405. Rod Stewart – First Cut Is the Deepest/I Don’t Want to Talk About It (1977)

‘There is no future in England’s dreaming’

Sorry, but it’s very difficult to talk about the 405th number 1 single and not mention the rumours of a fix preventing what would have been the 406th…

Rod Stewart’s 1975 LP Atlantic Crossing, his first for Warner Bros. was a huge global success. And Sailing, the first single from it, his biggest-selling song ever. The next single it spawned, a cover of The Isley Brothers’ This Old Heart of Mine, went to four. His next album, also considered among his finest, was A Night on the Town in 1976. Once more produced by Tom Dowd at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama, its first single, Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright) was huge in the US. Reigning at the top of the Billboard chart for eight weeks, it was the longest-running number 1 there since Hey Jude in 1968. And this was in spite of its risky lyrics in which Stewart is basically deflowering a ‘virgin child’. Perhaps because of that it only climbed to five in the UK. The next release ranks among his finest. The Killing of Georgie (Part II and II) is a beautiful true story about a gay friend of his former band Faces, who was murdered in 1974. The lyrics are Stewart at his best. The second part is basically Don’t Let Me Down by The Beatles, but that’s no bad thing either. Far removed from his laddish image, the US didn’t take to it, but it reached two in the UK. Good old UK.

Another Beatles connection came next when Rod the Mod covered Get Back for the music documentary All This and World War II. This took him to 11. On the back of The Best of Rod Stewart and its use as the theme to BBC documentary series Sailor, Sailing was re-released and went to 31. OK, it’s a low position, but bear in mind it was number 1 only two years previous.

And while Stewart was selling millions globally, a new movement was growing. The Sex Pistols became notorious in December 1976 for their sweary appearance on Bill Grundy’s Today. Goaded by a drunken Grundy, the host was sacked. EMI ended their record deal with the punk pioneers after one single, Anarchy in the U.K. But they grew ever more infamous while they recorded their album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. They signed with A&M and announced they were to release God Save the Queen in Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee year. Following a riotous press conference and fight with a label executive a few days later, A&M sacked them and virtually all the singles were destroyed.

You may well know why I’m talking about Sex Pistols so much, but if not, it’s fascinating and one of pop’s greatest controversies. Johnny Rotten and co (including new member Sid Vicious) soon signed with Virgin Records, who were more than happy to release God Save the Queen to tie in with the height of the Jubilee celebrations. Punk was quickly gaining traction with a disaffected youth, bored of progressive rock albums and dull light entertainment pop. Malcolm McLaren’s group may have been hated, but any publicity was good publicity for a band that thrived on being loathed.

Allegedly, a panicked music industry may face decided the Sex Pistols needed to be stopped from embarrassing the nation by taking the number 1 spot in Jubilee week. So Warner Bros. released a budget double A-side by a much safer UK pop star.

The First Cut Is the Deepest had been the second track on A Night on the Town. Originally one of Cat Stevens’ earliest songs, the most famous version was recorded by US soul singer PP Arnold in 1967. He had sold it to her for £30. Stewart’s version is a decent retread. Not up there with his greatest work, but I prefer it to some of his more famous number 1s like Sailing. It showcases the sensitive side of Stewart, in the role of wounded ex-lover. Dowd’s production is, as always, very slick, and Stewart’s gravelly voice suits it well.

I Don’t Want to Talk About It dates back to Atlantic Crossing. Unusual to pick a song from an earlier album as a double A-side, but it complements the flip very well. The original version by Danny Whitten featured on his band Crazy Horse’s eponymous debut LP in 1971. Best known as Neil Young’s backing band, Whitten was sacked from Crazy Horse soon after and died of an alcohol/diazepam overdose a year later. This is a great song and I prefer it to the better known flip side. Once again Stewart is all broken up over a relationship. It’s another tender, heartfelt performance, and he captures Whitten’s anguish very well. Very similar to First Cut Is the Deepest, you could be forgiven for thinking they were recorded at the same time.

First Cut Is the Deepest/I Don’t Want to Talk About It became Stewart’s fourth number 1 on 21 May. The following week, God Save the Queen was released. On the Jubilee holiday of 7 June the Sex Pistols tried to play their song from a boat named Queen Elizabeth on the River Thames. Following a scuffle between Jah Wobble and a cameraman, 11 of the entourage including McLaren and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood were arrested when the boat docked.

The official chart for Jubilee week was to be released a few days later, and the Daily Mirror were predicting a number 1 for God Save the Queen, despite its ban by the BBC. On 15 June it became number 1 on the NME chart, but peaked at two in the BBC and Record Retailer ‘official’ chart.

So, conspiracy theory or not? Nothing has ever been officially proven either way, but there is compelling evidence to suggest it may be the case. According to a 2011 article by The Independent, the British Phonographic Institute decreed that for one week only – Jubilee week, sales from record-company operated shops were excluded from sales figures. Of course, that would have meant excluding Virgin. Pretty bad behaviour, if true. McLaren also claimed that someone at CBS Records, which was distributing both singles, told him the Sex Pistols were outselling Stewart two to one that week. But McLaren was an expert bullshitter, so don’t assume this to be the truth.

We’ll never know for sure, it seems. But if it’s true, it’s shocking, and a crying shame. God Save the Queen, a vibrant, angry anti-establishment song, urging the working class to wake up and consider their lot, would have been an incredible number 1, and the only punk song to get there. To achieve it in Jubilee week would have been such a statement. Instead, it was two (admittedly decent) Stewart ballad covers.

‘Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?’

Written by:
First Cut Is the Deepest: Cat Stevens/I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Danny Whitten

Producer: Tom Dowd

Weeks at number 1: 4 (21 May-17 June)

Births:

Actress Rachael Stirling – 30 May
Welsh chef Bryn Williams – 6 June

Deaths:

Actor Stephen Boyd – 2 June
Physiologist Archibald Vivian Hill – 3 June

Meanwhile…

21 May: Manchester United won the FA Cup for the fourth time, beating Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley Stadium. 

25 May: Liverpool made up for the loss by winning the UEFA European Cup. They defeated West German league champions Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-1 in Rome.

27 May: Prime Minister James Callaghan officially opened the M5 motorway, 15 years after the first stretch near Birmingham was opened. 

6-9 June: Silver Jubilee celebrations were held to celebrate 25 years of the Queen’s reign, with a public holiday on 7 June.

396. Chicago – If You Leave Me Now (1976)

US rock band Chicago are one of the longest-running and most successful acts of all time in America. They’ve dabbled in jazz, classical and pop and sold millions in the process. Yet they haven’t achieved anywhere near the same level of success in the UK, and their only chart-topper is this soft-rock ballad.

They formed in 1967 in, well, Chicago, Illinois. Known then as The Big Thing, they consisted of saxophonist Walter Parazaider, guitarist/singer Terry Kath, drummer Danny Seraphine, trombonist James Pankow, trumpeter Lee Loughnane and keyboardist/singer Robert Lamm. All had previous band experience. Chicago toured local nightclubs and played covers of the hits of the era. With a need for a bassist and a tenor to complement the vocals of Lamm and Kath, they hired Peter Cetera towards the end of the year.

The Big Thing were ambitious and began working on their own material. In 1968 they moved to LA, signed with Columbia Records and changed their name to Chicago Transit Authority. They became regular performers at the legendary Whiskey a Go Go, supporting Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. In 1969 their eponymous debut album was released. Unusually for a first LP, it was a double. The seven-piece were lined up to play at Woodstock, but were replaced by Santana.

Less than a year later they had shortened their name to simply Chicago to avoid legal action, and another double LP, Chicago, followed. It spawned 25 or 6 to 4, which reached four in the US and seven in the UK. In 1971 they released Chicago III and began a trend for naming their albums after the group with a roman numeral to denote the order, bar a few exceptions here and there. These earlier, more experimental collections usually found their way into the top 10 of the UK album charts, where the more mature listeners had no quarrel with lengthy rock symphonies. Chicago V in 1972 was their first single album and contained the US number three hit Saturday in the Park. Chicago VI (1973) saw Cetera become established as their main singer. Chicago were so popular in the States, in 1974 their entire catalogue of seven albums was in the Billboard 200.

Close to collective exhaustion from their heavy workload, Chicago took a two-year break inbetween recording Chicago VIII and Chicago X (Chicago IX was a greatest hits compilation). Some of the band were reportedly unhappy with the number of ballads featured on their latest work. Among the last to be recorded and nearly left off was Cetera’s If You Leave Me Now, which he’d originally written in 1973. The singer also performed backing vocals, with Lamm was on electric piano, longtime collaborator Brazilian percussionist Laudir de Olivera provided congas, shakers, finger cymbals and wind chimes, Parazaider swapped saxophone for woodwinds, producer James William Guercio contributed lead and rhythm acoustic guitar (Kath sat this one out) and veteran arranger Jimmie Haskell looked after the strings and French horn orchestrations, played by Gene Sherry and George Hyde.

The first 40 seconds of If You Leave Me Now are great. Opening with that memorable horn hook, Cetera pleads with his love not to go. OK, this is hardly a new subject matter in pop, but it’s a very slick production and ‘If you leave me now, you’ll take away the biggest part of me/Ooohh no, baby please don’t go’ is a very effective earworm. Unfortunately it all goes a bit aimless after that. It’s as though Cetera plays his ace too soon, stopping his partner in her tracks but is then unable to really give a good reason to persuade her to change her mind. He has a great voice that lends itself well to a song full of pleading, but there’s not enough meat to keep me interested. Dance act Lemon Jelly had the right idea when they used the intro as the basis for their track Soft, released in 2001. It made for a great grand finale to Jarvis Cocker’s Domestic Discos, which he broadcast on Instagram during the first national COVID-19 lockdown.

If You Leave Me Now spent three weeks on top and went to number 1 in the US and several other countries. It also earned the group the Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus at the 1977 Grammy Awards. Tragedy hit Chicago when in early 1978, Kath died after shooting himself with a gun he thought was unloaded. Singer-songwriter Donnie Dacus was his replacement.

Chicago’s sound continued to evolve, with the horns being used less often and power ballads their bread and butter. The line-up changed too, and the core members of Toto helped out on 1982’s Chicago 16, which spawned the US number 1 Hard to Say I’m Sorry. It was their second biggest UK hit, peaking at four. Chicago 17 in 1984 featured their last UK hits, Hard Habit to Break (eight) and You’re the Inspiration (14). Cetera left in 1985 to pursue a solo career, reaching number three with yet another power ballad, Glory of Love, which was used in The Karate Kid Part II.

Chicago continued to score hits in the US despite the loss of Cetera, including Will You Still Love Me? in 1986 and I Don’t Wanna Live Without Your Love in 1988. That same year they topped the US chart for the last time with Look Away. Seraphine was sacked in 1990, and the decade saw their recorded output decrease greatly. They returned to experimenting with jazz and classical covers on 1995’s Night & Day: Big Band. Chicago XXX in 2006 was their first album of new material since Twenty 1 in 1991. Their last album to date, released in 2019, is their third collection of festive songs, Chicago XXXVII: Chicago Christmas. Lamm, Loughnane, and Pankow are the only remaining original band members, with Parazaider playing the occasional special event.

If You Leave Me Now was used to great effect in an advert for mobile phone network 3 in 2006.

Written by: Peter Cetera

Producer: James William Guercio

Strings & French Horns orchestrated by: Jimmie Haskell

Weeks at number 1: 3 (13 November-3 December)

Deaths:

Catholic intellectual Martin D’Arcy – 20 November

Meanwhile…

16 November: The seven perpetrators of the £8,000,000 van robbery at the Bank of America in Mayfair were sentenced to a total of 100 years in jail.

1 December: The Sex Pistols achieved notoriety with an expletive-ridden TV debut on Bill Grundy’s regional news show Today for Thames Television. The punk rockers were drafted in at short notice when Queen pulled out, and went on to promote debut single Anarchy in the UK, which had been released on 26 November. Grundy, who was noticeably drunk, was suspended for inciting them.

379. Art Garfunkel – I Only Have Eyes for You (1975)

Paul Simon was the brains behind Simon & Garfunkel’s impressive catalogue of folk and pop, including 1970 number 1 Bridge over Troubled Water. He continued to have success after they split, but it was Art Garfunkel who scored not one but two solo number 1s.

You can find a profile of the duo in the blog I linked to above, but I’ll briefly touch on Garfunkel’s early years here. Arthur Ira Garfunkel was born 5 November 1941 in New York City. He was of Romanian Jewish descent. His love of singing began in first grade, and he would often sing in synagogue. His father later bought him a wire recorder and he would spend his afternoons singing, recording, and playing it back to listen for flaws and learn how to improve. Such was his obsession, he performed for four hours at his bar mitzvah in 1954. It was in sixth grade that Garfunkel first crossed paths with Simon, in a production of Alice in Wonderland, and Simon apparently first became interested in singing after hearing Garfunkel in a school talent show.

Between 1956 and 1962 they recorded together as Tom & Jerry, but Garfunkel released his first solo record, Beat Love, in 1959, under the name Artie Garr. When he and Simon graduated, he went to Columbia University, becoming heavily involved in sports and a capella group the Columbia Kingsmen.

Simon & Garfunkel reformed in 1963, and the rest is history, and in my blog on them. But it’s also worth noting that although Simon wrote everything, Garfunkel did get involved in productions. He also wrote the Canticle in Scarborough Fair/Canticle, would work out how the material would be sung, and was credited with the arrangement on The Boxer.

After the break-up in 1970, Garfunkel avoided music for three years. He starred in two Mike Nichols films – Catch-22 (1970) and Carnal Knowledge (1971). He then spent 1971 to 1972 teaching geometry in Connecticut. But following a greatest hits album and a one-off reunion with Simon at a benefit concert for presidential candidate George McGovern, he decided to go solo.

Garfunkel’s debut solo LP, Angel Clare, was released in 1973. Co-produced by the singer and Simon & Garfunkel producer Roy Halee, it featured covers of material by Van Morrison, Jimmy Webb and Randy Newman. Simon contributed guitar on one track, and it also featured Jerry Garcia and JJ Cale on guitars, plus members of The Wrecking Crew including Hal Blaine. A single from it, Webb’s All I Know, was a big hit in the US, reaching nine.

I Only Have Eyes for You was the first material to be lifted from Garfunkel’s forthcoming second album Breakaway. Another album of mostly contemporary covers, this single was unusual in that the song dated further back. It was written by multi-Oscar winner Harry Warren and lyricist Al Dubin for the 1934 musical movie Dames. The most famous version came from influential doo-wop group The Flamingos in 1959.

You can’t really go wrong combining as beautiful a song as this with the always-lovely singing of Garfunkel. And with a lush production from Richard Perry (who produced Without You), it’s a song you can wrap yourself in like a warm blanket. Having said that, it might not be to everyone’s taste. Some may find it overdone and too schmaltzy, and if so, they’d likely prefer the version by The Flamingos. I’ve got room in my heart for both though.

This version seems to be mostly forgotten in 2020 – indeed, until now I had assumed Garfunkel had only scored a number 1 with Bright Eyes. Perhaps because The Flamingos version has such a reputation for being a classic. But it’s worth your time, particularly if you like Simon & Garfunkel.

Written by: Al Dubin & Harry Warren

Producer: Richard Perry

Strings and horns arranged & conducted by: Del Newman

Weeks at number 1: 2 (25 October-7 November)

Births:

Novelist Zadie Smith – 27 October

Deaths:

Royal Air Force officer Frederick Charles Victor Laws – 27 October

Meanwhile…

30 October: West Yorkshire Police launch a murder investigation when 28-year-old prostitute Wilma McCann is found dead in Chapeltown, Leeds. 

6 November: A pub rock group called Bazooka Joe performed at Saint Martins College. Their support band were performing for the first time. They were called Sex Pistols.

102. Eddie Cochran – Three Steps to Heaven (1960)

Following Buddy Holly’s death, record labels soon cottoned on to the effectiveness of a posthumous single, with It Doesn’t Matter Anymore hitting the top soon after the infamous plane crash that instantly killed him, JP Richardson (The Big Bopper) and Ritchie Valens in 1959. A year later, Holly’s friend and fellow young rockabilly and rock’n’roll talent Eddie Cochran also died tragically, and soon after, he too reached the number 1 spot.

Cochran was born on 3 October 1938 in Albert Lea, Minnesota. He became hooked on music in his early teens, learning guitar and playing along to country songs he heard on the radio. The family moved to California in 1952, and Cochran soon dropped out of high school to take the risk and become a full-time musician. He formed a duo with Hank Cochran, and they became The Cochran Brothers (they weren’t related).

During this time he also began writing material for himself and demoing solo work in studios when he could. Like his future friend Buddy Holly, he was naturally gifted from a young age, and keen to progress musically.

Cochran received his big break in 1956, when he was asked to appear in the musical comedy The Girl Can’t Help It, starring Jayne Mansfield. The rock’n’roll element of the film was originally intended as a satirical subplot, but all it did was speed up the genre’s popularity by bringing rock’n’roll onto the big screen. Eddie Cochran performed Twenty Flight Rock. The performance was so iconic, Paul McCartney later used it as his audition piece to join John Lennon’s The Quarrymen (see here). With his film idol looks and a killer track, Cochran was bound for stardom.

The summer of 1958 saw the release of his most famous work. The self-penned Summertime Blues is of course, a classic, perhaps most famously covered by The Who. Further great tracks followed, including C’mon, Everybody (later re-released on the back of its appearance in a Levi’s jeans advert in 1988) and Something Else. Both these tracks were covered by the Sex Pistols, but after Johnny Rotten had departed.

Cochran’s interest in getting the best out of recording in a studio was developing, and all his classic tracks featured guitar overdubs to create that unique sound. I wonder how this would have developed had he lived when psychedelia became popular?

Cochran was deeply affected by the deaths of Holly, Richardson and Valens, and recorded Three Stars in tribute to them. He began to have premonitions that he too would die young, and told family and friends that he wanted to spend more time in the studio to avoid suffering a similar fate. However, he needed the money, and pop impresario Larry Parnes made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. At the time, Parnes had quite a stable of homegrown rock’n’roll stars, including Billy Fury, Johnny Gentle (love that name) and Tony Sheridan (who the Beatles later backed, on their recording debut). Cochran accepted the offer to travel to the UK, along with his friend, Gene Vincent, and be the two biggest acts on the tour. Rock’n’roll fans loved the shows, and Cochran has been credited as having introduced the music of Ray Charles to UK audiences, with a blistering performance of What’d I Say.

The final show, at the Bristol Hippodrome, took place on 16 April. Cochran and his fiancée Sharon Sheeley were keen to get back to the US, and he asked for a lift with Gentle, but his car was full. Instead, the couple, Vincent and tour manager Pat Thompkins opted for a taxi. Travelling through Chippenham, Wiltshire, the speeding taxi blew a tire at a notorious black spot. The driver, George Martin (thankfully not the Beatles producer) lost control, and the car span backwards into a lamppost. Instinctively, Cochran threw himself over Sheeley to protect her, but a door flew open and he was thrown out of the car. Martin, Thompkins and Sheeley were uninjured, and Vincent had broken his collarbone, but Cochran’s head injuries were fatal. Martin was convicted for dangerous driving but had his license returned in 1969, but one of the music world’s most promising stars was gone, aged only 21.

Three Steps to Heaven had been recorded that January, with backing from The Crickets. It has their mark all over it, and is unlike Cochran’s earlier tracks, adopting the prevailing soft-pop sound of the time. Cochran adopts a smooth croon, not unlike Elvis, and the backing vocals bring to mind those of The Jordanaires. The three steps to heaven are to fall in love, get someone to fall in love with you back, and make them feel loved.

It hasn’t aged as well as his other hits, but the opening riff is classic Cochran, and David Bowie seems to have been a fan, having come up with something very similar on Hunky Dory‘s Queen Bitch in 1971. The lyrics to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)’ opening track, It’s No Game (No. 1) in 1980 also mention ‘free steps to heaven’.

Whether it would have been released as a single had Cohran not died, I’m not sure, but it’s mention of heaven made it a natural choice. Strangely, the song didn’t do nearly as well in his home country. Perhaps the fact the accident took place in the UK made the tragedy hit his British fans harder.

Over the years, Cochran’s star seems to have diminished, which seems a shame. He was one of the most innovative and influential musicians of the 50s. In addition to the stars already mentioned, guitar god Jimi Hendrix had Cochran played at his funeral, on his request. After a gig at the Hackney Empire, Cochran allowed a 13-year-old fan to carry his guitar out to a waiting limousine. The boy, Marc Feld, later became Marc Bolan, who was also to later die in a car accident. Following the crash which killed Cochran, his guitar was impounded at the police station, and a local policeman, David Harman, used the instrument to teach himself how to play. Harman went on to become Dave Dee, of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich fame. A memorial plaque was placed at the site of the accident, and was restored on the 50th anniversary in 2010.

Written by: Eddie Cochran & Bob Cochran

Producers: Eddie Cochran & Jerry Capeheart

Weeks at number 1: 2 (23 June-6 July) 

Births:

Erasure songwriter Vince Clarke – 3 July

Deaths:

Tennis player Lottie Dod – 27 June
Politician Aneurin Bevan – 6 July