Going straight in at Number One was once an extremely rare achievement; in
the first 30 years of the UK Chart only a handful of acts managed the feat. Hard
to believe in 2004, perhaps, when not one of the last 50 or so chart-toppers
has climbed to the summit, but Slade's Cum On Feel The Noize was one of the
earliest. Only Cliff Richard (in 1962 with The Young Ones) and The Beatles
(courtesy of Get Back in 1969) had done it previously. It would be 1980 before an
act other than Slade went in at #1.
Glam Rock was riding high elsewhere in top 10; Cum On Feel The Noize had
dethroned Sweet's Blockbuster (now at #3), while Gary Glitter was on his way down
to #6 with the former #2 hit Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah).
Changing Faces: The Very Best of Rod Stewart & The Faces
Whatever the year, whatever the week, Rod Stewart always seems to be around
and it was no different in 1973. The Faces' Cindy Incidentally was stuck at #5,
having climbed 12 places the week before, but it would find renewed impetus 7
days later to peak at #2. Meanwhile the debut hit for Thin Lizzy, Whisky In
The Jar, dropped a place to #7.
Dave Edumnds, who had kicked off his chart career with the #1 I Hear You
Knockin' in late 1970, moved up from #10 to #8 with Baby I Love You. This time he
wouldn't go all the way, #8 proving to be the single's highest position.
Elton John: Greatest Hits 1970-2002
The Tamla Motown label had a quartet of singles on the chart, led by the
Jackson Five's cover of Jackson Browne's Doctor My Eyes at #12. Close behind at
#14, Stevie Wonder's classic Superstition was already in decline having peaked
at a surprisingly low #11.
Songs on the Top 40 of March 3rd 1973 that have etched themselves into pop
music history included Daniel by Elton John (tumbling 4 places to #11), Roberta
Flack's Killing Me Softly With His Song (up 4 to #19), You're So Vain from
Carly Simon (plunging 13 to #25, albeit on its 12th week on the chart) and Harold
Melvin & The Blue Notes' If You Don't Know Me By Now (down 10 to #34).
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
