My Favourite 45s of the Year: 1973 Quiz

Answer: Argent

Argent were a hard/prog rock band formed in 1969 by Rod Argent, who'd been the keyboard player with the Zombies. They'd had some success in 1972 when "Hold Your Head Up" went to number five on both the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and the UK Singles Chart. I have to say that I didn't like it myself, mainly because of its rather heavy, plodding bass guitar line.

However "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" was a fish of a different colour - great organ work, excellent guitar and great vocals on the melody. Sadly, however, it didn't do so well in the charts - it got to number 114 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 18 in the UK Singles Chart. There's a great video on YouTube of the band performing the song live on "Old Grey Whistle Test" - it's well worth a look!

Answer: Bob Dylan

1973 saw the release of Sam Peckinpah's film about the death of the American outlaw Billy the Kid, "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid". As well as appearing in the film as the rather mysterious character "Alias", Bob Dylan also recorded the film soundtrack featuring this song, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".
It's a really sad song, and its placing in the film comes at one of the most moving and heart-breaking moments I've ever seen on screen. The actor Slim Pickens plays a Sheriff who is mortally wounded in a gun fight. He staggers down to the riverside to die, watched by his distraught, grieving wife. This song plays while we watch.
It went to number 12 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 14 in the UK Singles Chart. It was also ranked at number 190 in the 2004 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, and at number 192 in the 2010 list.
For some reason the song has attracted a number of cover versions. Eric Clapton took his rather poor reggae version to number 38 in the UK Singles Chart in 1975; this version failed to chart in the US. Furthermore, Guns'n'Roses released a cover in 1992 that got to number two in the UK Singles Chart and to number one in the Republic of Ireland (!). It was also recorded by Ted Christopher as a charity record in memory of the Dunblane school massacre in 1996, which got to number one in the UK Singles Chart. Very unusually, Dylan sanctioned a change in the lyrics of the song to facilitate this.

Answer: Stevie Wonder

Taken from the "Talking Book" album, "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" is possibly Stevie Wonder's most beguiling and beautiful song. It's a soft ballad with exceptional electric piano playing, and it earned him a Grammy award.
And if you listen very closely you'll realise that Wonder doesn't start singing at the start of the song: the first two lines were sung by Jim Gilstrap, and the second two lines by Lani Groves. Wonder sounds really pleased to get in the song at the fifth line!
It went to number one in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number seven in the UK Singles Chart. It was also ranked at number 183 in the 2021 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
I remember a time when this song was one of the most frequently chosen by guests on "Desert Island Discs" - it was played almost every week. For Quizzers outside the UK, "Desert Island Discs" is a wonderful radio programme that's been running since 1942; guests are asked to imagine that they've been cast away on a desert island with a record player (presumably battery-operated) and just eight records, so they are asked to pick their favourite eight pieces of music. Famously, soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf chose seven of her own recordings when she appeared in 1958, and in 1977 the Australian author and creator of Mary Poppins, P. L. Travers, selected only spoken-word tracks.

Answer: Linda Lewis

Linda Lewis was a popular singer in the 60s, especially for her work backing other artists such as David Bowie, Rod Stewart and Cat Stevens - in fact Stevens wrote his song "The Old Schoolyard" especially for her. She had a wonderful voice with a five-octave range, which she demonstrated on her single
"Rock-a-Doodle-Doo". It went to number 15 in the UK Singles Chart; it wasn't released in the US.
Lewis had one of those "nearly but not quite" careers. She released a critically acclaimed album in 1973 but the record company went bust, so the album didn't sell. Undaunted, she carried on building her career and had a number six hit in the UK in 1975 with "It's in His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song)". After this, however, she retreated back into session work, but she was still releasing music up until just before she died in May 2023.
I still have my copy of this single from 1973!

Answer: Isley Brothers

The Isley Brothers made a great leap forward in 1973, taking on their two younger brothers and changing their record label. Their debut album on Epic, "3 + 3", sold over two million copies, and this wonderful track, "That Lady", was a good example of their new style, reworking a classic R&B-style song from 1964 into a more modern funk rock style.

The guitar playing of Ernie Isley was clearly influenced by that of Jimi Hendrix, who had toured with the band in the mid-1960s. It went to number six in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 14 in the UK Singles Chart, and paved the way for even greater things in the future.

Answer: Mott the Hoople

This has been the most difficult question to write in this quiz, trying to pick one song as my favourite out of three beezer records. Mott the Hoople, inspired by the success of "All the Young Dudes" in the previous year, hit an absolute golden streak in 1973 with three consecutive absolutely brilliant singles: "Honaloochie Boogie", "All the Way from Memphis" and "Roll Away the Stone". As for my favourite one of these three, "Roll Away the Stone" just comes out on top due to its great driving rhythm and good guitar, piano and horn section work. And also because of the presence of the all-woman backing singer trio, Thunderthighs - who'd also sung the back-up vocals on Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" the previous year.
So - "Sha-la-la-la push push" all the way. It went to number eight in the UK Singles Chart but didn't chart in the US.
The "Top of the Pops" video on YouTube is worth watching - it's great fun, especially the drummer's giant drumsticks!

Answer: 10cc

After performing the UK number two hit "Neanderthal Man" as Hotlegs in 1971, the band renamed itself as 10cc. And with all four members of the band being highly talented musicians and song-writers, it wasn't long before they started having hits. "Donna" hit number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1972, and "Rubber Bullets" went to number one in early 1973.

But the next single, "The Dean and I", was a belter. Slightly parodic and with a number of different melodies stuck together I thought it was genius - and any lyricist who could come up with the couplet "But in the eyes of the Dean, his daughter was doin' what she shouldn'a oughta" deserves a medal! It went to number ten in the UK Singles Chart but it wasn't released in the US. 10cc released five albums between 1973 and 1977, all of which were excellent.

They were one of my favourite bands.

Answer: Steely Dan

In the space of just nine studio albums, Steely Dan (basically Walter Becker and Donald Fagen) constructed a blend of jazz, rock, R&B, blues and Latin music that, combined with sophisticated recording techniques, typified an area of music sometimes referred to as Adult-oriented Rock.

In 1972 I'd been struck by their single "Do It Again" from their first album "Can't Buy a Thrill", but the follow-up single, "Reelin' in the Years", was to my ears totally startling and original - I loved it! The guitar work is exceptional - in fact, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin rates the guitar solo on this record as his favourite of all time.

It went to number 11 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart but it wasn't released in the UK - actually the band had very little success in the UK charts.

Answer: Ike & Tina Turner

In 1966 Ike & Tina Turner had a number three hit in the UK Singles Chart with "River Deep, Mountain High" but it didn't do well in the US. They had to wait until 1971 to see some success in the US, when "Proud Mary" got to number four in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. But the 1973 single, "Nutbush City Limits", was a hit all over the world.
It starts with a great combination of fuzz and wah-wah guitar before the horn section punches in, then there's a detonation of drums and we're into the song - it's enough to get a dead man dancing! Tina Turner belts the lyrics out, and you can see there's a bit of an edge about Nutbush being a bit conservative - mandatory church attendance, no motorcycles allowed, &c. Anyway it went to number 22 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number four in the UK Singles Chart.
Ike Turner's cocaine addiction caught up with him and with the ongoing abuse of Tina it was too much for her to bear, so she divorced him. After a few years in the wilderness her career blossomed and led to a US number one single, "What's Love Got to Do with It" in 1984. Her live performances were legendary, and she kept touring and recording for many years before she died in May 2023 at the age of 83.

Answer: Bob Marley and the Wailers

Bob Marley and the Wailers had released "Stir it Up" from the album "Catch a Fire" early in 1973; it failed to chart, although a Johnny Nash version went to number 12 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 13 in the UK Singles Chart. The single "Get Up, Stand Up" from the next album, "Burnin'", was a much stronger affair, even though it too failed to chart. An overtly political song, Marley wrote it after witnessing the poverty on Haiti while touring the island.

He often played it as the last song at Wailers' concerts, and in fact it was also the very last song he played on stage before his untimely death in 1983.

The remaining two of the three original Wailers, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, recorded their own cover versions.