1970

This page provides a snapshot of Lyn Paul's career focusing on 1970. To find out what else was happening in 1970 select any of the following options:

To find out about the rest of Lyn's career, choose a year from the table below.

'70s Music

The UK Number Ones:
1970-1974

Bread

The
Unofficial Website
for Bread

Carpenters

The
Carpenters
Page

Neil Diamond

The Original
Neil Diamond
Home Page

Melanie

Melanie Safka:
The Official Website

Melanie's Place

Rob's Guide
To Melanie On CD

Simon and Garfunkel

Official
Art Garfunkel
Website

paulsimon
.com

Song For The
Asking

James Taylor

James Taylor
website

Three Dog Night

Three Dog Night
.com

Those Were The Days...

In The '70s:
The Seventies
nostalgia site

Do You Remember
the '70s, '80s
and '90s?

BBC
On This Day

Guardian Century

Nostalgia Central

Scope Systems
Historic Events
and Birth-Dates

This Day In Music

Wikipedia:
20th Century

Newspapers

The British Newspaper
Archive

The Paperboy

Tit For Tat!

1970 marks a watershed in the music industry, with some of the most successful groups of the '60s calling it a day. In January Diana Ross abandons The Supremes to embark on her solo career. In the Summer of 1970 Simon and Garfunkel give their last concert together and in September The Beatles split up. For some it is the end of an era. For others, including Lyn Paul and the New Seekers, 1970 is a new beginning...

In January 1970 the New Seekers release their first album, predictably titled The New Seekers (Philips SBL 7920). The sleeve notes by Keith Potger outline his vision of "providing an 'Encore' to The Seekers":

"No amount of persuasion could bring the original members together again, so a fresh new group was the only answer."

Advertisement for the New Seekers' début album.

 

The New Seekers gain their early experience with a trip to Australia and club dates in Germany and the north of England. In April and May they appear at the Savoy Hotel in London and play a season at the London Palladium supporting Max Bygraves (1st - 30th May).

Although intended to recreate the style and sound of The Seekers, the group begins instead to develop its own identity. Unhappy with the shift away from folk to a more contemporary sound, Laurie Heath, Chris Barrington and Sally Graham (no relation to Eve Graham) all leave the New Seekers. At Eve's suggestion, Lyn auditions for the group and soon finds herself reunited with her friend and colleague from The Nocturnes. In a radio interview with David Jensen in 2006 Lyn recalled going for the audition at Keith Potger's flat in Maida Vale:"I went to his flat and he asked me to sing a couple of songs" (From The Bottom To The Top, Capital Radio). The previous year Eve had auditioned for the New Seekers at Lyn's suggestion. As Lyn put it to John Dunn: "It was sort of tit for tat. We got it for each other, which was nice." (John Dunn Show, BBC Radio 2). Lyn drops the name Tanzy and takes instead the name by which she has been known ever since - Lyn Paul.

Paul Layton and Peter Doyle also join the New Seekers at this time, so establishing the line-up that would soon "teach the world the sing": Lyn Paul, Eve Graham, Marty Kristian, Paul Layton and Peter Doyle.

The new line-up is determined to move in a new direction. As Lyn put it:

"None of us really were that bothered about folk music... It's very nice but we didn't want to sing it... Gradually we began to pull our own way and... then... the real New Seekers were born."
(John Dunn Show, BBC Radio 2).

Holiday Startime
(programme).

 

On Friday, 19th June the group begins a twelve-week Summer Season at the ABC, Great Yarmouth as principal supporting attraction to Herman's Hermits in Holiday Startime. This is followed by three weeks of cabaret dates in the north of England plus a week in Wales.

• 20th September, Batley Variety Club
• 28th September, Talk of the North, Manchester
• 5th October, Tito's, Cardiff
• 12th October, Stockton Fiesta
  

A week after they had started their Summer Season the New Seekers release their second single, What Have They Done To My Song, Ma (Philips 6006 027). The single is not an immediate (nor a very big) hit in the UK, but it earns the group its first appearance on Top Of The Pops (BBC1, Thursday, 30th July, 7.15pm) and it eventually makes it into singles chart at the end of October, peaking at number 44. Lyn Paul later recalled the New Seekers' first visit to the Top Of The Pops television studio in an interview with Shaun Tilley:

“I was so in awe of everything about it… Television? 'Top Of The Pops', which I’d watched relentlessly? I loved 'Top Of The Pops' and to just think that I was there in the studio... I couldn’t actually believe it was happening." (BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey, Top Of The Pops Playback, 19th January 2014)

In the United States What Have They Done To My Song, Ma makes a much bigger impact. The single (Elektra EK 45699) enters the Billboard Hot 100 on 5th September and climbs to number 14. Encouraged by this success, the New Seekers take a trip to the United States to record some television appearances, including two on The Ed Sullivan Show. The guests on the first show (CBS, Sunday, 25th October, 8.00pm - 9.00pm) include the Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto and the sitarist Ravi Shankar; the New Seekers sing What Have They Done To My Song, Ma. On the second show (CBS, Sunday, 13th December, 8.00pm - 9.00pm) the guests include the singer Bobby Sherman, the opera baritone Robert Merrill and the impressionist Marilyn Michaels; the New Seekers sing a medley of songs, What Have They Done To My Song, Ma, Your Song, Baby Face and Beautiful People.

Recalling this time in an interview in 2005, Lyn said:

"I was a northern girl from a Council estate in Manchester so you can imagine what it was like getting on a plane and arriving in America. It was unbelievable!" (Flashback, BBC Radio Leeds, 14th August 2005)

In November an album featuring What Have They Done To My Song, Ma is released entitled Keith Potger & The New Seekers (Philips 6308 030). In December a follow-up single, When There's No Love Left (Philips 6006 072), is released but it does not make the charts. There's no invite to Top Of The Pops this time but the group does make a guest appearance on Lift Off (Granada, Wednesday, 9th December).

Incidentally...

1970 is notable for the number of American acts making their UK chart débuts, among them groups such as Bread, the Carpenters, The Jackson 5 and Three Dog Night.

Three Dog Night have a particular influence on the New Seekers. The trio had already had three Top 10 singles in the USA by the time they released Mama Told Me Not To Come, which became their only Top 10 hit in the UK in the Summer of 1970. Although Three Dog Night avoided becoming "one hit wonders" by having a second (and smaller) UK hit in 1971, the trio did not match its success in the States, where it notched up an impressive 18 Top 20 hit singles, including One, An Old Fashioned Love Song and Shambala.

The New Seekers record cover versions of all three of these songs. One appears on their 1971 album Beautiful People, An Old Fashioned Love Song comes out a year later on the album We'd Like To Teach The World To Sing and features Lyn Paul on lead vocal. Shambala is recorded after Lyn Paul has left the group.

Also making their first mark on the UK charts in 1970 are US singer-songwriters Neil Diamond, Melanie and James Taylor. The New Seekers record two songs by Neil Diamond (Song Sung Blue and Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show), two by James Taylor and three by Melanie, the best known of which is the hit single What Have They Done To My Song, Ma.

Melanie's version of the song is first released in the UK as the B-side of her début hit Ruby Tuesday (Buddah 2011 038). The single enters the UK charts on 26th September and climbs to number 9. Following the New Seekers' success the single is re-issued with What Have They Done To My Song, Ma as the A-side. The result is another brief appearance in the UK singles chart in January the following year. This time the single spends just one week on the chart and peaks at number 39.

On 21st November James Taylor's second album Sweet Baby James spends the first of fifty-three weeks on the UK album chart. One of the best known tracks from the album, Fire and Rain, enters the UK singles chart on the same day. The New Seekers, who first record one of Taylor's songs (Something In The Way He Moves) for their 1971 album New Colours, also record Fire and Rain, using it as the basis for a Fire & Rain Medley on the 1974 album Together.

The annual Ivor Novello Awards for songwriting and composing are presented at a ceremony at London's Talk Of The Town on 10th May. Tony Macaulay, who will go on to write seven songs for the New Seekers, including two of their Top 10 hits, wins the award for 'British Songwriter of the Year'. The 'Special Award for The Most Contemporary Song' goes to Melting Pot, performed by Blue Mink, written by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. The New Seekers had recorded a version of the Cook / Greenaway song Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart for their début album The New Seekers. The group will go on to record five more Cook / Greenaway songs, including their own version of Melting Pot and the song for which they would be most famous, I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony).

Who said that?

Breaks

A good deal happens in a man's life that he isn't responsible for. Fortunate openings occur; but it is safe to remember that such "breaks" are occurring all the time, and other things being equal, the advantage goes to the man who is ready.
Lawrence Downs

Fame

A happy combination of talent and timing.
Colin Bowles

Fame is only good for one thing - they will cash your check in a small town.
Truman Capote

In the final analysis, it's true that fame is unimportant. No matter how great a man is, the size of his funeral usually depends on the weather.
Rosemary Clooney

Fame is the spur. But fame, as we shall see, is like an oven-ready frozen meal for one - not as nice as it looks.
Inspector Fowler (Rowan Atkinson), 'The Thin Blue Line'

Fame is like ice-cream. It's only bad if you eat too much.
Mick Jagger

You're not famous until my mother has heard of you.
Jay Leno

Fame is an accident; merit is a thing absolute.
Herman Melville

Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.
John R. Wooden

... and Glory

Glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Made it, Ma. Top of the world!
James Cagney, 'White Heat'

Glory gives herself only to those who always dreamed of her.
Charles de Gaulle

All glory comes from daring to begin.
Eugene F. Ware

Success

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone.
Bill Cosby

Years of preparation meeting a moment of opportunity.
Paul Daniels, 'The Mrs. Merton Show'

What is success? It is a toy balloon among children armed with pins.
Gene Fowler

Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
Christopher Lasch

Success is that old ABC - ability, breaks, and courage.
Charles Luckman

The essence of success is that it is never necessary to think of a new idea oneself. It is far better to wait until somebody else does it, and then to copy him in every detail, except his mistakes.
Aubrey Menen

It's all about hard work, talent and a lot of luck.
Bette Midler, 'The Independent' Arts & Books,
Friday, 30th July 2010, page 13.

Success makes life easier. It doesn't make living easier.
Bruce Springsteen, 'Q' Magazine, August 1992

Success is a great deodorant. It takes away all your past smells.
Elizabeth Taylor

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles... overcome while trying to succeed.
Booker T. Washington

Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.
Oscar Wilde

... and Happiness

Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get.
Dale Carnegie

Ed Sullivan

Ed Sullivan will be around as long as someone else has talent.
Fred Allen

If any programme in the history of American television could be called an institution, it would probably be The Ed Sullivan Show.
Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh,
'The Complete Directory To Prime Time Network And Cable TV Shows'