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.
The Beatles
1967-1970
At No.18, on the “The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart”, the week of my 2nd Birthday, are The Beatles with 1967-1970.
The Blue Album,..
…as it would also become affectionately known, was sitting just a few places further in front of its Red Album sibling in this same chart, as I meet up with it for the first time along my musical road.
Like I mentioned…
…when I’d met that Red double LP set, my recollection of anything Beatles just hadn’t computed at this point. My parents, nor my two older sisters, had anything by the band. The only way I would have heard anything from this album is if it had been played on the radio, but as the airwaves to which either my mother or my sisters would be listening to, would be swamping anything like this, with the latest singles on the RAK, Bell, or any other Glam or singles chart act label, that would have been playing in heavy rotation at that time.
If my mum was instead listening to something a little easier in the kitchen, like Radio 2 perhaps, then I may have caught something like Penny Lane, or Something; but I think I would have noticed if something like Strawberry Fields or Lucy came on the radio. At the age of 2, there was just too much Osmonds from my sister, and Johnny Mathis from my mother, for anything like this to make any impression. That would happen a little later, and in a very indirect and drawn-out way.
I would eventually get hold of these albums…
…on the red and blue vinyl versions, when I’m in my late teens or early twenties; but by then I’d definitely been aware of most of their output years before. It always struck me though how radically different the musical variance with each colour was.
I stand by my statement that the Red is the compilation for which all others must aspire to. To me, in contrast, the Blue is just so much more immersive and requires a much more serious listen, but personally, I feel it’s also a sadder album, probably because by the second LP in this set, the band just weren’t really a band anymore. In that way, it’s quite fitting the to me that the music fits the cover.
By the time both colours had released back in the previous spring the year before in 1973, the four members of this band were fully ensconced in their own lives and projects; but for the people that had witnessed their magic at the time, it still wasn’t all that long ago, and it could still come back again. For them, at this time, and less than five years after everything had fallen collectively silent, it possibly could, and hopefully somehow would, still happen.
The realisation for some that the group had incontrovertibly and irrecoverably come to an end still couldn’t yet be completely accepted by many. The refusal to believe; it was just surely incomprehensible that they wouldn’t see the likes of them again. It was still too soon. Far too soon.
But, right at this moment, it still wasn’t too late either.
The album…
…had, along with Red, entered the chart back in the previous spring of 1973, on the 29th of April, but had landed one place higher at No.5, before hitting No.2 the following week, where it would sit for the next three weeks, being denied the top spot by the album currently sitting further down this very chart at No.33, before eventually loosening its grip a little to settle into a comfortable run in the Top 10, but then taking a sudden unexpected plunge down, and then out of the chart altogether, near the end of August.
It was soon back to take up residence once again from early September, but this time holding onto more of a mid-chart serenity as it travels into this year of 1974, which is where we find it this week.
From here,..
…it will fluctuate a little up and down the numbers, getting as high as No.12, and as low as No.47, before it again takes a short break from the chart after the much lighter and warmer 25th of May.
It also will probably come as no surprise that this album will make a return along my musical road too, and so I will catch up with it when it joins me at a future birthday, but maybe not the one you may initially think.
Record 1 / Side 1
Record 1 / Side 2
Record 2 / Side 3
Record 2 / Side 4
Many thanks goes to the following YouTube channels, for providing the chance to hear the tracks so that together we can experience all four sides of this double album release, as it was intended, once again.
Please show your support by visiting their channels.
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