Pop Chart Earworms When Starting Alleyn’s School 50 Years Ago, Early September 1973

I remember little about my first term at Alleyn’s School. I didn’t start writing my diaries until January 1974. The fragments of memory that I retain are part-true, part-false and part-plagiarised, in that conversations with friends from that era tends to dredge stuff from the memory that wouldn’t otherwise have been dredged.

But a review of the Top 50 charts from the week that my cohort started Alleyn’s has certainly recovered some earworms for me. In truth, nothing that really reminds me of those vital first few days, but certainly a few that remind me of the summer and build up to that first term and some that I do remember being “very much a thing” during those early weeks.

Me? I was actually listening mostly to classical music by the autumn of 1973. My “golden era” of listening to pop/chart music relentlessly had faded in the latter years of my primary school education, as my parents desperately encouraged me to listen to “proper” (i.e. classical) music – mostly middle-brow stuff.

They (or perhapa generous uncle) bought me 36 remaindered ten-inch discs from The Great Musicians series – click here or picture link below.

I’ll write more on that separately when the mood takes me.

This article is about the charts in the first week of September 1973. Here’s the chart, with some comments and embedded files for you to see and hear:

• Number 50, Snoopy Versus The Red Baron, Hotshots
• Number 49, Angel, Aretha Franklin
• Number 48, Gaye, Clifford T. Ward
• Number 47, Nutbush City Limits, Ike And Tina Turner

In truth, this one is not an earworm from the late summer of 1973, but it is a truly wonderful record, so here it is, with a very 1973 vid:

• Number 46, Natural High, Bloodstone
• Number 45, Hypnosis, Mud
• Number 44, Caroline, Status Quo

I definitely remember this Quo number stuck in my ear at that time…or was it a slightly different Quo song…or was it at a different time…

• Number 43, Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree, Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando
• Number 42, The Free Electric Band, Albert Hammond
• Number 41, And I Love You So, Perry Como
• Number 40, All The Way From Memphis Mott The Hoople
• Number 39, Joybringer, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
• Number 38, Skywriter, The Jackson 5
• Number 37, All Right Now, Free
• Number 36, Going Home, The Osmonds
• Number 35, Bad Bad Boy, Nazareth
• Number 34, Everything Will Turn Out Fine, Stealers Wheel
• Number 33, Ying Tong Song, Goons
• Number 32, Electric Lady, Geordie
• Number 31, Our Last Song Together, Neil Sedaka
• Number 30, Monster Mash, Bobby (Boris) Pickett And The Crypt-Kickers

This novelty record was for sure doing the round that first term. I have found a version with Pans People “dancing” to it…it wouldn’t be 1973 without Top Of The Pops and Pans People

• Number 29, Life On Mars, David Bowie

In truth, this one is one of my main earworms from the summer before staring Alleyn’s. I remember Russell Holland (a friend from primary school) having a copy and we played it over and over one day when i visited his house that summer. I still think it is a truly great song:

• Number 28, Alright, Alright, Alright, Mungo Jerry
• Number 27, I Think Of You, Detroit Emeralds
• Number 26, For The Good Times, Perry Como
• Number 25, Touch Me In The Morning, Diana Ross
• Number 24, I’ve Been Hurt, Guy Darrell
• Number 23, 48 Crash, Suzi Quatro
• Number 22, Oh No Not My Baby, Rod Stewart
• Number 21, I’m Doing Fine Now , New York City
• Number 20, I’m Free, Roger Daltrey, London Symphony Orchestra And Chamber Choir
• Number 19, Fool, Elvis Presley
• Number 18, Dear Elaine, Roy Wood
• Number 17, I’m The Leader Of The Gang (I Am!), Gary Glitter
• Number 16, Smarty Pants, First Choice
• Number 15, Welcome Home, Peters And Lee
• Number 14, The Dean And I, 10 C.C.
• Number 13, Rising Sun, Medicine Head
• Number 12, Say Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose, Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando
• Number 11, Summer (The First Time), Bobby Goldsboro
• Number 10, Pick Up The Pieces, Hudson-Ford
• Number 09, Angie, The Rolling Stones
• Number 08, Like Sister And Brother, The Drifters
• Number 07, You Can Do Magic, Limmie And The Family Cookin’

Gosh – I’m not sure I have given this one much thought since that late summer/autumn of 1973, but it absolutely brings back sights, sounds and smells from those early days at Alleyn’s

• Number 06, Rock On, David Essex
• Number 05, Spanish Eyes, Al Martino

Why did someone give a tune named “Moon Over Naples” lyrics about “Spanish Eyes”? Had no-one heard of cultural appropriation back then? This was a rerelease from the late 1960s:

• Number 04, Yesterday Once More, The Carpenters

I like this song. Yes it is a bit cheesy but that doesn’t stop it from being a good song:

• Number 03, Angel Fingers, Wizzard

Roy Wood was off the scale weird. I only vaguely remember this one from that era:

• Number 02, Dancing On A Saturday Night, Barry Blue

Why does Barry Blue sample Zorba’s Dance in the middle of this song, years before “sampling” was “a thing”?

• Number 01, Young Love, Donny Osmond

It’s a shame that Nigel Godfrey didn’t start Alleyn’s the same year as us, as he would LOVE to be able to boast that Donny was Number One when he started, whereas the rest of us…

Tara pop-pickers, as that great man, Alan Freeman, used to say.