{"id":99998,"date":"2025-08-29T03:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T03:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/99998\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T03:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T03:14:08","slug":"what-stopped-children-of-the-revolution-topping-the-charts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/99998\/","title":{"rendered":"What stopped ‘Children of the Revolution’ topping the charts?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Marc<\/p>\n

(Credits: Alamy)<\/p>\n

Fri 29 August 2025 0:00, UK <\/p>\n

There was a time in the early 1970s when T Rex<\/a> were almost a nailed-on certainty to hit the top of the charts in the UK, or at least reach the upper levels, and the band could almost do no wrong with any of their single releases.<\/p>\n

When they changed their name from the elongated Tyrannosaurus Rex in 1970, their first ten singles all reached the top five in the charts in their home country. While their performance outside of Europe was considerably more modest, with barely any charting hits in the US by comparison, they were a tour de force in Britain, with frontman Marc Bolan<\/a> being seen as one of the most formidable presences behind the microphone and on guitar.<\/p>\n

To illustrate their success in the UK, \u2018Hot Love\u2019, \u2018Get It On\u2019, \u2018Telegram Sam\u2019 and \u2018Metal Guru\u2019 all made it to number one in the space of just over a year, but coming after this incredible run, which was only interrupted by \u2018Jeepster\u2019 coming in at number two, was a song that seemed destined to reach the top of the charts. The fact that it didn\u2019t is perhaps the most shocking statistic to have come from their career.<\/p>\n

\u2018Children of the Revolution\u2019 was T Rex at their glam rock best, but clearly wasn\u2019t good enough in the eyes of the British public, who only took it to a peak position of number two in the UK charts. There were two songs that managed to hold down the top spot while T Rex were remarkably languishing in the silver medal spot, but only one of them feels like an appropriate song to have been battling it out with.<\/p>\n

What kept \u2018Children of the Revolution\u2019 from the peak in the UK?<\/p>\n

Upon its release in September 1972, \u2018Children of the Revolution\u2019 debuted at number 14 in the charts, and at the time, they were topped by Slade for a second consecutive week with \u2018Mama Weer All Crazee Now\u2019. While T Rex were arguably the bigger of the two bands at the time, Slade had emerged as something of a competitor in late 1971, and scored their third number one hit with \u2018Mama\u2019, following success with \u2018Cuz I Luv You\u2019 and \u2018Take Me Back \u2018Ome\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Black Country glam rockers<\/a> and spelling enthusiasts managed to make it a third week at the top as \u2018Children of the Revolution\u2019 climbed up to number two in its second week, and it was seemingly inevitable that it would make it to the top the following week, that is, if it wasn\u2019t for some sort of miraculous steal.<\/p>\n

\u2018Children of the Revolution\u2019 remained at number two the following week, while Slade dropped to number three, with the number three single from the previous week proving to be the best performer for the next two weeks, while T Rex remained in second place. It was David Cassidy who topped the charts over Bolan and co with \u2018How Can I Be Sure\u2019; his first chart-topping success as a solo artist, which remarkably he never achieved as a member of The Partridge Family.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a breezy, easy-listening pop hit, and it\u2019s hard to say that it wasn\u2019t deserving of taking top spot, but you have to feel as though T Rex were hard done by in this instance. However, it didn\u2019t suffer the ignominy of being beaten by the next number one after that, which was Lieutenant Pigeon\u2019s \u2018Mouldy Old Dough\u2019, a song which, against the odds, stayed there for four weeks in one of the most unjust placements in British chart history.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Alamy) Fri 29 August 2025 0:00, UK There was a time in the early 1970s when T…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,48848,48849,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-99998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-slade","tag-t-rex","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}