Your beauty is beyond compare with flaming locks of auburn hair

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.  

1973 : Jolene - Dolly Parton

A fine song, but again I'm surprised it's the most streamed track of the year over here - I guess things may become clearer when I see the competition.

I suspect I don't need to hum if for you but I was surprised at how short and sweet it is, coming in at a very brief 2:42.  It was a big country hit in the US but only reached #80 in the main chart and it wasn't released as a single here in '73 - we had to wait until '76 for it, when it reached #7 and it also charted again in '11 (no idea why) and '14 (when she did that fabulous Glasto set).  It's been nominated for a Grammy three times - first for the original, then for a live version a year later but she had to wait until '16 to win one thanks to a version she did with Pentatonix (and here's an excellent version featuring Miley Cyrus as well).

Apparently, it's her most covered song - a surprising number of which have charted.  Olivia Newton-John put out a version which charted in Australia and The White Stripes got to #16 over here, whilst Strawberry Switchblade only got to #53 (in 1985 - was it really that long ago?!?  Yes, it was).  Other non-charting versions have been produced by Miley Cyrus (Dolly's god-daughter), Ellie Goulding, Lil Nas X (who does a good version) and The Sisters Of Mercy (who really don't).

This song also has a section in Wikipedia that others don't have - answer songs.  Oooh!  Often, they address the fact that the original song doesn't make it clear whether Jolene is interested in stealing "her man", but the only one I'm aware of is Kirsty MacColl's "Caroline" which is a song I know and like (and the man is very much stolen!).  And one final cute fact, when Dolly got her Covid jab she sang "Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, I'm begging of you please don't hesitate" - she's an all round good egg!

It still doesn't feel like a song we've truly taken to our hearts over here though, so what was the competition like in 1973 then?  Well - I normally only mention the top selling single of the year, but you're getting the top six from 1973 because it's such a game of two halves.  The top three are the extremely middle-of-the-road "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" by Dawn, "Eye Level" by the Simon Park Orchestra (the theme to Van der Valk) and "Welcome Home" by Peters and Lee (who I very much did not enjoy when I met them during this year) whereas the next three are the slightly more glam "Block Buster" by Sweet, "Cum On Feel The Noize" by Slade and "See My Baby Jive" by Wizzard - I know which selection I'd choose to listen to.  And the next two tracks are from Gary Glitter, who was very popular indeed in 1973, with four tracks in the year's top twenty.

Moving on to more savoury artists, looking through the charts we have the following potential tracks - David Bowie's "Jean Genie" and "Life On Mars" (and there's even "The Laughing Gnome" as well), Carly Simon's "You're So Vain", Elvis Presley's "Always On My Mind", Elton John's "Daniel" and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", The Strawbs' "Part Of The Union", Thin Lizzy's "Whiskey In The Jar", The O'Jays' "Love Train", Stevie Wonder's "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life", Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side", Wings' "Live And Let Die", The Carpenters' "Yesterday Once More" and "Top Of The World".   All in all, for a year which isn't exactly renowned as a musical goldmine, that ain't a bad selection at all.  And the US comes up with some goodies too - Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly", Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On", Billy Paul's "Me And Mrs Jones" and Gladys Knights's "Leaving On A Midnight Train To Georgia".

But, right at the end of the year we have two tracks that I'm amazed aren't winners - Slade's "Merry Christmas Everybody" and Wizzard's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day".  Surely both of these are streamed more than Jolene in an average year?  It's almost as though this list has been made up by following an arbitrary set of rules which then aren't explained in any way - they wouldn't do that to me, would they?

However, I don't begrudge Dolly her success - she's certainly put the hard yards in over the decades, comes across very well and achieves a good balance between taking herself seriously and also not in the slightest bit seriously.  And "Jolene" is undoubtedly a fine track - and certainly doesn't outstay its welcome!

1972 - A somewhat surprising winner which has never been released as a single
1974 - Not the best year ever