By 1967, out went the light-entertainment artists, the
hosting by dear old David Jacobs, and in came swinging-sixties
pop music and presentation. The Song For Europe became
integrated into prime-time Saturday night BBC1. The number
of songs remained at five and Sandie Shaw, who was about as cool
as it got in 1967, sang them week by week on the Rolf Harris
show. This approach brought immediate results, and in a nice
touch Rolf Harris was in Vienna to commentate on Sandie's
European victory.
After our first victory anticipation was intense as the
1968 contest loomed. The number of songs reverted to six for
Cliff Richard to present on the Cilla Black show. As we
now know the winning song "Congratulations" went on to become a
pop standard, but what's less remembered is the fourth place
song "The Sound Of The Candyman's Trumpet" whose lyrics
contained coded references to some in-vogue illegal substances
of the time.
The first two years of the new style selection were blessed
by two very good songs winning that have both stood the test of
time. Both were catchy, bouncy and uptempo. One won by a
landside and the other was pipped at the post. In the
light of this it's not surprising that British viewers believed
that this type of song would be the best bet for UK success, a
belief that has taken several decades to wear off. Come
1969 Lulu performed six songs on her very own TV show, and
despite a variety of styles (including a very early song by
Elton John and Bernie Taupin, which came last) the
public in their wisdom chose "Boom-Bang-A-Bang", a song whose
title only cemented the genre of song that the BBC audience
thought would be most successful. To be fair it DID win
though!.
1970 saw Welsh singer Mary Hopkin roped in as her
singles career was somewhat on the wane. Six songs were
performed on the Cliff Richard show, and to no-ones great
surprise, "Knock Knock" followed "Bang A Bang" in the UK
lexicon of honour. This would be the one and only time
when a Eurovision entry was released on the Beatles Apple label.
The 1971 contest was to be in Dublin, and recent
events in Northern Ireland had suggested the UK might not get
the warmest welcome. After English, Scottish and Welsh vocalists
three previous it was Northern Ireland's turn anyway, and so
Clodagh Rodgers was selected, again performing six songs on the
Cliff Richard show. True to form "Jack In The Box"
was selected, but the song finishing in fourth "Another Time
Another Place" was later covered with some success by
Englebert Humperdinck. Regional juries returned
temporarily this year due to a problem with postal services.
1972 saw two developments. Firstly the New Seekers
became the first group to represent the United Kingdom (the
European Broadcasting Union had limited the contest to a maximum
of trios until the year before), and secondly there wasn't even
a "Jack-In-The-Boom-Bang-Knock-Knock" style in the final! The
winning song fully deserved it's victory, but in last place
trailed "Songs Of Praise" written by none other than Roy Wood
of the Move and Wizzard.
After hosting the last three selections, Cliff Richard
returned as the artist in 1973, as
our Cilla played hostess
once more. The winning song "Power To All Our Friends" polled
more votes than the other five songs combined. However Cliff
liked the song that finished third "Help It Along" so much that
he released it as a single later that year.
1974 saw Olivia Newton-John temporarily plucked from
her fledgling career as a US country singer to perform six
slices of Euro-cheese on, you guessed it, the Cliff Richard
show, although the final was hosted by Jimmy Savile. Much like
1969, despite a good variety of songs the uber-cheesiest won
through, much to Olivia's dismay apparently.
1975 saw the last one-artist final for seventeen
years. Apparently viewing and voting figures had fallen, and it
was getting harder to sign-up big performers to a long
commitment of several weeks. The last of these were the
Shadows, who performed their songs on Lulu's show. Apart
from the winner the most notable finalist was "Don't Throw It
All Away" which finished fourth, yet went on to be a top twenty
hit for it's composer Gary Benson.
        
|
