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This is where I indulge in my passions - VINYL & ROCK 'n' ROLL
Well I think we can do without hearing the Archies even once more. I was sick of it in 1969 and remain so, but the second on the list by 5th Dimension remains one of the glorious late 60s anthems. A song of real hope and optimism that everything was going to be alright. From Hair of course, which was such a big cultural force in 1969 and not to be underestimated in its profundity. The 5th Dimension was massive and so classy. At the time, they seemed middle-of-the-road to me, but now I see them as experts in the...
As we move to the mid-70s, whereas a couple of years ago rock music played its part in the singles market, as album sales increased, this definitely reduced how many singles sold by rock artists. Along with this, the sales of R & B, soul and dance music began an occupation of the charts that would last the rest of the decade and into the 80s. That Terry Jacks is #2 on this list astonishes me. What a dirge that song was and why on earth did anyone buy it? Well, millions did. Wings at #22 with "Band On The...
I’m sure if you lived through 1973, you will still, even now, be sick of hearing Tony Orlando and Dawn’s record. It seemed to be around forever, so no surprise it tops this list with much better records languishing below. ‘My Love’ is one of those classic, very affecting McCartney love songs. That an instrumental as wild as Frankenstein should be at #16 for the Edgar Winter Band is a win for the rock and roll community. In fact, ‘73 was a decent year for rock singles. Nice to see the Doobies in there with the classic Long Train Runnin’...
I’m pretty sure few of us would think Gilbert O’Sullivan would be #2 on this chart, but briefly he was part of the singer-songwriter tradition that did well in this period on the American charts, represented here by Neil Young’s ‘Heart Of Gold’ and America’s ‘Horse With no Name’. It’s noticeable how little rock there is on this chart, actually, compared to previous years. That Wayne ‘The Big Fig’ Newton was at #10 says much about where some of America was still at. Rock had to make do with Derek & the Dominoes ‘Layla’, Argent’s ‘Hold Your Head Up' and...
1971 was a funny year. In UK Three Dog Night couldn’t sell any albums at all and never charted a long player. “Joy To The World” got to #24 and “Mama Told Me Not To Come” #3 and that was it. But stateside they were, for a while, one of the best-selling bands. I don’t know a lot about them but they seem to straddle the freak-out rock audience and the melodic pop mainstream well for 1971. Usually the best-selling singles go down in history as a classic but here at #13 is “Want Ads” by the oddly-named Honey Cone,...
As if to usher in the singer-songwriter era, it seems only fitting that Simon and Garfunkel should top this chart. That The Guess Who are at #3 with "American Woman"is surprising. A superb heavy track, that it was the third best-selling record of the year shows how far heavy rock had made it into commerciality Similarly, "Spill The Wine", another fine song, making the top 20 is not one you'd think would be so high, whereas I thought "Fire & Rain" would have been a top seller. As ever, Motown's presence is striking. The amount of best-selling singles the label...
When you think of best-selling singles, you wouldn’t think of Lulu topping this chart above other massive names. Weirdly, “To Sir With Love” wasn’t the A-side of a single in the UK. You’d have thought they’d have made it so when they saw it shifting so many units across the pond. It appeared only as a B-side to "Let's Pretend" (released in the UK on 23 June 1967), which reached No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart. The other obvious thing to say is where are The Beatles? At #30 and #55 is the answer. I suspect this actually shows...
An interesting list. Some albums sell all of their copies in the year of release, others go on to sell a lot over a long period of time. Leon Russell’s ‘Carney’ is very much in the former category. I doubt many in 2021 would remember it was the 12th best selling album of the year or that Cheech & Chong were the 7th biggest seller. (Dave’s not here, man) Led Zep’s fourth album, a veritable behemoth in the history of rock and one of the all-time most important releases managed to get to #13 in the second year of its...
As we entered the 1980's in USA the dominance of AOR was well underway with REO Speedwagon, Foreigner and Styx spending 25 weeks at the top between them. Kim Carnes was an interesting act as she didn't have another album even breaking the top 40 after Mistaken Identity and only one top 10 single apart fro Bette Davis Eyes. By contrast journey were massively successful but Escape was their only #1 album and it was only at the top for a week. Nevertheless it went on to sell over 9 million copies in USA alone. January 3 Double Fantasy -...
I love how, in this period, the album charts could still have some easy-listening, middle-of-the-road albums topping the listings and then the next week a rock album would takeover. You can see the struggle between the rock generation and their parents here. Paul Mauriat with his orchestral versions of pop hits was massively popular and topped the charts here for 5 weeks, Herb Alpert - whose records my parents had - managed 2 weeks too, but this year was really all about Simon & Garfunkel who for 16 weeks from 6th April topped the charts. The other quirk is the...
I've always loved EPs from the moment my parents bought one The Beatles. 'With The Beatles' EP. The idea of a 7" single with 4 tracks on rather than 2 seemed exciting and exotic. Commercially, it made sense because albums were expensive and out of the reach of many teens pocket money, where as the EP was more affordable for the fan who wanted twice as much music by their favourite band or singer. From 1960 to 1967 there was an EP chart compiled by trade organisation Record Retailer and published by Record Mirror. By late '67 the album was...
We all know that Pink Floyd are popular, right? But it isn’t until we drill down into their chart positions that we can really get a grasp on exactly how popular. In the UK every single studio album they have released since 1967’s The ‘Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ has been a top 10 record. 5 have been #1 records, but not, ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’, amazingly enough, which peaked at #2 despite having sold over 4.1 million copies in the UK alone. Their first UK #1 was ‘Atom Heart Mother’ in 1970, which, let’s be honest, is...
January 3 Chicago IX: Chicago's Greatest Hits - Chicago January 17 Gratitude - Earth, Wind & Fire February 7 Desire - Bob Dylan March 13 Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) - Eagles April 10 Frampton Comes Alive! - Peter Frampton April 17 Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) - Eagles April 24 Wings at the Speed of Sound - Wings May 1 Presence - Led Zeppelin May 15 Black and Blue - The Rolling Stones May 29 Wings at the Speed of Sound - Wings June 5 Black and Blue - The Rolling Stones June 19 Wings at the Speed of Sound -...
Bob has had more #1 albums in the UK than in the USA with a total of 9 at present, compared to 5 in the US. No country in the world has put his records at #1 more than the UK. His first chart topper was ‘The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan’ in 1963 which got to only #22 in the USA. Stateside he had to wait until 1974 for his first #1 with the fantastic ‘Planet Waves’ record and followed up with the epic ‘Blood On The Tracks’, which also got to #1 in USA (#4UK) The only major release not...
January 7 The Monkees - The Monkees February 11 More of The Monkees - The Monkees June 17 Sounds Like…- Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass June 24 Headquarters - The Monkees July 1 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles October 14 Ode to Billie Joe - Bobbie Gentry October 28 Diana Ross & the Supremes: Greatest Hits - The Supremes December 2 Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd - The Monkees Ah, the Monkees. Growing up as a rock kid, I got the impression I was supposed to not like Monkees because they didn’t write their...