Favourite Phases: 1974, The Radio

When I look back on it, 1974 was a special year, especially for things I would later hold very dear. It was the year my favourite author, Ursula Le Guin, published her novel The Dispossessed, which became my favourite novel ever. It was the year the prog rock band Genesis released their album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, which at the moment I consider my all-time favourite album. Joni Mitchell also released her Court and Spark album that year, another absolute favourite. There are other favourites from that year, but you get the picture.

It was also the year I discovered the radio, in particular a station we had here in Melbourne called 3XY. I mean, I knew the radio was there, I’d heard many songs played on it, from the Beatles, to Petula Clark, Normie Rowe, Daddy Cool, Creedence Clearwater and so many others. It was always in the background. But there was something about that year when I really heard it, when the bug for top 40 radio really bit me and it became mine, when it became an obsession. I think I can even pinpoint the exact time it happened. I was wagging high school (Year 8 – or Junior High) and I had brought my older brother’s little transistor radio with me for company while I lulled away the boring, aimless hours whilst not at school. There was a song that came on that I realised I really loved. It was My Coo Ca Choo by Alvin Stardust. Near the end of the day when I was about ready to go home I sat in a football stand near my home and looked out at the football oval and waited for the song to come on again (top 40 songs were always on high rotation). When it finally did, I was so happy. I couldn’t wait to hear it again and again.

The life-long music obsession phase all starts here, with My Coo Ca Choo. The song and Alvin Stardust have an interesting history. It was actually sung by record producer Peter Shelley, who wrote it but did not want to perform it in public. So he recruited one Bernard William Jewry, whose stage name was Shane Fenton (and even that was an assumed name belonging to someone else!) to be Alvin Stardust. Subsequent songs by that artist, such as the follow up hit, Jealous Mind, were sung by Jewry/Fenton. Coo Ca Choo’s a good retro glam song. I remember it playing over the PA at the local ice skating rink and it always made everyone skate faster. Great opening riff. It stayed at number one on the local charts for weeks.

Then I started to love other songs. And before I knew it I was hooked. From then on one of my primary focuses in life was listening to the radio. I always felt like something was wrong if it wasn’t on, if I wasn’t hearing it. What song was I missing out on hearing right now? The radio was quite an education in music. 3XY always played a judicious selection of newies and oldies, so I became familiar with a lot of classic (and not so classic) songs. I began to develop my taste in music. Many of the songs of 1974 have a permanent place in my heart and memory. It was a great year for singles. Here are some of them.