Although many of my friends, in real life and online, remember 1969/70 in terms of the more adventurous bands and musicians, the charts of the day tell a more complex story. The UK charts generally did not discriminate based on genre. Melody Maker ran a separate reggae chart, but that was the extent of it; King Crimson had to battle it out with the cast recording of The Sound of Music and Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass, the victors being decided by record sales. And some of the albums stuck in the charts for a very long time, well before Tubular Bells and Dark Side of the Moon took up residency. Whatever we might make of the ‘progressive music’ and the musicians beloved of the music press of the day, UK TV was dominated by light entertainment, and the stars of light entertainment were also in the charts.
The Best of the Seekers
In the album chart for this week in 1970 was an LP released in 1968 which eventually spent 117 weeks on the chart: The Best of the Seekers.
The Seekers were formed in Melbourne, Australia and came to the UK on a contract as entertainers on a cruise ship. Once in the UK they were offered live work and TV appearances until one day they were on the same bill as Dusty Springfield and met her brother Tom (both stage names for Mary and Dionysius O’Brien) and recorded his song I’ll Never FInd Another You. It was a huge hit in the UK, Australia and the USA and their careers were made.
I suppose you had to be there to remember just how popular they were, though a good proxy indicator of how many albums they sold is the sheer number of them that you will find today in any High Street charity shop.
Their sound was built around a mix of pop/folk and cabaret songs, well-played and produced, with catchy harmonies and some genuinely good material. Most of all they had one of the great female pop voices of the sixties in Judith Durham, a trained soprano (mezzo, I think) with perfect pitch and a jazz singer’s phrasing.
These days their music is remembered with affection by one generation and dismissal by others. This is unfair. It is certainly true that some of the material their producers chose for them is weak and the arrangements corny. But at their best they made, as Nick Lowe once said, pure pop for now people.
And I’ve said for years that if I could find someone with a voice like Judith Durham’s, I’d start a Seekers tribute band in an instant.
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