Most of the songs had been released at the tail end of 1973, there was still a bit of a Christmas hangover with lingering hits from Slade, Wizzard and Steeleye Span but a couple of crowd pleasers had smashed their way into the top 10 the previous week, securing the top 2 on this day.
Trawling my collection, I found I conveniently had 10 of the 20 songs so here, in countdown style, is my selection in descending order to the #1 hit on 20th January 1974. Some real corkers, right from the opening bars of Mott The Hoople's Roll Away The Stone to the final pair of glam rock stompers at the end.
Most of these will have appeared in my parents' modest collection of K-Tel and Ronco compilations, played constantly (by me) when I was a kid, so a lot of them bring back very happy memories. I'd forgotten how leftfield David Essex singles could be! And nice to be reminded of time when I only knew Leo Sayer as performer of a few great pop songs rather than the monumental twit that he revealed himself to be in later years. And no, I don't consider The New Seekers to be a blip in this selection!
The above comics are from my collection. Though snapped many years ago and unread for even longer, they are still there boxed safely at home. I'd like to say I got them as a discerning 3-year old, but who got 16p pocket money a week back then?
I got both of these (and pretty much the whole run of Dracula Lives and Planet Of The Apes in one go) from a comic mart in Bath in the late 1980s, when I was a Marvel-obsessed teen. But a Marvel-obsessed teen with a job, so I had disposable income to fritter away. Very little value was placed on Marvel UK comics as they were essentially reprints of the original US issues so I managed to amass a collection with bulk purchases, mostly at or less than the original cover price.
Much as I enjoyed Spider-Man, The Hulk and The Fantastic Four, Dracula Lives and Planet Of The Apes were just completely bonkers in respect of content, story and art and I enjoyed reading and re-reading them for many years.
However, I'm at an age where I'm chilled at the thought of a possible house move and having to shift dozens of boxes of comics again. There's no "inheritance" - Lady K enjoys manga but little interest in super-heroes and why should she? - so maybe time for one last flick through before selling them on....?
Blimey, that brought the mood down! Let's stick the music on and lift those spirits again...!
1) Roll Away The Stone: Mott The Hoople (#18)
2) Lamplight: David Essex (#15)
3) Pool Hall Richard: Faces (#11)
4) Radar Love (Album Version): Golden Earring (#7)
5) My Coo-Ca-Choo: Alvin Stardust (#6)
6) You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me: The New Seekers (#5)
7) Dance With The Devil: Cozy Powell (#4)
8) The Show Must Go On: Leo Sayer (#3)
9) Teenage Rampage (Single Version): The Sweet (#2)
10) Tiger Feet: Mud (#1)
Seriously spooky. 'Roll Away The Stone' was playing on my shuffle at the exact moment I clicked on your blog. I will come back nine more times today to see how many of the others I can get (or just listen to the mix I suppose).
ReplyDeleteUpdate - none of the others. Mind you I didn't have the shuffle switched on during most attempts.
DeleteSpooky indeed, Ernie. Unfortunately less so for the subsequent visits but I appreciate the visitor numbers boost yesterday. You're currently running second behind the Singaporean nanobots, though with another few hundred clicks I reckon you'll make it.
DeleteNice one, K. A majestic overview of 1974 and no mistake. Yes, you're quite right, no overview of any singles released during the period '72-'75 would be complete without a tip of the hat to Messrs. K-Tel & Ronco.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there's always a however(!), I can't help thinking you've missed an open goal here: surely a roundup of the year in question cannot call itself thus without Alice Cooper's Teenage Lament '74. I'll get my (afghan) coat.
JM
DeleteThanks, John, I'm glad you enjoyed the selection. On your comment re: the missed open goal, I'm consulted VAR and have adjudicated on two significant points:
Delete1) The post/selection was solely focused on the UK Top 20 at 20th January 1974. On this date, Teenage Lament '74 was 2 weeks into its chart run and at #26 so sadly didn't make the cut. If I'd left it a week, it would have been in!
2) More importantly, I realised when "researching" my reply that I didn't have the song in my collection...! Swiftly rectified this weekend.
Stick around and in the not-too-distant future, Mr. Furnier and his merry crew will get their moment in the spotlight. I'm getting my afghan coat and feather boa dry cleaned in the meantime.
Funny that I can remember all of them but could barely recognize any Top 10 tune from this century!
ReplyDeleteExcellent stuff.
Thanks, CC. I did glance at the current UK Top 20 singles chart and, aside from the relief that Ed Sheehan was nowhere to be seen, most of the names and song titles were meaningless to me...!
DeleteLike CC I remember all of these really well yet barely anything from this century. I would have been 13 and the proud owner of a cassette recorder so these would have been very illegally taped on a Sunday evening from the chart show. David Essex was a real favourite with us girls - I remember an expedition into the big city to watch him in Stardust around that time.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alyson. I must watch That'll Be The Day and Stardust again. The latter is a really dark film as I recall, especially the ending. It also starred JR Ewing (Larry Hagman), didn't it? Much have been a slightly unsettling experience for fans of David Essex as a pop star, given how his character ended up!
DeleteWow, yes, what a great selection, such a flavour of the time I can almost taste it (it'd be Sherbet Dips, Angel Delight and Vesta Chow Mein). As Alyson says, David Essex was a real favourite with the girls - those eyes - although as I was 11 at the time I couldn't be prised away from Donny Osmond for such an older man as David! Love the comic art too - I don't always think that due credit was given to the level of sophistication in those cover paintings. Perhaps you can just keep a few favourites back if you do decide to sell them.
ReplyDeleteThanks, C. Funnily enough, I was also reminded of a 70s treat, though it was the Texan bar, which used to have full-page ads on the back of the comics I read back then. Also notable for cartoon TV ads and negative stereotypical portrayal of Native Americans...
Deletehttps://www.factsaboutsweets.co.uk/blog/whatever-happened-to-texan-chocolate-bar
Yes, some of those comic book covers really used to pop out from the shelves at the newsagents. I was a big fan of Look-In ("The Junior TV Times") for the same reason.
great selection, just wish it wasn't 50 years ago
ReplyDeleteI hear you, middle aged man, I hear you.
DeleteI'm another whose introduction to loads of 'new' music was through K-Tel and Ronco compilations. Only thing was that quite a few of the songs were edited down from the 'proper' versions....it wasn't unknown for entire verses to be missed out!!!!
ReplyDeleteOh, absolutely! Though of course, I didn't necessarily know or remember this at the time. A couple of prime K-Tel examples from my childhood were
DeleteGolden Earring - Radar Love on K-Tel's 40 Super Greats https://www.discogs.com/release/7257846-Various-K-Tels-40-Super-Greats and
Gary Numan - She's Got Claws on Modern Dance https://www.discogs.com/release/7257846-Various-K-Tels-40-Super-Greats
When I got both of them on vinyl years later, it was quite a shock to hear the unedited versions and took a bit of getting used to!