Nearly Number One: 1973

1972/1973: T.Rex: Solid Gold Easy Action

Solid Gold Easy Action was T.Rex's eighth consecutive UK Top 2 single since the release of Ride A White Swan in 1970.
Released in 1972, the record peaked at Number 2 for one week on the British charts in early January 1973, blocked from the Number 1 spot by Little Jimmy Osmond's Long Haired Lover From Liverpool.
Unlike some earlier T.Rex singles, the track made no impression on the American charts.
It sold well enough in Ireland, Norway and Germany to feature in each of those country's Top 10s.
It was never featured on any of the band's albums at the time, but did appear on the 1972 Great Hits compilation issued by EMI.
Some have suggested that this song was Bolan's prediction of his death five years later, as it features the opening line "Life is the same and it always will be / Easy as picking foxes from a tree." The registration number on the vehicle in which Bolan was killed on 16 September 1977 was FOX 661L. And, the car struck a tree.

The German Record Sleeve

It was February 1973 and the UK was in the middle of a political conflict between the unions and the government of the day.
As a consequence, it seemed as if the whole country was on strike. Power cuts were common, as was what became known as the Three Day Week. It wasn’t all bad, though. There were still some great tunes about and one of them came from folk-rock exponents, The Strawbs.
Written by group members John Ford and Richard Hudson, Part of the Union was the band’s tongue-in-cheek tribute to the working man. Highly commercial, it is a sing-a-long number which struck a chord with record buyers, who sent it up to Number 2 in the UK charts.
This was The Strawbs’ biggest UK hit, though. While they were hugely popular on the live circuit, they could only manage two other hit songs: Lay Down and Shine On Silver Sun.
Part of the Union was kept off the top spot by Blockbuster! by The Sweet and Cum On Feel the Noize by Slade.

Pages