This week in 1970
1 In The Summertime Mungo Jerry
2 Groovin’ With Mr Bloe Mr Bloe
3 All Right Now Free
4 Yellow River Christie
5 Sally Gerry Monroe
6 Cottonfields The Beach Boys
7 Goodbye Sam Hello Samantha Cliff Richard
8 Honey Come Back Glen Campbell
9 Abraham, Martin and John Marvin Gaye
10 The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Prong Crown)
Fleetwood Mac Mungo Jerry’s Ray Dorset was taking a break from working in a lab for Timex when he wrote ‘In The Summertime’, the band’s debut single. The song, which Dorset says took all of ten minutes to write, was a No. 1 hit in charts around the world and - with sales of over 10 million - and is one of the biggest selling singles of all time. Mungo Jerry were barely prepared for the success of ‘In The Summertime’: Dorset had to ask his boss for time off to make a Top Of The Pops appearance. The band, who took their name from from the TS Eliot poem ‘Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer’, had another UK number one with ‘Baby Jump’ in 1971 and a number of other charting singles, but ‘In The Summertime’ is their signature tune and biggest hit by some distance.