The 20th of February 1974
Official U.K. Albums Chart results from Sunday the 17th to Saturday the 23rd of February 1974
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 16th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 17th,
and published on Wednesday the 20th of February 1974.
Leo Sayer
Silverbird
At No.3, on the “The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart”, the week of my 2nd Birthday, is Leo Sayer with Silverbird.
Possibly the brightest new artist…
…to emerge lately into the 1970’s musical landscape. The diminutive wonder, with the big mane of hair, who’d been nicknamed Leo (after the lion, eventually taking on that name to replace his real one), had been capturing the public’s imagination for a couple of months by this point in time; having fascinated TV audiences with his inspired interpretation of a pierrot clown, which became especially powerful when accompanied with his first hit single “The Show Must Go On“, lighting up the screens one dark wintry night on BBC‘s Top Of The Pops. A single which is still making an appearance in the corresponding singles chart this same week.
This debut album…
…is quite a fascinating collection of pieces, by an artist with such a wealth of different ideas and musical expressions, that his new acquired manager, sixties teen idol Adam Faith, and promoter and new songwriting partner David Courtney, weren’t yet too sure how to get the best out of their newly discovered prodigy. So, in an effort to not pigeon-hole him into one type of performer, they chucked quite a few of these personas into a big pot, gave it a stir, sequenced them into some sort of sensible order, and waited to see if the magic worked; and it seems to have done just that.
So what we have here,..
…is quite a varied, but quite exquisite collection of tracks which seem to flow effortlessly together, in spite of the fact that they can go from one extreme to another, and then into something else entirely.
For instance, take the first side, which opens with quite a heavy rock number which dissolves into a pseudo-psychedelic haze, then seems to segue effortlessly into slower tempo number for track two. Follow that with a slow building driver for track three, which itself then gets ready for what seems like the ghosts of yesteryear, playing a fleeting jangly piano piece, the shortest, and for which the name of the album is taken, which itself feels like, at this point, you’re standing watching a carnival parade go past in your mind, which is just as well, because here comes that hit single I mentioned earlier, preceded by the sound of the circus coming to town. It all ends with quite a beautifully serene composition to float you back down. Just as well, as you’ve still got another side to go yet.
Yes, it seemed there was no doubt that we had a new star right here, and if this effort is anything to go by, then the forecast shows that there would definitely be a very sunny future ahead for him.
The album…
…had stepped into the chart relatively quietly at No.33, just as everybody was getting ready to wave goodbye to the old year, appearing on the day before New Years Eve 1973, on the 30th of December; and it seemed it was about to head downwards and out again, as it slid back to a precarious position of No.48 a couple of weeks into January.
But then, and I’m guessing here, that was the moment Leo’s clown costume broke out of the TV screens, because a week later, the album had shot like a rocket man out of a cannon, all the way up into the Top 3 by the 20th of that month, then a week later, reached No.2, which would be its highest position to date.
Entering into this month of February, the debut falls back, but stays in the Top 5, and then this week rises back another couple of places again.
From here,..
…it will drop back slightly once again, then further, falling out of the Top 10 by the second week of March, then falling away altogether after the 30th of that month.
Taking its leave for the rest of spring, the album would return to occupy some of the less prominent placements in the chart during the majority of the summer month of July, then peep back in for a week during the month of August, again at the beginning of September, and once more at the end of that month.
With the autumn of 1974 now bedding in securely, this album makes one further appearance, staying for a fortnight during mid-October, before the tent is finally packed up and the circus leaves town for good.
Side 1
Side 2
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