There's No One Quite Like Grandma

"There's No One Quite Like Grandma"
Single by St Winifred's School Choir
B-side	"Pinocchio"
Released	November 1980
Genre	MOR
Length	2:58
Label	Music for Pleasure [1]
Songwriter	Gordon Lorenz [1]
Producer	Peter Tattersall [1]

"There's No One Quite Like Grandma" is a song by the Stockport-based primary school choir St Winifred's School Choir, released as a single in November 1980. It was number-one on the UK Singles Chart ^[2] from 21 December 1980 to 3 January 1981. ^[3] The song was written by Gordon Lorenz, recorded at 10cc's Strawberry Studios in Stockport and features Rick Wakeman from the Strawbs and Yes on keyboards and choir member Dawn Ralph, aged 8 at the time, as soloist.

Background

In 1980, Gordon Lorenz wrote "There's No One Quite Like Grandma" to tie in with the Queen Mother's 80th birthday, and sent it to EMI. Having initially turned it down, the managing director rang him and said he decided to put it out because he said he could not get grandma, we love you out of his mind: "If it's caught in my mind chances are that it will with the public, and we'll put it out for Christmas". ^[4]

Recording

The song was recorded at 10cc's Strawberry Studios in 1980 at Strawberry Studios in Stockport and featured keyboards by Rick Wakeman from the Strawbs and Yes. The single was released in November 1980 on the Music for Pleasure label, an EMI associate. It featured eight-year-old Dawn Ralph as the soloist, accompanied by the choir under the direction of choir mistress Terri Foley.

Release and reception

After its release in time for the Christmas market, "There's No One Quite Like Grandma" sold one million copies, most of them Christmas presents from grandchildren, and became the 1980 Christmas number-one single in both the UK and Ireland. Proceeds from the song funded school improvements like new carpets and library books.

The song notably prevented John Lennon (left) and Jona Lewie (right) from reaching Christmas number one in 1980

In the UK, "There's No One Quite Like Grandma" notably prevented John Lennon's last single, "(Just Like) Starting Over", from becoming Christmas number one, which finished at number two on the Christmas chart. This was particularly polarising as Lennon had been murdered three weeks prior. ^{[1] [2]} After two weeks at number one, a previous Lennon song, "Imagine", replaced it.

Another song that "There's No One Quite Like Grandma" prevented from becoming Christmas number one was "Stop the Cavalry" by Jona Lewie, which has since become a Christmas favourite in the UK that finished at number three on the Christmas chart. "There's No One Quite Like Grandma" was one of the last Christmas singles to sell one million copies, won an Ivor Novello Award for highest selling record of 1980 – beating Barbra Streisand's "Woman in Love" and The Police's "Don't Stand So Close to Me". ^[4]

In popular culture

The song was covered by Leilah and Jeordie (daughters of Melanie Safka) in 1981, and this version charted on the Canadian singles chart at No. 27 in January 1982. ^[5]

In October 2009, the song was re-recorded by 14 members of the original choir. ^[6] It was released in the UK in November 2009 as part of food company Innocent Drinks' "Big Knit" campaign, to raise money for Age Concern.

In 2008, the song was used within the one-off Channel 4 comedy by Peter Kay called Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice , which had Sally Lindsay, who was in the original choir of the song and had since become friends with Kay, in a cameo role. Furthermore, an extract of the song was used in the "Granny Brainiac" segment in Series 3 of the Sky One TV show Brainiac: Science Abuse .

See also

• "Grandad", UK number one by Clive Dunn in January 1971

References

1. Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 210. ISBN   0-85112-250-7.
2. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 388–9. ISBN   1-904994-10-5.
3. "Cult - I Love 1980 - Music". BBC. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
4. Pritchard, Alun (June 2004). "If someone had told me that one day Shirley Bassey would be lying on top of me, I'd have never believed it". Daily Post. Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 14 July 2008.
5. "50 Singles" (PDF). RPM . Library and Archives Canada.
6. "Original 'Grandma' choir re-form". BBC. 2009-10-12. Retrieved 2010-05-25.