Official UK Singles Chart results from Sunday the 16th to Saturday the 22nd of February 1975
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 15th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 16th,
published on Tuesday the 18th,
and broadcast on BBC Radio 1 on Sunday the 23rd of February 1975.
Carpenters
Please Mr Postman
At No.3, on “The Top 50 UK Singles Chart”, the week of my 3rd Birthday, is the Carpenters with Please Mr Postman.
From one pair of siblings to another,..
…and this one really is a memory!
The popular sister and brother, have of course by now already shown up along my musical road, basically since the time I’d been born, but this is the first time in my young life that I’d actually become aware of them, with their feel-good and easy fun-filled cover version of the Marvelettes‘ track. That original, I much later discovered had, back in those early fledgling times of Motown, been the first ever single on that label to reach the coveted No.1 position on the USA Billboard chart back in late 1961. Girl power at its finest, all the way back then.
Ok, so there are a number of factors for this initial discovery:-
The first, is that Susan, my oldest sister (who I always seemed to think of at the time as around 15 years of age, but who would have literally just only turned 12), had ownership of this single in her collection, the first record of the Carpenters of any type, single or LP, to enter our home. Whether that was from getting it as a present at Christmas or her birthday (the dates are pretty close together), I can’t be entirely sure, but since this didn’t actually chart until a couple of weeks into this new year of 1975, I’m guessing she bought it herself from birthday or Christmas money or vouchers.
The second, is that it was played all the time on the radio, and back then, this song would have been one of those chosen few that would have featured both on more mature stations back then, such as Radio 2, as well as the more contemporary channels, such as Radio 1, or the other popular channel (and also far more fashionable to listen to in my neck of the woods), Capital Radio.
The third, was the promotional video which was set in not just mine, but probably every child’s dream location, and somewhere I didn’t even know existed until the point of seeing it on Top of the Pops, Disneyland (although when I grew up a bit, my greedy self would have much preferred Disney World). Just watching the Carpenters on the rides and meeting these characters that, back then, I had only probably seen clips of in programmes such as Disney Time on the BBC on a Saturday early evening, or seen pictures of in Disney books which my sisters owned, or maybe I may have acquired either by having them passed down to me, or maybe I had one or two myself. The way Karen always looked like she was living out the dream that every child would have gladly chosen, with Richard looking a little more serious and protective and boring like a big brother. I always used to think of Karen as the best big sister anyone could dream of having fun with, as she just seemed like a big kid herself.
The fourth reason, was that I thought in some innocent way, that she was basically singing this song to my own Dad, who himself had become a postman less than a couple of years before. I could picture people longingly waiting for him to turn up and post their expectant love letters through letterboxes, eventually returning back home to us satisfied at having made the world a happier place, like some sort of ordinary Father Christmas.
There is one other reason…
…why I find this single so memorable, and that is due to me eventually falling more in love with the B side a lot more than the A side. You see, after a while, and due to all the factors I’ve laid out above, the main song began to get played to death, to the point that, when the radio was on downstairs in the kitchen, and that immediate flurry of drums kicked in followed by the ‘Stop’, I started to sort of wish it would. So if I ever got the chance to play this particular single later on (and by that, I’m probably guessing in the following years before the late seventies began), I would flip it over without playing the A side; and that’s where the magic lay for me.
Their version of Leon Russell’s classic tune, was most probably my real gateway into falling in love with most of the Carpenters’ music, and it was definitely the point where I completely melted, and fell in love with the voice of Karen Carpenter.
So what do I mean by falling in love, when to be absolutely honest, I hadn’t even reached the age of 5? Well, what I mean is, I would have laid on her lap and gladly let her hold me while soothingly singing this song, and any others, and I would have quite comfortably and unconditionally surrendered and fallen asleep, and dreamt she had carried me off with her to Disneyland herself.
That song is still one of my cherished favourites, to which that memory still lives on, along with Karen; and they always will.
The single…
…had turned up through the letterbox of the UK chart at a surprising lowly No.39, on the dark and wintry 12th of January, but by its second week, had climbed up to the middle of the Top 50 to sit at No.25; and by the end of the month had scaled a further ten places to land at No.15.
As February came along, so the song broke into the Top 10, resting at No.8 for a week, before the week of Valentine’s Day arrived, and it leapt up to No.2, only being stopped last week by the single which is still just one place ahead of it this week, as it drops a place to this current No.3 position.
From here…
…the single will stay at this same place for a further week, and rounding out February, before it falls slightly further as March begins, bringing the first signs of early spring with it.
The rest of that month sees the single drop even further away, as British Summer Time returns, followed by the earlier Easter weekend this year, eventually fading away for good after the 5th of April, and with a satisfying total of 12 happy weeks to take away in its postal sack.
The “A” Side
The “B” Side
“Please Mr Postman” Promotional Video
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