Which artist replaced themselves at number one on the 1974 album chart?
1974 was an especially important year in music, what with ABBA winning the Eurovision Song Contest, Mick Taylor leaving The Rolling Stones, and John Lennon giving his last-ever stage performance alongside Elton John at New York’s Madison Square Garden, but it was also one of the most eclectic years, proving there really was no rulebook for success.
With a diverse range of names appearing across both the singles and album charts, the year proved that there was space for anything and everything, so long as it was good, meaningful, and culturally resonant, for, after all, it was the same year that Suzi Quatro climbed the charts alongside The Osmonds and Barry White.
Across album releases, many major players were also proving their status as leaders of the moment, with the arrival of David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs and Elton John’s Caribou, the latter of which might not have been especially successful at the time but which has lived on through timeless hits like ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’ and ‘The Bitch is Back’.
Diamond Dogs, of course, marked the end of Bowie’s glam rock era, with Tony Visconti returning to give it the legacy-building moment it deserved, but at the time, the former wasn’t really sure what he wanted the project to be, ultimately using a bunch of wayward ideas and scrapped material, some from a Ziggy Stardust musical he’d been working on, alongside themes borrowed from texts like Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The lead single, ‘Rebel Rebel’, was a major success and a significantly pivotal moment for Bowie’s career in general, marking his first hit without guitarist Mick Ronson since 1969, and although he would depart from this quintessential glam rock sound, it breathed new life into his legacy, paving the way for pastures new once he’d found his footing years later in Berlin.
Which artist replaced themselves at number one in 1974?
However, Bowie wasn’t the only one making unpredictable moves in 1974 and beyond, as, for instance, on the albums chart, English singer Mike Oldfield was outdoing himself (in a reverse sort of way) by having his first two records, Tubular Bells and Hergest Ridge, appear consecutively on the list.
Oldfield released his debut, Tubular Bells, in May 1973, and reached number one in October 1974, replacing his sophomore record, Hergest Ridge, marking one of the few times an artist has replaced themselves on the album charts. It consistently remained in the top ten, no doubt boosted in part by its inclusion in the soundtrack for The Exorcist the previous year.
Following up on one of the most innovative records at the time was a massive challenge, and, at first, Oldfield wasn’t even sure that he wanted to make one, as music was his sanctuary and escape from real life, and it’d taken a lot to make the record at all, so it was a slog trying to get into the right mindset to create something that would feel like a good, natural progression, both artistically and personally.
And while it was a success, and people most certainly were ready to embrace his newest material, Tubular Bells hung on for that little bit longer, overshadowing its counterpart and forever attaching Oldfield to the legacy of his debut.
