Beat Bugs and other ramblings.

I have recently loaded all my Beatles` [you remember them] cds on to my laptop, so I can make a disc for the grand-kids to listen to in the car. I was making a cd of particular tracks that featured on a cd of the kids` show, Beat Bugs. They use Beatles` songs and they are very good. The

cd is excellent, some really good versions, with artist like Rod Stewart and Robbie Williams on board.. Far and away, the best Beatles covers album, I have ever heard and I do have several. I thought of just copying the disc for the car, but felt the need for them to experience the originals rather than have the new versions become their standard. Toby, the oldest of the American grand-kids was exposed to the big four as a baby. It was on his parents` ipod and played to help him go to sleep. It will be interesting to see if he remembers any, several years later. On the Beat Bugs soundtrack was a version of Rain, a Beatles` B side. I discovered I did not have it on cd! I know. I was shocked too. I do have it on vinyl, a few times. So now I have to get copies of Past Masters, the cd set that has all the B sides and unusual items. I have most of them, mainly on the Rarities album, from a vinyl box set, released a long time ago. As for the cd I have made, I included a few extra tracks, not featured in Beat Bugs. Ob-la-di Ob-la-da and Octopus`s Garden, for instance.


The initial premise for this blog was to talk about acts that have had very little action in the US charts, while being successful in the UK. Each time I think about doing a particular act, I find they had a bigger presence than I realised. I can still do that, but I need to be free to talk about non-US acts without restriction. I may even mention the big boys every now and then, just to give my personal view and let you in to my collection a little more. People like Gilbert O`Sullivan, ELO and Mike Oldfield. Mike, of course, has a new album out this week, Return To Ommadawn and I will be getting it and reviewing it. I was listening to the original this weekend. Really good album that.




So, now I feel free to talk about any non-American act, on here, from a purely personal standpoint.

January 1974, a very British Chart

Listening to the wonderful Paul Gambaccini, left, an American, playing the UK hits of 7th January 1974, on BBC Radio 2`s Pick Of The Pops show. It struck me how much I loved some of these tracks and also how they all seemed to be British. So I looked it up. As you do.

http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/19740106/7501/

Without the Osmonds, America had no-one in the top twenty. At least not the week I looked at. Look a little further down or in the weeks around it, there were signs of our cousins across the pond. Diana Ross, Perry Como, Andy Williams and so on. Very old school, that lot. I loved that "new" Perry Como and Andy Williams stuff, I really did. Good modern songs, by new writers, great production, class all the way. Robert Knight was there, thanks to Northern Soul djs picking up on his 1968 track, Love On A Mountain Top. All the originality and fun, however, was British with a smattering of Europe.
Golden Earring are there with Radar Love, but they were Dutch. Possibly still are! The 70`s were wonderful for people, like me, who love a variety of music. Such choices. However, what this meant was, that for the first time, records started appearing that I really did not like. Not the Osmonds. They were a phenomenon and although I did not buy their stuff, I did not mind hearing it on the radio or television. They were everywhere at the time. Gloriously American and showy as all get out.
I mean stuff like The Stylistics. I really do not like that noise they make. It`s watered down soul music and is an affront to Stax, Motown and all of that stuff. There are a lot of tracks in the 50 that I would not buy or play, but none that I absolutely hate. Not even schmaltzy stuff like Max Bygraves` version of Deck Of Cards or the geriatric duo of Millican and Nesbitt. But schmaltz is okay for some, giving pleasure to older souls than myself.
 I had to look up Lonely Days, Lonely Nights by Don Downing, but still did not remember it when I heard it. The other 49 I remember or was aware of.
Christmas was still around, with Wizzard [my favourite Christmas single of all time], Elton John, the amazing Gaudete by Steeleye Span and the new champions of the season, Slade. Merry Christmas Everybody was still selling by the bucket load and still does today. Roy Wood, right, the mastermind behind Wizzard, also had a wonderful Beach Boys` pastiche number called Forever, in the charts.
Even The Beatles are well represented. Only George is missing. John`s excellent Mind Games [great album too], Helen Wheels from Paul, a great rocking number and Ringo`s memorable Photograph. Makes you wonder what those tracks might have been like if they had stayed together.
The blemish, known as Gary Glitter, was in the middle of his greatest fame, making some wonderful singles. We can not now listen to his stuff without the thought of his crimes. I do not belittle his past, but it is a big chunk of Glam Rock taken out of the equation. Don`t think I have heard a Glitter track in over 20 odd years.
Some great, lesser known singles on here. How Come by Ronnie Lane [The Faces] is a wonderful record, sounding like no other. The beautiful Amoureuse by the beautiful Kiki Dee and the quirky Lamplight by the quirky David Essex  He did not want to be in the same category as David Cassidy [I like his version of The Puppy Song], hence the strangeness of his early releases.
Oddities like Alvin Stardust and Barry Blue made the case for people slagging off the whole decade, but even these guys made reasonable pop records and never claimed to do anything else.

Great singles like Pool Hall Richard by The Faces, Street Life by Roxy Music and Roll Away The Stone by Mott The Hoople made the case for people, like myself, who absolutely love the 70`s. This chart reflects the broad selection of styles and talent, not even covering bands who were album acts, such as Led Zeppelin.
David Bowie and T. Rex had what, for them, were minor hits, with Sorrow and Truck On Tyke respectively. Mud, an underestimated pop band were there too. Their greatest hits is a catalogue of good 70`s pop, no pretensions. Leo Sayer was having his first taste of fame, as a singer with The Show Must Go On, having previously written Giving It All Away for Roger Daltrey`s solo album.

Gilbert O`Sullivan was at the end of his top ten run with Why, Oh Why, Oh Why. He still had a few lesser hits to come and even now he is still making great music with wonderful songs and a distinctive vocal/piano style.
The TV show Happy Days is represented by Pinky Tuscadero in her earlier guise as Suzi Quatro, legendary 70`s female rocker. I haven`t even mentioned The Carpenters, Matt Monro, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops or The New Seekers. Lesser artist such as Cozy Powell and  Drupi or soul representatives Eddie Kendricks and Harold Melvin.
I think that covers all 50. This chart, picked, as I say after listening to Paul Gambaccini, represents nearly everything I love about the 70`s with the variety of talent and sounds available. All that`s missing is the requisite novelty song, but there were plenty of those still to come and I loved most of them too. Most of my favourite acts are from the 70`s, not all of them in this chart, however. 70`s fashion and music was ridiculed for a long time but the music, especially has stood the test of time. A lot of it still sounds fresh today.
As for the Billboard Hot 100 for this week, it`s pretty much the other way around, with American artists in the ascendancy of course. There are crossovers with some of the same singles. Helen Wheels, Photograph and Mind Games to name three. They have a couple of novelty records and some of the same artists, but with different releases. Even a single by the Zep! Although I like most of the American chart, my heart belongs to the Limey stuff. Even more so, now I am thousands of miles away.