11 October 1974

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	7	Why Me	–	Kris Kristofferson
2	5	6	If You Love Me (Let Me Know)	–	Olivia Newton-John
3	3	8	Rock Your Baby	–	George McCrae
4	4	9	The Night Chicago Died	–	Paper Lace
5	2	9	Touch too Much	–	Arrows
6	6	11	Let Me Roll It	–	Wings
7	9	5	Rock the Boat	–	Hues Corporation
8	7	6	Jack o’ Diamond	–	Walkers
9	8	8	A Rose Has to Die	–	Dennis East
10	14	3	Rock Me Gently	–	Andy Kim
11	12	7	Just an Ever Lovin’ Woman	–	Tommy Oliver
12	11	13	Band on the Run	–	Wings
13	15	9	Apple of My Eye	–	Badfinger
14	13	10	Over and Over	–	George Baker Selection
15	10	12	Sugar Baby Love	–	Rubettes
16	18	3	Annie’s Song	–	John Denver
17	16	5	Don’t Break This Heart	–	Gerry Grayson
18	New	1	Kung Fu Fighting	–	Carl Douglas
19	19	2	When Will I See You Again	–	Three Degrees
20	New	1	Try a Little Love	–	Lionel Petersen

‘Why Me’ by Kris Kristofferson clocked up its 6^th week at the top of the charts and had a new challenger to contend with as the song that had been at number 2 for the last 3 weeks, The Arrows ‘Touch Too Much’, fell to 5 while Olivia Newton-John’s ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ switched places with The Arrows’ hit, climbing up 3 from 5 to 2. Newton-John had already had a chart topper in the form of ‘If Not For You’, but so far none of the 19 women who had managed a number 1 hit had been able to go on and have a second.

Andy Kim’s ‘Rock Me Gently’ which had to be satisfied by just a star rater award last week (The Walkers’ ‘Jack O’ Diamond’ just beating it to be climber of the week), was the king of the climbers this week as it moved up 4 from 14 to 10 to be the climber and only star rater this week.

The Rubettes’ ‘Sugar Baby Love’ took the faller award with a 5 place drop from 10 to 15.

‘Band On The Run’ by Wings enjoyed its second week at the oldest in the charts. It was on its 13^th week in the charts overall.

Glenys Lynne’s ‘My Hart Het ‘n Kleine Venster’ became her worst performing hit to date as it left the charts after just 2 weeks and a peak of 19. Her previous 2 hits (one of which was her duet with Jody Wayne) had both peaked at 7. One had to go back to June 1967 when, as a member of Four Jacks & A Jill, Glenys put in a worse chart performance as ‘The House With The White Washed Gables’ spent a single week in the charts at number 20. This, however, was not the end of the SA chart road for her.

For the past 5 weeks we had been enjoying the only time we would see 2 songs in the charts with the word ‘Band’ in the title. The one was Wings’ hit mentioned earlier as the oldest on the charts, the other was Leo Sayer’s ‘One Man Band’ which left the charts this week. It had been with us for 5 weeks and peaked at 15. It had been the 7^th song with ‘Band’ in the title to chart and would also be the last. The previous ‘Band’ songs for those interested were The Monkees’ ‘Listen To The Band’, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘ Travellin’ Band’, Freda Payne’s ‘Band Of Gold’, Quentin E. Klopjaeger’s ‘We’re All Playing In The Same Band’, Albert Hammond’s ‘The Free Electric Band’ and Wings’ ‘Band On The Run’.

The first of the new entries was Carl Douglas’ ‘Kung Fu Fighting’. The song, written by Douglas and Biddu Appaiah (he of Biddu Orchestra fame) and produced by Biddu, went to number 1 in the US, UK, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and Holland (that’s 10 countries!). In Switzerland it fell 1 short of making it to the top and in Italy and Norway only got to number 3. Not a bad performance for a song that started out life being planned as a b-side and recorded in 10 minutes. It was originally meant to accompany ‘I Want to Give You My Everything’ which had taken the other 2 hours and 50 minutes of allotted studio time to record. ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ would eventually go on to sell over 11 million copies worldwide.

Our second new entry was the 4th and final act to chart with 2 songs containing the word ‘little’ in the title. The Troggs had been the first to manage this having hits with ‘Little Girl’ and ‘Little Red Donkey’. Leapy Lee had done it with ‘Little Arrows’ and ‘Little Yellow Aeroplane’ and Gwynneth Ashley-Robin did so with ‘Little Jimmy’ and ‘Little Soldier Blue’. Now Lionel Petersen added ‘Try A Little Love’ to his previous hit ‘I Need A Little Love’ to be part of this elite group. ‘Try A Little Love’ was a cover of a somewhat obscure song by Oscar Harris & The Twinkle Stars which had been a number 3 hit for them in Holland and a number 13 hit in Belgium. As with Petersen’s previous 2 hits, the production was handled by Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange.

Acts from the Netherlands celebrated their 100^th week on the charts. They sat behind Germany on 146 and Canada on 175 as well as the big 3 nations of South Africa, The US and The UK.

Wings now equalled Tommy Roe and Murray Campbell for the best run of consecutive weeks with 2 or more songs in the chart. Wings had seen ‘Band On The Run’ and ‘Let Me Roll It’ share the charts for 11 straight weeks now. Campbell had seen such a run with his solo version of ‘Goodbye My Love’ and the version he did as a duet with Virginia Lee while Tommy Roe’s chart mates were ‘Hooray For Hazel’ and ‘Sweet Pea’.

We now had 5 UK chart toppers in the top 20 with ‘Rock Your Baby’, ‘Sugar Baby Love’, Annie’s Song’ ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ and ‘When Will I See you Again’ all having made number 1 in Britain. It had been 314 weeks (last time was 4 October 1968) since we had seen this many UK chart toppers in the top 20. This still fell 2 short of the record to date 7 we had managed.

Youtube playlist:

4 October 1974

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	6	Why Me	–	Kris Kristofferson
2	2	8	Touch too Much	–	Arrows
3	4	7	Rock Your Baby	–	George McCrae
4	5	8	The Night Chicago Died	–	Paper Lace
5	7	5	If You Love Me (Let Me Know)	–	Olivia Newton-John
6	3	10	Let Me Roll It	–	Wings
7	12	5	Jack o’ Diamond	–	Walkers
8	6	7	A Rose Has to Die	–	Dennis East
9	13	4	Rock the Boat	–	Hues Corporation
10	8	11	Sugar Baby Love	–	Rubettes
11	10	12	Band on the Run	–	Wings
12	9	6	Just an Ever Lovin’ Woman	–	Tommy Oliver
13	11	9	Over and Over	–	George Baker Selection
14	18	2	Rock Me Gently	–	Andy Kim
15	15	8	Apple of My Eye	–	Badfinger
16	16	4	Don’t Break This Heart	–	Gerry Grayson
17	17	5	One Man Band	–	Leo Sayer
18	20	2	Annie’s Song	–	John Denver
19	New	1	When Will I See You Again	–	Three Degrees
20	19	3	My Hart Het ‘n Kleine Venster	–	Glenys Lynne

Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Why Me’ became the 30^th song to clock up at least 5 weeks at the top of the charts as it held off the challenge from The Arrows’ ‘Touch Too Much’ which spent a 3^rd straight week at 2. George McCrae’s ‘Rock Your Baby’, which had topped the chart in at least 14 other countries, edged closer to our number 1 spot as it moved up 1 into 3^rd place.

The Walkers’ ‘Jack o’ Diamond’, which had been the climber of the week 2 weeks back, took the award for a second time as it moved up a further 5 places, climbing from 12 to 7. The Hues Corporation’s ‘Rock the Boat’ and Andy Kim’s ‘Rock Me Gently’ not only had a first word in the title in common, but also were both star raters climbing 4 places each to land at 9 and 14 respectively.

Wings’ ‘Let me Roll It’ and Tommy Oliver’s ‘Just An Everlovin’ Woman’ were the fallers, dropping 3 places each with the former ending up at 6 and the latter at 12.

The only song to leave the chart this week was a former number 1 hit, Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Sundown’. It spent a total of 12 weeks in the top 20 and 5 of those were sitting at the top spot. This would mark the end of Lightfoot’s SA chart career. Apart from ‘Sundown’, he had seen 1 other hit, ‘Me And Bobby McGee’. His 2 songs had accumulated 19 weeks between then and his other hit had peaked at 7. He currently sat 3^rd of the list of points by Canadian artists with Terry Jacks ahead of him in second place and Lucille Starr leading the way. By the time the charts ended, he would have slipped down to 7^th place.

‘Sundown’ had been the oldest song on last week’s chart and that honour now fell to Wings’ ‘Band On The Run’ which was on 12 weeks. This was the first time that an ex-Beatle had been responsible for the oldest song in the charts. Only 1 other of the Fab Four would manage this and Paul McCartney would never manage it as a solo artists, only as part of Wings.

The new song on the chart was the Three Degree’s ‘When Will I See You Again’. The song was written by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff who had also been responsible for MFSB’s ‘TSOP’ on which the Three Degree’s had performed the chant of ‘Soul Train, Soul Train’. ‘When Will I See You Again’ narrowly missed topping the US charts, peaking at 2 there and kept off the top spot by Carl Douglas’ ‘Kung Fu Fighting’. In the UK however, it ousted George McCrae’s ‘Rock Your Baby’ to claim the top spot there. Elsewhere it made 2 in Belgium, 3 in Holland and 27 in Germany. Prince Charles is said to have taken a bit of a fancy at one time to Shelia Ferguson of the group.

Excluding the very first 2 weeks of the charts when Rick Nelson’s ‘I Need You’ was at 1, this was the 6^th time that we had no former number 1’s in the chart, only the current 1. It was also the 8^th time where, apart from the current number 1, there was only 1 other song in the top 20 that would eventually take the top spot.

In recent weeks the British acts had started to close the gap between themselves and those from America for number of hits to chart and this had been down to as low as 3 just 4 weeks previously. But a few hits from the Americans of late had widened the gap again and it was now sitting at 6 with the Americans on 376 and the Brits on 370.

Wings notched up their 30^th week in the charts this week and if one adds in the 11 weeks that Paul McCartney had managed as a solo artist, then he led the way for weeks by an ex-Beatle with a total of 41. Ringo was second on 38, John 3^rd on 25 and George was bringing up the rear with 23. Wings also celebrated 10 straight weeks with 2 songs in the charts. They were only the 3^rd act to manage this, the previous 2 being Murray Campbell and Tommy Roe although it should be added that Campbell’s run was when his solo version of ‘Goodbye My Love’ shared the charts with the version where he duetted with Virginia Lee. In total only 17 acts would manage 10 or more consecutive weeks with 2 or more in the charts and only 1 of those would manage it twice.

Youtube playlist:

27 September 1974

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	5	Why Me	–	Kris Kristofferson
2	2	7	Touch too Much	–	Arrows
3	4	9	Let Me Roll It	–	Wings
4	6	6	Rock Your Baby	–	George McCrae
5	3	7	The Night Chicago Died	–	Paper Lace
6	8	6	A Rose Has to Die	–	Dennis East
7	11	4	If You Love Me (Let Me Know)	–	Olivia Newton-John
8	5	10	Sugar Baby Love	–	Rubettes
9	7	5	Just an Ever Lovin’ Woman	–	Tommy Oliver
10	9	11	Band on the Run	–	Wings
11	13	8	Over and Over	–	George Baker Selection
12	12	4	Jack o’ Diamond	–	Walkers
13	18	3	Rock the Boat	–	Hues Corporation
14	10	12	Sundown	–	Gordon Lightfoot
15	14	7	Apple of My Eye	–	Badfinger
16	17	3	Don’t Break This Heart	–	Gerry Grayson
17	15	4	One Man Band	–	Leo Sayer
18	New	1	Rock Me Gently	–	Andy Kim
19	19	2	My Hart Het ‘n Kleine Venster	–	Glenys Lynne
20	New	1	Annie’s Song	–	John Denver

Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Why Me’ entered its 4^th week as the nation’s favourite song. It was still under pressure from The Arrow’s ‘Touch Too Much’ which was unmoved at 2.

The Hues Corporation took the climber of the week award as their hit, ‘Rock The Boat’, climbed 5 from 18 to 13. It was their first time with the award. The only other star rater was Olivia Newton-John’s ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ which climbed 4 from 11 to 7. This was her 3^rd star rater climb.

A couple of weeks back, Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Sundown’ became the 6^th song containing the word ‘down’ in the title to be the faller of the week. This week it became the second such song to be the faller of the week twice as it picked up the award again with a 4 place drop from 10 to 14. The previous ‘down’ song to be the faller twice was Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Down On The Corner’. ‘Sundown’ was still the oldest on the chart. It was enjoying its 12^th week with us and its 3^rd as the oldest.

Geli & Billy’s ‘Hazy Hazy (Crazy Crazy)’ was the first of 2 songs to depart the chart. It spent 4 weeks in the top 20 and peaked at 18. This was 13 weeks less and 16 places lower than the duet’s previous hit, ‘Do You Love Me’. Billy (Forrest) would still see further chart action, but for Geli (Angelika Illman) it was the end of the SA chart road. Her only 2 hits were as one half of Geli & Billy. Her weeks total was 21 and the peak of 2 for ‘Do You Love Me’ was the best she manged.

We also bid farewell to Mungo Jerry’s ‘Long Legged Woman Dressed in Black’. It spent 10 weeks in the charts and peaked at 4. Their previous hit, ‘Lady Rose’ also spent 10 weeks in the top 20, but peaked 2 places lower at 6. Their only chart topper to date, ‘In The Summertime’ also had their best weeks count for a song of 15. They had one more hit to come.

Both of the new entries this week were US chart toppers, although the first of these, Andy Kim’s ‘Rock Me Gently’ would only get to number 1 in the US the day after it entered our charts. We had last seen Andy Kim on our charts on 2 January 1970 when his ‘So Good Together’ ended a 6 week run. The gap of 247 weeks between his previous hit and ‘Rock Me Gently’ was the 10^th biggest gap we had seen to date and was the biggest gap to date for a Canadian artist. ‘Rock Me Gently’ gave Andy Kim his only US chart topper and the song went to number 2 in the UK. It was the 21^st song by a Canadian act to chart and Canada sat 4^th for number of hits, 6 ahead of 5^th placed Germany.

John Denver had his first SA hit with ‘Annie’s Song’ this week. The song is one of the few non-instrumental hits where the title of the song does not appear in the lyrics. The song was a tribute to Denver’s mother and it topped both the US and UK charts. In the US it knocked the song that was at number 4 in our charts this week, ‘Rock Your Baby’ by George McCrae, off pole position. ‘Annie’s Song’ would be Denver’s second US number 1, following the earlier success in 1974 of ‘Sunshine On My Shoulder’ and it would be the only 1 of his 4 US chart toppers to spend more than 1 week at the top as it managed to stay there for a second week. In the UK it was his only chart topper, spending just a single week at 1 there. Denver had first seen SA chart action 246 weeks back (1 less than the gap between Andy Kim’s hits) but back then it had only been as a song writer that he charted, having composed Peter, Paul & Mary’s ‘Leaving On A Jet Plane’.

We now had a record 7 US chart toppers in the charts, these were the songs at 4, 5, 10, 13, 14, 18 and 20. Only 3 of our top 20 had made it to number 1 in the UK and these were the songs at 4, 8 and 20 this week.

Badfinger were enjoying their 30^th week in the charts. They were the 91^st act to reach this milestone.

This week was the first one where we saw a record to date 3 songs with the word ‘Rock’ in the title. They were ‘Rock Your Baby’, ‘Rock The Boat’ and ‘Rock Me Gently’.

Youtube playlist:

20 September 1974

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	4	Why Me	–	Kris Kristofferson
2	3	6	Touch too Much	–	Arrows
3	4	6	The Night Chicago Died	–	Paper Lace
4	5	8	Let Me Roll It	–	Wings
5	2	9	Sugar Baby Love	–	Rubettes
6	6	5	Rock Your Baby	–	George McCrae
7	10	4	Just an Ever Lovin’ Woman	–	Tommy Oliver
8	9	5	A Rose Has to Die	–	Dennis East
9	8	10	Band on the Run	–	Wings
10	7	11	Sundown	–	Gordon Lightfoot
11	14	3	If You Love Me (Let Me Know)	–	Olivia Newton-John
12	17	3	Jack o’ Diamond	–	Walkers
13	12	7	Over and Over	–	George Baker Selection
14	13	6	Apple of My Eye	–	Badfinger
15	15	3	One Man Band	–	Leo Sayer
16	11	10	Long Legged Woman Dressed in Black	–	Mungo Jerry
17	20	2	Don’t Break This Heart	–	Gerry Grayson
18	19	2	Rock the Boat	–	Hues Corporation
19	New	1	My Hart Het ‘n Kleine Venster	–	Glenys Lynne
20	18	4	Hazy Hazy (Crazy Crazy)	–	Geli & Billy

‘Why Me’ by Kris Kristofferson enjoyed a 3^rd week at the top of the charts while The Arrows’ ‘Touch Too Much’ moved up into 2^nd place, dislodging last week’s number 2, The Rubettes’ ‘Sugar Baby Love’ which fell to 5.

The Walkers’ ‘Jack O Diamond’ became the 5^th song by a Dutch act to be the climber of the week as it moved up 5 places from 17 to 12. Of the previous 4 songs by Dutch acts to be the biggest climber, 2 had managed to be so twice making The Walkers effort the 7^th time overall that a Dutch song had taken the award. This would be the only star rater we would see this week.

Falling honours went to Mungo Jerry’s ‘Long Legged Woman Dressed In Black’ which dropped 5 from 11 to 16. It was the band’s 4^th time with the biggest faller.

Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Sundown’ continued as the oldest in the top 20. It was in its 11^th week with us and this was its second week as the oldest.

Lee Reed’s ‘Shlick Shlack Boom Boom’ was the only song to leave the chart. It had been with us for 9 weeks and peaked at 10. This would be his only SA chart hit. So far we had seen 11 German acts chart and Reed was the 9^th who would only see 1 hit chart on our charts. Only Michael Holm on 5 hits and Peter Maffay on 2 had seen more than 1 hit. By the time the charts ended in 1989 we would have seen 29 German acts chart, 19 of which (just under two thirds) would only manage 1 hit.

Glenys Lynne supplied our 19th Afrikaans top 20 hit (15 Pure Afrikaans, 3 a mix of English and Afrikaans and 1 instrumental with an Afrikaans title) as ‘My Hart Het ‘n Kleine Venster’ entered at 19. Lynne joined Lance James and The Bats with having had 2 Afrikaans songs chart with Groep Twee and Al Debbo leading the way with 3 each. Lynne’s previous hit, ‘Haai Casanova’, was the previous Afrikaans song to grace our charts and she became the first act to be the artist on consecutive Afrikaans hits. Meyer van Rensberg who had translated ‘Hey Joe McKenzie’ into ‘Haai Casanova’ also had a writing credit on ‘My Hart Het ‘n Kleine Venster’. More recently, the latter was covered by Jurie Els.

Glenys Lynne also celebrated her 20^th week in the charts (excluding her time as lead singer of Four Jacks & A Jill) and she was the 25^th woman and 11^th local woman to manage this. Billy Forrest joined Cliff Richard, Manfred Mann and Middle Of The Road in tied 16^th place on the overall weeks count list. Their total was 81. He was now only 2 behind the leader on the local list, The Staccatos who were on 83.

Wings were enjoying their 8^th straight week with 2 in the charts and they were the 6^th act to manage such a run.

Youtube playlist:

13 September 1974

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	3	Why Me	–	Kris Kristofferson
2	2	8	Sugar Baby Love	–	Rubettes
3	3	5	Touch too Much	–	Arrows
4	4	5	The Night Chicago Died	–	Paper Lace
5	5	7	Let Me Roll It	–	Wings
6	8	4	Rock Your Baby	–	George McCrae
7	6	10	Sundown	–	Gordon Lightfoot
8	7	9	Band on the Run	–	Wings
9	11	4	A Rose Has to Die	–	Dennis East
10	9	3	Just an Ever Lovin’ Woman	–	Tommy Oliver
11	10	9	Long Legged Woman Dressed in Black	–	Mungo Jerry
12	13	6	Over and Over	–	George Baker Selection
13	12	5	Apple of My Eye	–	Badfinger
14	16	2	If You Love Me (Let Me Know)	–	Olivia Newton-John
15	19	2	One Man Band	–	Leo Sayer
16	15	9	Shlick Shlack Boom Boom	–	Lee Reed
17	20	2	Jack o’ Diamond	–	Walkers
18	18	3	Hazy Hazy (Crazy Crazy)	–	Geli & Billy
19	New	1	Rock the Boat	–	Hues Corporation
20	New	1	Don’t Break This Heart	–	Gerry Grayson

Having rushed to get the top spot, Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Why Me’ stayed put there to bring its weeks at 1 total to 2. Last week’s number 2, The Rubettes’ ‘Sugar baby Love’ was unmoved as were the songs in positions 3 to 5.

Leo Sayer’s first hit, ‘The Show Must Go On’ never managed a biggest climber, but his second hit, ‘One Man Band’, was the climber of the week this week with a 4 place jump from 19 to 15. This would also be the only star rater climb we saw.

We would only see 2 weeks where a 1 place fall would get you a faller of the week award. The previous time was 20 October 1972 where 5 songs picked up the award. This week we went 1 better with 6 songs dropping 1 place to be regarded as the faller of the week. The 6 fallers were Lee Reed’s ‘Shlick Shlack Boom Boom’ (down to 16), Badfinger’s ‘Apple Of My Eye’ (down to 13), Mungo Jerry’s ‘Long Legged Woman Dressed In Black’ (down to 11), Tommy Oliver’s ‘Just An Everlovin’ Woman’ (down to 10), Wings’ ‘Band On The Run’ (down to 8) and Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Sundown’ (down to 7). For Tommy Oliver, Mungo Jerry and Badfinger it was a 3^rd biggest faller while for the other 3 it was a first.

Lena Zavaroni’s ‘Ma! (He’s Making Eyes at Me)’ was the first of 2 songs to drop off the top 20 this week. It lasted 11 weeks in the charts and peaked at 3. This would be her only SA chart hit.

Also going was Abba’s ‘Waterloo’. It had seen a run of 15 weeks, 2 of which had been spent at the top of the charts. In its last week on the charts it was the oldest in the top 20. That title now went to Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Sundown’ which was on 10 weeks and was the 38^th song to take the title on 10 or less weeks. It had been 197 weeks since we had last seen a song on 10 weeks or less as the oldest and that was when The Shuffles’ ‘Cha-La-La, I Need You’ and The Mike Curb Congregation’s ‘Burning Bridges’ took over as the oldest on only 9 weeks. There would only be 2 more songs that would become the oldest on 10 or less weeks.

The first of the new entries was The Hues Corporation with ‘Rock The Boat’. The song had topped the US charts a few months earlier where it knocked Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Sundown’ from number 1. Unlike its dramatic fall from grace in SA, in the US, ‘Sundown’ only dropped to number 2 when ‘Rock The Boat Took Over’. The latter would top the Zimbabwean charts as well as getting to number 6 in the UK and Belgium, 4 in Holland and 7 in Germany. In 1983, an artist simply called Forrest (not our Billy) took a cover version to number 4 in the UK.

Perhaps inspired by the recent success of Peter Vee’s cover of Jack Jersey’s ‘Baby Baby Answer Me (I’m Calling)’, Gerry Greyson (born Gerry Cloete in Oudtshoorn) released ‘Don’t Break This Heart’ a cover of another Jack Jersey (real name Jack de Nijs) song. Greyson’s version was the second new entry this week. Jersey’s version made number 9 in Belgium and 18 in The Netherlands. This was Greyson’s first SA hit.

Tommy Oliver and Angelika Illman (the Geli in Billy & Geli) both reached the 20 weeks in the chart mark while Billy Forrest celebrated his 80^th. Forrest moved a week ahead of Alan Garrity so the latter dropped to 20^th in the overall weeks count list and 3^rd on the local list.

The average number of weeks the top 20 songs had been with us dropped below the 5 mark for the first time in 180 weeks as it fell to 4.9

Youtube playlist:

6 September 1974

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	10	2	Why Me	–	Kris Kristofferson
2	3	7	Sugar Baby Love	–	Rubettes
3	7	4	Touch too Much	–	Arrows
4	4	4	The Night Chicago Died	–	Paper Lace
5	5	6	Let Me Roll It	–	Wings
6	1	9	Sundown	–	Gordon Lightfoot
7	2	8	Band on the Run	–	Wings
8	12	3	Rock Your Baby	–	George McCrae
9	19	2	Just an Ever Lovin’ Woman	–	Tommy Oliver
10	6	8	Long Legged Woman Dressed in Black	–	Mungo Jerry
11	14	3	A Rose Has to Die	–	Dennis East
12	11	4	Apple of My Eye	–	Badfinger
13	16	5	Over and Over	–	George Baker Selection
14	8	15	Waterloo	–	ABBA
15	13	8	Shlick Shlack Boom Boom	–	Lee Reed
16	New	1	If You Love Me (Let Me Know)	–	Olivia Newton-John
17	9	11	Ma! (He’s Making Eyes at Me)	–	Lena Zavaroni
18	20	2	Hazy Hazy (Crazy Crazy)	–	Geli & Billy
19	New	1	One Man Band	–	Leo Sayer
20	New	1	Jack o’ Diamond	–	Walkers

‘Why Me’ by Kris Kristofferson became the 3^rd song to get to number 1 in its second week on the chart as it jumped 9 places from number 10 last week to number 1 this week. The previous 2 songs to get to number 1 in just 2 weeks were Shocking Blue’s ‘Venus’ and Charisma’s ‘Mammy Blue’. These would be the only 3 songs that would manage such a feat. The 9 place jump was the biggest we would ever see a song make to take the top spot.

And while the new number 1 was seeing the biggest jump to get there, the previous chart topper, Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Sundown’, was seeing the tied all-time biggest fall from grace as it dropped 5 places to number 6. The 1910 Fruitgum Company’s ‘Indian Giver’ was the only other song to date to see such a fall from the top spot. There would be 1 more song to have such a fall.

Despite ‘Why Me’s large jump to get to the top spot, it was not the climber of the week. That award went to Tommy Oliver’s ‘Just An Everlovin’ Woman’ which moved up 10 from 19 to 9. This was the 53^rd time a song had climbed 10 or more places in a week, but only the 6^th song by a local act to manage this. There would only be 1 more local song to manage a climb of this magnitude.

Apart from the biggest climber and the new number 1, there were 2 other songs that managed star rater climbs. These were The Arrows’ ‘Touch Too Much’ which moved up 4 from 7 to 3 and George McCrae’s ‘Rock Your Baby’ which moved up 4 from 12 to 8.

Lena Zavaroni’s ‘Ma! (He’s Making Eyes At Me)’ was the faller of the week as it dropped 8 from 9 to 17. In contrast, Abba celebrated 30 weeks in the charts without seeing a single faller of the week. They were the 14^th act to manage this. Not only that, they also saw ‘Waterloo’ become the oldest in the top 20 as the previous oldest fell off the chart (more on that in a minute), ‘Waterloo’ was on 15 weeks in the top 20.

Sunny’s ‘Doctor’s Orders’ was the first of 3 songs to leave the charts. It had been with us for 4 weeks and peaked at 16. This would be the only SA chart we would see from her.

The oldest on last week’s chart, The Hollies’ ‘The Air That I Breathe’, left the top 20 after 16 weeks, 2 of which were spent at the top spot. We had not finished with The Hollies just yet.

Charlie Rich was right when he sang ‘There Won’t Be Anymore’ as when his song left the charts this week, it was the end of his 1 hit SA Chart career. His only hit lasted 14 weeks and peaked at 5.

The first of the new entries was Olivia Newton-John’s 3rd hit, ‘If you Love Me (Let Me Know)’. This would be her second top 10 hit in the US where it got to number 5 and also went to number 2 on the Country Singles charts.  It went to number 1 in Canada, 2 in Australia, 10 in New Zealand and 37 in Germany. The song was written by John Rostill who had also brought us Cliff Richard’s ‘In The Country’ and Leapy Lee’s ‘Little Yellow Aeroplane’. Olivia had last been seen on the charts 127 weeks back and she was the 60^th act to have a gap of 100 weeks or more between hits. 127 weeks was the 6^th biggest gap for a female artist.

Leo Sayer followed up ‘The Show Must Go On’ with ‘One Man Band’, our second new entry this week, coming into the charts at 19. It made number 6 in the UK and gave him his first US hit as it scraped a peak of 96 on the Hot 100 there. In Germany the song got to number 12 while in Austria it peaked at 20. It was written by Leo Sayer and David Courtney (who also wrote ‘The Show Must Go On’) and was originally recorded by The Who’s Roger Daltry.

The last newcomer was The Walkers’ ‘Jack O’Diamond’. Not to be confused with the old song made popular by Blind Lemon Jefferson and Tex Ritter, this was a song written by band members Conny Peters and Jean and Rene Innemee and it became the 9th song by a Dutch act to chart. In their native Holland, the song made it to number 17 on the charts there. Acts from The Netherlands joined Jamaica and Ireland in 7^th place for number of hits and they sat 3 behind Australia which was in 6^th place.

For our 3 new entrants this week it was a first (The Walkers) a second (Leo Sayer) and a third (Olivia Newton-John) hit.

Apart from Abba celebrating 30 weeks in the charts (see above), we also saw Olivia Newton-John hit the 20 week mark. She was the 23^rd woman to reach this milestone.

Billy Forrest moved into tied 19^th place on the overall weeks count list with 79 weeks to his name. He shared the spot with another local act, Alan Garrity. It did mean that Four Jacks & A Jill (yet another local act) fell off the overall top 20 of the list along with The Archies. The latter had been in the top 20 of the list for 180 consecutive weeks and a total of 210 weeks. Four Jacks & A Jill could only claim the previous 35 weeks as their latest consecutive run in the overall top 20, but outdid The Archies for total weeks in the top 20 as they had managed 215 weeks. Both The Archies and Four Jacks & A Jill had finished their SA chart careers. On the local list Billy Forrest moved into tied second place alongside Alan Garrity.

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30 August 1974

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	8	Sundown	–	Gordon Lightfoot
2	2	7	Band on the Run	–	Wings
3	3	6	Sugar Baby Love	–	Rubettes
4	8	3	The Night Chicago Died	–	Paper Lace
5	6	5	Let Me Roll It	–	Wings
6	4	7	Long Legged Woman Dressed in Black	–	Mungo Jerry
7	9	3	Touch too Much	–	Arrows
8	7	14	Waterloo	–	ABBA
9	5	10	Ma! (He’s Making Eyes at Me)	–	Lena Zavaroni
10	New	1	Why Me	–	Kris Kristofferson
11	12	3	Apple of My Eye	–	Badfinger
12	19	2	Rock Your Baby	–	George McCrae
13	10	7	Shlick Shlack Boom Boom	–	Lee Reed
14	20	2	A Rose Has to Die	–	Dennis East
15	11	14	There Won’t be Anymore	–	Charlie Rich
16	14	4	Over and Over	–	George Baker Selection
17	13	16	The Air That I Breathe	–	Hollies
18	16	4	Doctor’s Orders	–	Sunny
19	New	1	Just an Ever Lovin’ Woman	–	Tommy Oliver
20	New	1	Hazy Hazy (Crazy Crazy)	–	Geli & Billy

‘Sundown’ by Gordon Lightfoot enjoyed it’s 5^th week at the top of the charts while Wings’ ‘Band On The Run’ sat stuck in second place for the 3^rd week running. The Rubettes’ ‘Sugar Baby Love’ was unmoved at 3.

Having had 3 weeks in a row where the climber of the week managed an 8 place jump, this week we just missed out on seeing a 4^th week in this sequence as the climber award went to George McCrae’s ‘Rock Your Baby’ which managed a 7 place climb from 19 to 12.

Other star raters this week were Paper Lace’s ‘The Night Chicago Died’ which moved up 4 from 8 to 4 and Dennis East’s ‘A Rose Has To Die’ which climbed 6 from 20 to 14.

The faller of the week award was shared between 3 songs which all dropped 4 places. The Hollies’ ‘The Air That I Breathe’ fell to 17, Charlie Rich’s ‘There Won’t Be Anymore’ dropped to 15 while Lena Zavaroni’s ‘Ma! (He’s Making Eyes At Me)’ moved down to 9. It was The Hollies’ 7^th time with the award and they were the 12^th act to accumulate this many fallers. While having a faller of the week, The Hollies could take some comfort from the fact that ‘The Air That I Breathe’ was the oldest on the charts on 16 weeks. It happened to be the 16^th week that The Hollies had had the oldest song in the charts and they were the 6^th act to manage this many weeks with the oldest.

The previous oldest in the top 20 was one of three songs that left the charts this week and that was Andy Williams’ ‘Solitaire’. The song lasted 20 weeks in the top 20 and spent 4 weeks at 1. This was by far his best performer to date with his next best peak (of his 3 other hits to date) was 9 which ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ managed.

Jody Wayne’s ‘Heartbeat’ dropped out of the charts after 5 weeks and a peak of 15. Wayne had seen 9 chart hits to date with only 2 have lower weeks and peaks figures.

Last to go was Dan Hill’s version of ‘The Birdie Song’ which he called ‘Tchip Tchip’. It spent 11 weeks in the charts and peaked at 4. Of the 5 local instrumental hits we had seen to date, only 1 (Omega Limited’s ‘Tchaikovsky One’) had a better weeks and peak figure having lasted 12 weeks and peaked at 3. There was still more to come from Hill.

Kris Kristofferson had hit our charts 3 times as a songwriter, twice with ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’ (Sammi Smith’s and Percy Sledge’s versions) and once with Gordon Lightfoot’s version of ‘Me And Bobby McGee. This week he finally made it in his own right as ‘Why Me’ entered the charts and did so in style, becoming the 13th song to enter the charts at 10 or higher. The song made it to the top of the US Country Singles charts and also made 16 on the main Hot 100 as well as getting to 31 in Holland. The song is sometimes referred to as ‘Why Me Lord’, but the single label only lists it as ‘Why Me’ which made it the 7th song to chart in SA that did not contain any of the letters from the phrase ‘Springbok Radio’.

Another country singer, local lad Tommy Oliver was also amongst the new entries. He followed up his 1973 number 3 hit ‘I Wanna Live’ with ‘Just An Ever Lovin’ Woman’ for his 2nd SA chart entry. The song was written by Norman Cousins and won the Sarie for song of the year.

Geli & Billy become the second duet to have a second song chart as their hit ‘Hazy Hazy (Crazy Crazy)’ entered at 20. Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood led the way for duets with 3 hits to their name. There would be a total of 8 duets who would manage 2 or more hits and 1 more of these would go on to score 3. Geli & Billy were Angelika Illman and Billy Forrest and this, Forrest’s 11th hit, made him the 11^th act to reach this many. Billy’s 11 were made up of 4 as Quentin E Klopjaeger, 2 as William E., 1 as Dennis, 1 as part of a duet with Sharon Tandy, 1 as Billy Forrest and now 2 as part of the duet with Geli. ‘Hazy Hazy (Crazy Crazy)’ was the 11th song to chart which listed Chris Andrews as songwriter. It was also recorded by a band called Bubbles. Forrest produced the single alongside Lofty Shultz who also arranged it. Shultz’s name appears on a good number of South African releases with production and arranger credits as well as being noted for playing various instruments. He was also responsible for the arrangement of the aforementioned hit Forrest had with Sharon Tandy, ‘Hello-A’.

Wings enjoyed their 20^th week in the charts. Having 2 in the chart meant that they were adding 2 to their total each week now.

Billy Forrest’s new entry meant his weeks count moved on to 78 which put him tied 20^th with Four Jacks & A Jill and The Archies on the overall weeks count list. He and Four Jacks & A Jill sat tied 3^rd on the local list with Alan Garrity in second place and The Staccatos at the top of the list being above them.

For the first time in 16 weeks we saw the average number of weeks the top 20 songs had been with us fall below 6 as it dropped to 5.9.

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