This week in 1969
1 Something In The Air Thunderclap Newman
2 In The Ghetto Elvis Presley
3 Honky Tonk Woman The Rolling Stones
4 Give Peace A Chance Plastic Ono Band
5 Hello Suzie Amen Corner
6 Way of Life Family Dogg
7 It Miek Desmond Dekker and the Aces
8 Breakaway The Beach Boys
9 Baby Make It Soon Marmalade
10 Proud Mary Creedance Clearwater Revival
Thunderclap Newman were put together by The Who’s Pete Townshend and Who manager Kit Lambert principally to showcase songs written by drummer and singer John ‘Speedy’ Keen, who had shared a flat with Townshend and worked as his chauffeur. Keen met his fellow bandmates – jazz pianist Andy ‘Thunderclap’ Newman (a friend of Townshend’s from art college) and 15-year-old Glaswegian guitarist Jimmy McCulloch (who would go on to play with Paul McCartney’s Wings), for the first time at Pete Townshend’s home studio to record ‘Something In The Air’. Townsend produced the single, and played bass under the pseudonym Bijou Drains. Keen’s most famous song, and Thunderclap Newman’s only hit, ‘Something In The Air’ claimed the UK No. 1 spot for three weeks, holding off Elvis Presley’s ‘In The Ghetto’ and going on to sell over a million copies. All three member of Thunderclap Newman have passed away: Keen died of heart failure in 2002, aged 56; Jimmy McCulloch died of a drug-induced cardiac arrest in 1979, aged 26; and Andy ‘Thunderclap’ Newman died in 2016, aged 73.