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| Number 11: Woodstock: Matthews' Southern Comfort |
Freda Payne continued her grip on the UK Number 1 spot as she started a fifth week singing the nation's best selling song, Band of Gold. Elsewhere, there was a lot of upward movement within the Top 20, including five new entries, one of which would shortly replace the American soul singer at the top.
Image: Matthews' Southern Comfort: The Essential Collection
In essence, Matthews Southern Comfort was Iain Matthews, who originally came to prominence as a vocalist with the folk group, Fairport Convention. He led Southern Comfort for a couple of years, during which time the band recorded a cover of this Joni Mitchell song. It was the group's only commercially successful recording, entering the UK Top 20 at this week's Number 11 and ultimately capturing the Number 1 spot for three weeks. It's also my favourite version of Woodstock.
Three places below at Number 14 was the only UK hit from American soul man, Clarence Carter. He had been a regular on the US pop and R&B charts for around three years, but it was his cover of the Chairmen of the Board song Patches that almost took him to the top of the British listing. The track ultimately stalled at Number 2, but across the pond it won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song and became a Number 4 pop hit.
- 01 (01) Freda Payne - Band Of Gold
- 02 (03) Deep Purple - Black Night
- 03 (02) Desmond Dekker - You Can Get It If You Really Want
- 04 (08) The Tremeloes - Me And My Life
- 05 (04) Black Sabbath - Paranoid
- 06 (07) Diana Ross - Ain't No Mountain High Enough
- 07 (05) Bobby Bloom - Montego Bay
- 08 (06) The Carpenters - (They Long To Be) Close To You
- 09 (10) Poppy Family Ft. Susan Jacks - Which Way You Goin' Billy?
- 10 (16) The Temptations - Ball Of Confusion (That's What The World Is Today)
- 11 (24) Matthew's Southern Comfort - Woodstock
- 12 (15) Family - Strange Band
- 13 (14) Horace Faith - Black Pearl
- 14 (39) Clarence Carter - Patches
- 15 (33) Des O'Connor - The Tip Of My Fingers
- 16 (12) Smokey Robinson And The Miracles - Tears Of A Clown
- 17 (11) Elvis Presley - The Wonder Of You
- 18 (09) Chairmen Of The Board - Give Me Just A Little More Time
- 19 (23) The Hollies - Gasoline Alley Bred
- 20 (27) The Four Tops - Still Water (Love)
Image: Matthews' Southern Comfort: The Essential Collection
In essence, Matthews Southern Comfort was Iain Matthews, who originally came to prominence as a vocalist with the folk group, Fairport Convention. He led Southern Comfort for a couple of years, during which time the band recorded a cover of this Joni Mitchell song. It was the group's only commercially successful recording, entering the UK Top 20 at this week's Number 11 and ultimately capturing the Number 1 spot for three weeks. It's also my favourite version of Woodstock.
Three places below at Number 14 was the only UK hit from American soul man, Clarence Carter. He had been a regular on the US pop and R&B charts for around three years, but it was his cover of the Chairmen of the Board song Patches that almost took him to the top of the British listing. The track ultimately stalled at Number 2, but across the pond it won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song and became a Number 4 pop hit.
Inexplicably - for this author at least - people were buying enough copies of Des O'Connor's output to actually push it into the national charts. A couple of years earlier he'd enjoyed a Number 1 hit with I Pretend, but thankfully The Tip of My Fingers would be his last entry in the singles chart for a further 16 years when, in 1986, The Skye Boat Song would make an appearance in the Top 10.
Much more enjoyable was the arrival of the latest hit by The Hollies, a group that was never away from the British charts for too long at this time. Gasoline Alley Bred was the follow-up to the more successful I Can't Tell the Bottom From the Top, marking the start of a decline in the band's commercial fortunes in the UK over the next few years. It would be 1974 before we would see the group in the Top 20 again, but nevertheless, it's wonderful to be reminded of this 'forgotten' hit which entered the listing this week at Number 19.
Yet another of Motown's legendary vocal groups was enjoying phenomenal success in the UK as The Four Tops joined both Diana Ross and The Temptations in this week's UK Top 20. In fact, the Tops were on something of a roll on this side of the ocean, as Still Water (Love) became the fifth of six consecutive Top 20 UK entries for the quartet. Co-written by Smokey Robinson, the song enters this week at Number 20 and would eventually peak at Number 10 (Number 11 Stateside).
Until next time...
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