The moment I met you, I swear

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

24/06/73 : Back To Front - Gilbert O'Sullivan


Our second visit with Gilbert this year and I'm hoping for a better experience than last time - and it's almost guaranteed because it's got one of the two tracks of his that I know on it.  But, before we go there, we need to consider a particularly bizarre compilation album.

Yes, it's Pure Gold on EMI which I imagine very few people remember these days.  EMI basically just threw anyone on this - T Rex, Jackson 5, Mud, Wizzard, Cliff Richard, Cilla Black, ELO and Deep Purple to name some of the ones I recognise.  I defy anyone to like all the tracks on it - it's just a very odd mix.  But not as odd as the title of the Diana Ross track on the album - "Doobedood'NDoobe, Doobedood'NDoobe, Doobedood'NDoo".  What?!?  NEXT!

And yeah, overall I'd say this album is indeed a better Gilbert-based experience and not just because of the presence of "Clair" - which is a very fine song indeed, being very 70s, but good 70s as it bounces along nicely.  As does most of the album actually - "jaunty" is a word that would be appropriate for most of the tracks.  Although, it does have a very odd intro, is a bit too McCartneyesque in places, which isn't a sound I particularly go for (I might have mentioned it before) and "But I'm Not" is surprisingly Chas'n'Dave - but overall it wasn't an unpleasant experience.

We're at #11 in the charts this week on his 33rd of a 47 week run, having peaked at #1 in his tenth week - which is a much more successful run than his follow-up achieved.  The top five this week were That'll Be The Day, Pure Gold, Bowie, Paul Simon and The Beatles (one of two of their compilations hanging around the charts which I've completely ignored) and the highest new entry is Peters & Lee (#7) about to start an incredible run, including nine weeks in the top two!  And that's it for new entries in the charts.  We also have the first chart of the year with no Karen, but we have a replacement - Nana Mouskouri (#47).  This hard-rocking chick becomes the ninth woman we've seen on the charts - can we make it to double figures by the end of the year?!?

Wikipedia has quite a lot on the album, which includes some very odd sentences - for instance, telling us that he "presented himself as a more masculine, hairy-chested singer with a perm, wearing sweaters with the letter "G" emblazoned on them, which helped establish him as a sex symbol".  My favourite critical comment comes from our old mucker Robert Christgau who graciously admits that Gilbert  "certainly hasn't turned into a major annoyance yet" - is any higher praise possible?  The critics generally liked it though and it did very well commercially here - and in Sweden, obviously.

"Customers also listened to" Leo Sayer, Harry Nilsson and 10cc - yes, they're all very much in the same vein.  Gilbert feels pretty dated, but, on this album at least, in a nice nostalgic way - you can't imagine anyone making an album like this now, but you're pleased there was a time that they did.

17/06/73 - An offensively inoffensive album
01/07/73 - Very much of its time

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