40 Year Itch : The 5 Biggest UK Xmas Hits of 1974

   

  Mud topped off their sensational year by winning the Christmas sweepstakes with "Lonely This Christmas", the #1 song in the UK for four straight weeks. If it sounds like singer Les Gray is parodying Elvis Presley, he is. 

  "I was doing an Elvis on that but it was really a send up of all those smoochy songs. It works because it can also be taken seriously. I remember playing it at the the Liverpool Empire and some of the fans were crying and there were laughing." 

  

  The Wombles also finished their spectacular year with a top 5 holiday song. In the US, there was no race for the top of the charts. Perry Como had the highest charting holiday song with "Christmas Dream" which peaked at #92.

Here's how the UK Xmas songs fared on Christmas week 1974:

#5 The Wombles "Wombling Merry Christmas"

#13 The Goodies "Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me"

#18 Gilbert O'Sullivan "Christmas Song"

#23 Showaddywaddy "Hey Mr. Christmas"

   Honorable Mention : Sparks "Thanks God It's Not Christmas"

Get Down With Something Good

 

 

 

In 1973, Gilbert O'Sullivan ("Alone Again ( Naturally)" , "Clair") hit #1 in the UK and Ireland and the US Top 10 with this song written to his dog.

 

40 Years Ago This Month : Alone Again ( Naturally)

The Irish son of a butcher, Gilbert O'Sullivan achieved international fame with "Alone Again ( Naturally)". The single, released in March of 1972, had a six week run at the top of the Billboard charts that was interrupted for one week by Looking Glass's "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)". Casey Kasem's American Top 40 ranks the song as the 5th most popular of the 70's.

Gilbert O Sullivan dressed as a British schoolboy

Any song that sells three million copies is going to get noticed. Dutch comedy duo Van Kooten en De Bie wrote completely new lyrics to the song, calling it "1948". Cabaret star Gerard Cox recorded the hit single which Dutch fans still consider "een monumentaal nummer."