The 20th of February 1973
Official U.K. Albums Chart results from Sunday the 18th to Saturday the 24th of February 1973
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 17th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 18th,
and published on Wednesday the 21st of February 1973.
David Cassidy
Rock Me Baby
At No.2, on the “The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart”the week of my 1st Birthday, is David Cassidy with Rock Me Baby.
For 22 year old David,..
…it seemed, to the British public on the outside looking in, that his star couldn’t shine any brighter.
However, this young man had spent the previous 12 months attempting to shake off the image of his TV ‘Partridge Family’ character ‘Keith’, to the point where he physically stripped himself naked and literally laid himself bare, to publicly present himself as emerging new born into a new era of his career life cycle.
By now, and most prominently here in the U.K.,..
…his fan base was bigger than that of the Beatles and Elvis at this point, that pair of acts still the two biggest on the planet. David’s concerts, including Wembley Stadium, sold out within days, if not, hours.
With all this teen-idol adulation becoming completely overwhelming and frustrating to the young David, the one thing he wanted most of all was to discard the teen-idol stigma which had consumed the public’s assumption of him, and instead to be given the chance to become the seriously respected musician and singer he aspired to be, and with this album, David hoped to go some way to try and prove that fact.
The album obviously hit his swelled target audience, but did it also reach the people he was intending it to reach? I hope, due to the marketing guys probable, but innocent ignorance, they didn’t get fans who’d requested from friends and family the gift of the latest album from the guy sitting in a rocking chair on the cover, only to receive an LP by Val Doonican instead. Who knows (I’ve got a similar story to tell later on in my life of a different but humourous tale of mistaken identity when I confusingly unwrapped an album I hadn’t expected on one of my other birthdays, but that’s for another time).
Would (or could) someone cast aside the stigma of admitting they owned a David Cassidy album, and actually listen to it seriously? I can’t answer that.
But enough people bought it, the moment it was unleashed,..
…to send it rocketing straight into the No.2 slot on this, it’s first week in the U.K. Album Chart, awarding it this week’s highest new entry. In fact, enough people will continue to buy it in such high numbers, that the LP will be able to reside comfortably in the Top 10 for almost 2 months, until the 14th of April. Even then, the album will only drop as far as No.11, where it will stay for two weeks, and only slip another couple of places to No.13 for another two weeks after that. In fact, the album will only start sliding further back by mid-May, eventually falling out of the chart by mid-June.
He will spend the rest of the year with this album mainly just bubbling under the surface, only now and again emerging to show he is still there for odd weeks such as the end of June and the same in late August.
But, the final showing will occur when it just nudges in at No.50 for a week in mid-November; by which time this album will have rocked up a total run of 20 weeks on chart.
I’ve created my own separate playlists for Sides 1 and 2 of this album with (I hope) the correct versions and the original track sequencing order for the U.K. release.
Side 1
Side 2
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