This week in 1977
1 I Don’t Want To Talk About It/First Cut Is The Deepest Rod Stewart 2 Free Deniece Williams 3 Ain’t Gonna Bump No More Joe Tex 4 The Shuffle Van McCoy 5 Lucille Kenny Rogers 6 A Star Is Born (Evergreen) Barbra Streisand 7 Whodunit Tavares 8 Sir Duke Stevie Wonder 9 Hotel California The Eagles 10 Good Morning Judge 10CC
Books could be written about Rod Stewart’s double-A sided number one of early 1977. Heartfelt ballad ‘I Don’t Want to Talk About It’ is the most famous song from the pen of Danny Whitten, guitarist and backing vocalist in the first iteration of Neil Young’s backing band ‘Crazy Horse’ who recorded the original version of the song for their first group-only album in 1971. Whitten’s life was plagued by heavy drug use and he died in 1972, aged just 29, from a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol just hours after Young had fired him from the band.
Rod Stewart had included a version of ‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It’ on his 1975 album ‘Atlantic Crossing’. In 1977 he coupled it with Cat Stevens’ 1967 song ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’ for the all-conquering double-A sided single which reigned at the top of the UK charts for four weeks (but only reached No. 4 in Ireland). It’s widely believed that the single was released to keep the Sex Pistols’ controversial (and embarrassing in the Queen’s jubilee year) ‘God Save The Queen’ off the top of the official charts used by the BBC and it did just that. The Pistols did top the NME charts however, leading some to suggest that the official charts had been ‘fixed’.