What promised to be Kiki Dee’s breakthrough track. Her first hit but only a no 13 in 1973. Her joint highest solo chart position.

Kiki Dee: Amoureuse

Below is a live version from the Dutch TV broadcaster AVRO’s TopPop.

Kris Kristofferson, who died last week, was a man of many parts (literally as an actor but also a Rhodes Scholar, a soldier, helicopter pilot, singer and songwriter.)

It is for his songwriting and acting he will most likely be remembered for. Classic songs like Me and Bobby McGhee, For the Good Times and this one.

Kris Kristofferson: Help Me Make It Through the Night

For a change, a TV theme from the 1970s. Follyfoot was a programme about a farm which took in horses in need of recuperation.

The tune will bring back memories for some.

The Settlers: The Lightning Tree (Theme from Follyfoot)

Yes it has taken me long enough to get round to this.

The song that announced Roxy Music and Brian Ferry to the world.

Curiously the dancers on the Top of the Pops floor look bored rather than anything.

Roxy Music: Virginia Plain

Peter Gabriel’s first solo single. From 1977

Peter Gabriel: Solsbury Hill

The song that introduced Alice to the UK

And the sound of summer 1972.

Alice Cooper: School’s Out

This is the track from which I first became aware of Genesis, though a schoolfriend of mine had seen them perform as support to Lindisfarne and came back raving about them.

This utterly sui generis song with its bizarre lyric was their first hit – a no 21 in 1974.

This is a live performance – possibly from that same tour.

Genesis: I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)

This classic song is yet another Lamont Dozier composition with the Holland brothers this time with Ron Dunbar. However, the credit on the label is to Edythe Wayne and Ron Dunbar. At the time the trio were in dispute with Motown (and had just set up their own record label Invictus) so required a pseudonym.

Hearing this always takes me back to the League Cup semi-final of 1970 when Dumbarton played Celtic at Hampden (twice.) At the first game – or the replay, I forget which – this came over the tannoy.

Freda Payne: Band of Gold

(There’s a clip of Payne singing this on a US TV show here but it’s followed by an extensive advert.)

This is one of those songs that is instantly recognisable. It is also one of those which is more known in retrospect than it was on its original release in 1978. It only reached no 87 in the UK charts. (A no 8 in Australia though, and no 21 in the US.) Its later use in a film helped keep its profile up though.

Warren Zevon: Werewolves Of London

I mentioned here that David Gates of Bread somehow managed to write love songs that just hit the spot.

From 1970, this was the group’s first UK hit.

Bread: Make It With You