When you think of Glam’s hitmaking duo Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, you think of the songwriters behind a string of stomping bangers by The Sweet, Suzi Quatro and Mud.
But they also had their sensitive side – and indulged it in the melancholy acoustic songs of Smokie. This was their first hit.

Smokey actually dated back all the way to 1963 after a chance meeting between drummer Ron Kelly and guitarist Alan Silson in Moore’s Music Shop in Bradford.

Two days later they were joined by singer Chris Norman and began rehearsals, eventually adding bass player Terry Uttley and giving themselves a name – The Yen. Then several more – The Sphynx, Essence, The Black Cats, The Four Corners, The Elizabethans and, following a Radio 1 competition to find a new one, Kindness.

Their first single came under yet another pseudonym, Fuzzy And The Barnets, and although it flopped, it very nearly led to stardom when they caught the ear of Albert Hammond, then in a band called Family Dogg.

He wrote them a song called It Never Rains In Southern California – only to decide at the last minute to record it himself instead (though Kelly plays drums on it).

In another twist of fate, this time more fortuitous, singer Chris Norman suffered a serious throat infection that damaged his vocal cords, and upon his recovery his voice had been transformed into the husky croon that would become his trademark.

Signing a deal with Decca, they once again failed to find success even though one song (Let The Good Times Roll) was adopted as the theme music for Emperor Rosko’s Radio 1 show.

Meanwhile their manager, another Radio 1 DJ called Dave Eager, found them work as Peter Noone’s backing band, which in turn led to another new manager, and a meeting with Chapman and Chinn, then riding high in the charts.

The duo initially turned them down but were eventually convinced to give the group a chance.

In a bid to replicate the success of the other groups they had moulded into stars, Chinnichap convinced them to change their name yet again – to Smokey – and tried to dress them in black leather like Suzi Quatro, but the band finally settled on a Quo-next-door look of blue jeans and waistcoats instead.

Their first album together flopped – a rare experience for Chinnichap, an all too familiar one for Smokey – but their second produced this, their first hit, after 12 years together.