Paul Simon took a new direction for his second solo album, travelling to Jamaica to record Mother And Child Reunion with some of Kingston’s top reggae musicians. (more…)

Nilsson – Without You

11th March 1972 · 1970s, 1972, Music
I remember buying this single (which I still have), probably because it was number one for what seemed like months in 1972, and because everyone else bought it. 
 

(more…)

Don McLean’s eight-and-a-half-minute epic about the death of Buddy Holly – “the day the music died” – was inescapable in 1972 and has gone on to become a standard. (more…)

Slade – Look Wot You Dun

19th February 1972 · 1970s, 1972, Glam, Music
Slade’s third single, Look Wot You Dun, an updated pub piano singalong, continued the Black Country band’s rise towards the top as Glam gathered pace. 
Soppy and sentimental as hell, with its spoken-word sob story surrounded by celestial harmonies, Have You Seen Her is verging on schmaltz. And brilliant.

(more…)

Chicory Tip claimed the first UK No.1 to prominently feature a synthesiser when future football anthem Son Of My Father topped the charts in February 1972. (more…)

T. Rex – Telegram Sam

5th February 1972 · 1970s, 1972, Glam, Music

T. Rex began 1972 the way they signed off from 1971 – with a chart-topping single. Telegram Sam was their third No.1 and confirmed Marc Bolan as the biggest star of the post-Beatles music universe. (more…)

The Faces – Stay With Me

5th February 1972 · 1970s, 1972, Music
It’s easy to mock Rod Stewart as a sexist old dinosaur but it’s equally important to remember that he was like that long before it was unfashionable.

(more…)

No one ever captured the pain, the agony and the hopelessness of addiction as accurately, or as sensitively, as Neil Young in this song from his landmark album Harvest, released in early 1972. (more…)

Northern Soul legend Donnie Elbert sings the definitive version of the song that’s been a hit for The Supremes and Soft Cell.  (more…)