UK charts 70's VI

Now I'm not opposed to having a song that calls for racial peace and harmony (particularly in this day and age where racial tensions seem to be at their all-time worst due to idiots on the internet) the problem I have here is that we're having a call to action from someone who's infamous for their racially insensitive comedy tracks and that it's displayed as a ballad similar to that of "We are the world."

It's staggering to think that these guys would be considered yesterday's news here in Australia once "Please Mr postman" fell off our charts during the midpoint of the decade given how inescapable they were here during the first half of the 70's. Here they are with their big breakthrough hit which was far more popular than many other tracks that 70's afficionados will likely name these days.

This was the song that made Hot chocolate a household name outside their native UK as they had struggled to translate the success they had earlier in the decade internationally prior to its release, it's one of their low tempo ballads dedicated to an Emma in Errol Brown's life that naturally connected with audiences at a time where RNB struggled to find success here in Australia.

Sweet were on a roll when they released their biggest hit in Australia this year, although it's worth noting that around the time this became a massive success here and in their native UK, their earlier hit "Ballroom blitz" had only just crossed over to America where it became a huge success on Billboard. This is another song that was huge back in the day to be fondly remembered today by oldies stations.

#29 for 1970

It took him a while to release a new album following the demise of his band Simon and Garfunkel, however Paul Simon found instant success once he did release new music on his own given how much of an instant success said album and its lead single was throughout the world. True to the title, this is a song about a mother reuniting with her son after a long time apart which naturally connected with audiences.

This was the final hit that Shirley Bassey had anywhere in the world, although it's curious that it would be by far her biggest hit here in Australia given how her only other hit was with "Goldfinger" from the film of the same name from almost a decade prior. At least the Welsh woman of colour can take comfort in the fact that this ballad was more popular on our charts than many other well-known tracks worldwide.

This was originally released three years prior to deafening silence for the husband-and-wife duo, in fact from what I can gather, this song only ever became a success here in Australia once we learned about Tina leaving Ike and making this a success in order to show our support for her getting away from her abusive husband. Since this became a surprise success for her this year, it's been adapted as a popular line dance here.

OK to everyone who thought the Teletubbies were bizarre, allow me to present to you the 70's equivalent known as the Wombles who were massively popular in the UK and also in NZ if the success of their theme song is anything to go by. Then again, this was an excellent time for TV themes over there given how many we've looked at on this side of my site already.

You may be familiar with the name Carole Bayer Sager if you're a Burt Bacharach fan, after all she was a frequent writing collaborator with the songwriting legend and co-wrote some of his more well-known songs such as "That's what friends are for" and the theme to Arthur starring Dudley Moore. Here she is with her one and only hit as a lead artist, I'm guessing this was a success more for the lyrics than her vocal performance which isn't great.

This was the second hit that Yvonne Elliman was able to achieve worldwide following the success of her first single "Love me" from the previous year, although Kim Wilde would have a much bigger hit in Australia with her version fifteen years later. People like to rag on the lyrics of this track due to how depressing they are once you read them; however, I feel it matches the tone of the film very well.

This was originally released in 1962 where it was a massive hit for Bobby Picket in his native America, however it fell on death ears back then which is perhaps why it became a massive worldwide hit for him....... eleven years later. I have no idea why this Halloween classic was a hit when it was, however, it resulted in it being among the bigger hits of the early 70's here in Australia.

It looked like the Bee gees would be yesterday's news when their previous album flopped on the charts worldwide, however their fortunes changed when they decided to hop on the disco bandwagon early on in its popularity which single handedly revived their career worldwide as this topped the Billboard charts for them. For some reason, I always thought this was a Fleetwood mac single, possibly due to it lacking their trademark falsetto's which they would develop throughout the second half of the decade.

This was the only hit that country legend Crystal Gayle was able to achieve in Australia, although it was more of a sleeper hit here so perhaps it was less a hit and more something that just stuck around long enough to qualify for this list.

This is the song that the Fugees would sample over twenty years later for their magnum opus "Killing me softly," naturally this was originally a huge hit for Roberta Flack given how she by this point was a household name due to her earlier entry on this list. She would have one more hit on her own here in Australia with "Feel like making love" as well as one with Peabo Bryson with "Tonight I celebrate my love."

This was a massive hit for Jim Gilstrap in NZ, Jim is perhaps best known for singing TV themes such as the Good times theme which was one of the highest rated sitcoms at the time (as well as the first to feature a predominantly black cast.) This was a huge flop in his native America, which is perhaps why he stuck to singing TV themes rather than pursuing any further hits on the Billboard charts.

This is the biggest hit that Rod Stewart had over in America, although it's worth noting that regardless of what his biggest hit was in each country that he was one of the biggest names in music throughout the decade worldwide. To give you context, he released at least one mega hit every year for four consecutive years.

This was the first big hit that ELO had here in Australia, although they did score a hit in NZ and America with "Evil woman" the previous year which makes me wonder why that didn't also crossover here. This was the lead single from their magnum opus A new world record, so of course this was going to be huge given how it's the type of lush and opulent rock opera music that audiences gravitated towards this year.

Does this song remind anyone else of John Lennon's "Woman?" Something about the chord structure and vocal melodies on this one and only hit from husband-and-wife duo R&J Stone heavily reminds me of that track for some reason. If you want to know what happened to these two lovebirds, Joanne Stone tragically died of a brain tumour later in the decade which Robert never got over.

Well, if you wanted to hear what Disney's Snow white would sound like if she were played by an Australian woman who was popular in the 70's, then you've come to the right place as lead singer Noosha Fox channelled the Disney princess in her performance for her biggest hit in Australia and her band's native UK and even managed to achieve moderate success throughout Europe with this formula.

This is a rare case of a chart topper not being the lead single from an album, although I get the feeling this was only a huge success worldwide following the success of a country version from Lynn Anderson which compelled the duo to release it as a single a year after the album's release.

This had a very rocky road to success in Australia as it tried to find an audience and failed before finally succeeding after its third attempt. I'm not even sure why this song had such a hard time crossing over here as it was an instant success over in NZ and the rockabilly update that Ram jam gives to the ragtime original from the 30's was in line with what Ol'55 was serving up at the time.

This was the only hit for the two singers in question, both Dean Friedman and Denise Marsa managed to win over an audience with their ballad about how they felt lucky to have found each other the way they did and attributed their good fortunes to the lucky stars in the universe. Naturally this ballad didn't lead to any further success for them.

#26 for 1974

This is a song that works fine upon its initial release, but I feel becomes tiresome after repeated listens, I think it's because the yelping at the end of the second chorus feels unnecessary although that could just be a me problem. This was one of the biggest hits of the decade in Australia despite Bryan's band Roxy music failing to find any major success with one of their singles prior to him temporarily disbanding them to pursue his solo career.

While this wasn't the final hit single these guys were able to score in Australia (that honour goes to "Rocking all over the world" from the following year) it was the last massive hit they had which goes to show how little success these guys had compared to their native UK where they were massive hit makers as recently as the early 90's. At least you still hear all of these songs on oldies stations to this day.

Well at least Blondie were able to achieve success with their fourth album Eat to the beat in NZ given how that album didn't see much success here in Australia back in the day, it came instantly as well as the lead single was a massive hit over there as opposed to here where it didn't even break into our top fifty.

Bet you didn't know Billy Connolly had a singing career, did you? Well technically he doesn't as this "cover" of the Tammy Wynette classic is really a joke song he does in his typical sense of humour that nonetheless amused audiences back in the day. He was far from the only comic to score a hit down under over the years, heck he wasn't even the first as there were plenty of tracks like this prior to its success.

I guess Roxy music was able to achieve some success here in Australia after all as their final single they released before they went on hiatus for Bryan Ferry's solo career managed to be a massive sleeper hit for them here in Australia, although I get the feeling this was merely a warm up to what Bryan had to offer over the next two years given how this feels more like a solo project from him.

Much like her earlier entry on this list, this was initially a bomb in Australia for Tina Charles, likely due to the sudden rise in popularity of "Dance little lady dance" which prevented this from becoming a success upon its initial release here. This proved to be her final hit worldwide likely due to audiences finding her voice to be overbearing for a genre that was defined by stripped back vocals.

This is another song that was a huge success in NZ that was also a sleeper hit here in Australia, this time it's the breakthrough hit from Yvonne Elliman who was unable to have us Aussies shaking our groove things the way that Tina Charles and Donna Summer could when this first came out. Still, it did linger on our charts for quite some time, hence why it managed to appear on this list.

Of the four hits that these guys had in Australia back in the day, this was by far the most normal as it wasn't a cod reggae track like "Dreadlock holiday," a glam rock track like "Rubber bullets" or even a sophistopop track (or whatever the 70's equivalent of that was) like "I'm not in love." Instead, we have a fairly straight forward pop rock track from the band which came from their biggest album Deceptive bends.

Given how many musicians of colour made it big in their native America throughout the decade, it's interesting to see how the members of Odyssey wouldn't be among them as they were one of the first of their kind to find success in the UK and not on Billboard. As for their appearance on this list, it's due to them sticking around on the NZ charts for quite some time back in the day due to the kiwis love for disco.

This was the final chart topper the fab four had here in Australia, it was guaranteed to be a success given how they were still on top of the world as far as their success was concerned even if there were tons of behind-the-scenes drama which made their breakup inevitable. For me, this feels like "Hey Jude" part II musically, suggesting that this felt more like a contractual obligation than anything (although I'm not a Beatles fan so take that with a grain of salt.)

This was the second single from Elton John's album Don't shoot me I'm only the piano player, this is a more sombre ballad compared to "Crocodile rock" which I'm guessing was a reminder to his (then) older fans of his blues roots given how he had begun to dabble with glam rock around this time.

This was more in line with some of the bigger hits that Leo Sayer would score this decade, although it wasn't as big as what was still to come given how this has become one of his more forgotten songs in his catalogue over the years. Even so it was a good steppingstone for the likes of "You make me feel like dancing" and "Thunder in my heart."

This was the only notable success for Scottish singer/songwriter Frankie Miller, although I'm not sure how he made it big with this ballad considering it wasn't a huge hit for him in his native UK. I guess this was a hit here due to the ballad striking a chord with audiences who were beginning to grow tired of Rod Stewart's usual fare, although this didn't lead to Frankie having any more success of his own.

Following the success of MJ's earlier entry, this track from two years prior became a surprise success for his family band likely due to him being a welcome presence on our charts that he apparently wasn't upon this track's initial release. I don't even know why this song flopped in Australia initially as MJ didn't seem to have any problems with finding success with his album Off the wall when it came out.

UK charts 70's V

Given the sudden rise in popularity of Kate Bush, it was only inevitable that there would be knockoffs in her wake. One of the more notable examples comes from Lene Lovich who copied the quirky nature of Kate on her big breakthrough single despite being nearly a decade older than the young singer/songwriter. This became almost as big as Kate's debut single from the previous year for the record.

This was the song that Liv Maessen stole the success of here in Australia given how Mary Hopkin was also on a roll going into the 70's given how she capped off the 60's with two of its biggest hits. She was credited as one of the first clients on the Beatles Apple label, although there was some concern at the time given how she was barely in her twenties when she signed her contract with them.

This was originally a hit for the French trio Gibson brothers just as the decade was starting throughout Europe, I guess we Aussies weren't interested in it at first due to it coming off as a bit too silly for us. We changed our minds a year later likely due to us wanting to support disco whenever we could given how to this day, Americans will claim that the disco backlash of 1979 forever killed the genre.

This was another huge hit that T Rex had throughout the world, it's far more fondly remembered than their earlier entry on this list likely due to its protest lyrics about being a part of a revolution which likely helped it stand out from the many glam rock tracks of the day.

This was originally an instrumental theme for the Hollywood blockbuster Love story; however, it was turned into a love ballad at the last minute when the producers decided to recruit American crooner Andy Williams to sing over the instrumental theme in order to score a hit for the film's soundtrack. This gambit paid off here in Australia where it was a huge hit, not so much anywhere else in the world where it wasn't.

This was a collaboration between two fairly unknown singers Scott Fitzgerald and Yvonne Keeley who were back up by some school choir which somehow managed to make this song a massive worldwide success. If this concoction of people involved with the track isn't confusing enough, the song is a combination of reggae with what appears to be the earliest forms of new wave making it a unique sounding song.

Well, we had to get to this track eventually, this is yet another song on this list that has gone down in infamy due to the subject matter which depicts Ringo Starr "owning" a sixteen-year-old he has the hots for. This was originally a hit for Johnny Burnette in 1960 (the father of Rocky Burnette of "Tired of toeing the line" fame) who would tragically pass away four years after his version made it big.

This is one of the less well remembered songs to become a massive success in Australia back in the day, even so it's easy to see how this was a big hit here given how joyous and happy the song is. Pilot did score a second hit with "Magic" which became a surprise hit for them in America of all places.

This was a different side to Rose Royce as they went from the happy go lucky "Car wash" to a more downbeat breakup ballad about how the love is gone and that this person should move on from them. It was a bit of a sleeper hit here in Australia likely due to the contrast of what had come before from the band, although nowadays people are likely more familiar with Madonna's version from 1996.

While this is more in line with new wave, the fact that punk band Squeeze (or UK Squeeze as they were known as here for some reason) were able to find success with this track proves that we Aussies were at least somewhat intrigued by the UK punk scene from around this time. I'm not sure why this scene wasn't widely accepted here as it caused us to miss out on a lot of important tracks of the day.

We'll be looking at quite a few instrumental tracks on this list given how they seemed to be plentiful during the first half of the decade, by far the biggest came from Hot butter who were an American instrumental band who took the world by storm with this gem. If the melody sounds familiar to you, that's because Crazy frog "covered" this track on its 2005 album and found massive success with it.

It appears that Mike Oldfield managed to achieve a third hit throughout his career here in Australia with this instrumental, although it appears we Aussies were a bit turned off by his medieval influences on the track as opposed to his fellow Brits who allowed this to be a mainstream success in his homeland.

This was the lead single to David Soul's second album, an album that wouldn't see much success despite it spawning two of his biggest hits worldwide likely due to those songs failing to become as such in his native America. Yeah, it turns out he's a one hit wonder with his first entry on this list on the Billboard charts, proving how much more popular he was internationally back in the day.

Well, I didn't think I'd be featuring a song from the man who produced the earlier albums from the fab four on this site, however he evidently gave a music career as a frontman a shot which led to him scoring a massive worldwide hit with this pop rock track as his debut single. It was his only hit worldwide as he quickly reverted back to being behind the scenes despite its success.

Although they're best known for their disco classic "Groove thing" (which sadly won't be appearing on this blog) this was the big hit from Peaches and Herb due to it being their Billboard chart topper in their native America. It turns out that the Peaches on here wasn't the original Peaches when the duo formed a decade prior, in fact Herb Fame has gone through five different Peaches over the years.

This was the first solo hit that MJ had as an adult anywhere in the world (his first solo hit overall was with "Rocking robin" from earlier in the decade) it's also the first hit of his to feature Quincy Jones as his executive producer which resulted in some of his finest work both solo and with his family. Despite it clearly being a disco track, it still remains one of his more fondly remembered songs to this day.

This is the second single released from Cosmo's factory, it was also the first of two chart toppers the band had here in Australia which goes to show how immensely popular the swamp rockers were during the height of their fame. Like many bands that began the decade on a high note, their time in the spotlight would quickly dwindle due to behind-the-scenes drama resulting in their breakup in 1972.

I guess we Aussies were familiar with this breakthrough single from Queen after all given how long it lingered in our charts back in the day, indeed you can make the argument these guys were among the first to be negatively affected by Countdown considering how successful this was internationally for the iconic band.

This was the first hit that the Glitter band managed to achieve once they had established themselves as the hottest new name in their native UK due to of course being the backing band for Gary Glitter, it's a glam rock track much likes the rest of their and their troubled frontman's catalogue which of course was guaranteed success here in Australia this year as well.

This was the debut single from Fox which they rereleased following the success of their earlier entry on this list, it became a big sleeper hit here in Australia given this was technically the follow up to that chart topper they had even though it had already been a massive success over in the UK over a year prior to its eventual success down under.

I'm not entirely sure how to categorise this track from French composer Jean Michel Jarre, I guess it's a hybrid of rock opera and actual opera which I'm sure was why this managed to become such a massive success in NZ but not here in Australia as it would've been too abstract for us Aussies to comprehend it whilst dealing with our ever-changing local music scene.

OK so I exaggerated when I said earlier in the list that "Boogie wonderland" was the only hit these guys had in Australia, it was their only top ten hit and the only hit for the Emotions, however these guys did score a hit earlier in the year with this disco classic from their greatest hits package. I guess the fact the greatest hits album was a success did mean that we were at least aware of their catalogue back in the day.

In a way, I'm kind of shocked that this managed to become a sleeper hit in NZ and a massive hit in the UK given how no one in America knew about this genre until Blondie's "Rapture" became a huge chart topper on Billboard months after this was a huge success in both countries. It's often regarded as the true introduction to hip hop given how well it holds up in the scene to this day.

This is one of those songs that is fondly remembered by 70's afficionados but is rather silly the more you think about its lyrics, I mean can anyone explain the poetic genius of lines like "there were plants and birds and rocks and things there was sand and hills and rings" and "in the desert, you can remember your name cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain?" I think because of these dodgy lyrics, this remains the band's only hit here in Australia.

There was no stopping these guys given how they saw massive success with their top entry on this list, although it's worth noting they weren't always in the glam rock genre as a lot of their earliest work was more in line with teen pop (at least what the early 70's would define as such.)

OK so this is a song that is problematic even at the time of its release, anyone who's ever found themselves in the situation that goes on in the lyrics will tell you that it's not a situation that should be glamourised the way it is on this track. Admittedly Mary quickly became aware of this as she has since distanced herself from this track even if it came at the expense of scoring another hit.

It turns out this was also a sleeper hit for the Emotions here in Australia, I would say I've evened out their representation on both sides of this site except no amount of expanding this list will allow "Flowers" to appear on it due to it failing to chart here. It makes sense we Aussies knew of this songs existence back in the day given how heavily its played-on oldies stations to this day.

Ever wanted to hear what Mike Oldfield would sound like if he combined glam rock with disco in one of his instrumentals? Well, someone named Richard Hewson did just that as under the pseudonym the Rah band, he managed to marry the two genres together with to make a song bizarre enough to become a huge hit in his native UK as well as a sleeper success here in Australia.

This was a massive hit due to it being the Bond theme for the Spy who loved me, one of the more popular films during the Roger Moore era of the franchise. Of course, Carly Simon was a good choice for submitting a Bond theme given that she was one of the more popular artists of the decade, even though this was her first hit in Australia since her cover of "Mockingbird" four years prior.

This was the first solo hit to come from MJ, suffice to say that this is very different from his later material given how he was still a child when he recorded this track for the film of the same name. Incidentally, this is a horror film which just so happens to have the occasional sentimental scene, making this ballad highly inappropriate to be its theme song regardless of the context of the lyrics.

It makes sense that these guys would perform this track on Countdown thirteen years after its initial release given how it was indeed one of the biggest hits of the decade here in Australia back in the day. Interestingly, this was only a hit in America two years after it became a massive worldwide success, even more curiously it was around the time that they topped our charts with "Fox on the run."

We looked at "Whodunit" on the NZ side of this site, time to look at the big hit that Tavares achieved internationally back in the day which the kiwis for some reason ignored even though they were clearly aware of what these guys had to offer. We Aussies also ignored these guys for the most part, however we had the excuse of this not fitting in with what Bay city rollers, Sherbet and Abba had to offer.

While this was indeed an 80's hit for the Buggles over in America, this was released just as the 70's was winding down throughout the rest of the world making these two future members of Yes score their big breakthrough two years prior to when MTV launched by playing this music video as the first thing to appear on the channel when it launched.

This is the only other hit that Badfinger achieved here in Australia, it was also their breakthrough hit even though "Come and get it" was a huge worldwide success for the Welsh band at the start of the decade. This feels like a bit of an outlier for the band given how much heavier it is compared to the rest of their catalogue.

We have one final appearance from Neil Diamond on this list, it's another big worldwide hit he had proving yet again that he was on top of the world during the first half of the decade regardless of where you're from.

#43 for 1972

This was the big breakthrough hit that David Essex had in his career, it's a bit of a far cry from all the other songs we've featured so far on this list given how this feels more in line with the glam rock scene of when it was released rather than the more pop friendly tracks from the second half of the decade. Interestingly enough, it remains his only hit in America despite how much bigger his later catalogue was over this.

This is one of those songs that I'm dumbstruck wasn't more of a mainstream success here in Australia given how much oldies stations love to put it in their rotation these days, indeed this is another early victim of the Countdown curse given how well it did throughout Europe and in Steve Harley's native UK upon its initial release. At least we Aussies did notice this back in the day unlike other staples on those stations.

This was the only hit from English pianist Peter Skellern, it was a massive hit for him here in Australia and his native UK likely due to this coming out right before Elton John took over the world with his top entry on this list. It's interesting to theorise how big this guy would've been had Elton not become one of the biggest names in music worldwide.

I think I've done fairly well in keeping my commentary neutral on this list so far, however it's difficult for me to remain as such with this entry due to how obviously high on drugs Melanie is on this track. This obviously wasn't a deterrent for audiences back in the day as it remains her biggest hit in her catalogue, which is further proof that the 60's bled well into this decade given how this feels right at home at Woodstock.

This was the only hit for Minnie Riperton during her short life on this planet, yes, she would go on to tragically pass away by the end of the decade from cancer which makes this one of the more bittersweet hits to become a success on my site. This song has gained infamy for Minnie's high note at the end of each chorus as well as the lyrics admittedly making no sense, I think the song is cute for what it is.

This was the only noticeable success that David Dundas (sorry Lord David Dundas as he does have an official title) achieved in his music career, although he did score a minor hit here in Australia with "Another funny honeymoon" which means there was some appeal to this guy's music outside of this ad jungle for a jean commercial. Oh yeah, this was written specifically as an ad jingle, hence why it sounds like one.

This is widely considered to be Sherbet's signature tune and rightfully so, it's by far their most mature work as they incorporate cricket metaphors in order to describe the infidelity of their partner in this song. Sadly, the rest of their catalogue wasn't nearly this ambitious as it was mainly used to appeal to teenage girls.

It looks like the Bellamy brothers were able to escape the one hit wonder bin here in Australia with what has to be one of the corniest songs to ever be a hit anywhere in the world, I mean the title alone should tell you what you're in for here and yet this managed to be a sleeper success right when the decade was coming to an end here and in the UK of all places.