This week in 1972
1 Mouldy Old Dough Lieutenant Pigeon 2 Donna 10CC 3 In A Broken Dream Python Lee Jackson 4 Elected Alice Cooper 5 Clair Gilbert O’Sullivan 6 I Didn’t Know I Loved You (Till I Saw You Rock and Roll) Gary Glitter 7 You’re A Lady Peter Skellern 8 Burning Love Elvis Presley 9 There Are More Questions Than Answers Johnny Nash 10 Wig-Wam Bam The Sweet
Coventry band Lieutenant Pigeon’s brand of honkytonk, novelty music was at its peak of popularity in the early seventies. The instrumental Mouldy Old Dough was far and away their biggest hit, selling almost 800,000 copies in the UK in 1972. It was that year’s second biggest selling single, finishing behind another instrumental: the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards’ bagpipe cover of ‘Amazing Grace’. Mouldy Old Dough spent four weeks at number one in the UK charts and also topped the charts in Ireland. The single was recorded in the front room of Lieutenant Pigeon frontman Rob Woodward’s house and featured his mother Hilda, then aged 60, on piano – making her one of the oldest performers on a number one hit.