The 20th of February 1974
Official U.K. Singles 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,
published on Tuesday the 19th,
and broadcast on B.B.C. Radio 1 on Sunday the 24th of February 1974.
Freddie Starr
It’s You
At No.39, on the “The Top 50 U.K. Singles Chart”, the week of my 2nd Birthday, is Freddie Starr with It’s You.
Of all the artists…
…which make up this chart, the most unexpected has got to be this one.
When I think of Freddie Starr, a serious singing career really isn’t the first thing that comes into my head.
I don’t connect him as someone who,..
…at around the age of 15 and going by his actual name of Freddy Fowell, had a part as Tommy, in a film entitled Violent Playground, a gritty British drama set in Liverpool, about inner city delinquent youth culture.
I don’t connect him as someone who,..
…was a member of a group called Derry and the Seniors, which later became Howie Casey and the Seniors, and who released the first Merseybeat album, a year before The Beatles did.
I also didn’t know…
…that Freddie, now having changed his surname to Starr, was also the lead singer of another group called The Midnighters, produced by Joe Meek, who also played around the Hamburg club circuit around the same time as The Beatles; and like them, were also managed by Brian Epstein.
How I do know him…
…is as the anarchic comedian with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, a maniacal impersonator with so much explosive energy that, to me, looked like he may explode from a heart attack at any given moment
My first memories of seeing Freddie on TV, which I think I wouldn’t have witnessed for at least another couple of years yet, were hilarious, dangerously funny, hugely entertaining, and just like anyone else who he either selected from the audience or picked up on his radar from the stage, terrifying. He literally scared the shit out of me when I first saw him on TV.
He would also turn up as a guest on chat shows, and have the same terrifying effect on them as he did on me; causing absolute mayhem.
So, for me,..
…finding him in this chart with a somewhat serious song, really isn’t what I was expecting; although there is some humour lurking in the background. For example, when this single released in the Netherlands with a picture sleeve, it had a publicity shot on the front cover of Northern Irish fellow comedian Frank Carson.
The single…
is a new entry this week, giving Freddie an instant Top 40 hit, but this Starr will be shooting higher than this placing.
From here,..
.the single will leap into the Top 20 next week when it lands at No.16.
As it leaves winter behind and heads into spring, it will carry on generating enough sales to break it into the Top 10, hitting a peak position of No.9 by the 10th of March, where it will stay for a couple of weeks before edging back down through the numbers, eventually departing after the 27th of April and racking up a total of 10 weeks on the chart.
The “A” Side
The “B” Side
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