With such distinctive, memorable and innovative hit records as Rubber Bullets,
The Wall Street Shuffle, Life Is A Minestrone,
I'm Not In Love,
The Things We Do For Love and Dreadlock Holiday to their credit,
Manchester's 10cc were the most consistently successful British pop band of the 1970's.
Indeed, the band who mutated from Hotlegs secured no less than 11 UK Top 10 hit singles
between 1972 and 1978, including three number ones, and consolidated this success
with seven UK Top 10 albums.
However, when 10cc reached number 2 with their debut single Donna in
September 1972, it was certainly not a case of 'overnight success' for Graham Gouldman,
Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. They had already been paying their
professional 'dues and demands' for several years prior to their collective
success. Graham Gouldman had attended the same Manchester school as Kevin Godley and
Lol Creme, and the three had worked in various local pop groups. In 1964 Gouldman
started songwriting, rapidly establishing himself with such hits as Heart Full
Of Soul, For Your Love and Evil Hearted You (The
Yardbirds), Bus Stop and Look Through Any Window (The
Hollies), No Milk Today (Herman's Hermits), and Pamela, Pamela
(Wayne Fontana). His fellow Mancunian Eric Stewart had been a member of Wayne Fontana
& The Mindbenders, playing on hits like The Game of Love (number 1
in the US), and singing lead vocals on The Mindbenders' own 1966 hit A Groovy
Kind Of Love (number 2 in both the UK and US). Lol Creme and Kevin Godley,
who had both studied graphics, had pursued on-off musical careers before recording
a one-off single for ex-Yardbirds' manager Georgio [sic] Gomelsky's Marmalade label.
I'm Beside Myself, (released under the pseudonym Frabjoy and Runcible [sic]
in 1969), was particularly auspicious for the fact that it marked the first occasion
that the four future members of 10cc worked together. Godley and Creme recorded the
single at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, and Gouldman and Stewart – who were
partners in the studios – played on the session. In 1970 Gouldman, Stewart,
Godley and Creme re-grouped to record the African-styled Neanderthal Man,
releasing it under the name Hotlegs. The single soared to number 3 in the British
charts and also made the American Top 40, eventually selling over two million copies
worldwide. They also worked on various other musical projects, including relaunching
Neil Sedaka's then-flagging singing career (playing on his Solitaire and
Tra-La Days Are Over [sic] albums, recorded at Strawberry).
The following year proved to be a turning point: Gouldman, Stewart, Godley and
Creme sent a demo of Donna [a Fifties-style pop pastiche] to pop
pundit Jonathan King who signed them to his label UK Records, and re-named them
10cc. Donna, written by Godley and Creme, was an immediate smash hit
in the UK. In June 1973 10cc's third single Rubber Bullets, a
Godley-Creme-Gouldman song which courted controversy because of the nature of the
subject, soared to the top of the British charts and also gave them a breakthrough
US hit. Their follow-up, The Dean And I, taken from 10cc's debut
album, 10cc, was a UK Top 40 hit later the same year. The band's second
album, Sheet Music, released in June 1974, fared even better than its
predecessor, scaling the UK Top 10, while the accompanying single The Wall
Street Shuffle finally nestled at number 10. Before the year was over
10cc had secured a fifth UK hit single, Silly Love.
Early the following year 10cc signed to Mercury Records and The Original
Soundtrack, their first album under the new deal, clambered to number 4 in the
UK and enjoyed a seven-month chart residency. The album also proved to be 10cc's
biggest-selling U.S. album, reaching number 15 in the Billboard chart.
Life Is A Minestrone, the first single under the new deal, climbed
rapidly to number 7 in the UK. Three months later 10cc triumphantly topped the
domestic charts with another The Original Soundtrack cut, the spine-tingling
I'm Not In Love. Now recognized as a pop classic – frequently
topping all-time-favorite-record polls – I'm Not In Love also
reached number 2 in the US. 10cc's second Mercury album, How Dare You!,
was another huge success (number 5 in the Music Week album chart),
while the singles Art For Art's Sake and I'm Mandy Fly Me
both made the U.K. Top 10.
In October 1976 Godley and Creme decided to leave the 10cc line-up to pursue their
own musical ambitions, which included developing the revolutionary 'Gizmo' instrument,
recording the albums 1977's triple-album Consequences, 1978's L, 1979's
Freeze Frame, 1981's Ismism, 1983's Birds Of Prey, 1985's
The History Mix [sic], and 1988's Goodbye Blue Sky, and
achieving two UK Top 10 hit singles, Under Your Thumb and Wedding
Bells, and one US Top 10 hit, Cry. They also went on to
become award-winning pop video directors.
Gouldman and Stewart carried on as 10cc and any fears that the departure of Godley
& Creme may have had an adverse effect on their future success were rapidly
dismissed following the release of the single The Things We Do For Love
in January 1977, which reached number 5 in both the UK and US charts, and the release
of the album Deceptive Bends in May 1977. The album attained their highest
chart position for an album to date, climbing to number 3 in the UK and number 31 in
the US Billboard album chart. There was also the bonus of a further
hit single, Good Morning Judge (UK number 5). In September 1978 10cc
celebrated their third U.K. number 1 hit, with the reggae-styled Dreadlock
Holiday, taken from the Bloody Tourists album (U.K. number 3). It proved
to be their last major hit but, by now, 10cc had stacked up more hit singles and albums
than any other British pop band of the Seventies.
After releasing three more albums – 1980's Look Hear, 1981's Ten
Out Of 10 and 1983's Windows In The Jungle, 10cc officially broke up in
1983. By this time both Stewart and Gouldman were heavily involved in various other
musical projects. Stewart produced the Manchester band Sad Cafe, composed music for
films and worked with Paul McCartney, while Gouldman's activities also included
composing music for films as well as forming a new musical alliance, Wax, in which
he teamed up with American singer-songwriter Andrew Gold and achieved the UK Top 20
hit, 1987's Bridge To Your Heart. In the early nineties Stewart and
Gouldman regrouped 10cc resulting in 1992's Meanwhile (which featured all
four original members), 1993's live 10cc Alive, and 1995's Mirror
Mirror.
This newly remastered collection of 10cc hits is the definitive 10cc collection,
bringing together all of their classic hits from the 70's. For brilliantly-crafted
pop music, complete with wry humor, wit and satire, Manchester's first real
'supergroup' have had few rivals.
Chris White, 1997
