My Seventies Music

Tag: Uk Charts

  • Dolly Parton – “Jolene” And “I Will Always Love You”

    Album cover of "Jolene" by Dolly Parton (1974), also featuring "I Will Always Love You"

    Released in late 1973, “Jolene” by Dolly Parton became a No. 1 country hit for her in February 1974, reached Number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 7 on the UK charts.

    Dolly Parton also wrote and released a song later made popular by Whitney Houston, namely “I Will Always Love You”.

    Dolly Parton’s own version, written and recorded in 1973, came out in 1974 and also went to the top of the country charts.

    It did so again when she re-released it eight years later, this time also doing quite well on the pop charts.

    Here is Dolly Parton singing “Jolene” live:

    This is Dolly Parton’s rendition of “I Will Always Love You”:

    I heard Whitney Houston’s version of this again recently while watching the film “The Bodyguard”, by coincidence she was in the country and in fact passed by quite closely after cancelled flights from Northern Ireland meant she had to take the ferry.

    It’s one of my favourite songs, and I hadn’t realised Dolly Parton had written and sung it back when Whitney Houston was about ten.

    Both versions have their own magic.

    Which one do you like best?

    Paul

  • The Motors – “Airport”, “Forget About You” And “Dancing The Night Away”

    In 1978 English band The Motors reached Number 4 on the UK charts with their single “Airport”.

    This was another song I got to know through it being played by the resident band at the Majestic Hotel in Palmerston North, New Zealand, when I was a student.

    The Motors reached Number 13 in the UK with “Forget About You”.

    This is the album version of “Airport”:

    I also found this live version of “Airport” from 1978:

    Here’s “Forget About You” live:

    Both of these tracks are from the album “Approved By The Motors”, as I have just confirmed by looking at my record collection.

    And for something a little different, from the previous year, here’s “Dancing The Night Away” (later also covered by Cheap Trick):

    The video is definitely different…

    Paul

  • (UK) Squeeze – “Goodbye Girl”, “Cool For Cats”, “Up The Junction”, “Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)”, “Tempted”, “Black Coffee In Bed” and “Annie Get Your Gun”

    (UK) Squeeze album "Cool For Cats" (1979)

    Squeeze are a UK band (I always thought they were called UK Squeeze) who began charting in the late Seventies with songs like “Goodbye Girl”, “Cool For Cats” and “Up The Junction” and continued to record in the Eighties and Nineties.

    Actually I’ve just seen that they were called UK Squeeze initially outside the UK to avoid legal conflicts with other bands in North America and Australia, this must have been the time when I first became aware of them.

    I don’t know any of the songs from their first album, “Squeeze”, but I do recognise numbers from the second, “Cool For Cats”.

    Two tracks from this one reached Number 2 on the UK charts, “Cool For Cats” and “Up The Junction”.

    I remember the live band at the Majestic Hotel in Palmerston North, New Zealand, playing “Cool For Cats” in 1979.

    Most of their other songs I know I actually taped off a live show in Germany a few years later.

    Here’s the 1978 track “Goodbye Girl”:



    “Cool For Cats”, from the album of the same name, went to No. 2 in the UK and 5 in Australia:

    Many Squeeze songs tell a story, and the 1979 track “Up The Junction”, another No. 2 hit, is no exception (if you’ve heard of the big railway junction just south of London, you’ll get the play on words in this one) :

    The following year Squeeze again had a number of singles, one of them was “Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)”, sung here live on TV a few years later in 1985:

    Another Squeeze favourite from around this time is “Tempted”:

    And “Black Coffee In Bed”:

    “Annie Get Your Gun” is a typical Squeeze track:

    And this is “Annie Get Your Gun” live in 1982:

    I hear Squeeze are together and touring again, must keep an eye out for them…

    Paul

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