You Keep Me Hanging On: 1974 Revisited

So we're dumped back in the late Winter of 1974, as Jeremy Thorpe took time off from plotting murders to try and thrash out some sort of Liberal-Tory coalition.

And what was the music like as the country spent the last weekend not knowing who was really going to be in charge?

For a start, this was the number one single:



[Buy: Suzy Quatro's greatest hits]

It's worth mentioning that the week of the next election, the public had moved on from spirited women in leather jumpsuits beating the crap out of guitars and were buying this, instead:



(Kung Fu Fighting had been the number one as the polls opened, but John Denver was what was selling in the week of the election.)

[Buy: John Denver's Finest Songs]

The period of Wilson's hung parliament actually had some brilliant number one singles. The Rubettes:



[Buy: The Best Of The Rubettes]

And The Three Degrees:



[Buy: The Best Of The Three Degrees]

Mind you, The Streak and Always Yours - which manages to be one of the less forgivable things Gary Glitter has every done - also bubbled to the surface while Wilson struggled. So perhaps it's not such a great omen.

Some other 1974 bits to follow
The albums
The new bands