Best Song: Elgins - Heaven Must Have Sent You
This is a Motown record from 1966 by a group that split up in 1967. It charted in 1971 thanks to the Northern Soul scene which was essentially obscure soul records from the 60s that had little to no impact being given a new lease of life at clubs in Northern England. Very much one for the music lovers then.
Worst Song: St Cecilia - Leap Up And Down (Wave Your Knickers In The Air)
There are some pretty dreadful tunes in this Top 40 but I think this one is just about the worst. As the title probably suggests it's a novelty record and only Top 40 hit for St Cecilia.
Top 40 Review
In addition to the Elgins record, from Motown we have "Just My Imagination" by The Temptations, "I Don't Blame You At All" by Smokey Robinson And The Miracles, "Indiana Wants Me" by R Dean Taylor and "River Deep, Mountain High" by The Supremes And The Four Tops. The Temptations get full marks whilst the others get half marks. Northern Soul wise we also have "I'm Gonna Run Away From You" by Tami Lynn which I like.
The nearest contender to the Elgins for best song came from 48 year old Hurricane Smith with "Don't Let It Die". He was an engineer on early Beatles records and wrote this song but ended up recording it himself.
Another highlight is "He's Gonna Step On You Again" by John Kongos, the record which was later covered by the Happy Mondays with the title shortened to "Step On".
In the history of the UK Top 40, there have been 5 triple a-sides and 2 of them are in this Top 40. There's "Brown Sugar/Bitch/Let It Rock" by Rolling Stones in which I like the first 2 and think the 3rd is ok, and there's "I Love You Because/He'll Have To Go/Moonlight And Roses" by Jim Reeves but I don't like any of those.
As always it seems, there's a record which I was surprised to find I like. This time it's "If You Could Read My Mind" by Gordon Lightfoot. I've known it for as long as I can remember, but I've heard disco versions of it much more than I've heard the original. Don't think much of the disco ones, but the original is pretty good and really should have been left well alone.
Like with 1970, this doesn't seem like your stereotypical 1970s chart. We do have The Sweet and Slade in it, but not with the glam rock sound we came to know them by.
With Elvis Presley, Perry Como and Andy Williams in the charts it's almost pre-1960s. There's also "My Way" by Frank Sinatra back in the charts having been what I considered the worst song in the 1969 chart.
But the glam rock and disco that's still to come isn't going to really improve the charts in my opinion. Which raises the question, will the score start going down each year in the 70s? Well that's how it's begun.
Score: 14
Table
Whilst 1971 isn't as good as 1970 or the late 60s, it's still better than any year in the early 60s:
No comments:
Post a Comment