Written by: Jim Jacobs & Warren Casey Produced by: Louis St Louis South African record label (unless otherwise stated): RSO
Hit number for artist
2
Peak position
9
Weeks
7
Biggest climber awards
0
Star rater climbs
0
Biggest faller awards
0
Top 20 points
50
Overall Top 20 points ranking
=1594
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
2/10
Top 30 Points
120
Overall Top 30 points ranking
=1687
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
2/10
Annual ranking:
1978
69
Other chart success:
Australia
6
Austria
1
Belgium
1
Canada
3
Finland
14
Germany
4
Ireland
1
Italy
4
Netherlands
1
New Zealand
3
Norway
2
Sweden
3
Switzerland
7
UK
1
US
5
Zimbabwe
7
SA Radio charts:
Radio 5
1
The song was from the film ‘Grease’ in which Travolta and Newton-John had lead roles. The single would shift over 1 million copies in the US and in excess of 1.6 million in the UK. It was the 2nd of 3 songs from the movie to make our charts and would rank 2nd of the 3 for top 20 points being beaten by Travolta and Newton-John’s other hit from the film, ‘You’re The One That I Want’ but beating Frankie Valli’s version of the title theme, ‘Grease’. There were 3 other singles that were released from the film’s soundtrack and these were Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’ and John Travolta’s ‘Greased Lightning’ and ‘Sandy’. All 3 of these would make the UK charts, peaking at 2, 11 and 2 respectively.
Written by: Jeff Barry & Peter Allen Produced by: John Farrar South African record label (unless otherwise stated): EMI
Hit number for artist
4
Peak position
5
Weeks
10
Biggest climber awards
1
Star rater climbs
3
Biggest faller awards
2
Top 20 points
104
Overall Top 20 points ranking
=1066
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
5
Top 30 Points
204
Overall Top 30 points ranking
=1141
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
6
Annual Ranking:
1974
69
1975
75
Other chart success:
Australia
1
Canada
1
Sweden
1
UK
22
US
1
The song would give Olivia her first US chart topper (it was her 5th to make the Hot 100) and it would go on to win the Grammy for Record of the Year and Best Vocal Performance, Female. Lynn Anderson would record a cover of the song and a snippet of her version can be heard in the film ‘Jaws’.
Written by: Peter Sills, Don Black & Michael Allison Produced by: John Farrar South African record label (unless otherwise stated): EMI
Hit number for artist
5
Peak position
5
Weeks
9
Biggest climber awards
1
Star rater climbs
1
Biggest faller awards
1
Top 20 points
98
Overall Top 20 points ranking
=1128
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
8
Top 30 Points
188
Overall Top 30 points ranking
=1241
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
8
Annual ranking:
1977
44
Other chart success:
Canada
58
US
55
The song was written for Cliff Richard, whom Olivia Newton-John was working with as a backing singer at the time. Cliff recorded a version but did not include it on his 1975 album ‘I’m Nearly Famous’. He would later release it as the title track to a 1977 album. Cliff’s version has some different lyrics which are more Christian based than the Olivia Newton-John version which had been re-written by Don Black.
Olivia Newton-John enjoyed a 3rd week at 1 with ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ and this was her 4th week in total at the top spot, having picked up 1 week with ‘If Not For Me’. Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Why Me’ remained unmoved at 2 where it had sat since ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ had knocked it off the top spot.
Abba’s ‘Hasta Mañana’ picked up their second biggest climber award with a 9 place climb from 16 to 7. This was the 104th time we had seen a climb of 9 or more places in a week and the 10th time a song by an artist that was not from the big 3 nations (SA, UK, US). Apart from acts from the big 3 nations who had managed this, we had seen acts from Canada and The Netherlands manage it twice while acts from Australia, France, Germany, Jamaica, Spain and now Sweden had all done so twice. The 2 from The Netherlands and those from Canada had been by different acts.
Andy Kim’s ‘Rock Me Gently’ was a star rater, climbing 4 from 7 to 3 to give him his highest placing on the charts so far. His previous 2 hits had peaked at 7 and 18. Also a star rater was Margaret Singana’s ‘Mama Tembu’s Wedding’ which moved up 4 from 17 to 13. This was her first time with a star rater and she had to get 2 more in order to catch up with Letta Mbulu who was the only other solo local black woman who would chart.
‘A Rose Has To Die’ by Dennis East was the faller of the week. It dropped 5 from 15 to 20 to take the award
‘Annie’s Song’ by John Denver was the first of 3 songs to leave the top 20 this week. It had enjoyed a run of 7 weeks and peaked at 11. This had been his first SA chart hit, but would not be his last.
Gerry Grayson’s ‘Don’t Break This Heart’ spent 9 weeks on the top 20 before leaving us. It managed to get as high as 13 during this time. It would be his only solo SA chart hit, but he would return as part of a collaboration.
Last to go was the oldest song on last week’s chart, Wings’ ‘Let Me Roll It’. It lasted 15 week and in falling off the top 20 this week, it failed to become the outright leader for weeks on the charts by an ex-Beatle but did share the title with Ringo Starr’s ‘Photograph’. ‘Let Me Roll It’ peaked at 3, a place lower than their previous hit, ‘Band On The Run’.
Paper Lace’s ‘The Night Chicago Died’ and The Arrows’ ‘Touch Too Much’ were the new oldest in the charts. They were on 14 weeks.
The first of the newcomers to the chart was Eric Clapton’s version of the Bob Marley song, ‘I Shot The Sheriff’. Clapton had had success as a member of the Yardbirds, Cream and Derek & The Dominoes, but this was his first solo hit in the UK where it made it to number 9. It topped the charts in the US, Canada and New Zealand as well as making top 10 in Norway, Germany, Holland and Belgium. This was the first of only 2 Bob Marley compositions that would grace our charts.
The second new entry was Big John’s Rock N Roll Circus with their hit ‘Rockin’ In The U.S.A.’. This rather obscure British band featured John Goodison from Coventry on vocals. Goodison had been a member of an early incarnation of The Brotherhood Of Man and on a visit to South Africa he ended up producing local band Copperfield’s ‘Rock And Roll Singer’ (which was yet to chart). He had also had writing credits on Cliff Richard’s ‘Sunny Honey Girl’ and production credits on Love Affair’s ‘A Day Without Love’.
Last of the new entries was Lovelace Watkins’ cover of the Neil Sedaka song ‘The Way I Am’. Watkins toured South Africa and even got a public parade. There is an album called ‘Lovelace Watkins Live In South Africa’ which appeared around 1971/72 and features a version of ‘The Way I Am’. Despite popular appeal in the US, Europe and Liverpool in England, Lovelace was never able to convert this into sufficient sales to trouble any of the charts in those regions, in fact the only other chart action I can find for him is that ‘The Way I Am’ also made 12 in what was then Rhodesia.
Olivia Newton-John became the 93rd act and 12 female act to reach the 30 weeks in the charts milestone.
The arrival of ‘I Shot The Sheriff’ in the charts kept the level of US number 1 hits at 6 as it replaced the departing ‘Annie’s Song’ by John Denver which had also been a US chart topper. This level had been at 6 for 4 weeks now, but was 1 less than the record to date 7 US chart toppers in the top 20.
We also saw an all-time record 4 songs in the charts that started with ‘Rock’. There were 3 that started with the word ‘Rock’ and they were ‘Rock Me Gently’, ‘Rock Your Baby’ and ‘Rock The Boat’ and they were joined by ‘Rockin’ In The U.S.A.’ which still had the same first 4 letters.
Having gained the top spot last week, Olivia Newton-John’s ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ held on to it to make it 2 weeks in a row which was double the amount of time her previous chart topper, ‘If Not For You’, had managed to spend there. The number 1 hit that Olivia had ousted, Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Why Me’ was unmoved at 2 as was George McRae’s ‘Rock Your Baby’ at 3.
Billy “Crash” Craddock’s ‘Rub It In’ was the climber of the week as it moved up 8 from 16 to 8. It would be the only star rater climb this week with the next best climb being only the 3 places that The Walkers’ ‘Jack O’Diamond’ managed.
The faller of the week award went to John Denver’s ‘Annie’s Song’ which plummeted 9 places from 11 to 20 and like the climber, the next highest faller was a little way behind and that was a 4 place drop by The Hues Corporation’s ‘Rock The Boat’ which fell to 9.
Wings’ ‘Let Me Roll It’ was still the oldest on the charts and sitting on 15 weeks it equalled the best run so far that we had seen by a song by an ex-Beatle. The only one to previously manage a 15 week run was Ringo Starr when his ‘Photograph’ did so earlier in 1974.
Tommy Oliver’s ‘Just an Ever Lovin’ Woman’ was the first of 2 songs to depart the chart. It had been with us for 10 weeks and peaked at 7. This brought the curtain down on Oliver’s SA Chart career. He had seen 2 songs chart, spent 27 weeks in the charts and his highest placing was at 3 which ‘I Wanna Live’, his other chart hit, managed.
Also leaving us was another local male artist, Lionel Petersen. His ‘Try A Little Love’ managed just 4 weeks and peaked at 13. This was the worst performance of his 3 hits so far, lasting 3 weeks less than ‘Come Back Liza’, his mid-performing hit, and peaked one place lower than the aforementioned.
The first of our new entries was ‘Na Na Na’ by Cozy Powell (born Colin Flooks on 29 December 1947). Powell, a drummer, had played with The Jeff Beck Group before trying out a solo career. He scored 5 hits in the UK included getting to number 10 with ‘Na Na Na’. The song also managed a number 19 hit in Germany. After having a few solo hits, he joined Rainbow and also worked with The Michael Schenker Group, Whitesnake, Emerson, Lake & Powell, Black Sabbath, The Brian May Band and the Peter Green Splinter Band. He died in a car crash on 5 April 1998.
Abba were cashing in on their Eurovision Song Contest win with ‘Waterloo’ which was a worldwide hit, following it up quickly in SA with ‘Hasta Mañana’. The song failed to make an impression in the UK or the US, but managed to get to 30 in Italy and topped the charts in their native Sweden. In 1976 it managed a number 9 peak in New Zealand and scraped a number 30 place in Australia. ‘Hasta Mañana’ which is Spanish for ‘see you tomorrow’ was originally going to be called ‘Who’s Gonna Love You?’. This was the 4th song by a Swedish act to chart (3 had been by Abba, the other was by Blue Swede) and this put Sweden tied 11th alongside Greece and Italy for number of hits from a nation.
South African acts celebrated clocking up 2,000 weeks in the charts this week. If one starts accumulating the weeks from the top of the chart down, then it was Dennis East’s ‘A Rose Has To Die’ that took the honours for the home team.
We had a new number 1 and there were a number of landmarks attached to this. Firstly, just to let you know that the previous number 1, Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Why Me’, lasted 8 weeks at the top of the charts and now fell to 2. The new number 1 was Olivia Newton-John’s ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ and she became the first woman to manage 2 solo number 1 hits. Nancy Sinatra had seen 2 number 1s, but her second was as part of a duet with her father, so not 2 solo number 1s. ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ was the 160th song to make the top of our charts and the 20th by a solo woman. Olivia’s previous chart toppers, ‘If Not For You’ had been the 10th, so keep an eye out for the 30th. Also of note was that both her chart toppers started with the word ‘If’.
The Three Degrees brought us the climber of the week as ‘When Will I See You Again’ moved up 4 from 14 to 10. This would also be the only star rater.
Wings’ ‘Let Me Roll It’ was not to be outdone by their recent hit ‘Band On The Run’ as it also picked up a second biggest faller, dropping 5 from 9 to 14. The difference between the 2 songs was that there was a gap of 5 weeks between ‘Band On The Run’s 2 biggest faller efforts while there were only 4 weeks between ‘Let Me Roll It’s 2 times. ‘Let Me Roll It’ was still the oldest on the charts. It had been with us for 14 weeks and this was its second week as the oldest.
Badfinger’s SA chart career came to an end this week as ‘Apple Of My Eye’ left the charts. The song had seen 11 weeks in the top 20 and peaked at 11 making it the 33rd song to have an equal weeks and peak figure. Badfinger had seen 4 songs chart, spent a total of 34 weeks in the charts and spent 1 week at 1 with ‘No Matter What’, their highest charting song.
It had been 8 weeks since we had last seen a new entry by a British act and this would be the 4th biggest gap between new entries from acts from that nation. The drought was broken by Stephanie de Sykes’ ‘Born With A Smile On My Face’ which sneaked into the charts at 20 this week. The song was written by Simon May and Roger Holman. May was famous for writing the theme tune to the popular UK TV soap opera ‘Eastenders’. ‘Born With A Smile On My Face’ made number 2 in the UK and also gave de Sykes a number 23 hit in Belgium.
There were 9 songs on the charts by US acts, but they did not hold the top spot, so I thought I would see what the most number of songs US acts had had in the charts without having the number 1 song and was surprised to see that we had experienced 59 weeks where there were 9 or more US songs on the chart, but the number 1 was from a different country. The record to date was 14 songs by US acts in the charts without them having the number 1 spot and that was way back on 30 September 1966. We would see 14 US acts in the chart with a different nation holding the number 1 spot once more in the top 20 era.
With Olivia Newton-John at 1 and Stephanie de Sykes at 20 this was the 9th time we had seen a top 20 with a solo female artists at the top and bottom spot.
Mozart: Symphony No. 40 In G Minor K.550 1° Movement (Allegro Molto)
–
Waldo de Los Rios
14
16
3
Long Days and Lonely Nights
–
Lincoln
15
17
2
Funny Funny
–
Sweet
16
19
2
When Love Comes Knocking at Your Door
–
Dealians
17
14
6
Hot Love
–
T. Rex
18
New
1
Shilo
–
Neil Diamond
19
New
1
Boom Sha La La Lo
–
John Edmond
20
New
1
Brown Sugar
–
Rolling Stones
We had a new number 1 this week and that was Olivia Newton-John’s ‘If Not For You’. The song took just 3 weeks to get to the top of the charts and was the 12th song to do this with only Shocking Blue’s ‘Venus’ managing it quicker by taking 2 weeks. ‘If Not For You’ was the 10th song by a solo female artist to reach the number 1 spot and Newton-John became the 18th act who would have a total of 5 or more hits, see their first one make it to the top of the charts. The previous number 1, Alan Garrity’s ‘Put Your Hand In The Hand’ dropped to number 2 after 4 weeks at the top.
Three Dog Night’s ‘Joy To The World’ took the biggest climber award as it moved up 5 places from 8 to 3. This was the second time the song had taken the award. It was joined in a 5 place climb by Waldo De Los Rios’ ‘Mozart: Symphony No. 40’ (to give it its short name) which moved up to 13. These 2 were the only star raters this week.
There were also 2 biggest fallers and they were T. Rex’s ‘Hot Love’ which fell 3 from 14 to 17, and The Peanut Butter Conspiracy’s ‘Understanding’ which fell 3 to 6. The latter brought the biggest faller by a local group up to 30. In total there had been 68 times so far that a local song had been a biggest faller.
‘Understanding’ was, however, now the oldest on the charts on 14 weeks as the previous oldest, The Archies ‘A Summer Prayer For Peace’ was 1 of 3 songs to leave the top 20. The latter had spent 14 weeks in the top 20, 4 of which were at the number 1 spot. This brought to an end the illustrious SA chart career of the cartoon group. They had managed 8 hits, spent 78 weeks in the charts in total and had 2 chart toppers, the other being ‘Sugar, Sugar’ which managed 3 weeks at 1 making their weeks at 1 total 7. Of all the acts who would have 5 or more hits on our charts, only 2 would do so with every song having an even number of weeks and these were The Archies and Nancy Sinatra. Sinatra did it with 7 hits, 1 less than The Archies.
Percy Sledge’s ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’ finished its chart run after of just 3 weeks and a peak of 13. Like The Archies, he had also come to the end of his SA chart career. He manged 12 hits, spent 105 weeks in the top 20 (1 of only 33 acts who would make 100 or more weeks) and, also like The Archies, would have 2 chart toppers, ‘My Special Prayer’ and ‘Come Softly To Me’ both spending 2 weeks at 1 making his total weeks at the top 4. Ultimately Sledge would have the 4th highest weeks count for an African American male artist and all 3 of those who managed better would have the additional help of an expanded chart as they accumulated weeks in the top 30 era. The peak of 13 was the 3rd highest for a song spending 3 weeks in the charts so far with only Trini Lopez’ cover of ‘Master Jack’ which made 12 and Emil Dean’s ‘Key To Your Heart’ which made 3 having managed better, but it should be noted that Dean’s hit was at 3 on the very first chart back in 1965.
Lally Stott’s ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep’ was the third song to go and it was the 23rd to have an equal weeks and peak figure as it spent 9 weeks in the top 20 and peaked at 9. This would be Stott’s only chart hit as an artist. He would feature in the song writing credits of a number of future hits.
Neil Diamond clocked up his 5th hit to date with ‘Shilo’ being the first of our new entries. The song was originally recorded in 1967, but at the time Bang Records, the label Diamond was signed to then, did not feel it would make a good single. After Diamond left Bang and began to have some hits, Bang released the song with a new backing track and it went to number 24 in the US. It had some success in Germany where it went to number 21 and in what was then Rhodesia it made it to 8. As a song writer Diamond, who had penned ‘Shilo’, had seen 9 hits chart in SA, the tied 11th highest by any song writer.
John Edmond saw his 3rd SA chart hit move into the top 20 this week. ‘Boom Sha La La Lo’ was a cover of a song by Hans Poulsen, an Australian of Danish descent. Poulsen would see his version go to number 5 in Australia. He shared song writing credits on the song with Bruce Woodley who had already brought us The Cyrkle’s ‘Red Rubber Ball’ and The Dream Merchants’ ‘Rattler’. Although he was born in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Edmond moved to SA in the 60s where he began making music and has therefore been classed as local. ‘Boom Sha La La Lo’ was the 134th song by a local to chart. With a gap of 41 weeks between this and Edmond’s previous hit, ‘Round And Around’, this would be the second biggest gap between his hits that we would see.
It had been 142 weeks since we last saw The Rolling Stones on our charts when ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ was enjoying chart success. Before this, the biggest gap we had seen between Stones hits was 62 weeks. Their new one was ‘Brown Sugar’ which had been a chart topper in The US, Switzerland and The Netherlands and just missed out in the UK where it went to number 2. The song was rather a strange one to make our charts during the apartheid era as its lyrics hinted at interracial sex. The censors must have missed that inference.
The arrival of John Edmond on the charts brought the local hit count up to a new record level of 8, 4 of which were by groups, 3 by solo males and 1 by a solo female artist.
There was no movement on the top 20 of the overall weeks count list with The Rolling Stones and Creedence Clearwater revival being the only 2 acts in that list who were in our top 20 this week, but neither act was close enough to those above them to change position. On the local list, The Dealians moved tied 19th with The Dream Merchants on 17 weeks. This meant that Peter Lotis fell out of the top 20 of that list.
SA Singles Charts 