DJTees Blog — Lists & Charts

Artist                                Title                                  Label     Date   Weeks at #1 Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water (CBS)     16 January 1971 3 George Harrison - All Things Must Pass (Apple)                   6 February 1971 8 Andy Williams - Home Lovin' Man (CBS)                                      3 April 1971 2 Various Artists - Motown Chartbusters Volume 5 (Tamla) ...

Band                            Title                                             Weeks At #1 Yes - Tales from Topographic Oceans 5 January 1974                    2 Slade - Sladest                                   19 January 1974                   1 Perry Como - And I Love You So 26...

January 2 All Things Must Pass - George Harrison February 20 Jesus Christ Superstar - Various Artists February 27 Pearl - Janis Joplin May 1  Jesus Christ Superstar -  Various Artists May 15  4 Way Street - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young May 22  Sticky Fingers - The Rolling Stones June 19 Tapestry - Carole King October 2 Every Picture Tells a Story - Rod Stewart October 30 Imagine - John Lennon November 6 Shaft - Isaac Hayes / Soundtrack November 13 Santana III - Santana December 18 There's a Riot Goin' On - Sly & the Family Stone All...

January 6 "You're So Vain" Carly Simon January 27 "Superstition" Stevie Wonder February 3 "Crocodile Rock" Elton John February 24 "Killing Me Softly with His Song" Roberta Flack March 24 "Love Train" The O'Jays March 31 "Killing Me Softly with His Song" Roberta Flack April 7 "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" Vicki Lawrence April 21 "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree"Dawn featuring Tony Orlando May 19 "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" Stevie Wonder May 26 "Frankenstein" The Edgar Winter Group June 2  "My Love"     Paul McCartney & Wings June 30"Give...

Music                         Carole King (3 weeks) American Pie             Don McLean   (7 weeks) Harvest             Neil Young      (2 weeks) America             America (4 weeks) First Take             Roberta Flack (5 weeks) Thick as a Brick Jethro Tull (2 weeks) Exile on Main St. The Rolling Stones (4 weeks) Honky Château Elton John         (5 weeks)  Chicago V            ...

Which record is the best-selling of all time has long been a matter of some dispute and the real numbers of records sold is mired in a mixture of official certification and guesswork. At first sight it seems easy enough to work out. Just add up how many have been sold, right? Well, yeah. But back in the day, when trade was largely a cash economy, any amount of records were sold without being recorded. We just handed over our cash, the store owner put it in their pocket and no-one was the wiser.  The only record of those sales...

Slade - Slayed?                                                               13 January 1973 Gilbert O'Sullivan - Back to Front                                    20 January 1973 Slade - Slayed?                                                               27 January 1973...

Only 11 albums topped the charts in the last year of the 70s and it was a year characterised by records that hit the top spot, fell off and then returned again to #1 for a second time. This was the case with the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Doobie Brothers and Supertramp. From early March to early August they were the chart topping albums on two occasions each. It’s relatively unusual, though far from unknown, for this to happen to an album, but for it to be the case for four consecutive albums is unique in the Billboard listings. The...

As the 60’s closed there were some huge-selling albums which sat atop the Billboard 200 for many weeks, none more so than Hair which spent an impressive 13 weeks on top of the pile selling three million copies in 1969 alone.  Easy to forget just what a cultural revolution Hair represented, albeit merely a respectable stage embodiment of the counterculture forment that was boiling away in youth culture. But beyond that, there were some beautiful songs on it, many of which got covered by others, especially Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In and Good Morning Starshine, both of which I loved as...

While it was only at #1 for two weeks, War's The World Is A Ghetto was actually America's best-selling album of 1973, which, given the likes of Carly Simon, George Harrison and the Allman Brothers Band were all at the top for five weeks and Elton for eight, is quite an achievement and an unexpected one. It's quite a statistical quirk because although it went gold (500,000) in '73, it kind of dropped off the sales radar subsequently, whereas Zeppelin's Houses Of The Holy has so far sold over 11 million, Elton's Goodbye Yellow Brick road, 8 million and Pink...

The Singles: 1969–1973 - The Carpenters A&M You Don't Mess Around with Jim - Jim Croce ABC Planet Waves - Bob Dylan With The Band Asylum The Way We Were - Barbra Streisand Columbia John Denver's Greatest Hits - John Denver RCA Victor Band on the Run - Paul McCartney & Wings Apple John Denver's Greatest Hits - John Denver RCA Victor Chicago VII - Chicago Columbia The Sting - Marvin Hamlisch / Soundtrack MCA Band on the Run - Paul McCartney & Wings Apple Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot Reprise Band on the Run - Paul McCartney & Wings Apple...

This is the NME album charts for the first week in December 1970. It's worth taking a look at both UK and USA listings simply to reflect on how pretty much every single album, compilations aside, has subsequently become a classic album of the genre. Quite astonishing really.  The only albums I don't have are the Bobby Sherman record,  Elvis' Christmas album, Shirley Bassey's Something - though I'd like that, love a bit of Shirl - and the Tom Jones' album. Nice to see Arlo Guthrie's Washington County in at #29 on the USA listing and the first Steve Still...

This was done in mid-1974. I guess Zig Zag’s audience was 16-25 long-hairs, rockers and freaks, possibly mostly in college, even so, it’s surprising to see three Beefheart albums in this top 10, especially Trout Mask Replica which can easily be filed under ‘Difficult Music.’ Another thing that stands out is how old these records already were. Nothing in the top 10 was released after 1970, when you think of the epoch making records that were released from 1970 - 1974, that’s quite amazing. No room for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin etc. I was only 13 at the time so...

The year before punk rock became a big thing in the UK was perhaps one of the greatest ever for classic rock, as the NME writers best albums of the year suggest. Desire is one of Dylan’s best albums of the 1970s, Station To Station is mind blowing and so different to anything else. Dr. Feelgood is hardcore R & B. Fantastic records from Steve Miller, Todd, Jackson Browne, Nils, Steely Dan, BOC, Emmylou and Thin Lizzy.  What strikes me powerfully here is how varied the records were. Everything from proto-metal of Blue Oyster Cult to straight out country, raggae...

Every year I filled in the coupon and sent in my vote. And every year, the results issue was always waited for with baited breath. I’m surprised Rod’s Smiler album won this year’s vote, as it’s not his best work. But he always did manage to straddle both a pop and rock audience.  Carl Palmer won three best drummer awards consecutively, and Clapton three running as best guitarist. The next two years would be won by Jimmy Page. Harsh on Steve Harley in this. He did have an unusual persona in Cockney Rebel but I always loved them.  Hard to...