Tony Burrows: the singer who couldn’t help but stumble upon chart success
For many musicians, landing a song in the charts is a bucket list entry that feels almost impossible to tick off. Unless you have a team behind you or somehow happen upon TikTok fame, ensuring that your work reaches the masses is no mean feat. Even artists who achieve this just once, though they may be reduced to a “one-hit wonder”, have done so against the odds.
A rare few artists spend their entire careers in the charts, either because they’ve secured such a huge and loyal fanbase or because they’ve cracked the code on concocting crowd-pleasing hits. 1970s singer Tony Burrows fits into none of these categories – he is neither a one-hit-wonder nor a cultural icon – and yet, he once had four songs in the UK chart in the same year.
While you may not be familiar with Burrows’ name, you’re probably familiar with some of his work. The session musician stumbled upon some absolute gold during his career, particularly in 1970, a year which saw him feature on four charting songs by four artists. The first success was ‘My Baby Loves Lovin” by White Plains, a jubilant collection of horns and lovey-dovey lyrics that Burrows provided backing vocals.
With his first hit to his name, Burrows didn’t have to wait long until his voice was back on the charts. His second appearance on the charts in 1970, and perhaps the most enduring, came in the form of ‘Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)’ by Edison Lighthouse. Over twangy guitars and gleeful strings, the song describes the “wild and free” Rosemary and the love that she grows.
The song shot to number one at the time of its release and, strangely, has since found a second life with modern audiences. TikTok users recently stumbled upon the song and turned its opening verse into an audio on the platform. Over half a century since his four-hit heyday, Burrows still seems to be stumbling upon unexpected success.
Just a couple of weeks later, Burrows was back in the charts with yet another bubblegum pop offering, this time as part of the Brotherhood of Man. The band are now more well-known for their winning entry into the Eurovision Song Contest at the midpoint of the decade, but they found chart success long before then.
‘United We Stand’ afforded Burrows his fourth hit of the year, and it wasn’t even February yet. The song was slightly slower and more subdued than those that had come before, singing of togetherness over soaring strings. Though the song didn’t reach the same heights as ‘Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)’, it still found a place amongst the charts.
Burrows’ string of hits finally came to an end in the spring with ‘Gimme Dat Ding’ by The Pipkins, the strangest track of the bunch. The song paired playful pianos and Burrows’ menacing vocals with two voices repeatedly declaring, “Gimme dat, gimme dat, gimme, gimme, gimme dat”.
With ‘Gimme Dat Ding’, Burrows’ winning streak concluded, and he took his place as a 1970s four-hit wonder. He found little chart success in the years that followed, though he released a string of singles alone. Perhaps it wasn’t that Burrows had cracked the code to chart success but that he happened to be in the right studio at the right time, four times running.
