My Favourite 45s of the Year: 1972 Quiz

Answer: Colin Blunstone

A combination of a beautiful song and a wonderful singer makes "Say You Don't Mind" by Colin Blunstone irresistible. Firstly the song, which was written by Denny Lane in 1967, just after he quit the Moody Blues but before he joined Wings. He recorded the song but it failed to chart, as did a number of cover versions. Then came the singer, Colin Blunstone, who'd had a great career with the Zombies and was well-known for his distinctive delicate, rather breathy voice and his ability to hit the high notes.

Put them together and you come up with a ravishing record, featured on Blunstone's debut solo album, "One Year". The instrumentation is composed solely of strings - no guitar or drums - and they drive the song beautifully. The climax is the high note at the very end, which is just astonishing.

It went to number 15 in the UK Singles Chart; it wasn't released in the US.
Blunstone is still recording and still touring - there's a lot of Zombies freaks out there still!

Answer: Family

Despite having quite a low profile Family hit the charts again in 1972 with a great record, "Burlesque". It has a great guitar and an almost sleazy bass guitar riff, with Roger Chapman's distinctive vocals on top. It went to number 13 in the UK Singles Chart but was not released in the US.
"Rolling and tumbling ain't done me no harm" - how true those words are!

Answer: Johnny Nash

Johnny Nash had a rather strange career. He debuted in the late 1950s, when he was marketed as a rival to Johnny Mathis; in fact he scored a chart hit in 1958 with a cover version of a Doris Day song. After dabbling in running a record label he moved to Jamaica and met up with the reggae music fraternity; he actually signed a publishing deal with the original Wailers in 1967. His records started to do well, and in 1968 he had a top ten hit in both the UK and the US with "Hold Me Tight".

However he really hit the big time in 1972 when "I Can See Clearly Now" went to number one in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number five in the UK Singles Chart, selling over a million copies.

It's a wonderful record, full of hope and optimism - "look all around, there's nothing but blue sky". Nash's voice floats lightly over the nice, reggae-influenced instrumentation - you can't help but smile when you listen to it. Not surprisingly it's been covered lots of times - Jimmy Cliff in particular scored a top twenty hit in the US with his version in 1993.
Johnny Nash died at the age of 80 in 2020.

Answer: Mott the Hoople

The story of Mott the Hoople is a real rags-to-riches one. Founded in 1969 the band failed to gain any success or favour, so by early 1972 they were ready to quit. But they had a Fairy Godmother - David Bowie! He liked the band so much he persuaded them to stay together and he offered them his song "Suffragette City" - which they turned down! The words "beggars" and "choosers" spring to mind.

Bowie persevered and came up with an absolute glam rock cracker, "All the Young Dudes"; he also produced the album of the same name. This became a huge hit for Mott in the UK, and laid the foundation for the band's future success. It went to number 37 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number three in the UK Singles Chart. It was also ranked at number 253 in the 2004 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, at number 256 in the 2010 list, and at number 166 in the 2021 list.

I thought Mott were a really great band - they looked brilliant and Ian Hunter was a great vocalist. They were about to embark upon a period of well-deserved success of which there'll be more in the 1973 quiz.

Answer: Arlo Guthrie

I've a bit of a penchant for songs about travel, for example "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads", and "City of New Orleans" by Arlo Guthrie is a lovely example of the genre. Originally written by the much-underrated Steve Goodman, the song tells about the train ride from Chicago to New Orleans; this is described in a rather nostalgic manner. It was Guthrie's only top forty hit, going to number 18 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart; it was not released in the UK.

One surprising thing about the song is the number of cover versions that have been released. John Denver, Judy Collins and Johnny Cash all produced versions in English, but most of the foreign language covers - in Dutch, French, German, Finnish, Norwegian, Latvian, Icelandic and Hebrew (!) - have just used the tune with new lyrics.

The line "I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done" always brings to my mind the vast distances in the US. I'm one of those people who'd love to drive Route 66 one day!

Answer: Todd Rundgren

Now this is sheer genius! Todd Rundgren had a brief career in a band in the late 1960s but then turned his hand to working in the recording studio as a producer and engineer. However by 1971 he was recording his own songs, culminating in his 1972 album "Something/Anything?" - and the opening rack on the album was this absolute belter of a single, "I Saw the Light". Written in half-an-hour (admittedly under the influence of artificial stimulants), Rundgren played all the instruments and provided all the vocals on this stand-out track, which went to number 16 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 36 in the UK Singles Chart.

I love everything about this song - the rhythm, the instrumentation, the vocals. It's still played on the radio occasionally and it's been used on adverts, and I always run to turn up the volume when I hear it. It's a completely joyous song, about love being confirmed.

Answer: Duncan Browne

Now this match is going to be a bit difficult for quizzers outside the UK as the song was only a minor hit and then only in the UK, but it's a record that should have got a lot more attention.

"Journey" by Duncan Browne has stuck in my memory for 50 years - no wonder, because it's a beautiful song with lovely, hopeful lyrics. What really makes it outstanding, though, is the fabulous guitar playing throughout the song - a long intro and a very long outro demonstrate what a skilled musician Browne was. It went to number 23 in the UK Singles Chart but was not released in the US; it was the only one of the 12 singles he released that had any success.
There's an excellent video of this song on YouTube, remastered in 2002. It's really worth a listen.

Sadly Browne died of cancer in 1993 aged 46, leaving a half-finished album.

Answer: David Bowie

In 1972 David Bowie had been without a hit single for three years. However after much development he launched his "Ziggy Stardust" character in February 1972, and in the course of the extensive touring that followed he built a huge movement of devoted fans. A wonderful blend of rock and glam, "Starman" was released in April as a trailer for his "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" album. However it was his performance of the song on "Top of the Pops" that really catapulted him to stardom. It received rave reviews and prompted many young people to take up a career in music: Bono, Robert Smith, Boy George, Morrissey, Siouxsie Sue and many others have said that they were inspired by watching it. The recording on YouTube of the performance has received over five million views.

It went to number 65 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number ten in the UK Singles Chart, but more importantly it launched Bowie's career. I too remember seeing the "Top of the Pops" performance and being totally gobsmacked - nobody had ever seen anything like it before. When Bowie put his arm around his lead guitarist Mick Ronson jaws dropped all around the country!

Answer: Dr Hook & the Medicine Show

I picked up on Dr. Hook from their connection with Shel Silverstein, a prolific cartoonist and humourist who wrote some of the satirical songs they recorded. This particular one, "The Cover of the 'Rolling Stone'", was one of my favourites. Sung from the point of view of a band, it lamented the fact that despite having all the trappings of success - groupies, drugs, limos, gurus - they still hadn't been the subject of a cover of the "Rolling Stone" magazine. It went to number six in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart but was not released in the UK.

The following year, "Rolling Stone" did indeed feature the band on its cover - but in the form of cartoon caricatures of three of the band's members.
Sadly the good Dr. Hook lost their cutting edge and started recording middle-of-the-road pop like "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman" in 1979 - granted it reached number six in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number one in the UK Singles Chart, but it wasn't funny.

Answer: Roxy Music

Founded by art student and vocalist Brian Ferry in 1970, Roxy Music were a wonderful mix of glam, rock and avant garde. "Virginia Plain", their first single, was particularly noticeable because of its random guitar solo and Brian Eno's electronic squiggles. It went to number four in the UK Singles Chart but was not released in the US. It was also ranked at number 348 in the 2021 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

My memory of this song? - football again, I'm afraid! A car-load of us drove down to Bournemouth to see them play Southend in the FA Cup - we sung this song all the way there, with the line "We are flyin' down to Rio" becoming "We are driving down to Bournemouth". We got beat two - nil. Ah well.