1970 : Top of the Pops
BBC
Thursdays, BBC-1, 7-15 to 8pm
(One of Jack's appearances on the show)
Production: Mel Cornish
Choreographer: Flick Colby (Pan’s People)
Musical Director: Johnny Pearson with the TOTP Orchestra
Jack’s recording career and huge fan-base in the early 70s led to a number of singing appearances. 40 years ago Top of the Pops was the British tv show for popular music, with its countdown of the singles chart, featured albums, and of course the weekly number by dancers Pan’s People. In the early 70s the show was usually broadcast on Thursdays and recorded the previous day, and the nature of the show meant that Radio Times wasn’t able to list most of the performers in advance. Unfortunately, prior to 1977 there are only a few shows surviving in the BBC archives, none of them featuring Jack, although it is always possible that others may be discovered.
Jack made two appearances in 1970, performing numbers from his first album. Both shows were presented by Jimmy Saville.
Thursday 9/4/70, BBC 1, 7.15-8pm (Jack probably performed ‘Some Beautiful’)
Thursday 16/7/70. BBC 1, 7.15-8pm (Jack probably performed ‘Wait for Summer’)
The April show was a source of controversy: Dorothy Squires, who already had a long recording career, had a single ‘Till’ which was in and out of the top thirty chart at the time. She was twice asked to appear on the show, but both times the BBC changed its mind when the single slipped out of the top thirty. The press picked up on the fact that out of 13 artists on the April 9th show, 4 performers (The Move, The Hollies, Shocking Blue and Jack) were not in the top thirty either. The BBC’s response was that they also chose songs which were expected to get into the top thirty. In Jack’s case, ‘Some Beautiful’ charted for two weeks, but didn’t get higher than number 46.
