The 20th of February 1975
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.
Johnny Wakelin And The Kinshasa Band
Black Superman (Muhammad Ali)
At No.10, on “The Top 50 UK Singles Chart”, the week of my 3rd Birthday, is Johnny Wakelin And The Kinshasa Band with Black Superman (Muhammad Ali).
As cash-ins go,..
…this one is not too bad. The song is about as iffy as some of the countless football team efforts which would crop up over the next few decades, hoping that the zeitgeist surrounding the event for which they’ve been released takes off like wind under a kite and makes it soar. Most often get a gust and then drop out of the sky, some end up being released when the weather has unexpectedly changed and there’s now no wind to take them at all. This single seems to have managed to catch the jet stream at just the right moment, and taken it around the world, but then this was for an event which defied expectations and became legendary.
There are moments…
…which have happened in the world in which I live, and for one reason or another, they have passed me by. One such event which takes place, and which everyone in the western world seems to home in on, is the extraordinary and iconic boxing match which will go down in history as The Rumble In The Jungle. A global event set in what is named at this moment as Zaire in the heart of Africa, and which seems to shake, not just the world of boxing, but the sporting world itself and forges the word legend on the man who has named himself Muhammad Ali.
I of course remember Ali myself, but it was way after this particular event takes place, probably from him turning up on chat shows or some other UK TV appearance or a light entertainment show. I knew he was a boxing champion. I remember my mother not liking him too much, thinking he was all talk and that when he got in the ring he didn’t fight properly, but I never remember seeing one of his fights while he was still active in the sport. I just remember this very fun, articulate and entertaining boxer who said some funny things.
This was also the era…
…when one of his old adversaries, the heavyweight British retired boxer Henry Cooper is also treading that same entertainment circuit, and who the nation always keep close to their hearts as our man, nicknamed fondly by us as ‘Ar ‘Enry, who had almost knocked Ali (then going by his birth name of Cassius Clay) to the floor well before my time. At that point, the American boxer was most probably seen by the British public as almost like a lovable rogue type figure, who playfully goaded us when he visited the UK for these two boxers’ first fight together, and proclaimed that, as we only had a Queen, he would pronounce himself the King. And so, on the 18th of June 1963, in a moment which probably became the idea for the character Apollo Creed‘s entrance as Uncle Sam in Rocky thirteen years later, Ali entered the arena as the self-proclaimed King, and ended up getting his crown knocked off.
By the time…
…of the Rumble in Africa some 11 years later, it seemed that 32-year-old Ali’s chances of surviving against the 25-year-old leviathan, and undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, George Foreman, were akin to professional and personal suicide. To many who switched on, it seems they weren’t tuning in to watch a fight, but more to witness a very public execution.
And so this is where this single comes in.
The song was most probably swiftly put together and for whatever reason, was given a reggae style. Whether that was because that particular genre was making headway in the music world at the time, or that due to not having a clue about what African music actually sounded like and so deducing that it’s all under the same umbrella to what the black population likes, and its close enough, is anyone’s guess, but let’s be clear, Jamaica is absolutely nowhere near Africa. And I suppose the less said about Johnny’s attempt to impersonate a rap like Ali, the better.
The idea nevertheless worked, and didn’t just end up charting over here, but also sailed far over to the other side of the world in Australia and also charted in the USA too.
Today, the single is virtually forgotten, except for the people who lived to go out and buy it at the time. However, the one thing it does do is to highlight a moment in sporting history which, although gave countless ideas for certain parts of the whole Rocky series of films, actually happened for real.
It also helps keep alive the man who gives this single its title. Muhammad Ali may not have benefited financially from its sales, but his name and presence deservedly outlasts and will forever outshine it.
The single…
…had entered the chart six weeks previously on the 12th of January at No.48 and by the following week had broken into the Top 30 to sit at No.29. Moving up a further eight places to close out that month, by this month of February it had pushed up into the Top 20, and last week had punched into the Top 10 to sit at No.7, a peak it could not better, as this week it slips to the edge of that top tier.
From here…
…it falls back another five places before it careens back through the numbers as it makes its way through March, until it finds itself on the ropes at No.50, and then finally tumbles after the 22nd of that month having been knocked out in its 10th week.
The “A” Side
The “B” Side
“The Rumble In The Jungle” Uninterrupted footage (30th October 1974)
Sylvester Stallone gets a surprise at the Academy Awards (1977)
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