Forty years ago, December 1974, the
cover version LP was going strong. Perhaps a little past its peak, when budget
albums were scaling the charts themselves, but still a notable presence in High
Street stores, especially Woollies. It's interesting now to take a glance back
and see how the Christmas hits were rounded up - or not - on the albums in
question. Before we do that, let's remind ourselves of the top 40 on Christmas
day, 1974:
1 - Lonely This Christmas (Mud)
2 - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)
3 - Juke Box Jive (The
Rubettes)
4 - You're The First, The Last, My Everything (Barry White)
5 - Wombling Merry Christmas
(The Wombles)
6 - Streets Of London (Ralph McTell)
7 - My Boy (Elvis
Presley)
8 - Get Dancing (Disco
Tex And The Sex-O-Lettes)
9 - Oh Yes! You're Beautiful
(Gary Glitter)
10 - Tell Him (Hello)
11 - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (Elton John)
12 - You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything (The Faces And Rod Stewart)
13 - The Inbetweenies / Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me (The Goodies)
14 - Ire Feelings (Skanga)
(Rupie Edwards)
15 - Down Down (Status
Quo)
16 - Tell Me Why (Alvin
Stardust)
17 - Sound Your Funky Horn
(KC And The Sunshine Band)
18 - Christmas Song (Gilbert
O'Sullivan)
19 - I Can Help (Billy
Swan)
20 - Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy) (Al Green)
21 - Gonna Make You A Star
(David Essex)
22 - Under My Thumb (Wayne
Gibson)
23 - Hey Mister Christmas
(Showaddywaddy)
24 - The Bump (Kenny)
25 - Never Can Say Goodbye
(Gloria Gaynor)
26 - Magic (Pilot)
27 - Stardust (David
Essex)
28 - How Long (Ace)
29 - Only You (Ringo
Starr)
30 - Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart (The Trammps)
31 - Cheri Babe (Hot
Chocolate)
32 - Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus (Jane Birkin And Serge Gainsbourg)
33 - Ms. Grace (The Tymes)
34 - Too Good To Be Forgotten (The Chi-Lites)
35 - Killer Queen (Queen)
36 - Pepper Box (The Peppers)
37 - Help Me Make It Through The Night (John Holt)
38 - No Honestly (Lynsey
De Paul)
39 - (Hey There) Lonely Girl
(Eddie Holman)
40 - The Wild One (Suzi
Quatro)
What’s striking about the listing is the sheer number of
Christmas songs represented. And these weren’t all novelty records either – quite
a few were specially written hits for some of the major acts of the day. Number
1 were Mud with “Lonely This Christmas”, while both Gilbert O’Sullivan and
Showaddywaddy were on chart with their respective seasonal offerings.
“Christmas Song” and “Hey Mister Christmas”. Meantime, the then-popular Wombles
were sitting pretty at number 5 (“Wombling Merry Christmas”), with TV stars The
Goodies placed at number 13 (“Father Christmas Do No Touch Me”)
Of course the aim of the covers album was to scoop up all
these hits - or, as many as could be predicted given that they had to be
recorded some time in advance. When it came to Christmas singles though, the
main LP series were often reluctant to get to grips with them for some reason,
and so there are comparatively few available over the years. (Not a single one
tackled the current number 1 hit, “Lonely This Christmas”!)
So what about the rest of the top 40? How did the covers
albums fare? Let's start with the stalwart of stalwarts, "Top of the
Pops". Like several of the album series, there were actually two offerings
for your stocking that year – the standard album, as well as an end-of-year
round-up LP:
Top of the Pops were currently running at volume 42, and
their 12 song selections manage to capture the current chart numbers 2, 3, 4,
5, 9, 10, 11 and 16 – not a bad snapshot of the Christmas listing. The
unseasonal “Streets of London” was missing, as well as that chart-topper from
Mud, but we do have at least one Christmas number in the form of “Wombling
Merry Christmas” – actually, an underrated example from the genre.
The “Best of 1974” collection contains 14 (count ’em!)
number 1s from the year.
Naturally, one might look to compare mfp’s offering at this
stage, to see how they stacked up against the Hallmark boys. But, with “Hot
Hits” having folded a year earlier, mfp had little available in 1974. Their
most recent album, “Chart Choice 74” was something of a retrospective, casting
its eye over the year’s blockbusters, and just managing to tap into the
Christmas charts with the inclusion of “(Hey There) Lonely Girl”, which was
clinging on to number 39 on Christmas morning.
Now, something strange was afoot in late-1974. Three of the
leading names in cover version LPs were quietly closing in on one another. Get
this - the Christmas releases from Pye (“Chart Buster Hits” volume 13),
Windmill (“Parade of Pops” volume 19) and Stereo Gold Award (“12 Tops” volume
25) each had exactly the same contents! What on earth??... Here they
are:
So what makes the cut? The Christmas numbers 2, 3, 4 and 9
appear – all of which were also to be heard on the current “Top of the Pops”
collection, but there are some curious choices as well; five of these tracks
never even cracked the top 10, while one, a cover of Peters & Lee’s
“Closer” failed to chart at all in the UK! No Christmas hits to lighten the
mood either...
For number 1 hits, we have to look at the annual
collections, scooping up the year’s highlights. Pye went out on a limb by
issuing a 30 (yes, you heard me) track assemblage called “1974 Top 30” – so
vast it wouldn’t fit onto a disc and so only came out on cassette and 8-track
cartridge:
Meantime, Windmill missed the Christmas boat completely,
their yearly retrospective not landing until January:
We should also mention one other review of 1974,
Rediffusion’s lesser-known “The Best of ’74”, pretty similar to the “Top of the
Pops” equivalent LP, but with a couple less tracks:
The last name on the scene in December 1974 was Contour,
currently running volume 16 of their “16 Chart Hits” series. Alongside it came
their best-of album, “20 Great Hits of ’74”...
The album “16 Chart Hits” pulled out nine tracks from the
seasonal listing: 2, 3, 4, 7, 10, 26, 36, 38 and 40, and was the only one to
capture a version of Elvis’s “My Boy”.
So, all-in-all, a fair bit of overlap can be seen on these “rival”
offerings, but nevertheless, buyers had a choice of five current chart
collections, besides as many again surveying the hits of the previous 12
months. Not bad for a format supposedly past its prime. But where, oh where,
are all the Christmas hits?...
