There is no one hit song that defines the 70s as it was so varied. Maybe between Dancing Queen, Anarchy In The UK, Heroes, I Feel Love, Bohemian Rhapsody. Any one of those songs define the 70s for me. If I had to choose 'disco' I'd take Donna Summer as being the definitive disco artist any time over Chic who were good but didn''t have that much of an impact. One hit group? I'd probably hand that either to Abba or Queen.They were always there being played on the radio or TOTP.

Probably a glam rock song, as that music style was the overiding sound of the early / mid 70s. The late 70s had such a glorious mixture of sounds, from punk to disco, from pop to rock to 50s revival. I don't know of any other period that has such a mix of successful competing sounds, each pushing forward their own genre. Any record chosen from that part of the 70s will only represent one of those genres, thereby falsly implying that that genre was predominate.

Another option if you just want that one track by Mud, Shake It Down, it is on a CD entitled Supersonic 70's. 20 original hits by original artists on the Castle label. Available on Amazon, some cheap second hand options there by 100% positive sellers, and you can find a track listing on Ebay aswell.

Thank you for the list of Mud songs Rich Tea. I like most of them, especially The Cat Crept In, Rocket and Moonshine Sally.

Spookily enough, Tony played The Fall's version of There's a Ghost in My House on May 18th and R Dean Taylor's version just 2 weeks later.

When he played Abba's Waterloo the other week he joked about the follow-up Liverpool Street no being as good, obviously referring to another London rail terminal. I preferred his 70s joke about his great great grandfather who fell at Waterloo, because he was pushed off Platform 5!

Just listening to a pick of the pops show from June 4th 2011,Brilliant 1978 chart in the second hour .hope we will get a few more 1978 charts this year as we only have had 3 charts of that year in 2011 and 2012 (we've had 2 already in 2013)

Thanks Robbie for your comprehensive reply here. Yes, after I posted I did take the liberty to check up on my own facts and memory, and noticed the follow up book from 4 years later. I may have even glanced it at the time. I've no idea if it was presented inside in the same way as the 1992 version, which was really excellently printed out, if so I'm sure I would have seen and bought the follow up. Nothing for me, presentation wise has come close to the 1992 book, but that's just my own personal opinion.

I noticed this with There's A Ghost In My House too! One from The Fall in 1987, a minor hit, then the bigger R.Dean Taylor one from 1974. I'm surprised that happened infact. I think many regular listeners will have noticed immediately. Me and you did after all. Whooaaah!

It's shocking to see what a state poor Les Gray became by the mid 90's until he passed away. Unrecognisable. He aged 40 years in just 20 between the mid 70's and mid 90's.

For me, The Shuffle by Van McCoy sums up the 70's to me. I don't really know why as such. It just does. When I hear it I immediately think "THE 70's".

Abba are an obvious choice for group. But they are not exclusively 1970's, and for me I'd suggest groups like Mud, Sweet and much as it irks me to say so, Bay City Rollers (who I can't abide). All these groups were prolific and self contained within the decade itself and at no other time, in terms of commercial charting success anyway. All three cover 1971 to 1978 with their commercial peaks around the middle of the decade together. Not the high point in pop music history obviously, but the epitome of what is the 70's.

Not sure if you actually mean 'The Shuffle' or in fact 'The Hustle' but I know what you mean.......it's that 'pigeons at the window' sound.

The pair of them actually. Probably 1977's The Shuffle a bit more than 1975's The Hustle. For years I used to get those two tracks mixed up with each other! "Pigeon's at the window" is more The Hustle though, I guess from your striking analogy.

Just adding to my own post. I listened to both tracks back to back this morning and both are equally "pigeon" as you put it!

Bumping for today - 32 mins time...

1972 and 1989 this week.

Pick Of The Pops due in a moment, playing the w/e 24th June 1972, and in the second hour the w/e 24th June 1989.

Hi all - we're up..
TX 22/06/13, 1972 first hour

Hour 1 chart - http://www.officialcharts.com/archiv.../1/1972-06-24/

Free, Elton John... this is a good one.

Rocket Man - had that on vinyl...

It kicked off with a very classy Stylistics track, Betcha By Golly Wow, which seems like a very different kind of Stylistics compared to 3 to 4 years later.


Tony just mimicking a texter who commented "They don't write songs like they used to" by reading his comment out in a really old man voice. Trying to sound hip and youthful himself by comparison!

You can tell a Chinnichap track from the first bar pretty much...

Little Willy by The Sweet.

I just cannot help but wonder if there was innuendo back in '72 over this record, especially in the school playground's of the time? Maybe it's just a modern thing smirking at this innocent tune.

Tony says "So many jokes but not worth a career!"



Glitter swerve coming up! Normally a song rising 21 to 6 would be played easily, but not this time with Rock 'n' Roll (Parts 1 & 2) that's for certain. So this is the chart of Glitter's first ever week in the UK top ten. Interesting choice.

I left school this week in 1989 so hopefully some good memories and music

Hope you'll enjoy listening to Cliff's 100th hit single then! It was quite newsworthy at the time.

My teens ended this past week back in 1989. I hated that at the time.

I don't mind some Clit tracks but that wasn't one of his best, ironically given its title.

Hour 2's chart - http://www.officialcharts.com/archiv.../1/1989-06-24/

Why does this Bond theme from Gladys Knight, Licence To Kill, sound like she is infact saying Licence To "Kitt" most of the time? It annoyed me when it was a hit. It annoys me now!


Cruel Summer. I'm sure they have played the 1983 original and not the 1989 remix version. I hated the remix so much at the time, and this ain't it! It's the proper 1983 one. What was it that Tone said about "we know what we're doing here you know" a few weeks ago to a texter?

Programme info on the EPG says music from Neneh Cherry but Tony has bypassed it Manchild's a great track.



Hope he doesn't miss out Fuzzbox