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.
Gilbert O’Sullivan
Back To Front
At No.7, on the “The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart”, the week of my 1st Birthday, is Gilbert O’Sullivan with Back To Front.
With Gilbert’s debut album still performing well further down the Top 50,..
…we now find his follow-up fully established in the Top 10.
Since the release of “Himself”, his image had taken a dramatic turn.
He’d got rid of the flat cap, he’d taken off the old crumpled grey shirt, gone was the bowl haircut, and he had dropped his short trousers.
The image in it’s place was an open shirt exposing his hairy chest, and all topped off with a sexy seventies mane of hair. To compliment this (probably on those slightly chillier mornings when the medallion got a bit too cold), the look was sometimes topped off with a jumper emblazoned with a big G on the front.
Mr Suave -1970’s Super-Gilbert had arrived
The hits had also kept on coming too throughout the past year, and with such songs as “Alone Again (Naturally)” and “Ooh Wakka Doo Wakka Day” making sure of his presence in the upper echelons of the chart, they all contributed towards the esteemed accolade of winning the 1972 “Number One Male Singer of the Year” gong by Record Mirror.
Now, with his second album of similar observational tunes, his presence in the charts was even stronger.
The new album had come straight in at No.2…
…on the 12th of November the year before, and stayed solidly in the Top 10 throughout the rest of 1972. When the time came, he finally flew up to the No.1 spot in the third week of January 1973 for a weeks stay.
Dropping slightly from there onwards, to his placing this week, the album will spend the rest of winter, and most of the spring too, dipping in and out of the Top 10, and then spend half the summer in the Top 20, and in settling comfortably in the mid-chart area, this first consecutive run will travel on through the rest of the summer, and won’t relent until the beginning of October, when it dips out for a short while.
When it does reappear, the album will carry onwards towards my next birthday, and that’s when we’ll catch up with it then.
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
Many thanks go to the following YouTube Channels for providing the chance to hear this music once again.
Please show your appreciation by visiting their channel:
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