Chinn and Chapman top 5

Chinn and Chapman were powerhouses in seventies pop. I for one, think I might have enjoyed the seventies more than I did if they had composed more of the music that formed the soundtrack to what I experienced as an horrific decade. These are my top five.

1. Can the Can by Suzi Quatro was the song that had everything. Starting with those lovely drums. And then Suzi's voice, and the clapping in time, and the words and the images it invokes. This to me was beautiful. Suzi was beautiful. Hell, she still is!

2. Heart of Glass by Blondie brought delicious irony to disco. Or rather, it made explicit the irony that had already been there. I love this. It's my karaoke party piece.

3. Teenage Rampage by Sweet well what can I say? From the start with the sinister sounds of the Sweet fans, calling for them as if they were fascist dictators, Sweet wanted to do hard rock but Chinn and Chapman made them do pop. Yeah but it was magnificent pop. Hard pop. Dirty, rocky pop. Love it? Not 'arf!

4. Mickey by Toni Basil! Oh Mickey you so fine, you so fine you blow my mind! Toni may have been a one hit wonder but Chapman definitely was not.

5. Love is a Battlefield by Pat Benatar is more lovely pop. I first saw it on a mixtape sent by a dear friend just after she went home to St Paul Mn. (glad to say she lives in Portland Or. now). And then it was used in 13 going on 30. It reminded me of the adolescence of the girl I never was but longed to be.

Hurts to leave out. Devil Gate Drive, Living Next Door to Alice, Ballroom Blitz, Fox on the Run. Probably more but I got distracted and listening to Queen and smiling and remembering good times.