Thursday 9 February 2012

TOTP 3/2/77 (tx 9/2/12): ITMA



Oh, hang on, that's from the wrong show, sorry about that. (No idea who made that, by the way - Charlie Brooker was first to make its presence public but it has a ring of Peter Serafinowicz and Robert Popper about it, especially as one of the band names is similar to something they've used)


"Another half hour of super sound and view for you" promises a bouffant Kid Jensen, which is a lie right off the bat as the proper version is nearly 40 minutes long and would have been even then. Just about scans, too. New pictures abound this week, as Leo Sayer meaningfully observes himself back at us in a mirror and Gary Glitter looks like he's pinned against a wall by an unseen firing squad. Please, say nothing. More importantly, though, we have a second, head on shot of the Rose Royce Cortina, this time with the roller up. Can't say it's affected the looks much.

Thin Lizzy – Don’t Believe A Word
You again. As if this isn't the third time we've seen it we get the screen/dancing effect, which we must come up with a catch-all title for before next week. Of chief interest this time is a man in a brown sheepskin jacket, tie and tache who appears to be trying to bust out some proper moves irrespective of whether he actually can, whether that be to the music or just generally in life. A very quick cutaway to some shifting youngsters disguises the Noel-in-background moment. In a neat shot, and as if to save on the costs of operating the crane camera, Kid backannounces "their latest 45" - hardly latest any more, Kid, more 'current' - as off to the right a figure in silver appears on the performance stage making for a neat segue to... hang on, it's not...

Gary Glitter – It Takes All Night Long
Who says you don't get surprises on television any more? Even Calvin Harris tweeted his surprise, which at least means another covert celebrity viewer flushed out. In case you missed it there's a sort of backstory here, which is that when Jonathan King got cut out last July he complained to the papers (the Mail, bravely for him), about a month later as it happened, and the DG issued an apology ("his performance will not be edited out of any future repeat" - starting again, are they?) Even so, you'd kind of think they'd have played safe and left this year's three Glitter appearances on the unedited versions, especially as the Mirror caught on to the first one claiming he'd "be seen singing a 1977 number, believed to be I’m The Leader Of The Gang". Which was a 1973 number. Good work there. Anyway, Kid's enthused, stomping along to the intro even if he does leave the last word off the title. Gary's well past the point of pop reward here so seems to be morphing into some sort of creepy glam crooner affair, dressed in a suit possibly made of Bacofoil. He actually looks nervous at the start, such is the magnifying power of the close-up. Then he starts singing come-ons in the creepiest voice he can muster and making Carry On-randy faces directly at us. At one point, having spent much of the time between vocals with an arched back and a haughty provenance, he mock-airs his collar before staring straight down the lens and stage whipsering "what a night!" before prancing up some stairs and, frankly, shaking his arse. Also bear in mind he was only 32 at the time but looks deep into middle age, and you don't have to consider anything else about him to feel the black ice forming where warm blood used to be.

Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes – Don't Leave Me This Way
Knowing we need someone to stir the loins back into order, here come Legs & Co. "There's a whole lot of directives in the chart this week" comments Kid, possibly the most deathless thing he's ever said. Elegance is the watchword following last week's Victoriana, moving on a decade or three as the budget really gets pushed out once more. Evening gowns, opera gloves, drapes, even a big old chandelier. That does mean not much space to work in, meaning a fairly vanilla for their standards number involving lots of circling the external parts of the set, striding around in pairs and limbular expressiveness in a line.

Boz Scaggs – What Can I Say
Kid promises "a very special guest", so he'd better deliver. In the meantime a video of Boz and his huge band, including two drummers and one of the three backing singers having a tambourine to hand

The Real Thing – You'll Never Know What You're Missing
The camera stays on Kid for a long time after he's introduced the song as he looks progressively more concerned. As it's a slow smootchy one, with more than a nod to Homely Girl, and maybe having seen the Pips the other week they've dressed up in their wedding suits for the occasion, flowers in the lapel holes and everything. Chris Amoo, who always has to be different, has augmented his outfit with a huge explorers' hat that any church goer would insist he remove before the service. It seems to be a perfectly reasonable live vocal, Amoo giving it plenty of huge soulful exhortation throughout the last third to remind us of his frontman status.

Silver Convention – Everybody's Talkin' 'Bout Love
Repeat from two weeks ago of the bra'd up German Three Degrees.

The Rubettes – Baby I Know
And they say pop acts grow up too fast these days. Just three years after Sugar Baby Love, the Rubettes had reverted to their archetype as session men and gone ersatz country rock. They even look the part, Alan Williams sporting a receding side parting and Les Gray-by-way-of-Parker glasses. The Rubettes, unsurprisingly, are no Eagles. In terms of studio manufactured bands going their own way, they're some distance from the Monkees. This did however lead to the wondrous spectacle of the Rubettes UK trending on Twitter and people becoming confused. You would have to ask, wouldn't you.

David Soul – Don't Give Up On Us
Last time (until Christmas), thank goodness. Even crowd dance cutaways can't really save it. It's after this that Kid reveals his special guest, and "I didn't disappoint you"... Thelma Houston. Good, except she was pretty much unknown here at the time, promoting her first single as she was, her own Don't Leave Me This Way, presumably why she wasn't on to perform, unless that was due to her work permit or something. As with all guests she doesn't get to do much, merely name her single and announce the credits song, but like Terry Kath she adds an element of impromptu dance too. Unlike Kath it's a song you actually can dance to, Heatwave's Boogie Nights, and it actually looks like dancing rather than an acid flashback. Kid again wishes us "good love" to close. If that was his attempt at a catchphrase it really wasn't working out.

EDIT NEWS: Boney M and Leo Sayer, both of whom we've seen before and will see again. That's how editing these shows should work.

27 comments:

Chris Barratt said...

Well it was interesting to note that we had a different profile of NGP 303P tonight on the chart rundown!
Everybody will be talking about Glitter, but actually, tonight's prime time spectacle allows us to put things in perspective.
1972-75 Gary Glitter produced some fine glam rock singles. if left to natural law, this is how he would be remembered - any subsequent crimes would still render him a footnote and not "notorious".
The washed-up garbage we saw tonight was the Gary Glitter whose career from hereon was sponsored by The Sun & News Of The World.
I object to having decent music "erased from history" by people whose agenda is hiding the fact that they were the prime movers in maintaining and nurturing this mans career and bank balance for over 20 years after he made music of any worth. (give or take a certain Xmas song)
Incidentally, that was Toto backing Boz Scaggs (on stage and on record). It was played at a faster tempo than the recorded version but was still skillfully executed by all concerned. The picture quality seems to be an issue on many of these specially-made "promos" of this era across the board, be they UK or US in origin. It was comedy "Spot The Nodding Noel" in the Thin Lizzy performance, he was there!

Arthur Nibble said...

Thanks profusely for the spoof chart rundown. It made me laugh out loud heartily and, having had some bad news earlier this week which I won't bore you with, I didn't think I could laugh like that again so soon. Seriously, thank you.

Talking of rundowns, is Leo's chart rundown picture the other way round this week? Also, another new Quo picture? I need to get a life.

Glad you gave us a reason why Thelma couldn't perform "DLMTW" on this show, though she does get to give us a rollocking rendition in a later show (sorry - should have been a spoiler alert there).

Talking of which, I really enjoyed the Legs & Co routine. I know to many young chaps they were a 12-legged testosterone enhancer, but those dresses were elegant and suited all the gals (and that doesn't always happen), the set was simple but effective and colour co-ordinated, and the routine was enjoyed and enjoyable. Hark at me, a right little Gok Wan!

I wonder if GG was shown early doors purely becuase it would have been a bugger to edit out Kid's preceding link on the 'Super Screen'? Awful flesh-creeping song and routine, even back in those days. Loved the geeky bloke dancing double time front stage left at one point. A precursor to punk, in his own way!

I like loads of different types of music, but the soul boy in me was released by a cracking two-in-a-row. Boz and his band, part Adam and the Ants, part Earth Wind and Fire, performed a belter, apart from the humungously overlong ending and Boz clutching his guitar like a life jacket near the end.

Then we come to the Toxteth Anthill Mob on their way to a day out at Aintree. My second fave Real Thing song after "Force", they had to do something different after "You To Me etc." and its almost carbon copy wiped follow-up. You almost knew this wouldn't be a huge hit, but it was another impressive string to their bow. Mind you, why was the chap in the light grey suit doing a half Prince Charles, with one arm behind him?

The Rubettes reminded me of the spectre of Pussycat. Love the fact the bassist never got his missing lower front tooth sorted out - obviously not an American! (I think the lads came from Southend, actually.) Bear in mind the League Two Roy Orbison on lead vocals had a hit as one of The Firm ("Star Trekking" if I remember correctly).

Best thing about our last listen to David Soul's first hit was the seven foot tall lad in the blue shirt stage right. A career in basketball awaits! After Thelma we get Slough's finest. Shame we don't see their video with one of the vocalists wearing headgear which makes him look part Joan Collins, part Ena Sharples.

Angelo said...

Quite a few of these songs totally passed me by at the time, in fact not just at the time but for all time! I've never heard that Rubettes song before in my life and as for Boz Scaggs - what can I say - I've never even heard of him let alone his song!

I was totally impressed with the Real Thing though (but again an unfamiliar song to me) ~ great live vocal and I always like it when these groups are backed by the Top of the Pops orchestra ~ great job - hope Boney M were taking note :-)

Steve Williams said...

I never knew who recorded What Can I Say, I always thought it was a Motown artist. I like how he had two drummers who seemed to be playing more or less the same thing. Looked cool, though.

Presumably Glitter stayed in because it would have been far too complicated to remove, and was also one of the few new performances, though they did the best they could in the face of a dull chart, the top ten was very static. This big screen is a great gimmick, I'm sure the laughing bloke on the middle right of the screen dancing to David Soul was dancing to 10cc the other week. Incidentally, am I right in thinking that Soul video had the record dubbed over the top, it didn't sound as tinny as in previous weeks, with the cutaways possibly disguising the most out-of-sync bits?

I like how The Rubettes are edging out still further the only member who actually looks anyway half decent, even Dick Emery's Toothy Vicar is now getting more screen time than the one with the long hair. I think I said last time they were on that my dad was always told the reason they stopped having hits was because their management got fed up with how hopeless they were on the telly. Sadly they've gone from shambolic - that Sugar Baby Love performance where the band act up something chronic while the singer tries to hold it together - to snoozesome.

Dave from The Real Thing really did look like he was at a wedding. And a very boring one too.

Arthur Nibble said...

Name game time…

Boz Scaggs had been in The Steve Miller Band and left to pursue his own successful career. He had three top 30 hits, one of which has been during this run (“Lowdown”) but didn’t get a play, and I’m sure you’ll recognise the other one when we get round to it. His real name’s William but got nicknamed Bosley at school (maybe an obtuse reference to the family in “Happy Days”?) and this got shortened to Boz.

Oooh dear, the wrong Amoo brother’s been credited again. Eddie’s the one with the weird titfer, Chris is the lead singer. The Real Thing were on Pye at this stage - cue the old joke “My latest single’s on Pye, so if you don’t like it you can eat it” – and later on in their career they recorded for Calibre, who must surely hold the record for the most complete bands on one single. They released “Calibre Cuts” (two weeks at number 75, chart fans) which contained snippets of sixteen different disco songs, most of which had been released on other Pye-handled labels, and three are copies of other major label hits which don’t even credit the copycat performers on the sleeve.

wilberforce said...

with regards to that cod-chart rundown, there really was a band called crispy ambulance - they were early 80's indie-types signed to the legendary factory records...

when i was watching gary glitter the last time around he kept reminding me of someone but couldn't quite put my finger on it - thanks to a second performance of this nauseating number it came to me: benny hill!

i thought legs & co's routine this week was pretty good, especially as they appeared to be performing "live" in front of the audience... is it me, or did lulu seem to have a bit more cleavage than usual?

why did boz scaggs need two drummers? especially if one them is (or appears to be) jeff porcaro who was regular sticksman for steely dan among others... this track is fairly funky (well the verses are anyway) but in terms of white funk is blown away by "lowdown" from the same "silk degrees" album that has now become a charity shop regular...

as the rubettes approached the first chorus of their latest effort, i was half-expecting them to launch into "you can't hiiiiiiiiide your lyin' eyes"! obviously an eagles rip-off, but whether they were using the original recording as backing or a cobbled-together totp version the harmony vocals were very impressive with hints of "good vibrations"... simon, contrary to what arthur says i think you've finally got your amoos sorted out, but i'm sorry to point out that the singer/guitarist with the vegas-era king look (the only connection they now seen to have with rock n roll) is actually tony thorpe and not alan williams - alan was the original frontman who is now seen hacking away on an acoustic. it's well known that he didn't actually do the vocal on their first hit "sugar baby love", but apparently he did play guitar on it...

talking of mistakes, i don't know if arthur (good to see totp has made you a bit more chipper!) is also misinformed or just making a statement on humdrum towns, but the legend that is rod temperton of heatwave is cleethorpes' finest, not slough's! it does seem absurd that thelma houston has come all the way from america just to introduce their record - presumably as flick had already earmarked harold melvin's take on "DLMTW" for legs & co she wasn't allowed to be seen doing a second version (that i personally always thought the superior one) on the same show - maybe she did a performance at the time that was filmed, and was placated by being promised it would be shown in a future episode? (which may also explain the need for the kid to toady up to her)...

Arthur Nibble (again) said...

I seem to have got my wires crossed about where Heatwave came from - maybe they were based in Slough at one stage? - and Rod's Lincolnshire roots were indeed captioned in the 1977 'Best Of' show that we saw earlier this year. I still think I've got my Real Thing brothers right this time, as I Googled Eddie to check. If I'm wrong, though, I won't be Amoo-sed!

wilberforce said...

i'm no real expert on millinery, but if what i think simon's "huge explorers' hat" is the fedora-style one as worn by clint eastwood in "white hunter black heart" as opposed to the baggy peaked cap, then simon has finally got his man... but as i've said before, it's all a case of much amoo about nothing!

Steve Morgan said...

Further to Arthur's comments on Boz Scaggs, his album, Silk Degrees was a constant on the turntables of Paul Gambaccini and Kid Jensen throughout '77. In America its sales were on par with Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and didn't do too badly in the UK with 24 weeks in the album chart despite on reaching only number 37.
Three hits from it, as has been stated the first one, Lowdown, is the best and should have been the bigger hit, by the time What Can I Say was released the album was gathering more interest and a third single, Lido Shuffle, was almost guaranteed a top twenty placing. The album also contains We're All Alone, which was covered successfully by Rita Coolidge later in the year, and which became her best known, and biggest UK hit.
If you happen to spot Silk Degrees in a charity shop, pick it up, give it a spin, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.
As for last night's show, by the time David Soul came on I was nodding off and almost missed Thelma's brief appearance. Shows what I thought of the particular show, I'm usually more alert.

Simon said...

The awkward thing about this chart is we're into February and yet the middle of the top 30 is still clogged up by some who were on the show before Christmas - not just Quo and Lizzy but Paul Nicholas, Mike Oldfield, Tina Charles, Liverpool Express and Showaddywaddy.

Someone mentioned Tony Thorpe last night but I couldn't find any immediate evidence Alan Williams wasn't still regarded as lead singer. Thorpe later became a member of The Firm of Star Trekkin' infamy, though the bandwagon jumper wasn't on board for Arthur Daley (E's Alright). When Baby I Know makes it to the top 30 the show is still using the capped and suited Rubettes shot, which must have been two or three years old.

THX said...

Another recommendation for Silk Degrees here: Boz Scaggs may have had the most weirdly revolting name in pop, but that album is the very definition of smooooth.

For a moment I thought Renee Zellweger had joined The Rubettes on acoustic guitar there.

I think Silver Convention were actually Austrian. So that's those girls, Falco... erm, any other Austrian pop stars?

Incidentally, does Rosemary of Legs & Co look a lot like drive in movie queen Claudia Jennings to anyone else? No?

Wellieman said...

Definitely Tony Thorpe promoted to lead singer for the Rubettes. Made a change for him from doing those cringeworthy Shadows-type dance moves in unison with the bass player that we're all used too. I suspect it was another last chance saloon effort from the Rubes who had by now just about gone down the pan. Well I thought they made a nice fist of it and deserved one last hit.

Then what do you know... by coincidence I just caught The Firm doing Arthur Daley on a 1982 TOTP and its dear old Tone doing lead vocals on that too. He's lost the Roy Orbison glasses and the Elvis wig in favour of Spiv gear but its definitely him. Check it out Simon! (29-7-82 if you have it).

Noax said...

THX : Austrian pop stars - what about Edelweiss?!

Which is about as ridiculous as that spoof rundown - thanks for that! My favourites were The Ring Dingaling Dongalongadongs. What an extraordinary picture there.

To the real rundown then, and I'm getting quite excited about which angle of the Cortina we'll get next. I'm hoping for the rear - phwoaarrr!

Gary Glitter - I agree that this must have been left in because of the unfortunate use of what I'm calling The Toppotron Screen. So this is the performance I recorded in all its horrible leering, horrible glory when it was on UK Gold.

Boney M - They actually thought this was worthy of playing AGAIN?

Harold Melvin / Legs & Co - This was quite a classy routine, and quite a lot of cleavage going on for some of the girls, particularly Lulu, as has been said. Got the chicken fillets out presumably. A good version of the song, and I prefer this to Thelma Houston's version of the song (both of them - pretty sure she did a new version in the 90s didn't she?)

Incidentally, is Jensen the first DJ *not* to call them Legs and Company?

Boz Scaggs - There's a once heard, never forgotten name. This song's pretty good, but my fave has always been the next single.

The Real Thing - The camera does linger for an awfully long time on the Kid here. Were they grooming him as 'One for the Mums' given that 'The Dads' had Legs & Co?

Sorry, I just realised that I used the word 'grooming' in the same post as Gary Glitter. May I burn in the Daily Mail's hell.

The Real Thing - I find this a bit dull, I'm afraid. Still, whichever Amoo it is singing, he's been watching a LOT of Starsky & Hutch.
They didn't have 2 chart toppers either, whatever the Kid says.

The Rubettes - Yet another artist who looks like Mark Gatiss' Les McQueen character! That must be about 5 of them since the repeats started last year. On listening to this I was saying to the missus that this must have been a massive flop. Cue me turning to the Guinness book and going 'Jesus, it got to Number 10!' (actual words)

In places, it sounds a bit like 'If I said you had a beautiful body..' by The Bellamy Brothers. Which isn't really anything you'd shout about.

David Soul - Hmm..The Toppotron (TM) making its second appearance isn't doing much for this. Ah well, at least the Kid can conduct an interview without too much embarassment which is something that's passed most of the other DJs by. I do believe that 'good love' is an intended catchphrase (did he use it on the radio?) or maybe he just got excited by Thelma's presence.

Heatwave's a good end to a pretty drab show with all the repeats. Personally I like Boogie Nights but the follow-up is the one I'm really looking forward to - "HUH!" (That's a choice lyric from it in case you thought I'd got too excited)

Anonymous said...

I quite liked that Boz Scaggs song..

Julie Joanne Bevan said...

Did you know that Rosemary of Legs & Co was the inspiration for Tracey Ullman's character 'Roz'? They were at the Italia Conti Stage School together.

Not Arthur Nibble again! said...

Aha, I think it's safe to come back now. Sorry, I'm not quite at the races this week. Apologies to Simon, who was absolutely right about Chris Amoo and the explorer's hat. My problem was that I focussed on the wrong bloody hat and unwittingly got fixated with Eddie Amoo's impersonation of Gilbert O'Sullivan! I would've admitted my mistake earlier but didn't want to have four entries in this week's top tem. Had I done so, it would have felt a bit like one of those dance / rap collaborations...Yes It's number One feat. Arthur Nibble. Blame it on imminent old age - 50 on Sunday!

Simon said...

Wellieman: Arthur Daley was Canonised early on, with specific comments.

Noax: Kid must have been really trying with "good love", he does it next time too. All the online references are to his TOTP77 appearances thus far though, so he can't have persisted with it for long.

Vin said...

Another Boz Scaggs fan here...I love 'Silk Degrees'. It's a fantastic album.

Have to agree that the two drummers were cool, if only that the same synchronised moves were extremely hypnotic...

Erithian said...

First of all, a happy half-century to our friend Nibble. My own is coming up in May, so we’re obviously close contemporaries. Come to think of it I know someone on another site who hits 50 this month … no, can’t be.

Credit to Noax for the “Toppotron” – that’s going to stick!

Simon, those long runners – it was Quo’s 7th week in the 30,,Paul Nick’s 8th and last, Oldfield’s 9th and last, Tina’s 8th and last, the Waddy’s 12th and last. Liverpool Express were on 5 weeks and hadn’t yet peaked!

The Boz Scaggs performance was a cracker, and credit to the honey on tambourine on the right too. A good night for eye candy what with Legs, Thelma and the one on the left in Silver Convention!

The Real Thing song wasn’t bad, just was never going to hit the heights of their previous two. The bloke second from the right, as well as pioneering Liverpool’s 1996 Cup Final suits, seemed to be carrying a bag of groceries down his trousers for some reason.

Rubettes were Nashville’s finest – in their dreams. A shot at Eagles country rock, yes, but fell well short. I was once in an email exchange with a friend who was a Luton Town fan, and conversation turned to Luton’s striker Tony Thorpe. I mentioned that he shared his name with a Rubette, and she replied, “You actually know the names of the Rubettes? Words fail me.”

And David again. I’ve been struck by a particular pensive look on his face just after the bridge and before the next verse, as if he’s just remembered something. “Hmm, I’m sure I left my groceries in the Real Thing’s dressing room…”

Steve Morgan said...

We've mentioned before about some of the biggest hits not given an airing on Pops, Queen's You're My Best Friend springs to mind. But I'd like to mention a bigger injustice. At this period in '77 another staple on Jensen's turntable was Al Stewart's Year of the Cat. It's a sublime single with some superb sax playing from Alan Parsons which is every bit as good as Raf Ravenscroft's sax on Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street. The album of the same name went platinum, but the single only reached number 31 despite its almost constant airplay. Although Stewart made an appearance on Whistle test around this time, given its radio exposure I often felt that if it had featured on Pops it would have been a bigger chart hit.

Noax said...

Good call Steve, Year of the Cat is ace!
Given the number of times songs outside the Top 30 appeared in this period, it is strange that it didn't get an airing.

I'd like to think that if it had made the 30, there's a fair chance that they wouldn't have had a picture and given the Cortina approach to Car Wash, we would therefore have seen a picture of Bagpuss, or Kitten Kong from The Goodies instead.

JohnAHobson said...

Thelma may have been there to record Don't Leave Me as they often recorded artists who were likely to have a hit at the end of the show so they could drop them in later weeks. So any visiting American would have been recorded when available. I remember them sitting on Alice Cooper's Schools Out for weeks until it hit the top.

Old Applejack said...

So yeah, it's not Tony Thorpe on Arthur Daley, but Brother Wiki says he was there in time for Star Trekkin', and taking the stage name 'Ron Spock' for the occasion.

That got me thinking. Did anyone ever see The Firm actually appear on TV to perform Star Trekkin' as a band? I only ever remember the video.

While also reading about The irm, I saw they put out a single 'Long Live The National', to back the campaign to save the Grand National in the early 80s. Now that is something I would like to hear! B-side was seemingly 'London Is The Biz', which I think I remember seeing them do on a Challenge TV repeat of 3-2-1 a little while ago. Remember, Graham brought in the wing mirror...

Interesting comment on the Tracey Ullman character/Rosie connection. Don't remember the character, but as Rosie is my favourite Legger, I'm not sure I should try too hard to find out!

The winter evenings fly by.

Julie Joanne Bevan said...

'Roz', as portrayed by Tracey Ullman, was featured in the British TV comedy sketch series 'Three of a Kind' in the early 1980s. This character - a young British debutante - should not be confused with Julie Kavner's middle-aged character of the same name who appeared in the "Ginny and Roz" sketches on Tracey's US TV show.

MartS said...

http://youtu.be/TuD1alT1VVM

Uploaded less than an hour ago - praise be and upstanding for another Top Of The Pops parallel universe rundown.

capfits said...

Tony Thorpe was indeed the featured vocalist for the Rubettes on 'Baby I Know'. However, even that isn't quite what it seems. Alan Williams actually sang the lead vocal line in the chorus which was slightly out of Thorpe's range.
They recorded a new backing track for the show. The band were established session men long before they achieved success as a band and were easily capable of reproducing their singles.
The surviving performances of 'Sugar Baby Love','I Can Do It' and 'You're The Reason Why' were all re-recorded. However, 'Tonight' from 8/8/74 is the original record with Williams singing along live.
I've seen the little snippet of 'Juke Box Jive' from Dick Emery's video collection and I heard enough to confirm that the tapes were 'switched' on that one
Co-incidentally' John Richardson (the drummer) played on the Heatwave record 'Boogie Nights' which was used for the credits on the 3/2/77 edition. Richardson had a long time connection with producer Barry Blue going right back to playing on 'Dancing On A Saturday Night'.
To close, 'Baby I Know' out-performed the Eagles offering at that time in the charts, eventually peaking at # 10.

wilberforce said...

further to capfits' comments i looked up the rubettes on wikipedia, and they apparently released seven (yes, seven!) albums in the 70's... in all my years of trawling charity chops and car boots i don't ever remember seeing even one!

i always thought the drumming on "boogie nights" was ace, but i didn't realise the band's drummer had a "ringo" done on him! as a penniless schoolboy i couldn't afford to buy singles at full whack so waited until they appeared in ex-chart bargain bins or second-hand shops - i was desparate to own this one but couldn't find it cheap anywhere even after it had left the charts (obviously others thought it was a classic too), but as i knew my sister's friend's parents owned a boozer i made a deal where i managed to blag an ex-jukebox copy for practically nothing! i remember using similar ingenuity that summer by rummaging through rubbish bins (people must have thought i was mad) in order to acquire enough tokens off discarded crisp packets to get hold of a copy of "pretty vacant"!