The 10 Most Bizarre UK Number Ones of the 1970s

First thank you very much for this.

I think that people have to remember that in the 70s there was very little entertainment apart from the radio and 3 channels of TV that played from noon to midnight. Novelty was far more basic then. For example, I loved cycling to the public library to change my books once a week. The radio was a constant companion. The 1980s (novelty) songs, “Video Killed the Radio Star” and “Radio Gaga“ longed for these simpler times. Quirky songs that were played on the radio got stuck in our minds in the same way as Internet memes today that we now watch over again. But in the 70s the only way to get that fix was to either record the song on a cassette recorder if you just happened to catch it on the radio or walk down to Woolworths on a Saturday afternoon and buy the single. Integrated home hi-fi systems that included a record player, tape deck, radio weren’t affordable before the mid 1970s and without one you couldn’t make a good tape copy. Also, the idea of portable music didn’t come in until the Walkman came in around 1980 and it wasn’t common until the mid 1980s where you would see people walking outside with their cheap WalkMan clones. So music was a social experience adding to the fun. So really, the only way to replicate an audio meme was to buy or acquire the single.

I had Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep and Snoopy and the Red Baron that I got in a jumble sale. I played them over and over, when my parents were out. Part of the appeal was to learn all the words.

So I do think that many purchases were made by teenagers, unwisely, using their pocket money, parents buying records for birthday presents the driving the market. Why did I buy the Muppet Show album? I don't remember but I know every song and can recite every joke. The memes still live on in a dedicated part of my brain.

Yank here.
CCCC – never heard that song til today.
Mouldy Old Dough, never heard it.
Eye Level. Nope.
No Charge, never heard of it.

Also, there could be "Grandad" (I'm not even British).

I love the idea that Combine Harvester was so popular they were given free cider. I had forgotten how funny that song is.

21:32 Post-Its weren't invented until the late 70s and started being sold in 1980

moldy old dough was a Popcorn (our version of Northern Soul + calypso, reggae, etc..) classic in Belgium, then it crossed over to UK..

Granted, most of these are utter garbage, although I liked "My Ding-a-Ling" and saw the Chuck Berry film when it came out.

But "Bohemian Rhapsody"? What the hell are you talking about?

{:o:O:}

"Wanderin' Star" is a legitimately great song. It's one of those instances of something from America sailing straight over our heads here but given proper appreciation in Britain. Another example is the 1920s song "Yes, We Have No Bananas," totally forgotten in the US, still holding iconic status in the UK (achieving the state of a slogan due to its use by British greengrocers during the Second World War.)

And the fact is .. shock, horror, deny, deny, deny .. they weren't in the least bit bizarre – being the real and true and popular taste, available at the time, however distasteful that may be to the passive-aggressive teenage-youf-minded hyper-Trotsky-ite "Rules For Radicals" following true believer turned Pop Scholar (paid or having a go) version of = actual changes in the products offered by the Music Selling Industry (governed as it is by profit not perfection of message, and a basic talent for spotting money-spinner fads, fashions, and odd fancies).

Getting to Number One on the best selling tunes Hit Parade, or indeed getting to register anywhere on such accountants' and pundits' lists, has nothing what ever to do with supposed (or actual) musical talent, least of all as an illusionary expression of artistic fervour and boundary-pushing singer-songwriter minstrelling – that the tune-buying public has a knack for picking the work of such talent (across a great variety of passing tastes) is the oddity .. and a love of novel oddiies is part of that oddity .

Blondie rode a brief yet interesting trend, already prepared for by the record producing, selling, promoting, and delivering business, btw, and "Bohemian Rhapsody" was every bit as much a quirkily bizarre Hit Parade best seller as "Grandad" amid the seemingly ordinary output of Pickettywitch, "Allright Now", Wishbone Ash, "Eye Level", The Stranglers or "Matchstalk Men And Matchstalk Cats And Dogs", etc; popular radio outlets once played a great deal more variety in recorded music across the various target audiences, today, for better or worse, this – Variety Bill – is virtually unheard of.

Hmmmmm … ????

I was waiting for The Pipkins' "Gimme Dat Ding," but was relieved to discover that one only peaked at #6, so we've been spared.

Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep. No. 1 when my partner was born. I, on the other hand, waited long enough for Slade's magnificent Cuz I luv you to hit the top.

Brilliant once again. Please don’t ever stop!

Look on the bright side, you could have had the song "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees and his cast of idiots hit number one like it did in the USA. Fortunately, in the UK, it peaked at number six.

Oh…the great irony of this particular doc!

It's so good and thorough.

But the songs…ugh…just awful!

Great doc again! Keep up the awesome work.

I only knew Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep from the Lush cover. Until now.

I loved Wandering Star when I was a kid.