting and eclectic group of people to record this chart-topping record at his house. Andy Newman was a Jazz pianist whom he'd also known at school; Jimmy McCulloch was a teenage guitarist; Keen himself took lead vocals and played guitar, and Townshend (credited under a pseudonym) also lent his guitar expertise to the song. Townshend had initially been looking at an individual project for each of the three members, but his work on the "Tommy" album was taking up too much of his time, so he agreed to this as a group project instead.
Pete Townshend and Chris "Kit" Lambert produced the song. When Keen wrote it, the original title was "Revolution", but was changed to "Something in the air" to avoid confusion with the Beatles' record. The song was basically a Call To Arms, and is an interesting mirror-image to, say, "Give Peace A Chance". But SITA is a real achievement; Newman's piano solo; the young McCulloch showing so much potential on guitar (it's a shame that he ended up on such banal songs as "Silly Love Songs" during his later stint with Wings). The end-product was superb.
Initially there were no plans for the group to tour, or even to release an album, but the song took everyone by surprise in reaching number one. Even then, it wasn't until late the following year before an album was released.
Not everyone has survived unfortunately. John Keen sadly died of heart failure in 2002 aged just 56, and it was a real tragedy when Jimmy McCulloch died in 1979 aged just 26, apparently from a morphine and alcohol overdose. But they both contributed to an amazing chart-topper.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 23, 2015 13:14:17 GMT 1
It's a brilliantly structured song. The hippy vibe is jarred against the honkytonk piano solo before it reverts to the beginning. Yet somehow makes it even more hypnotic.
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Post by Earl Purple on Dec 23, 2015 13:55:14 GMT 1
A particularly clever exegesis of plagiarism - by partly ripping off the "Wipeout" riff. By coincidence "Wipeout" is the song playing now in my 1963 retro playlist.
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Post by Earl Purple on Dec 23, 2015 13:56:34 GMT 1
With regards to Abba, in an interview, Bjorn said they tried to convince Agnetha to also contribute towards the songwriting but she was never confident enough to do so as she didn't feel her songs were good enough, although Bjorn said he had liked her solo music that she'd written herself.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 23, 2015 15:23:39 GMT 1
Obviously Abba got their name from their first names - Annifrid, Benny, Bjorn and Agnetha.
Had they been called Carl, Ulrika, Nils and Tanja, they could have been Cnut. More Scandinavian.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Dec 23, 2015 17:12:37 GMT 1
I've always found Something In The Air very odd. Maybe I'm showing heathen tendencies and a lack of understanding of a certain type of music, but to me it's 80% a stunningly beautiful, atmospheric song, and 20% someone attacking a piano with a lump hammer. I just can't abide that instrumental break, it seems to be the complete opposite of the rest of the track. Sorry!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2015 18:42:58 GMT 1
I've always found Something In The Air very odd. Maybe I'm showing heathen tendencies and a lack of understanding of a certain type of music, but to me it's 80% a stunningly beautiful, atmospheric song, and 20% someone attacking a piano with a lump hammer. I just can't abide that instrumental break, it seems to be the complete opposite of the rest of the track. Sorry! Andy Newman got the nickname "Thunderclap" simply from the heavy-handed way that he played the piano, so what's on the record is pretty much his normal style.
A pop purist would probably say that the piano solo has little to do with the song, but the song wouldn't be as good without it. In some ways it is a concept single.
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Post by suedehead on Dec 23, 2015 20:11:31 GMT 1
It's hard to imagine Something In The Air without the piano solo. It would be like Baker Street without the sax.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2015 21:58:46 GMT 1
10. David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes (1980)And then there was the rerecorded New Years Eve 1979 video [of Space Oddity] shot for the Kenny Everett Show
The re-imaging of "Space Oddity" in 1979, quoted above, is what led David Bowie to consider a long-overdue sequel to the tale of Major Tom. He was working on the "Scary Monsters" album at the time, an album where Bowie reached back into his past, in more ways than one. Some of the album tracks were based on unused demos, some based on unsuccessful songs from his 70's backing group "The Astronettes"; and one of the songs planned for the album was an unfinished number called "People Are Turning To Gold".
The idea to turn PATTG into a Space Oddity sequel came a few weeks later, when Bowie decided that the general theme of the album should be one of putting the 70s to bed and starting afresh. The song was renamed "Ashes To Ashes", and was recorded in February 1980, with Tony Visconti again producing, and reuniting many of the musicians who had performed on his previous album "Lodger".
The recording of the single in New York actually went quite well, despite one or two hitches, such as a faulty Wurlitzer organ, and a drummer who needed to go home and spend all night practising the required beat. Tony Visconti had to record a guitar-synthesizer extract in the stairwell at the studio to get the required effect. But the result was a sequel even better than the original, a classic chart-topper.
The video is unforgettable, filmed in Southend in July 1980, and directed by David Mallett. The "mourners" in the film were actually four people hand-picked by Bowie when he visited the trendy Blitz Nightclub in Covent Garden. The three ladies were Elise Brazier, Darla Jane Gilroy and Judith Frankland, and Bowie also chose the club's door-man, Stephen Harrington. It was he who actually played the very tall mourner on the right-hand side of the video, who is seen to be "bowing" on several occasions. This movement was actually done just to pull in their robe so that it wasn't caught in the bulldozer behind him. The mourner on the other side, unaware of this, decided to mimic the bowing action so as to achieve consistency for the video. Stephen Harrington was very proud of himself for this improvisation, and was determined at the time to appear in more high-profile roles. And he did, changing his name to "Steve Strange". It was a sad loss when he passed away earlier this year.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2015 13:07:39 GMT 1
9. The Rolling Stones - Honky Tonk Women (1969)
Mick and Keith were holidaying with their partners in Brazil in late 1968/early 1969, when Keith had the idea for this song. He was trying various guitar riffs and found one which reminded him of a Hank Williams effort from the 50's. This ultimately became "Country Honk", which was later included on the album "Let it Bleed".
"Country Honk" was subsequently recorded in early March 1969. Brian Jones was by now a peripheral figure; his contribution to this song was minimal, but in truth the group were already thinking of asking him to leave, with Mick Taylor a possible replacement. In June, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards travelled to Brian's house to break the news: they were firing him, but offered him a golden handshake of £100,000 per year. Taylor was by now ready to replace him, having been recommended to the group by John Mayall.
"Honky Tonk Women" evolved from "Country Honk" and was recorded in June 1969. Mick Taylor had an immediate influence - his guitar overdubs greatly improved the sound and the feel of the song, and it is arguably one of the greatest songs that the group ever recorded. The famous 60's group Reparata and the Delrons sang backing vocals. The urban legend that actress Nanette Newman appeared on the record is untrue - the singer was billed with this name but was actually an American session singer (and ironically part-time actress) Nanette Workman. The Stones decided to make the superb "You can't always get what you want" the B-side, and everything looked good for the single's release, due on July 4th.
Brian Jones died 24 hours before the single was released. The general feeling among the band was one of sadness, but in truth Jones was such a liability that it was also looked upon as a blessed relief. HTW was still released the following day, and then, on July 5th, The Stones performed in front of half a million people at Hyde Park, which marked the first concert appearance of Mick Taylor.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 25, 2015 13:22:23 GMT 1
8. Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights (1978)
So, everyone knows that Kate Bush was discovered by Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour? Well actually no, she wasn't. Two other people really discovered her talent first, but it was Gilmour who had the experience and the funds to make her a star, beginning with this astounding chart-topper, which some people at the time dismissed as a novelty.
Cathy Bush (as she was known) was already showing a real finesse for music - in particular poetry and the piano - in the late 1960's. She would write poetry alone or with her elder brother John, who even then could see the potential talent in the girl; she would also be the subject of his photographs (tasteful ones obviously). Her future hit "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" was written just as she became a teenager, in late '71/early '72. Even at this stage there was a star in the making.
Around 1972/73, Kate Bush recorded dozens of songs onto cassette using piano and a primitive microphone. Her brother took these songs to a family friend named Ricky Hopper. He, too, could see a fledgling star, and both of these men are really the true people who "discovered" her - insofar as they recognised the talent and tried to actually do something practical with it. In Hopper's case he tried to set Kate up with various record companies, but the primitive microphone used was a big problem - the recording quality was terrible and didn't do her justice. But, luckily, Ricky Hopper was good friends with a certain Dave Gilmour.
When Gilmour listened to these early recordings, he agreed that there was some potential. He was particularly taken by TMWTCIHE, and in 1973 he visited her (parents) house, lent her a much better tape deck, and she recorded a few songs with him present, so he could judge for himself. He was very impressed, and later in the year invited her to record at his lavish farmhouse. This was a much more professional and polished session, including Peter Perrier and Pat Martin of the Country-Rock group "Unicorn".
Everything seemed set, even at this early stage, for Kate Bush to be a big teenage star, but in 1974 a German recording company managed to obtain many of her early demo's, and released them as a completely unofficial bootleg album. It was so unofficial (and quite rare) that it doesn't even appear on her Discography, and Kate had to take legal action to block the release. The albums were supposedly stockpiled and destroyed, but they did surface in 1986.
Undeterred, in 1975, Kate recorded three songs in a professional studio in London. This was entirely funded by Dave Gilmour, and the three songs recorded were "The Man With The Child In His Eyes", "Saxophone Song" and "Maybe". The first two songs were the actual recordings that made it onto her debut album "The Kick Inside". Gilmour knew that he had a superstar in the making. He lined her up with EMI, and she signed with them in 1976.
The rest of the songs for the album were written in 1976/77, but one in particular would stand out. Kate Bush had briefly seen the BBC version of "Wuthering Heights" in 1967, and had always been intrigued by the story. She read the novel again in early 1977, loving the fact that she shared the same birthday as Emily Bronte, and she wrote the song in March 1977. The finished version was dismissed by some as a "novelty", but it is a sensational debut.
Kate Bush knew that she needed publicity before releasing the song or the album. She formed her own group named "The KT Bush Band", and in the Spring of 1977 they toured pubs and clubs in London and put on quite a professional show, with dry ice and fairly expensive lighting for example. Kate generally sang well-known songs such as "The Tracks Of My Tears", and as Spring turned to Summer, the crowds in the pubs increased dramatically through word-of-mouth, as people became intrigued with this young lady with the amazing voice.
Kate Bush also had the last laugh. EMI wanted another album track "James And The Cold Gun" to be released as the first single. Kate knew that WH would be more successful, she stood her ground and EMI relented. And she was proved 100% correct.
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Post by Earl Purple on Dec 25, 2015 13:34:01 GMT 1
Honky Tonk Women was the most successful of their hits chart-wise, spending 5 weeks at #1. Do you think this was because of the quality of the song or Brian Jones's death as deaths always seem to inspire sales?
When Wuthering Heights got to #1, I was nearly 13 and was more of a fan of "Denis" by Blondie that was #2 behind it but there was something sort-of incredible about the song. Just the concept that I had never heard before, and being a pianist, always had a soft-spot for piano-based songs.
I know that Tori Amos stated she had never heard of Kate Bush. I don't know about Tich but when I first heard her perform "Breathe In Breathe Out" I immediately thought of her as the "new" Kate Bush albeit her song was a bit simpler.
Unfortunately, what they did with that song of hers... (Breathe In Breathe Out). Well imagine them doing that to Wuthering Heights. You just can't...
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Post by Deleted on Dec 25, 2015 16:15:52 GMT 1
Honky Tonk Women was the most successful of their hits chart-wise, spending 5 weeks at #1. Do you think this was because of the quality of the song or Brian Jones's death as deaths always seem to inspire sales? For the 5 weeks that it was #1, the rest of the top 5 was generally poor. The main songs that were kept off the top were "Saved By The Bell" (which is rubbish) and "Give Peace A Chance" (which I've only ever thought was a novelty song and isn't particularly good either), so the opposition wasn't up to much.
Do I consider it to be the best chart-topper by the Stones? I'm giving nothing away.....even though it is Christmas ....
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Post by suedehead on Dec 25, 2015 18:44:18 GMT 1
When Wuthering Heights came out, I'm sure I was by no means alone in taking time to decide whether I loved or hated it. It was just so different from anything else. My final decision was that I loved it.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2015 10:09:29 GMT 1
7. Slade - Mama Weer All Crazee Now (1972)
Slade at their absolute best, and their best is sensational. They are so underrated as song-writers and performers, and I always felt they were such naturals in the glam-rock era. The change of image to glam was more or less forced upon them, because Don Powell and Jim Lea had always looked so intimidating with their previous skin-head look, meaning that the group had often found it difficult to secure bookings at the end of the 1960's.
As with many of their hits, Jim Lea composed a tune around Noddy Holder's lyrics. The group had performed in Lincolnshire earlier in 1972, and one of the bouncers told them of a recent gig featuring another group, where the crowd were "crazy with whisky". This phrase struck a chord and Holder began writing a song around this lyric. The result was called "My My We're All Crazy Now", but this just sounded too polite, so Manager Chas Chandler changed the title, and it is his howling you can hear in the song's intro.
By the Summer of 1972, Slade had topped the charts twice, and for this song they made a deliberate attempt to enter at number one (something which they had yet to manage, and was a real achievement in this era). Their plan was to allow radio stations to play the song a few weeks before it's release, and to include pre-orders in the sales of the song. However it still didn't quite work; MWACN entered at number two, being held up by Rod Stewart - #82 on this thread - before topping the chart for three weeks.
(When the song went straight in at number two, it was part of an eclectic and generally fabulous top 10 for that week, in early September 1972. Numbers one, two and three all feature in this thread, with "Silver Machine" at four and "All The Young Dudes" at five. And when you consider that "Layla" and a young Jona Lewie were also in the top 10 it made for a breathtaking upper portion of the chart.)
MWACN did resurface in 1977. Slade had spent the previous two years trying to crack America, but on their return they found that the UK music scene had changed, with Punk and Disco having replaced Glam. Slade did however get invited onto various TV programmes, ostensibly to promote their new single "Gypsy Roadhog", but due to the nature of this single, they often had to alter the lyrics resulting in a watered-down performance, therefore Slade would also sing MWACN, which is a less-controversial song and one they could really put their backs into.
It has proved to be a popular and enduring song. The Boomtown Rats would play it over the PA when they came on stage during their American tours in the late 70's, and there have been several cover versions, notably from a pre-fame Joan Jett.
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Post by Earl Purple on Dec 26, 2015 20:11:14 GMT 1
Slade would eventually "crack" America in late 1983 when Quiet Riot covered "Cum On Feel The Noize" and reached the top 10 with it. Subsequently Slade got a top 40 hit with Run Runaway.
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