Table of Contents

The 20th of February 1974

Official U.K. Albums 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,

and published on Wednesday the 20th of February 1974.

Status Quo

Hello!

At No.38, on the “The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart”, the week of my 2nd Birthday, are Status Quo with Hello!.

The Quo are back…

…with a follow-up to their defining 5th album, which affirms that this new direction they’ve taken isn’t a one-time fluke. The band are unquestionably onto something, know in their souls it has promise, and so are grabbing it with both hands, cementing that sound as their very own; and their followers are loving everything about it too.

In a way, this was Piledriver part II, but taken up a further notch. The confidence in their worth as a band by this album is now rock solid; bolstered with an even bigger hit in “Caroline“, a track which Francis and Bob had originally envisioned differently with a shuffle-type of rhythm, but that Rick had persuaded them to play instead in a more straightforward 8-bar pattern; the lightning of which they will bottle and use on most of their future output, alongside their new visuality in a band logo which also makes its debut on the album cover. The single had nearly made it to the very top of the chart last autumn, and so this album, when it released around that time, was almost a sure bet to, not only match the previous success of their former LP release, but had a very very good chance of surpassing it.

The album…

…had rocketed into Top 5 of the chart on the last day of September 1973 and took only four weeks to beat down every other album in the Top 50 to hit the top of the chart and become Britain’s best selling album for a week from the 21st of October that autumn.

Slipping back a few notches during the following weeks after hitting the summit, it eventually dropped outside of the Top 10 near the end of November, and then slipped into the middle positions of the chart, before falling out altogether after the 29th of December.

After only a week away, it was back again for this new year of 1974, but this time it sits mainly further back in the chart, which is where we find it here this week.

From here,..

…the LP will teeter on the very edge of the Top 50 next week, before pulling itself back 10 places to No.40 at the beginning of March, but will again fall away after the 9th of that month.

After these last two groups of consecutive weeks, the next visits will all be limited to just one week each time; the first being later on in March from the 17th, the second from the 19th of May, and the third from the 16th of June, and this will be it’s last showing for this year.

The brief appearances will continue into the next year of 1975, with the fourth being from the 12th of January, the fifth from the 9th of February, and the sixth and (so far) last appearance being in July, leaving for good after the 26th of that month.