I could only find 'Shake It Down' on You Tube, as some kind soul had uploaded a slightly scratchy vinyl version.

Couldn't find it on ITunes or any Mud Greatest Hits CD's.

The Greatest Hits I've seen seem to concentrate on the RAK era.

Just checked and you are right. iTunes can be bizarre at times. The amount of sizeable hit singles in the UK that I have not been able to find on there is astonishing. These are not obscure songs, they were big hits after all. I think I got the track via a freebie route infact, having checked out iTunes like you at the time. Their final 4 hit singles are not on RAK, but on PrivateStock. This likely explains it. Even so, it's a bit rough to omit them.

It is available on mp3skull.com which is where I got it from I think. Just looked and it's there.

Hope that helps.

It's on this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Singles-67-7...7&keywords=mud

If you like retro chart shows, the Vintage Chart Show on BBC Radio Devon is worth a listen too!

That looks like a great compilation if you didnt have any Mud in the first place!

Its a shame 'Shake It Down' didnt make it onto TOTP 2!

How old were the researchers for that show?

This weeks Pick Of The Pops is playing this week from 1959 and 1977 shortly.

A nice swerve from w/e 11th to w/e 18th June 1977 will give Tony a good excuse not to play God Save The Queen, which was No2 on the 11th and down to No4 on the 18th.

Hi all - checked OCC site- no chart archives are available for 1959 (would have been if chartstats hadn't been C&D'd)

OK - we're in business - hour 1's chart - http://umdmusic.com/default.asp?Lang...hBand=&ChSong=

Interesting that the OCC do not archive back beyond 1960, when the UK charts began in 1952. My own Guinness Book Of Top 40 Charts also only begins at March 1960 too.

Ad-hoc chart collection pre BRMB/Gallup/OCC?

I love Tony and really enjoy POTP but is anyone else getting fed up of the continuous coming up with a funny line into promos and up to song lyrics.

It's amusing first time, slightly amusing second time....but every week, at every opportunity?

I enjoy it when he shares a genuine anecdote or memory about the music he loves - but these silly bits are really getting on my t**s now.

It's a very well produced book indeed. I bought it in 1993 and it covers every year from March 1960 to December 1991 with each full Top 40 displayed properly, with all the details.

The ISBN number is ; ISBN 0-85112-541-7 if you are interested in finding it.

They never followed it up with a book as good as this ever again which was a shame.

It covers all the "official" charts from 1960, Record Retailer/Music Week through BMRB to Gallup.

Mistake from Tony regards It's Late by Ricky Nelson. He said that Shakin' Stevens later took it to No1. He did not. Yes, he covered the track in 1983 but it was a modest No11 for him.

For me, 1959 is a painful listen. I don't think I cared for a single song in that Top 20. But my own mother has half of the singles from it in her cabinet!

Hour 2's chart - http://www.officialcharts.com/archiv.../1/1977-06-18/

You just knew Tony HAD to play out some classic Temperton..

You just know he's NOT gonna play Mr Rotten & the boys ode to Her Maj from Silver Jubilee month!

Good Morning Judge, ah I'm visualising the promo music clip from last year on TOTP. N-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n!

10cc! - Here we go.. Remember us all on the TOTP thread when this played out?

The two Van McCoy instrumental singles The Hustle, and 1977's The Shuffle just ARE the 70's to me. So very seventies each time I hear them. He was dead just 2 years later sadly, never seeing out the 1970's himself.


Joe Tex, another who didn't last much longer either. Dead just 5 years later too. But he was a big boy! I caught Barry White doing a 1975 show at the Royal Albert Hall on BBC4 last night, and for 30 he was a huge size and sweating buckets over everything during his show.

Re Carole Bayer Sager - is it just me, or did her reference to what the in-universe ex "liked to do with bread" foreshadow the American Pie film franchise?

No it's not just you I'm sure. Funny how it goes un-noticed eh. We laughed last year at her singing that on TOTP and mentioned it then if I recall.

Rod, well we never heard this side of the hit last year did we, it was always the other A side, but in 1977 this was surely the REAL No1 of the time I'm sure.

Unfortunately we now get probably one of the worst No1 hits of 1977 next. It seems so out of place in summer 1977 does Kenny Rogers to me, certainly at the heights of number one.

Disco was largely a throwaway part of the 70s musically imo, but not THE 70s. I think artists who made that decade like Abba, Bowie, Roxy Musc, and the whole pub and punk rock scene had far more lasting impact well after the 70s had finished and what I remember the '70s. were really about..

A very contentious point and one I don't subscribe to for a moment, and nor would I imagine many others. After all, Britain has just had a million selling No1 for 4 weeks taken straight out of the disco book, with input from Nile "Chic" Rodgers himself. I don't even need to name the track do I.

Of course the impact of the others you mention goes without saying in itself, clearly.

Just out of interest, how would you sum up the 1970's decade by using just ONE hit song from the era, and maybe a bit easier ONE hit group/artist?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Singles-67-7...229816&s=music

The album covers all their singles from 1967 to 1978 and also seems to include B sides and some album tracks. There's 47 tracks in all.

There's 8 copies left but the album is £8.93.

Edit: I've just noticed dbuk10's post from this morning, he had already posted the above link.

There was a second edition of the book in 1996 which covered the charts to December 1995.

A few years ago Virgin Books produced a new edition which has all top 40 charts from March 1960 until the end of 2008. It's a more compact size than the 1992 original but does have over 1,000 pages.

The Virgin book is on sale at amazon for £14.99

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Virgin-B...=top+40+charts

However all the top 40 charts in this book (and beyond) are archived at the Official Charts Company website.

The reason why there are no charts pre-March1960 at either the OCC website or in any of these Top 40 books is that the compiler of the charts which are now accepted as the chart of record from November 1952 to February 1960 (the NME) would not licence the charts to Guinness / OCC / Virgin for publication. This was because at one time there was a book of NME charts, of which I have the second edition from 1995. The NME apparently still refuse to licence the charts even now. Again the book is available from amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Sin...rds=nme+charts

Ignore the price as new (£300 is the cheapest with one copy at £574!) I bought a second hand copy a few years back and it is fine. There are second hand copies available for under £2. The book covers the NME singles charts in full from November 1952 to December 1994.

He was only 39 when he died.