1974: Leo Sayer: The Show Must Go On

1973/1974: Leo Sayer performs The Show Must Go On

• After the failure of his debut single, Why is Everybody Going Home?, The Show Must Go On became Leo Sayer's first UK hit record.
• The song began its chart career at the end of 1973, but peaked at Number 2 for one week in mid to late January 1974.
• The single that kept it from the top of the charts was You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me by The New Seekers.
• At the time, Sayer would perform the song dressed and made up as a Pierrot clown.
• The single is a track from Sayer's first album Silverbird, which also peaked at Number 2 (behind The Carpenters' compilation album, The Singles 1969-1973).
• The Show Must Go On began a run of seven consecutive Top 10 hits for Sayer in the UK, including a Number 1 (1977's When I Need You) and two further Number 2 songs. 
• Although this original version failed to dent the charts in America, a cover by Three Dog Night made the Top 10 (#4) on the Billboard Hot 100 later in 1974, becoming the band's last single to do so.
• In Leo Sayer's version, the final line of the chorus is "I won't let the show go on". Three Dog Night changed the lyric to "I must let the show go on", which Sayer was apparently unhappy about.

Image by AVRO (Beeld En Geluid Wiki - Gallerie: Toppop 1974) [CC BY-SA 3.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons

1974: The Hollies: The Air That I Breathe

The Hollies

• Disregarding re-releases The Air That I Breathe was The Hollies’ final UK Top 10 hit. 
• The song reached Number 2 in March 1974.
• It was kept from Number 1 by Paper Lace’s Billy, Don’t Be A Hero.
• It became a Top 10 hit across Europe, as well as peaking at Number 6 in the US and Number 5 in Canada.
• The song was written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood.
• It’s included on Hammond’s 1972 album, It Never Rains in Southern California.
• The writers won a lawsuit for plagiarism against English rock band Radiohead for similarities of the track Creep to The Air That I Breathe.
• Simply Red covered the song and took it into the UK Top 10 in August 1998.
• The Hollies’ version was re-released in the UK in 1988, peaking at Number 60.