| "Shang-a-Lang" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Bay City Rollers | ||||
| from the album Rollin' | ||||
| B-side | "Are You Ready For That Rock & Roll" | |||
| Released | April 1974 | |||
| Genre | Glam rock [1] | |||
| Length | 3:05 | |||
| Label | Bell | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Bill Martin, Phil Coulter | |||
| Producer(s) | Bill Martin, Phil Coulter | |||
| Bay City Rollers singles chronology | ||||
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"Shang-a-Lang" is a song from the Bay City Rollers 1974 debut album Rollin', from which it was the second advance single, the track being produced by the song's writers Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. [2]
Songwriter Bill Martin described "Shang-a-Lang" as an attempt to combine Brill Building songwriting - in particular the partly onomatopoeic lines of "Da Doo Ron Ron" - with the clanging sounds he'd long heard emanating from the shipyards in the Glasgow burgh of Govan where he'd been born and raised. According to Bill Martin: "I couldn't write clang clang because [of the well-known] Judy Garland [song lyric from] 'Trolley Song': 'Clang clang clang went the trolley'. So eventually I came up with: 'We sang shang-a-lang'". [3] [4] Martin also recalled "shang-a-lang" as a minced oath he'd been wont to use when his mother was in earshot. [4] Martin's collaborator Phil Coulter created the track's clapping sound by hitting two pieces of wood together as he had in their 1970 writing success, "Back Home", by the England football team. [3]
"Shang-a-Lang" was Bay City Roller's fifth single release and their third to place in the UK charts, its tenure being ten weeks in the spring of 1974 with a peak of number 2 being held off from the number 1 position by another nostalgic track: "Sugar Baby Love" by The Rubettes. [5]
"Shang-a-Lang" would be the first Bay City Rollers single released in Canada where the group would soon become massively popular. However the original "Shang-a-Lang" was expediently covered by Montreal-based session group Tinker's Moon whose version charted at #23 in Canada: the Tinker's Moon version also gave "Shang-a-Lang" what attention the song would receive in the US reaching number 111 on the Record World Singles Chart 101 - 150. [6]
The Rollers went on to use the title for their TV series, which began in April 1975, and ran for twenty-one episodes.
The Bay City Rollers are a Scottish pop rock band known for their worldwide teen idol popularity in the 1970s. They have been called the "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh" and are one of many acts heralded as the "biggest group since the Beatles".
Philip Coulter is an Irish musician, songwriter and record producer from Derry, Northern Ireland. He was awarded the Gold Badge from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in October 2009.
Leslie Richard McKeown was a Scottish singer. He was the lead vocalist of the pop rock band Bay City Rollers during their most successful period in the 1970s.
"Bye, Bye, Baby " is a popular song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, a member of The Four Seasons, whose version of the song made it to No. 1 in Canada and No. 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1965. On the original issue of the single, the title was "Bye Bye Baby". However, on the album, The 4 Seasons Entertain You, and on later issues of the song, the name was changed to the longer, more familiar one. The song is about saying goodbye, not because the person is unloved but rather because the relationship is adulterous.
Shang-a-Lang was a children's pop music TV series starring the Scottish band, the Bay City Rollers. It was produced in Manchester by Granada Television for the ITV network and ran for one 20-week series in 1975.
Eric Faulkner is a guitarist, songwriter and singer, best known as a member of the Scottish pop band the Bay City Rollers.
"Puppet on a String" is a song recorded by British singer Sandie Shaw. The song, written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, was selected to be the United Kingdom's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1967, held in Vienna. Shaw won the contest, the first of the United Kingdom's five Eurovision winners. As her thirteenth UK single release, "Puppet on a String" became a UK Singles Chart number one hit on 27 April 1967, staying at the top for a total of three weeks. In the United States, a 1967 version by Al Hirt went to number 18 on the Adult Contemporary chart and No. 129 on the Billboard Hot 100.
William Wylie MacPherson, known professionally as Bill Martin, was a Scottish songwriter, music publisher and impresario. His most successful songs, all written with Phil Coulter, included "Puppet on a String", "Congratulations", "Back Home", and "Saturday Night". He was presented with three Ivor Novello Awards, including one as Songwriter of the Year.
Shang-a-Lang may refer to:
Rollin', released in 1974, was the first full-length album by Scotland's Bay City Rollers. The album included three British chart hits and the debut of "Saturday Night", never a British hit yet a No. 1 smash in America, later.
Bay City Rollers, released in late 1975, was the first full-length album by Scotland's Bay City Rollers to be issued in the US and Canada. The compilation, which hit No. 1 in the RPM Canadian album chart on 7 February 1976 and reached as high as No. 20 on the US album chart, included the US and Canadian #1 hit single "Saturday Night".
"Give a Little Love", by the Bay City Rollers, was a UK number-one single for three weeks in July 1975. It was written by John Goodison and Phil Wainman and produced by Wainman. It was the band's second and final UK number one, and was the 11th biggest British hit of 1975. Unlike the single version, the original UK album version was augmented with a string section, while the US-only Bay City Rollers album had only the basic rhythm track and no strings.
"Forever and Ever" is a UK number-one single by Scottish glam rock band Slik, released in 1975. It was number one for one week in February 1976, knocking ABBA's "Mamma Mia" off the number-one position. It was also a hit in Ireland, reaching number two on the charts there. The song was written by the songwriting partnership of Bill Martin and Phil Coulter who had recently stopped writing for the Bay City Rollers.
"Saturday Night" is a song recorded by the Scottish pop rock band Bay City Rollers. It was written and produced by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. The tune is an upbeat rock number with a memorable hook, in which the word "Saturday" is spelled out in a rhythmic, enthusiastic chant.
"Congratulations" is a song recorded by British singer Cliff Richard. The song was written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. It is best known as the British entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1968, held in London finishing in second place behind the Spanish entry. The song went on to reach number 1 in many countries including Spain.
"The Trolley Song" is a song written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and made famous by Judy Garland in the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis. In a 1989 NPR interview, Blane said the song was inspired by a picture of a trolleycar in a turn-of-the-century newspaper. In 1974, he had said the picture was in a book he had found at the Beverly Hills Public Library and was captioned "'Clang, Clang, Clang,' Went the Trolley."
"Boogiest Band in Town" is the debut single by Scottish glam rock band Slik. This was the first single and recording released by Midge Ure, singer and guitarist of the band, formed also by drummer Kenny Hyslop, bassist Jim McGinlay and keyboardist Billy McIsaac. The single was released in the first months of 1975, being released by Polydor. However the song did not chart, but the band was featured playing the song in the glam rock movie Never Too Young To Rock, the same year.
"Summerlove Sensation" is a song originally recorded by the Bay City Rollers. It was part of their 1974 album Rollin'. In the same year it was also released as a single. The single peaked at no. 3 on the UK Singles Chart.
"Remember (Sha-La-La-La)" is a song by the Bay City Rollers. It was first released as a single in early 1974 and then included on their debut album Rollin', which appeared several months later, in the autumn.
Greatest hits is a 1977 Arista Records compilation album by the Bay City Rollers. It includes songs from five of their first seven studio albums.
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