It’s mid-January, mid-seventies, three day weeks and coal shortages and all that (I wasn’t there, but it sounds pretty grim). So along came Mud, to save the day!
Tiger Feet, by Mud (their 1st of three #1s)
4 weeks, from 20th January – 17th February 1974
‘Tiger Feet’ is a relentlessly happy song. It is a big dumb puppy of a record that bounds in and refuses to get off until you start dancing. I’ve loved it since I was a kid, and I’m not going to go all snobby on it now. Some records need thinking about, need chin stroking and serious analysis. Others don’t.
All night long, You’ve been lookin’ at me, You know you’re the dance hall cutie that you long to be, You’ve been layin’ it down, You got your hips swingin’ out of bounds, And I like the way you do what you’re doin’ to me… That first verse sums it all up, in roughly ten seconds. A girl dances, a boy likes what he sees. Add in the backing cheers, whoops and hollers that make it sound as if this was recorded in someone’s front room on the New Year’s Eve just past, and you’ve got a classic.
It’s symptomatic of the route that glam rock has taken in the past year or so, through Wizzard and Gary Glitter, and now this ‘at the hop’ spoof from Mud. The genre is becoming little more than a fifties tribute act, characterised by the Elvis stylings of Mud’s lead singer Les Gray. It’s cheap, and tacky, but damn it if it isn’t catchy. It was written by glam rock songwriters du jour Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who have already scored #1s with The Sweet and Suzi Quatro.
One thing’s always troubled me about this song, though, even as a child. If you were to pick a part of the body to compare to a tiger… why the feet? That’s neat, That’s neat, That’s neat… I really love your tiger feet! Tigers have claws and stripes and sharp teeth – tons of cool body parts. Anyway, whatever, I’m getting dangerously close to serious analysis, and I promised not to.
But if you really did want to don your thinking caps, there’s definitely an argument for connecting the grim economic situation of the mid-1970s with the increasing popularity of bubblegum hits like this (and I’m aware that I won’t be the first to spot this.) It’s pure escapism, for people who have bigger things to worry about. In turn, ‘Tiger Feet’ became one of the defining hits of the decade. Any cheap ‘Best of the 70s’ compilation has to feature it, by law, while it’s one of those songs that a drama set in the seventies will always turn to as background scene-setting.
Mud had been around as a band since the mid-sixties and, like most of the genre’s big stars, they jumped on the glam rock bandwagon and rode it hard. They will feature twice more in this rundown but, without giving the game away, I won’t be giving their following chart-toppers as much leeway as I gave this one. Because this is great. Inside everyone, there is an eight-year-old who thinks ‘Tiger Feet’ by Mud is the best song ever written. Go on, indulge them.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
What’s not to love? A party is not a party without ‘Tiger Feet’. It’s timeless!
…and Sweet’s ‘Teenage Rampage’ was at No. 2 for three of those weeks. Grim economic times, but oh what a glorious time for music.
I do wish I’d been around then, if only for the music…
Mud were glorious, my new fave band in between Wizzard and Abba/Sparks/Queen. Crazy was crazily tango brilliance, Hypnosis topped my charts for 7 weeks, Dynamite was a Sweet reject (quite right too, they got Ballroom Blitz) setting up the Mud template, and then came Tiger Feet ironically outdoing The Sweet’s Teenage Rampage, both glamtastic. What caught on with Tiger Feet? The dance. Lads didn’t dance in 1974, they just didn’t. But they could copy Mud’s routine (and they did)! It was 4 for 4 for me, and they still had Cat Crept In and Rocket to come, before it all went in a completely different direction…..but I’ll let you tell that story 🙂
I did notice the dance from the video I attached… It would certainly be easy to learn! Plus the guitarist in a dress-slash-kimono, because, why not? I love Cat Crept In, and a couple of their earlier hits but, yeah, they always feel a little lightweight and gimmicky compared to the Sweet or Slade.
That guitarist co-wrote some 21st century chart-toppers Groovejet, Toca’s Miracle, Can’t You Out Of My Head, Rob Davis, as well as Mud’s later singles including the fab disco track Shake It Down – shades of things to come 🙂
Yes! I did know that, somewhere deep in the recesses of my brain, Can’t Get You Out of My Head was written by a member of Mud. And Cathy Dennis. Good to put a face to the name…
Now they are different…I will give them that. Not bad.
They do have a “Sweet” feel to them. Pretty cool.
Pingback: 344. ‘Devil Gate Drive’, by Suzi Quatro – The UK Number Ones Blog
Pingback: 351. ‘Always Yours’, by Gary Glitter – The UK Number Ones Blog
Pingback: 353. ‘Rock Your Baby’, by George McCrae – The UK Number Ones Blog
Pingback: Recap: #331 – #360 – The UK Number Ones Blog
Pingback: 362. ‘Lonely This Christmas’, by Mud – The UK Number Ones Blog
Pingback: 369. ‘Oh Boy’, by Mud – The UK Number Ones Blog
Pingback: Cover Versions of #1s – Girlschool & Van Halen – The UK Number Ones Blog
Pingback: 397. ‘Under the Moon of Love’, by Showaddywaddy – The UK Number Ones Blog
This isn’t the best glam rock song ever. But it might be the most fun glam rock song ever. Just so relentlessly happy and cheerful and boisterous. My little sister loves this song too and really loves the vocals.
I’m shocked this song didn’t catch on in the States. But 1974 is one of the worst periods for the US Billboard Hot 100, so maybe the Yanks don’t deserve this one.
When I get married, I’m considering making this my entrance song at the wedding reception, because it just has so much energy and a rowdy sense of fun and excitement. Because “That’s neat, that’s neat, that’s neat, that’s neat. I really love your tiger feet”
Rating: 5/5
Of all the songs that have topped the UK charts in the 70s from 1970-1974, no joke, this might be my favourite. I don’t dance, but this song makes me wanna dance. What a great period for UK pop 1970-1973 has been. Mud, what a frustrating band. Songs like “Rocket” (5/5), “Dyna-Mite” (4.5/5), “The Cat Crept In” (4/5), terrific. But then there are absolutely yawn-fests like…well, we’ll get to those songs a bit later.