Sunday » September 14 » 2008

U.K. performers still keen to conquer U.S. charts

Paul Sexton
Reuters


Friday, September 12, 2008


LONDON (Billboard) - The legendary moment in April 1964 when the Beatles claimed
the top five places on the U.S. singles chart -- with "Can't Buy Me Love,"
"Twist and Shout," "She Loves You," "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Please
Please Me" -- was not the first transatlantic victory for a U.K. act. But it was
the one by which all future chart contenders -- of any nationality -- would be
judged.

The four and a half decades since contain countless tales of British chart
conquests -- not to mention frequent failures -- in the up-and-down acceptance
of U.K. music and culture by American listeners. But one thing remains
unchanged: the sheer thrill for a U.K. act of conquering the world's most
celebrated singles survey.

"It felt like a dream," says Rod Argent of the Zombies, whose "She's Not There"
vaulted to No. 2 at the end of 1964. "I remember being hugely excited when I
first became aware it had entered the Hot 100."

Two decades later, the Hot 100 -- which bowed in 1958 -- was still the promised
land of international success, Level 42 frontman Mark King says. The U.K. pop
band made the grade in 1986, when "Something About You" climbed to No. 7.

"It did feel like finding the Holy Grail," King says. "For British bands, making
the Billboard top 10 was affirmation that you were serious contenders,
particularly to the record companies and publishers."

Beatlemania and the British invasion supercharged the Hot 100 through the
mid-1960s, but almost two full years earlier, in May 1962, clarinetist Acker
Bilk became the first U.K. artist to lead the Hot 100 rankings.

Bilk's romantic instrumental "Stranger on the Shore" succeeded where many early
British rock 'n' rollers and domestic chart champs had failed. But, as a preview
of the pitfalls of the American market for chart visitors from across the
Atlantic, Bilk never again reached the top half of the Billboard chart.

ON A ROLL

The Beatles had no such problem, of course, with 20 No. 1 singles in just six
years. No. 1 billing for the likes of Peter & Gordon, the Animals, Manfred Mann
and Petula Clark soon followed.

In spring 1965, three acts in a row from Manchester, England, topped the chart:
Freddie & the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders and Herman's Hermits.
Before that year was out, the Rolling Stones and the Dave Clark 5 made it seem
like Britain had a permanent home on the top of the Hot 100. But although the
"second British invasion" during the first half of the 1980s took Culture Club,
Eurythmics and the Human League deep into the U.S. consciousness, a fallow
period ensued.

"The styles of British music that followed in the '90s were so derivative of the
guitar bands of the '60s," King says, "that (U.S. audiences) weren't buying into
it at all."

Indeed, Britain's most recent song on the all-time Hot 100 -- Elton John's
"Candle in the Wind 1997"/"Something About the Way You Look Tonight" -- dates
back more than a decade.

In the 21st century, the once unthinkable -- a Hot 100 being published without
featuring a single British artist -- has become a reality on more than one
occasion, reflecting American radio's shift toward home-grown R&B and hip-hop.

One of Britain's few successes during recent years was R&B star Craig David. In
2001, he went to No. 15 on the chart with "Fill Me In" and to No. 10 with
follow-up "7 Days."

And in 2008, the achievements of Leona Lewis, Coldplay, Natasha Bedingfield,
M.I.A. and others have given the Hot 100 a fresh British accent, while the
artists watched their records climb a chart they've heard about all their lives.

"We eagerly scanned the U.S. charts every week as 'She's Not There' began its
magical journey," Zombies lead singer Colin Blunstone says. "To have top 10 hits
in the States, the home of rock 'n' roll, was truly beyond our wildest dreams."

Reuters/Billboard


© Reuters 2008








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