REMEMBER WHEN - 12TH NOVEMBER 1977

1977

Week 46
WEEK ENDING 12TH NOVEMBER 1977

TOP 40 SINGLES

TW	.......	LW	.......		.......
1		1		Abba		Name Of The Game
2		2		Baccara		Yes Sir I Can Boogie
3		3		Rod Stewart		You're In My Heart
4		5		Status Quo		Rockin' All Over The World
5		8		Tom Robinson Band		2-4-6-8 Motorway
6		6		Queen		We Are The Champions / We Will Rock You
7		4		La Belle Epoque		Black Is Black
8		11		Ram Jam		Black Betty
9		10		Carpenters		Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft
10		13		Smokie		Needles And Pins
11		15		Roxy Music		Virginia Plain
12		22		Bee Gees		How Deep Is Your Love
13		9		Sex Pistols		Holidays In The Sun
14		23		Barron Knights		Live In Trouble
15		7		David Soul		Silver Lady
16		20		Nazareth		Hot Tracks EP
17		NEW		Showaddywaddy		Dancin' Party
18		25		Santana		She's Not There
19		17		Giorgio		From Here To Eternity
20		12		Meco		Star Wars Theme
21		37		Darts		Daddy Cool
22		34		Boney M		Belfast
23		21		Dorothy Moore		I Believe You
24		27		E.L.O.		Turn To Stone
25		24		David Bowie		Heroes
26		29		Tina Charles		Love Bug-Sweets For My Sweet (Medley)
27		14		Stranglers		No More Heroes
28		16		Danny Mirror		I Remember Elvis Presley
29		NEW		Ruby Winters		I Will
30		NEW		Jacksons		Goin' Places
31		NEW		Jonathan Richman		Egyptian Reggae
32		NEW		Slade		My Baby Left Me
33		33		Elvis Costello		Watching The Detectives
34		28		Mary Mason		Angel Of The Morning-Anyway You Want Me
35		NEW		Crystal Gayle		Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue
36		18		Yes		Wondrous Stories
37		26		Emotions		Best Of My Love
38		32		Commodores		Brickhouse / Sweet Love
39		NEW		Kenny Everett & Mike Vickers		Captain Kremmen
40		NEW		Lenny Williams		Shoo Doo Fu Fu Ooh

Abba

Name Of The Game

Now, this WAS a good one, still is. It gave Abba their second number one of the year, and it's four week reign took their total for the year to nine weeks. This meant that for the second year running, they spent more weeks on top than anyone else, even if it was three weeks less than the previous year.

Baccara

Yes Sir I Can Boogie

Opinions have always seemed to be divided on this one. Baccara were a Spanish duo of lovely ladies who took to wearing little more than their underwear when performing on Top Of The Pops. Their biggest fault was in employing the Abba trick of exaggerating their accents as they sang (it's so false, don't you think ?). Despite this, I still like this single, and it's a shame that they only had one more hit after this number one. They did go on to represent Luxembourg in the 1978 Eurovision song contest with the song "Parlez Vous Francais",but came in a disappointing seventh.

Rod Stewart

You're In My Heart

When it entered at number seven, this single looked a sure fire bet to hit the top, but instead it climbed to number three and spent three weeks there. It must have come as some surprise to many young lovers who'd adopted this song as 'their song', when they discovered that it wasn't about the love of a woman at all, but about Rod's love of football (the 'real football' with a round spherical object, that I refuse to call the 'S' word). In hindsight the references such as United, Celtic were obvious as they refer to Rods favourite Football clubs (I wonder why he didn't mention Brentford though, he was once on their books).

Status Quo

Rockin' All Over The World

THE classic Quo track. Who would have thought when they heard this song for the first time, that it would herald the beginning of the greatest show ever, featuring most of the biggest rock acts ever ?
Even though they have only had one hit in the USA (and that was over 30 years ago !), they are one of the biggest bands in the World ever. This was their 13th hit and although not their highest charting, is probably their best known. It finally reached number three in it's seventh week on the chart, and then spent three weeks there. Like many, I dismissed the Quo as a bit of a joke (even though I happily bought their singles, a few albums too), until I saw them support Queen at Knebworth in 1986. They were tremendous, and they re-affirmed my opinion of them five years later while supporting Rod Stewart in Manchester. I promise you, you will not see many bands perform live better than Status Quo do. While I was still naive about their ability, I often compared them as a British version of 'The Beach Boys' (only MUCH more bearable and without the surfing). It seems I must have got something right, as they joined up with the happy surfers for a hit with "Fun Fun Fun" in 1996.

Tom Robinson Band

2-4-6-8 Motorway

I always found this one irritating. I remember the day after it was on TOTP, my friend Tony Waters said he didn't like the look of Tom and would like to punch him in the face. While it was charting, Tom came out and revealed his homosexuality. A few years later he changed his mind and decided that he was Bi-sexual, and a few years later decided that he was straight and became a father !
This spent two weeks at number five, and some good singles followed it.

Queen

We Are The Champions / We Will Rock You

I could have been in the video for this you know !
I'd been in the fan club for a couple of years when I received a letter inviting me to travel down to London to take part in the filming of a promotional film for Queen's forthcoming single "We Are The Champions". Of course, I would have loved to have gone, but we didn't have a car and the rail fare from North Wales to London was very expensive (no, expenses would not have been paid). So I missed out on three minutes of fame.
It was a massive hit and spent three weeks at number two, the third time in four years that Queen had a number two peaking single in the last few weeks of the year (the year that they didn't do it, 1975, they had a nine week number one). They did it in 1979 too.
Over in the US, some DJs played both tracks as though they were one track, got to admit it did seem that way. I think it made number one on some charts there, but in the important Billboard one, it peaked at number four.
Since then, it has been played at the end of many sports events, including the World Cup Final.

La Belle Epoque

Black Is Black

This too was ok (for a cover). Personally, I do prefer it to the Los Bravos version that also peaked at number two in 1966. This version stayed at number two for three weeks, and sold more copies than many of the year's number ones. And what does it remind me of ?
Well, some may say I started mixing with the wrong crowd, but I'm not so sure. All through school I'd done quite well. I was in the top class for most subjects including Maths & English. But most of the other pupils in those classes were not really my kind of people, nothing wrong with them, just not people that would remain in my social circle once school was over. Most of them were going to go to University, I wasn't. I did intend staying on for the sixth form, but that was about as far as it went, I wanted to get into the real adult world and get a job.
So, in the second week of that school year, I was easily persuaded to skip a few lessons, and before long I was often missing from every lesson ojn certain days. In truth, I didn't have a full week in school for the remainder of that final year . Got caught a couple of times, but hijacked the letters that were sent home to my mother, and told her that I was watching the school football team while attending detention.
But things went further than that. I was persuaded to take part in a burglary at the local chip shop. It was a simple plan, I was small enough to get in through a small window, and then unbolt the back door for Tony to go in and get the money out of the till while Shaun and Karen kept watch at the front of the shop. They'd done it before, but the previous small person wouldn't do it again. So I did my bit, Tony got in but had trouble opening the till. So I grabbed a bottle of pop (soda) and followed him out. When Shaun saw it, he told me to take it back. So while they were at the front of the shop, I went back in through the back, put the pop back, then decided to try and open the till myself. I did it and took the £38 that was in there. Instead of the £5 that I'd been promised, I was given £6 (a kind of bonus I suppose), and was quite happy about that. Less than two weeks later, the C.I.D. came to visit me and I was taken to the police station. We had all been caught and appeared in court the following February.

Ram Jam

Black Betty

I never quite knew whether this was meant to be a joke. They may well have seen themselves as very serious rock musicians, but in my part of the world we thought it was something we were supposed to laugh at. It was a slow climber that eventually reached number seven on it's eighth week in the chart. It was Re-Mixed (yuk) in 1990 and reached number 13.

Carpenters

Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft

The last top ten hit for the 'Carpenters' was totally different than all the previous ones, in that apart from being an 'Epic' was also one that featured different subject matter than the familiar 'Girl meets/loves/misses boy etc'. Not that any of that mattered, Karen could have sang the weather forecast and it would have sounded good. Whatever, this was a great way to end their top 40 career, and there was even a promo video of sorts that was shown on 'Multi Coloured Swap Shop', 'Tiswas' as well as 'Top Of The Pops'. It peaked at number nine just over halfway through an eight week chart run. Oh yes, someone had recorded it before them, but I've never heard the earlier version.

Smokie

Needles And Pins

Never been that keen on this song, why Needles and Pinza ?
This cover of the Searchers 1964 chart topper was always going to be a top ten hit though, and it just made it with a number ten peak.

Roxy Music

Virginia Plain

Re-issue of their debut number four hit from 1972. Not my favourite Roxy Music single, in fact I like most of their other singles more than I do this one. It reached number eleven this time.

Bee Gees

How Deep Is Your Love

I must have seen my Mum cry more than once. I only remember one occcasion though, and it's relevent to this song.
After the chip shop business came to light, I was kept in for over a month (they call it being grounded these days). The day that I was finally released, I met up with a friend who's name I won't reveal. To cut it short, for reasons that I can't remember, I set fire to a car that was less than six months old. Thing is, the fire brigade were on strike and the Army had to come in their green goddess and put it out. There was a report in the Evening Leader the following night in which the owner said "I looked out of the window and the car was burning merrily away".
It took about four days this time for Mr C.I.D. (my pet name for him was Bulb Head) to knock the door. I denied it of course, that is until he asked me a second time, then I admitted it. Well, he wouldn't have come to my house if someone hadn't told him it was me would he ?
So, off to the cop shop again for another statement. Funny thing, my accomplice was not charged with anything (just as he wasn't for his part in the chip shop burglaries).
When I eventually went to court on Valentines Day 1978, I was charged with both offences as well as a charge of receiving 50p from someone who'd burgled another property. When it came to me, the magistrate announced the compensation that I had to pay for the chip shop and the 50p, before coming to the car. It was over two thousands pounds damage and he said that he couldn't see how there was anyway possible that I could repay that money and then took a long pause.
........
...........
You can guess what I thought was coming, I thought that I was going away to be a guest at her Majesties pleasure.
But I was lucky, he decided that I should be fined twenty five pounds instead. Yes, I had been extremely lucky and I didn't burn any more cars after that. I did get convicted of criminal damage to a JCB in late 1978, but I didn't do that, just got fined for it. I still maintain my innocence over that today. Four times over the last 8 years I have been stopped by the police while driving. Each time, they have come up with that one as last Criminal offence on the police computer. Each time, I have said "I didn't do that". But they've always argued with me about it.
Anyway, while this lovely record from the Bee Gees was being played on the top twenty while it was spending one of it's five weeks at number three, that was when my Mum cried. It was something to do with how I seemed to be turning out, even after the strict (but fair) way in which she'd brought me up.
I still feel guilty for that.

Sex Pistols

Holidays In The Sun

While commenting on the Pistols' other two 1977 hits, I've realised that I don't find them as impressive as I did back then. But in the case of this one, I didn't really like it much in the first place. While the Sex Pistols may be the first name that comes to mind when thinking of the punk era, there were many other bands that were much better. Quickly reached number 8 and spent just 6 weeks in the top 40.

Barron Knights

Live In Trouble

This was the first time that the Barron Knights were in the UK chart since 1968, and the first time that they made the top 40 since "Under New Management" made number 15 at Christmas 1966. This band are the all time masters of the parody record and it was great to have them back. This single treated us to their interpretations of "Angelo", "Float On", "Loving You", "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing", "D.I.V.O.R.C.E." and "Lucille" spread over both sides of the disc. Very funny at the time, can still raise a chuckle now, it reached number seven.

David Soul

Silver Lady

David Soul's music output did nothing to enhance our lives (neither did his acting come to think about it, apart from that 'Salem' thing and his part in a 'Dirty Harry' film), but he had a fair bit of success at it for 18 months. Whether he would have made it if he hadn't already been popular through playing 'Hutch' in 'Starsky And Hutch' is something we'll never know (though most of us doubt it). His first hit ("Don't Give Up On Us") was the best selling single of this year, and had spent four weeks at number one, while the follow up ("Going In With My Eyes Open") had spent three weeks at number two. Both had reached their peak position quickly, but "Silver Lady" took seven weeks to hit number one. It's full chart life was 30-10-8-3-3-2-1-1-1-4-7-15-27-38. I almost forgot to mention that this was the most bearable of all his singles, and fully deserved it's success, I like it.

Nazareth

Hot Tracks EP

A welcome return to the chart for 'Nazareth' after a two year break. The lead track on this EP was "Love Hurts", a track that flopped when released as a single in 1974 (despite making the Billboard top ten). But the other tracks on this EP were outstanding too. They were another flopped single "Hair Of The Dog" and two of their biggest hits, "Broken Down Angel" and "This Flight Tonight", both from 1973. The A Side featured "Love Hurts" and "This Flight Tonight", and received regular play on the Juke Box at the Duke Of Wellington pub for many years afterwards. It took eight weeks to reach number 15, after which it only spent a further two weeks in the chart.

Showaddywaddy

Dancin' Party

Horrible, even by Showaddywaddy's standards. I can't imagine that Chubby Checker's 1962 original was much better either. It reached number four.

Santana

She's Not There

Very good cover of the Zombie's number 12 hit from 1964. For my money, this was a much better version, and this was reflected in it's number 11 peak. It remained Santana's biggest hit until "Smooth" reached number three in March 2000.

Giorgio

From Here To Eternity

The Godfather of Synth Disco. Giorgio Moroder had masterminded Donna Summer's rise to the top, and had she continued to work with him, she may still have been there. This is where he tried his hand at having some success under his own name. It was a great single with the B. Side "Too Hot To Handle" almost as good as the A Side. It only got as high as number 16, and that was the end of it as far as solo hits were concerned for Giorgio, but he did try again as part of 'Munich Machine' with "Get On The Funk Train" and "Nights In White Satin", with someone called Chris and "Love's In You, Love's In Me" as well as numerous singles taken from soundtracks, most notably "The Chase". His name did appear in the forty once more in late 1984 when he was co-credited with Phil Oakey on "Together In Electric Dreams". But at the same time, he should have also been credited on the Freddie Mercury single "Love Kills", and especially on the Limahl single "Never Ending Story".

Meco

Star Wars Theme

Another instrumental, and this one took snippets from the various 'tunes' from the 'Star Wars' soundtrack, put them all together, and turned the whole thing into a disco hit. It managed a week at number seven before Meco disappeared. He did try a similar thing with 'The Wiz' soundtrack a year later, but failed miserably.

Darts

Daddy Cool

In late 1976, Boney M made their chart debut and reached number six with a song titled "Daddy Cool". Twelve months later, and Darts were making their debut with an identically titled song. It sounded nothing like the other one of course. This was a rock 'n' roll type thing, and the first of eight top 40 hits. And, it reached number six of course.

Boney M

Belfast

In hindsight, it seems unbelievable that the group who gave us "Rivers Of Babylon" and "Mary's Boy Child" gave us this slice of politics about the situation in Northern Ireland. But we should also remember their 1981 single "We Kill The World", a song that may have been a huge hit if it didn't have the stigma of being recorded by Boney M attached to it.
"Belfast" struggled a little and took seven weeks to reach it's number eight peak. In all, it spent 12 weeks in the top forty.

Dorothy Moore

I Believe You

Nice song, I preferred it to her biggest hit "Misty Blue". I remember it being the first song to be played on the top Twenty one Sunday. It must have been the 20th November, because that's where it peaked, number 20.

E.L.O.

Turn To Stone

This brought an end to their run of three successive top ten hits when it peaked at a lowly number 18. But this first single from the double album 'Out Of The Blue' was just a blip on their pregress. The other three singles from the album all peaked at number six.

David Bowie

Heroes

Considered by many to be David's greatest song. Strange then how it only rose one position a week until it peaked at number 24. There have been covers of this down the years including the 1997 one by Oasis (not great, but passable) on the CD single of "D'You Know What I Mean".

Tina Charles

Love Bug-Sweets For My Sweet (Medley

This started off ok, but seemed a bit jumbled when "Sweets For My Sweet" came in. Still, it's worth a listen every now and then. It reached number 26.

Stranglers

No More Heroes

Probably the most well known of all the Stranglers 22 hits (though not the biggest). This was their third consecutive top ten hit and was the second to peak at number eight. Something notable about those early Stranglers singles was the quality of the B sides. The flip side of this one, "In The Shadows" could quite easily have been an A side, and a top ten hit in itself.

Danny Mirror

I Remember Elvis Presley

What a load of junk ! This really was a sickly stomach churning single. I'm not knocking Elvis Presley when I say that, in fact this song was a disgrace to his memory. It went all the way to number four, then Danny was never heard of again. I wouldn't be surprised if Danny never even met Elvis anyway. After all it was on 'Sonet' records, the same company that had given us Pussycat, a Dutch group singing about the Mississippi river.

Ruby Winters

I Will

Very nice song. It finally reached number four in it's sixth week and spent three weeks there, taking it right through Christmas. In all, it spent 12 weeks in the top 40.
Billy Fury had previously taken this song to number 14 in 1964.

Jacksons

Goin' Places

Very ordinary single that reached number 26.

Jonathan Richman

Egyptian Reggae

Good instrumental and much easier to listen to than "Roadrunner". Reached number five just before Christmas and spent 11 weeks in the 40.

Slade

My Baby Left Me

Poor single that peaked at number 32. They'd hit the top 40 every year since 1971, but they wouldn't do it again until 1981.

Elvis Costello

Watching The Detectives

He'd already released better singles than this debut hit, and he would release many other superior ones over the next few years. But, that doesn't make this a song to be sniffed at. It was still better than most of the records surrounding it in the chart. It reached number 15 and was the beginning of a long chart career that saw him having hits right up to the end of the century. And who'd have thought from this, that he would later chart with a cover of the Charles Aznavour hit "She" ?

Mary Mason

Angel Of The Morning-Anyway You Want Me

Mary Mason took two songs, put them together, and had a hit herself. "Angel Of The Morning" was a minor hit reaching number 29 for PP Arnold in 1968, while I'm completely at a loose end as to who did the original of "Anyway You Want Me", unless it was maybe 'American Breed'. Mary rose as high as number 27 before vanishing from our lives forever.
Angel Of The Morning was almost a hit again when Juice Newton made number 43 with her excellent version in 1981. Then it finally became a major hit when Shaggy when took it to number one in 2001.

Crystal Gayle

Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue

Very pleasant song from a beautiful lady. It was a slow burner though, not reaching it's number five peak until the second week of January, it's tenth week in the chart. It spent a total of 14 weeks in the chart.

Yes

Wondrous Stories

"Millions flocked to see them"
That's what the ad for their album 'Going For The One' proclaimed at the time. It was unusual in that during the seventies, the only albums that usually got advertised on tv were compilation albums. So while enjoying the success of their ninth hit album (seventh top ten), they finally had a hit single at the seventh attempt. So in 1977, they released their seventh single, it was taken from their seventh top ten album, naturally it also peaked at number seven !
As for flocking to see them, I did in 1980 and to this day, it's still the worst gig I've ever attended. They didn't even play this song, Buggles indeed !

Emotions

Best Of My Love

I once read in a music weekly that this was a cover of the Eagles track with the same title. Unfortunately for me, that 'knowledge' stayed in my mind for twenty years. I was informed by a number of people in the late 90s that it wasn't a cover at all. I shouldn't be at all surprised really, as British music journalists seldom speak from anywhere too far away from their backsides (apart from the wonderful people who worked for Record Mirror).
It reached a peak of number four, but it still seemed to stay around for a very long time afterwards. The Emotions only managed one minor hit afterwards, apart from their "Boogie Wonderland" collaboration with Earth, Wind And Fire for which they're probably best remembered. Even though they did appear (uncredited) on many other Earth Wind And Fire hits.
I remember being in some girls house (when I should have been in school), and she only had a handful of records, of which this was one, and I got fed up of hearing it.

Commodores

Brickhouse / Sweet Love

"Brick House" got the airplay and was a change of pace for Lionel and the gang after the smooth sound of "Easy". This failed to climb higher than number 32. Almost a year later they finally realised what people really wanted from them, and stuck to the ballads.

Kenny Everett & Mike Vickers

Captain Kremmen

Hear it once a decade and that should suffice. Reached number 32.

Lenny Williams

Shoo Doo Fu Fu Ooh

With a title like that, little could be expected of this. But it was a little better than that, not too bad at all really. It reached number 38.

In the top 50 this week, but failing to reach the top 40.

Santa Esmeralda & Leroy Gomez

Don't Let Me Be Understood

I've never heard a bad version of this song and I like this one (well, it was different). It reached number 41.

D.B.M.

Disco Beatlemania

Awful. If you hated "Stars On 45", you'd have hated this even more. Even if you liked "Stars On 45", there's a very good chance that you wouldn't have liked this. It reached number 45.

Some MP3s

Disclaimer All comments concerning the quality of the songs in this and any other chart, are purely my opinion and not a statement of fact. I believe that we are all equal when it comes to deciding what makes a good song. I do not believe that good songs have to be serious or dull. I am of the opinion that if a single sells many copies, then many people like it, so it must be good whether I like it or not. Good music is everything YOU like, and it's also everything I like.

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Email: nige@innotts.co.uk
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You Will Get One