It’s been a struggle to find a Worst Song winner in an era of terrible novelty tunes but I think I’ve found one in Ray Stevens’s execrable 1971 hit Bridget The Midget. (more…)

T. Rex – Hot Love

20th March 1971 · 1970s, 1971, Glam, Music
T. Rex on Top of the Pops in March 1971 was the event that changed everything. Hot Love was the song that gave birth to Glam Rock.

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I make no apology for adding another song by Mungo Jerry because this boisterous blues-based rock’n’roll extravaganza is just fantastic. (more…)

The Pushbike Song was Australia’s pop equivalent of a saucy seaside postcard, with its endless double entendres – and a fascinating story behind it. (more…)

This song was the first No.1 of 1971, and the first chart-topper by a solo Beatle – in the better known version by George Harrison.

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Gilbert O’Sullivan had his first hit with Nothing Rhymed, blending a carefully crafted image with perfectly presented pop songs. (more…)

McGuinness Flint revived the rootsy sound of jug bands and skiffle on the first of their only two hits, When I’m Dead And Gone, in 1970. (more…)

Neil Diamond’s 1970 hit Cracklin’ Rosie, soundtracked a skiing trip for me when I was 16, and remains my favourite from his songbook.

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Dave Edmunds had his second hit in a year, topping the 1970 charts for six weeks with this lovingly crafted cover of a vintage 1950s rhythm’n’blues standard, I Hear You Knocking. (more…)

Clarence Carter – Patches

31st October 1970 · 1970, 1970s, Music
Clarence Carter’s only UK hit Patches is a hearbreaking story of poverty and parental advice in the Deep South in the classic country-soul style of Muscle Shoals.

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