Kiki Dee - Amoureuse

This gorgeous ballad hit the charts in November 1973 and peaked at number 13 in December in the same year. Originally a French song by Véronique Sanson, Gary Osbourne translated the lyrics into English and would be the first real hit single for Kiki on Elton John's Rocket Record label. Basically the song is about a woman after she has her first sexual encounter with a guy. There was another version of this track called Emotion released in America by Helen Reddy, same tune but totally different lyrics. Over the next few years Amoureuse would be re-released again on an E.P Loving And Free and this single is the reissue from 1984.

The Cars - My Best Friend's Girl

I still really really enjoy listening to this single after all these years! American band The Cars released this track about a guy who sees his best friend with a new girlfriend and that girl used to be his girl, in October 1978 and slowly climbed the charts to a final position of number 3. This new wave track also had the award of being the first available picture disc released here and vanished off the shelves straight away. It would be a few years later before I managed to get a copy of it.

I remember being bought a new stereo for Christmas in 1978 plus a new pair of headphones and had some money to buy some new records and I bought this single and was the first new single I played on that record player, memories eh! So here is the single, plus the picture disc of the track!

The Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays

This was the Rats second number 1 coming after Rat Trap in 1978. This track was released in 1979 and was based on a tragic shooting in America by Brenda Ann Spencer who killed two adults and injured several children and a policeman. When questioned about why she did it, she said "I Don't Like Mondays." Bob caught the story and built the song around the story. Known for being more of a punk band, this was quite a step away from their normal stuff, with the track being more string based and Johnny Fingers piano helping out turned this into a classic track.

The single also came with a lavish video which was quite ahead of all the videos at that time (I think they paved the way of how videos would be made for the next couple of years, till the New Romantics made them more of an art form). It was number one for 4 weeks in the UK but for obvious reasons it didn't get much radio play in America and suffered as a result. The song was performed at Live Aid when the band took the stage and Bob sang the line "What Reason Do You Need To Die" to a cheering stadium crowd!

Electric Light Orchestra - Mr. Blue Sky

A cheery song to think about to get us over the next few wintery months! Mr Blue Sky originally came off the double album Out Of The Blue and the single was released in January 1978 and reached number 6 in the charts. The song came from a writers block Jeff Lynne was going through. He was trying to write songs for the album and nothing was coming, he was looking at the weather and the grey skies cleared and the blue sky was there to give him inspiration and wrote the song.

At the end of the song is a vocoder vocal where people have always thought they sang Mr Blue Sky, but in fact the line is saying "Please Turn Me Over" as the song was originally at the end of side three of the album, telling the listener to turn the record over to listen to the other side! The single was released in blue vinyl to help get the single into the charts. Here's the cover and the single.

Kiss - I Was Made For Lovin' You

This is Kiss in their disco era! Paul Stanley had wanted to write a disco song, to prove how easy it was to write one. So he wrote it with Desmond Child and Vini Poncia, changed it around a little and this rock disco song took shape. Paul took it to the band proclaiming he had a disco song to record. The band recorded it but weren't too happy with it as it didn't sound like Kiss but the track sold over a million in the States and managed to reach the top 50 here in the UK. It is off the album Dynasty which also came out in 1979.

Kiss never really had many hits, singles or albums here in the UK in the 70's but it would be the 80's when they did better and became huge concert draws, I saw them live twice in the 80's and they blew me away with the shows, not bad concidering I didn't really like the band till Lick It Up came out in 1983! Here is the scan of my record and label, an Italian import!

John Foxx - Underpass

This was the debut single from John Foxx, who originally had been the lead singer with Ultravox. Ultravox were formed from Tiger Lilly in 1976 and signed to Island records where they released 3 albums. They had a good following but no success in the charts, after the third album Systems Of Romance, Foxx left the band to go solo, Midge Ure would later join the band and take them in a different direction.

In 1980 John released this first single, Underpass on his own label through Virgin called Metal Beat. The single only reached number 31 in the UK charts but it summed up the early electronic songs of the early eighties, cold, stark, drama laden but still a classic track. It also came off his first album, Metamatic which reached number 18 in the charts and influenced many of the up and coming electronic bands, Gary Numan was a fan too!

He had several more hits in the early eighties before dissapearing for a few years before making a return to recording in the 1990's and he is still recording and touring today!

Queen - We Are The Champions - We Will Rock You

A huge hit for Queen, this power ballad and stomping anthem single was released in October 1977 as a double A Side. These tracks came off the album News Of The World which was released shortly after the single came out.

We Are The Champions was written by Freddie Mercury and has become one of the most played songs in the world, is one of the most played sporting anthems too. The idea of the song came from audience participation, having a live crowd chanting and waving arms to a song. The video of the song was the first one to use fans from the fan club as the audience to a ''live'' show of the band playing the new track. At the end of the video shoot, the fans were then treated to a real live show by the band and a copy of the new single. The band were to use the fans in videos of future releases!

We Will Rock You is also one of the most well known songs ever and also is often used in sporting arenas, A backing track of claps and stomping with the band singing on top, was such a simple idea and the classic Brian May guitar solo at the end finished an awesome track. The video to this track was recorded on a very cold snowy day in October in the back of Roger Taylor's garden. You can see just how cold the band were as they mimed the track.

The single reached number 2 in the UK and went gold, the single got into top 10 charts around the world too. We Will Rock You is the first track on the album with Champions following along, in America they still play both tracks as one from the album!

Here is the cover and label from the single

The Beatles - Love Me Do

The 5th of October 1962 is a date that just about changed the world, musically and more importatnt people's lives. Although it would take a couple of years for the full impact to hit, The Beatles had arrived on the music scene and over the next few years of the sixties would cause a revolution that changed the world forever. Love Me Do was released and got to number 17 in the UK charts. Beatlemania was just around the corner and the fab four would be screamed at with every concert they played.

We all know what went on to happen with the Beatles, together and apart over the next few years but EMI were to celebrate again in 1982 when the single got a 20th anniversary release and the single was re-released in a picture cover and picture disc and this time it got to number 4 in 1982, and after that all the Beatles singles got the 20th anniversary reissue treatment.

Shoot forward to October 2012 and the single is now 50 years old, many things have changed, vinyl is no longer a populat format, EMI has been bought out and really isn't a giant like it was back in the old day, Universal (who now own EMI) decided to release Love Me Do as a limited single originally set for October 5th 2012 but the company issued the wrong version onto the single. Andy White was a session drummer brought in on one of the recordings of the single but the Ringo Starr track was used as the original single. EMI pressed the White session onto the anniversary single and realised, they withdrew the single but around 200 copies got out and now changing hands on Ebay for a lot of money. So the single was reissued a few weeks later missing the anniversary and coming out towards the end of October instead. Also on the reissue, the catalogue number on the B Side is wrong to the A Side and also the publisher of the song is MPL Communications which is McCartney's publishing company.

Here is the 50th anniversary single, plus the picture disc and a scan of an original red Parlophone Love Me Do single from 1962