It would seem the music critics for various TV shows began their love affair with the charts in November 1975. Why? well in pretty much every best song countdown you get on these TV shows the top two positions are occupied by "Imagine" by John Lennon and "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. Both records were released within a week of each other in November 1975 and both reached their initial peak positions the final week of that month, "Bohemian Rhapsody" reaching number one and "Imagine" number six. We would be seeing plenty more of Queen this decade but for John Lennon that was it from him until 1980.
Elvis continues his run of a hit every year since 1956 with three hits this year brining his total to
91. However for the first year since 1958 there is no Cliff Richard in the top 40, but he remains comfortably in second with 64. Frank Sinatra returns to the top 40 this year with "I Believe I'm Gonna Love You" meaning his is now third outright with 31 hits, but nobody else has caught Lonnie Donegan yet so he's in fourth with 30, it's now been 13 years since his last top 40 hit.
Aside from Elvis, the act to now have the longest current run of hits every year is Stevie Wonder who had a hit at the start of the year with "Boogie On Reggae Woman" which means he's had a hit every year since 1966. We have a Motown debutant, Stevie Wonder's ex wife Syreeta who had hits with "Your Kiss Is Sweet" and "Harmour Love". The only other Motown act to chart this year is Diana Ross who had just the one hit with "Sorry Doesn't Always Make It Right".
Mud followed up their good run in 1974 with 6 top 40 hits this year including their third and final number one with a cover of "Oh Boy". The band who were arguably the most successful one this year though was the Bay City Rollers who scored two number ones with "Bye Bye Baby" and "Give A Little Love", and a number three with "Money Honey".
The disco sound was very much making its presence in the charts. For the first time we have two singles with disco in the title, "Disco Queen" by Hot Chocolate and "Disco Stomp" by Hamilton Bohannon.
This was also the year the two "Wigan" groups charted, Wigan's Chosen Few with "Footsee" and Wigan's Ovation with "Skiing in the Snow" and "Per-So-Nal-Ly".
Meanwhile from Germany we had arguably the most influential group on future electronic music, Kraftwerk, debut with "Autobahn". This was their only top 40 hit of the 70s, the electro sound was very much established when they would next return to the charts in 1981.
The end of the previous year had saw reggae music return to the charts after a bit of a break. The earlier part of the year saw the occasional reggae tune in the charts, but in September there was another burst of reggae music which included the debut of Bob Marley with "No Woman No Cry".
We had the first Indian act to chart this year, Biddu debuting with "Summer of 42", his first of two hits, the other being "Rain Forrest" the following year.
This was the year The Impressions scored their one and only top 40 hit with "First Impressions". We also had Steely Dan debut with the first of their two top 40 hits with "Do It Again".
The top of the charts was a bit of a mixture of old, new and novelty acts. The first number one of the year was the only chart topper for Status Quo, "Down Down". Although they are a group one would probably associate with the 70s the most, this had been 7 years since they debuted in 1968. We also had David Bowie top the charts for the first time with his rerelease of Space Oddity which originally charted in 1969.
We had Tammy Wynette chart with her debut "Stand By Your Man" which had charted in America in 1968. Her follow up "D.I.V.O.R.C.E", also from 1968, didn't reach number one, but a comedy cover of it by Billy Conolly did reach number one.
We also had Telly Savalas reach the top with his spoken cover of "If" and actors Windsor Davies & Don Estelle scored a number one with "Whispering Grass".
There were three acts who returned to the charts this year after being absent for more than a decade. After making his debut in 1959 it took Dee Clark 16 years until he followed it up with "Ride a Wild Horse" which would be his final hit. After a 15 year absence we have the return of Johnny Mathis with "I'm Stone In Love With You". Finally we have Duane Eddy return after 12 years away with his final hit "Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar".
After 8 years away, The Shadows retuned to the charts with their Eurovision song "Let Me Be the One", a song that doesn't actually sound anything like The Shadows.
After Donny Osmond had his final solo hit of the 70s the previous year, this year was the turn of David Cassidy to have his final 70s hit with "Darlin".
After a surprisingly long chart career of 15 years, this was the year Ken Dodd had his final hit with "Think of Me (Wherever You Are)".
Overall this is a year where no particular music dominates. There is a lot of disco music in the charts, but you cannot say it dominated the charts when there were no disco number ones. Glam Rock seemed on its way out by now, the teen idols of America were also on there way out, presumably because of the Bay City Rollers. The top of the charts had a bit of a mixture. You sense that this is a year of transition, but not obvious where it is going.
So next up is 1976, the year they began the reruns of Top of the Pops so hopefully I will know more hits than I have known in the years to date.
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