All the stores were closed and shuttered

Continuing my trip back through the 1968 album charts.

07/04/68 : Val Doonican Rocks, But Gently - Val Doonican

Not just the week of the birth of the lovely Mrs Reed - the very day itself.  The #1 album was a somewhat cool album from Bob, but the album we get to listen to is possibly considered as slightly less cool when viewed through the lens of history.  But wow - what a title!  I'm obviously not looking forward to this, but I'm very intrigued to hear what Val rocking, but gently sounds like.

Well, it doesn't sound anything like rock, I can assure you.  Bizarrely (or maybe not) this album isn't available anywhere (not even on YouTube), but most of the tracks were available on various best-ofs so I pieced what I could together to experience at least some of the joy.  And well, it's not terrible - it's just very "nice" cover versions of songs which (as far as I know) weren't very rocky in the first place, but they're really slowed down.  He's got a nice enough voice and he also does the obligatory Lennon/McCartney cover (he opts for "Yesterday") but, once again, I'm somewhat at a loss as to why people loved this so much

We're at #15 in the charts this week on his 20th week of a 23 week run, with it having peaked at - go on, guess.   Yup - it was obviously #1.  For THREE weeks!  Lordy.  The top five this week was Bob, three best-ofs from (you guessed it) Otis, The Supremes and The Four Tops, with TSOM to round it all off - this lot made up the top five for six weeks in a row!  The highest new entry was The Move (#26) and, once again, there are no new women in the charts - is that it for the year? (spoiler alert - no, it isn't)

Wikipedia has a couple of interesting facts on the album - it was the album that displaced Sgt Pepper from the #1 position and there was a problem distributing it because of foot and mouth disease.  I can only shudder to imagine what might have happened if everyone had been able to get hold of it - fortunately, we'll never know.  Unsurprisingly, this album didn't exactly set the rest of the world alight.

"Customers also listened to" - obviously we have no idea, but I can imagine it might not be the coolest selection ever.  This is a perfectly pleasant album and he's got a nice voice, but seriously - three weeks at #1?!?  Just no.

31/03/68 - A very variable album
14/04/68 - An odd album

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