Official UK Singles Chart results from Sunday the 16th to Saturday the 22nd of February 1975
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 15th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 16th,
published on Tuesday the 18th,
and broadcast on BBC Radio 1 on Sunday the 23rd of February 1975.
Pilot
January
At No.2, on “The Top 50 UK Singles Chart”, the week of my 3rd Birthday, is Pilot with January.
Hands down,..
…in my opinion, one of the greatest songs I’ve ever had the pleasure to experience, in real time as it presented itself in the UK charts, sits quite rightly in the top tier this week of my 3rd birthday; and fortunately for me, my oldest sister Susan thought so too, as she owned it.
It’s undoubtedly got one of the biggest, brashest and best intros in music history, grabbing your attention like a vice, and then settling back into such a feel-good place, before soaring majestically into the heavens once more. It’s no surprise that half of the song’s lyric is a reflection of the feelings David was experiencing, tasting success from their first big hit ‘Magic‘, a song I’ve already reminisced about as one of my earliest infant musical memories. The chorus of this latest song, and its title, having been inspired by the name of a character David’s wife had been reading about in a novel at the time, thus diffusing the common assumption that it’s about the month of the year instead. I suppose it didn’t help the rumour-mill to release the single in that actual winter month.
Even now,..
…when it gets played on the airwaves over half a century later, it’s seldom ever heard at any other time of the year, unlike The Four Seasons‘ December 1963 or Earth Wind And Fire‘s September, which to me is a gross injustice, as it deserves to be blasted out throughout the year, just as much as those titles always have been, and still are.
When I think of this band, the emotion and atmosphere which emanates is such a positive uplifting kick, it’s almost criminal they weren’t around for decades. Instead, they were like a huge blinding flash of lightning which, to me, seared the musical landscape, dissecting completely the glam movement which had come before them, and tearing the sky open to the next sonically-charged chapter of seventies pop and rock.
I’m just extremely fortunate…
…that I lived at this time to experience that shift in dynamics, with music production technology advancing at a tremendous pace, especially when it’s being carefully overseen, and by such capable hands as Alan Parsons himself behind desks, which at this precise time, were constantly growing ever-increasing amounts of knobs and faders, to create quality as superb and dynamic as this and, thanks to my sister, seizing the chance myself to listen to this uplifting end product a hell of a lot more than just having to just wait for it to turn up on the radio. This song single-handedly proves that the mid-seventies is a truly fantastic time to witness that the ever-evolving excitement and vibrancy for music was still very much in its ascendancy.
The single…
…had entered at a modest No.27, on the 12th January, before flying straight into the Top 10 at No.9 the following week; and by its third week, at the end of that month, it had rightfully flown in the face of every other single in the charts to propel itself to the very top of the pile, where it sat loftily for the first three weeks of February, before it eventually relents the position this very week.
From here…
…it slips back to near the edge of the Top 10 before dive-bombing all the way back to the middle of the chart, and then flying ever lower, before finally crashing out of the chart with 10 weeks trailing behind it, after the 22nd of March.
The “A” Side
The “B” Side
“January” TopPop Appearance
“January” Supersonic Appearance
“January” Top of the Pops Appearance
“January” Live Performance
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