My Favourite 45s of the Year: 1971 Quiz

Answer: Family

Family were "an odd band loved by a small but rabid group of fans", to quote rock writer John Dougan. Founded in Leicester in 1966, they played a weird mix of acid jazz fusion, rock and folk. Every member of the band was an accomplished musician, but their signature feature was the remarkable vibrato vocals and showmanship of Roger Chapman. I hated them at first but have grown to love them.

Their third single, "In My Own Time", reached the highest position of all their singles, making it to number four in the UK Singles Chart, but it wasn't released in the US. They played a gig at Exeter University while I was there.

A friend of mine who was a major fan managed to get on stage and exchange words with Roger Chapman before he was escorted off.

He staggered up to me, obviously starstruck, saying "He spoke to me, he spoke to me". "What did he say", I asked. "He said 'get off the (ahem) stage'". Ah well.

Answer: Free

After the classic "All Right Now" the previous year, Free came up with another great song in "My Brother Jake", a kind of rocking, barrelhouse song. Andy Fraser wrote the song; he said it was about a reggae singer named Horace Faith but that "My Brother Jake" sounded better than "My Brother Horace".

It reached number four in the UK Singles Chart but didn't get into the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Answer: Isaac Hayes

Sixteen notes on a hi-hat, then a wah-wah guitar joins, then a piano, then - after 2':30" - the vocals come in - it has to be the theme music from "Shaft" by Isaac Hayes. Taken from the soundtrack album, it wasn't originally meant to be issued as a single but the success of the film combined with frequent playing of the track in nightclubs led to its release.

It went to number one in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number four in the UK Singles Chart. Hayes also won an Oscar for Best Original Song for the song. Notably, he was the first recipient of this award that actually composed and performed the winning song, as well as being the first African American to win an Oscar in a non-acting category. I went to see the movie on a wet winter afternoon in Basildon - it was OK, but I definitely thought the music was the best thing about it!

Answer: The Who

"Won't Get Fooled Again" is not only a great rock song, it's also very political. It casts a dubious eye over revolutionary politics, ending with the perhaps rather cynical statement "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss".
But it remains a great record, even though the single release was edited down from the 8':32" version on the album "Who's Next" to 3':35". And I have to say that Keith Moon's drumming is utter genius - I don't normally do things like "air guitar" but I always do "air drums" to this track!
It went to number 15 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number nine in the UK Singles Chart. It was also ranked at number 295 in the 2021 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Answer: Carole King

Carole King's 1971 album "Tapestry" was full of wonderful songs making it one of the best-selling albums of all time, and "It's Too Late" is just one of many on the album. One of the great "breakup" songs, it describes King's feelings after her relationship with James Taylor ended.

It went to number one in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number six in the UK Singles Chart. It won the Grammy Award for "Record of the Year" and it was also ranked at number 310 in the 2021 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Answer: The Doors

I heard "Riders on the Storm" by The Doors on late-night radio (played by the very wonderful John Peel) and was immediately entranced by it. Ray Manzarak's piano playing is just sublime, and Jim Morrison's lyrics are as obscure and as haunting as ever.

The sad thing is, of course, that it was the very last song recorded by Morrison before his sudden, untimely death in July 1971. It went to number 14 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 22 in the UK Singles Chart.

Answer: John Denver

There's no way that I'm a fan of country music - apart perhaps from Dolly Parton - but John Denver has a special place in my heart. In 1973 he was still unknown in the UK - both "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads" had charted in the UK but in versions recorded by other artists. Then he was given his own BBC TV series! I thought it was great - he just came over as a really lovely, gentle, funny person. I was going through a bad time just then, and it helped me keep my head above water.
"Take Me Home, Country Roads" went to number two in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart but John Denver's recording didn't chart in the UK; however, Olivia Newton John's version went to number 15 in the UK Singles chart.
It's a lovely song, full of nostalgia and thoughts of home. I just loved it!

Answer: Joan Baez

The Band took their composition "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" to the Top Ten in both the US and the UK in 1969, and it was also ranked at number 245 in the "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, but I found it just a bit leaden.

However Joan Baez's cover in 1971 made me listen to the song again, and I recognised its haunting, elegaic quality. One critic referred to how the song "brought home the overwhelming human sense of history", and how it could easily be "some traditional material handed down from father to son straight from that winter of 1865 to today".

More recently there has been considerable argument as to whether the song glories slavery and the Confederate cause, or rather just tells the story of a poor, non-slave-owning white Southerner who has lost his brother and his livelihood. Leaving aside this discussion, the song went to number three in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number six in the UK Singles Chart.

Answer: Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye was witness to the racial and social injustices in the US in the mid-1960s, in particular to the Watts Riots in 1965, and eventually said to himself "with the world exploding around me, how am I supposed to keep singing love songs?". The result was the 1971 classic, "What's Going On?".

The song was originally written by Al Cleveland for the Four Tops, but they turned it down because it was a "protest song". Cleveland then gave the song to Marvin Gaye who recorded it in a studio full of people using a great deal of marijuana, accounting for the conversation noise in the background. It went to number two in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart but didn't chart in the UK until 1983 when it got to number 80; nevertheless it sold over two million copies.

It was also ranked at number four in both the 2004 and the 2010 "Rolling Stone" lists of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Answer: Don McLean

A song over eight minutes long, dripping with nostalgia, telling the story of rock'n'roll in the late 1950s and 1960s - it could only be Don McLean's classic "American Pie". I'm sure that there are hundreds of Ph.D. dissertations based on divining the meaning of the song's complex, impressionistic lyrics, so I'm not going to take matters further! Suffice it to say that it went to number one in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and to number two in the UK Singles Chart. Madonna's savagely edited cover version released in 2000 got to number 29 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart (even though it wasn't released commercially in the US) and to number one in the UK Singles Chart.
Now comes the scandal - one of the biggest selling singles of all time, number one in at least 15 countries - and it's never, ever been ranked in any year's version of the "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Go figure!
My memories of this song are of the North Bank at Southend United football ground, with everyone singing this - spine-tingling!