Jason Maloney reviews
V o l u m e # 1 9 Chart Date: Week Ending 29th May 1971 Online Date: 27th May 2004
Two years later they returned with their second #1 – Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree – but that proved to be the last time Dawn experienced Top 10 success in the UK.
Free, the seminal 70s rock band featuring Paul Rodgers on lead vocals, managed four chart hits in their career and My Brother Jake (up 7 to its peak of #4) was the second of the quartet. It followed All Right Now, which had made #2 in 1970 and, through several re-issues and re-entries over three decades, chalked up no less than 44 weeks on the UK chart.
Twelve months on from The Beatles’ final single and album Let It Be, drummer Ringo Starr was in the Top 10 with It Don’t Come Easy (down 4 to #8). It was the first of four back-to-back Top 10 hits in the UK, of which Photograph (#2) became the biggest.
For the King of Rock’n’Roll, the one and only Elvis Presley, the latter half of the 1960s had been a time of unspectacular chart action, with many releases falling short of the UK Top 20 and in some cases even the Top 40. The new decade saw a marked upturn in fortunes, however, led first by the #2 success of Suspicious Minds and then his long-overdue return to #1 with The Wonder Of You. Now, a cover of Tony Bennett’s Rags To Riches took Elvis from #23 up to #16 and eventually into the Top 10; the sixth of seven singles to do so since Suspicious Minds had put his career back on track.
Peter Noone enjoyed 20 hit singles with Herman’s Hermits, but his debut solo effort Oh You Pretty Thing – up a promising 14 places to #20 – turned out to be Noone’s sole chart entry under his own steam. Also climbing were Motown legends Stevie Wonder (moving #31-#27) with his cover of The Beatles’ We Can Work It Out and the Temptations (up from #39 to #33) with Just My Imagination.
Meanwhile, there were new entries for The Hollies’ Hey Willy at #29, Mungo Jerry‘s Lady Rose at #30 and Banner Man by Blue Mink at #31. The latter two became Top 5 hits, but The Hollies only reached a modest #22.
Page Content copyright © Jason Maloney, 2004.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.