1973 in British music

1970s in music in the UK
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1973 in music

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This is a summary of 1973 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.

Events[]

• date unknown - The Royal Northern College of Music is established by the merger of the Northern School of Music (established 1920) and the Royal Manchester College of Music (established 1893)
• 9 January – Mick Jagger's request for a Japanese visa is rejected on account of a 1969 drug conviction, putting an end to The Rolling Stones' plans to perform in Japan during their forthcoming tour.
• 18 January – The Rolling Stones' benefit concert for Nicaraguan earthquake victims raises over $350,000
• 14 February – David Bowie collapses from exhaustion after a performance at New York's Madison Square Garden.
• 1 March - Pink Floyd releases The Dark Side of the Moon, which goes on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time.
• 8 March – Paul McCartney is fined $240 after pleading guilty to charges of growing marijuana outside his Scottish farm.
• 14 March - The singers Stephen Stills and Véronique Sanson are married near Guildford, England.
• 7 April – Cliff Richard takes part in the 18th Eurovision Song Contest. He finishes in 3rd place with the song "Power to All Our Friends".
• 4 May - 29 July – Led Zeppelin embarks on a tour of the United States, during which they set the record for highest attendance for a concert, 56,800, at the Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida. The record was previously held by The Beatles. Performances for the movie The Song Remains the Same are also filmed.
• 12 May - David Bowie is the first rock artist to perform at Earls Court Exhibition Centre.
• 25 May – Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells becomes the first release on Richard Branson's newly launched Virgin label.
• May - Benjamin Britten has surgery to replace a failing heart valve.^[1]
• 4 June - Ronnie Lane plays his last show with Faces at the Edmonton Sundown in London. Lane had informed the band three weeks earlier that he was quitting.
• 16 June - Benjamin Britten's opera Death in Venice, receives its première at Snape Maltings.
• 30 June - Ian Gillan quits Deep Purple.
• 3 July – David Bowie 'retires' his stage persona Ziggy Stardust in front of a shocked audience at the Hammersmith Odeon at the end of his British tour.
• 4 July – Slade drummer Don Powell is critically injured in a car crash in Wolverhampton; his 20-year-old girlfriend is killed.
• 13 July - Queen releases their debut album.
• 15 July - Ray Davies of The Kinks makes an emotional outburst during a performance at White City Stadium, announcing he is quitting the group. He later withdraws the statement.
• 20 August - The London Symphony Orchestra becomes the first British orchestra to take part in the Salzburg Festival.
• 20 October – Queen Elizabeth II opens Sydney Opera House.
• November - Karl Jenkins is among the participants in a live-in-the-studio performance of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells for the BBC.^[2]
• 20 November - The Who open their Quadrophenia US tour with a concert at San Francisco's Cow Palace, but drummer Keith Moon passes out and has to be carried off the stage. Nineteen-year-old fan Scot Halpin is selected from the audience to finish the show; Halpin would later be awarded Rolling Stone magazine's "Pick-Up Player of the Year Award" for his historic performance.^[3]
• date unknown - The Taverner Consort and Players are founded by Andrew Parrott.^[4]

Number Ones[]

Singles[]

Date[5]	Single	Artist
6 January	"Long Haired Lover from Liverpool"	Little Jimmy Osmond
13 January
20 January
27 January	"Block Buster!"	Sweet
3 February
10 February
17 February
24 February
3 March	"Cum On Feel the Noize"	Slade
10 March
17 March
24 March
31 March	"The Twelfth of Never"	Donny Osmond
7 April	"Get Down"	Gilbert O'Sullivan
14 April
21 April	"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree"	Dawn
28 April
5 May
12 May
19 May	"See My Baby Jive"	Wizzard
26 May
2 June
9 June
16 June	"Can the Can"	Suzi Quatro
23 June	"Rubber Bullets"	10cc
30 June	"Skweeze Me Pleeze Me"	Slade
7 July
14 July
21 July	"Welcome Home"	Peters and Lee
28 July	"I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)"	Gary Glitter
4 August
11 August
18 August
25 August	"Young Love"/ "A Million to One"	Donny Osmond
1 September
8 September
15 September
22 September	"Angel Fingers"	Wizzard
29 September	"Eye Level"	Simon Park Orchestra
6 October
13 October
20 October
27 October	"Daydreamer"/ "The Puppy Song	David Cassidy
3 November
10 November
17 November	"I Love You Love Me Love"	Gary Glitter
24 November
1 December
8 December
15 December	"Merry Xmas Everybody"	Slade
22 December
29 December

^[6]

Albums[]

Date[7]	Album	Artist
6 January		Various Artists
13 January	Slayed?	Slade
20 January	Back to Front	Gilbert O'Sullivan
27 January	Slayed?	Slade
3 February
10 February	Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player	Elton John
17 February
24 February
3 March
10 March
17 March
24 March	Billion Dollar Babies	Alice Cooper
31 March		Various Artists
7 April
14 April	Houses of the Holy	Led Zeppelin
21 April
28 April	Ooh La La	The Faces
5 May	Aladdin Sane	David Bowie
12 May
19 May
26 May
2 June
9 June		Various Artists
16 June
23 June
30 June	That'll Be the Day	Soundtrack
7 July
14 July
21 July
28 July
4 August
11 August
18 August	We Can Make It	Peters and Lee
25 August
1 September	Sing It Again Rod	Rod Stewart
8 September
15 September
22 September	Goat's Head Soup	The Rolling Stones
29 September
6 October	Sladest	Slade
13 October
20 October
27 October	Hello!	Status Quo
3 November	Pin Ups	David Bowie
10 November
17 November
24 November
1 December
8 December	Stranded	Roxy Music
15 December	Dreams Are Nuthin' More Than Wishes	David Cassidy
22 December	Goodbye Yellow Brick Road	Elton John
29 December

^[8]

Year-end charts[]

Between 2 January and 6 December 1973.

Best-selling singles[]

^[9]

No.	Title	Artist	Peak position
1	"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree"	Dawn featuring Tony Orlando	1
2	"Eye Level"	Simon Park Orchestra	1
3	"Welcome Home"	Peters and Lee	1
4	"Block Buster!"	Sweet	1
5	"Cum On Feel the Noize"	Slade	1
6	"See My Baby Jive"	Wizzard	1
7	"I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)"	Gary Glitter	1
8	"I Love You Love Me Love"	Gary Glitter	1
9	"The Twelfth of Never"	Donny Osmond	1
10	"Spanish Eyes"	Al Martino	5
11	"Daydreamer"/"The Puppy Song"	David Cassidy	1
12	"Long Haired Lover from Liverpool"	Little Jimmy Osmond	1
13	"Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me"	Slade	1
14	"And I Love You So"	Perry Como	3
15	"Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again"	Gary Glitter	2
16	"Get Down"	Gilbert O'Sullivan	1
17	"The Ballroom Blitz"	Sweet	2
18	"Do You Wanna Touch Me? (Oh Yeah!)"	Gary Glitter	2
19	"Young Love"	Donny Osmond	1
20	"Rubber Bullets"	10cc	1
21	"Monster Mash"	Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt Kickers	3
22	"For the Good Times"	Perry Como	7
23	"Dancin' (On a Saturday Night)"	Barry Blue	2
24	"Part of the Union"	Strawbs	2
25	"Angel Fingers (A Teen Ballad)"	Wizzard	1
26	"Life on Mars?"	David Bowie	3
27	"Hell Raiser"	Sweet	2
28	"Yesterday Once More"	The Carpenters	2
29	"Can the Can"	Suzi Quatro	1
30	"My Friend Stan"	Slade	2
31	"You're So Vain"	Carly Simon	3
32	"Albatross"	Fleetwood Mac	2[a]
33	"Rock On"	David Essex	3
34	"Nutbush City Limits"	Ike & Tina Turner	4
35	"Alright, Alright, Alright"	Mungo Jerry	3
36	"Sorrow"	David Bowie	3
37	"One and One Is One"	Medicine Head	3
38	"You Can Do Magic"	Limmie & the Family Cooking	3
39	"Let Me In"	The Osmonds	2
40	"The Jean Genie"	David Bowie	2
41	"Caroline"	Status Quo	5
42	"The Laughing Gnome"	David Bowie	6
43	"Feel the Need in Me"	The Detroit Emeralds	4
44	"My Coo Ca Choo"	Alvin Stardust	2
45	"Power to All Our Friends"	Cliff Richard	4
46	"Never Never Never (Grande Grande Grande)"	Shirley Bassey	8
47	"20th Century Boy"	T. Rex	3
48	"Snoopy vs. the Red Baron"	The Hotshots	4
49	"I Am a Clown"/"Some Kind of Summer"	David Cassidy	3
50	"Paper Roses"	Marie Osmond	2

Notes:

Best-selling albums[]

The list of the top fifty best-selling albums of 1973 were published in Record Mirror at the end of the year, and later reproduced in the first edition of the BPI Year Book in 1976. However, in 2007 the Official Charts Company published album chart histories for each year from 1956 to 1977, researched by historian Sharon Mawer, and included an updated list of the top ten best-selling albums for each year based on the new research. The updated top ten for 1973 is shown in the table below.^[10] The most significant changes from the original BMRB chart were that the album previously thought to be the year's best-seller, the soundtrack to the film That'll Be the Day, fell to tenth position, and Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player by Elton John moved up from number four to become the new best-selling album of 1973.

No.	Title	Artist	Peak position
1	Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player	Elton John	1
2	Aladdin Sane	David Bowie	1
3	Greatest Hits	Simon & Garfunkel	3[a]
4	The Dark Side of the Moon	Pink Floyd	2
5	We Can Make It	Peters and Lee	1
6	1967–1970	The Beatles	2
7	1962–1966	The Beatles	3
8	And I Love You So	Perry Como	3[b]
9	Back to Front	Gilbert O'Sullivan	1
10	That'll Be the Day	Original Soundtrack	1

Notes:

Classical music: new works[]

• Malcolm Arnold - Symphony No. 7
• Jeffrey Lewis - Aurora
• William Mathias - Missa Brevis
• Nicholas Maw - Life Studies
• Patric Standford - Christus Requiem
• Michael Tippett - Piano Sonata No. 3^[11]
• Grace Williams - Ave Maris Stella

Opera[]

• Benjamin Britten - Death in Venice

Film and Incidental music[]

• John Barry - A Doll's House, starring Claire Bloom, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Richardson and Denholm Elliott.
• Richard Rodney Bennett - Lady Caroline Lamb directed by Robert Bolt, starring Sarah Miles.
• Albert Elms - Love Thy Neighbour.
• Paul Ferris - The Creeping Flesh directed by Freddie Francis, starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

Musical theatre[]

• 13 May - Cyrano, with book and lyrics by Anthony Burgess and music by Michael J. Lewis, opens at the Palace Theatre, London, starring Christopher Plummer; it runs for 49 performances.

Musical films[]

• Jesus Christ Superstar, a film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice rock opera, directed by Norman Jewison

Births[]

• 22 March - Beverley Knight, soul singer
• 14 May
  • Sinéad O'Carroll, Irish singer (B*Witched)
  • Natalie Appleton, vocalist (All Saints)
• 21 May - Noel Fielding, comedian and musician
• 23 May - Nikki Yeoh, jazz pianist
• 19 July - Martin Powell, keyboard player and songwriter (Cradle of Filth, My Dying Bride, Cryptal Darkness, and Anathema)
• 22 July - Daniel Jones, English-Australian guitarist, songwriter, and producer
• 23 July - Fran Healy, singer-songwriter (Travis)
• 6 August - Donna Lewis, singer
• 17 September - Amy Black, operatic mezzo-soprano (died 2009)
• 27 September - Lee Brennan, singer (911)
• 29 September - Alfie Boe, operatic tenor
• 10 November – Jacqui Abbott, vocalist (The Beautiful South)

Deaths[]

• 3 February - Edward Lockspeiser, musicologist, composer and radio broadcaster, 67
• 26 March - Noël Coward, composer and dramatist, 73
• 18 April - Ronald Center, composer, 60
• 24 May - Sid Phillips, jazz clarinetist, bandleader, and arranger, 65
• 8 June - Tubby Hayes, jazz musician, 38 (during heart surgery)^[12]
• 9 August – Donald Peers, singer, 66
• 16 August - Astra Desmond, contralto, 80
• 6 September - Sir William Henry Harris, composer, 90
• 22 October - David Franklin, opera singer and broadcaster, 65
• 27 October - Norman Allin, operatic bass, 88
• 26 November - John Rostill, bassist and composer, 31 (electrocuted by faulty guitar equipment)^[13]
• 6 December - Frederic Curzon, composer and conductor, 74
• 17 December - Patrick Hadley, composer, 74
• date unknown - Harry Dexter, music critic and composer of light music, 63

See also[]

• 1973 in British radio
• 1973 in British television
• 1973 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1973

References[]