RETRO CHART 1972 – 50 years ago Slade chalked up third of six number one hits

2 Children of the Revolution T. Rex

3 How Can I Be Sure David Cassidy

4 You Wear It Well Rod Stewart

5 Sugar Me Lynsey de Paul

6 It’s Four In The Morning Faron Young

7 Virginia Plain Roxy Music

8 Ain’t No Sunshine Michael Jackson

9 Too Young Donny Osmond

10 Come On Over To My Place The Drifters

Slade were one of the most popular British groups of the early 1970s, though possibly not the favourite band of English teachers and language scholars.

At the height of their popularity, they had a string of hits with deliberately misspelled song titles, including five UK number ones: “Cos I Luv You”, “Take Me Bak ’Ome”, “Cum On Feel The Noize”, “Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me” and “Mama Weer All Crazee Now”, No. 1 in the UK and Irish charts this very week 50 years ago.

“Mama Weer All Crazee Now” was the lead single from Slade’s third album “Slayed?”. Written by bassist Jim Lea, with lyrics by frontman Noddy Holder, it gave the band their third No. 1 single in the UK and their second in the Irish charts.

The song was originally titled “My My We’re All Crazy Now”, but this was changed after band manager Chas Chandler thought Holder was singing “Mama we’re all crazy now” on hearing it for the first time. The intentional misspelling was a trademark of Slade releases from 1971 to 1973.

Noddy Holder has said he got the idea for the lyrics at a typically boisterous Slade concert in Wembley Arena. At the end of the set he looked down from the stage at the smashed seating in the auditorium and thought, “Christ, everyone must have been crazy tonight”.

After “Mama Weer All Crazee Now”, Slade continued to dominate the singles chart in the UK and Ireland through 1972 and 1973, chalking up two more number ones with the non-album singles, “Cum On Feel The Noize” and “Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me”.

But the band’s most successful single, and their best-know hit, landed in the run-up to Christmas that year. Prompted by a challenge from Jim Lea’s mother to release a festive song, “Merry Xmas Everybody” claimed the Christmas number one slot in December 1973, beating Wizzard’s equally memorable “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” in a chase to the top. Slade’s Christmas classic sold over a million on release and has returned to the UK top 40 ten times since.

Slade’s 1970s success this side of the Atlantic was not replicated in the US, but they did enjoy an American breakthrough in the eighties and reached number 20 in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1984 with “Run Runaway”.