The song sold 500,000 in just three weeks in the UK alone and went straight into the chart at number one: common enough in recent times but a rare achievement in those days. The last time it had been done before Slade in February 1973 was by The Beatles back in 1969 with Get Back.

 

Its success meant Slade, who were never really accepted as a ‘serious’ band by the album-buying music snobs, had had chart toppers in three successive years, which was a remarkable achievement in the post-Beatles music universe.

 

Noddy’s lyrics were one in the eye for high-minded critics: “So you think I’m singing out of time – well it makes me money,” he yelled in that whisky-and-cigarette rasp that seemed to sound LOUDER than anyone else. “So you say I’ve got a funny face – I ain’t got no worries.”

 

By now it felt as if the band, and producer Chas Chandler, were working to a formula that just churned out hit after hit after hit. And in a way they were, right down to the fact that once again Holder’s original title (Come On Hear The Noise) was changed before release, to the infinitely better Cum On Feel The Noize.

 

Written as ever by Slade’s songwriting duo of Jim Lea (music) and Noddy Holder (words), the song supposedly captured the atmosphere of a Slade gig, with the fans chanting the chorus like football fans at a match, in much the same manner as on their earlier hit Mama Weer All Crazee Now. The intro, with Noddy yelling out “Baby, baby, baaaaa-beh!” was recorded purely to test the levels on Noddy’s microphone and never intended for use on the single.

 

From such happy accidents are hit records born. Lea’s descending bassline puts the icing on the cake before the rest of the band come in. The B-side stretched the misspelling thing a little thin, being titled I’m Mee, I’m Now, An’ That’s Orl, while Oasis’s cover version of Cum On Feel The Noize would end up on the B-side of their huge hit Don’t Look Back In Anger.