Why was this song a hit?

[Manslick]

if you're lookin for it,,,,,but i don't think i would have caught on without you suggesting it....

Good enough.

 

[Manslick]

It definitely has the same kind of relaxed feel.

Yeah, but there is more than that. I think both are derived from some classic piece, yet to be announced.

I'm not playing a game here, I always heard the similarity and wondered what it was based on.

 

[Manslick]

Notwithstanding Gary Glitter's paedophile escapades, this was a brilliant song and a good example, like "Henery the eighth" of how a song just catches on inexplicably. I was 9 when this came out but it launched Glitter onto three years of enjoyable singable hits. My little sister was a big fan. I thought his songs were neat.
This particular one just evokes a feeling coz there really are no words. The guitars on the single really stand out.

Well we've established Henry was a given and we've branched into Bohemian Rhapsody extrapolations.

Could it be, Gary Glitter is a pure original, borne of some inconceivable unconscious connection to the pulse of humanity?

 

[Manslick]

'my melancholy blues'??? l

Yep it's right there in that same "get you in the gut" mood.

You know, it sounds like Freddie sang thru a SM57 on that one.

 

[rayc]

Gary Glitter & the Glitter Band Supported by the La De Das was my 1st international gig. At the Horden pavlova in Sydney for about $12 & it WAS GREAT. He did some ace records & some twaddle & then we found out he was a horrible person. Surprise - so many rockers have been found out after the fact - sometimes their musical leacy stands other times it is mired in the history of the person. The Stone did some of the best rock but certainly aren't/weren't the best people.
Why is RnR Part 2 a hit? ...because it was primal rock - 2 drummers, simple bass & a guitar tuned to a chord , a newish (well revisited) rhythm, chants & grunts all fancied up in the beginnings of glam rock. Novelty song? Yes, Good to dance to? Yes. Heavily promoted? Yes. Massively supported by live touring? Yes. Oh, & I bought it hook, line & rhythm section.
Oh (2), the vid doesn't do the song justice as the audience claps drown out the backing the band's miming to. Get a semi decent recording & play it LOUD! let's face it - it's almost an instrumental. Wanna Be In My Gang? Had all of 1/2 doz words!

 

[dintymoore]

The funny thing about the Gary Glitter song is that almost 40 years later we are still talking about it, I admit that it's catchy as hell and I smile and shake my head whenever I hear it, for sure it connects (understatement) but I still think it sucks! It's so bad it's good.

I read or heard once that the song originated when they were jamming to the drums in a studio... drums that were of another song and they just muted the other tracks. It would be interesting to hear the other song if it were released without Gary Glitter's additions.

I was playing a dinner cruise gig in Honolulu and there were times when I played that song to a huge crowd of really straight looking Japanese tourists, who could speaky-no-ingy, and they all would yell the "HEY!" in that song. And smile like crazy. Funnier that shit, they just loved that song. Another song that even the old Japanese tourists went nuts over was "You Really Got Me". If you can picture a Japanese grandma dancing to that on a catamaran with a couple of hula dancers you pretty much get the picture.

you got me so I don't know what I'm doin' now

 

[Steenamaroo]

Yep it's right there in that same "get you in the gut" mood.

You know, it sounds like Freddie sang thru a SM57 on that one.

yeh,,there's a 1977 demo version that sounds terrible,,,,,lots of hiss etc,,,but even the other version of news of the world seems to have a lot of distortion, and it the vocals sound very thin/whispy...

amazing though how some of the best productions ever (in my opinion) were queen songs,,,,but i'd still rather sit and listen to this!!!

 

[Bob Ross]

Of all the songs I ever heard, none brings up the question "why the fuck was that a hit?" as much as this tune, perhaps the worst song ever written:

It probably wouldn't have mattered which tune you were referring to, I (or someone else) would still have been incredulous that you cited a particular example as "the worst song ever written"

...but I have to say, considering that in the current decade most every component of musical craft seems entirely optional, I'm especially surprised that someone would have to go back 35 years to bestow that honor.

 

[moresound]

Hank Aaron aka Henry Louis Aaron the baseball player? No one's ever called you Hank? Henry?

No thats saved for my son who happens to be Henry the 3rd.