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| New at Number 7: Rod Stewart wears it well |
Presenting the Top 20 music chart in the United Kingdom for the week ending 19 August, 1972
Alice Cooper's rock classic, School's Out, remained at the top of the UK chart for a second week as kids everywhere continued to celebrate the ongoing summer vacation.
Meanwhile, five new songs entered the Top 20 - among them a couple of classics of the rock era. The year's proclivity for nostalgia returned an early Sixties dance tune to the chart, while for two groups it was both the beginning and the end of their respective Top 20 careers.
Read on...
Meanwhile, five new songs entered the Top 20 - among them a couple of classics of the rock era. The year's proclivity for nostalgia returned an early Sixties dance tune to the chart, while for two groups it was both the beginning and the end of their respective Top 20 careers.
Read on...
Alice Cooper at Number 1
The Chart:
- 01 (01) - Alice Cooper - School's Out
- 02 (02) - Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs - Seaside Shuffle
- 03 (07) - Hawkwind - Silver Machine
- 04 (04) - Donny Osmond - Puppy Love
- 05 (06) - Hot Butter - Popcorn
- 06 (03) - The Partridge Family - Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
- 07 (23) - Rod Stewart - You Wear It Well
- 08 (05) - Dr Hook and the Medicine Show - Sylvia's Mother
- 09 (19) - The Bee Gees - Run to Me
- 10 (16) - Faron Young - It's Four in the Morning
- 11 (22) - Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes
- 12 (09) - Gary Glitter - Rock and Roll Parts 1 and 2
- 13 (25) - Derek and the Dominos - Layla
- 14 (17) - The Electric Light Orchestra - 10538 Overture
- 15 (21) - Little Eva - The Loco-Motion
- 16 (08) - Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now
- 17 (12) - The Supremes - Automatically Sunshine
- 18 (11) - David Bowie - Starman
- 19 (13) - Bruce Ruffin - Mad About You
- 20 (24) - Chairmen of the Board - Working on a Building of Love
*Previous week in brackets; Climbers denoted in red; New entries in bold
Download This Week's New Hits:
07: Rod Stewart: You Wear It Well
A little over a year since the release of Maggie May/Reason to Believe, Rod Stewart was back in the UK Singles Chart with his second (future) Number 1.
You Wear It Well, taken from the album Never A Dull Moment, was one of this week's biggest climbers, making an impressive sixteen place leap into the Top 10 at Number 7.
In some ways, it repeats the techniques that made Maggie May so memorable: lyrically poetic while squaring Stewart's hoarse vocalisation with a musically buoyant musical track.
It turned the trick again for Rod though. Chartwise it enjoyed international success - although not so dominantly as Maggie, managing the Top 20 in America but not the top spot on this occasion.
Intro image by Allan Warren (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons
11: Mott the Hoople: All the Young Dudes
Time for another classic single of the era as Mott the Hoople make their first excursion into the UK Top 10 with the David Bowie-penned glam anthem All the Young Dudes.
With a lack of previous commercial success, Mott the Hoople was on the verge of folding. The story goes that Bowie learnt of the band's imminent demise and offered them the song Suffragette City. They declined it, so he instead wrote All the Young Dudes especially for the group.
This one track saved the band and gave them the exposure they so yearned. The single would rise to Number 3 in the UK and also managed a Top 40 placing in both the US and Canada.
13: Derek and the Dominos: Layla
Talking of classics, here's yet another one: Layla from Derek and the Dominos.
Originally appearing on the the 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, an edited version of the track was released as a single in the United States in March 1971. This specific version peaked at Number 51 on the singles chart there.
However, when the full seven minute version of the song was re-released as a single in 1972, it rapidly climbed the chart in the United Kingdom - this week making a twelve place jump to Number 13 - on its way to a high of Number 7.
It repeated the feat in the United States where it also became a Top 10 hit.
But you can't keep a great track down, it seems. In 1982, Layla was once again released as a single in the UK, this time peaking at Number 4. On this occasion, the entire seven-minute single charted, including the trailing two-thirds which is instrumental only.
15: Little Eva: The Loco-Motion
In a year full of re-releases, it was perhaps no surprise that another 1960s classic would return to the British chart.
This time it was the reappearance of a US Number 1 song from 1962, the classic Loco-Motion recorded by Carole King and Gerry Goffin's babysitter, Little Eva.
Originally peaking at Number 2 in the UK a decade earlier, the song almost re-entered the UK Top 10 this time around - but eventually faltered at Number 11.
20: Chairmen of the Board: Working on a Building of Love
It had been around eighteen months since the Chairmen of the Board had enjoyed a UK Top 20 hit - their previous entry being Everything's Tuesday.
Two Top 50 hits later, the gospel-tinged soul of Working on a Building of Love brought the American vocal group back into the upper reaches of the UK chart - albeit briefly.
This week's Number 20 would be its peak, as well as the final time that the group would appear in the British Top 20.
The UK Number 1 album this week:
The American Top 10 (Click to play tracks)
Download This Week's New Hits:
07: Rod Stewart: You Wear It Well
You Wear It Well, taken from the album Never A Dull Moment, was one of this week's biggest climbers, making an impressive sixteen place leap into the Top 10 at Number 7.
In some ways, it repeats the techniques that made Maggie May so memorable: lyrically poetic while squaring Stewart's hoarse vocalisation with a musically buoyant musical track.
It turned the trick again for Rod though. Chartwise it enjoyed international success - although not so dominantly as Maggie, managing the Top 20 in America but not the top spot on this occasion.
Intro image by Allan Warren (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons
11: Mott the Hoople: All the Young Dudes
With a lack of previous commercial success, Mott the Hoople was on the verge of folding. The story goes that Bowie learnt of the band's imminent demise and offered them the song Suffragette City. They declined it, so he instead wrote All the Young Dudes especially for the group.
This one track saved the band and gave them the exposure they so yearned. The single would rise to Number 3 in the UK and also managed a Top 40 placing in both the US and Canada.
13: Derek and the Dominos: Layla
Originally appearing on the the 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, an edited version of the track was released as a single in the United States in March 1971. This specific version peaked at Number 51 on the singles chart there.
However, when the full seven minute version of the song was re-released as a single in 1972, it rapidly climbed the chart in the United Kingdom - this week making a twelve place jump to Number 13 - on its way to a high of Number 7.
It repeated the feat in the United States where it also became a Top 10 hit.
But you can't keep a great track down, it seems. In 1982, Layla was once again released as a single in the UK, this time peaking at Number 4. On this occasion, the entire seven-minute single charted, including the trailing two-thirds which is instrumental only.
15: Little Eva: The Loco-Motion
This time it was the reappearance of a US Number 1 song from 1962, the classic Loco-Motion recorded by Carole King and Gerry Goffin's babysitter, Little Eva.
Originally peaking at Number 2 in the UK a decade earlier, the song almost re-entered the UK Top 10 this time around - but eventually faltered at Number 11.
20: Chairmen of the Board: Working on a Building of Love
Two Top 50 hits later, the gospel-tinged soul of Working on a Building of Love brought the American vocal group back into the upper reaches of the UK chart - albeit briefly.
This week's Number 20 would be its peak, as well as the final time that the group would appear in the British Top 20.
The UK Number 1 album this week:
- Various Artists: 20 Fantastic Hits
The American Top 10 (Click to play tracks)
