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.
Donnie Elbert
I Can’t Help Myself
At No.39, on the the U.K. Top 50 Singles Chart the day I am born, is Donnie Elbert with “I Can’t Help Myself”.
The first week on the U.K. Singles Chart…
…starts here for Donnie’s rendition of this Motown classic. The first of two recordings he had paid homage to the Hitsville artists for, which he has in the chart in the same week, this single being unleashed just as the other was running out of steam further up.
Donnie, born in New Orleans,..
…but moving to Buffalo, New York when he was only 3, had been releasing singles since the mid-fifties and throughout the sixties, although only one of those singles he’d touched a chart with. That was back in 1957, when his song “What Can I Do” had climbed to No.12 in the R&B Chart and No.61 on the Pop Charts. Both placings were over in the U.S.
Now, some 15 years later,..
…his career was taking not so much a renaissance, but more like a surge in fresh discovery and popularity.
In the U.K. especially, this rise was primarily down to the ‘Northern Soul’ movement, which became hugely popular at the turn of the decade, with English clubs from the Midlands upwards, eating up deep cuts, and lesser known hits, from the mid-Sixties onwards, from mostly lesser known artists, on labels such as Chess, Veejay, as well as Motown amongst others.
At this time, Donnie had signed up to the relatively new Avco label, where they requested he record this Four Tops classic in an updated 1970’s style, to cash in on this new wave of fame, riding on the coattails of his Motown compatriots.
Wasting no time,..
…they decided to release it, while he was still enjoying chart success higher up.
From here, his latest single release will climb quickly through the rest of February and beyond to reach No.11, and be knocking on the door of the Top 10 during the week of the 12th to the 18th of March.
Unfortunately he won’t manage to crack that magic number, and will slowly slide back down, completing 10 weeks in total by the end of April.
The “A” Side
The “B” Side
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