The 20th of February 1972
Official U.K. Singles Chart results from Sunday the 20th to Saturday the 26th of February 1972
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 19th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 20th,
announced on Tuesday the 22nd,
and broadcast on B.B.C. Radio 1 on Sunday the 27th of February 1972.
America
A Horse With No Name
At No.19, on the the U.K. Top 50 Singles Chart the day I am born, is America with “A Horse With No Name”.
America, who even though they were indeed American,..
…confusingly originating from South Ruislip just outside London, England (due to their fathers stationed with the U.S Air Force), had a bit of a false start with this single.
The song itself was initially named “Desert Song”, before a decision was made (due to positive audience reactions and a successful TV appearance) to change its title.
The band had chosen their group name for a couple of reasons.
The first was apparently due to the Americana jukebox which was situated in the mess hall.
The second was that they didn’t want to be labelled pretenders. They wanted to come across as genuine American musicians and singers, due to some English groups at the time who were trying to pass themselves off by singing with American accents.
They based their vocal style on groups like Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and for a while a lot of people got them confused with Neil Young (myself included I’m afraid to admit, many years ago).
This song was written…
…while the group were staying at the home of Arthur Brown, who’d famously had a big hit a few years before with the song “Fire”. Back when his character was known as ‘The Crazy World of Arthur Brown’.
They recorded 2 demos…
…of “Desert Song” where they tried their best to capture the sensation of a desert by taking in the imagery of a Salvador Dali painting.
Probably a better idea than looking out the window of Arthur’s house, which (I kid you not) was in an area of Dorset called Puddletown, near the river Piddle (…and we’ll have no sniggering at the back of the classroom thank you very much).
Whether they toasted marshmallows on Arthurs head-wear at the time is also an unsubstantiated rumour.
What is more believable is that singer/songwriter and guitarist of the group Dewey Bunnel has described the meaning of the song as…
“a metaphor for a vehicle to get away from life’s confusion into a quiet, peaceful place”.
He also says he drew inspiriration from childhood travels through the Arizona and New Mexico desert when his family lived at the Vandenberg Air Force Base (now called the Vandenberg Space Force Base) in Santa Barbara, California.
Dewey has, over the course of time, taken some flack for the song. Not just because of the uncanny soundalike of Neil Young, but also the simplistic, badly worded descriptive lyric, to which Dewey has tried to be hip and pass off with the excuse that he was “stoned” when he wrote it. A comment which his two band-mates deny.
The way I think about it is (and in a style of phrase which could be spoken by Alec Guinness as Obi Wan Kenobi in ‘Star Wars’) who’s more foolish, the fool who wrote it, or the fool who went out and bought it?
The first time it charted though, on the 12th of December the previous year in 1971, was pretty uneventful. It just tucked into the Top 50, staying at No.49 for 2 weeks before leaving again.
But eventually enough people did buy it.
By the turn of the new year in 1972, something put a rocket up this horse’s backside and within 3 weeks it had galloped up to No.3, it’s highest position, and would stay in the Top 10 for almost a month before falling away by mid-February.
Even though we find it at this position by the 20th of February, it will be almost another month before it will drop out altogether after the 18th of March.
Just to confuse matters…
The outer sleeve for the single put “Sandman” as the more predominant track. However, due to the response of “A Horse With No Name”, it seems the record company had a change of heart (and also labels on the actual single) and swapped them over. Nevertheless, it was the record buying public who won overall with 3 superb tracks instead of 2.
The “A” Side
The “B” Side
America – A Horse With No Name (Video Promo)
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