THIS WEEK IN 1970
1 Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) Edison
Lighthouse
2 Two Little Boys Rolf Harris 3 Reflections Of My Life Marmalade
4 Come And Get It Badfinger
5 All I Have To Do Is Dream Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell 6 Suspicious Minds Elvis Presley
7 Ruby Don’t Take Your Love To Town Kenny Rogers and the First Edition 8 Friends Arrival 9 Leavin’ On A Jet Plane Peter, Paul and Mary 10 The Witch’s Promise’/Teacher Jethro Tull
Tony Burrows is not one of the most recognisable names from the seventies pop era, but he probably should be. A vocal-for-hire session singer, he was lead singer on a string of hits, mostly one-hit wonder tunes, for a variety of different groups.
As well as singing lead on ‘Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)’, he also provided the vocals for The Flowerpot Men’s 1967 Beach Boys-esque ‘Let’s Go To San Francisco’, White Plains’ ‘My Baby Loves Lovin’, The Pipkins’ novelty song ‘Gimme Dat Ding’, The First Class 1974 hit ‘Beach Baby’ and Brotherhood of Man’s ‘United We Stand’. He also contributed vocals to many other well-known recordings, and claims to have sung on 100 top 20 hits through the seventies.
The million-plus seller ‘Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Grows)’ was recorded by writers Tony Macaulay and Barry Mason using Burrows and other session musicians. When it became an instant hit, a group had to be rapidly assembled to perform the song on Top Of The Pops. Macaulay and Mason found a group called Greenfield Hammer who joined Burrows on TOTP as Edison Lighthouse.
It’s widely reported that a few weeks later Tony Burrows made Top Of The Pops history by performing on the same show with three different groups. While this would appear to be inaccurate, there’s no dispute that he did however perform on the show with two bands four times between January 29 and February 26, 1970.
As well as topping the chart in the UK and in Ireland, ‘Love Grows...’ was a major international hit. It reached number 5 in the US Billboard Hot 100, selling more than a million by April.
Tony Burrows left Edison Lighthouse after ‘Love Grows...’ and Macaulay brought in other musicians to continue the name. They had just one more UK chart entry: ‘It’s Up To You Petula’ which reached number 49 in 1971. Edison Lighthouse have had many personnel changes down the years but continue to perform 50 years after storming to number one with one of the most popular and endearing ‘bubblegum pop’ tunes of the early 1970s. –