It made me realise that maybe Mouldy Old Dough wasn’t just the novelty hit it seemed to be at the time.

The guys in my year at school who knew about ‘serious’ music, the ones who walked around the playground with a copy of Rory Gallagher’s ‘ Blueprint‘ or ELP’s ‘ Brain Salad Surgery’ under their arm, would have taken the piss relentlessly out of me if they’d known I’d purchased it, but I loved it. As they needed two pianos, Woodward’s mum and piano teacher, Hilda was asked to sit in and the rest is Lieutenant Pigeon history.A couple of other interesting entries in this chart of 13 June 1971 in which Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep was the song on everyone’s lips was Sweet whose ‘ Co-Co‘ ushered in Glam Rock, and at No. At the time CCCC it was the longest song ever to reach the top spot, which, I suppose, is some minor claim to fame. You picked up the phone, dialled a particular number and a female voice would say, ‘ This is the Dial-A-Disc Service. They even came up with a punning anti-establishment name for the group, on The Band/ Banned, as well as pretending to publicise their anarchistic credentials. That’s not to say it’s particularly awful as 70s singles go, but it does takes you back to a certain time and place, but not necessarily in a good way.

According to lead singer Sally Carr, Benny and Bjorn admitted on a TV interview they had used MOTR to develop their sound. While listening to Stuart Maconie’s wonderful ‘ Freakzone‘ on Radio 6 Music recently, he played a track by a band from the 70s I remembered vaguely, Stavely Makepeace. His rather sleazy TOTP stage performance also implies he didn’t even understand the lyrics, changing the meaning of the song to one of ogling some burd in a sticky-carpeted, sweaty disco in Newcastle-under-Lyme with The Hit Man and Her in attendance. The Arsenal squad which won the double in 1971 released ‘ Good Old Arsenal‘ with words by a certain Jimmy Hill to the tune of ‘ Rule Brittania.

And Georgy Girl (1966), from the very interesting 60s film of the same name, was a great tune which got to No. He’s straining so much to hit the notes Stevie Wonder hits so effortlessly, it looks like he might to shit himself. The first thing to say about this record is that it’s far from being a rubbish song and its success is not inexplicable. But it did get in the charts and the guy responsible was Argentinian composer and arranger Waldo De Los Rios who demonstrated a lucrative ability to create easy listening versions of orchestral classics.

Telly Savalas was already an established Hollywood actor having had starring in roles in The Birdman of Alcatraz (for which he received an Oscar nomination), The Greatest Story Ever Told as Pontius Pilate (which Hollywood actor wasn’t in that? Mr Tambourine Man has to be heard to be believed and there is some serious acting going on in It Was A Very Good Year. As well as being one of the figures on the front cover of Wings ‘ Band On The Run,’ LP, Conteh also appeared in 70s films ‘ Man At The Top‘ and, strangely, ‘ The Stud‘ with Joan Collins in a career low. She had this very affected vocal style and I think she really fancied herself, thought she was a cut above every other singer in the charts and the media feted her because she seemed so NICE and NORMAL. Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep stayed at the top spot for 5 whole weeks being replaced by the monumental and game changing Get It On by T.A bit like the thing in Quatermass that just kept growing and growing into some unspeakable ghastliness…. It was one of these many popular misconceptions that went around in the 60s that no one really bothered to check out whether it was true or not. Firstly, and probably most importantly, a record producer somewhere will see the main chance of making a stack of cash for a minimal amount of work on someone who is ‘hot’. To be fair, most of their songs were written by ace tunesmith Tom Springfield, brother of the amazing Dusty and ex-member of The Springfields. And yet… sometimes their awfulness provides us with a frisson of perverse pleasure in the same way some people get pleasure from sado-masochism.

In 1965 Schroeder teamed up with band leader Johnny Pearson at Oriole Records and between them formed Sounds Orchestral who released 14 preposterously successful albums of easy listening orchestral arrangements of well known pop songs and film and TV themes. It’s always been a showbiz rule of thumb that if you become well-known, even for a short time, you have to make a record. It’s noticeable that Nicholas’s three hits were of a similar nature, unchallenging, slightly melodic and allowing him to perform his schtick with the bowler hat and cane. I still have the single, still love it and am immensely proud that this groundbreaking slice of hard New York funk was my first purchase. Someone in his management company obviously thought he needed an image and the bowler hat and cane was introduced.Anyone who has read this section of my little blog space will know that some of the titles featured are records which should have been strangled before birth. He then made it into West End musicals including starring roles in Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar amongst many other musical shows. The band that eventually became Middle of the Road certainly got about a bit and spent time in Italy, where they claim to have played on Sophia Loren‘s solo album, via South America.