Let’s hear it for March of 1975…
The Chart
Nothing can stick at the top this month with “Best Of My Love” by the Eagles, “Have You Never Been Mellow” by Olivia Newton-John, “Black Water” by the Doobie Brothers, “My Eyes Adored You” by Frankie Valli and finally “Lady Marmalade” by Labelle each having a single week of glory.
(Editorial snafu: Last week was similarly varied, but we forgot to include the list. Thanks Carl for spotting that! February 1975 number ones were – “Laughter In The Rain” by Neil Sedaka, “Fire” by Ohio Players, “You’re No Good” by Linda Ronstadt, and “Pick Up The Pieces” by Average White Band.)
- “”#9 Dream”” – John Lennon
- [new] “Another Somebody Done Somebody” – B.J. Thomas
- [new] “Before The Next Teardrop Falls” – Freddy Fender
- “Best Of My Love” – Eagles
- “Black Water” – Doobie Brothers
- [new] “Butter Boy” – Fanny
- “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head” – Electric Light Orchestra
- [new] “Chevy Van” – Sammy Johns
- “Don’t Call Us We’ll Call You” – Sugarloaf
- [new] “Emma” – Hot Chocolate
- [new] “Emotion” – Helen Reddy
- “Express” – B.T. Express
- “Fire” – Ohio Players
- [new] “Harry Truman” – Chicago
- “Have You Never Been Mellow” – Olivia Newton-John
- [new] “I Am Love” – Jackson Five
- “I’m A Woman” – Maria Muldaur
- [new] “L.O.V.E.” – Al Green
- “Lady Marmalade” – Labelle
- “Lady” – Styx
- “Lonely People” – America
- [new] “Long Tall Glasses” – Leo Sayer
- “Lovin’ You” – Minnie Riperton
- “Movin’ On” – Bad Company
- “My Boy” – Elvis Presley
- “My Eyes Adored You” – Frankie Valli
- [new] “Never Let Her Go” – David Gates
- “Nightingale” – Carole King
- [new] “No No Song / Snookeroo” – Ringo Starr
- [new] “Once You Get Started” – Rufus & Chaka Khan
- [new] “Philadelphia Freedom” – Elton John Band
- “Pick Up The Pieces” – Average White Band
- “Poetry Man” – Phoebe Snow
- “Roll On Down The Highway” – Bachman-Turner Overdrive
- [new] “Sad Sweet Dreamer” – Sweet Sensation
- [new] “Satin Soul” – Love Unlimited Orchestra
- [new] “Shame Shame Shame” – Shirley & Company
- [new] “Shining Star” – Earth Wind & Fire
- “Some Kind Of Wonderful” – Grand Funk
- [new] “Supernatural Thing” – Ben E. King
- “Sweet Surrender” – John Denver
- [new] “The South’s Gonna Do It” – Charlie Daniels Band
- “To The Door Of The Sun” – Al Martino
- “Up In A Puff Of Smoke” – Polly Brown
- [new] “Walking In Rhythm” – Blackbyrds
- [new] “What Am I Gonna Do With You” – Barry White
- “You Are So Beautiful” – Joe Cocker
- [new] “You’re No Good” – Linda Ronstadt
[new] = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
The Times
David Bowie shattered his glam-rock mold on March 7, 1975, with the release of his ninth studio album, Young Americans. Recorded primarily in Philadelphia, the record marked a radical stylistic pivot into what Bowie famously dubbed “plastic soul”—a white UK artist’s highly stylized take on American R&B, funk, and gospel. Featuring backing vocals from a young, then-unknown Luther Vandross and a title track that took a cynical look at the American Dream, the album also birthed his first-ever number-one single in the US, “Fame,” co-written with John Lennon. Young Americans shocked purists but proved to be a masterclass in musical reinvention, heavily influencing the evolution of late-70s dance and blue-eyed soul music.
And then Rock transformed into cinematic, operatoc. spectacle on March 26, 1975, when the film adaptation of The Who’s legendary concept album, Tommy, made its star-studded premiere. Directed by the eccentric Ken Russell, the movie turned the band’s 1969 rock opera into a high-camp, visually overwhelming fever dream. Featuring Roger Daltrey in the title role, the production boasted an unforgettable, iconoclastic cast of music and screen legends, including Elton John as the towering Pinball Wizard, Tina Turner as the wild Acid Queen, and Eric Clapton as the Preacher. Tommy became a box-office triumph and a cultural lightning rod, proving that rock music could break free from the vinyl groove to dominate mainstream cinema with theatrical, boundary-pushing grandiosity.
Meanwhile British comedy reached a surreal, enduring high-water mark on March 14, 1975, when “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” premiered in the United Kingdom. Co-directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones on a shoestring budget partly funded by rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, the film delivered a relentlessly absurd, brilliantly satirical deconstruction of the Arthurian legend. From knights using clacking coconut shells to mimic horses to the famously lethal Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog, the film’s relentless wit and stylistic non-sequiturs redefined cinematic comedy. It instantly crossed over into global pop-culture immortality, establishing a foundational blueprint for modern alternative comedy and remaining one of the most frequently quoted films in cinema history.
The Take
Of the bands new to chart this month, “Fanny” were unknown to me personally. They were one of the first all-female rock groups to achieve critical and commercial success, including two Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 singles. But it was the Bowie link that hooked me into their history, in particular because it mentioned his own (lesser known) history in…mime!
Bowie was, by all accounts, completely captivated by Fanny’s musicianship on discovering them in the ’70s, sending them a letter full of praise and inviting them to a post-show party where he showed off some of his mime techniques.
That artistic connection inspired bassist Jean Millington to write “Butter Boy,” a sleek, swaggering track all about her relationship with Bowie. Released on their 1974 album Rock and Roll Survivors, the song brought a glam-rock energy to their sound. The Bowie connection even rippled into the band’s post-split life, as Jean later ended up marrying Earl Slick, Bowie’s longtime guitarist.
Ironically, “Butter Boy” turned out to be Fanny’s biggest commercial hit, climbing its way up to number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1975. The only catch? The success was a bit bittersweet. By the time the single actually peaked and everyone was jamming out to Jean’s tribute to Bowie, lineup changes and internal friction had already done their work, and Fanny had officially called it quits.
In a 1999 Rolling Stone interview, Bowie looked back and called them “one of the finest fucking rock bands of their time,” insisting they were just as colossal and important as any of their male peers.
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.