The Carpenters soundtracked my childhood without me ever really noticing. Even then they were too middle-of-the-road for my taste. Apart from this one song.

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Alice Cooper – Elected

4th November 1972 · 1970s, 1972, Glam, Music

Alice Cooper’s second big hit seems like the perfect soundtrack for what was about to happen in the USA in November 2020. (more…)

Rod Stewart never sang better than this. And he never had a better song to sing than this one – In A Broken Dream. (more…)

Family – Burlesque

25th October 1972 · 1970s, 1972, Music
Family are one of those underrated British bands, like The Groundhogs, who seem to have been largely forgotten.

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10CC – Donna

21st October 1972 · 1970s, 1972, Music
This was the first of more than a dozen hit singles for 10cc – the only band to have three number ones with the same line-up but three different lead singers.

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If you were setting out deliberately to make a novelty hit record, you might well come up with this irritating instrumental which topped the charts for four weeks in 1972. (more…)

I’ve got to be honest: I don’t like this song much. It’s so sentimental, so sad and depressing, its melancholy mood reinforced by the church choir and brass band, and Skellern’s voice sounds as if it might crack at any minute. But it was there. It was an unavoidable part of life in 1972.

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I  always loved the sound of Carlos Santana’s fluid guitar with rattling Latin percussion and flowing Hammond organ runs.

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The Sweet – Wig-Wam Bam

7th October 1972 · 1970s, 1972, Glam, Music

Amazingly, this was The Sweet’s sixth straight hit single in 18 months when it reached No.4 in September 1972. But it was the first one they actually played on. (more…)

Lindisfarne’s third album flopped and the band broke up soon after. But the haunting title track Dingly Dell is my favourite of all their songs. (more…)