A History of Pop Music – Albums 1974

Featured Album:

Bay City Rollers – Rollin

This is a series of articles looking at albums from 1960 to whatever year we end up in.

I will select a featured album for each year and the link for the whole album, Plus list the songs on it.

As before, it is not just about the songs and tunes, it is very much about memories, and good ones, I hope.

Not everyone will like my choices of course, and you may remember some from each particular year that you feel should have been included, so do please post a link to the song.

It is Friday now. Switch off the so called “news”. If you watch the telly, there are some sports worth watching such as the snooker on Eurosport. There is some Wendyball, just switch over for a minute to avoid the racism at the start of most matches. Some excellent programmes on Dave, Forces TV, History and Discovery channels. Binge watch stuff if you have the means, anything but the “news”. It has cheered me up these last couple of weeks not watching “news”. It may work for you. You can get all the real facts you need here.

In 1974 at the beginning of the year Harold Bloody Wilson forms a government. Country in chaos with the 3 day-week, except I liked it. Our working days went up to 11 hours instead of 8 and in 3 days I earned slightly more than I did working 5 days as I was on piece work and worked my gonads off. I knew the country was in bad shape though. Started taking an interest in politics and whilst I was not old enough to vote, I knew I would never vote Labour, even though my dad was a lifelong supporter and Labour Councillor. I joined the Army, Royal Engineers later this year. One of my better decisions, though I did find basic training very tough.

Get your tartan scarves out and wave away. I should go with Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, but like many, a bit of cheering up with some poptastic tunes is required in these times. If you are of a certain age, and male, you will have pretended to hate them, but you put up with it as the girl by your side loved them. Go on, admit it.

Track listing

Side One

“Shang-a-Lang” (Phil Coulter, Bill Martin) – 3:07
“Give It to Me Now” (Coulter, Martin) – 3:48
“Angel Angel” (Eric Faulkner, Stuart “Woody” Wood) – 2:27
“Be My Baby” (Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Phil Spector) – 3:27
“Just a Little Love” (Faulkner, Wood) – 2:57
“Remember (Sha-La-La-La)” (Coulter, Martin) – 2:33

Side Two

“Saturday Night” (Coulter, Martin) – 2:57
“Ain’t It Strange” (Faulkner, Wood, Les McKeown) – 2:10
“Please Stay” (Burt Bacharach, Bob Hilliard) – 3:54
“Jenny Gotta Dance” (Coulter, Martin) – 3:06
“There Goes My Baby” (Faulkner, Wood) – 3:18
“Summerlove Sensation” (Coulter, Martin) – 3:12

A troubled band, lost out on millions of their money. Rollin’, released in 1974, was the first full-length albums. The album included three British chart hits (“Remember”, “Shang-a-Lang”, “Summerlove Sensation”) and the debut of “Saturday Night”, never a British hit yet a No. 1 smash in America, later.

Les McKeown– vocals, guitar
Eric Faulkner– guitar, violin, mandolin, bass
Stuart Wood“Woody”– guitar, bass, piano, mandolin
Alan Longmuir– bass, accordion, piano
Derek Longmuir– drums, congas, tambourine

More writings on this album here: Rollin

So, on we go with 1974:

The Top 10 Albums with a You Tube hyperlink on the title:

Top Tip: Right-click and open in new tab

Top Albums of 1974
1	The Carpenters	The Singles 1969-1973
2	Paul McCartney & Wings	Band On The Run
3	Mike Oldfield	Tubular Bells
4	Elvis Presley	Elvis’s 40 Greatest Hits
5	Pink Floyd	Dark Side Of The Moon
6	Elton John	Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
7	The Bay City Rollers	Rollin’
8	Perry Como	And I Love You So
9	Simon & Garfunkel	Simon And Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits
10	Slade	Old New Borrowed And Blue

I have always found The Carpenters a pleasant listen, but in my head never thought of it as pop. Band on the Run i bought when it came out, super album. Tubular Bells was played to death. Some awesome stuff on the Elvis album of course. DSOTM being the featured album for last year. As a rufty tufty soldier I did not like the Rollers (who am I kidding, loved them). Always had a lot of time for Slade, not so much the albums, but certainly the singles.

Overall, this top 10 from 1974 is bigly good.

In my view the best albums of the year were most of those top 10, however, some notably excellent albums are featured below as well.

Electric Light Orchestra – Eldorado – I cannot think of one bad song from this super group. However, there is even better to come.

Bob Marley & The Wailers – Natty Dread – No Woman No Cry, Lively up Yourself – awesome album if like a bit of reggae.

Kraftwerk – Autobahn – I was blown away when this came out. I think they are still going strong.

Leo Sayer – Just a Boy – One Man band, Long Tall Glasses (big favourite of mine), much underrated I feel.

Suzi Quatro – Suzi Quatro – 48 Crash, Can the Can. Memorable performances on ToTP and she is still going strong, she will be 71 in June this year. Would. Just sayin like.

Mott The Hoople – The Hoople – The Golden Age of Rock and Roll starts this one off. Awesomeness.

Queen – Sheer Heart Attack – Early Queen, includes Killer Queen, what a wonderous group and even better to come.

Scoring:

As you know I like to review your “tunes” that you post.

*Note. Anyone scoring a Morrissey (lowest score possible) will be reported and blocked.

Hat tips to:

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/ratings/8-all-music-highest-rated/1973/1 these give the top 100 selling charts for each year

http://www.everyhit.com/chart1.html these give the top 10 songs for each year

https://www.youtube.com/ you know them.

Next Time: 1975.

Featured image: “Bay City Roller Shoes” by Ozzy Delaney is licensed under CC BY 2.0