1.    Harlem Shuffle. Bob and Earl 
2.    Can’t Let Maggie Go. Honeybus
3.    Sugar Sugar. The Archies
4.    Natural Born Bugie. Humble Pie
5.    You Made Me So Very Happy. Blood, Sweat and Tears
6.    This Wheel’s On Fire. Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and The Trinity
7.    Gimme Little Sign. Brenton Wood
8.    Fire. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
9.    Return of Django. The Upsetters
10.    Shotgun Wedding. Roy C

Our Number ten  is Shotgun Wedding by Roy C. This reached number 6 in the UK charts in 1966. Roy C’s full name was Roy C Hammond. He was a singer, songwriter, producer and record executive. His work in the 1970s turned out to be ground-breaking in a way that could never have been predicted back in the sixties, and we’ll have a look at that in our radio show,  in our “Extras” section. (On Mixcloud; Keith Lockyer's Top Ten Collections).

Coming out of Jamaica, Reggae was beginning to be recognised more widely in the UK and starting to achieve commercial success. A large part of that success was due to Trojan Records which was a British record label, founded by Duke Reid. Trojan brought us the likes of Judge Dread, Dave and Ansil Collins, Harry J All Stars (also a one hit wonder from 1969) The Maytalls, Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Cliff and Bob and Marcia. Also, in 69, this little beauty hit the charts. The Upsetters, fronted by the producer, writer and father of Dub, Lee “Scratch” Perry; Return of Django. Our number nine.  Lee often referred to himself as The Upsetter in his later career, harking back to that initial success. He went on to produce many key reggae artists, including Bob Marley and The Wailers, and to pioneer the style of reggae that became known as Dub. 

Number eight is a very different kettle of fish. The very theatrical and extrovert Arthur Brown, billed as The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, with Fire. This reached number one in the UK charts in 1968 achieving a gold disc for its sales. 
As part of his stage act, when performing Fire, Arthur had a helmet he used to wear, which he would douse in methylated spirits and set alight. On one occasion, however, it is recounted that he mistakenly used a colander and had to get the audience to extinguish his burning scalp with their pints of beer. He reportedly got deported from Italy for first appearing naked on stage and then setting fire to his helmet.

Number seven is a little gem from 1967, by Brenton Wood; Gimme Little Sign.
Brenton Wood’s one and only UK chart success, Gimme Little Sign, reached number 8 in 1967 but stayed in the charts for 14 weeks. 
There is more about Brenton in our “Extras” section of the radio show, and we'll play some more of his soulful music, particularly The Oogum Boogum Song.

Number six is a Bob Dylan Song, which first appeared on The Basement Tapes with The Band, This Wheel’s On Fire. This version is of course by Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and The Trinity.

This Wheel’s On Fire peaked at number five in 1968. A few years earlier, both Juie Driscoll and Brian Auger were part of a band called Steam Packet, together with Rod Stewart, Long John Baldry and Vic Briggs. Unfortunately, that band never got as far as a studio so we have no record of their sound. That’s a shame.
Siouxsie and the Banshees did a version of the song in 1987 and Julie Driscoll rerecorded it in the nineties for to be used as the theme tune for TV’s Absolutely Fabulous. 

Number five is the only chart success by Blood, Swear and Tears. Kind of surprising when so many of their recordings stand out in the memory - like Go Down Gambling, Spinning Wheel and of course this one, You Made Me So Very Happy. This is a tune composed by Brenda Holloway and Berry Gordy, recorded by Brenda Holloway and released on Motown in 1967. The B,S and T version came out in 1969 and reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and 35 in the UK charts. It features the distinctive vocal style of Canadian/British singer David Clayton Thomas over the sublime jazz horns of the big band that was B,S and T.

Number four: Natural Born Bugie.  Humble Pie became known as a “supergroup” when they were formed in 1968, as journalists had recently started using that expression and they fitted very nicely into that pigeonhole. They were made up of Steve Marriott (ex- of The Small Faces, of course), Peter Frampton (ex- of The Herd and “The Face of ‘68”), Greg Ridley (former bass player with Spooky Tooth) and Jerry Shirley (previously the drummer with Apostolic Intervention, just 17 when he joined Humble Pie).  
This was the first single by Humble Pie, written by the gifted Steve Marriott, doing very nicely thank you by hitting number 4 in the UK charts in 1969. A feat, alas, not to be repeated in any way, shape or form by Humble Pie.

Number three is Sugar Sugar, by The Archies. This was written for a Saturday morning cartoon series on US TV, called The Archie Show. It was co-written by the producer, Jeff Barry and Andy Kim – who went on to become a one-hit wonder in his own right in the seventies with his release, Rock Me Gently.
Sugar, Sugar was a massive hit, reaching number one on both sides of the Atlantic and becoming the biggest selling single of 1969 in both countries. 
The vocal sound of The Archies was provided by a guy called Ron Dante, who was the distinctive lead vocalist but also did the backing vocals by overdubbing. So he kind of was The Archies! He also released a song under the band name of The Cufflinks in the same year, 1969, that reached number 4 in the UK, doing the same thing – providing lead and backing vocals, as well as playing guitar. He didn’t get any credits for any of that, back in the day.

Number two: I Can’t Let Maggie Go by Honeybus. From 1968, this lilting, beautifully arranged song was a number eight hit on the UK charts. It’s not surprising in this instance that the four-piece group were one-hit wonders, because the song’s composer and mainstay of the band Peter Dello, left just a few months after the single’s success, saying that pop music wasn’t all it was cracked up to be and he was disillusioned with what fame and fortune had brought him! So that was that. 
The song had a new lease of life in the seventies, when it was used for a television advert for Nimble bread, in which ‘Maggie’ could be seen flying in a hot air balloon. It’s an image that has endured for a lot of people when they hear this song…

Number one: Bob Relf and Earl Nelson wrote Harlem Shuffle together, recorded and released it in 1963, to little response from the buying public. Its reissue in 1969 finally got the success it deserved when it climbed to number 7 in the UK charts. 
The Rolling Stones recorded a version in 1986 which featured Bobby Womack on backing vocals. This reached 13 in the UK singles charts and number 5 in the US. 
The opening few bars of the original arrangement, played by the horn section and pretty much acting as a fanfare, was sampled and used by House of Pain for their 1992 single Jump Around. This means that the start of both singles is identical, so if you don't actually know which version is being played, you might be surprised - or even disappointed - when the actual song kicks in after the intro. Not me, though. I love both tunes equally!

A Mixcloud audio programme Boomer Top Tens: One Hit Wonders of The Sixties is available for your listening pleasure! . Go to Boomer Top Tens on Mixcloud or click the link below:

https://www.mixcloud.com/keith-lockyer/boomer-top-tens-one-hit-wonders-of-the-sixties/

One Hit Wonders of the Sixties Part Two: Extras is also available on Mixcloud. Click the link:

https://www.mixcloud.com/keith-lockyer/top-tens-one-hit-wonders-of-the-sixties-part-two-extras/