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.
Al Green
Let’s Stay Together
At No.12, on the the U.K. Top 50 Singles Chart the day I am born, is Al Green with “Let’s Stay Together”.
A classic song which still gets much airplay today.
Albert Greene’s parents…
…(he’d drop the ‘bert’ from his first name, and eventually the ‘e’ at the end of his surname as well) had made the racially sympathetic move north to Grand Rapids, Michigan in the 1950’s, from his birthplace in Forrest City, Arkansas (named after confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had become the first Grand Wizard of the infamous far right white supremacist terrorist organisation, the Ku Klux Klan). A place which wouldn’t desegregate the school prom until 1988.
Although young Al would listen to gospel singers such as the hugely influential Mahalia Jackson, it would be more contemporary performers such as Elvis Presley and Wilson Pickett, who really caught Al’s attention.
As Al himself reiterated to music journalist Ethan Brown for ‘New York Magazine’…
“…the most important music to me was those hip-shakin’ boys: Wilson Pickett and Elvis Presley. When I was 13, I just loved Elvis Presley. Whatever he got, I went out and bought.”
In a case of an ‘out of the frying pan into the fire’ type scenario, Al, who had discovered rock and roll as a teenager, was unceremoniously kicked out of the family home by his devoutly religious father after being caught listening to Jackie Wilson.
Now homeless, Al entered into the darker depths of depravity, ending up with him settling in with a prostitute which led to the hustling, and partaking in the use, of recreational drugs.
The saving grace would come while he was still trying to cope with all this, and school too, that his God-given vocal talents would come to the fore, and where he would be the prominent figure in a group called ‘Al Greene & the Soul Mates’ (renamed from ‘the Creations’), that he would score his first minor hit in the United States.
It would be during his time with this group…
…that Al would come to the attention of singer, bandleader, record producer and arranger, Willie Mitchell, who would sign him up to his ‘Hi Records’ label in the late 1960’s, and get him singing for his band at a show in Texas.
Willie would also become his vocal mentor, moulding Al’s talents in the same style as his idols, who apart from Jackie Wilson and Elvis, included Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett and James Brown.
Once Al honed his vocal tutelage from these masters, it wouldn’t be long before he scored his first big success, which had arrived back in the previous Autumn of 1971, and which eventually went on to sell over a million copies.
Now looking forward to building on the success of that previous single,..
…Al had entered the U.K. Singles Chart with this follow-up, back on the 8th of January this year of 1972, at No.41, and had climbed steadily each successive week through the Top 30, Top 20, until breaking the Top 10 on the 23rd of January.
As January turned to February, he nudged the single further on. Pushing first to No.9, before it hit its peak position on the 6th of February.
This week sees the single’s first week back outside the Top 10, where it begins slowly falling back through the chart, eventually departing from the exact same position it came in on, No.41, after the 25th of March.
The “A” Side
The “B” Side
Al Green – Let’s Stay Together (“Top Pop” TV Appearance)
Al Green – Let’s Stay Together (TV Performance)
Al Green – Let’s Stay Together (“Rollin’ On The River” TV Performance)
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