Back for another pop at the top, the teen idol of the mid-seventies, and as far as I’m aware the only chart-topping star named after an English county… David Essex!
Hold Me Close, by David Essex (his 2nd and final #1)
3 weeks, from 28th September – 19th October 1975
When I wrote about his first #1, ‘Gonna Make You a Star’, I mentioned that he wasn’t very comfortable with the teeny-bopper tag. In fact, it’s what that whole song was about. A year on, however, I’m tempted to think he’s rolled his eyes, shrugged his shoulders, given in and hopped on the pure pop bandwagon.
Hold me close, Don’t let me go, Oh no… I, Yes I love you and I fink that you know… He’s kept the cockney accent; in fact he might be playing it up here more than ever. Wiv your love loight, shi-nin’… It kind of reminds me of Dick Van Dyke in ‘Mary Poppins’, even though David Essex was genuinely from east London, and I can imagine him gurning in the corny, deliberate pauses between words. It also reminds me, somehow, of Sid Vicious’s poppy covers, ‘My Way’ and the like, though a much more PG rated version.
It’s a fun pop song, and catchy as hell. If it were an animal it would be a huge, slobbering St. Bernard, just looking for a cuddle. The perky riff flirts with becoming irritating, but just about gets away with it, while the song could have a good minute shaved off its runtime and nobody would notice. It was a deliberate choice to make a single as commercial as this to be the follow up to #5 hit ‘Rolling Stone’, which was a bit more out there.
I don’t really have much more to say about this one. It’s catchy, and simple. A solid pop single. In time, David Essex would move more into acting, although he was scoring the odd Top 10 hit well into the eighties. He has starred in various West End productions, including ‘Evita’ and ‘Tommy’, and featured heavily on Jeff Wayne’s ‘War of the Worlds’ concept album (Wayne also produced both of Essex’s chart-toppers.) He still performs, and acts, and has confirmed his place in cockney legend by appearing in ‘EastEnders’, and by having a model of himself in the West Ham United museum.
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Well…*scratching head*…it ain’t Rock On. Doesn’t really do much for me. I like has voice, tho.
Another chart-topping star named after an English county…Judith Durham (The Seekers)
Good call!
A step too far into pop-py territory for me too – to be fair though he never did it again so blatantly! City Lights in 1976 was an epic wall-of-dramatic-sound and ambitious and cinematic, and future single Imperial Wizard not far behind hinting at his War Of The Worlds involvement and Evita stand-out on Oh What A Circus. Beyond that, his remaining solo stuff was pleasant and varied but not essential. I went to one of his concerts in the 80’s, which the BBC filmed, and it was pretty much David – likeable, pleasant, decent with occasional flashes of greatness.
Ray Dorset (Mungo Jerry) who lives in Dorset – Bournemouth, where I work – though Dorset is his real name so maybe the County was named after his ancestors… 🙂
Can I throw the ‘Sutherland’ Brothers in by proxy, thanks to Rod Stewart?
It sounds like something Rod Stewart could have done. The only song over here to hit was Rock On from him…It’s not bad.
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