10cc: Wall Street Shuffle

I can recall being asked which bands I liked by someone much older when I was 14 and being congratulated for mentioning 10cc.

Back in 1974 the singles charts, which were all I had access to, were pretty uninspiring. So 10cc stood out for their tunes and literate lyrics.

Looking back this is not such a surprise because the band's members had all been around in the great days of the 1960s. (1974 sounds very close to the sixties now: to me then it felt a world away). Eric Stewart had been one of Wayne Fontana's Mindbenders and Graham Gouldman wrote such sixties favourites as For Your Love (for The Yardbirds), No Milk Today (for Herman's Hermits) and Bust Stop and Look Through Any Window (for The Hollies).

I was going to show you a video by the other two members of the band, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, who had some success as a double act after 10cc split. But it turns out that you cannot embed itself, so you will have to follow the link to Wedding Bells yourself.

I suppose you have to call it Mock Motown, but it still sounds great today and I remember how good the dancers looked from seeing this on Top of the Tops at the time.

Instead here is the newly topical "Wall Street Shuffle" by 10cc. It's much better than the maudlin "I'm Not in Love", which is the song they are best remembered for today.