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.
Faces
Stay With Me
At No.21, on the the U.K. Top 50 Singles Chart the day I am born, is the Faces with “Stay With Me”.
For what was to become arguably one of the Faces’ most famous songs…
…(with a Ronnie Laine penned B Side, which would become one of their most heartfelt compositions), it surprisingly spent it’s first few weeks (which were the last few weeks of 1971) quietly wandering around on the outer fringes of the Top 50 UK Singles Chart.
It wasn’t until Christmas and New Year were out of the way that the single got a bit of a fire underneath it, leaping up 20 places to No.23 the following week in the new year and finally breaking the Top 10 in mid-January.
The Faces had grown out of the Small Faces.
A group of 4 (singer/songwriter and guitarist Steve Marriot, singer/songwriter and bass guitarist Ronnie Lane, keyboardist Ian McLagan (replacing Jimmy Winston, who’d left to concentrate on acting), and drummer Kenney Jones) in the mod style, who had been extremely successful since the mid 1960’s due to, not only their ability to adapt to the ever changing musical terrain at the time, but who were also definitely not afraid to push the boundaries as far as they possibly could. And because of their attitude to innovation in their recordings, they became a big inspiration for a multitude of musicians far into the future.
Their name came from the fact that they were a little smaller in stature, and in the mod world, a ‘face’ was someone who gained the most respect from others who moved in the same social circles.
As John Hellier wrote in his book ‘Here Come The Nice: A Small Faces Songbook’,..
“A face had the sharpest clothes, the best records and always was seen with the prettiest girl on his arm”.
As the Small Faces, they helped create a feel that is now so indispensable, that whenever anyone looks back on that decade, they wouldn’t be able to do so authentically without them there.
By the end of the 1960’s…
…and feeling constricted that the band couldn’t evolve any further, Steve left.
This left the remaining 3 to seek, not just a singer, but also someone who could play the guitar too. Such was the void that Steve had left.
It just so happened, that at this point guitarist Ronnie Wood, and singer Rod Stewart were both looking to fill in some gaps between commitments with the Jeff Beck Group. Rod even managed to get a solo career contract.
Ronnie, with his brother Art, fellow musician Kim Gardner and Rod, teamed up for a knockabout with the rest of the Small Faces, and called themselves Quiet Melon (probably neither quiet, nor in the possession of any melons, who knows. Maybe they just admired melons quietly from afar).
After Art and Kim split off (leaving the taller facial bookends of Rod and Ronnie), the other 3 brought them on permanently, dropped the small and became the Faces just as the new decade was about to dawn.
With the 2 new members came 2 new songwriters also. With the new Ronnie either teaming up with the original Ronnie, or Rod. Original Ronnie also wrote and sang his own songs on occasion.
The new dynamic, also brought a new sound. A feel good bluesy rock outfit, that would have been just as happy in a pub as a big hall, or even an arena.
Now, with a couple of albums under their belt,..
…and a big following up and down the country (helped in part by a couple of Rod’s solo albums, as well as his hit No.1 single ‘Maggie May’, which he’d scored with the previous summer), the one place they hadn’t made an impression on, as a band since their transformation, was the U.K. Singles Chart.
Now though,..
…as this new year of 1972 got underway, so did this single’s climb up the chart.
Getting into the Top 30 on the 2nd day of the new year, in January it scaled up into the Top 20, then the Top 10 the week after, landing at No.8, then No.7.
It would reach it’s top position of No.6 as January turned into February, before waving goodbye to the Top 10 a week later.
I catch it here as it’s making it’s way back down through the numbers, and by mid-March they’ll be back where they started, wandering just inside the Top 50, before staying no longer after the 18th of March.
The “A” Side
The “B” Side
Faces – Stay With Me (TV Performance)
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